Rise of the Runelords Recap # 57 [RPG]

[30 Kuthona 4707 continued]

Despite the remoteness and perils of Hook Mountain, the disastrous attempt by a group of adventurers to defeat the Kreeg ogres has not gone unobserved.  In a hidden campsite nearby, an unusual trio of spellcasters—a grippli, a ratfolk, and a half-elf--had spent the day watching the entrance to the Kreeg clanhold and planning their own assault.  But now, having just witnessed the death of three adventurers and the lucky escape of two others, the watchers decide to extend a lifeline.

Saan

Kang and Jinkatsyu are preparing to dig in for a cold, miserable night with a plan to descend in the morning, but then they hear movement coming towards them from above.  Too exhausted to flee, Jinkatsyu draws his rapier, ready for a last stand against what he presumes are ogres.  But instead, he sees a trio of humanoids approaching!  The newcomers call out that they can offer healing and introduce themselves: there’s Ava, a female grippli grasping the holy symbol of Sinashakti, the empyreal lord of joyful travel; Salma al-Khashramyah, a tall and attractive female half-elf; and Saan, a ratfolk wearing dirty, threadbare robes holding the hand of a ghostly child!  Kang and Jinkatsyu are understandably suspicious at first, but, given the circumstances, quick to accept aid.  The two explain they’ve come to Hook Mountain on the trail of the missing commander of Fort Rannick, while the newcomers explain that Saan is a professional ghost-seeker and has been led to this place.  Tomorrow, the last day of the year, is the Night of the Pale, she reminds everyone, when the borders between the world of the living and that of the dead are at their thinnest.  The two teams agree to work together.

Salma

The sound of drums and shouted celebrations echo down the mountain from the cave entrance above as the sun goes down.  Salma suggests everyone move down to the base of the mountain to rest and recover, but Kang is insistent that if an attack is going to be made against the ogres, it should be sooner rather than later—the arduous climb down and then back up Hook Mountain would only leave them worse off than before.  Sighing, Salma murmurs an incantation and a roomy igloo suddenly appears nestled in a nearby hollow: inside, it’s cozy and warm, the perfect place to talk strategy.  A consensus is reached for an assault, first thing in the morning, that combines magical spells of silence (to avoid alerting the entire clanhold) and stone-shaping (to create a chokepoint to defend against counter-attacks).

[31 Kuthona 4707]

Dizziness, headaches, and nausea afflict the inexperienced mountain climbers.  Fortunately, Kang and Ava have planned for the eventuality and pool their resources to cure the worst effects of the altitude sickness.  The adventurers emerge from the magically-constructed igloo into a clear, bright day.  Kang drinks an extract to turn invisible and flies up to scout the entrance to the clanhold.  He hears snoring coming from inside and can see several ogres, passed out after a night of revelry!  Empty casks are all around, as are some of the blood-spattered and partially eaten remnants of his companions.  Kang flies back down and everyone ascends, magically silenced by Salma’s spell.  But when Ava recites a prayer to conjure a wall of stone, she realizes too late that she’s within the field of magical silence, and her attempt fails.  Jinkatsyu, however, takes advantage of the silence to sneak up on the ogres and kill some of them in their sleep!  He might have been able to finish them all, but Salma evokes a massive explosion that wounds some of the ogres, wakes them up, and alerts the rest of the clanhold!  Ogres and a hill giant charge forth in a veritable repeat of the previous night’s doomed battle: but this time, even in the absence of the planned chokepoint, the adventurers prevail.  Jinkatsyu’s thin blade somehow deflects the attackers’ massive weapons, Kang hurls bombs with unerring accuracy, and Saan manifests a bolt of lightning.  The battle is over quickly and the invaders are barely scratched.

The adventurers cautiously advance deeper into the cave.  Along one wall of a domelike cavern, an enormous figure stands against the wall: a 40’ tall giant with black skin covered by fissures and cracks.  The giant wears majestic armor, gilded and encrusted with gems, a ferocious full helm, and, around its neck, a seven-pointed star medallion that Ava discerns is magical.  Kang and Salma recognize the figure as Gargadros, a legendary general in ancient Thassilon that became one of the first of the so-called Dread Kings.  But, startling, the figure is not a statue: it’s a preserved corpse!

