1372c Year of Wild Magic, Days 20-24, Month of Marpenoth (October)
While
in town, the party meets up with Parlfray and alerts him to their
findings. Parlfray offers the party a contract to assist in protecting
his lands and investigating the kidnappings under the mine. After a bit
of negotiating, party agrees and signs. (ed. 10k retainer and 500gp a week payments)
We decide to head back to the mines.
There we meet Carma… Carmen… Carmeneren...en... A gnome priestess. A band of armed gnomes come out of the wall, like they do. Apparently. We are informed that they are from a gnome city in the Underdark, which doesn’t sound scary at all. There are Illithid in the mines (ed. Underdark). Of course. (ed. Carmen implies that she will only share further information that could imperil her people if the party demonstrates themselves capable of surviving in the Underdark.)
Gnome priestess says that eventually the tunnel will fork into three, and the two tunnels on the right are foreboding as fuck. We decide NOPE.
In order to prove our worth, we are commissioned by the gnome priestess to take on two tribes of trolls, one of about 10-15, and then a similarly numbered tribe of slightly larger trolls that live down the left path.
As the party progresses down the path, they meet and defeat an ooze using very complex tactics: throwing rocks. Felisin insists there is a way to trap trolls in dead ooze, party collectively rolls eyes and opts for no plan at all.
Party begins sneaking up on a pair of trolls, fails. Larry blasts the crap out of a troll and flees, Alton shoots one, Felisin begins swearing loudly at how talented these goddamn trolls are at not being on fire. Hawkeye dashes into combat and is straight up slaughtered.
Shaken over the loss of their comrade, the party collects Hawkeye’s body as the trolls run off and get the fuck out of dodge. (ed. after dropping a web to shield their retreat)
At the crossroads, they run into two more trolls (ed. Ogres). Felisin ‘splodes the brain out of one, and the party defeats the other.
Back at Milford, the party tries resurrecting Hawkeye, but that stupid healer swindled us. (ed. Nick declines resurrection to the surprise of the party.)
Jahn ditches. Pansy.
(ed. Distraught at the brutal deaths of Hawkeye and Tamer, Jahn
quits the adventuring life and returns to live in his parent's house.)
Felisin gets all the ladies. Seven, to be exact. Not that anyone’s counting
Per Parlfray’s instructions (ed. Parlfray didn't send you), we decide to head to Rockdale (ed. Great Rock Dale), a wooded valley to the east of the mines. Larry flies around and finds a way down for the rest of the party. Goddamn but those wings look awesome.
Eventually the party finds evidence of a large armed party that had come through the valley.
“How large?” - Felisin
“How armed?” - Alton
“How… party?” - Mautilaus
We find tracks with claw marks and follow them back to a big pink monolith. At the base of the monolith the party manages to sneak up on a group of dogmen, then stomps in and kills them all.
Apparently the monolith is lousy with conjuration magic, and after randomly worshiping it Mautilus starts raving about how awesome he feels. Each party member decides what the hell, we might as well pretend to be religious. Nothing bad can come of this. And everybody feels better after grovelling in front of big pink phallic thing nobody knows anything about. (ed. Offering prayer to the monolith grants each player a bit of healing and various, seemingly random, augments including +1 dex for Felisin, -1 armor checks for Mautilus, and spontaneous language acquisition for Snagger.)
(ed. Wilbur also offers to source and supply magic items for the party at market value+25%.)
Session Loot Recap
800gp in misc coinage from the dogmen
7 suits of dog smelling studded leather armor, 6 maces, 1 weird nunchaku looking thing, 2 longbows
EXP- Party Rewards
2 trolls dying a slow burning death: EL7 457xp
7 dogmen downed: EL6 420xp
Ongoing Points of Interest Log
- Clear out the two troll tribes in the Underdark to earn the gnome's trust (Carmeneren)
- Discover and stop whoever is behind the kidnappings in and around Haranshire (Parlfray)
- Discover the fate of the dwarven party captured in Howler's Moor (Parlfray/Snagger)
- Shar's evil priest slaying Parlfray's men in Hardlow woods long ago (TOG)
- Further investigations in the Great Rock Dale (TOG)
- Shiraz in the Eelhold (from Garyld)
- Determining the cause of the New Mire spread (Carman)
- Issues with remains of goblin tribe
- Shrieken Mire? (TOG)
- What happened to Houra?
