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.