We opened up just where we left off last session. The party emerged from the dragonborn spaceship in the early evening with all their hangers-on in tow. This was, at last count, seven humanoids: Thargdar the Lizardfolk, Nigel the Albion explorer, and five dragonborn rescued from a laboratory in the ship. The rescued dragonborn were all grateful and trusting of our heroes, but Bartix watched their faces fall as they emerged from the spaceship. He correctly, uh, "insighted," that the party had been in an extremely holy place to these people, and they were confused, possibly upset, that the vikings were inside. Still, the captives descended, led by a fellow named Griv, to speak to the recovering dragonborn milling about on the ground.
Out of the woods stepped a large, commanding dragonborn, his armor in tatters, his sword bloodied. Griv recognized this as Rarhan, captain of the city guard, and was genuinely glad to see him. Rarhan demanded to know what had gone on, but accepted Griv's witness account that the vikings had done something heroic and not blasphemic. And the characters were responsible for the cessation of the madness, that's a plus! One item of note, Rarhan took the vikings to be strange Eladrin... and there weren't any Eladrin in the party.
Rarhan took in the character's account, edited to obscure details about their boat and people. Coming out of two weeks of madness, he was willing to accept the story. He let them know that entry into the Ancient Place was a problem, but he himself wasn't a religious man. In fact, he asked what it was like beyond the Horned King, as long as, he said, there were no Mages of Saruun around to hear. The vikings displayed one of their fantastical technological treasure items, and left it at, "Many fabulous, horrible things."
But what to do now? The characters remembered their note from the lizardfolk tribes, found three days ago in game (three months ago in real life). It advised the small Broken Moons tribe (RIP) to wait for four sunsets, then mass and attack the dragonborn when they were in the midst of their madness. By everyone's account, this meant either tonight or tomorrow night. But did they want to warn the dragonborn, or play the two against one another?
Part of the decision was being made for them. Rarhan was supervising tending to the wounded, and noted that they could make the journey over the next day, camping once they had made the climb out of the crater. The players knew that this could be too late, that they would arrive after the invasion was complete. They decided to trust the dragonborn and warn them of the plans of the lizardfolk tribe. With some heal rolls and Oddny's donation of healing surges to two especially wounded specimens, they were ready to roll at great speed!
In four hours the party, some 20 dragonborn and 8 other, had descended from the mountains. Edgar and Hermiad went in the opposite direction, back to the ship to report back to Earl Gaermund. And I don't have to tell any readers that this was due to players Anthony and Martin couldn't make it. Soon the city of Rivershard came into view. Rarhan pointed out the fires, noting that the lights were much lower than normal, and he couldn't say whether the fires were controlled or random.
As they cleared the foothills and began to cross the valley, Mendas slipped apart and scouted ahead. He ran into a lone dragonborn sentry, some fifty yards from the ruins of the city of its eyes bloodshot, its game stuck in at least "C." Mendas kept going, crossing the walls and noting a great bonfire in the center of town. Here some 10 armored dragonborn were lounging, drinking something hot from mugs, and keeping themselves awake. As he watched, a wagon rolled up, driven by a dragonborn and pulled by a behemoth (behemoths are D&D licensed versions of dinosaurs!). The soldiers around the fire waved him on, with some conversation that indicated that his wagon was full of valuables being evacuated from the town up to the Seven-Pillared Hall, before an invasion.
The rogue quickly climbed a roof and noted that the town was ringed with solo defenders, some fifty in all in a loose perimeter. Mendas then descended and slipped back to the group. Rarhan never suspected, and Marcus roleplayed his shock as the party went forth and discovered a guard standing before them!
Rarhan was their captain, and his vouching got everyone into the town. Again, the first reaction that all of the dragonborn had to the vikings was to assume that they were an odd breed of Fey. A few of the group peeled off to be armed and join in the defense, but Rarhan was dedicated to taking the vikings' information to the mages in the Seven-Pillared Hall. They started out, our heroes plus Rarhan and Griv, to the Minotaur Gate, a mile distant through the foothills.
The road enters a 50-foot-tall stone archway hewn out of the mountainside. A towering minotaur statue stands on each side of the entrance, glowering down at travelers.
