Talons of the Horned King part 3

Last night we played the third game in the Talons of the Horned King adventure! We had a smaller party than normal, with Andrew, Anthony, Marc, Marcus, and Rebecca playing.

As the game opened, the party had made camp on a cliff side overlooking the valley of the Horned King. They saw the valley crawling with jungle, with the mysterious face and spires immediately to the North, and the ruins of some sort of structure about a mile and a half to the Northeast. Varin noticed that magic was strangely affected by the forces in the valley, causing the blue sphere near their camp, as well as other affects. Throughout the night, the warlock charted eight different effects, at which spells were more powerful than normal, less powerful, or didn't work at all!

The party was up before dawn, and decided to enter the valley at sunrise, leaving a large cookfire as a distraction. When they rose, magic was blocked entirely in the valley, but by the time they made it down the cliff wall all spells and artifacts were up to half strength. On the ground the spires were visible over the treetops, but only 100 yards away was a glitter of brass through some broken trees. The party cautiously made their way through the trees to check it out.

In front of you is a strange-looking mechanical device, vaguely resembling a nobleman’s carriage but adorned with many odd objects. The black metal carriage has no wheels, but instead has several immobile metal globes welded to its base. Attached to the roof of the carriage is a long, flowing strip of red silk cloth. The silk, which billows restlessly in the cold arctic wind, is nearly 100 feet long and some 60 feet wide. It is riddled with holes, as is the black metal carriage, which looks as though some cosmic giant picked up the strange contraption and hurled it into the jagged rocks upon which it rests.

Through the billowing silk and reaching vines, you can barely make out a flickering light inside the wrecked carriage. It looks as if there may be some metal chests inside the carriage, but it is difficult to tell without actually entering the contraption.

On the side of the object the party saw a nameplate reading "Gilded Gull." Written in Common, no less.

Mendas looked inside and found the source of the light: a sunrod-based lamp, laying on its side in the crashed carriage. The party tossed the area, and found a well-made spyglass, but nothing else. The seats lifted up and had plenty of storage space underneath, but nothing was present. Hermiad went through the immediate area and found tracks, but they were huge, circular depressions in the ground, twenty feet apart and with tons of weight behind them.

The party moved on, and quickly came to a clearing around the Horned King.

Howls fill the air as you reach the crown. Two humanoids are huddled near one of the massive metallic spires, near a strange dais inscribed with several bizarre symbols. The creatures hold their heads in their giant hands, as if in great pain, and do not seem to notice your presence. The dais appears to be made of metal, and is octagonal in shape. The symbols on the dais glow softly, and one appears to glow more brightly than the others.

The Dais seemed to raise more questions than it answered. The "Moon" icon was lit, which seemed to correspond to the randomness in present magic. Some debate led to Mendas pushing the "Rain" button, and Varin immediately felt magic change as it shifted to the half-strength stuff felt an hour earlier. Any other buttons pressed had no effect.

While they puzzled over the dais, Hermiad scouted up the face of the Horned King. He found that the area was like a rough stone, covered in vines and growth, but with nothing outside of moss and lichen taking root. On the crest the ranger could see the ruins in the far corner of the valley: from here it seemed like a temple, and just within was an obelisk of some sort.

Much closer were the eyes of the King... the right was green, and to Hermiad it seemed a hole slowly steaming with a dense gas over a bright green light.

Bright emerald green light pours forth from this hole in the ground. The hole, which appears at first glance to be one of the “eyes” on the Horned King’s face, is 10 feet in diameter and leads to a metal-walled tunnel that descends vertically. A metal ladder is attached to the wall of this tunnel. From looking down the tunnel, you can see that it leads down into some sort of chamber – but what (if anything) lurks within that chamber, you cannot be sure.

Next to this hole is a strange octagonal device, littered with strange symbols. It hums quietly, and the symbols randomly glow brightly, then softly.

Off it the distance, you can barely spot the other “eye” of the Horned King, which burns with a fainter, orange glow.

Hermiad got closer and caught a whiff of the gas: it was acidic and almost certainly poisonous. Mendas scrambled up and looked into the left eye, which at night had glowed orange. Here he found a similarly-shaped hole, but inside was a campfire surrounded by two mad Dragonborn. The rogue snuck off, with little to be gained by bothering them.

