Last week we played the seventh part of our UrHaunt Warrens arc! This is based on the King of the TrollHaunt Warrens adventure by Wizards of the Coast. Marcus provided the text! Thanks!
Last week our intrepid heroes began picking up the pieces after the near-total destruction of the town of Jorvik. Though they were victorious in battle, most of the town's buildings had been destroyed and many of its fighting men killed. The refugees from the town headed through Chrym's portal to the Seven-Pillared Hall, near the town of Rivershard and a huge hop closer to their home town of Gaermund. The Mages of the Seven-Pillared Hall were none too pleased at this invasion (in fact, Erik had to do some talking to persuade them that it wasn't an actual invasion!) but agreed to let the refugees spend the night. The next day, the refugees headed out, shepherded by Terik and Hermiad, and Hermiad's pet rage drake, bound for Gaermund and the hospitality of Earl Rurik. Gaermund had always been long on fighting men and short on women of marriageable age, and the last leader of Jorvik had already formally submitted to the rulership of Earl Rurik, so this should be a good match (though Jorvik had a lot of orcs... there may be a lot of half-orc Vikings in the next generation). After things have settled they can look at rebuilding Jorvik.
In addition, one of the Eladrin reported a great disturbance in the Feywild, as if millions of voices had cried out - wait, no, wrong disturbance. This one was as if a powerful being had resurrected himself. Akashtar! Yep, he's not named 'The Deathless' for nothing.
Besides that, though, things are looking good for our heroes. They've impressed the Eladrin, who were worried about Akashtar gaining control over the Feywild portal; the Mages of the Seven Pillared Hall have expressed interest in any artifacts found in the UrHaunt Warrens, and in the Warrens themselves after they're cleared out; and our heroes have fought side to side with Prince Bax, cementing an alliance. Though the use of that alliance kinda depends on what Prince Bax decides to do; their initial idea of hooking him up with Princess Kava of the nearby town of Rivershard was foiled when everybody remembered she's like 14 at this point. Oh well.
But first - they've got to finish clearing out the Warrens, and they've got to take out Akashtar for good! Our heroes realized that swift action could take them back to the Warrens before they could regroup, so they used another of Chrym's portals to return back to the spot they'd left, a now-permanent rift portal in the first large room. They first checked out a small passage to the north, which led to a large cavern with an underground lake. Across the lake, lights glimmered... no, eyes. Lots of large, snakelike eyes, attached to a large Beholder! The party readied themselves for battle against the fearsome magical monster, who inquired mildly what they were doing in its cave. Um... well, they were looking for Akashtar, have you seen him? Not lately, but he does after all reincarnate, so who knows when he'll be back. The Beholder gave the party the impression that while Akashtar was its... well, roommate, and it would fight in his defense if called upon, it would have no problem if Akashtar got himself quietly assassinated and the Beholder could take over the cave complex itself. The party agreed and backed off carefully.
Enough of that, though, now we need a fight! Behind the next door the party found a Draconid Smith, forging weapons for Akashtar's troops, backed up by another couple of Red Spawn and a small host of troglodyte minions. Charge! The ensuing battle was fairly short, but had some interesting moments, including the Smith smashing Motull into a flaming pool of pitch; Motull charging out of the pool and bisecting the Smith, and getting himself showered with acid as it exploded; the Red Spawns lighting people up; and Oddny bull-rushing the last remaining Red Spawn off a cliff, where it fell to its death. Nicely done!
The party looted some gold and several barrels of pitch, and Chrym melted the poorly-made swords the Smith had been working on into one unusable mass. Meanwhile, Mendas scouted the two easy-to-reach exits from the room. One led to a suspiciously straight stonecarved hallway, which opened into a tall cavern. Mendas could make out a number of flying creatures, including Draconids. Then Mendas checked out the other passage, which got darker and darker until Mendas was completely blind. But something in the darkness knew he was there, and struck! Fortunately Mendas is hard to hit, and scampered back to the party unharmed. So... vertical battle, or the beast in the darkness? Find out the party's decision next time, on... SAVAGE VINLAND!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
UrWarrens, Session 6
Last week we played the sixth part of our UrHaunt Warrens arc, the siege of Jorvik! This is based on the King of the TrollHaunt Warrens adventure by Wizards of the Coast. Martin took the pictures, and Marcus provided the text! Thanks!
