2nd Campaign, A2, Session 10. 8/5/26

Officially we rolled into the 2nd module, A2 - Secret of the Slaver's Stockade. A bit different than A1, as the group does not have a fall back town to work from. Write up follows:

Birthmonth the14th, 6:30 PM. We left the Temple of Uller swiftly, hoping to get to the Temple of Gruumsh before Captain Vauli and the Dragoons showed up. Once there, we picked the lock at the gate and made our way inside, stringing the chain back in place behind us. We had discussed it earlier and decided the path through the cemetery would be the fastest, but we’d have to contend with the ghouls there.

As we drew up to the Woodcutter’s shed and made our way in, Yandr reached out and felt…nothing. That was odd, last time we had 3 or 4 ping ghoulish detection pings from beyond the door. We stopped at the door to the cemetery and tried again, getting…nothing.

We opened it up and entered with care. The garden had overgrown some time ago, trees were tall, vines were everywhere. There was a narrow sort of path through the mess. We guessed which way to the mausoleum we had seen from below the day before and Sylas led us along. As we went closer, the ranger noted that one of his hand axes had gone missing! But nothing was in here with us except all the plants.

Then a tree branch fell for no reason. And then his belt pouch was taken, just barely glimpsed by a vine snaking away with it. Damn – the plants were robbing us. We ran for the stone structure and forced the fence open, filing in and then taking the stairs down.

The thought was the ghouls might be down here, so we had a Hide from Undead spell put in place and dug through the fallen dirt. Once able to, Gun and Rhareli and Sylas crawled through and around to the original place that Hrimvir had seen the slaver leader – but now the place was empty and quiet. No lights, stuff was missing, orc and weasels were gone. They came back (7:50) and we had a bad feeling that the slavers had left already.

We headed back to the pens and sure enough, they were empty. The space beyond the pens was another pen chamber and it too was empty. Signs the slavers had been here were about, they were gone now. We pressed on, crossing the slave pits and came to a catwalk and a door there. A check showed nothing but when we opened it, the gasses within caught flame and burst out, burning part of the party.

We switched to a light spell and went on but when we came to a long quiet corridor where the sewers ran under the city itself we were wondering what the hell we were doing and turned back around. On our way back to the slave pits Captain Vauli and the rest of the mustered men had arrived. The Captain was not happy that we did not wait and they entered at 8, following our original direction to get down here.

It was obvious the slavers had moved on but Carl had the map of the Stockade in the Drachensgrab Hills, deep in Oricand territory. We all left together, getting back to the surface by 20 to 11 that night. We rested well and met with Lord Keleborn the next day (15h). We were able to arrange the getting of a wagon, some hordes, spare wheels and the like. Some of us went off to buy food and others refilled weapons and gear, knowing we were going to be 5 days from civilization and little chance to get supplies barring what we could find or steal from the Slaver’s Stockade. Cara was going to be doing the main driving and Gun had the best feel for the map. There were many markings and guides on it, but they were innocuous and if we veered too far from location to location, we would be lost.

We were off on the 16th, heading north and northwest, riding the Conestoga wagon into the wilderness. The first day was not too bad, Gun had to back track us about 4 miles at one point but we had made good time. Day 2 was a bit more of a mess and there was more backtracking involved, cutting out momentum forward in half from the day before. Some grumbling followed but Gun was adamant that he was working the best he could with someone else’s map.

Day 3 was even more fucked up and after getting lost a few times, we had only progressed about 4 more miles from Highport – making our total journey over 3 day a mere 48 miles. We had to do better. During the watch that night, Rhareli had 2 bugbears show up, a mated pair, Aso and Rarksa. They had been a group of 8 but were now down to 2. Orc territory, they were not welcome so were surprised to see the fire and wanted to share. Let us know about gnolls out there as well. Rarska wanted to rest, at one point there was talk with Aso about killing Yandr the paladin and also killing Rarska since they are both assholes. But Gun who had woken up and heard all this put it to bed and said no one was killing anyone.