The party had all their notes about the Green Death, so they were not ready to go into that left eye. As the scouts descended, the Dais symbol changed on its own to "Lightning." Varin immediately figured out that spells were now supercharged: everything did an additional die, magic weapons had an additional +1, item daily powers were now encounter powers, holy crap! The party took advantage of their window of bad-ass to high-tail it to the temple.

You find yourselves standing in the vine-covered ruins of what may have been a temple some centuries ago. Shattered stones and tiny shards of colored glass are scattered all over the snow-covered ground. Piles of rubble lie where proud walls once stood, providing a skeletal outline of the ancient building.

In the center of the ruins stands a large, oblong stone, some 10 feet high and 4 feet in diameter. The surface of the stone is etched with symbols and words. Many of these symbols and words seem familiar to you. The symbols glow softly every few moments, lighting the remains of the ruined temple with an eerie crimson light.

At the base of the stone was written "Free the twin swords from glass prisons – And the Horned King shall be healed at last."

This monolith seemed to describe the buttons on the dais, but it was stone, could not be manipulated in any way, and might be a thousand years old.

The party fanned out to check out the ruins, but suddenly a giant figure shot over the horizon. What looked like a giant metal spider or crab made two more jumps and landed just outside the temple grounds. It was either an armored insect or a construct, but it looked more sophisticated and intricate than anything the characters had ever seen. "UNKNOWN PHENOTYPES DETECTED. REPRIORITIZING," it stated in Draconic as it ejected a figure from its body onto the ground. "OPERATION: ACQUISITION!"


We all rolled initiative, and the Steel Crab flubbed its roll, putting the whole party up in front. Hermiad fired off some shots, but didn't hit: the armor was tough. Varin prepared his encounter Flames of Phelgelos, and critted! That meant extra damage dice at maximum results, as well as the effects of his Rod of First Blood... his total damage was something like 68 points. Mendas clambered up on a pillar to try and jump on the robot's back, Erik gave the party a +2 AC for the rest of the fight, and Oddny fired a crossbow (that didn't make it through the AC). Still, massive first round of damage, nearly all from Varin!

The Steel Crab went next. First it sprayed the party with lightning, hitting three of them for some 15 damage. Then it vaulted over the party, ending up behind them near the doorway. The smoke cleared from the jump, and in its place was a squad of smaller robots! The party had to deal with two infantry hammer-wielding robots and one small hovering unit. And also some other robots that fanned out to give Bartix, Edgar, and Rurik something to do... One of the actual hammerers charged Oddny, and bloodied her. I think that was round 1!

The vikings started to mix it up and take down the smaller robots in the second round. Hermiad carved up one of the hammerers, but had to dodge a little hovering robot that tried to barrel into him and shock him with lighting that danced over its hull. The remaining hammerer charged in, and Varin met it with a spell to do some damage and grant combat advantage to allies. Ah, combat advantage, a siryn call to a rogue! Mendas jumped down from his pillar and stabbed the robot, presumably putting a dagger through hydraulics and wires. Erik helped get Oddny back to fighting status, and the paladin did the first bit of damage to the second hammerer.

The Steel Crab had been ignored all round, so it took the opportunity to fire into the crowd. It laid a lightning bomb, 5x5, into the crowd, doing 7 damage to Oddy and Varin, as well as both hammerers. I need to put more controllers and solo monsters into these fights, a 5x5 attack was awesome.

The hovering robot connected with Hermiad on the next round, delivering a few points of lightning damage. The ranger controlled himself and didn't try for direct retribution. Instead, he used his new Daily, Two-Wolf Pounce, to shift, shift, attack, attack, attack, shift, attack, attack. That's something like 5W, and I think there was a crit there... it shut down one hammerer, and brought the other to critical levels. Mendas went after the hoverer and shut it down, while Oddny used her On Pain of Death to end the last hammerer.

This left Varin free to curse the Steel Crab and Dire Radiance it. Even his At-Wills were doing crazy damage under the current magical environment.

The crab responded with another lightning bomb, which could now hit every viking but Mendas. My dice were on fire, hitting everyone (and critting on Hermiad). But then I rolled max damage anyway! 10 damage bloodied Erik, Oddny, and Hermiad.

