[This entry is a recap of the tenth gaming session, which took place on October 6th 2009. We were about to enter the fifth room of Kobold Hall, the adventure included in the Dungeon Master's Guide.]
After a good night's rest I woke up. Coming out of the tower to relieve myself, I came face to face with Gilthos and… a bear! A big brown bear, a few feet away from my friend. Immediately I froze, and told Gilthos to watch out. He then explained that he had met his new friend a few hours before, while getting water from a stream. He was standing there on his back paws, calmly looking at him. They exchanged a few "words" (seemingly able to communicate without any kind of effort), and the bear professed his undying loyalty to Gilthos.
(This, on the day after I finally managed to conjure my own familiar companion!)
The bear then told Gilthos that he would not arm us, and he came over to me, smelled me, then went over to Trax and smelled him too (letting off a mighty sneeze which almost made Trax jump out of his boots).
We then settled down for breakfast. Not being too hungry, I finished off quickly and then spent some time focusing my mind on the magical staff I found yesterday. Eventually, I sensed the specific nature of its powers, namely: increased spell accuracy and efficiency, as well as the capacity to increase a spell's range. [It is in fact a Staff of the War Mage +1.]
Soon after, having eaten and gathered all our things, we went back down into Kobold Hall, go though the first four rooms once more, before reaching the secret door we had learned about upon finding a piece of paper indicating its location.
Trax used the key and the secret door clicked open. We followed a long, winding passage from the kobold chieftain’s throne room down and down into the earth. Eventually, the finely worked stone tunnels give way to natural passages. Finally, we come upon a large cavern. The air was unnaturally cold. In the center of the room was a large pool of frozen dark water. The cavern was quiet.
We had barely had time to look around when a white shape flew at us, surprising us completely. Except for Gilthos, ever watchful, who raised his bow, lightning fast, and let go of his arrow before I even registered what was happening. The arrow's aim was true, and it entered the white dragon's neck like a toothpick in butter [Hunter's Quarry + Hunter's Privilege for having the best initiative + Singular Shot encounter power = 28 HP damage]. The beast howled, and then breathed its freezing cold on us. It reached Trax, Gilthos and his bear, but ― probably weakened by its neck wound ― it was weak and didn't hurt them.
Then Trax ― his magical armor glowing red from the battle ― ran at the beast and attacked it. He gave it his best [Brute Strike daily power] but missed.
Meanwhile, I cast a magic missile at the dragon, and with my new staff's enhancements it struck the beast a mighty blow.
Gilthos was still firing at it, and Trax's second swing struck home [critical hit], bashing the dragon on the side of the head, leaving a bloody gash that incapacitated one eye.
The dragon, bloodied and enraged, threw itself at him and clawed him good, breathed its frost once more (not doing any damage), and then Trax hit him one final time, and the dragon collapsed.
We searched the room, and found a chest in the back. It was locked, but Trax broke it open, and inside found some money, a nice pearl, and a rolled piece of parchment. Unrolling it, we saw it was written in draconic, so Trax read and translated for us:
"Mighty big Dragon, me salute you.
I be Irontooth. I trying to gather kobolds in gang close to Winterhaven. Things going good, but things going better if me and you together against humans of Archendale. I send messenger soon to talk about your Skull Kickers gang getting together with mine.
Me great big warrior,
Irontooth"
Which was interesting, to say the least.
Not seeing any other rooms, we thus concluded that we had done what we set out to do, which is to clear this so-called "Kobold Hall". Trax cut off all the kobold ears, for the bounty, we loaded the dragon body on top of the bear, and headed back to Fallcrest.
We covered maybe 10 miles, then had to stop for the night. We all slept soundly, feeling safe in the company on Tigralinn, Gilthos' bear companion, as well as my silent but ever-watchful magical owl, Bubo.
We reached Fallcrest about mid-morning, and a strange sight it must have been for the townspeople: a human with an owl on his shoulder (me); a tough looking Dragonborn fighter (Trax); and finally a tall and slender being (Gilthos) followed by a bear carrying a young white dragon.
We went directly to Lord Markelhay's manorhouse, where once more we were greeted as honoured guests. He rewarded us for our accomplishment, then invited us for supper later.
Lord Markelhay
We took leave of him, and we went to Teldorthan's to see the dragon hide, as well as the various gems which we recently found.
This being done, we went back to Lord Markelhay's manor. Over supper, he asked us to tell him all about what happened in Kobold Hall. We even stayed the night, sleeping in an (almost too) comfortable bed.
The next morning, what seemed like the whole town gathered on Markelhay's estate. Up on his balcony, the Lord showed them all the dragon's head, and they cheered for him, and cheered for us, and cheered for the general victory of their town over adversity. Which, needless to say, seemed like an overly optimistic conclusion. But let the people have their joys.