Aso led Rhareli to a quiet hill and had her way with the gnome while Gun flat out killed Rarska at the fire. Then when the gnome returned he made sure that Aso was killed as well. “Damn it boy,” he muttered, “We don’t have time for such nonsense,” he said to Rhareli as they dragged the dead bodies away from camp and continued on watch, coldly looking out.

We awoke on Birthmonth the 19th, learned about the visits and murders during the night, and Gun gave the entire group a stern glare while cleaning his bloody daggers. “I’m gonna go back to reviewing the maps as we ride on. No one is gonna have any more problems with me?”

“As long as you don’t get us lost some more,” Sylas replied with his gravelly rolling voice.

“I don’t know what the hell you just said,” Gun answered as we mounted up and were ready to ride off at 8:30 am.

Meet 167, Adv 17, 8/1/26

Firemonth the 15th, 2:30 PM. We figured while we were at the Waystation, we should take a chance and use the Reflecting Pool, see if we can get a lay of Upperton again and maybe risk looking at the castle itself. So we prepped the barrel again, added some oil, and Wilhelm called to Shakak.

We looked at the city from above, noting that a section had been knocked down to make way for a large influx of lizardman forces. The castle itself had a single drawbridge over a moat between 2 walls. He looped around the wall without going over at first for a few minutes but we saw no other obvious way in. So he pushed the vision through the drawbridge area. 2 Pteradons, a number of saurials and kroxigors here, a razordon or two. And in the stables were people. Whatever people hadn’t been able to fee in advance of the Starlitzian Lizardmen had been captured and were being kept at cattle. And there was a resistance as he was looking as if the place was warded. He was able to push through the static and then brought the image north from the outercourtyard to the inner.

It was here that things went sideways. A Saurial in a feathered headdress came out of the cast itself, swung something unseen over his head, and grabbed the image, wresting control away from Wilhelm. Its face was in the image and Wilhelm couldn’t turn it away, the party was pulling on him, Darius used Spellcleave and hacked the reflecting pool, ending the image and the spell.

We were talking for a while about scrying and images and what can and cannot be seen. Some powerful entities or magical ones can actually sense when being scried upon. Unless it was set up, spell passage between them is not possible. While we were talking, time passed, and Eoghan got a strange feeling. Looking outside in the rain in saw what appeared to be the upper third of a person from the chest area and up, guts hanging down, and a green malachite looking glow coming from its eyes and open mouth, flying about in the rain some 200 feet off the ground, looking around as if…scrying.

Fuck.

We all kept quiet and out of sight, the ranger noting the figure eventually went some distance away, then the spell powering it ended and it fell from the sky splatting into the ground and rolling to a stop. No we were not going out into the rain, and no we weren’t going to the hacked up lizardman scry set up 1/3rd dead body.

We had another hour of discussion coming up with plans and figured on digging under the walls. We hoped to start at Ebbits’ in the basement and then dig there. We had the shovel from Cinder Vein and wanted to test it out. Another scry went first. Castle was still there, moat was between the 2 walls so we’d have to dig under it, a few other places were full of lizardmen but no one was near the knight halls, and finally Ebbit’s was still untouched from what it looked like. The bard had left the back door unlocked when we left, but the lizardmen had gotten used to not being to get into the theatre that for now, they were still not going there. For now.

Connal tested the enchanted shovel. It would use a mana stone to power, and would dig through anything but solid stone. He went down and then at an angle under the waystation and out into the area beyond. Long and short, he was able to dig a tunnel 100’ long by 10’ by 10’. The shovel would throw the dirt up to 30’ up or back to get it out of the area. It took about an hour to do it.

We figured with that and the rod of passwall, we should be able to get under the ground and into the courtyard of the castle, avoiding the guards and the drawbridge murder area.

Some invisibility was passed out and we talked about the plan a bit more, hoping to head off later tomorrow AM. Firemonth the 15th, 6:55 PM.