The party had to scatter to heal... but at least all the fallen walls gave them boltholes to retreat to. Between potions, cleric powers, and second winds, they got back on their feet. Varin fired again at the crab, while Mendas moved up to perch on a wall.

The Steel Crab had been dealt over a hundred points of damage now, all by Varin. At the bottom of its mechanical soul it was pissed. It yelled "OPERATION: ANNIHILATION" and charged the warlock. This caused curse damage! which bloodied it by the time it got up to Varin. The warlock was then hit and bloodied by three close-in attacks: two giant claw swipes and a crackling taser from its mouthy bits.

Now healed and with just one opponent, the party converged on the crab. Varin shifted back a bit, and dodged the opportunity attack from its giant reach. He then pulled out the new level 5 Daily, Hunger of Hadar. Placed right on the crab, it ensured some 3D10 damage as soon as its turn started. Mendas hopped down and stabbed at the new darkness, doing Sneak Attack from the totally-blocked line of sight. Oddny and Erik joined in.

On the Steel Crab's turn, the chittering mouths of Hadar took its toll, and the robot shuttered. It still lashed out, hitting Varin, Oddny, and Hermiad, but couldn't do serious wounds. Hermiad finished it off with two battle-axes to the robo-thorax. Whoo-hoo!

This fight exhausted the vikings, and they needed a rest. They made a camp in the ruins and were ready to go again around 2:00 PM. It was a short walk back to the Horned King, where the gas still spewed out of the eye. With no options at the ruins, and each console played with, how to shut if off?

Varin had an idea: his Amulet of Health gave him a +5 resistance to poison, effectively acting as a magic gasmask. Sadly, the closest anyone else could come was protection for a single round. Varin had to descend alone, with the party clustered around the opening listening.

Inside, Varin found a curious room:

The ladder from the jungle above leads you down into a cold metal chamber. It is circular in shape with a 40-foot diameter. The chamber is empty, save for a circular metal hatch, 5 feet in diameter, on the western wall of the room. You passed through a similar hatch in the ceiling as you descended into the room.

Next to each hatch is a small metallic box. On each box are four small buttons. Each button has a symbol etched on its surface – one has the image of fire, while the others are water, lightning, and the moon.

He went to the console and tried to get in, using the clues in the various documents the party had found. The documents from Thargdar seemed to indicate that a combination of Lightning and Fire might defeat the "green death." Somewhat by accident, a combination of the buttons closed one hatch in the top, dispensed the gas, and opened the lower hatch. Varin looked out into a strange hallway, all metal, with a mysterious cabinet full of blinking lights.

Varin reversed the combination, called the party down, and opened the hatch again. Next week, into the dungeon!

Casualties:
One Robot Crab
Two Robot Hammerers
One Hover Robot
Like eight beers

Talons of the Horned King 2.5: Later that Night...

The party camps out at the cliffs overlooking a sunken plateau in the mountains, to lick your wounds and to plan the coming exploration. Mendas and Erik arrive just after sunset, finding the party by the dual lights of a fire and the blue flickering of the arcane sphere.

Bartix dissects the body of one of the Dragonborn, and learns some valuable insights. Both he and Varin spend the entire night exposed to the nearby hovering ball, and to the strange magical effect coming from the valley below. Over the hours you feel the strength of magic itself vary in a completely unnatural fashion. Whatever is in the valley increases the natural ebb and flow of magic by several orders of magnitude. You know that as soon as you enter into the valley, all of your arcane powers will be affected, as well as those of any magical artifacts your party carries. If you wish, you can attempt to time your entry to a crest of power, but you know that these conditions would last an hour at most. With time and particular skill, you could even try to predict the flow or decipher the pattern.

The canyon path now opens up in front of you, revealing an immense, jungle-covered valley that seems to stretch over infinite expanses of green. In the center of this valley – and directly in front of you – is the visage of a giant mask buried in the overgrowth. The mask, which appears eerily like a human burial mask, measures hundreds of feet long in length and width, and easily covers the same amount of area as an archduke’s castle. The hill-sized mask has distinct eyes and a mouth, despite being buried under several feet of flora. The face also has eight large spires sticking out of its top, forming an odd sort of crown. Each spire towers 100 feet high in the sky.

