Rhenny
Adventurer
Wow...it has been a while since our last game. This one featured a 23 round fight that I did not expect to go that long. The players loved it though and we nearly had a TPK
"To the Spire"
Session 7
PCs (3rd Level)
Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
Hundar, Tury and Namfoodle were the only active PCs for this 2 ½ hour session.
Pate and Hundar told the rest of the group about the necromancer and the dead bodies they had found on their last scouting mission to toward the Sumber Hills. They believed that two of the dead bodies were from Mirabar since they still had Mirabar trade bars in their purses. The two other bodies were a human with a feather cloak and a human with rock encrusted armor, undoubted a Black Earth Cultist. The others told about how they helped Constable Harburk round up all of the “Believers” and question them. They also remembered more about the Mirabar Trade Caravan that went missing and feared that there were 3 or 4 more who they had not accounted for.
After speaking with Harburk, they learned that the feather wearing knight that Hundar and Pate saw patrolling near the hills was most likely a Feathergale Society Knight. Harburk told the group that they moved out here from Neverwinter about 10 years ago. They built a spire in the Desserin Valley and they patrol the hills and valley. Harburk said they never did Red Larch any harm, and he assumed that they actually helped make the paths, roads and trails near the hills more safe. After discussing what they had experienced over the 10 days they had been adventuring, the party realized that the Earth Cultists were their number one worry, but they wanted to travel to the Spire of the Feathergale Society to get more information.
Hundar, Tury and Foo, prepared to make the 30 mile journey into the hills to the Spire while the others stayed in Red Larch to help Harburk and the town. The next morning, Tury remembered that Grund and the boy Braelon, who they had taken out of the Tomb of Moving Stones, were still hiding in a hiding place that Grund knew near the marketplace. The party found them and told them how the constable believed that “The Believers” were manipulated by the Earth Cultist priest. He found that none of the townsfolk were responsible for killing the dead that the party found in the Tomb. He was planning to hold them in the butcher shop cells for a week to pay for their involvement. The party realized that Grund and Braelon seemed safe so they told them to go back to Braelon’s house, speak with the constable and visit Braelon’s father in his cell. They hoped that they could continue their lives and learn from this horrible experience.
The trio of adventurers traveled for 12 hours, pushing themselves to go further since they could see the Spire only 5 miles in the distance. As the night was falling, they heard the sound of battle ahead. Tury and Hundar saw Griffons with riders swooping down to attack something on the ground. Foo was busy playing his harmonica and was quite into it so he was oblivious until the others alerted him. The group moved forward to get a better view of the altercation and 80’ from them they saw 2 Earth Cult guards, and an Earth Cult Bullette Rider atop a Bullette. The Griffon riders were strafing the Earth Cultists, and all were injured to some extent. Tury ran to join the battle telling the Earth Cultists to leave the flying beasts alone. He babbled about wanting to ride the creatures, and how the Earth Cultists were bad, bad men. Hundar and Foo also moved forward.
The party was able to engage and after a number of attacks one of the guards went down. As the party fought the others, the Burrow Shark (Bullette Rider) jabbed his spear at Tury as he urged his bullette to jump around and try to grasp Griffon from the sky. Eventually, the party, with help from the Griffon Riders, did enough damage to make the Burrow Shark turn tail and burrow his bullette into the earth to try to escape. Tury ran, jumped down the burrow hole and slid behind the bullette. Hundar asked if Foo could handle the lone Earth Cult Guard that was badly wounded (much like he did in a prior encounter that ended in Foo’s unconsciousness), and Foo said…”sure.” Hundar also gave chase down the burrow hole.
Pretty soon, Foo was down, unconscious and bleeding out. The Feathergale Knights were able to take down the Earth Cult Guard, and then try to stabilize Foo as one of the knights used a potion on the fallen Gnome. Meanwhile, in the hole, Tury and Hundar gave chase as the creature and its rider burrowed further and further away. Each round, the two heroes would chase at full speed as the bullette continued to burrow. The Burrow Shark however was able to stab at the two heroes, but Tury was able to use his shield to block a few blows that would have hit Hundar. Unfortunately, Tury took a vicious blow to the gut and went down.
On top, when Foo spoke with the Feathergale Knights and they offered to fly him and his comrades back to their Spire whenever the other Gnome and the Half-Orc got out of the burrow hole. Foo liked that, and nearly went off with the knights right then and there, but something told him that he should join is comrades in the burrow tunnel so he told the knights to wait for them as he ran into the hole and slide down the tunnel.