Meet 166, Adv 17, 7/25/26

Firemonth the 13th, 3:51 PM. We wanted to plant the crate under the ground a bit and thought about using the elevator shaft but then decided otherwise. We used the Rod of Passwall, turned the aperture down a bit, a drilled a hole in the floor about 5’ down, 6’ in diameter. As for the box, with the exception of 2 lbs, we loaded it with the remaining 28 lbs of fizzstone and placed it in the hole. Then Wilhelm cast a few create water spells, making sure the water ended up in the pickle barrel.

From there we created a small water elemental and commanded it to stand ON the sealed box with the fizzstone, sieve through the cracks, but do NOT touch the contents within. We outfitted the helm of teleportation with another manastone and all joined hands, getting ready. Ebbit stopped playing and the lizardman gathering that was already over 100 strong suddenly lunged forward as the repulsion field dropped.

Darius activated the helm and there was a bolt of lighting that struck from the sky, hitting the helm.

Him and everyone else disappeared in a flash of light as 500 away and to the north and west another bolt of lightning arced down and we appeared there.

Being far away from the water elemental it lost cohesion and fell into the box as water. Soaking the fizzstone. In a closed and sealed area. The resultant explosion vaporized the box, the mine house, and blew out, knocking down and back any lizardmen that might have been near the door when it went up.

As for us, we ran westward, sneaking from tree to grove, home to home, avoiding streets and anyone else as the lizardmen converged on Cinder Vein to see what happened. We even noted 2 flying winged pterodactyls and the lizard man leader riding a floating palanquin. We were gone from town by 4:30, and arrived at the way station by 5:15.

Rhygan helped us load up, healing was dispensed, and we were gone from the waystation by 6:30, riding off into the dusk and night for 3 hours until the squire was convinced further driving at night was to risk the horses. We stopped set up camp and slept.

Firemonth the 14th was bright and early and by 10 after 8, we were on the road again. We arrived at the tent encampment on the east side of Staz by quarter to 4 where the local military came over to ask us what was going on. Captain Asher wanted to talk to Lord Ginnias who was in the town proper and was informed that the evacuation for the next 1500 citizens was going on and Lord Ginnias was not available, try later.

Centurion Juan, Sergeant Sant, he was not getting the answer he wanted. A seizure on one of them (a well placed hold person by Captain Asher) offered enough of a distraction that he was able to convince the powers that be that he NEEDED to go see Lord Ginnias right now. Grumbling, he and he alone was allowed entrance to the city where sure enough, there WAS an evacuation going on for 1,500 citizens. The lord asked him to wait and eventually by 5:30, was able to let the Lord know what they did and that it was successful.

Eventually the group all got back together and we discussed what was next. Alamara was inspired to head to Bork Keep and present herself to Steward there, dissatisfied with the Lord of Upperton who left her and others behind to just die. Ebbit was going to join them all the way to Erylond where he would go to the college there, lodge his complaints, and round up some support for what they are doing down here.

We talked about where to go next. We figured that one of the Slaan (lizardman leader types) would have the knowledge of Sanctadragodon and where he is since he is the living embodiment of their god. We could go to Miningboro, the town was much smaller, but it fell 3 weeks ago and was now supposedly a FOB base for the next wave of lizardmen coming north to Staz, so would be swimming with military types. Upperrton was still being taken down and assimilated, so there would not be an army of lizardmen there. We figured to sneak back to Upperton and get to the Castle. Lizardmen do not have a written language, relying on pictures and the like, but have pretty accurate maps and astrological charts – if we can get to the castle, we might find what we want there.

Firemonth the 15th had heavy clouds hanging but we were gone in the morning and made the waystation again by 2:30 PM, discussing our venture back to the city and how we were going to get in.

2nd Campaign, A1, Session 9. 7/22/26

Birthmonth the14th, 3:56 AM. With only a few of the Aspis drones left, the group marched forward and faced them head on (Sylas hanging back a bit), taking them down after a few last rounds. We could hear yelling from down the end and quick look showed the mage that we thought had been trapped in the side room, was actually gathering the slavers and other forces – giving us a few minutes tops to get out of here.

