Session 16: Apocalypse Now

The dragon rains fire down on Zaimier. Huge explosions rock the city, and the air swiftly begins to fill with smoke. The party sees the dragon strafing back and forth above the city, and opts to wait till the dragon flies near them so they can attack it. As they are waiting, Rougi breaks into a nearby weapons shop and scores a Guardian Shield.

They await the dragon, watching the city shuddering under its aerial bombardment. People are screaming and panicking, running for their lives. Everyone seems to be trying to get out as fast as they possibly can. So the party is a little surprised when a band of humans runs into the street they are on, and abruptly stops. The humans take one look at Kriv and Kava, and a desperate look comes over them. They charge the party, accusing them of being traitors and murderers. Rougi impassively cuts one down, but everyone else intimates these rabble into stopping their attack. The humans tell of 'other' Dragonborns in the city, and seem deathly afraid of them.

At that moment, the dragon swoops overhead, and blasts the group with its fire. The surviving humans run for their lives, while the buildings around the party burst into flame. Yet they are ready - Kriv casts Command, and orders the dragon to the ground. It falls out of the sky like a rock, shattering several buildings beneath it. They brace themselves for battle, but the dragon actually has other plans. He regards Kriv and Kava with interest, then says "Impressive, but I've much bigger fish to fry" and flies back into the air, speeding away from them.

The party is powerless to follow him. They decide to head up to Vondal's estate; they saw one of the dragon's attacks hit close to there earlier, and are worried about Dayman and Artin. They start up the streets that lead up to the richer part of town, closer to the top of the mountain. The streams of humans, Eladrin, and dwarves trying to leave the city have thinned, but the air is still thick with their screams, embers and smoke. Kriv uses her ice breath to put out fires where she can.

As they are making their way, they suddenly encounter two Dragonborns dressed in elaborate, ritualistic armor, their swords dripping with blood. They immediately attack, throwing themselves at the party. The battle is fierce, but short. As the party deals their death blows against these strange intruders, they gurgle with their dying breaths, "For the glory of Tiamat!"

The party reaches a spot where they should be able to see Vondal's estate, and to their horror see that it is completely gone. One wall still stands, but the grand building and its grounds have been burned to ash. A huge pall of black smoke rises over the devastation. It is instantly clear that Dayman, Vondal, and everyone else who might have been there, are very, very dead.

The party turns and surveys the city. For this vantage point they can see that the city of Zaimier is almost completely gone. Almost no structures still stand. Fires rage out of control - the smoke and ash are so thick in the air that even though it is approaching noon, the sky is as dark as midnight. The moans of the dead and dying swirl about them like ghosts. And despite all this, the dragon is still ravaging what is left of the city in its southeastern-most end.

The party resolves to fight. Kriv conjures up four phantom steeds, great winged black horses. They jump astride them and charge after the dragon. They reach him quickly and a fierce battle ensues. The dragon is powerful and swift, scorching them with fire, and gouging them deeply with his claws, teeth, and tail. Berekhan and Kava are both knocked off their steeds and plunge to the ground; both are knocked unconscious by their falls, though both are healed and begin to use their ranged attacks. Rougi and Kriv swarm around the dragon, attempting to flank it. Spells, arrows, and axes hurl through the air, trying to find a target. The dragon is not immune to their assault, and they are wearing him down. But the fight is beginning to drain them much faster, and the dragon looks like he can go on for hours.

Their heroic struggle continues, as the ashes of Zaimier scatter like snowflakes around them...

Rewards

XP: 375 (Rougi), 300 (Kriv, Kava, Rougi)
* I know this seems low, but this doesn't include the dragon battle, since it's still ongoing.
Money: none
Treasure: Guardian Shield (p. 245 Player's Handbook)

Session 15: In Death He Mocks Them

The party arrives back to Zaimier, relieved to be at the end of their quest at last. Once there, though, Berekhan announces he has some things to do, and leaves the party to deal with Vondal on their own. Unruffled, they march up to the dwarf's manor, where Torbera, Vondal's loyal servant, greets them once again. She quickly takes them to see Vondal.

When they enter Vondal's study, to their surprise, they see Artin there! By what appears to just be coincidence, Vondal has retained her services - he has hired her to be a truth-teller and referee in this situation, to ensure the party is telling him the truth. The party is very forthright, though - they tell him that Soveliss is dead, and Maivera is MIA, and explain what happend to Dayman and Erevan.

Vondal says that he will not pay for dead men. The party feels cheated at this, as they remember distinctly that he wanted them back 'dead or alive.' Vondal coldly says he has no memory of this. The party appeals to Artin; uncomfortable, she declines to be an arbter here. Exasperated, the party requests that she raise Dayman and Erevan from the dead. She agrees, and promises to meet up with them tomorrow.

The party leaves Vondal, and discusses what to do now. Upset with what they feel is shady dealing on the dwarf's part, they decide to seek out Cabal and see if his offer to join him still stands. They make their way down to a seedier part of Zaimier, and here Cabal finds them. They say they are willing to join him, but he makes it very clear that he expects blank-check, unquestioning loyalty, regardless of their moral or scruples. When they press the point, he says that, yes, he might command them to kill. The party decides that they are not willing to work for him, and so a final showdown begins. He gives them then one more chance to walk away, saying that even if they defeat him, they will still lose. They are not moved.

The party kills Cabal and barely breaks a sweat. It is all distirbuingly easy.

After adjusting to this new windfall, the party decides they need to make plans to track Maivera down. They enter a nearby bar and try to drum up some lackeys/recruits for a quest to go find her. They find a few interested parties, and even return to the home of one of them to make further plans, but the negotiations break down, and everyone goes their own ways again.

The next day, the party meets up with Artin, and they retire to a secluded spot for her to raise Erevan and Dayman, using their disembodied heads. While she works, the party rests up, shops, and learns new rituals. Because the Raise Dead ritual takes so long, it is the evening of the second day when they are finally able to make their way back up to Vondal.

Vondal's mood is much more cheery this time as he sees Dayman and Erevan alive and in bonds. He has special cages prepared for them, and locks them up straightaway. He accepts Cabal's corpse too, saying he has a place to keep him as well. With their business finally said and done, he gets Torbera to bring out the party's money. 29,000 gold pieces for each party member, as agreed!

The party is a little apprehensive as they leave, a little concerned for the fate of the city with Erevan around, and a little worried about Dayman, who is not exactly a bad person. But Vondal gives them assurances that they will not be mistreated, and Artin backs him up. So the party retires to an inn for the night, their quest complete and their treasure won!

The next morning finds the party relaxed and cheerfully aimless. They are musing about what to do next when a huge explosion rocks the city! At first, they worry that Erevan has gotten loose and is causing havoc. But that thought quickly evaporates when they see in the sky above Zaimier the sinister form of a red dragon!

Rewards

XP: 500 (Kriv, Kava, and Rougi)
Money: 29,000 GP EACH (in-game reward)
Treasure: none

Session 14: Dispellings

The party sets out from Summercrest to make the journey to Zaimier and Vondal and claim their reward at last. Kriv summons her phantom steeds, which allows them to travel almost twice as fast. It is a broad highway they travel on, and more than a few travelers pass them going either direction.

Six days later, they are deep in the forest when another traveler heading back towards Summercrest hails them. He tells them the bridge ahead is out, but that there is a small path that goes around the gorge it spans that they can use. This stranger seems genuine, and the party decides to listen to him, though Rougi does pick his pocket (despite Kriv's efforts to stop him). So they travel a little farther along the road, then make their way off onto the small woodland path.

The path takes them deep into the forest, and they walk for several hours. Dusk begins to fall, and they realize that they are not going to be able to get back to the road before dark. At about this time, however, the forest opens up - it is not a clearing, but they find themselves in an area where the trees are much shorter, thinner, and farther apart. It looks like an area of new growth, as if this section of the forest was clearcut some time ago and now the forest is gradually growing back.

The party walks into this area, figuring they will camp here for the night. Looking around, Rougi realizes that this area is actually the remains of an abandoned village. The crumbling remains of huts are hidden behind thick shrubberies, and there is a large dilapidated three-story manor house standing on the east end of the ghost town.

Before the party can take the time to process any of this though, they realize that there are three figures standing in the road a good fifty yards in front of them. Kava calls out a cheerful hello, which is greeted by a vicious snarl, followed by the creatures charging forward. As they draw closer, the party realizes it is a trio of ghouls! A sharp flash of déjà vu washes over them, followed by a grim sense of pleasure, a determination these monsters will not defeat them this time.

The battle is short and very one-sided. In only moments, Rougi and Kava have their revenge.

Invigorated from their victory, the party settles in for the night. Kriv actually stays up quite late learning some new rituals, but the rest of the party drops off to sleep pretty quickly. Rougi tranced and then kept watch around the camp for the rest of the night. As it wore on towards the hour of dawn, Berekhan woke up to wait out the last few hours with him. (Rougi was a little peeved that Kriv had tried to stop him from robbing the traveler on the highway, and attempted to pick her pocket too. In this he was actually unsuccessful.)