As if to prove me right, it was just about then that a soldier ran through the crowd. Taking Lord Markelhay aside, he told him something, looking grave. Farkelhay then took us with him inside the manor.
He then told us about the recent disappearance of two young boys, sons of a local farmer named Quinn Stasi. At first he thought the boys were just out playing, but a few days went by and still there was no sign of them. This farmer then went to the Temple and paid for a ritual. Through the use of the ritual, he learned that his sons are still alive, and are located somewhere deep in the cave complex which is under Fallcrest.
Lord Markhelhay then asked us if we could help and go look for the boys. Trax asked for some of his guards to accompany us. Markelhay said he couldn't spare too many of them, but eventually agreed to give us a small escort, four guards who would stay near the entrance to the caves and make sure nobody went in or out.
Immediately we headed for the caves, and went in.
After walking in the dark for what seemed like a few miles, we came to a massive, iron-bound double door which was partially open. Then Gilthos kneeled in front of the door and showed us that in the soft ground in front of the door were three sets of humanoid footprints heading from the direction of town through the doors. The kidnapper and the two boys, most likely.
We then went through. Beyond the doors was a simple, gray, rectangular room, illuminated by sconces filled with everburning flame. Two sets of stone sarcophagi lined the walls to the left and right, each adorned with the effigy of some long-dead warlord. In a niche above each sarcophagus was a small statue of either Pelor or Bahamut.
In the center of the room stood a ten-foot-tall marble obelisk bearing inscriptions on each side.
We spent a few minutes examining the room, inspecting the inscriptions.
Then Gilthos noticed some slight scraps and a strange draft near the obelisk, which might indicate some kind of hidden passageway. Alas, there seemed to be no way to open it.
After about five minutes of this kind of scrutiny, some kind of spirit materialized in front of us. It looked angry but made no menacing move against any of us.
Then, in a deep and raspy voice, it said: "Interlopers, beware. If you trespass you shall not realize the wisdom of my words. Entering from the heart, the way becomes clear when Sun follows King."
It would say no further. We guessed that this was a riddle of some kind, and furthermore we felt pretty certain that it had something to do with the six statues, these being representations of both Pelor, god of sun and agriculture, and Bahamut, high god of justice and honor.
We moved them around, trying various combinations, but then we figured that, starting on the left side ("entering from the heart"), we first had to place the three Bahamut statues (the "King") and then the three Pelor statues (the "Sun").
The final statue having been put in its place, we heard a click and saw that a secret door had opened in the obelisk. The spirit disappeared.
After a good night's rest I woke up. Coming out of the tower to relieve myself, I came face to face with Gilthos and… a bear! A big brown bear, a few feet away from my friend. Immediately I froze, and told Gilthos to watch out. He then explained that he had met his new friend a few hours before, while getting water from a stream. He was standing there on his back paws, calmly looking at him. They exchanged a few "words" (seemingly able to communicate without any kind of effort), and the bear professed his undying loyalty to Gilthos.
(This, on the day after I finally managed to conjure my own familiar companion!)
The bear then told Gilthos that he would not arm us, and he came over to me, smelled me, then went over to Trax and smelled him too (letting off a mighty sneeze which almost made Trax jump out of his boots).
We then settled down for breakfast. Not being too hungry, I finished off quickly and then spent some time focusing my mind on the magical staff I found yesterday. Eventually, I sensed the specific nature of its powers, namely: increased spell accuracy and efficiency, as well as the capacity to increase a spell's range. [It is in fact a Staff of the War Mage +1.]
Soon after, having eaten and gathered all our things, we went back down into Kobold Hall, go though the first four rooms once more, before reaching the secret door we had learned about upon finding a piece of paper indicating its location.
Trax used the key and the secret door clicked open. We followed a long, winding passage from the kobold chieftain’s throne room down and down into the earth. Eventually, the finely worked stone tunnels give way to natural passages. Finally, we come upon a large cavern. The air was unnaturally cold. In the center of the room was a large pool of frozen dark water. The cavern was quiet.
We had barely had time to look around when a white shape flew at us, surprising us completely. Except for Gilthos, ever watchful, who raised his bow, lightning fast, and let go of his arrow before I even registered what was happening. The arrow's aim was true, and it entered the white dragon's neck like a toothpick in butter [Hunter's Quarry + Hunter's Privilege for having the best initiative + Singular Shot encounter power = 28 HP damage]. The beast howled, and then breathed its freezing cold on us. It reached Trax, Gilthos and his bear, but ― probably weakened by its neck wound ― it was weak and didn't hurt them.
Then Trax ― his magical armor glowing red from the battle ― ran at the beast and attacked it. He gave it his best [Brute Strike daily power] but missed.
Meanwhile, I cast a magic missile at the dragon, and with my new staff's enhancements it struck the beast a mighty blow.