Miraculously Tury stabilized and got to his feet (nat 20 on death save). He used his healing hands to bolster himself and then he ran after the bullette.
Well…as the party chased, the bullette kept burrowing. Hundar tried a few times to climb up the back of the bullette to get right up on its back with the Burrow Shark. Once he slipped and slid back down. Then he got atop the creature, but the Earth Cult Rider slapped him down. Finally, he got up on top of the beast and could withstand the Earth Cult Rider’s smashing attempts so he could ride along with the burrowing bullette.
Eventually, Foo could target the beast with his shortbow, and the group started doing damage to the horrid creature. Unfortunately, the Burrow Shark wielded his spear with deadly precision. After Foo fired a deadly arrow at the bullette, and both Hundar and Tury smashed and hacked into the creature felling it, the Burrow Shark slashed his spear and took Tury down again. Foo caught up to Tury and stabilized him, then disengaged. Then, the Burrow Shark took down Hundar and Foo (who had come back within melee range to fight the Burrow Shark), and made a mad dash to get out of the burrow tunnel. In a few rounds, Hundar stabilized and stood (another 20 on death save). Unfortunately, Foo’s life blood seeped from his body and he expired. Hundar dragged both the Gnomes out of the tunnels to find the Feathergale Knights above had finished off the Burrow Shark.
The Feathergale Knights had one more potion that got Tury on his feet, but they could do nothing for Namfoodle. Tury tried his best to tend to his friend, even casting cure spells, but his friend had suffered too much. The knights told them to get on to the Griffons with them and they could fly them back to Feathergale Spire. Perhaps their Lord Commander, Thurl Merosska would be able to help since the Half-Orc and the Gnomes did help the knights defeat the Earth Cultists.
Flying through the air for only a mile or two, Tury tried to sketch what he saw so that he could show it to Namfoodle when/if he ever came back. The Griffons flew into a lower level of the spire into a stable of sorts. The knights called for help and then summoned Thurl Merosska. When the Lord Commander entered, he told the group to take their fallen comrade up to a room on the 2nd floor. Then he got Barister, a cleric, to tend to Foo. Tury offered all of his coins to the Feathergale Society and Hundar gave up 4 gems. Tury asked if the cleric could save their friend. Hundar asked if they could save…the Earth Cultist’s platemail. Luckily it had only been about 40 minutes since Foo went down so Barister was able to revivify him. Namfoodle woke, weak and sore, and immediately took out his harmonica and played a tune. Tury was overjoyed. Hundar grunted and rolled his eyes.
Thurl Merosska told the group that they would be his guests so they could spend the night resting and recovering. Tomorrow he invited them to a feast that they had been planning for their 10th anniversary. He was fascinated by the tale that his knights told about how the Half-Orc and the Gnomes fought with them against the Earth Cultists. He especially liked how the adventurers jumped down the burrow hole to follow the fleeing bullette.
As the party rested, Tury looked over the Black Earth platemail with Hundar. It was certainly big enough for the Half-Orc to wear, but it was very badly beaten up, old and worn. It also had a Black Earth Cult symbol on it. Hundar put it on anyway, knowing full well that any substantial hit upon it could render it unusable.
Comments
This was an added encounter that I felt would help move the story along with Earth Cultists and Feathergale Society members so that the party could see more of the rivalry between the two factions. (xp 1800)
The encounter turned into a 23 round battle. The players were rolling horribly. Lots of misses (AC 17 and 18 was tough for them tonight), and lots of “1” on death saves, while the Burrow Shark smashed them with a number of Crits (felling Tury and Foo on crits).
I actually started the Black Earth guards at 24 hp, the Burrow Shark at 60 and the Bullette at 60 as well to simulate their battle with the other knights before the party arrived. Then when the Griffon’s got hurt a little bit, I had them pull back and be more defensive as the party fought on the ground.
At one point it looked like the party was in good shape. 1 Guard barely standing and the Burrow Shark and Bullette fleeing. Tury, playing to character jumped down the hole and then everything started to go south.
It was a great story, and now the party is in pretty good with the Feathergale Society.