And beyond that, the Road of Lanterns:
Beyond the Minotaur Gate, the Road of Lanterns slopes into the mountains. Green light from copper lanterns dimly illuminates the road, which leads about a half a mile into the mountains, sloping steadily downward over several switchbacks. The road is a brick-vaulted passage, 30 feet wide and 30 feet tall at its apex. Seventy-seven demon statues, each over 10 feet tall, stand watch along the corridor's length.
Three miles of subterranean lanterns led them to the Seven-Pillared Hall:
The heart of Thunderspire's upper level is the Seven-Pillared Hall. Dozens of lanterns hang from the walls and the thick pillars of this great chamber. The chamber walls have been fashioned into building facades, so the Hall appears more like a city square than an underground cavern. Merchants conduct business in the Hall, at the behest and with the permission of the Mages of Saruun.
The place was filled with dragonborn refugees, huddled together under blankets,thier wounds mostly dressed. It was around midnight, and though the Hall was lit, most of the population was sleeping. Rarhan made his way through the throngs and brought the vikings to the Customhouse.
This building serves as the headquarters for the enforcers employed by the Mages of Saruun to keep order in the Seven-Pillared Hall.
Bruug, a giant Lizardfolk Blackscale, stood guard at the door. He recognized Rarhan and let them in. Inside they found two dragonborn at a table spread with parchment, one seated, one assisting. The seated fellow stood and introduced himself as mage Orontor. He was exhausted from managing the evacuation, but perked up as Rarhan explained where the vikings had been. The mage immediately began to pepper then with questions about the Ancient Place.
The players decided to steer clear of this, giving Orontor the standard recap. They steered the conversation towards what was happening in the Hall, especially what was going on with the leadership of Rivershard. It turns out that the city has a King, and the King hadn't been seen as of late. Orontor said that they had seen the Princess, and she was sleeping in the Pigeonholes. The PCs wrapped things up and took Rarhan to find the princess.
The vikings made their way to the Pigeonholes, small openings in the rock which were normally occupied by the poorer elements in the Hall. Now, almost all of them were being rented to dragonborn. Here they started asking questions about the princess, backed with the authority of Rarhan.
They threw aside one curtain and found a sleeping fat dragonborn merchant. They shook him to wake him up, and he revealed that Princess Kava had gone with her two handmaidens into the depths of the pigeonholes to find the best sleeping arrangement. That sounds like trouble! The group forged on, looking in each hole, until the passageway had less pockets and more reaching darkness. And then, fifty feet after the last sleeper, a scream rang out! The vikings ran forward to find a dragonborn princess threatened by a horde of kruthiks!
What is a kruthik? Why, a kruthik is widely regarded as the favored son of 4th Edition, the Fantastic Monster Manual Find of 2007, the Owlbear of the new millennium! And I hadn't put them in my campaign yet, even though my players were rocketing up the XP chart! So clearly we had to fight some kruthiks. Also, a kruthik is a reptile which is also an insect and its legs are made of swords.
Rurik acted first, charging in and whacking one of the adult kruthiks with his axe. The next initiative went to all five adult kruthiks. They surrounded him and tried to bite him. I think one went through, doing some minor damage. And you know why? Remeliorating Chainmail. This was their fifth encounter of the day, the same day they had charged through the back half of the alien ship and ganked the Captain and it was midnight and this was still happening, so Rurik's AC was juiced by 2. Still, he was rethinking his tactics! Mendas, Oddny, and Erik rushed up to support, but there were no deaths to help.
There were four kruthik hatchlings on the board, and they split up. Two went to menace the party, charging and missing. The other two burrowed through the ground and came up near the princess!
Bartix and Varin went next. Bartix ran to the back of the map and threw down an Icy Terrain, which zapped the young and hurt another adult. Varin used an action point to send two Dreadful Words at the monsters threatening the princess. Zap, zap! Two curses, no waiting!
Finally, Bartix heard the earth groaning below him, and the hidden Kruthik Hive Lord came up from below! Man, burrowing creatures are awesome! We're about to Bullette level, too, I'm looking forward to that. Anyway, the hive lord surfaced and belched acid on the party. Yeah!