To the left and to the right of the face are smaller sets of spires – each of these sets contains five spires, with each spire measuring approximately 40 feet in height. These sets of spires give the appearance that the buried face also has talons or claws, and that some god-like giant, hundreds upon hundreds of feet tall, is buried somewhere beneath the valley… and this giant was buried alive, and tried to claw its way out of its grave before mostly sinking back into its final resting place.

Far to the southeast, you can also see the faint outline of a ruined building – remnants of a castle, perhaps, or maybe a church. From the high point upon which you stand, you can also faintly see the glow of fires scattered on smaller hills throughout the valley. You have finally arrived at the Talons of the Horned King – and you are most certainly not alone...

Talons of the Horned King part 2

Last night we played the second game in our new arc, the Talons of the Horned King! We played a modified version of the first chapter of the Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure from Goodman Games... some of the images contained herein are straight from their adventure, or slightly modified content.

We opened minutes from where we left off. The vikings had discovered a cave of lizardfolk, and cleared it out. I revealed new treasure that had been glossed over last time: a magic shield for Oddny, an axe for Hermiad, and three healing potions and whetstones to spread throughout the party. We also looked over the scrap of parchment found in the Chieftan's lockbox:



I asked for the watch order, and the party decided to sleep in three shifts.

At midnight, Oddny and Edgar were ready in the cave entrance, with Hermiad patrolling just outside. The elf heard it first: the sound of a single figure approaching through the jungle. Hermiad readied an arrow but waited. He watched as a Lizardfolk walked cautiously into the clearing. It crouched near the cave entrance and called out in a hushed tone, in Draconic,

"I am Thargdar of the Scaled Suns!"

The party scrambled to come up with a response. Oddny and Edgar spoke Draconic, but what to say? And how to sound like Lizardfolk? Oddny had a low Bluff, but gave it a try and got a great roll. She flawlessly intoned one of the lines from the parchment scrap:

"Know that three fires brings strength!"

This seemed to confuse the lizard, who said, "Okay, but can I come in?"

The party gave a hurried "yes," and Thargdar entered without suspecting. They sounded a subtle alarm, and the rest of the party was up and ready quickly. The lizardfolk walked into the cave and stopped, seeing the alien figures in shining armor. He dropped a pouch from his left hand, and it fell to his feet.

Rurik aced a diplomacy roll, but the party was too alien to gain the lizard's trust. Still, they got the following from him:

* The tribe the lived here had been called the Broken Moons. They were a small tribe, separate but friendly to the Scaled Suns.
* The Scaled Suns chief was named Oghul, and had sent Thargdar as a messenger to Oghul, the ex-chief of the Broken Moons. The party remembered how hard Oghul had been to kill...
* The vikings claimed the messages as the rightful successors of the Broken Moons, after a test of strength. Thargdar agreed to take the vikings to his chief.
* The Scaled Suns were one of seven Lizardoflk tribes within one month's walking distance. They were all loosely allied, but had fought before too.
* The pouch contained two messages:




* The map was of the insides of the Talons, an ancient place that only Oghul had been able to survive... and even he had done only minor exploring.
* The Dragonborn in the area lived in a small city at the Western base of the mountains.
* Two weeks ago, a star fell in the mountains. Thargdar had crossed the site on his way here, and would take the party there on the way to the chief.
* After the star fell, the Dragonborn all seemed to go mad. The lizardfolk are ancient enemies with the Dragonborn, and planned to capitalize on their madness by taking their city.
* The mad dragonborn are very dangerous! But not as organized as they might be normally.
* Also in the last two weeks, mysterious armored beasts have appeared around the talons. Thargdar has heard of these beasts but has not seen them.
* Thargdar had never seen any of the races in the party, with the exception of the Warforged. He knows them as the Northern People, who appear in stories of the Long Ago but all went to sleep.

Okay, big information dump! Those that needed it finished their sleep, and the party started out in the morning. Mendas and Erik loaded up with supplies from the cave (iron, cut lumber, silk) and returned to the clan's camp. Everyone else continued on through the canyon under Thargdar's guide.

First they came to a rope bridge (Text from Goodman Games):

Traveling along the winding canyon, you find yourself at the foot of a rope bridge. The bridge, which sways wildly in the mountain wind, extends over a rocky gorge filled with thousands of shards of glittering obsidian. The shards, which appear both beautiful and razor-sharp, lie about 30 feet below the bridge. The bridge itself stretches approximately 60 feet across the gorge before reaching safety on the other side.