"To the Spire"
Session 7
PCs (3rd Level)
Pate the Half-Elven Bard (in possession of a map that shows the Sumber Hills perhaps an area where an elemental node exists)
Zeed the Arakocra Rogue (fearful of hippogriff riders who have attacked in the area – also hopeful to find more Arakocra in the Dessarin Valley)
Hundar the Half-Orc Fighter (Tracking Gar Shatterkeep, who sunk the ship Hundar sailed on)
Turytopple the Gnome Paladin (A gnome trying to fight evil)
Kippipop the Gnome Sorcerer (Looking for mystery and lore)
Namfoodle “Foo” the Gnome Rogue (Trying to find riches)
Hundar, Tury and Namfoodle were the only active PCs for this 2 ½ hour session.
Pate and Hundar told the rest of the group about the necromancer and the dead bodies they had found on their last scouting mission to toward the Sumber Hills. They believed that two of the dead bodies were from Mirabar since they still had Mirabar trade bars in their purses. The two other bodies were a human with a feather cloak and a human with rock encrusted armor, undoubted a Black Earth Cultist. The others told about how they helped Constable Harburk round up all of the “Believers” and question them. They also remembered more about the Mirabar Trade Caravan that went missing and feared that there were 3 or 4 more who they had not accounted for.
After speaking with Harburk, they learned that the feather wearing knight that Hundar and Pate saw patrolling near the hills was most likely a Feathergale Society Knight. Harburk told the group that they moved out here from Neverwinter about 10 years ago. They built a spire in the Desserin Valley and they patrol the hills and valley. Harburk said they never did Red Larch any harm, and he assumed that they actually helped make the paths, roads and trails near the hills more safe. After discussing what they had experienced over the 10 days they had been adventuring, the party realized that the Earth Cultists were their number one worry, but they wanted to travel to the Spire of the Feathergale Society to get more information.
Hundar, Tury and Foo, prepared to make the 30 mile journey into the hills to the Spire while the others stayed in Red Larch to help Harburk and the town. The next morning, Tury remembered that Grund and the boy Braelon, who they had taken out of the Tomb of Moving Stones, were still hiding in a hiding place that Grund knew near the marketplace. The party found them and told them how the constable believed that “The Believers” were manipulated by the Earth Cultist priest. He found that none of the townsfolk were responsible for killing the dead that the party found in the Tomb. He was planning to hold them in the butcher shop cells for a week to pay for their involvement. The party realized that Grund and Braelon seemed safe so they told them to go back to Braelon’s house, speak with the constable and visit Braelon’s father in his cell. They hoped that they could continue their lives and learn from this horrible experience.
The trio of adventurers traveled for 12 hours, pushing themselves to go further since they could see the Spire only 5 miles in the distance. As the night was falling, they heard the sound of battle ahead. Tury and Hundar saw Griffons with riders swooping down to attack something on the ground. Foo was busy playing his harmonica and was quite into it so he was oblivious until the others alerted him. The group moved forward to get a better view of the altercation and 80’ from them they saw 2 Earth Cult guards, and an Earth Cult Bullette Rider atop a Bullette. The Griffon riders were strafing the Earth Cultists, and all were injured to some extent. Tury ran to join the battle telling the Earth Cultists to leave the flying beasts alone. He babbled about wanting to ride the creatures, and how the Earth Cultists were bad, bad men. Hundar and Foo also moved forward.
The party was able to engage and after a number of attacks one of the guards went down. As the party fought the others, the Burrow Shark (Bullette Rider) jabbed his spear at Tury as he urged his bullette to jump around and try to grasp Griffon from the sky. Eventually, the party, with help from the Griffon Riders, did enough damage to make the Burrow Shark turn tail and burrow his bullette into the earth to try to escape. Tury ran, jumped down the burrow hole and slid behind the bullette. Hundar asked if Foo could handle the lone Earth Cult Guard that was badly wounded (much like he did in a prior encounter that ended in Foo’s unconsciousness), and Foo said…”sure.” Hundar also gave chase down the burrow hole.
Pretty soon, Foo was down, unconscious and bleeding out. The Feathergale Knights were able to take down the Earth Cult Guard, and then try to stabilize Foo as one of the knights used a potion on the fallen Gnome. Meanwhile, in the hole, Tury and Hundar gave chase as the creature and its rider burrowed further and further away. Each round, the two heroes would chase at full speed as the bullette continued to burrow. The Burrow Shark however was able to stab at the two heroes, but Tury was able to use his shield to block a few blows that would have hit Hundar. Unfortunately, Tury took a vicious blow to the gut and went down.
