September 2013

Your here to kick some Duergar and chew bubblegum and your all out of bubblegum.

Continuing on your storming of the Duergar fortress you start checking doors and then killing the occupants on the other side. In the next room it’s a surly blacksmith, his apprentices and some Orc thralls. While the blacksmith would have loved smashing your heads in, you did a great job taking him out of the fight. The more annoying part was his apprentices that kept cloaking after attacking your group but you all took them out also. After looting the room and bodies you moved on to the next area.

In the next fortified room you run across an ill tempered individual named Rundarr and his guards bossing around some human slaves. You don’t trust the slaves so you block the door. And precede to annoy the DM by completely locking down his BBG with dazes and immobilizing him. Oh and it really annoyed Rundarr also. He tried going giant size and hulk smashing but he just couldn’t get near enough to you all. While that is going on two Duergar try to sneak up on the back end of the group. Lavender acts as rear guard and keeps them pinned into the hallway with her pets and later Ket helps dispatch them. At the end of the battle you confirm that the slaves are in fact slaves from Fallcrest. You provide them an escort back to the Seven Pillared Hall and rest in the Inn.

In the morning you find Shawna’s room vacant. After a careful search, all you find is a dart with a tranquilizer on it. You all search the Hall and ask questions but can’t find any answers. You resolve that maybe the slavers took her in the night as revenge.

So you head back to the Horned Hold to kill some more Duergar and ask questions.

Getting back you find the portcullis blocked again. After some judicious use of fire, arrows and lock picking you storm back in. You carefully move through the fortress but meat no resistance until you reach a previously locked door. After sneaking down the hall past it you come to another door with arrow slits. Behind the door are two Arbalesters (steam punk like crossbow on mechanical legs) and some more Duergar. You smash through the defenders and cut, burn and shoot them to shreds. After killing all the Duergar, you loot the rooms and find more gems and magical treasure.

Moving on from there you hear someone speaking in the room to the north west. After running in you find a pissed off Ogre mad at missing the joke his Orc friends made. So he attempts to take the frustration out on you… it doesn’t go so well. Sure he has some reach but the FIREBALL, hail of arrows and other nastiness makes this a quick battle for you.

Experience Earned: Total 6
5 from combat, 1 from accumulated skill challenges/role play.

This brings your overall total XP to 45 and you are currently at level 5.

So we had a long break and it took a while to get back into the game but we had a fun time.

Back in the chamber of eyes you had a bunch of dead slavers and a bear carcass. Before leaving Splug and Ket carve up the bear meat. You get a nice fur and more bear than the group could eat before it spoils. You head back to the Seven Pillard hall and Splug takes the fur to a tanner and the meat to a butcher to be made into sausage and cured. In the Inn you get dinner and a pint of Ale. Madam Halfmoon is tending the Inn and lets you know Rendil is doing some chores for the Inn but she will send him over when he’s free. Rendil looks at your letter from Murkelmor of Clan Grimmerzhul and tells you that the Dueger have some sort of mine in the labyrinth and also have a trading post in the Seven Pillard hall. Unfortunately the trading post is closed so you stop by in the morning.

The plan you go with is trading your gems for some of the wares the trading post has. While examining the gems the Dueger attack! They realized the gems were those they paid for the slaves with. You defeat the Duegar and take two captive. You search the trading post and find that there is a rough map to the “Horned Hold” a fortress in the labyrinth that the Duegar inhabit. You also examine the books and find the Duegar have been cheating on their taxes to the Mages of Saruun. After leaving the trading post you run into Brugg. He stops you asking for a fee for entering the Seven Pillard hall that you neglected to pay. You tell Brugg about the trading post and the back taxes to which he is very interested. He brings Orontor (a Mage of Sarunn) in. Orontor agrees to take the items in the Trading Post for the debts owed. He just doesn’t want prisoners or dead bodies. You go back to the trading post and clean it up just in time for the appraiser to stop by. Orontor also tells you that any information you might find out about the missing Mage Paldemar might be worth a large reward. You still make off with the gold, magic item and academical supplies from the hold.

After clearing that all up you head out to the Horned Hold with your prisoners in the lead. When you get there you find a garrison of Orcs guarding the entrance. After negotiating for the release of the Winterhavcen slaves the Dueger decline and attack. You all respond by filling them with arrows, torching them and using the captives as a road block. Then Corwin asks them to surrender at which the Orcs say they aren’t paid enough to die and all agree to quit.  You kill the Dueger and the Orcs run away. We leave our adventuress just after they have taken the entrance to the Horned Hold.

You earn 2 XP putting you at 39 XP. One more encounter for the next level!

Duergar Lore
A character knows the following information with a successful
Dungeoneering check.
A long association with infernal powers has given duergar a strong resistance to poison and fire. These qualities have so thoroughly infused their bodies that most duergar have poisonous quills that grow alongside their hair.

Long ago, duergar were a great clan of dwarves who delved deep into the Underdark and fell under the influence of the mind flayers. They endured uncounted years as thralls before rebelling and fighting their way to freedom. Duergar now often inhabit volcanic areas of the Underdark.

The duergar came to believe that Moradin had abandoned them in their long captivity, so they turned to infernal deities to grant them power. They ruthlessly strengthened their stock by breeding with devils, and most now take Asmodeus for their favored deity.

So the Bloodreavers don’t seem that tough.

That is until you run into some that were just gambling and ill tempered. It doesn’t help that they have a pet snake the size of a person!!! So after some nasty bites and some swashbuckling over tables you finally defeat this group. Unfortunately the captives aren’t here but there are only so many doors left and you must be getting close. Before moving on Splug helps you skin the snake for future belts and he also cuts up some of the meat for a special non-rat meal. He insists the snake will taste like chicken after he cooks it.

In the next area you see a pair of doors. Behind one set you hear some loud snoring. While peaking in you see that a bear is just behind the door. At the same time Shawna peaks into the other room and see’s a couple dwarves that have just placed a chest down. Shawna and Corwin charge the Dwarves while everyone else attacks the bear (Fluffy) that is now nuzzling through the other door. Behind the bear is a group of goblin archers that precede to cause your group some great damage. The bear while large is a big softy and the group defeats him after using some attacks to move him around. That’s about when the Krand the Hobgoblin Chief and the Hobgoblin Warcaster wake up and enter on the side of the battle of the dwarves… which are really Duergar… man those poison spines hurt. This is about when the battle starts to really heat up. The Duerger make tough roadblocks as the goblin archers rain down arrows any time someone stops in their line of sight. After a very tough fight you defeat everyone.

In this room you find some chests of treasure that was there in payment for the villagers. You also find a letter. The letter is written in Common and is a contract to purchase the Winterhaven slaves for 1,000 gp; it’s signed by Murkelmor of Clan Grimmerzhul. Of the villagers you see no sign.

Which brings you to 37 XP. You will likely achieve level 5 after the next game.