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
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