D&D Blog

The party has been working those rapscallion dragons for three days and the pool is finally empty of treasure.  Next up, what to do about the dragons?

Xaelin took a strong stance that they should be kept alive, several others took a strong stance that they should be executed so they do not have the opportunity to grow up and cause harm.

While the argument grew heated, Alphazar had had enough talk and grabbed one of the baby dragons and slammed it into the ground.  It squealed in pain and drew everyone’s eye.  The other two dragons reacted instantly and started snapping at Alphazar.  The Crushers also moved quickly, with one landing a vicious blow with its great club and the other moving in to get some too.  Alphazar immediately reacted to the Crushers blow and fled to a safer spot 30’ away.

Then Xaelin hit Alphazar with a devastating acid attack.  Alphazar dropped like a stone.

Most of the rest of the party were stunned and unsure what to do.  Then Kriv yelled to everyone to Stop!  Unfortunately, the only one cowed by that yell was Alphazar, who was recovering a little from his first death of this encounter.  One of the dragons blasted Orin (and others) with his acid breath, another one tried to take a bite out of him.  He was ready though and immediately fought back, bloodying one of the dragons and drawing the ire of one of the crushers.

Kriv got up in Alphazar’s face and told him, “If you move, I will kill you!”

The other crusher attacked Kriv, which caused Berrian to unleash his readied lightning attack.  Unfortunately, he botched it and the lightning crackled through the air instead of the crushers.

Now it was on and the party joined the battle.  After the dust had settled, Alphazar had died twice, Xaelin had even attacked a dragon, everyone was bloodied (except Reef), and the dragons and the crushers lay dead.

Xaelin immediately turned on Alphazar, threatening that he must either leave or die.  Kriv and Orin were also of the opinion that Alphazar should be killed or sent to the Druids.  Reef was a little more ambivalent and Berrian said, “All is forgiven.”

After a withering barrage of harsh words, Alphazar ran.

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Treasure:

None

Experience:

179 ea.

Presently, both the weight and volume of the treasure is a problem that the party needs to address.

Taking the center tunnel, the party enters Shadowmire’s lair.  Deep in the pool at the heart of the chamber, a huge black shape lurks.  Kriv and Xaelin hail the dragon, who at first only raises her eyes out of the water, but soon has her head out too, discussing terms with the adventurers spokesmen.  All is going swimmingly when Kriv threatens the great dragons children and she flies into a rage, leaping skyward and raining acid down on Kriv and the area around him.  Landing to get at him, she is blind with rage and panic, lashing out at the intruders with no regard for herself.  She has to protect her babies.

The battle that ensues is long and difficult, as she is on the verge of being overwhelmed she came to her senses enough to leap skyward and plunge, headlong, into the pool for some relief from her adversaries.

Having collected herself, she re-emerged and sprayed acid everywhere, flying about until Alphazar attacks her and draws her back down to the surface, slamming into her.  Orin shot up out of the acidic water to attack from below.  As the adventurers attacked with a final effort,  Xaelin brought down lightning and finished the mighty beast.

Now it remained to retrieve the treasure from the bottom of the acid pool in which it is secured.

After a lengthy and creative debate, Berrian performed a ritual to close off the opening that allowed water into the cave, this lowered the pool by 20 feet as it drained down to the level of a tunnel that led downhill away from the pool.  Unfortunately, the pool is 60 feet deep.

Much discussion ensued.  Eventually, the party decided to go and find the children that Shadowmire referred to.  As expected the children were down the third passage off the main entry chamber.  However, there were to Lizardfolk Crushers, great hulking brutes, guarding them.  Initially taking aggressive stance, the Crushers were called off and negotiated with by the Dragonborn in the party.  For a share of the treasure, they would continue their role as caretakers of the babies.  Who, in turn, were highly trainable. With some food bribery, the babies were soon working to pull up all the treasure.

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Treasure:

Dragon’s Hoard:

18,000cp
50,000gp
68 gems (avg. value 275gp)
20 pieces of fine jewelry (avg. value 675gp)
Lvl3 – Common Magic Item
Lvl7 – Rare Magic Item
Lvl8 – Uncommon Magic Item
Lvl8 – Common Magic Item
Lvl13 – Common Magic Item
Lvl14 – Uncommon Magic Item

Experience:

All: 708 ea.

Treasure Revision:  For Levels 4 and 5, the magic items are revised as follows regarding commonality:

Please revise any allocations of treasure to reflect these amounts.

The party entered the village and fought some Lizardfolk, but ended up negotiating with the Chieftain for passage and guidance to the dragon’s lair.

The following day, the adventurers followed the Chieftain and his guard to a lake and were told the underwater entrance to the lair was in the lake.  Swimming out to the entrance, they were ambushed from behind as the Chieftain and his guard betrayed them.

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Treasure:

267gp total loot

2 Lvl 6 Magic Items

1 Lvl 8 Magic Item

Experience:

All: 700 ea.  All players.  Phalanx and Berrian were played by Pete and Sabin so the party had the support it needed.  No penalty to Reef or Garo for not being picked for that role.

The adventurers continued to wade through the muddy swamp, searching for the Brackmarsh tribe.

Sometime near midday, three large crocodiles slipped into the murky water, converging on the explorers.  Their unfortunate aggression was costly as the party turned them into handbags soon enough.

An hour or so further on, the party encountered a Brackmarsh Crusher on a Large Riding Lizard.  Surprisingly, they hailed the Crusher and the Dragonborn engaged him in dialog, asking him to tell them or show them the way to the Brackmarsh village.   This he would not do, and challenged Kriv to a duel.