Some of the party crossed without issue, but most of them "took 20" and slowly but carefully made their way across. Good job!

Next they came to a cave just off the path along the canyon. At the mouth of the cave stood a terrifying rage drake, it's teeth and claws dripping with blood as it fed. The drake growled at the party, then retreated into its cave. They approached further and saw that it was eating the tail of a lizardfolk, complete with the markings of Thragdar's tribe! However, Thragdar claimed not to be able to identify the tail, especially in its mangled form.

Next they came to the impact crater.

As you travel through a particularly difficult section of the canyon trail, you find your path to the Talons blocked by a weird and wondrous object. Almost completely filling the canyon 10 pathway is a gigantic metallic sphere, 20 feet in diameter, which is wedged tightly between the canyon walls.

Thargdar showed them how to scramble over the rocks without touching the still-hot sphere. On the other side they found a protuberance of strange design, as shown in the following:



Buttons must be pressed, so Bartix used his Mage Hand from 25 feet away and pressed the Fire button three times, as shown in the scroll. No effect, nor any effect from any other button combination. Edgar and Rurik could stand the heat of the sphere and could touch the buttons directly, and tried every combination themselves. Nothing happend. Finally, the party went on.

As they traveled through the woods, Thargdar made a break for it! But a crossbow bolt in this leg and a Warforged Flying Tackle taught him the error of his ways. He apologized, and asked Edgar to carry him. Aww!

A mile through twisting canyon forest brought them to the end of the canyon, which overlooked a great valley:

Just ahead lies the end of this winding canyon pathway.The canyon walls finally give way to a large opening, through which you can see the outline of ten giant spires through the misty air. The spires are massive, reaching almost 200 feet in the air; they seem to be arranged in a semi-circle around a large snowy hill. Floating in the air about 20 feet above one of the snow banks is a glowing ball of sapphire energy. The snow crackles as it hits the blue ball of energy and instantly melts. The ball, which is some 10 feet in diameter, lurches back and forth unsteadily as it hovers in the air. It is almost as though the strange ball of energy is watching you.

Magic sphere, wierd! But as the party approached, a dart flew from the woods and hit near Hermiad's feet. More lizardfolk! The party made Thargdar offer messages of peace, but there was no response. The vikings then tried to walk peacefully by, but Edgar and Oddny were hit by darts! Enough of that, it was time to roll initiative!

The lizards got the first initiative, and they sent two more darts into the party. Hermiad was hit and poisoned, and Oddny took minor dart damage but made her Fortitude save to avoid posioning. This was the pattern throughout the battle: The Greenscale Darters could reliably hit the party, but the poisonous seccondary attack would fail. Bah! I need to create some plain Lizardfolk artillery, like with a bow. And an arrow.

The vikings looked into the woods and failed to see any of these darters, but couldn't help but miss the huge Blackscale Bruiser, its back covered in moss and brush, its yellow eyes staring out at the party. Rurik got the first heroic initiative, and charged this poorly-hidden Bruiser. He hit for a few, and percieved the rest of the attack group hidden amongst the woods. He was kind enough to yell details to the rest of the party ("And, as usual, I'm not going to shut up about anything," was the approximate quote), which helped future perception checks. The Bruiser roared and stood up, showering the area with uprooted vegetation. It hit back, doing some damage and pushing the warlord back with the force of the blow!

Hermiad returned fire with his bow, and Edgar joined Rurik against the Bruiser. Then one of the Lizardfolk Stranglers activated. These were Bugbear Stranglers with the serial numbers filed off, given tails, etc. The creature ran through the woods and appeared behind Edgar, garotting him soundly.

Bartix responded with an Icy Terrain, dropped on Edgar to get the two lizardfolk around him. It hit the Bruiser, but the Strangler parried... using Edgar's body! The Strangler ducked underneath the Warforged, holding him above like a shield, and Edgar took double damage from the attack. Which was this guy's main means of damage, I don't have anything to apologize for. The Bruiser and Edgar also both fell prone, with the Strangler maintaining his hold. This bloodied the Warforged, and on the first round of combat!

