DMZ2112
Chaotic Looseleaf
Dragons of Menace
Session Report 7 - Spring-Summer 2016
Palast, the 13th of Brookgreen, 352 AC
Upon learning that the Resistance was assembling a caravan full of liberated dragonarmy supplies to send through Nightlund to the resource-strapped Whitestone Army, the party volunteered to protect it on its way, and set out once again for the blighted province.
They were hampered on their way by countless undead and trackless grassland softened by a recent rain, culminating in an attack by a huge blue dracolich. The party barely managed to drive it off, Arn striking the final blow and severing the vertebrae of its tail nearly at the base. The monster struggled back into the sky and toward the Dargaard Mountains, booming curses over its withers at its mutilators.
While recovering overnight from the unexpected attack from the skies and recovering what could be recovered from the wagons ruined by the colossal undead, the circled caravan came under assault as sharpened tree trunks whistled out of the night. The party rode hard for the nearby ridge, losing horses as they went to a blistering volley of arrows, discovering upon arrival that the undead forces of Nightlund had pressed four decaying hill giants into service as artillery.
The ensuing battle was frantic and spectacular. Flynn and Bryn bombarded the archers and infantry on the ridge with ice storms, shattering their ambulatory corpses and spreading a thick slush on the ground that caused two of the giants to lose their footing and fall thunderously to the earth, crushing even more of their support unit. Dale rebuked the remaining giants in the name of Mishakal and drove them off, their lumbering strides taking them far from the battlefield.
The rest of the party swarmed onto the ridge, cleaning up what undead forces remained and ensuring the fallen giants would not stand up again. As they fought, they became aware of the company’s commander, on nightmare-back to the rear of the position.
Sir Victorian, retainer to the fearsome Lord Soth and a death knight himself, warned the party off attacking him, claiming that it would be their demise -- and when they struck at him despite his chivalrous warnings it nearly was. Victorian brought low every adventurer on the field -- some twice -- except for Lea, even going so far as to mercilessly cut down the returning undead giants as their lumbering stomping interfered with his personal battle tactics.
Lea evaded the death knight’s baleful gaze among the tall grasses of the Nightlund wilderness and eventually fired the shot that sundered the death knight’s tenuous grasp on solidity and banished him back to his undead lord’s court.
Linaras, the 15th of Brookgreen, 352 AC
The coming of dawn revealed the Whitestone Army camp on the horizon, and heralded the success of the party’s mission. Sturm, Laurana, and Tasslehoff were glad to see the party and their supplies, and grateful for the news of Maelgoth’s liberation.
Berias, who had somehow arrived at the camp ahead of the party, told the story of their confrontation with Sir Victorian, and showed begrudging respect for their success against such brutal odds. Much was made of the party’s contributions to the war effort, although circumstances made any celebration subdued at best.
Hesitant to ask more of the party than they had already accomplished, Sturm expressed his reservations about the ultimate siege of Kalaman that would drive the Blue Dragonarmy out of Northern Solamnia, describing the city’s formidable defenses and the comparative lack of resistance presence there compared to the less thoroughly conquered -- and less strategically important -- Maelgoth.
Understanding what needed to be done, the party prepared to leave for Kalaman immediately, knowing they could travel much more quickly than the army and would arrive several days ahead of the main force. Sturm offered the party intelligence that Grandar Uth Milius, a retired Knight of Solamnia, was still working in the city as a blacksmith, and had gotten word to his old allies that he wished to help the war effort.
If the party was able to make contact with Sir Grandar, they were to say they were “interested in having a unicorn shoed.” The proper response was that “some tasks were best left undone.” Tasslehoff offered Bryn a map showing a nearby entrance to an ancient dwarven viaduct running the length of the Dargaard Mountains -- a potential straight shot to Kalaman, if it were still intact.
Majetag, the 16th of Brookgreen, 352 AC
The party opted to attempt the viaduct route and had little trouble locating the old burial-mound like entrance to the underground complex. Trolls and giant spiders had made separate lairs in the ruins, but the party dispatched these and found the elevators and stairs beyond, both descending deep into the earth. Not trusting the elevator, the party took the long and exhausting spiral stair, finding themselves in a station of sorts, far below the rolling hills.
In a flooded maintenance chamber, they found old rusting carts and the animate stone rams that had once pulled them. Although harnessing the rams was challenging underwater and while being attacked by a pair of hydra that had chosen the watery ruins as a nest, the party was eventually successful and started their ancient dwarven cart ride northward along the flooded viaduct, following the shallow flow of water.