We freed two of the slaves from 2 of the cages thanks to Valeria’s keys, dragging both Meeri and Panja along, thrilled to be freed, the others yelling and clamoring for us to save them as we ran south. We took off as fast as we could, running the long way through the narrow winding caves, until we staggered out of the caves and the temple itself by 5:35 AM.

Hurting and aching, we made our way through the streets until some of the guards spotted us. Things happened and we eventually were brought before Captain Vauli of the Highport Dragoons. With our testimony as well as the two slaves we freed, it was enough for us to get an audience with Lord Keleborn himself.

We were escorted to his Lordship at his Demesne where we listened raptly to our tale. He was a weak looking man, seemingly unsure of himself. But he did listen and agreed that the matter needed to be addressed. Captain Vauli wanted to muster a militia and was given the ok and the coin to do so. The plan was to gather outside the Temple of Gruumsh about 8 PM and using the party’s knowledge, march into the Slaver’s stronghold and the Undercity below, arrest anyone down there and free the slaves in question.

While Lord Keleborn was talking, his wife, Lady Galinda came in. She was the opposite of Lord Keleborn in every aspect of her demeanor; driven, focused, cunning, alluring, smart, driven. Carl, Rhareli, and Hrimvir were very much watching her and her interplay with not only the staff and guards, but her husband also. There was thought that she might be more plugged into what’s going on that we assume. She also had a handmaid, Elma, who Gun was getting a weird “guild” vibe off of her.

At one point she took Hrimvir out to walk the gardens where she then proceeded to have her way with the half-orc cleric. She was in charge the entire time and dictated when it happened and when the encounter ended, having the cleric lead her back where she had zero compunction going back to her husband as if nothing happened. We left and went back to the Temple of Uller where we rested and discussed what was to follow.

According to a map and notes that Carl got from the Slave Trader, there was a stockade where the Slavers do most of their work and trading, after they gather salves here in Highport, they take them overland to the Stockade in the Drachenburg Hills, 120 miles from here and deep in Oricand Territory. If we had any chance of stopping this group, we needed to hit them soon.

We were pretty down on hit points and spells so we figured to rest and then immediately, no waiting for the Dragoons and Militia, head for the Temple of Gruumsh and hit the Salvers now and sooner.

Best time after 8 hours of rest and an hour of prayer would be us out the door at 6:30 PM – an hour and a half before Captain Vauli would be expecting us. We figured well worth the chance. So the group rested, healed up as best we can, and were ready to make haste that evening.

Meet 165, Adv 17, 7/11/26

Firemonth 13th, 6:35 AM. We discussed the trip down to the depths of Furnace Hollow. Due to the Phazonire, our magic and items were not an option, so for now we were entrusting them to Almara, Martin, and Ebbit. We took 2 of the lizardbirds inside a cage, stripped down to just what we needed, and then boarded the elevator, giving Almara the ok to lower us. It was 7:13 and Ebbit Urban began his repulsion song, filling the air with his voice and the strums of his lute, forcing the few skinks who had arrived to look around to fall back. 10 hours. That was our window.

She lowered us down, the cage rattling as it brought us deeper and deeper under the ground. There was a side shaft with some supplies in about 150’ down but the bottom of the main shaft was at the 200’ mark. The air was still but still fresh-ish this close to the main shaft. Passage primarily went east, but we took a mine cart already here and proceeded to move it down the track. After some time walking we came to a vertical shaft that went down from here. Testing led us to believe it was a good 100’ down.

We kept on eastward, coming to a diagonal shaft, heading up and west and down and east, mine tracks there. There was a bridge we could put in place to get the cart on the diagonal but we pressed on east for now. The cave opened up to a living area, sleeping for 12, a natural cave down here. We looked around, grabbed some rawhide gloves, and kept on east. Eventually we arrived at an air shaft, 4’ diameter, heading up and down.

