1372c Year of Wild Magic, Day 8-10, Month of Marpenoth (October)
The party started the session by brutally murdering a poor, defenseless stalactite (ed. Piercer) after it tried to kill Alton. After their glorious victory, the party split up - Hawkeye and Mautilus went off to interrogate the bound prisoner in the Flitch while Alton, Houra, and Felisin descended into the lower levels of the cave.
Scouting ahead, Alton caught a glimpse of something shiny and tried to skirt the edge of a pool to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the pool was home to a giant goddamn sea snake, which grabbed him in its jaws but was no match for his superior halfling strength. Felisin wasn’t quite as lucky, and was dragged into the water while rushing to Alton’s aid. While Alton and Felisin heroically retreated, with Houra doing his invisibility thing, Hawkeye heard the commotion and hurried to assist (Mautilus stood around upstairs). While Hawkeye escorted the badly wounded Alton and Felisin to the cave’s mouth in order to heal, Houra took over scouting duties and investigated. He was never seen again.
(ed. Lacking the party resources for a rez, Chris will return next session with a new PC)
(Although the party doesn’t know, Houra found the zombie overseers, and considered engaging them, but thought better of it and continued his investigation. He eventually wandered into the Crab Petals, a chamber with sticky strands across it, and got caught by a spider-crab-lobster on the wall. After an epic struggle, including some quality axe-swinging, he managed to escape its grasp; unfortunately, he walked into another strand and was devoured by another one of the creatures. Spider-crab-lobsters: 1, our heroes: 0).
The surviving members of the party quickly realized that the sea-snake was poisonous. Felisin and Alton agreed that, lacking a competent doctor nearby, they must return to town (Hawkeye’s suggestion, cutting off all of Felisin and Alton’s limbs, was met with reluctance). The travelling cleric is happy to assist, for a fee, and the wounded party members are completely healed.
Deciding that the cave is too big a threat to handle immediately, the party shifted their focus to the keep in the Thornwood.
After setting up camp in the woods near the keep, the party surveilled the entrance to the fortress for two days. Eventually, Alton volunteered to go in for a closer look; despite some bad luck with a grappling hook, he eventually scaled the wall and was able to get some info, including size, layout, and building materials.
The party arranged to meet Kuiper at the keep in two days’ time, although Kuiper doesn’t know anyone except Alton is involved, and will attack the keep then.
Session Loot Recap
Parlfray's 2x Men at Arms
EXP- Party Rewards
Poked/Bashed a rock to death- 15EXP
Reaching a decision on where to go next without a party member attacking another party member- 25EXP
Attempts at ally gathering around town(s) to sack the keep- 50EXP
EXP- RP and Individual Goals
Houra's Lone Wolf exploration- 250,000EXP
Hawkeye's attempt to recover his alignment with the last guard- 15EXP
Ongoing Points of Interest Log
- Parlfray Keep/Howlers Moor- Dwarf congregation missing. (Count Parlfray)
- Shar's evil priest slaying Parlfray's men in Hardlow woods long ago(TOG)
- Demihumans in The Great Rock Dale (TOG)
- Shiraz in the Eelhold (from Garyld)
- Scouting / determining the cause of the New Mire spread (Carman)
- Issues with remains of goblin tribe
- Orc's with skull/crossbow bolt shield motif (encountered)
- Shrieken Mire? (TOG)
- Exploring Garlstone Mine
- What happened to Houra?