Their journey reached an abrupt end as the sound of rushing water grew loud enough to give them pause. Careful investigation of the tunnel ahead revealed that it had been broken by a perpendicular fissure through the rock of the mountains, and that the river was pursuing its gravitational path to the bottom of the crevasse.
Crossing the crevasse was more harrowing than actually dangerous, in the damp conditions of the shattered viaduct, and soon the party found itself on the far side, facing another obstacle. When the Cataclysm broke the viaduct, the tremendous forces at work also collapsed its north end, leaving the party with no option other than to try some of the numerous iron doors that occasionally appeared along the viaduct, hoping that one would lead to another option.
Most of the doors were hopelessly welded shut by shifted stone and ancient rust, although a few lead into long-abandoned maintenance areas suffused with fungal growth. One such area had at its back a second elevator, leading up to an abandoned emergency station among the northernmost slopes of the Dargaards. After cutting its way through the surprisingly antagonistic fungus, the party was on its way back to the sunlight.
The forgotten emergency station had long ago been converted into a monastery of Majere by opportunistic believers, and its sole occupant, a young monk named Perren, was shocked when its ancient mechanisms suddenly began to turn, shredding banners and toppling incense sconces. When the party arrived through the long-sealed door at the back of the temple, he was shocked to learn of the lost viaduct and the ancient purpose of his home.
Perren fed the adventurers and gave them a place to sleep, and that night had a curious dream. Majere appeared to him as a senior monk of his order, and invited Perren to spar. The fight was predictably short and the smiling Majere ended it with a rib-creaking roundhouse kick to the chest that sent Perren flying through the front windows of the monastery and down the side of the mountain to land with a crash in the marketplace of Kalaman. Looking up at the sky, the monk saw that he was surrounded by the faces of the adventurers who had interrupted his quiet contemplation.
In the morning, Perren announced to the party that it was his intention to travel with them from the monastery. He would show them the mountain trail to Kalaman and see what Majere intended for him in the city. The journey took a day and a night, and the party arrived in Kalaman in the late morning, aching for real beds but none the worse for wear.
Session Report 7 - Spring-Summer 2016
Palast, the 13th of Brookgreen, 352 AC
Upon learning that the Resistance was assembling a caravan full of liberated dragonarmy supplies to send through Nightlund to the resource-strapped Whitestone Army, the party volunteered to protect it on its way, and set out once again for the blighted province.
They were hampered on their way by countless undead and trackless grassland softened by a recent rain, culminating in an attack by a huge blue dracolich. The party barely managed to drive it off, Arn striking the final blow and severing the vertebrae of its tail nearly at the base. The monster struggled back into the sky and toward the Dargaard Mountains, booming curses over its withers at its mutilators.
While recovering overnight from the unexpected attack from the skies and recovering what could be recovered from the wagons ruined by the colossal undead, the circled caravan came under assault as sharpened tree trunks whistled out of the night. The party rode hard for the nearby ridge, losing horses as they went to a blistering volley of arrows, discovering upon arrival that the undead forces of Nightlund had pressed four decaying hill giants into service as artillery.
The ensuing battle was frantic and spectacular. Flynn and Bryn bombarded the archers and infantry on the ridge with ice storms, shattering their ambulatory corpses and spreading a thick slush on the ground that caused two of the giants to lose their footing and fall thunderously to the earth, crushing even more of their support unit. Dale rebuked the remaining giants in the name of Mishakal and drove them off, their lumbering strides taking them far from the battlefield.
The rest of the party swarmed onto the ridge, cleaning up what undead forces remained and ensuring the fallen giants would not stand up again. As they fought, they became aware of the company’s commander, on nightmare-back to the rear of the position.
Sir Victorian, retainer to the fearsome Lord Soth and a death knight himself, warned the party off attacking him, claiming that it would be their demise -- and when they struck at him despite his chivalrous warnings it nearly was. Victorian brought low every adventurer on the field -- some twice -- except for Lea, even going so far as to mercilessly cut down the returning undead giants as their lumbering stomping interfered with his personal battle tactics.
Lea evaded the death knight’s baleful gaze among the tall grasses of the Nightlund wilderness and eventually fired the shot that sundered the death knight’s tenuous grasp on solidity and banished him back to his undead lord’s court.