After a couple more hours, the two of them began to feel a little ill at ease. Their internal clocks told them that it should be getting light soon, that dawn should be approaching, yet it was still as black as midnight. Berekhan cast his mind about to get a feel for the magic in the area. He realized there was an illusion at work here. Concentrating hard, he could see, over the top of the illusion, the sun breaking over the trees.

Before they could take any further action on this though, eight ghosts materialized in the unnatural darkness and lunged at the party. Their phantom swords swung over Kriv's head and pierced Kava's armor, waking them up in a hurry. The battle was swift - soon all eight ghosts had been dispatched, dissolved into nothingness with shrill but quickly silenced cries.

The party elected to move away from the scene of the battle, and after only a few paces they found themselves subjected to the light of dawn streaming through the trees. The illusion had apparently been confined to an area right around their camp.

The party decided to investigate the collapsing manor house. However, once inside, it quickly became apparent there was nothing here worth having. The house was so old, so long-abandoned, that it was nearly collapsing around them. Rougi elected to swing up chandeliers and such rather than brave the stairs, so dilapidated did they look.

As their fruitless investigation came to a close and they turned to leave, they became aware that there was another ghost standing in the doorway. Unlike the others, though, he had a sad, lonely face, and rather than attacking, addressed them politely. He said his name was Brandis; he had been a resident of this village years ago. He told the party that his village had gone through several bad years of crop failures, and no one would give them any aid, no one would help. Starvation began to set in, and then desperation, and his fellow villagers began to resort to cannibalism. Brandis nearly became hysterical as he told of how he had watched his own wife and children killed and eaten by his neighbors.

Brandis pleads with them to help him. He says he knows why no one helped them, that it was an calculated, deliberate thing, that someone drove his village to starvation on purpose. The party is somewhat unsurprised to learn that it was Cabal himself. They promise he shall receive his just rewards. Brandis is overcome, thanking them profusely. (Rougi then tries to get some info out of him as to where any buried treasure might be, but Brandis didn't know anything; that manor house had been abandoned since before he was born.)

Their work here done, the party headed out once again for Zaimier. Kriv summoned the phantom steeds; two more days they traveled without rest, making their way back across the path and to the highway again. In the afternoon of the third day, they finally arrived back to Zaimier.

Rewards

XP: 500 each
Money: 1,400 gp (350 gp each)
Treasure: none

Session 13: Pyrrhus, Wearing Melpomene's Face

After defeating Lucan, the party decides that, given the lateness of the hour, they will just hunker down for the evening. They go through looting the house, finding several valuable items, among them an amulet of false life and a flute of the dancing satyr.

As part of his star-pact, Berekhan goes out to study the stars during the course of the evening. When he does, he finds Dayman hiding under the stairs, and brings the coward into the house with them. Berekhan then seeks out an actual bed and settles down for the evening. The rest of the party sleeps in Lucan's living room, keeping a close watch for any threats. Though creaky and drafty, the house remains still throughout the course of the night, and they awake safely in the morning.

The next day, they decide, after some discussion, to return to Urlsav to retrieve Erevan and make their way back to Zaimier to claim their reward, if possible. (Dayman doesn't exactly come willingly, but he is unable to escape.) This requires them to travel back up the river to Cornosis; however, Kriv is able to summon them some phantom steeds and they are able to make better time going overland, and in fact reach Cornosis in only a day and a half.

In Cornosis, they come to the temple of Avandra there once more, and pass through to Urlsav. In Urlsav, they break the unhappy news of Maivera's apparent death to Maxé. Though saddened, he takes comfort that Maivera died serving Bahamut, defending friends. Kriv, though, hangs onto the hope that Maivera might still be alive, and asks Maxé to assist her in doing a Sending ritual. They are unable to contact Maivera, though.

Collecting Erevan, the party makes their way back to the temple of Avandra in Urlsav. The chatty elf priests there strike up another conversation with them, and on their suggestion, they teleport this time to Summercrest, putting them that much closer to Zaimier. However, they still have a two-week journey through largely unsettled forest ahead of them, and it is late in the day. They elect to stay in an inn overnight.

As they are settling in for the evening, a knock is heard at the door. They ask who it is, and Maivera's voice responds! The party fills a thrill of hope and excitement, but they are also immediately suspicious and wary. They do not open the door right away, questioning the voice, trying to determine if it is actually Maivera. The voice asserts her identity numerous times, and finally they open the door. It indeeds looks like Maivera, but the party is not convinced. Rougi is particularly suspicious, fearing there is something duplicitous about her. Kriv ends up casting Discern Lies, and some of Maivera's statements, especially those about her identity, appear to be lies. Yet the person in front of them swears up and down, earnestly, that she is indeed Maivera. She gives evidence that seems sound, and can't be caught in an obvious lie.

After long debate, the party decides to return to Urlsav to get Maxé to test this person's claims (much to Kava's exasperation). 'Maivera' allows herself to be bound and tied to Dayman and Erevan, and marched to the temple of Avandra for the trip. However, as they approach it, Berekhan attempts to intimidate 'Maivera' with talk of Maxé's power and integrity as a cleric, and his long relationship with the real Maivera. Her show of confidence rapidly deteriorates, and then suddenly she disappears! The cord binding her to Dayman is cut, and within moments there is no trace of her.

Disgruntled, the party returns to the inn and sleeps the night, which passes without further incident. The next morning, they go down into the tavern to have some breakfast, prisoners in tow. As they are eating, the bartender attempts to strike up a conversation with them, but the party is in a hurry. As they turn to leave, he throws out after them, "By the way, Cabal has come to respect you as enemies, but would like you to be his allies."

The party's is of course a bit thrown, and immediately on their guard. The man introduces himself as Corrigon and says that Cabal sent him to make an offer - stop seeking to bring him to Vondal, and come and work for him instead. The party is actually somewhat amenable to the offer; they know they will be paid, and can probably convince Vondal to take Erevan and Dayman as enough. They do however want some assurances that Cabal is not going to require them to do things they aren't comfortable with (primarily murder). To this, Corrigon is evasive, and basically says Cabal expects a pledge of loyalty without equivocation. The party asks for some time to consider the offer, but Corrigon says that he has to know right now. After a few frustrating exchanges, Kriv says she would like to cast Hand of Fate to know what course of action to take. Corrigon is agreeable, but says he wants to go with them to wherever she goes to cast the ritual.

The seven of them (Corrigon, the party, and the bound Dayman and Erevan) slip into an alley behind the tavern, where Kriv casts Hand of Fate. It recommends that she return to Vondal, and reject Cabal's offer. The party decides to follow this recommendation, and tell Corrigon as much. To which, he sighs, and declares, "So be it then."

At this, Dayman's and Erevan's bonds fall away, and they attack!

A chaotic battle erupts in the confines of the alley. Corrigon actually falls early on, sliced to pieces by the fury of Kava's greataxe. The party is puzzled by Erevan's escape and Dayman's sudden boldness, but are not reluctant to lay into them. Very quickly though, two townspeople that were just wandering the street also whip out weapons and rush into the fray. In the heat of the battle, one of them, as well as Erevan, disappear. Rougi tries to slip through the fight to track down his prisoner, and finds some of his footprints leading off, but can find no other trace. However, before the battle ends, two more 'townspeople' come to replace them.

Kriv pushes her way out of the alley, and lets loose a blast of lightning breath, scorching one of their enemies badly. However, behind him was standing another townsperson. She had figured this was one of their enemies in disguise, and had not been careful to avoid him. When the smoke cleared though, she saw this townsperson on the ground, unarmed, innocent, and dead. A dark pall settled on her heart, and though she fought on bravely, she was horrified by what she had done.

In between fierce blows, the party demanded from Dayman why he was doing this. He claimed he was being controlled, that this wasn't his idea, but he did not stop attacking. Even after he was K.O.-ed, and then healed, he only began to attack once more. Finally, they were forced to cut him down for good.

It was a wearing and confusing battle, and the party was spent by its end. Berekhan's spells had all but expended themselves, and Kava was beginning to weaken under the enemy's blows. But in the end, Corrigon, Dayman, and three 'townspeople' lay defeated at their feet. And then the most extraordinary thing happened - their appearances all changed, and they came to look like gray-skinned humanoids that resembled in no way the people they had been just seconds ago. Dayman was not Dayman at all, he had been an imposter! Kava realized their enemies were all dopplegangers.

The party wanted answers. They stuffed Corrigon's corpse into Jaden's leftover bag of holding, and made their way back to Urlsav through Avandra's teleportation circle. Once there, they compelled Maxé and Kriv to cast Speak With Dead. All in all they got three questions, and learned that Cabal was currently in Zaimier, and that Dayman and Erevan are dead, and their corpses lie in their beds at the inn in Summercrest. The party returns to the inn to find that Corrigon had not been able to deceive them in death. Dayman and Erevan's remains had already been discovered. It looked like the doppelgangers had gotten to their prisoners at some point, killed them, and taken their places in order to strike at the critical moment.

Somewhere between dejected and furious, the party realized that after all this effort, they had only corpses to bring back to Vondal. They decided they were going to return to Zaimier though, if only to find Cabal.

