Except that it did.
The group had a whistle for over a year and a half in real life time that had been givento them by Dunatis, an Orcish druid (12th level) in the Moratian lands who felt good that the group was fixing the kobold issues out there and if they had run across the giants and felt a bit outside their element, can blow it once and Dunatis and his circle would come to help.
The thought was it would be used for the giant fight which I had expected to occur at the end of the adventure.
But the party didn't need it and we avoided the fight - so the resident Barbarian kept the whistle all this time.
And when they were faced with a TPK at the hands of Ixitch Barrowman, one of the party members remembered the whistle and the group blew it. And I portalled 1 12th and 4 10th level orcish druids into the Stronghold and they helped the group kick the crap out of the bad guys.
And as the DM, I felt cheap. The party was happy and no one but me seemed to bothered by it - but as for myself, it still stuck in my craw.
Write up follows:
The battle continued to rage on around us. The dwarven cleric that finally entered the room made her way behind the Bugbear and shot off a Cure Serious Wounds into him, staving off his impending death. We struggled against the ghoul who crept even closer, magic missiles slamming into it but failing to kill it. Barb was hemorrhaging hit points, Shimlagesh was bleeding out, and the two zombies beat on Eoghan who was struggling to knock one of them down.
We tried to back up into each other and Brading was smashed to the floor by the bugbear after finishing off Elsa Ire. Meanwhile the cleric stepped behind the swordsman fighting Barb and healed him as well! It was approaching the final hour and it looked like the party was done when Barb at the last moment drew Dunatis’ whistle that she had gotten from the druidic orc months ago and let go a single blasting piercing tweet.
The air split open and the shaggy half-wolf form Orc came in with 4 of the circle, looked around the chamber that drew themselves to a stop and looked about, and asked her “What do you need from us little one?”
She pointed to the bad guys and said, “Help us! Please!”
5 Druids, 4 10th, 1 12th, and their animal companions made VERY short work of Ixitch’s support staff. The bugbear, the swordsman, the axe thrower, the cleric, the two zombies, and the ghoul were all killed in a few minutes of slashing, biting, rending, terrible fiery power. Even a fire elemental had been summoned to help finish the fight off.
When it was over, Dunatis admitted he expected the call to come against the giants some weeks ago and was happy to have been a help. He agreed he would meet with Barb again on Icemonth the 1st to discuss their arrangement and relations and before they left, healed the party of their poisons, ills, and wounds.
Ok – that was NOT expected and NOT on the original plan. But it worked – as Thalin said, you can’t save things like the whistle for after you were dead.
At this point we could tell that the necromancer wanted to talk to us as one of the dead bodies here began speaking to us. The necromancer, called the “Keeper” was able to see which way this entire affair was blowing and wanted safe passage for him, his apprentices, and he non-empirics. Willing to give up his contract with Ixitch, he was going to beat feet and get to Grimyria before the angry dwarf could force his hands into something he didn’t want to do.
Time was ticking as Ixitch was having some argument with his other followers and we gave the Keeper the ok that he could leave. From down the hall we heard a door open and close quietly and then a line of people approached. The Keeper was a human, tall, and thin with ulcerous lesions visible on his neck and arms. He had two apprentices, both human, each just under twenty. A girl heavy made up and wearing bullous clothing and leading a chain with two zombies. And a boy corpulent and waddling, beady “kill you in your sleep” eyes and had a catchpole with a slavering ghoul on the end of it.
We gave the Keeper the farewell and he left along with his crew, but not before letting us know it was Ixitch, Gerry Rockbottom and his daughter Fleabite, Nardolen the half orc druid and her two animals and Silver Glass Ixitch’s wizard.
We were going through everyone’s belongings and deciding what to do next. The thought was to continue down the hall and take it to Ixitch now – but that meant leaving this room unwatched and even with the spike in the door, it was enough to slow them down but now totally stop them should they want to leave.
Will Murder offered to stay here, flatbow at the ready and hiding behind one of the curtains. We went down the hall to an entrance area, passages in all directions and a double door to the left with various religious symbology upon it. We made sure the door was untrapped and opened up, looking it. A temple of some sort, two tiers, furthest part of the room raised – dim voices in that direction. A number of backpacks were here on the left, packed and ready to go. A quick look showed clothes and food stuff – bug out bags.
We made our way through to the second tier where a door was on the south wall and the source of the voices. We came closer; made sure it was unlocked, and then entered with care. Small 10x10 room with another door on the south wall. We could hear clearer, some crying, and a rhythmic banging noise in the distance.
Arrows and spells followed but they seemed to slow down and turn aside on hitting around Silver Glass. Meanwhile Gerry, crying and begging, was dragged into the dark hall by his daughter and we could hear Ixitch down there yelling to “help get this fucking door open!!”
The party launched spears and swords at the chamber while the hedgehog barreled into Barb, driving a dozen foot long quills into her body and making her swoon in agony. Most shots missed the mage who returned the favor by striking out at the group with a Blindness spell which had Darius screaming, “Foul! Fucking Foul!”
We tried to help out Barb, setting up to her left as we coaxed the druid, wolf, and hedgehog off of wasting her, Shim dousing a third of the room in a globe of darkness. While all this was going on, Ixitch managed to get the door open and told Gerry and his daughter to run for it. As then entered the room, Will Murder looked them over, verified their names, and got approval that Ixitch was still in there. He nodded his head and muttered something about not killing kids and their dads, then motioned them to get to the stairs and get the hell out of here.
The battle was turning and the group was pouring on the hurt as they raced down the room, spells flying. Silver Glass hit herself with an Invisibility spell and Ixitch tried to run for it, wounded, but Will shot his at point blank range, and then as he fell over, shot him again. As Ixitch was pleading for help, Will walked right up to him and shot him in the chest, and then again in the head. Silver Glass, wounded was unable to escape and was taken down and then the group managed to finish off the Half-Orc druid and her hedgehog.
The wolf was mourning her loss and Eoghan did his best to calm the animal down and get it to come to him. Once this was done we passed out some healing and started going through what belongings we could. It was at this time that the air split open and 3 figures in black and red, smelling like sulfur and sandalwood, entered the chamber with an official looking scroll. They were here for the body of Ixitch Barrowman who had made a contract with the Tower Arcane in Grimyria for various help and protections on the knowledge that upon his death his body would be remanded over to them for post empirical usage.
Yeah, you can take him.
Once sure that all was done and the Grimyrians left, we checked out Silver Glass’ spellbook, got some trinkets and keys off of them all, and decided that we had a few hours to look around before we should get the hell out of here.
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