Rurik went next, and went after his target. This finished the adult kruthik off, but the warlord didn't shift, and ended his turn adjacent to 4 of the beasts. This is what we in DMing call "the magic hour." Their Gnashing Horde aura all activated, bring 2 damage apiece, all doubled by the Hive Lord... 16 damage to Rurik! You'll note that everyone else backed the fuck off on their turn.
But that was pretty much it in the fight. These kruthiks were level 4 brutes, and I don't remember a lot of misses on their 17 defenses. The Hive Lord was tougher, but it was very soon alone. Given three rounds, the vikings triumphed!
Rarhan had been working his way to the princess, and recovered her as the monster fell. He thanked them all as Bartix recovered some 150 GP in kruthik gizzards. And now a bit of a confession: Rescuing a princess, really? A princess that foolishly wandered into a cave? Yeah, my bad. I had meant to throw this in on the Road of Lanterns, introduce a kobold that worked at the inn or something, but I got lost looking through the materials and before I knew it, we were in the town. So thanks to everybody for rolling with it, and it might end up being an interesting game element.
The party had made it to an unprecedented five encounters in one day! But that was enough; nobody had any Dailies left, and the healing surge supply was low overall. Orontor's aide met them as they came out of the dungeon, and led them to a prepared set of beds at the Half Moon Inn. Interesting that the Mages had found a place for them, when even the royalty of Rivershard was sleeping in rock holes...
Upon waking the next day, everyone was ready for some commerce! The party went to Gendar’s Curios and Relics, run by Gendar, a Lizardman with an eyepatch. They traded in two outdated items, a +1 flaming sword and a +1 cloak of protection. All this left them with about 2000 gold, including all magical components. This wasn't as much as everyone had hoped, and they decided to save their money. During the bargaining, Gendar noted their tech-gear from the buried ship. "I'd be careful around the mages with that stuff," he said, "If it really came from their Horned King site, it'll be priceless to them... and they may not want to pay for it." He paused, and said, "I might, though... see me after closing."
The vikings had a meeting scheduled with Orontor at the customhouse, and beforehand they gathered all of the allies they could. They found Princess Kava, Captain Rarhan, good ol' Griv, and went to see the mage. Again, Orontor was concerned about the ship, and the group didn't want to overplay their hands. Instead, they wanted the help of the Seven Pillared Hall in defending the grounds of Rivershard. Orontor wasn't convinced. The plan, he said, had been to retreat to the safety of the caverns, to have three miles of cavernous road to harry invaders before lives were in danger.
We ran a skill challenge to make the arguments. Many of the vikings are skilled in Diplomacy to make their arguments, or Intimidate to voice their military experience. Several characters realized that they had to speak through Kava and Rarhan, especially the princess. She began to speak, but the 14-year old dragonborn was obviously intimidated by the looming mage. She looked to the PCs for support, and some Insight checks helped reassure her. Buttressed, she stepped forward and lambasted Orontor for his cowardice, for daring to surrender thier ancestral home to barbarians! She vowed to lead a force of proud Rivershard defenders and meet the lizardfolk tribes on the ruins on Rivershard walls, whether the mages would help them or not!
So that actually worked in game as a bit of a hell yeah moment. Everyone stormed out, and Kava immediately collapsed, but the vikings covered for her. They ran throughout the hall, finding soldiers under the direction of Rarhan and Griv.
But before they set out, a kobold named Charrak ran up and introduced himself. "Damn refugees," he told them, "This evacuation is terrible for the dedicated beggar. It's amateur hour out there! I had to agree to deliver this to you to make ends meet! And scene!"
Unfurling the scroll he handed them, they read the following:
Your actions against the crew of the Ashardalon are commendable. I was in a position to observe the proceedings, and I believe I noticed some secrets of the ship that you may have missed. I cannot move in concert with my brothers, due to attitudes that you must have noticed by now. Follow the attached map so that we can meet in secret.
The map led into the caverns to the north of town, and continued for two miles into the surrounding Underdark. But there was no time for that!
Soon they set out back down the Hall of Lanterns with forty more swordmen while Orontor watched dispassionately. And we'll pick up there next session! Defense of Rivershard! I did not see that coming!
Casualties:
4 Kruthik Hatchlings
5 Kruthik Adults
1 Kruthik Hive Lord
Every beer in my house. Ahem.
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