Rewards

XP: 450 each

Money: 600 gp (150 each)

Treasure:

• Amulet of False Life +2 (Player's Handbook p. 249)
• Flute of the Dancing Satyr (Player's Handbook 2 p. 210)
  Carved from wood and inscribed with arcane glyphs, this flute can play a tune of speed and elegance.
  Level 6 Wondrous Item, worth 1,800 gp
  Power (Encounter): Move Action. You shift 2 squares, and each ally within 5 squares of your destination space can shift 1 square as a free action.

Interlude: Level Up!

All right, with the XP gain from last session, you are now all at Level 6!

• Since you're moving up into an even-numbered level, your level modifier will now go up by 1 (to +3). This means your skills, your attack modifiers, and your defenses should all go up.
• Increase your hit points, bloodied point, and surge value. These numbers come from your class description.
  
• At this level you gain 1 feat, and 1 utility power. Look at your class description for these.
  
• Check all your feats, particularly your class and racial ones, to see if they improve any by gaining this level.

If anyone wants to do any retraining (i.e., change one feat, power, or skill), this would be the time to do it.

Session 12: Death of a Hubris

The party runs out of the cavern where their encounter with Cabal took place, passing back through the egg cavern to the tunnel fork that led them this way from the start. They take the right fork this time, leading them down into another cavern. However, there doesn't appear to be any exits from this cavern besides the one they just came in through, and there's nothing in here but some discarded gems and jewels. Frustrated with their inability to do anything to help Maivera or give any hurt back to their enemies, they make the long journey back out into the daylight.

When they emerge back out into the forest, dusk is falling. Kriv leaves behind her holy symbol, as a sign to Maivera, if she survived, that the party made it, and that they can find her again. They put some distance between themselves and the cave, and then camp for the night. No Troglodytes are spotted during the night, so the party is able to rest and recover from their ordeal.

In the morning, they make the rest of the journey back to Prosepilis, where they do some shopping, beefing up their armories and unloading some of the treasure they found down in the cavern. From there, though, they are not exactly sure what to do next. Dayman is not very helpful either; in fact he says that he is done hanging with the party, that he's going to go his own way. The party pounces on him before he can get far though, and decide they will take him to Maxé too, to ask him to keep Dayman a prisioner too (and to let him know about Maivera).

Dayman, in what is obviously a last-ditch attempt, suggests that they go see Lucan. He's a hermit that lives off in the swamp; it was from some of his people that Dayman first found out about the cave and was able to buy the inscription for the lock. Lucan, Dayman says, is the guy you go to if you need information. The party is a little skeptical, but doesn't really have any other options. When pressed, Dayman admits that he's never actually met Lucan, that he discourages visitors, and is generally thought to be kind of dangerous.

It only takes a few hours to get to Lucan's home, which is set back in the swamp. When they arrive, they find an old, traditional-looking manor home, set on a large open lot ringed about by huge swamp cedars. The party is wary, and they decide to leave Rougi in the trees while they approach the house, so as to have some backup. However, they have only gone a couple of yards past the treeline when savage-looking creatures begin to claw their way up through the soil and start attacking them.
These sharp-fanged monstrosities don't prove much of a threat, though, and the party makes short work of several. However, more keep popping up as they strike them down. But the battle has not gone on long before a commanding voice calls across the lawn. A man clad in dark red robes is standing on the veranda of the manor house. He beckons the party closer, calling off the attackers, and identifying himself as Lucan. He welcomes them to his home and apologizes for the attack; he says those creatures are meant to keep out thieves, but he doesn't feel the party has come to rob him.

The party warily approaches him, and he invites them in. A beautiful woman is waiting inside; Lucan asks the party if they want anything to eat or drink, and this woman, whom he calls Zalasta, goes off to get it. Lucan then invites them into the drawing room, and they sit down to talk. The party says they want information; Lucan says he is happy to give information, that is what he does, but it comes at a price. He also says that he does not give out information about himself, and repeatedly deflects such questions. The party says they have questions about Cabal; Lucan names a price, and the party (but mostly Kriv) forks over the money.

Lucan settles back in his chair, and asks them how much they know about the dragon Tubaloth. The party remembers that the kobolds in the Forest of Tryn worshipped Tubaloth, but really don't know much else. Lucan says that, according to legend, centuries ago, a great dragon named Tubaloth lived in the Mountains of Tryn. Like most dragons, Tubaloth had acquired great wealth, and hoarded it jealously. Somewhat unlike other dragons, he regarded the very mountains themselves as part of his treasure trove, knowing them to be rich in minerals. He regarded any attempts to mine, however small, to be theft, and would brutally punish any offenders. However, over seven hundred years ago, Tubaloth disappeared from this world, and now no one is even sure if he ever actually existed.

Lucan says Cabal, at least, belives himself to be in the employ of Tuabloth. Cabal is scouring the world’s records and markets, following some strange path through the economic records of the last seven centuries]. It is an exhausting task, but he has an endless supply of platinum and valuable items at his disposal somehow. Perhaps the most puzzling aspects is that when Cabal comes to the end of certain line of money, he hires a group of thieves to steal it, giving them all they could possibly need to do the job. Lucan seems to approve of Cabal's ruthless and bizarre nature. The party asks where they can find Cabal now, and Lucan says that he has a base somewhere in Mt. Thrain, which is the mountain on which Zaimier, the dwarf city their adventure started from, has been built.

Throughout this little interchange, some of the party notices that Lucan seems to be almost transfixed with the Eladrins, particularly with Rougi. He barely looks at the other party members, and when he speaks he seems to only address Rougi.

When the party has decided they've gotten enough information for the prices Lucan wants, they thank him and prepare to leave. Lucan then stands and declares that the party is free to leave - except Rougi. He has decided that Rougi must stay. They demand to know why, and at this Lucan smiles, baring his teeth, including his two sharp, pointed fangs. "To join me," the vampire lord says with an evil smile. "To join me in subjugating the world."

The party needs little encouragement. Their weapons flash, and they attack Lucan. He is not easily damaged, and seems almost indifferent to their attacks at first. He comes at Rougi, intent with drinking his blood, and very nearly succeeds. To make matters worse, Zalasta returns, and seeing these people attacking her master, joins the fight. Kriv and Kava order the pseudodragons into action, and they pin her down while Rougi feebly attempts to fend of Lucan. Berekhan and Kava bring their full powers to bear, though, and after a few substantial hits, Lucan no longer seems amused. Zalasta cannot reach him, and before long he is looking worried and then panicked as they pummel him. Zalasta finally breaks free of the pseudodragons, but it is too late; the party cuts her down. With her last breath, she whispers "Lucan", like a lover's whisper, and then she is gone. As her body sucumbs to death, an illusion falls away from her, and they see her corpse with leathery wings and a pointed tail.

Lucan, staggering and bloodied under the force of the party's attack, watches Zalasta's death in horror. In this state, he is unable to sense how weary the party themselves is becoming, and decides to flee. He dissolves before their eyes, transforming into mist and then he is gone. The party spits insults after him, feeling themselves cheated and robbed.

Rewards

XP: 500
Money: 3,300 gp
Treasure: None

DM's NOTE: I'm very sorry this took so long to get out!

Session 11: Anima Sola

After recovering from the battle with the Sahuagin, the party makes their way up to the cavern. The journey takes pretty much all day, and dusk is falling when they arrive. En route, they ask Dayman what exactly they should expect. He says that he's not sure; he knows that magical thieves, like the kind that Cabal has been hiring, have used this cave as a lair. He says he's hoping to find some clues as to who Cabal is and what he is trying to do.

Upon arriving, after a little discussion, they decide to encamp for the night to give the magic users (Maivera, Kriv, and Berekhan) time to study and prepare some rituals. The night passes; Maivera spends most of her time in prayer to Bahamut, while Kriv studies some rituals. The next morning, Kriv brews some healing potions and gives them to Maivera and Berekhan. Then, armed and ready, the party has Dayman make the incantation that opens the cave doors, and head in.

The cave is actually more a tunnel, leading down and down into the side of the mountain. For two hours the party marches forward. They find discarded treasure and such, and pocketed some valuable items, but by and large do not see anything worth noting.

After two hours, the party finally comes to a fork. They decide to go left. Almost immediately they are 'attacked' by a ghostly figure. However, it passes through them, and they realize it is just an apparition. Kriv, however, as the creature passes through her, hears a voice in her head say "Remember." She thinks back to the time when she encountered a Deathlock Wright in the caverns near her home, and how after defeating that enemy, she and Kava decided to go adventuring (which of course is what led them to meet up with Rougi and Jaden in that tavern in Zaimier).

It is an odd encounter, but nothing else seems to happen, and no other creatures or enemies present themselves, so the party keeps going down the tunnel. After about another fifty feet or so, Kava, who is in the front of the group, sees a light in front of her. They reach an opening, and Kava steps into a large cavern. It is about 50 feet wide and 100 feet to the back, and has a roughly oval shape. The room is actually mostly a pit, set about 10 feet down from where Kava currently stands. A shelf about ten feet wide rings the room.

