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.

Session 5: The Little Giants

The party found themselves now eleven days out of Elslein, and bored. One afternoon, to break up the monotony, they decided to stop and hold a little athletics competition for themselves, doing stuff like the long jump and such. Rougi won of course, being the most nimble and dexterous of them all, but it wasn't like they were playing for money or anything. So they enjoyed the little diversion and moved on.

The next day, as they walked along during the morning, they noticed that the forest was growing thinner. Suddenly, it opened up, and they found themselves passing by some fields of crops and livestock. They could see barns in the distance, though no people or homes. The fields were broken by patches of forest, so they knew they weren't quite out of the woods yet, but it looked like a town was growing close.

Then, as they came around a bend in the road, they saw the town. Jaden realized she knew this town - it is called Joff, and was founded about three centuries ago by humans who had grown weary of living in Summercrest, and is still an all-human town. Not very many people pass from Elslein to Summercrest, and those that do are often non-humans who don't feel very welcome and thus don't stay long. The town lives off the land, farming several nearby fields and hunting in the forest. As humans go they're a pretty enlightened bunch, treating the forest with respect, and not getting into fights too often.

As they approached the town, they found the gates shut tight. Not 10 paces out from them, without warning, an arrow fired from the guard station at the top of the wall and barely avoided hitting Kriv. The party immediately went into defensive positions of course, and Rougi slipped in to the bushes to avoid detection. Before any return attack could be mounted, though, a voice rang out, "Stop, stop, stop, you idiots, don't attack them, are you blind, they're not kobolds!"

The face of a man appeared above the wall; he is tall, bearded, and about middle-aged. He called out to the party that his name is Bard, and that he is the captain of the guard in this town. They've been under attack by some monsters lately and his guards a little 'high-strung.' He pleads their forgiveness and welcomes them into the town. Rougi slips through the gate unnoticed, but once inside it becomes apparent that Bard is truly penitent and is no threat to them, and so he makes himself known.

In an effort to smooth over this little incident, Bard invites them into the inn, where his wife works in the kitchen. She cooks them a hearty meal of meat-and-turnip pies with excellent mashed potatoes and rich soda bread, topped off with foaming mead. It's basically the best food they've ever tasted.

Bard sits and eats with them and explains the situation a little more thoroughly. For years, they've known that there was a clan of kobolds living somewhere in the forest close to their town; however, it's usually been a situation of mutual disinterest and they haven't bothered each other. The kobolds occasionally steal food, but it's always been pittances, sneaky thefts in the middle of the night. But then, three weeks ago, a dozen or more kobolds attacked the town in broad daylight! They were repelled of course, but just a few days ago, they attacked again, and this time one of the guards was killed. A violent death is pretty rare in this town under any circumstances, so this whole situation has the whole town jittery and afraid. Hence, the accidental attack on the party.

The party reflects the situation is a little odd. Kobolds after all are usually cowardly and sneaky hunters, setting traps and ambushes, not openly attacking en masse. They think about the fact that, while dragons usually ignore the kobolds worshiping them, every so often a dragon takes a direct interest in its followers and then the kobolds can become an actual menace. They wonder if that's what's happening here.

Rougi figures that, regardless of the reasons for the kobolds' actions, this is a perfect opportunity to hire themselves out for some monster-kills. He proposes to Bard that they get paid a fee to end this kobold menance. Bard laughs - the people of his town are both proud and poor; if they had the inclination or means to hire mercenaries then they would have already done so.

The party asks Bard if he knows anything about the symbol they've been chasing; they show it to him, and he says that he recalls an Eladrin passing through here a few years ago with that symbol of the hem of his pants. The party realizes that that must be the same person whose remains they found in the woods. They ask for the Eladrin's name; he says he can't recall it, but calls in one of the other guards, who says that he remembers the Eladrin's name as Soveliss. The party groans in recognition; that was the name of one of Qualion's band. They ask if there was anyone else with him when he passed through; they say no, he was alone. Bard's curiosity has been piqued by their interest, and asks for the story; they tell him what they found, and he sighs; ochre jellys seem to pop up in the forest at least once a decade, and it's really annoying to know that they're back.

The party suspects that all the strange occurrences in this forest are connected somehow; the ghouls, the ochre jelly, the strange actions of the kobolds, perhaps even the goblin attack against the temple of Moradin in Elslein. They decide that even though they are not likely to get paid anything, they will fight the kobolds. In fact, they propose to Bard that they track them back to their lair and take care of this. Bard is enthusiastic, and this greatly improves his opinion of the party (their asking for money and Kava's bizarre statement had been a little off-putting ^_^).