Varin circled to the north and fired at one of the Darters, while Oddny joined the fray against the Bruiser. Things weren't looking too good for the big guy, especially when, after some ineffectual dart fire, Rurik got the chance to get his Daily Power out... and critted! A critical-damage 3[w] with a Greataxe is scary to behold. If this didn't kill the Bruiser, it did most of the work... The great creature responded with a mace-hit on Rurik, but did much less damage.


Hermiad also joined the fray, but ignored the Bruiser to flank the Strangler that still had Edgar. He buried two axe-heads in its back, but the thing was not bloodied! Meanwhile Edgar tried to break free and failed. His Athletics is one of the highest skills in the party, but you roll a 2, and you're not going to do it. The fighter took his second wind and planned for next round.

Meanwhile another Strangler came out of the woods and went for Varin. He didn't have sucess, so Varin kept moving and fired again at the Darters. Bartix also fired at the blow-gun-armed lizards, who made up the bulk of the enemies on the battlefield, although they weren't having much affect.

Oddny attacked the Bruiser and finished it off, hooray! The battlefield was suddenly much more sparse... and over the general din, the vikings heard a terrile howling coming from the valley. They correctly guessed that it was the mad Dragonborn, but this wouldn't be confirmed for a while...

The second Strangler pursued Varin, and hit him with a mace, but everyone was still cool. Rurik shifted his attention to the Strangler. Between the warlord and the ranger, the lizard finally went down. This left Edgar and Oddny free to pursue the Darters in the woods. The next round found them joined by Rurik and Hermiad, haking at these lurkers.

The remaining Strangler charged through the woods to come up behind Hermiad, but he flubbed his attack.

While the rest of the party hacked, Bartix took pity on Thargdar, who was shivering among the rocks. The wizard ran over, collected the lizardman, and helped him get near the woods to relative safety.

It was stab, stab, stab, but the final Lizardfolk finally went down... but before the body hit the ground, five slavering Dragonborn emerged from the cliff wall!

Their eyes were bloodshot, they foamed at the mouth, they raised their maces and axes in rage as the torn remains of their armor fluttered in the wind. The vikings prepared for the assault... they were in decent shape, but the encounters had blurred together, and they were getting low on powers. Two of the Dragonborn charged, but they had a long way to go, and no one made contact.

Rurik met the biggest-looking Dragonborn in a counter-charge and hit him... but blood was barely split. The creature immediately responded with an axe-swipe, and the party recognized this power as that of a Berserker!

Hermiad fired his bow at one of the advancing Dragonborn, and Bartix advanced, giving his dagger to Thargdar and charging the lizardfolk as his new bodyguard! The wizard then cast Sleep on the Dragonborn still at the cliff. They didn't fall asleep, but were slowed... one had to go through the woods, and was only able to move two squares the whole turn. The final Dragonborn ran along the outskirts of the battle, trying to maneuver his way to the party's back ranks.

Oddny, Edgar, and Rurik all unleashed their Daily powers on the Dragonborn leader, bloodying him, finally. Edgar's Bedevilling Assault and Oddny's On Pain of Death would He responded with his Axe Arc, hitting them all, but they could take it. Two other Dragonborn Soldiers were no longer slowed, and moved to flank Edgar and Rurik. The damage was starting to build up, and the viking fighters had to use healing potions.

Hermiad, Bartix, Varin, and poor Thargdar faced two of the raving Soldiers on the south flank. A Dire Wolverine Strike, a Shock Sphere, and a Flames of Phlegelos (respectively), kept things under control.

Rurik and his friends were surrounded by Dragonborn, facing a Savage Berserker head on and with a Soldier at their backs.
The warlord pulled out his last power, allowing himself and an ally to shift; this got him and Edgar out of the flanks. Edgar then used the power of his Lightning Greatsword along with his Sweeping Arc power, hitting the leader and a soldier, and doing double lightning damage to both! That was really cool.

So all of this killed the leader and three soldiers, and left just one guy to pile on. And piling on is what D&D fighters do best! And he died.

The players shifted through the bodies looking for treasure, but no dice. The lizardfolk had stone-age crap, and the more civilized Dragonborn had gone mad and lost all their good stuff. But the real treasure in an encounter is experience points. The party decided to camp here and wait for their comrades to return. The sphere of magic seemed stable, and the area seemed defensible. As they looked into the valley, they saw what everyone had been referring to: the Talons of the Horned King!



Great game, thanks to everyone for coming, and thanks to Martin for the in-game pics! See you in two weeks!

