Rise of the Runelords Recap # 61 [RPG]

[17 Abadius 4708 continued]

Longtooth was a proud and arrogant
dragon that preferred to kill his
enemies up close.

The Battle of Sandpoint continues!  Irritated by Salma’s magical attack, the juvenile red dragon Longtooth swoops down at full speed and lands inches from the wizard.  “You have made your last mistake!” the dragon snarls.  But before it can unleash the full fury of its might, Salma tries a desperate trick: an enchantment that somehow convinces Longtooth that the giants are his enemies!  Longtooth leaps and bites one of the stone giants instead, as fate smiles on the defenders of the beleaguered town.  Meanwhile, Nerissa’s blades and Kang’s bombs combine to kill one of the massive bears, while Jinkatsyu’s darting rapier dispatches another.  Ava mostly manages to stay out of harm’s way and uses her magic to heal her injured allies. 

From somewhere to the south, the shouts of stone giants can be heard: “If you don’t give us all the beer, we’ll smash you flat!  Beer or death! Your choice!”  But the adventurers are too hard pressed at Tanner’s Bridge to respond.  Nerissa’s uncanny ability to look like she’s in multiple places at once helps keep her safe from the increasingly frustrated swings of a stone giant.  Another massive explosion of ice evoked by Salma eviscerates the remaining giants and Longtooth while somehow leaving her companions untouched! 

 As the adventurers start to run for the Town Square (where they heard shouts of alarm earlier), the long, low wail of a war horn echoes from all around—the invaders’ signal to retreat!  All over town, the giants drop their prisoners and booty and flee in groups of twos and threes for the nearby tors.  The adventurers are treated as heroes by the grateful townspeople, but the question on everyone’s lips are the same: why did the stone giant army attack Sandpoint?  A balding, bespectacled man named Broddert Quink claims to have the answer: he says the giants were digging for something at Old Light before they were scared away!  The adventurers are intrigued by the cantankerous old man’s theories that Old Light is actually the remnants of an ancient Thassilonian weapon called a Hellstorm Flume and, when Quink mentions that a previous group of adventurers discovered catacombs under the town, the present group seize on the notion that perhaps the giants were after something hidden down there!  Speculation turns to whether the giants will come again, with Nerissa suggesting the fleeing giants could be followed.  Salma says that she could teleport everyone to Hook Mountain and use the mountain cave as a staging area for a search for the giants’ fortress of Jorgenfist.  No decisions are reached, and Sandpoint’s newest crop of heroes decide to enjoy the free drinks and accommodation provided at the Rusty Dragon.

Brodert Quink spent decades studying
history and engineering at great libraries in
Magnimar, but most scholars scoff
at his theories.

[18 Abadius 4808]

Rain is falling steadily when the adventurers awaken from a night of celebrating their victory.  Jinkatsyu and Nerissa, in particular, imbibed far too much and suffer the effects of a hangover until Kang brews a concoction to help them.  The group decides they had better consult with the mayor about their next steps.  They find Mayor Deverin in the Town Square giving an impromptu speech to honour those who fought in defence of Sandpoint and to remember that, despite the victory, several lives were lost—including town tanner Larz Rovanki and Varisian elder Madame M’vashti.  After the speech, Ava helps Father Zantus care for the wounded while the others walk with Mayor Deverin back to the Town Hall.  Deverin thanks them sincerely for their assistance.  When asked about the catacombs under Sandpoint, she explains that, during last year’s Swallowtail Festival, a small army of goblins sneaked into Sandpoint using tunnels that none of the residents knew about.  After a group of adventurers entered the tunnels, they found chambers dating back thousands of years—some with still-thriving demonic residents!  The adventurers prevailed, Deverin explains, but not without the loss of life.  In order to ensure that no further threats could emerge from the tunnels, she had the local blacksmith erect a steel barrier to seal off the entrance to the tunnels in the basement of the old Glassworks building.  When the adventurers press her on the idea of entering the catacombs to discover what the giants were looking for, she seems sceptical and reluctant, noting that she can’t fathom why stone giants from the center of Varisia would be interested in ancient ruins along the Lost Coast.  She says she’ll authorize their entry if they’re sure, but the adventurers leave without having decided on a course of action.

The adventurers split up for the afternoon.  While the others run errands or drink, Salma stays focussed on the stone giants.  Having discerned the name of the leader of the raid from the mammoth-hide message found in the Kreeg Clanhold throne room, Salma is able to cast a spell to scry on the stone giant Teraktinus.  The impressive figure can be discerned moving roughly eastward in the rain accompanied by at least two others of his kind.  Salma hurries to find the others and suggests the possibility of teleporting directly to Teraktinus tomorrow for a surprise attack!  Kang and Ava, however, are worried that the limited “viewing window” of the divination spell might conceal the fact that an entire army of stone giants could be around Teraktinus.  By asking around local watering holes, the adventurers are able to surmise that as many as ten giants might have fled Sandpoint when the signal horn blew.  As the night continues on, the others realize that, despite her unceasingly good nature, Ava gets whiny when she’s tired.

[19 Abadius 4708]

Teraktinus is the rare giant
who fights with two weapons.

In the morning, the adventurers meet for breakfast in the common room of the Rusty Dragon to settle on a plan.  The group leans towards Salma’s idea of attacking the fleeing stone giants, but the plan falters when a new attempt to scry Teraktinus fails.  A scouting mission to the catacombs is then agreed upon.  From Brodert Quink, the adventurers learn that, in addition to the entrance in the Glassworks, fissures in the alleyway between Junker’s Way and Tower Street bring air to the surface from the catacombs.  Brodert insists on coming along on the expedition but is surprised when the group chooses to visit the fissures.  Suddenly, Nerissa turns intangible and sinks through the ground for a firsthand look at what all the talk is about.

Having turned aside a heavily-armed scouting party of giants, bears, and even a red dragon, the adventurers have kept Sandpoint safe for now.  But have they made the right choice in prioritising the catacombs over taking the fight to Jorgenfist?

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Director's Commentary (February 24, 2019)

The first half of the battle for Sandpoint (last session) was really exciting.  Unfortunately, this second half was rather anti-climactic.  The dragon failed a save against mind-affecting magic and didn't turn out to be much of a threat, and when it and a certain number of bears and stone giants were killed, the rest of the invasion force automatically flees.  I wish the army's morale threshold had been higher, as there was still a lot of exciting encounters throughout Sandpoint left that I never got to use.

There were a lot of possibilities about what to do next, and you can gather from the recap that there was a lot of discussion and debate.  The decision to return to the catacombs was a logical one, but secretly not one I was thrilled about before I knew a) It was a dead-end and b) there was stuff down there not met to be encountered until the start of Chapter 5, and I wasn't prepped for any of it!  Fortunately, things worked out okay, as we'll see next session.