Linaras, the 15th of Brookgreen, 352 AC
The coming of dawn revealed the Whitestone Army camp on the horizon, and heralded the success of the party’s mission. Sturm, Laurana, and Tasslehoff were glad to see the party and their supplies, and grateful for the news of Maelgoth’s liberation.
Berias, who had somehow arrived at the camp ahead of the party, told the story of their confrontation with Sir Victorian, and showed begrudging respect for their success against such brutal odds. Much was made of the party’s contributions to the war effort, although circumstances made any celebration subdued at best.
Hesitant to ask more of the party than they had already accomplished, Sturm expressed his reservations about the ultimate siege of Kalaman that would drive the Blue Dragonarmy out of Northern Solamnia, describing the city’s formidable defenses and the comparative lack of resistance presence there compared to the less thoroughly conquered -- and less strategically important -- Maelgoth.
Understanding what needed to be done, the party prepared to leave for Kalaman immediately, knowing they could travel much more quickly than the army and would arrive several days ahead of the main force. Sturm offered the party intelligence that Grandar Uth Milius, a retired Knight of Solamnia, was still working in the city as a blacksmith, and had gotten word to his old allies that he wished to help the war effort.
If the party was able to make contact with Sir Grandar, they were to say they were “interested in having a unicorn shoed.” The proper response was that “some tasks were best left undone.” Tasslehoff offered Bryn a map showing a nearby entrance to an ancient dwarven viaduct running the length of the Dargaard Mountains -- a potential straight shot to Kalaman, if it were still intact.
Majetag, the 16th of Brookgreen, 352 AC
The party opted to attempt the viaduct route and had little trouble locating the old burial-mound like entrance to the underground complex. Trolls and giant spiders had made separate lairs in the ruins, but the party dispatched these and found the elevators and stairs beyond, both descending deep into the earth. Not trusting the elevator, the party took the long and exhausting spiral stair, finding themselves in a station of sorts, far below the rolling hills.
In a flooded maintenance chamber, they found old rusting carts and the animate stone rams that had once pulled them. Although harnessing the rams was challenging underwater and while being attacked by a pair of hydra that had chosen the watery ruins as a nest, the party was eventually successful and started their ancient dwarven cart ride northward along the flooded viaduct, following the shallow flow of water.
Their journey reached an abrupt end as the sound of rushing water grew loud enough to give them pause. Careful investigation of the tunnel ahead revealed that it had been broken by a perpendicular fissure through the rock of the mountains, and that the river was pursuing its gravitational path to the bottom of the crevasse.
Crossing the crevasse was more harrowing than actually dangerous, in the damp conditions of the shattered viaduct, and soon the party found itself on the far side, facing another obstacle. When the Cataclysm broke the viaduct, the tremendous forces at work also collapsed its north end, leaving the party with no option other than to try some of the numerous iron doors that occasionally appeared along the viaduct, hoping that one would lead to another option.
Most of the doors were hopelessly welded shut by shifted stone and ancient rust, although a few lead into long-abandoned maintenance areas suffused with fungal growth. One such area had at its back a second elevator, leading up to an abandoned emergency station among the northernmost slopes of the Dargaards. After cutting its way through the surprisingly antagonistic fungus, the party was on its way back to the sunlight.
The forgotten emergency station had long ago been converted into a monastery of Majere by opportunistic believers, and its sole occupant, a young monk named Perren, was shocked when its ancient mechanisms suddenly began to turn, shredding banners and toppling incense sconces. When the party arrived through the long-sealed door at the back of the temple, he was shocked to learn of the lost viaduct and the ancient purpose of his home.
Perren fed the adventurers and gave them a place to sleep, and that night had a curious dream. Majere appeared to him as a senior monk of his order, and invited Perren to spar. The fight was predictably short and the smiling Majere ended it with a rib-creaking roundhouse kick to the chest that sent Perren flying through the front windows of the monastery and down the side of the mountain to land with a crash in the marketplace of Kalaman. Looking up at the sky, the monk saw that he was surrounded by the faces of the adventurers who had interrupted his quiet contemplation.
In the morning, Perren announced to the party that it was his intention to travel with them from the monastery. He would show them the mountain trail to Kalaman and see what Majere intended for him in the city. The journey took a day and a night, and the party arrived in Kalaman in the late morning, aching for real beds but none the worse for wear.