So after lunch, the party, along with Bard and two of his guards, head off east into the forest to try and find the kobolds' lair. The party suggests bringing more muscle, but Bard says he can't clean the town undefended. Their tracking goes well, and they are pretty sure they're drawing close to the lair.

Then, the forest opens up into a shaded clearing, and they see at one end a short creature standing there. It's a little too far away for them to tell what it is right away, but the creature doesn't wait for them to get a closer look. Raising its arms, it cries out "For the glory of Tubaloth! Death to the infidels!" (Jaden recognizes the name Tubaloth; he is a creature of myth, a dragon that supposedly lived in the mountains of Tryn many centuries ago. No one is really sure if he ever existed, though. )

Suddenly the clearing is crawling with kobold warriors! They swarm at the party and the humans, javelins whizzing through the air and swords flashing. It proves to be a pretty even fight though; a good number of the kobolds are little better than cannon fodder, dying after a single hit. However, once they are dead, the much stronger warriors rush in on Rougi and Bard and a fierce dogfight ensues. The original kobold hangs back, every so often letting out a magic burst that bolsters his allies. The party is in perfect form though, and while Rougi takes some serious hits, they all do some powerful damage. Even Kriv unleashes some pretty heavy blows. Pretty soon only the priest character is left, and Rougi and Jaden quickly bring him down.

They didn't kill him though; after they knocked him out, Kava tied him up and they fed him a healing potion to bring him back to consciousness. They then proceed to question him. However, no matter how intimidating or diplomatic most of the party is he won't say a word. But then Kava steps in, and he opens up like a old book. In a spirited Draconic conversation with him, Kava is able to learn from him that four years ago, a "great prophet" came to this clan of kobolds and told them that Tubaloth, their great dragon master, had returned! The kobolds had been waiting for this day for many generations, and so were eager to learn what instructions Tubaloth had for them. The prophet told them to exact tribute and gold from the town of humans (being lazy, it took them this long to get around to really doing it). The prophet promised to return in five years, so he should be back in about twelve months. Kava asked him who this prophet is. The priest does not know his name, and can only describe him as a "metal human", a phrase that means nothing to any of them there.

The priest flatters Kriv and Kava endlessly, using very overwraught language, and persuading them to turn on these "stupid" allies of theirs and join forces with them in the grand service of Tubaloth! Kava is able to convince the priest that she and Kriv are on the kobolds' side; she tries to convince them that their allies are not to be despised, but the priest seems to be "just saying it" when he agrees.

In the end, Kava makes him agree to contact them in a year's time when the prophet returns, and then decides to let him go. Bard and Rougi are not for this idea, and in fact when Kava unties him, they make moves to kill him. But he runs off, and both Rougi and Jaden are unsuccessful at tracking him back to his lair. Bard is willing to just him go - until he hears the recap of Kava's conversation with him. Once he realizes that these raids are not going to end, he angrily states they have no choice but to go wipe them out. Kobold clans are not too big, and so the battle to destroy the rest of the clan will probably not be any more difficult that what just transpired. Kava and Kriv try to argue otherwise, but in the end the decision is made to track them back and annihilate them!

Rewards

XP: 800
Money: 360 gp (90 gp each)
Treasure: The priest dropped a round ball as he ran off. It's a level 5 Energy Orb; it grants an additional +1 to attacks (vs. Reflex) and deals 1D10+3 fire damage at a range of 10 squares. It's power is an at-will and takes a standard action. As a level 5 item it is worth 1,000 gp. (This item is not in the Player's Handbook.)

Interlude: That was Fast

All right, hope everyone enjoyed level 2 because you're now ready to move up to level 3!

• Because you moved up to an odd-numbered level, none of your level modifiers increase.
• You will all gain some hit points of course -- look back at the last level-up post for a description of what to do there.
• Be sure to look and see if any of your class features get better at this level.
• You will all gain 1 encounter power. Choose wisely!
  

Now, a word on retraining - some of you are not happy with some aspects of your characters. There are allowances in the rules for retraining, which means that when you level up (as you're doing now) you can decide to drop and pick another feat, skill, or power. Note that that means you can choose one thing to alter -- you can't alter one feat, and one power, or any other combination; you can pick one feat, one skill, or one power and change it. (You don't have to let me know what you're doing, but I'd appreciate a heads up, especially since I try to create games that will utilize the skills and powers you guys have chosen ^_^).

Retraining is described in much greater detail on p. 28 of the Player's Handbook.

If at some point someone decides they just absolutely hate their character and want to make a new one, I think we've proved I'm pretty adept at killing off party members, so that can be arranged. :-D Just leave a comment or send me an email and we'll chat about it.