Casualties:
3 Lizardfolk Greenscale Darters (level 5)
2 Lizardfolk Stranglers (level 6)
1 Blackscale Bruiser (level 6)
4 Dragonborn Soldiers (level 5)
1 Dragonborn Savage Berserker (level 5 elite)
19 beers

Talons of the Horned King part 1

Last month we played the first game of our campaign to actually be set in savage Vinland! This is the originally-planned starting point of the campaign, but I think we're in a better place for establishing the mundane Crazy Fantasy world, then bringing in the Totally Weird Dangerous Crazy Fantasy world. So everyone is on notice: the game is now full of reptiles that want to kill you.

This adventure is based on "Talons of the Horned King," a Dungeon Crawl Classics adventure by Goodman Games. If you've read this, please keep mum and act surprised. But by the time I've adapted it to 4th edition and our campaign world, it is significantly changed.

We picked up the game shortly after the landing. Earl Gaermund gathered all the fighting men of the clan together, nearly half of which were in the party. He gave everyone their missions to explore the surrounding area, taking care of anything hostile that was within their means, and reconnoitering anything that they could not handle. Specifically, one group was sent to the marshes up the coast and another was sent into the forests inland. Our party was sent into the mountains: Oystaen, the senior wizard, senses a strange magical disturbance in that direction, which could threaten the settlement. The party took a night to prepare their gear and set out in the morning into the mountains.

Over the first two hours, they made the steep climb up above their settlement. The path then became a narrow canyon working its way along the mountain ridge. The area was heavily wooded, but they could see a discernible pathway. The weather was warm and wet of a more southern climate than Hyboria. Then, up ahead, the party saw a body stretched across the path.

Being seasoned adventurers, the vikings paid attention. The body was still fifty yards away but looked odd somehow; maybe the legs were wrong, maybe the arms were a bit too long. There was also some stirring in the woods around them: the vikings couldn't see the source, but they knew they were not alone.
Hmm, the body didn't look like a crazy Aztec cleric, I should note that.

Mendas, Hermiad, Edgar, and Bartix cautiously approached the body. Once they were near, surprise! It was just a dummy. A dummy wearing some odd boots, with boots designed for inhuman legs, as well as three-finger gloves.And that's when the poison darts started coming... six of them from various points in the woods.

The players fanned out to try to find the source, and Bartix laid down his new Shock Sphere on what seemed to be the most likely source. He hit two targets, and the party saw Lizardfolk hiding in the woods!

There were seven Lizardfolk Greenscale Darters in the woods, each of which was concealed in some sort of cover. They fired darts that did a single point of damage, but then caused an ongoing 5 poison damage. So within a few rounds pretty much the entire party was poisoned. A quick note here: this was the first time I've encountered secondary attacks, where I have to make a roll against their AC, then a second roll against their fortitude. Annoying! I can think of a few ways to streamline that, but I'm a bt surprised that the game developers didn't beat me to it. They're normally really good about stuff like that.

So the players fanned out and took the fight to these Lizardfolk, with the close-in fighters charging the four that were uncovered, and the ranged attackers moving through the woods to find the other sources of ongoing darts!

The lizards weren't pushovers once based, however... they could only do mediocre damage with the knives they carried, but the vikings had a bit of trouble killing them.

Varin got into a running battle with a lizard he uncovered.
Mendas slowly chewed a darter to death... he had gone after a sniper on the far end of the battlefield, and had a hard time generating combat advantage.
Oddny, Edgar, Eric, and Rurik dealt with the first group of Lizardfolk revealed through a process of Stab, Stab, and Repeat.

Hermiad got locked up with a Lizardfolk and bloodied him, but couldn't quite kill him.
It shifted away and took off running, leaving the battlefield. Poison was getting to the ranger at that point, so the vikings let him go to mop up two more creatures that had no hope of escaping. The battle was over, but there had not been much on anything won.. The party examined the bodies and found that their equipment wasn't too interesting, but their faces and bodies were covered in a yellow warpaint.

Hermiad tried to track the Lizardfolk, but the canyon run entered into a short depression that flooded. The lizardfolk used his Swampwalk to run right through it, but the ranger was so slowed that he had lost all hope of catching the creature. The party regrouped to continue tracking the creature en masse. They picked up his trail again on dry land and took it three miles to a branch in the canyon. They followed to the left, and the canyon ended in a cave entrance! Since we're playing D&D, the vikings went down into the cave to kill the monsters.