The party all files in and they look down into the pit. It is filled with eggs, hundreds of eggs, and not small ones either; each individual egg is about the size of a human head. The room is bathed with an unearthly glow, and looking closely, they realize that sometimes the eggs move, twicthing ever so slightly.

Suddenly, a shout is heard from across the cavern, and from around the 'walkway' comes running four large bluish-green lizards wielding spears and looking as if they're out for blood. They charge towards the party, shouting curses in Draconic. The thought passes through Kriv's head that these are Troglodytes, cursed minions of the Underdark, but there is no time to ruminate on this.

A savage battle follows. This time Dayman does not run, and even manages to score some good shots with his crossbow. Maivera, conversely, seems a tad intimidated, and does not manage to connect with even one attack. The rest of the party, though, wails on these attackers: Berekhan unleashes some fearsome spells, while Kava spins through the horde, her greataxe whirling with death. The battle is hardly one-sided; Troglodytes stink to high heaven, and the smell distracts them to the point that their attacks are less effective. Still, it is not long before all four Troglodytes lie dead at their feet.

They take a short rest at this point. They are not sure if the the Troglodytes were guarding the eggs, or if the eggs were just incidental. Kriv shoots one of the eggs with her crossbow, but nothing happens, besides some yolk leaking out. Rougi decides to climb down and pick some up; he loads them into the Bag of Holding he took from Jaden, then smashes a couple. When still nothing happens, the party decides to move on.

There are two exits at the back of the cavern; the party makes their way back and chooses the left again. They go another thirty or so feet through the tunnel and find themselves in an even larger cavern. There are two openings at the sides of the room, and it is once again towards the left-most one that they make their way. However, they have made it only a few feet when, from out of the rock floor, over a dozen Troglodyte warriors burst out, and attack. Strangely, they do not use their weapons, but rather grapple each one of them, shouting at them to "give up!" and "hold still!".

The party resists at first, and take out several of their enemies, but are puzzled by their actions. They rarely strike with their clubs, and usually only if provoked first. They seem more interested in tackling them and keeping them restrained. Plus, a figure at the back of the room occassionally call out at them to not resist. So after a few rounds they decide to just wait and see what their enemies have in mind.

From the back of the cavern, the figure walks towards them. Stepping into the light, he confirms their suspicions; he is in fact Cabal. He says that he needs to know who they are, where they came from, who hired them, and what they know about him - he says their quest has wasted far too much of his master's time already. The party tries to ask him questions; he dismisses their queries shortly, demanding they answer his. Berekhan is the first to volunteer information, telling Cabal that he is not really part of their quest, but explains it to him anyway. Cabal repeats his inquries, and the rest of the party answers with what they know of him. (Berekhan manages to teleport close enough to attack Cabal, but it fails, and he is quickly restrained again.)

Cabal seems not terribly satisfied with the answers the party gives: he keeps repeating his questions, and makes it known that he intends to let the Troglodytes torture them in their evil religious rites. The party eventually becomes tired of his questions, but he continually refuses to answer theirs. They do touch an nerve, though, when they accuse him of being a thief - he snaps that he is not a thief, but rather a punisher of thieves. They are able to probe a little further and find out that he isn't really concerned with general thievery, just thievery from his master. But beyond this he is very closed, roughly deflecting their questions.

The party says they have nothing more to tell him. He declares that he thinks they're probably telling him the truth, but he figures he may as well torture some of them to be sure. "Start with the half-wit and the half-breed" he instructs the Troglodytes: they start pulling Maivera and Dayman away. Maivera lets herself be pulled a short distance away from the rest of them, then turns back and says to Kriv, "Remember, Bahamut has great things in store for you!"

Then she turns and spits hard into her captors face. To everyone's surprise, a rock flies out of her mouth, hits the lizard-man in the nose, and rolls onto the floor. Another Troglodyte picks it up. Cabal shouts, "Wait, don't-!" but not before the Troglodyte says, "It says, 'Boom'".

An explosion rips through the cavern. The Troglodytes restraining the party are knocked back, releasing them, while the ceiling caves in around them. For a second everything disappears in a haze of collapsing rock and swirling dust; when it clears, a thick wall of boulders has been formed, cutting the cavern in half. Dayman, Rougi, Kriv, Kava, and Berekhan (as well as six Troglodytes) are on one side, while Cabal, Maivera, and the rest of their enemies are on the other.

The party quickly eliminates the rest of the Troglodytes. They then try to listen across the wall to see if they can hear what is going on. There is a lot of shouting, and the phrase "Go around!" is heard. The party decides there is nothing they can do for Maivera at the moment, and turn to flee the cavern. Kriv is striken with grief at leaving Maivera behind, but she follows.

Rewards

XP: 750

Money: 500 gp

Treasure:
You found several pieces of valuable loot in the cavern:
- Razor Armor +2 (Lvl 7) [p. 231 Player's Handbook]
- Safewing Amulet +2 (Lvl 8) [p. 251 Player's Handbook]
- Dynamic Belt +2 (Lvl 9) [p. 253 Player's Handbook]

Interlude: Level Up!

With the XP gained from last session, everyone will now be moving up to level 5. Brad, since pretty much everyone else is at 6,400 XP now let's just say that's where you're at too.

With level 5, you gain one additional daily power. See your class description to pick the one you want. As always, be sure to pay attention to the prerequisites. While you're looking at your class description, be sure to check and see if any of your class features or other powers increase at level 5, as some do. Finally, be sure to increase your hit points (which will increase your bloodied and surge value) by the amount your class description specifies.

Don't forget, this week we're playing on Friday night. See you at our place at 6:30!

Session 10: Old, New, Borrowed, Brute

Rougi, Kava, Kriv, Maivera, and Jaden make preparations to leave Urlsav for Prosepilis. Maivera suggests they leave Erevan in the Maxé’s custody, so as to not have to drag him all over the place. The party agrees, Maxé accepts, and they head for the temple of Avandra.

The elf cleric that assists them at the temple is chatty, and asks where they are going. They tell him that their eventual destination is the city of Prosepilis, but that they're going to Summercrest for now in order to make their way downriver to their final destination. The cleric says that, if they would like, he can send them to Cornosis, a city that is a little better than halfway between the two cities. The party agrees, hoping to shave some time off their trip.

They arrive at the temple of Avandra in Cornosis, and waste no time making arrangements for their trip downriver. As they are heading for the docks, they pass a cloaked human. Suddenly, Jaden stops, does a double-take, and exclaims, "Berekhan!" It is an old friend of hers, another star-pact warlock. He doesn't quite recognize her at first, but then it comes back to him. They catch up for a second, and Berekhan says that he is kind of drifting at the moment, looking for work. Jaden asks if he'd like to join them; their little quest keeps snowballing, and some extra hands would be good. He accepts, and heads down to the docks with them.

Cornosis is a port town - you can't spit without hitting a riverboat captain, and so securing decent passage takes almost no time at all. The two day trip downriver to Prosepilis is uneventful. Upon arriving at their destination, the party wastes no time tracking down Dayman. The word on the street is that he frequents the Dragonbeard Inn, so it is there that the party heads. The innkeeper tells them that he is not there at the moment, that he kind of comes and goes, sometimes he'll just disappear for days at a time. The party decides to get rooms of their own, and wait it out.

In the meantime, though, they sneak up to Dayman's room, and easily break in. Rummaging around, they find a lot of maps and books, and one map in particular catches their eyes - it is a map of Prosepilis and the surrounding region, with an area to the northwest of the city circled in a dark red. They figure it's as good a lead as any, and that they'll head that way. However, since it's already dark, and it's probably a couple of miles away, they settle in for the night. Rougi decides to spend his trance hiding underneath Dayman's bed so he can't come and go during the night and escape their notice.

The night passes uneventfully as well, though, so the next morning the party gathers to head out. They all show up but Jaden, and after an uncomfortable amount of waiting, they go up to her room to see what's going on. She's not there, but all her stuff is. Going back downstairs, they ask the innkeeper if he's seen her; he says, yeah, she headed out last night. They figure that there's no point in looking or waiting for her, that she must have had something she needed to do, so they leave a message with the innkeeper and head out.

The area around Prosepilis is hilly and thickly forested, so by midday they are only about halfway to the location on the map. As they break for lunch, they hear someone approaching, someone not making any effort to be stealthy. Before long, a figure comes into view from around the trees, a skinny Eladrin male. At the sight of him, Maivera leaps to her feet and cries out, "Dayman!"

Dayman takes one look at the group before him and bolts. Kava is too quick for him though, and pounces, grappling him and holding him in place. He thrashes and shouts things like "why did he send you?!" and "he's not what you think!" It takes a while for Maivera to calm him down and ask him what he's talking about. He had thought 'Vizen' had sent them, and when he realizes that the party is also looking for Cabal, he calms down considerably. He still seems very jumpy and not quite all there, but he makes no other move to escape.

After a little more talking, they all figure out that the place on the map that they were heading to was a series of caves rumored to be a stronghold for 'magical thieves', as Dayman puts it. He said that you need a certain incantation to get through the cave gates, and he has it, but it is written down on a piece of paper back in his room. He is unwilling to let one of the party go back for it without him, and they are not willing to let him out of their sight. So they all head back into town.