Talked about what to do and a few of us had the advantage of Wilhelm’s spider climb. Going up ,some rungs along the way, there was a mesh grate here. A knock spell from Shim forced it open and we were in the air pump house. 2 stories tall, a central shaft, bellows fan system, usually donkey/mule driven – but no animal now. Could get some fresh air down there but someone would have to turn the bellow shaft. Shim summoned a gnoll and had the burly hyena-man grab one of the spokes and start to turn. The bellows filled and spun, driving the sails open, and the spiral forced the fresh air into the shaft and down into the mine. This was kept up until the spell expired and the gnoll dispelled.

We closed the grate and went back down to the rest of the party, fresher air in the mine for now. It was about 9:15 Am. We headed back through the cave to the diagonal shaft where Nate climbed up the 45’ slope using the rail ties as hold. Up and up and up he went till he cave to the top. There was a winch system up here and cables to help guide and raise and lower a mine cart through the diagonal shaft. He unspooled a length of the cable and came back down, letting the group know what was there and what we learned.

We were not going to hook up the cart to the winch, but instead used our own rope to extend the winch space lower down. The phazonire and the golem had to be lower. So we figured, lets go lower. It was a bit after 10:15 when we started using the shaft to go lower. Level at 275’. Level at 300’, Level @ 325’. As they were going lower there was another level at 375’ but the air was growing thick and tasted weird, light was dulling, lantern spitting. The decision was to head back up as the air this low was most likely tainted and not safe. We went back up to the 325’ level and everyone made their way eventually to here.

It was after 11 at this time and we headed east again. There was a shaft going up and down from here and kept on going east until we came past the air shaft and eventually to a vertical shaft going up and down. We figured it was 25’ tops. So again, 2 of us went down and the group then all started heading west again on 2 levels. The lower level did spot some purple light ahead and Shim was getting ill, tongue swelling up. Phazonire. Got it. There were signs the orcs had been mining here, some cart, raw ore, and even a pulley system with buckets. We went back to the air shaft, had the group rope us back to the 325’ level and we went wet to the other vertical shaft we had passed where Shim and Connal climbed down again to the 350 area and came upon the phazonire from the other side.

There was the golem, 9’ tall, clay, big. Shim went closer and tried to say the words but he was pretty close to the poisonous mage sapping stone, and his words were not clear enough to start it. So he tried again. And again. And again. Each time he was getting weaker, skin turning red, thoughts dulling. Eventually he got lucky and the golem awoke, and through it, we could hear Doggar Skullbeat – 25 miles away in Staz, excited that we did it. The golem went and gathered the phazonire, taking it to the vault room and sealing it within the lead lined chamber. Once done, we all gathered together and followed the golem and Doggar to the main vault.

Once here we took what coins we could with Doggar’s approval, as well as what strange mining equipment (hammers, helm, claws, shovels, etc) we could. There was also some 30 lbs of fizzstone here that we took as well. The golem then under Doggar’s control led us back to the main shaft where it shuffled one person at a time back up to the 200’ level. Captain Asher fired off a zone of sweet air, making the place much easier for us to navigate. At the elevator shaft we called to Almara and had to wait briefly for her to get us back up to the surface. Time now, 3:30 PM.

The area up here was a mess. Scores of lizardmen were held back at the 100’ area, a few had managed to make their saves and get through. Martin of Camber was down to 9 crossbow bolts. Almara was somewhat wounded, covered in blood and still standing, Ebbit was also sporting some wounds, hands bleeding from playing for almost 8 hours so far. The mine house was covered in bolts and broken boards from countless attacks. And razordons, kroxigors, saurials, and all types of lizard creatures were anxious to get in and kill us.

We showed the items to Ebbit who’s knowledge of legendary items was almost encyclopedic. Claws of digger, maul of the titans, Rod of passage, helm of teleportation. Each needed a manastone to power it, of which we looked through our belongings and we had a total of 11. Not everything was unlimited in power – most things would operate once, or were geared for use for a mining group. The helm would teleport a group up to 500’ away without error as long as hands were joined. Everything was good, but we needed to get gone and soon.

Plus we had 30# of fizzstone. And with the mine shaft here, maybe we could come up with a plan to detonate it, scare and kill some lizardmen, and teleport safely away. Beginnings of a plan, but time was not on our side. Firemonth the 13th, 3:51 PM