February 15, 2013

Fortress of the Stone Giants

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Orden (Mike), Sirilenda (Melissa)

This session picked up directly after the group delivered the killing blow against Mokmurian. Deep in the underground library level of Jorgenfist, the heroes began by pillaging Mokmurian's lair, and uncovered amongst his riches a map and small key with a seven-pointed blade. They presumed the key would open the large bronze double doors that gave them so much trouble last session. The map detailed the Lost Coast of Varisia (the campaign takes place in the country of Varisia), and featured the town of Sandpoint (Azalyn's hometown, and the starting location for the entire campaign) circled next to writing about a 'traitor' named Xaliasa, and his possible connection to a place called Runeforge.

Sihedron rune

With that information in hand, the group returned to the Bronze doors and tried the key. This time, the door swung open, but again summoned a shining child! They dispatched the shining child but not before many party members became blinded. The few sighted members of the party led the rest into the room beyond the doors to find an ancient and extensive library serviced by a tireless clockwork librarian construct. The party could not communicate with the construct at first, since none of them understood the ancient language of Thassilon. Orden discovered it understood an equally ancient language, Azlanti, which he spoke as well.

Clockwork Librarian

The heroes spent several days in the library healing and accessing the library contents with the help of the librarian, and discovered some useful information about Karzoug and Xin-Shalast. Among other things, they learned that he was the ruler of Shalast, one of the seven sub-kingdoms in the ancient empire of Thassilon, which was destroyed in a cataclysm 10,000 years ago. They learned that he was called a Runelord, a master of Greed magic (the school of transmutation), and was served by an army of giants. The capital of Shalast, Xin-Shalast, was located next to a now long-dried-up river and the tallest mountain in the incredibly inhospitable Kodar Mountains of Varisia. They also found reference to Runeforge, which was a secret magical research facility created by the seven Runelords. One of the many things researched at Runeforge was believed to be a method for the Runelords to survive the imminent cataclysm. The location of this facility was guarded tightly, and no records of its whereabouts were found in the library.

When they had exhausted the library, the group sought out their ally, Conna, among the army of stone giants still amassed around Jorgenfist. They had killed the leader of the army, but still needed to deal with the army of giants ready to march on the human settlements of Varisia. Conna, who was ousted from leadership of her tribe by Mokmurian, believed she could steer the tribes away from war, but would need to contend with other giants who sought to fill the vacuum left by his death. She beseeched the heroes to accompany her to the surface of Jorgenfist, where she could make her claim with their protection. The group rested, prepared for a possible fight with hordes of giants, then climbed up the spiral ramp that led from the lower levels to the surface, inside the walls of the keep.

Longtooth attacking Sandpoint

They had just set foot upon the surface when they were ambushed by a trio of harpies! No sooner had combat commenced than a mysterious spellcaster began creating obscuring clouds of smoke around the heroes using pyrotechnics, and a pair of frost giants sprang from their hiding spots. The group managed to hold together, and soon learned that the mysterious spellcaster was none other than the red dragon Longtooth! They had driven him off once before during the raid on the town of Sandpoint, but now he had returned with more allies to finish the job he started months ago! The pitched battle saw Bastian fall unconscious while Orden attempted spellcasting next to the dragon. When Sirilenda was finally able to disintegrate the dragon, the tide of the battle turned and the remaining enemies were destroyed.

February 9th, 2013

Fortress of the Stone Giants

Players present: Elora (Sally), Azalyn (Shelley), Bastian (Casey), Orden (Mike), Sirilenda (Melissa), Vale (Dean)

This is the first session we played since Matt and Arren were able to join us. We had left off underneath the Jorgenfist fortress, deep in the lower library level, after the heroes had defeated two stone golems and a veritable army of zombies. 

Scanderig

The group resumed in the room of the battle with the zombies, and were recovering and healing when they were surprise-attacked by a large metallic monster called a scanderig! The creature emerged from the floor like it was swimming in water, attacked Orden and attempted to sunder his armor (only inflicting minor damage). The group retaliated and forced the scanderig to retreat back into the ground, leaving the group only mildly wounded, but very puzzled.

They continued further into the library level and came upon a long tall corridor that was covered in carved Thassilonian runes. The west end of the hall ended in a large bronze door that was emblazoned with a large, silver plated version of the seven pointed star known as the Sihedron. The door had a small, seven pointed indentation in the center, which seemed to be a keyhole. The heroes decided the safest way to open the door would be to have Sirilenda cast open at the door from a distance, however doing so triggered the summoning of a mysterious creature from another dimension! This creature, known as a shining child, was soon joined by the scanderig. The shining child used its special abilities to permanently blind most of the group and provided an entertaining and frustrating fight. Both the shining child and the scanderig were slain.

Shining Child

After the combat ended, the group retreated to a secluded room of the cavern complex and rested. Orden and Bastian were able to cast heal and remove blindness on the blind party members to restore their sight. They retraced their steps back through the now mostly empty library level to reach the large Sihedron-emblazoned bronze doors. This time they attempted to physically force the doors, but once again the doors did not budge, and once again a shining child was summoned! The group was a little more prepared this time, and dispatched the shining child with only a few blindings. Orden and Bastian were prepared with extra remove blindness spells, so the party was seeing again in short order. The group had voted and decided to leave the door alone, when Orden ran up to the door and pushed on it again! Once more they were forced to fight a shining child, but this time there were no extra remove blindness spells to use once the fight was over. 

The group retreated back to their hiding place and rested, healed, and then returned to the corridor. This time they headed east down the corridor, and passed through a doorway into a chamber to face off against a pair of monstrous creatures knows as hounds of Tindalos. This combat was over quickly, and the heroes pressed forward to another set of smaller double doors.

Opening these doors revealed a dense wall of fog, and Bastian, who was standing in front, was hit by a green ray of disintegrate! Luckily he made his save and was not turned to ash, but the group immediately came under heavy attack from a spellcaster they decided must be Mokmurian, the stone giant wizard and master of Jorgenfist! The battle was prolonged, but the group was able to triumph without too much peril.

Karzoug

Just as Elora fired the killing arrow, Mokmurian's face was replaced by a human one, who regarded the heroes with a look of contempt and delivered a classic villain expository speech! He told them he was Karzoug, ruler of Xin-Shalast, and that all their efforts were really just speeding his return (presumably from the grave?). His last comment was a dismissive assessment of the group: "So these are the heroes of the age. Is this the best you could manage in 10,000 years?"