Dayman talks non-stop on their trek back. Apparently he has been on the trail of Cabal for many years, and has become more than a little obsessed and paranoid. He does offer one useful piece of information though - the prophet to the Kobolds that the party learned about during the battle of Joff was in fact Cabal! Dayman is relieved that the party has encountered them, for some reason.

Arriving back at the Dragonbeard, the innkeeper says that there was a bit of a commotion earlier; apparently a dead Tiefling female was found at the waterfront today. Kava, Maivera, and Kriv head down to the beach, while Berekhan, Rougi, and Dayman head up to his room to retrieve the paper he needs. The girls arrive at a grassy knoll that slopes down into the harbor, and see it littered with the corpses of several sea-creature looking humanoids. A tree stands in the middle of the knoll, and slumped against it is Jaden. Some unknown cleric is crouched over her, and her friends realize with a start that she is still alive! They rush over to her, pushing the other cleric out of the way (he didn't know what he was doing anyway). Kriv calls Jaden's name, and she looks up at them blearily, uncomprehendingly. Suddenly, her eyes widen, and she appears to summon the last of her strength to grab Kriv's arm. "You're next," she croaks. She coughs a mouthful of blood, and then collapses. Kriv tries to cast a healing spell, but it is too late - she is already dead. Her last words expended the last shreds of life she had left in her.

Mournfully, Kriv casts Gentle Repose on Jaden's remains, and they take her body away.

Back at the inn, Dayman easily locates the paper he needs, which Berekhan promptly takes. Dayman is angry, but Berekhan points out that there is less risk this way; if Dayman is somehow killed, the knowledge of how to get into the caves will not be lost with him. They also inform Dayman that he won't be sleeping in his own bed tonight; a decoy of pillows will, while Rougi trances underneath it again. Dayman is livid at these interferences, but he cannot do anything; even though he's furious, he's afraid they're right.

When the girls return with Jaden's body, Berekhan tells them that a warlock would want to be cremated, and they give her a final send-off. With this somber mood, they turn in for the night.

The next morning Rougi, Kava, Kriv, Berekhan, Dayman, and Maivera gather to head back to the caves. Dayman suggests a slightly quicker route to the caves that goes through the marsh at the edge of town. The party sees no reason not to, so they follow him.

As they are passing through the marsh, they hear something moving in the water, and then a sea creature like the ones Jaden killed steps out of the water onto the road in front of them. He snarles at them in Abysmal and then attacks Kava with his trident. At this, four more like him swarm onto the road behind the party. Dayman, seeing this threat, turns and runs for his life.

A fierce battle ensues, the party and these creatures slashing and shouting at each other in a chaotic interchange on the soggy road. Maivera and Kava both take beatings, but Kriv's healings keep them on their feet, while Berekhan blasts them with deadly accurate spells. Rougi and the pseudodragons methodically picked off the four in the back while Kava pounded away on the one in front. Kava's opponent was quickly disarmed and fighting for his life. He began to plead with her in Common, but she did not stop till he was K.O.ed. A few short rounds later, the other four enemies lay mouldering in the marsh.

The party bound up and then resuscitated the leader to question him. He was guarded and unfriendly, but Berekhan threatened to melt his skull, and that got him talking. It came as little surprise to the party that Cabal had hired them, a deal they accepted because he promised them power over the people of Prosepilis. After questioning him, they make him promise to leave them be, and then release him. He makes as if to walk off, but as soon as he reaches his dropped trident, he picks it up and hurls it at Kava. He misses badly, but is left with no time to mourn his inaccuracy; Rougi's blades and Kava's greataxe pierce him, and he crumbles for the last time.


As the party loots the bodies and recovers from the fight, Dayman wanders back to them, sheepishly applauding their good work.

XP: 1350
Money: None
Treasure: Kelp Robe (magic cloth armor) (Lvl 8, Armor Bonus +2, Market Price 3,400 gp)

Session 9: Hunters

As the party prepares to leave Erevan's house, they hear a large creature making its way up the cliff behind them. A huge shape flies through the air, and then a dracolich crashes down in the front of them! An intense battle follows - the party pulls as one and even though this monstrosity pounds on them, they pound right back, and defeat it soundly, phylactery and all.


The party returns to Summercrest and retries for the evening. The next morning, they avail themselves of the clerics at the temple of Avandra to transport them to the city of Urlsav. Maivera has told them that her mentor, the cleric Maxé (pronounced MAH zay), can help them located Dayman, so they head to the temple of Bahamut in Urlsav.

Arriving in Urlsav, they go to the temple, and tell Maxé some of their story, and after a little convincing, he agrees to help them. Together with Maivera and Kriv, he withdraws into prayer and meditation, consulting with the spirits of the sages, saints and deified heroes of Bahamut. Twice they do this. They are able to determine that Dayman is currently in Prosepilis, a port city on the ocean that divides the continent where Summercrest and the region of Tryn is and the continent where Urlsav is. (It is a month’s journey across the ocean from Urlsav, but only a week’s downriver from Summercrest.) They are not able to locate Vizen, but are able to determine that Vizen is actually a pseudonym, and that his real name is Cabal.

Rewards

XP: 700
Money: 1,720 gp (430 gp per player)
Treasure: None

Session 8: Prayers of the Dragon

It is now the middle of the third day that Rougi has been carrying on his charade of learning to be Erevan's apprentice. During the course of the afternoon, the party has been taking care of errands, particularly selling things found in Erevan's dungeon, but mostly just killing time.

Kriv, Kava, and Jaden are sitting in a tavern, relaxing and drinking. They see a half-elf woman dressed in glittering chainmail walk in. Kriv notices right away that she bears the holy symbols of Bahamut. The woman sees them immediately and walks over to them, stopping in front of Kriv and Kava. Looking between them a little hesitantly, she asks which one is Kriv. Kriv identifies herself, and the woman introduces herself as Maivera, another cleric of Bahamut. "I have been looking for you," she says, "and you have been looking for me, so I am glad we have found each other."

Maivera sits down and they buy her a drink. She tells them that she is one of Qualion's old band, and that yes, they robbed Vondal, that she is one of the ones they've been looking for. She explains that back in the day, the five of them (Qualion, Erevan, Solveliss, Dayman, and herself) were a band of theives, angry at the world and out to cut a piece of it for themselves. They were hired by a Warfoged who called himself Vizen (Maivera says she has come to doubt that that was his name) to rob Vondal and keep half of it for themselves. (When questioned as to why they didn't just take it for themselves, Maivera explains warily that none of them wanted to mess with Vizen.)

DM's note: I meant to say that Vizen told them a secret passageway that allowed them to get in and out, as well as instructions as to how to defeat Vondal's security. He made the theft very easy, did all the preliminary work, which is why he was able to demand half the take.

After the theft, they all went their seperate ways; Erevan and Soveliss settled here in Summercrest, Maivera herself went to Urlsav, a city far from here, and Dayman just disappeared, and she doesn't really know where he is. At this point, Kriv comments that Soveliss is dead, so that leaves only Dayman to track down. Hearing this, though, Maivera's face blanches and she had to excuse herself. Upon returning, it is clear that she had been crying. She apologies for her behavior; she and Soveliss were close once and it had shocked her to hear that he was dead (they hadn't had any contact for the last couple of years).

After regaining her composure, Maivera explains that while living in Urlsav, she realized there was more to life, and that there were better ways to influence the world, and she eventually devoted herself to a life as a cleric of Bahamut. Soveliss, she says, a few years ago, went through something of a 'mid-life crisis' where he began to feel some guilt and remorse for the way things had happened all those years ago, and was going to go back to Elslein and pick up his life to some extent. That was the last she'd heard of him; "I guess he never made it," she mourns. The party lies to her and says that he died quickly and painlessly.

Maivera expresses concern over Erevan; he has grown in magical power far more quickly that she would consider normal. She worries that dark pacts have been made. The party tells her of their experiences in his home and particuarly in his dungeon, feeling her assesment is probably right. With this new information, they begin to think about how their plans must now change.

At Kriv's suggestion, Jaden and Kava go to attend to the psuedodragons while Kriv and Maivera retire to Kriv's room in the inn. Maivera addresses Kriv almost reverently, telling her that a week ago, she was meditating and praying to Bahamut when she actually had a vision of the Dragon God! "He said to me that you have a purpose in this far greater than you know. He said, 'A great evil gathers, and I will guide her to defeat it. You will guide her and in time, she will guide you.'” Maivera says that she has to believe that it is all interconnected somehow - Vizen, their quest from Vondal, and the great evil that gathers. Kriv agrees, and they spend some time praying to Bahamut for guidance. Nothing specific comes, but they feel more refreshed and in-tune with their diety from the experience.

The party comes all back together after dinner that night; Rougi returns from Erevan's manor, and is introduced to Maivera. There is an instant dislike between them. The group catches Rougi up to speed, and then a long discussion ensues as to what their next course of action should be. It is agreed that they should include Vizen in their list of people to seek out, but they cannot agree as to whether they should try to capture Erevan first, and then think about Vizen, or try to get to the bottom of the Vizen story first. In the end, it is decided that Erevan will be easier to deal with, and they are already right here.