Last week we finished off the Siege of Jorvik, with our heroes leading the townsfolk against the last and most fearsome wave of Draconid and otherworldly invaders. The previous week had seen the landing of sahuagin amphibious invaders, backed up by an underwater kraken who was lashing our troops with three huge tentacles. This week Mendas, Oddny, Hermiad, Motull, Varin, Chrym, and Terik continued the fight.
The Vikings had snuffed the last of the aerial wave of invaders consisting of chimera and wyverns and one seed-planting guy, so they turned to face the sea. Mendas charged ahead and found cover, and Oddny followed close behind. Back at the city wall, Hermiad and Motull crash-landed on the back of the one remaining dying chimera (Hermiad dismounting with a graceful slide down the chimera’s neck for an extra soupcon point). They headed inside the wall and everyone prepared to head for the coast.
But before they could, the invading Draconid infantry arrived!
Yes, the ground forces appeared suddenly, using the last of their fast-traveling spell. The invaders weren't expecting Chrym's difficult terrain to block them, so it looked like we'd have a good chance of funneling them through the city doors at a slow and manageable rate. What the party didn't know was that the invaders were buttressed by two fireball-throwing demon hounds, who immediately torched the city walls with giant fireballs!
Motull, Hermiad, and Chrym turned to face this new threat, while Oddny, Mendas, Varin, and Terik stayed to fight the sahuagin.
Oddny and Mendas figured the sahuagin would drop quickly once they reached melee range, but realized they were in for a long fight when a group of lobstermen showed up as well. The sahuagin had acid-coated spears, but the lobstermen were just plain tough. And the tentacles kept dragging everyone into the sea.
While that battle raged, the Draconid ground forces were coming in through the breaches in the city walls and laying waste to the population! Motull, Hermiad, and Chrym mixed it up, but the party was too separated to use the tortilla-pounder technique from the previous week. Fortunately, the troglodyte troops backing the wave were minions; unfortunately, they still hit really hard and were hard to hit. The city population was no match for any of them; even the ballista crews couldn't hit them.
Gradually, though, the tide of battle turned, and only a few enemies remained. Most of the party had been heavily wounded, and almost all our powers, daily, encounter, item, everything, were drained. Then the final, most powerful wave was released!
The seeds that had been planted earlier had suddenly sprouted into a bunch of plant demons, headed by a giant tree-demon! The tree-demon had an array of powerful attacks: besides bashing with its arms and biting with its head, the arms would independently spray thorns at targets. It had a long movement, too, and would charge targets across the battlefield. The first charge ran right over Varin, doing massive damage; after the second charge, it wound up practically on top of Motull, who fought heroically, but dropped after only the second round of the demon's onslaught. Things looked bad for Motull, especially with our cleric Erik out of the action, but Chrym was able to get the remaining Eladrin troops to teleport his body out, and he healed Motull enough to get him back on his feet.
Things looked bad; the tree demon was tearing up the city, the plant demons were everywhere, all the buildings had been destroyed, and the party had already had one fighter go down and the rest were bloodied. Time to evacuate! The party began directing the city's fighters out of combat, and Chrym headed to the magically-secured house to start the teleport ritual that would get the noncombatants out. The rest of the party stayed behind to fight a rearguard action.
In the meantime, Hermiad was left alone with his now-nearly-a-pet Rage Drake on the far side on the battlefield, squaring off against one of the hell hounds, plus a Draconid or two and a host of minions. He directed the Rage Drake to great effect; it kept doing pounce attacks for lots of damage. Finally they killed the hell hound and, heavily wounded, Hermiad headed back inside. Varin, Mendas, and Oddny had wiped out the sea invaders and headed back. Motull staggered back toward the tree demon, and Terik got off the phone and mind-controlled the demon's arm into bashing at its own face! Yes, the arms and body of the tree demon were actually different creatures. Then the arm went for a push attack against one of its own minions and completely tore off from the demon's body. This staggered it, but it was still powerful. Hermiad got a shot off, damaging it, but it fired a volley of thorns at him and he went down! Oddny and Mendas weren't yet able to reach him or the demon, though Mendas got close enough to direct a party of Eladrin to teleport the last remaining minion ten squares up, over a plant demon, and the minion plummeted to his death. Dang, why hadn't we been doing that all along?