At first, it was a flurry of glancing blows and deftly avoided thrusts, but as the battle wore on, defenses dropped and more blows landed.  It became a battle of endurance.  Unfortunately, to the merriment of many of the party, Kriv was struck a mighty blow in the head that had him splayed out on the ground, broken and bleeding.  Phalanx helped him up with some good healing magic.  While Orin just laughed and laughed.

The Crusher was now more confident and amiable as he had bested the one and assumed he could take the others too.  He agreed to lead the party to the village in exchange for a bag of money, which Orin showed him with no intention of ever giving it over

Certain they were surrounded by unseen foes; several had misgivings about this course.

After an hours walk they were nearing the outskirts of the village when the sentries appeared out of the marsh and challenged their passage.  The Crusher and the Dragonborn explained that they were looking for Shadowmire and were here to see the Chief.  A sentry went to see if the Chief wanted to meet with them.  He said, “No.”

When this was relayed to the party, the sentries and the Crusher bristled.  The nature of the discussion quickly turned sour and was like to end in blows when Orin declared he had heard enough, drew his weapon, and said, “if they want to do this the hard way.  Kill them all.”

It turned out that there were several spies in the marshes behind the party, using their Fastlight attack to modest effect.  As they engaged, the Sentries turned out to be easy meet, while the Bog Walkers were less so.  The Crusher nearly killed Phalanx but he backed away, leaving the Crusher to Alphazar for the moment.  In combined attacks, the Crusher was killed.  Orin, charged into the marshes after the Spies, taking on two at a time.  One of the Fastlight attacks struck Alphazar squarely in the head, or would have, if Kriv had leapt into his place, tossing him backwards.  The Fastlight struck Kriv in the chest. Alphazar, shaken, but not broken, watched in amazement as Kriv took the blow that would have killed him, weakened and bloodied as he was.

Standing in front of the now rider-less Lizard, Kriv got himself a wild idea.  He leapt onto the thing’s back, and with a fair measure of luck, managed to stay on and to seemingly calm, or cow, the brutish creature.

Xaelin and Berrian brought a veritable hail of lightning down on the Marshes, finishing several bloodied foes.

After the battle, Phalanx and Kriv helped the others to recover from their injuries, knowing that another fight was probably only 30 minutes away.

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Treasure:

127gp total loot

Large Riding Lizard – Kriv

Experience:

All: 350 ea.

KRIV and BERRIAN are 5th LEVEL!

Shortly after the dawn raid, a cool fog arose from the swamp near the Hermitage.  Under cover of the fog, a handful of Fen Spies moved in for the attack.   Invisible and deadly, they used the Witchlights to great effect, blasting the party and then fading back into the swamp to hide and strike again.

Phalanx and Xaelin were ranging to the north, looking for further sign of the Lizardfolk.  This new attack was coming from the east, so they were not available to help in the battle.

The Fen Spies turned out to be tough customers.  While defending from their attack, the party noticed 4 Marsh Mystics working some magic on a small island some 100’ to the south west, shrouded in fog.

Orin struck hard and cleaved one of the Spies from crown to crotch.  Between the Mystics and the party was a ferocious looking Bog Walker, but Alphazar slammed it into the ground, killing it instantly.  Other victories were slow in coming, but eventually, the party won ground and at the end of the battle, though battered and bleeding, with some clearly in need of magical healing, the adventurers had won the day with no casualties.

A debate then followed about what to do next, with the decision falling in Orin’s favor.  Bidding Ofeen goodbye, she bestowed what treasure she had on the adventurers, and, in particular, gave Berrian the Key card from the Deck of Many Things.

Legend says that the Deck was lost ages ago.  As a semi-sentient Deck of magical cards, the Deck only appears as an instrument of change.   Great power comes to the wielder of the Deck and of its cards.  Rumor has it that when the cards are played,  they disappear and the cardholder will never see the Deck again.  However, some legends, have the Owner of the Deck wielding it as a weapon for change, unseating a dynastic leader, corrupting an ancient conclave, or simply shattering kingdoms with civil war.

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Treasure:

300gp total

1,200gp of 100gp Gems

600gp of 200gp trinkets

2 Level 5 magic items

1 Level 6 magic item

Experience:

Quest:  Save the hermitage:  875xp

Quest:  Protect the cleric:  175xp

Quest:  Shepherd the flock:  175xp

Battle:  1,725xp

All: 492 ea.

ALPHAZAR and REEF are 5th LEVEL!

After much agonizing, Berrian came through to examine the portal.  Almost immediately he discovered that the portals could only be viewed on one side.  He postulated that there may be more portals on the island, and that they were simply invisible from this angle.

Before anyone could do anything about it, the rest of the party had come through and the entire group found themselves face to face with two Lesser Fire Demons, walking across the lava and skittering here and there like flickering flames, burning everything they touched.

After the battle, Kriv set out to test Berrian’s theory and soon found another portal, similar to the first.  Some party members stepped through and found themselves in the swampy wilds of the Witchlight Fens.  They encountered a man on a raft who urged them to get to Treewater and the Witchlight Hermitage to help the people there against the Brackmarsh Lizardfolk.  Xaelin went back through the Harkenwold portal and brought Gander through to serve as guide in the Fens.

Eventually, everyone was through.  A short time later, they encountered a Lizardfolk scouting party that was dispatched with quickly.  Even the two trying to run for help were blasted by magic lightning.

Some ways on they came upon a large group of people who were now refugees from Treewater as it had been sacked by the Lizardfolk only the day before.  The entire group continued on to the Witchlight Hermitage where they were welcomed, under the circumstances, quite well.  They settled down for the night, expecting an attack at any time.

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Treasure:

50gp total

Experience:

All: 116 ea.