The party secludes themselves in the woods near Erevan's house, while Rougi goes back in and returns to his fake studying. After a delay, they send Maivera in to attempt to draw Erevan out so he can be captured. She returns after only a few minutes though, saying that he is too paranoid and suspicious to leave his home. So a new plan is hatched: Kriv will use her ritual book to cast Animal Messenger on one of the psuedodragons, which will take the message to Rougi that Maivera has gone into the house to visit with Erevan and distract him while Rougi searches the third floor of the house. Maivera carries another one of the pseudodragons with her, sleeping and invisible, as an 'alarm' if things go bad.

Rougi is sitting the library when the pseudodragon bursts through the full-length windows, lands at this feet, and speaks the message to him in perfect Common. He tries to grab it, but it flies off before he can. He then hears Maivera's and Erevan's voices passing by the library moving to another part of the house. Rougi siezes the opportunity and quickly makes his way up to the third floor. He begins inspecting all the rooms. Most of them contain none-too-secretive things; he does find a room of spell components and palms a few vials of magic dust. He finds one room that looks and smells as if dark rituals have taken place in it; the bones of a large animal are scattered on the floor. He does not linger there. The next room he comes to is a supply room. Most of the items in it are mundane, but to his great delight he finds a pair of Dimension Shackles! He also pockets a valuable-looking wand.

It is at this point that a loud crash comes from the first floor of the house. On the third floor, Rougi hears it and decides to make his way down to the second floor in a great hurry. Out in the forest, the rest of the party hears it (the enchanted pseudodragon has long since returned to them) and Jaden decides to sneak up and see what is going on. Jaden reaches the house as Maivera storms out the main door, absolutely furious. Erevan, apparently, had said some of the same condescending and racist things to her that he had taunted the party with in the dungeon. She is particuarly incensed that he said that to serve as a cleric is a waste of time and that the only worthwhile pursuit is to be a wizard and study magic. She cannot believe how horribly racist and demeaning he has become.

On the second floor, the door to the room Rougi is in is wrenched open and there stands Erevan. He is very suspicous, and demands to know if he has been on the third floor. Rougi says he hasn't - he tells something of the truth, saying a pseudodragon burst into the house and he has been chasing it, but it just got away. Erevan is clearly still wary of his young apprentice, but he accepts this story, albiet with some reluctance. Rougi then makes a hasty exit, saying he will return to his reading after he has gotten a drink. He descends the stairs under Erevan's untrusting eye.

In the forest, the party and Maivera are having a heated discussion as to what to do now. Maivera is still furious and says she is all for going back in there and knocking his head in and dragging him back to Vondal in chains. Kriv hopes they can find a more peaceful solution, while Jaden and Kava don't see anything that can be done, fearing there is no way to overpower him, seeing as how he used a magical ward last time. Upon hearing this, Maivera says that she thinks ritual like that had to be applied on an ad hoc basis and take several minutes to cast, so if they go right now, he should be vulnerable. The discussion does not end there, but before time runs out the party decides to attack Erevan's house.

They rush the door, only to have Erevan burst out. He demands to know what they want and what they are doing here. Maivera does not waste time or mince words; she rushes up to Erevan and swing at him with her mace. A short intense battle follows; Kriv is able to immobilize the wizard, and after a dazing hit from Kava, they are able to clap him in the Dimensional Shackles and some mundane rope, which effectively takes him prisioner.

With Erevan down, Jaden and Rougi rush into the house, intent on looting and plundering. Kriv watches them go at it with a heavy heart; Maivera tries to console her with the sentiment that that is just how the world works sometimes. To placate her, they say they will let her be the treasurer over the loot gleaned from the house.

Rewards

• You each recieve 600 experience points (XP)
• You each recieved 1,310 gp from the sale of the items you found in Session 7; if you did not add that into your 'bank accounts' during the game, be sure to do so.
• The wand that Rougi stole is a Level 6 Magic Wand (p. 242 PHB)
• Their looting also discovered a Level 5 Flaming Greataxe (see p. 234 PHB, Flaming Weapon)
• Rougi and Jaden, on raiding the storage room on the 3rd floor, found a complete set of spell components for each of the following rituals: Animal Messenger, Arcane Lock, Comprehend Language, Cure Disease, Detect Object, Detect Secret Doors, Discern Lies, Disenchant Magic Item, Drawmij’s Instant Summons, Endure Elements, Eye of Alarm, Hallucinatory Creature, Hallucinatory Item, Hand of Fate, Linked Portal, Magic Circle, Magic Mouth,Make Whole, Phantom Steed, Raise Dead, Remove Affliction, Secret Page, Sending, Shadow Walk, Silence, Speak with Dead, Tenser’s Floating Disk,Travelers’ Feast, Water Breathing, Water Walk, and Wizard's Sight. The whole lot is worth 4, 240 gp. (This includes the vials Rougi palmed.)
• Erevan's manor contained a large number of mundane items that are common to large households and not particuarly valuable by themselves, but collectively worth a good amount. The whole collection of these items weighs about 100 lbs. and would fetch 800 gp on the open market (they're the kind of things there is no black market for - old books, furniture, clothes, etc.)
  

Interlude: Level Up!

All right, while you all have different XP at this point, you should all have enough to move up to level 4! At level 4, you gain another feat, so be sure to pick one out, as well as increasing your hit points (look at your class descriptions). Because you have gone up to an even-numbered level, your level modifier has gone up a point. See the original level-up post, or page 27 in the Player's Handbook, for a refresher on how to take that into account. Also be sure to look at your class features to see if any of them get better at this level.

Now, with reaching level 4 there is a level-up opportunity that we haven't had before, and that is increasing your ability scores! At level 4, 8, 11, 14, 18, 21, 24, and 28 you're able to increase two of your ability scores by 1. Not the modifier, the actual score; so if you had Constitution 12 and decided you wanted to bump that up you could change it to 13. You can only increase two scores, and you can't increase one score by 2, they have to be seperate scores. If you increase a score in a way that changes your ability modifier, be sure to make sure that addition is added to the things that use that ability score. For example, if you increase Strength from 13 to 14, then your modifier will go up by 1 and your strength attacks go up by 1 as well. Attacks, powers, skills, and defenses are the primary things affected by ability modifer changes.

The Player's Handbook, in my opinion, is not very clear on how to apply these changes, so I would go through your charachter sheet to see where these values will apply. If you have questions, we'll go over it Saturday.

Hope everyone's having a great week!

Session 7: Devils in the Dark

Jaden stands outside the magically locked door, flushed but whole after her battle with Erevan. She makes several attempts to defeat the door's magic, but cannot. In the absence of Erevan, she decides to explore, hoping to find some way into the dungeon she knows now holds her companions captive.

Down in the dungeon, Rougi, Kava, and Kriv are crawling along in the tunnel when Kriv suddenly feels something grab her foot. She calls out to Kava and Rougi, but they have already made their way down the tunnel a good ways, and can't turn around easily. Whatever has grabbed Kriv nearly wrenches her leg off, then yanks her out of the tunnel and into the lake room. Kava quickly makes her way back to help her sister, and boldly attacks the creature, a long-armed, pale monstrosity with sharp, gleaming teeth. To her shock and horror, though, the creature pulls Kriv into the path of the blow, and Kriv herself is nearly killed!


Jaden makes her way to the second floor of Erevan's house, only to then hear what she thinks are the sounds of the party below. She makes her way back down into the basement instead. Seeing a locked door, she breaks it down, only to have a fey panther leap out and attack her!

By this point, Rougi has joined the fight, and he and Kava make short work of the creature. Kriv is saved with a healing potion, and the group takes a short rest before going back into the tunnel to continue their search for the exit.

Jaden's battle with the panther ends up being a chase all across the basement, but eventually she conquers the beast and makes her way through the broken door into the tunnel behind it. However, no more than 15 feet in, the ground beneath her gives way and she tumbles thirty feet down into a pit.

Rougi, Kava, and Kriv emerge from the tunnel into a larger room, where, lo and behold, they find Jaden, recovering from her fall. They realize that Rougi can teleport to the top of this tunnel and then cast down a rope; he does so, and they all climb out pretty quickly. Unfortunately, when they reach the top they find that the door has been repaired and sealed with a more powerful arcane lock than before. Trapped once again, they decide the only thing they can do is head back down into the dungeon.

Since it is by now past midnight, the group decides to camp for the night next to the locked door. Rougi keeps watch while he trances, and no creatures attack them while they rest. In the 'morning', they begin to follow the tunnel down. As they do, Rougi suddenly hears a voice in his head, calling him a fool and belittling the life he has chosen. He pays this voice no heed, laughing about it with the rest of the party.

The party soon finds themselves wandering around a series of rooms and passageways criss-crossed with large but decaying spiderwebs and littered with the bones of animals and humanoids. Thankfully, they do not encounter anything, and their wandering turns out not to be so aimless after all - they find several valuable magic items. These include several pieces of armor, a Circlet of Authority, and an Elven Cloak (more details in the rewards section).