Gilthos was still firing at it, and Trax's second swing struck home [critical hit], bashing the dragon on the side of the head, leaving a bloody gash that incapacitated one eye.
The dragon, bloodied and enraged, threw itself at him and clawed him good, breathed its frost once more (not doing any damage), and then Trax hit him one final time, and the dragon collapsed.
We searched the room, and found a chest in the back. It was locked, but Trax broke it open, and inside found some money, a nice pearl, and a rolled piece of parchment. Unrolling it, we saw it was written in draconic, so Trax read and translated for us:
"Mighty big Dragon, me salute you.
I be Irontooth. I trying to gather kobolds in gang close to Winterhaven. Things going good, but things going better if me and you together against humans of Archendale. I send messenger soon to talk about your Skull Kickers gang getting together with mine.
Me great big warrior,
Irontooth"
Which was interesting, to say the least.
Not seeing any other rooms, we thus concluded that we had done what we set out to do, which is to clear this so-called "Kobold Hall". Trax cut off all the kobold ears, for the bounty, we loaded the dragon body on top of the bear, and headed back to Fallcrest.
We covered maybe 10 miles, then had to stop for the night. We all slept soundly, feeling safe in the company on Tigralinn, Gilthos' bear companion, as well as my silent but ever-watchful magical owl, Bubo.
* * *
We reached Fallcrest about mid-morning, and a strange sight it must have been for the townspeople: a human with an owl on his shoulder (me); a tough looking Dragonborn fighter (Trax); and finally a tall and slender being (Gilthos) followed by a bear carrying a young white dragon.
We went directly to Lord Markelhay's manorhouse, where once more we were greeted as honoured guests. He rewarded us for our accomplishment, then invited us for supper later.
Lord Markelhay
We took leave of him, and we went to Teldorthan's to see the dragon hide, as well as the various gems which we recently found.
This being done, we went back to Lord Markelhay's manor. Over supper, he asked us to tell him all about what happened in Kobold Hall. We even stayed the night, sleeping in an (almost too) comfortable bed.
The next morning, what seemed like the whole town gathered on Markelhay's estate. Up on his balcony, the Lord showed them all the dragon's head, and they cheered for him, and cheered for us, and cheered for the general victory of their town over adversity. Which, needless to say, seemed like an overly optimistic conclusion. But let the people have their joys.
As if to prove me right, it was just about then that a soldier ran through the crowd. Taking Lord Markelhay aside, he told him something, looking grave. Farkelhay then took us with him inside the manor.
He then told us about the recent disappearance of two young boys, sons of a local farmer named Quinn Stasi. At first he thought the boys were just out playing, but a few days went by and still there was no sign of them. This farmer then went to the Temple and paid for a ritual. Through the use of the ritual, he learned that his sons are still alive, and are located somewhere deep in the cave complex which is under Fallcrest.
Lord Markhelhay then asked us if we could help and go look for the boys. Trax asked for some of his guards to accompany us. Markelhay said he couldn't spare too many of them, but eventually agreed to give us a small escort, four guards who would stay near the entrance to the caves and make sure nobody went in or out.
Immediately we headed for the caves, and went in.
After walking in the dark for what seemed like a few miles, we came to a massive, iron-bound double door which was partially open. Then Gilthos kneeled in front of the door and showed us that in the soft ground in front of the door were three sets of humanoid footprints heading from the direction of town through the doors. The kidnapper and the two boys, most likely.
We then went through. Beyond the doors was a simple, gray, rectangular room, illuminated by sconces filled with everburning flame. Two sets of stone sarcophagi lined the walls to the left and right, each adorned with the effigy of some long-dead warlord. In a niche above each sarcophagus was a small statue of either Pelor or Bahamut.
In the center of the room stood a ten-foot-tall marble obelisk bearing inscriptions on each side.
We spent a few minutes examining the room, inspecting the inscriptions.
Then Gilthos noticed some slight scraps and a strange draft near the obelisk, which might indicate some kind of hidden passageway. Alas, there seemed to be no way to open it.
After about five minutes of this kind of scrutiny, some kind of spirit materialized in front of us. It looked angry but made no menacing move against any of us.
Then, in a deep and raspy voice, it said: "Interlopers, beware. If you trespass you shall not realize the wisdom of my words. Entering from the heart, the way becomes clear when Sun follows King."
It would say no further. We guessed that this was a riddle of some kind, and furthermore we felt pretty certain that it had something to do with the six statues, these being representations of both Pelor, god of sun and agriculture, and Bahamut, high god of justice and honor.
We moved them around, trying various combinations, but then we figured that, starting on the left side ("entering from the heart"), we first had to place the three Bahamut statues (the "King") and then the three Pelor statues (the "Sun").
The final statue having been put in its place, we heard a click and saw that a secret door had opened in the obelisk. The spirit disappeared.
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