Annis Hag

A side cavern contains a pit wafting decay, and the adventurers happily pass by it.  The main passageway leads to a junction of sorts, with four exits.  Kang’s excellent hearing detects whispering from one of the passageways further on, and he returns to tell the others what he’s found.  They decide to lure the enemy out, and Saan has the perfect spell for the job.  A cloud of poisonous vapors appear at her command and drift towards their hidden assailants.  A trio of choking, gasping figures appear: hunchbacked crones with leathery skin that Salma identifies as annis hags.  Jinkatsyu instantly recognizes the witches who kidnapped and murdered his family!  The kitsune charges into the fray and strikes one of the hags down, terrifying the other two.  They split up to flee, with one disappearing down a corridor and another shouting for assistance to an unknown protector.

Jinkatsyu chases the shouting hag and is taken aback to see that her protector is a frost wight!  The walking corpse, whose body is caked in ice and has a claw of icicles for a hand, begins shooting arrows at the kitsune from an enchanted longbow.  Kang joins in the fight, while the others stay back and take cover.  The shouting hag is blown to pieces by an alchemical bomb, and additional firebombs devastate the frost wight before Jinkatsyu destroys the unliving abomination forever. 

The adventurers carefully search the rooms that branch off the junction.  One large chamber is filled with hammers, anvils, fire pits, and half-forged blades and axe heads.  Tunnels from the chamber wind down hundreds of feet before eventually terminating in a gallery overlooking a massive mine in which dozens and dozens of ogres can be seen mining ore.  The adventurers realize their quest must lay elsewhere, and return to the central part of the clanhold.  The hags’ foul-smelling chamber is cluttered with an appalling amount of body parts, dead animals, spoiled food, and filth, but nothing of value.  The chamber the hags’ “protector” emerged from is clearly a shrine to Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters.

Stone Giant

The last chamber off of the junction proves to be the most interesting—and potentially the most dangerous!  A gigantic chamber, hundreds of feet long, contains a long sloping ramp that terminates from of an immense stone throne.  A massive giant that looks like he was carved from stone himself sits on the throne, with a massive earthbreaker hammer to his right and a slightly smaller stone giant to his left.  “Deal with these mites.  They’ve caused enough problems for me,” the figure on the throne instructs his bodyguard.  The stone giant advances, swinging a massive stone club, but the adventurers are ready for him.  Once again, the team of Kang and Jinkatsyu prove unstoppable, with the others aiding the cause through a barrage of spellcasting.  The enthroned figured stands up when his minion falls, and announces that he, Barl Breakbones, will lay the broken bodies of the adventurers before his master, Mokmurian, Lord of Jorgenfist, as together they prepare for the return of the land’s true ruler.  But the great stone giant doesn’t even lay a finger on the intruders before he’s blasted, burned, and stabbed to death in a flurry of attacks!

A search of the throne room thousands of gold pieces worth of coins and jewels, along with a plethora of enchanted magical items.  But of more pressing concern is a message written on mammoth hide in the Giant tongue:

Barl—

Latest contact with Teraktinus indicates he has narrowed the search—he believes a human town called Sandpoint could hide what my lord seeks.  Teraktinus will lead several of the people, as well as the dragon, on a raid into the town on the night of the first new moon of the new year.  When they return, they may be pursued, and I may need your ogre slaves to aid in Teraktinus’s retreat to Jorgenfist.  Be ready to return at my command!

M

The people of Fort Rannick and Turtleback Ferry have been avenged, though not without cost.  Another chapter of an epic story draws to a close, leading tantalizing questions to be resolved in the next.  Who is Mokmurian?  What “ruler” was Barl Breakbones referring to?  And, most importantly, can the adventurers reach Sandpoint in time to save it from an invading army?

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Director's Commentary (October 28, 2018)

In this session, we see the three new PCs for the players whose characters were killed in the previous session.  Salma is a wizard with the spellsage archetype, that basically allowed her to cast almost every spell in the game if it was done out of combat--overpowered, in my opinion.  Saan was a spiritualist (I think), but only ended up last a session before the player decided to introduce a new PC.  Ava has been the most enduring character and although it took a bit for her personality to come online, she's become a mainstay of the group that has kept everyone else alive many times over.

The new combination of PCs (with a high level wizard and a high level cleric) made combats much easier, and nothing really gave the group a hard time--even the "boss" of Chapter 3, Barl Breakbones, was a real pushover.  I might normally have been disappointed, but it was the last session of the year before the holidays so it was great to end the chapter and have the awesome cliffhanger of "Sandpoint is about to be invaded" to think about for the start of Chapter 4.

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