Soon enough they find they exit to the maze and find themselves in a much larger room. There, in the center of it, stands Erevan. The party and he share some angry words, and they try to attack him. However, to their frustration, they find that any and all attacks they try to make just bounce off a magic barrier he has placed around his person.

Erevan addresses Rougi, pretty much ignoring the rest of the party. In fact, while he argues with Rougi, he calls a swarm of rats to attack the rest of them, just so they won't bother him. His conversation with Rougi basically entails him viciously deriding the life of a rouge for an Eladrin, or rather the idea of an Eladrin being anything other than a wizard. He says that money is unimportant, and that Eladrins were meant to live in the Feywild, not to deal with these 'worthless' non-fey creatures (e.g., humans, Dragonborns, Tieflings, etc.) He admits to having been part of Qualion's gang, and while he does not directly confess to having robbed Vondal, he doesn't exactly deny it either. He however dismisses it all as something very long ago.

Rougi realizes that Erevan wants something from him particularly, and while the rats are hardly a threat, they've been trapped in this dungeon for a while, and Erevan himself is currently untouchable. He asks what Erevan wants. He responds in an almost pleading fashion that he wants Rougi to 'accept his true self', and become a wizard, become his apprentice! Rougi is a little flabbergasted at his manner of asking, but bluffs the wizard into believing he would be willing to do that. He however insists that the party be let go; Erevan says if they will leave his home and not harm any more of his pets, that he will not trouble them anymore. Rougi tries to negotiate for some reward as well, but he doesn't get anywhere due to Erevan's disdain for wealth.

The party defeats the rats as this conversation is wrapping up, and are shown the way out of the dungeon. They make it through the door, up the stairs, and back to Summercrest.

Rougi, meanwhile, is lead back into Erevan's study (the floor has been repaired and the bookshelf is upright once more). Erevan shows him a shelf full of books, declaring them to be histories of magic that he must read to gain a foundation of wizardry. He says not to talk to him again until he has read them all, and then leaves. Rougi of course immediately pockets some of the books. He skims a few of them but doesn't really explore them. Later, he explores the house; Erevan prevents him on the third floor, telling him it is private and off-limits, but the rest of the house he can consider his home.

Back in town, the party has found an inn and gotten some dinner, resting up after their dungeon crawl. Rougi joins them that evening after dinner. They are unable to find an exotic animals dealer to do anything with the psuedodragons they captured in the forest, and Rougi discovers the ritual and history books he pocketed are not worth very much, though he does manage to get about 1,000 gp for them.

The party is somewhat at a loss for what to do next. They decide to let Rougi carry on this charade of being Erevan's apprentice for a couple of days at least, and to meet back tomorrow night to discuss their plans once more.

Rewards

Jaden: 525 XP, 540 gp
Rougi: 400 XP, 540 gp (includes the 1,000 gp in-game reward)
Kriv/Kava: 350 XP (each), 540 gp (each)

Treasure (whole party):

• Level 3 Curseforged Armor (p. 227 Player's Handbook)
• Level 4 Black Iron Armor (p. 227 Player's Handbook)
• Level 5 Exalted Armor (p. 230 Player's Handbook)
• Level 6 Horned Helm (p. 249 Player's Handbook)
• Level 7 Circlet of Authority (p. 248 Player's Handbook)
• Level 7 Elven Cloak (p. 250 Player's Handbook)

EDIT: The money rewards are now correct.

Session 6: Faerie Furieux

The party, along with the three men from Joff, quickly made their way through the forest to arrive at the kobold lair, the entrance to which is a small cave cut into the rocky face of a hill. The kobold clan, or what is left of it, is all standing outside the cave entrance, arranged to fight.

However, as the party walks into the clearing in front of the cave, their priest steps forward and drops to one knee in front of Kava, who was in front of the party. He addresses her in flattering Draconic and asks if they found a small orb after their battle. She says yes, and he proposes a deal - if they will return the orb, the kobolds will never attack the town of Joff again. He swears on the blood and breath of Tubaloth that they will keep their oath.

A short but heated discussion ensues among the party and the humans to decide what to do. They are not sure if they can trust the kobolds, but Jaden tells them that an oath sworn on the blood and breath of a dragon is basically the most serious oath a kobold can take, and it is pretty unlikely that they will break it. Rougi is loath to just hand over treasure with no immediate gain, but the Dragonborns have grown a soft spot for the kobolds, and urge the party to take the deal. Kriv even tries to snatch the orb away and give it back to them, but she is not stealthy enough.

In the end, Bard agrees that there will be some monetary reward for the party when they return to town, so they return to the orb to the kobolds. The priest, good as his word, leads his clan back into their cave (though two kobolds do wait to guard the entrance until the party leaves). The party and the humans return to Joff to a hero's welcome and a grand feat. The party sleeps that night (free of charge of course) in the inn, enjoying a well-deserved rest for their adventures.

The next morning, the party awakens to a town that is still paying them honors but have lives and a harvest to return to. The party goes to the mayor (Jaden reluctantly giving up a bath for this) to collect their reward. The mayor is friendly and political, but also a no-nonsense type; he doesn't bring up their reward, but when Rougi asks about it, he readily gives them the gold and sends them on their way.

The party, refreshed and emboldened, travels towards Summercrest for two more days, reaching it around noon on the third. Once there, they waste no time searching for Erevan. He is not hard to locate; it is well-known where his mansion is, but the people of the town seem wary of him, calling him odd, and that he doesn't fit in. The party themselves are a little unsure of what to expect; they don't know if this visit is going to be yet another stepping stone in finding Vondal's enemies, or if Erevan himself will be one of the people they need to capture. They decide to proceed with caution and wait till night to approach the house.

That evening, long after darkness has fallen, they sneak up to the house. It is build on the edge of a cliff; the back of the house sits at the brink of a precipice that falls over a hundred feet down into a river. The party decides to divide and conquer; Kava, Kriv, and Jaden sneak off to various corners of the house to keep a lookout and do some snooping while Rougi approaches the main door, hoping that as an Eladrin and a rogue he would be able to build some rapport with Erevan.

He knocked on the door and a male gnome opened it. He looks suspicious of Rougi and acts impatient with his presence there, so Rougi mentions that he would be interested in meeting a friend of Qualion's. At this, the gnome invites him in. He is shown into a large room with high ceilings and tall windows overlooking the cliff and the river below. The gnome says "his master" is a little busy at the moment, but will be with him shortly. The gnome then leaves Rougi alone in the room.

Rougi searches around the room, a little suspicious of traps or whatnot, but can find nothing. There are some large bookshelves on the wall, and he looks through them and decides to pocket a few of the books on them. Then, impatient for something to happen, he overturns one of them with a loud crash.

Suddenly, a ball of fire crashes into him, and the floor around him disintegrates into ash. He finds himself falling, 50 feet down into a cavern below the room. Due to his catstep boots, he is mostly unhurt by the fall. Due to his low-light vision he can still see a little bit of what's around him, but it isn't encouraging; he's in a small, damp cave and while there is a tunnel leading out, who knows if he'll be able to get back to the surface.

Outside, the rest of the party is oblivious to all of this. However, Kava and Kriv have grown restless, and so they decide to go up to the front door themselves. They knock, and no one answers. They knock again, and the gnome returns. He is irritable and dismissive, but Kriv quickly spins a story about how they thought this was an inn, and her religious diplomacy soothes his nerves. He invites them in, and says he will go find his master. He leaves them in the foyer and walks out. Kava, apparently only half-aware of what's going on, starts playing with the pseudodragons.

Jaden, a few minutes later, also becomes a bit restless. She hasn't been to able to glean anything from her scouting around the one side of the house, so she decides to sneak back to the front. However, once she gets there and sees that the Dragonborns are gone, she becomes a bit worried. She sneaks up to peer in one of the windows, and sees a deserted corridor. She tries to sneak in through the window, but in the process of breaking it she makes a lot of noise, and she quickly gives up, hightailing it into the trees around the house. The gnome rushes to the window to see what happened, and catches a glimpse of her running into the trees, but loses her after that. After a few seconds, he leaves the window, apparently in a hurry to be somewhere else.

Rougi decides to try his luck with the tunnel leading out of the cave he is in. It narrows to a crawlspace pretty quick so he spends a good ten minutes crawling on his elbows till he reaches an opening into another larger cavern. Before crawling out, though, he peers out to see if there are any monster or enemies there. While he can't see anything, he hears a creature moving out there, and a large one at that. He eventually decides to head back to the first cavern and take his chances that the rest of his party will help him out.

Meanwhile, the gnome returns to Kava and Kriv. Looking a little harried, he leads them into the room with large windows, an overturned bookcase and the hole in the floor. Kriv is puzzled, but the gnome won't answer her questions directly, and soon rushes out, whispering a magic word as he passes through the door. Kriv looks around, trying to figure out what is going on. Kava continues to play with the pseudodragons.