The plant demons and the second hell hound would have to wait; the tree demon was the real threat, and the party focused all their remaining power on it. And killed it! It collapsed in a heap of random plant matter, and with its death, all the plant demons died as well! The last remaining hell hound, now alone on the battlefield, decided that it didn't like its chances and headed for the hills. Which was just as well, since the party was so wounded that it actually had pretty good chances.
The party rushed over to the prone figure of Hermiad. Were they in time to save him? Find out next time, on SAVAGE VINLAND!
Last week we finished off the Siege of Jorvik, with our heroes leading the townsfolk against the last and most fearsome wave of Draconid and otherworldly invaders. The previous week had seen the landing of sahuagin amphibious invaders, backed up by an underwater kraken who was lashing our troops with three huge tentacles. This week Mendas, Oddny, Hermiad, Motull, Varin, Chrym, and Terik continued the fight.
The Vikings had snuffed the last of the aerial wave of invaders consisting of chimera and wyverns and one seed-planting guy, so they turned to face the sea. Mendas charged ahead and found cover, and Oddny followed close behind. Back at the city wall, Hermiad and Motull crash-landed on the back of the one remaining dying chimera (Hermiad dismounting with a graceful slide down the chimera’s neck for an extra soupcon point). They headed inside the wall and everyone prepared to head for the coast.
But before they could, the invading Draconid infantry arrived!
Yes, the ground forces appeared suddenly, using the last of their fast-traveling spell. The invaders weren't expecting Chrym's difficult terrain to block them, so it looked like we'd have a good chance of funneling them through the city doors at a slow and manageable rate. What the party didn't know was that the invaders were buttressed by two fireball-throwing demon hounds, who immediately torched the city walls with giant fireballs!
Motull, Hermiad, and Chrym turned to face this new threat, while Oddny, Mendas, Varin, and Terik stayed to fight the sahuagin.
Oddny and Mendas figured the sahuagin would drop quickly once they reached melee range, but realized they were in for a long fight when a group of lobstermen showed up as well. The sahuagin had acid-coated spears, but the lobstermen were just plain tough. And the tentacles kept dragging everyone into the sea.
While that battle raged, the Draconid ground forces were coming in through the breaches in the city walls and laying waste to the population! Motull, Hermiad, and Chrym mixed it up, but the party was too separated to use the tortilla-pounder technique from the previous week. Fortunately, the troglodyte troops backing the wave were minions; unfortunately, they still hit really hard and were hard to hit. The city population was no match for any of them; even the ballista crews couldn't hit them.
Gradually, though, the tide of battle turned, and only a few enemies remained. Most of the party had been heavily wounded, and almost all our powers, daily, encounter, item, everything, were drained. Then the final, most powerful wave was released!
The seeds that had been planted earlier had suddenly sprouted into a bunch of plant demons, headed by a giant tree-demon! The tree-demon had an array of powerful attacks: besides bashing with its arms and biting with its head, the arms would independently spray thorns at targets. It had a long movement, too, and would charge targets across the battlefield. The first charge ran right over Varin, doing massive damage; after the second charge, it wound up practically on top of Motull, who fought heroically, but dropped after only the second round of the demon's onslaught. Things looked bad for Motull, especially with our cleric Erik out of the action, but Chrym was able to get the remaining Eladrin troops to teleport his body out, and he healed Motull enough to get him back on his feet.
Things looked bad; the tree demon was tearing up the city, the plant demons were everywhere, all the buildings had been destroyed, and the party had already had one fighter go down and the rest were bloodied. Time to evacuate! The party began directing the city's fighters out of combat, and Chrym headed to the magically-secured house to start the teleport ritual that would get the noncombatants out. The rest of the party stayed behind to fight a rearguard action.
In the meantime, Hermiad was left alone with his now-nearly-a-pet Rage Drake on the far side on the battlefield, squaring off against one of the hell hounds, plus a Draconid or two and a host of minions. He directed the Rage Drake to great effect; it kept doing pounce attacks for lots of damage. Finally they killed the hell hound and, heavily wounded, Hermiad headed back inside. Varin, Mendas, and Oddny had wiped out the sea invaders and headed back. Motull staggered back toward the tree demon, and Terik got off the phone and mind-controlled the demon's arm into bashing at its own face! Yes, the arms and body of the tree demon were actually different creatures. Then the arm went for a push attack against one of its own minions and completely tore off from the demon's body. This staggered it, but it was still powerful. Hermiad got a shot off, damaging it, but it fired a volley of thorns at him and he went down! Oddny and Mendas weren't yet able to reach him or the demon, though Mendas got close enough to direct a party of Eladrin to teleport the last remaining minion ten squares up, over a plant demon, and the minion plummeted to his death. Dang, why hadn't we been doing that all along?