The passageway was between 20 and 30 feet wide, but a full half of the width was standing water. Perhaps this channel flowed with meltwater during the spring, but now it stood stagnant and full of algae.
The passage opened up into a wide irregular cavern, with a roaring fire in the center, and the hides, sacks, and tools of the lizardfolk scattered about the place.


Oh, and three lizardfolk in matching warpaint, including one hulking Blackscale!

The party had approached stealthfully, but now they charged in. The two Greenscale Hunters were pushovers, but the Blackscale Bruiser took on three of the players. Then, as they jockeyed for position around the cavern room, they were hit by more darts!


This time it came not from a dartgun but from a small animal climbing the side of the cavern. Two lizards, each a foot long from head to tailtip, clung to the walls of the cavern on opposite sides and fired a fussilade of darts at whomever came near from the spines on their backs! In one action, three of the party was hit by poison.

Then came more bad news. The cavern had three ante chambers, and something came piling out of each one! From the southmost came another Blackscale Bruiser. From the middle, another score of Lizardfolk soldiers.


And from the Northmost chamber came an obvious wizard type (you know, small, spindly, carries a staff), along with his pet dinosaur. The Monster Manual would call this a Lizardfolk Marsh Mytic and a Spitting Drake.

The soldiers went in first, repopulating the center of the battlefield. The Drake fired off a globule of caustic spit, which did something like 16 acid damage. Rurik, Edgar, and Hermiad decided the drake was too dangerous to live, and charged it, killing it between their three attacks. Wait, is that possible? The thing had 51 hit points, as I had upped it to Level 5... maybe someone critted in there, but I remember it went down really fast.

But, but, this put the three in the right position to be Bog Clouded by the Marsh Mystic. This cloud of poisonous gas did a lot of damage to everyone. Meanwhile, Eric and Bartix were let holding the center of the battlefield against five lizardfolk. And then I brought out the Lizardfolk Chieftan, an Elite warrior created using the Battle Champion template.

The vikings worked smart and fast to control the number of lizardfolk on the battlefield. Varin took out the remaining poison-spine-lizard-trap-thing, and Bartix laid a Shock Sphere and a Freezing Cloud in quick succession on the hoard. Edgar finally finished off the Marsh Mystic, but only after it got off an improbable two more Bog Clouds, which really hurt. "I don't want to level up anymore," said Matt, "it makes the monsters too strong!" This is to say nothing of the Chieftan, who strode into the middle of the fight, bloodying Oddny and generally being a high-AC dick. The party's defenses started to buckle, and Eric worked at healing full-time. However, as the last Blackscale Bruiser fell, they had shifted momentum in their favor. It had taken a lot of potions, second winds, and everyone's daily powers, but they had taken down everyone but the Chieftan.


Oh, that Chieftan. I really like throwing in an elite, it spices everything up. It was rare that they could hit his AC, but the Lizardfolk now had eight attacks coming in, and he was rapidly bloodied and killed. Hurrah! the group cried weakly...

A search of the caves revealed 500 gold, along with some wood, some metal, all sorts of things needed by their settlement! In a locked chest, they also found a scrap of parchment (parchment developed by Goodman Games):

Everyone was beat to hell, and with good reason: I had given them a huge encounter, absolutely full of lizardfolk. The group decided to rest for the night, setting watch by the cave door and sleeping among the bodies of their foes. Edgar had the raw material now for a flotilla of hats.

This adventure was our first in the new campaign setting, and I brute-forced the difficulty up, making brazen sport of traditional XP budgets for the encounters. But it was really dangerous, I'm surprised no one was killed. I think we ended up with a well-defined sense of peril for the new campaign world.

Casualties:

7 Lizardfolk Greenscale Darters
5 Lizardfolk Greenscale Hunters
2 Lizardfolk Blackscale Bruisers
2 Poison Dart Traps
1 Spitting Drake
1 Lizardfolk Marsh Mystic
1 Elite Lizardfolk Battle Champion
22 beers, and a bottle of wine... we could have done more, but we ran dry for the first time ever. So it's possible, everyone, you've been warned!

Thanks to Andrew for the in-battle pictures!