Jaden, feeling a bit frustrated with her current predicament, decides to sneak around to the side of the house opposite of the one she was originally on, hoping to find some answers to what is going on around here. However, her search if fruitless, and she soon turns to try a front-side window again. However, as she rounds the corner of the house, the window behind her bursts open and the gnome comes tumbling out. (He wasn't nearly as nimble as he thought, and landed on his face actually.) Leaping up, he shouted a challenge to Jaden and attacked.

Down in the cavern, Rougi has returned to his original entry point, and starts yelling, hoping the party is close enough to hear him. Even though Kava and Kriv are standing right above him (and at one point, even trying to peer down into the darkness) they can't hear him. He tries jumping and reaching a low ledge so he can climb out, but his gear doesn't allow him to jump high enough.

Up in the room, Kava tires of the pseudodragons at least long enough to light upon the idea of throwing a sun rod down into the pit to see if there is anything down there. She pulls one out and tosses it down. It lands close to Rougi, and its brilliant light easily illuminates him.

In the same moment that they see him, Kriv hears a noise behind them, like a swish of cloth. She whirls around to see a tall, grim Eladrin wizard holding a tall staff, standing right behind her. Before she can react, he reaches forwards and pushes both of them over the edge! They tumble into the cavern, crashing to the ground near Rougi. The falls injure both of them pretty badly.

Rougi stares up at the figure now staring down into the cavern at them. "Tell me your names and I will tell you mine!" he shouts. They identify themselves, and Rougi tries to reason with him. Erevan responds with a curt answer and a slur about Rougi being a "despicable excuse for an Eladrin." He then drags some large object over the hole, plunging the group into darkness once more.

Out in front of the house, Jaden and the gnome fight a short, intense battle. Jaden tries to reason with him as well, but he repeatedly shouts that she and her friends are enemies of his master. Jaden is able to strike him down, but then binds him and brings him back to consciousness. She then proceeds to interrogate him. So fearsome is she that the gnome is soon cowering and blubbering on the ground, blurting out everything he knows. Unfortunately he doesn't know a lot that is useful; he serves his master, his master gave him orders, his master is awesome, he doesn't know what his master is up to, he just serves his master, and his master is awesome.

He does tell her about the dungeon under the house though, and how her party has been thrown into it. He says that no one can escape from it, that dangerous creatures live there, and that the the only way out is a door in the basement of the house. He tells her how to reach this door, but then won't say anything else. She punches him to get him talking again, but this only knocks him unconcious again.

Down in the dungeon, the party spends some healing surges and then heads back down the tunnel Rougi tried earlier. They emerge into another cave room; they figure the creature Rougi detected before is still here, but figure the only way they're going to get out of here is to confront it. They are not disappointed; as they stand up in the new room, they are attacked from above by two huge bats. Their battle with them is pretty quick though; soon both vermin lie in bloody heaps on the cave floor. None too worse for the wear, the party heads down another tunnel, moving deeper into the dungeon.

Jaden sneaks into the house through the window the gnome emerged from. She is none too sneaky or agile at it herself though, and as she gets up off the floor in the corridor, she turns to see Erevan standing there, staff in hand, his face deeply unamused. Jaden tries to convince him to listen to her, but he attacks instead. An intense magic battle follows, battering both opponents to their limits. Jaden begins to gain the upper hand though, and Erevan retreats by going invisible. Jaden is suspicious, but decides to make for the door the gnome told her about. She gets to it though, and finds that it has been magically locked and her powers are not enough to make it through.

At that moment, Erevan returns to resume their battle. Jaden fights back valiantly against his spells, and after one particularly fierce hit, he decides to exit the battle for good. Drawing a dimension door in front of him, he disappears once more.

Down in the cavern, the tunnel Rougi Kriv and Kava are following comes to an iron door. Rougi is able to pick the lock and they emerge into a cavern with an underground lake. They make their way around the edge of the lake to the exit tunnel, which is another crawlspace. Rougi goes first, then Kava, and finally Kriv.

Rewards

Jaden: 500 XP, 440 gp
Kriv: 300 XP, 245 gp
Kava: 300 XP, 245 gp
Rougi: 350 XP, 245 gp. Two of the books you palmed are histories of magic (worth only a few gp each), one is a ritual book with the rituals Water Walk, Silence, and Secret Page written in, and the rest of the pages blank

Interlude: Magic Gathers

There is a key element of the game that we have been neglecting, and that is magic! Now I know that Jaden and Kriv use magical attacks in combat, but magic is far more prevalent and useful than that in the D&D world! In 4th edition, the magic system is based on rituals.

Rituals are "complex ceremonies that create magic effects"; in another setting you would call them spells. The player's handbook goes into significant detail about them starting on p. 296; I'm going to attempt to condense two and half pages of mechanics explanation into a few paragraphs. The descriptions of all the rituals start on p. 300; you may find it handy to reference one of them as you read this explanation.

Rituals are written, and come in two forms: on scrolls, and in books. Scrolls contain a single ritual that can only be used once and can't be copied. They can be bought (for the listed marked price), sold (typically for half the market price), or found (as treasure/rewards). Books can contain multiple rituals and once committed to the book can be used anytime. Ritual books can also be also be found (and they could be empty, partial, or full) or bought (empty). Rituals can be added to a book by copying them from another book (but not a scroll) and occupy as many pages as the level of the ritual (a book is 128 pages exactly). You must be at or above the level of the ritual to copy it in, and it costs the market price of the ritual to copy it in. Rituals can be copied out of a book into scroll form, but it requires effectively casting the ritual on the scroll itself, and requires all the performance elements listed below (plus it takes twice as long).

Performing a ritual requires several elements.

1. Each ritual has a level, and you must be at or above that level to cast it.
2. Rituals take a certain amount of time, anywhere from 5-10 minutes for simple ones, and hours for more complex ones (so these aren't something you'll be casting during combat). Rituals on scrolls take half as long to cast as ones in books (thus half the time listed in the description).
3. Rituals require spell components (eye of newt, alchemical agents, that sort of thing) that you have to buy special, so there is a monetary cost involved. These can be stocked up on, it's not like you always have to buy them ad hoc.
4. Some rituals require a skill check, which usually determines how effective the spell is. Allies can help you with this roll (if they're within 5 squares).
5. Anyone can cast a ritual from a scroll, but a ritual in a book requires the Ritual Casting feat and must be studied for 8 hours before the first time you cast it (unless you get the ritual as part of your class, then you don't need to study it first).

There is no penalty for stopping a ritual halfway through, and the components you bought for it won't be used up, even partially, till it's done. Once a ritual is cast, there is a duration the magical effect lasts for. This is contained in the ritual description.

We'll go over this stuff more when we play Saturday. Hope everyone's week is going well!

Recap: Sessions 1-5

Since we got started in late November, and the story has taken some interesting twists and turns since then I thought a recap might be in order.

The party meets in a bar in Zaimier, a dwarf city situated where the Great Forest of Tryn and the Mountains of Tryn meet. Hearing about a gladiatorial contest being put on in the town, they enter, and soundly defeat a team of Amazons. Due to some creative use of the locals in temporary inflating their party size, they are able to walk away from this contest with some serious money.

The contest was being put on by a dwarf aristocrat named Vondal Terisnock. He takes the party aside after their victory, and asks them to take on a quest (for more money of course). Years ago he was robbed for almost all he had. He'd like the party to track down the culprits and bring them back to face 'justice.' It won't be easy, seeing as all he knows about them is that they had this certain symbol on their clothing. The party considers for an evening, then accepts.

Inquries around Zaimier lead them to believe that the best place to start their search is in Elslein, an Eladrin city three days to the east. They make their way through the forest, but the trip nearly ends in tragedy. In the woods they are attacked by a band of ghouls, and Kava and Rougi are both killed. Kriv and Jaden are only saved when a dwarf cleric named Artin happens by and chases off the ghouls.

Artin shepherds them the rest of the way to Elslein, and when there, she resurrects Rougi and Kava. Once restored, the party searches through the city and finds a tavern with the symbol on the wall. Further detective work leads them to the grave of Qualion, who once owned the tavern. Artin is employed once again to Speak With Dead, and Qualion reveals that her old gang, Dayman, Erevan, Soveliss, and Maivera, are the party's quarry now. Qualion's living relatives tell them that Erevan and Soveliss moved to Summercrest, a human city two weeks to the south, many years before.

The party does battle with both fire beetles and goblins before leaving the city with the thanks of the clerics of Moradin (of which Artin was one) and heading for Summercrest. Their trip through the forest passes slowly and dully, until the ninth day, when, in search of some water, the party happens upon a gaggle of psuedo-dragons, which they fight and eventually capture. A tangle with an ochre jelly caught them off guard, but led them to discover that Soveliss is now dead, a victim of the jelly.

The party was growing very bored by the time they arrived at the human town of Joff near the edge of the forest. They found Joff a tense place, nervous about another attack from a nearby clan of kobolds. The party joined the town's guard to fight the clan, and after a signficant battle in the forest, Kava learned that this clan were worshippers of a legendary dragon named Tubaloth. A mysterious prophet had come to the clan some years before to announce Tubaloth's return, and now the clan muraduers for Tubaloth's glory. The humans, on learning this, decide the clan must be wiped out.