On top, when Foo spoke with the Feathergale Knights and they offered to fly him and his comrades back to their Spire whenever the other Gnome and the Half-Orc got out of the burrow hole. Foo liked that, and nearly went off with the knights right then and there, but something told him that he should join is comrades in the burrow tunnel so he told the knights to wait for them as he ran into the hole and slide down the tunnel.
Miraculously Tury stabilized and got to his feet (nat 20 on death save). He used his healing hands to bolster himself and then he ran after the bullette.
Well…as the party chased, the bullette kept burrowing. Hundar tried a few times to climb up the back of the bullette to get right up on its back with the Burrow Shark. Once he slipped and slid back down. Then he got atop the creature, but the Earth Cult Rider slapped him down. Finally, he got up on top of the beast and could withstand the Earth Cult Rider’s smashing attempts so he could ride along with the burrowing bullette.
Eventually, Foo could target the beast with his shortbow, and the group started doing damage to the horrid creature. Unfortunately, the Burrow Shark wielded his spear with deadly precision. After Foo fired a deadly arrow at the bullette, and both Hundar and Tury smashed and hacked into the creature felling it, the Burrow Shark slashed his spear and took Tury down again. Foo caught up to Tury and stabilized him, then disengaged. Then, the Burrow Shark took down Hundar and Foo (who had come back within melee range to fight the Burrow Shark), and made a mad dash to get out of the burrow tunnel. In a few rounds, Hundar stabilized and stood (another 20 on death save). Unfortunately, Foo’s life blood seeped from his body and he expired. Hundar dragged both the Gnomes out of the tunnels to find the Feathergale Knights above had finished off the Burrow Shark.
The Feathergale Knights had one more potion that got Tury on his feet, but they could do nothing for Namfoodle. Tury tried his best to tend to his friend, even casting cure spells, but his friend had suffered too much. The knights told them to get on to the Griffons with them and they could fly them back to Feathergale Spire. Perhaps their Lord Commander, Thurl Merosska would be able to help since the Half-Orc and the Gnomes did help the knights defeat the Earth Cultists.
Flying through the air for only a mile or two, Tury tried to sketch what he saw so that he could show it to Namfoodle when/if he ever came back. The Griffons flew into a lower level of the spire into a stable of sorts. The knights called for help and then summoned Thurl Merosska. When the Lord Commander entered, he told the group to take their fallen comrade up to a room on the 2nd floor. Then he got Barister, a cleric, to tend to Foo. Tury offered all of his coins to the Feathergale Society and Hundar gave up 4 gems. Tury asked if the cleric could save their friend. Hundar asked if they could save…the Earth Cultist’s platemail. Luckily it had only been about 40 minutes since Foo went down so Barister was able to revivify him. Namfoodle woke, weak and sore, and immediately took out his harmonica and played a tune. Tury was overjoyed. Hundar grunted and rolled his eyes.
Thurl Merosska told the group that they would be his guests so they could spend the night resting and recovering. Tomorrow he invited them to a feast that they had been planning for their 10th anniversary. He was fascinated by the tale that his knights told about how the Half-Orc and the Gnomes fought with them against the Earth Cultists. He especially liked how the adventurers jumped down the burrow hole to follow the fleeing bullette.
As the party rested, Tury looked over the Black Earth platemail with Hundar. It was certainly big enough for the Half-Orc to wear, but it was very badly beaten up, old and worn. It also had a Black Earth Cult symbol on it. Hundar put it on anyway, knowing full well that any substantial hit upon it could render it unusable.
Comments
This was an added encounter that I felt would help move the story along with Earth Cultists and Feathergale Society members so that the party could see more of the rivalry between the two factions. (xp 1800)
The encounter turned into a 23 round battle. The players were rolling horribly. Lots of misses (AC 17 and 18 was tough for them tonight), and lots of “1” on death saves, while the Burrow Shark smashed them with a number of Crits (felling Tury and Foo on crits).
I actually started the Black Earth guards at 24 hp, the Burrow Shark at 60 and the Bullette at 60 as well to simulate their battle with the other knights before the party arrived. Then when the Griffon’s got hurt a little bit, I had them pull back and be more defensive as the party fought on the ground.
At one point it looked like the party was in good shape. 1 Guard barely standing and the Burrow Shark and Bullette fleeing. Tury, playing to character jumped down the hole and then everything started to go south.
It was a great story, and now the party is in pretty good with the Feathergale Society.