The plant demons and the second hell hound would have to wait; the tree demon was the real threat, and the party focused all their remaining power on it. And killed it! It collapsed in a heap of random plant matter, and with its death, all the plant demons died as well! The last remaining hell hound, now alone on the battlefield, decided that it didn't like its chances and headed for the hills. Which was just as well, since the party was so wounded that it actually had pretty good chances.
The party rushed over to the prone figure of Hermiad. Were they in time to save him? Find out next time, on SAVAGE VINLAND!
UrWarrens, Session 5
Last week we played the fifth part of our UrHaunt Warrens arc, the siege of Jorvik! This is based on the King of the TrollHaunt Warrens adventure by Wizards of the Coast. Martin took the pictures, and Rebecca provided the text! Thanks!
A pack of NPC Norsemen immobilizes one of two wyverns, and Oddney kills it. Hooray! Mendes stabs the other wyvern repeatedly.
Eric teleports an enemy magic user in close for a beating. The magic user shoots seed (eww) that turns into clutching evil roots. The roots restrain Mendes and his rage drake, and cause necrotic damage.
The Norsemen fire crossbows at the remaining wyvern. This multi-game battle appears to be wrapping up ....
Suddenly, gi-normous tentacles appear in the water. They are awesome, also terrifying. The tentacles pull a big boat under, destroying it, then latch onto the tower. At the same time, blue finned fish-men advance out of the surf, throwing spears. One crits against Mendes.
Back on land, Verin turns the seed-sowing magic user into stone. Hah! Then he teleports the last wyvern into the circle of armor and weapons that bards will come to know as the Tortilla Pounder. The wyvern is surrounded and flanked by four heroes. The wyvern tries to sting Mendes but misses. We all whack at it.
Chyrm aims a ballista at one of the tentacles, hitting it with two bolts and taking it down! But the remaining three tentacles pull down the tower, angrily. It turns out they can do a close burst 20. There is some talk of removing the helpless villagers from their magical safehouse by the water, but ultimately we leave them where they are.
Verin kills the last wyvern. Hooray! The Tortilla Pounder can stand down.
But! Tentacles and fish-men threaten. Our heroic magic users develop a clever plan to teleport ballistas repeatedly between the front lines and the rear, so as to fire one while the other re-loads. They bloody one of the tentacles. The balance of the team prepares for the onslaught of blue finned dudes, who are fast approaching ....
Tune in next week!
A pack of NPC Norsemen immobilizes one of two wyverns, and Oddney kills it. Hooray! Mendes stabs the other wyvern repeatedly.
Eric teleports an enemy magic user in close for a beating. The magic user shoots seed (eww) that turns into clutching evil roots. The roots restrain Mendes and his rage drake, and cause necrotic damage.
The Norsemen fire crossbows at the remaining wyvern. This multi-game battle appears to be wrapping up ....
Suddenly, gi-normous tentacles appear in the water. They are awesome, also terrifying. The tentacles pull a big boat under, destroying it, then latch onto the tower. At the same time, blue finned fish-men advance out of the surf, throwing spears. One crits against Mendes.
Back on land, Verin turns the seed-sowing magic user into stone. Hah! Then he teleports the last wyvern into the circle of armor and weapons that bards will come to know as the Tortilla Pounder. The wyvern is surrounded and flanked by four heroes. The wyvern tries to sting Mendes but misses. We all whack at it.
Chyrm aims a ballista at one of the tentacles, hitting it with two bolts and taking it down! But the remaining three tentacles pull down the tower, angrily. It turns out they can do a close burst 20. There is some talk of removing the helpless villagers from their magical safehouse by the water, but ultimately we leave them where they are.
Verin kills the last wyvern. Hooray! The Tortilla Pounder can stand down.
But! Tentacles and fish-men threaten. Our heroic magic users develop a clever plan to teleport ballistas repeatedly between the front lines and the rear, so as to fire one while the other re-loads. They bloody one of the tentacles. The balance of the team prepares for the onslaught of blue finned dudes, who are fast approaching ....
Tune in next week!
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