I'm sure you've all noticed that one of the rewards from the last adventure was a pair of catstep boots (you found them in the remains of the ochre jelly). Whenever I award treasure that cannot be equally divided, you can do one of three things:

• Sell it and divide the profit.
• Decide among yourselves who will get it.
• Come up with some sort of ingenious plan in-game :)

I'll ask what your decision is at the beginning of the next session.

It looks like we'll be playing Saturday; let's get together at 6:30 PM. Bring your hungry faces! ;)

Session 4: A Tangle of Snares

The road is Summercrest is long and narrow, passing through all kinds of terrain. It is largely untraveled and uninhabited, and so for eight days, the party passed through the great Forest of Tryn without seeing another soul.

On the ninth day, they awoke, and realized they were running low on water. The basket of Everlasting Provisions that Jaden had was feeding them well, but it had been over a week since any rain had fallen, and even the magic of the Provisions was having a hard time keeping up with the thirst of two large Dragonborns. They decide to try and fill their canteens from a lake or stream, and so made their way into the forest to find one.

About 100 yards off the trail they found a small lake, more of a pond really. As they were filling their canteens, they noticed on the other side of the lake a small gaggle of pseudodragons. The pseudodragons were just getting a drink, and while they definitely saw the party, they didn't seem particularly interested in them. Rougi, however, decided that they should try to trap them; they knew pseudodragons could be good as pets, and figured they could sell them in Summercrest.

Kava was able to fashion a quick but sturdy cage out of dead wood and the lengths of rope the party had. Then, before the pseudodragons could run off, Kava and Kriv began to move around one side of the lake, and Jaden around the other, with the intention of herding them down to where Rougi stood with the cage, now baited with some meat. The pseudodragons were a little skittish about the party's approach, so Kava held out a piece of meat to entice them closer. One of them slowly and cautiously approached her. Then, to her surprise, it went invisible! As Kava looked around puzzledly for it, she suddenly found that it had taken the meat right out of her hands.

For a moment this was amusing. But apparently the pseudodragons were hungrier and more aggressive than the party realized because only seconds after this, the little creatures began to attack. While not particularly powerful, they dealt out acid damage with the stings of their tails. Rougi, watching from the other side of the lake, realized that this was a bit serious, and began to rush over to help them. It's a good thing too, for Kava went down, precariously close to death once more, though Kriv managed to revive her. Kava and Jaden ended up being ganged up on, which was no small problem for them, but this left Kriv and Rougi free to attack them unencumbered. After Kava revived and Rougi arrived, the battle quickly turned in the party's favor, and they were able to subdue the pseudodragons. Getting them into the cage in their unconscious state, they then fed them some healing potions and locked the cage up tight. The pseudodragons snapped at them angrily, but were unable to escape, and could not sting the party anymore (unless they stuck their hands in, which no one did).

The party elected to rest for about 15 minutes, and then began making their way back to the road. As they did, they passed by a rather large tree, when, to their surprise, a mouth appeared on the tree, and it cried out, "Beware! Ochre Jelly!" Kava, Kriv, and Jaden were instantly on their guard, knowing that Ochre Jellies are a very dangerous and vicious kind of ooze monster. Rougi, however, was unaware of this, and so when a viscous creature the color of dried blood began to seep out from under the tree, he was caught completely off-guard.

The ochre jelly proved a bit of an elusive foe, shifting behind cover after its powerful slam attacks. Once again, Kava was nearly brought down. All in all though, the battle went remarkably well - before long the jelly split into two in a desperate attempt to divide them, but this actually only made it easier to bring it down. Kriv healed Kava, and pretty soon it was all over.

As the jelly dissolved, melting away in its death throes, the party realized there was a large number of bones and assorted items now scattered at their feet. The jelly had claimed many victims over the years, and had melted away their flesh for its sustenance, but the bones, equipment, and sometimes even clothing of its meals had not been digested and now was strewn about on the forest floor. Ever in search of more loot, the party pawed through the remains, finding 360 gp.

As they were looting, they found another strange thing - the leg bones of a humanoid, with some remnants of the trousers still attached. Sewn onto the hem of one of the pant legs was the symbol of Qualion's gang, now faded with age and ochre jelly acid. They made a search among the field of debris for a skull, but found only the skulls of animals. Eventually, they decided to head back for the road.

They had almost reached the road again when Rougi noticed a sword lying in the bushes. Walking over cautiously, he saw that the sword was clasped in the hands of a mangled skeleton missing its legs. Figuring this was the other half of the Qualion associate they'd found earlier, they took the skull, hoping to find someone to do Speak With Dead again in Summercrest.

Having just faced two battles in a short amount of time, the party opted to take their rest now, even though it was only mid-day. Securing a small spot just off the road, they fell into a much deserved sleep.

Rewards

XP: 900 XP
Money: 360 gp (90 gp apiece)
Treasure: Catstep Boots (Level 3)