Session 18
Sessions 18-20 are an extended re-mix session, because we basically played ALL WEEKEND. You may send your tokens of utter envy to my niece. She collects them on a string, along with the broken hearts of young men.
By unanimous vote, Saturday’s eight-hour game is dubbed “Session 18” while Sunday’s pre-lunch game is dubbed “Session 19” and post-lunch game is “Session 20.”
Months 2, 3, and 4, continued
The party spends winter thoroughly gridding and exploring the region. Soldiers and henches both receive significant bonus pay.
The efreet is finally released from service. Galswintha sends him on his way with gifts of wine, silks, and a simple brass ring inscribed with the word “VERITAS”, because that’s just how she rolls.
The significant encounters:
Hex #1308: Sheltered Wood
A thick-wooded valley with several brigand encounters. Position and research indicate that this hex may hide the lair of “the Bandit King” and his berserker personal guard. He is said to be the deadliest swordsman in the world. Or at least this part of the world.
Hex #1309: Heart of Stone
A granite hill with a stone giant den carved from its heart. These giants are dressed in ragged bear hides and armed with stone clubs - they look poor.
Initial talks go poorly - then the party persuades Dagunde (one of the giantesses) to come talk to them, and talks go even more poorly. Stone giants appear to be very sexist, and Dagunde has had enough of that crap.
When Dagunde refuses to give up her stuff and settle down, the giants pick up weapons and stand threateningly … and Chlodomer tries to talk everyone down. The giants attack!
Vulfelind, Haramer, and Chlodomer work together to knock down and pin the most aggressive male, and Chlodomer clambers up and stabs him in the eyes, one after the other. This takes several tries, but he manages it, and then calls for a temporary truce.
The giants surrender, and will head west, never to return. Shadagrunde restores the blind giant’s eyesight, but says, “If you return, and Chlodomer does not remove your eyes again, the Lady will.”
The party checks the giants’ hoard, but it’s so pathetic they just leave it to the giants.
Hex #1407: Red Meadow
A six-mile patch of meadow with rust-colored mushrooms growing in the snow. A troop of centaurs regard the area as theirs, and do not take kindly to Chlodomer’s desire to discuss land rights - specifically, the idea that he might rule the area soon.
On the other hand: ten centaurs, army of mid-level heroes. The Grim Fist leaves, unwilling to kill the centaurs, but also unwilling to entirely cede the hex to them.
No one gives in and tries eating the mushrooms.
Hexes #1408, #1409, and #1509: Crevice Wood, Slithering River, and Darkwater Wood
South and west of Pegasus Mountain, the party finds three ogre villages. Each village has a warband of allied hill giants and giant boar mounts, and one has a charmed cyclops.
(OOC: Since I determined the villages would not aid one another, ogres being the socially stunted monsters that they are, we decided to run just the cyclops village fight, and assert that the other two had similar results.)
Team Thief sneaks in during an ogre siesta and frees the boars, careful to make the cuts look like the results of rubbing and wear, then fades away. After the ogres send out teams to re-catch the boars, the Grim Fist throws military oil into the main mass of remaining ogres and ignite it with fireballs, then charges in and mops up … and then retreats to heal and prepare. The following day, they discover that the ogre gangs, rather than clump up for a nice area-effect mop-up, have spread out as much as possible. So the Grim Fist foregoes area effects, tucks their armor away for speed, and engages in hit-and-run tactics, taking advantage of ogre slowness to pick off those at the edges.
When the ogres finally converge for protection, fireball.
The cyclops never managed to be much of a threat, although he did manage to beat Chlodomer down to about half hit points.
Among the many treasures acquired, the party acquires:
Gauntlets of ogre power, which the party discusses and discusses and discusses, because Chlodomer is strong enough that he won’t gain much benefit; and no one else is as much of a front-line fighter. They finally give the gauntlets to Genofeva de Paris, Chlodomer’s mercenary ex-aristocrat, which puts her on par with the rest of the party damage-output wise.
Eyes of the eagle which also go to one of Chlodomer’s henches, Adela d’Orléans, the smooth-talking cataphract sergeant.
Staff of the serpent which is given to Grimaric, of Shadagrunde’s Team Priest.
There are also a bunch of basic magical swords, which get divided up among Chlodomer’s hench army, and another 20 magical weapons which get split out various ways, and a tub of potions, and a few scrolls.
It’s a beautiful haul.
Hex #1410: Shadowed Lake
A tiny goblin village nestled into a riverbank in a hilly wood. The goblin archers look too deadly, so they set it aside for later.
(OOC: Vulfelind’s player groaned at this, “When I said no more ogre villages…”.)
After clearing a few other hexes, however, Vulfelind has an idea and they return.
Team Thief invisibly sneaks through the village, find and sabotage as many bows as they can in the spell’s duration, and then retreat.
Sacks of fragile pottery filled with military oil come dropping out of the sky, followed by the dull wump of fireball and flame strike. Then, and only then, arrows rain down on the goblins and Haramer’s spearmen close in for the kill.
Goblin bows snap and twang and break, and you can just about hear tiny little goblin hearts breaking right along with them.
One of Haramer’s soldiers gets an unexpected arrow to the throat, but he gets better.
Hex #1507: Bone Temple Hill
A semi-barren hilltop with the ruins of an ancient temple crumbling atop it, and the gnawed-on bones of those who have tried to take the hill by force scattered at the base. The party investigates from a distance for a while, until they finally spot the sphinx as he lands on the temple roof, an antelope dangling from his forepaws.
There is some discussion about this, some Adventuring throws about sphinxes are made, and they decide to send their armies back into the woods; then spells of protection and augmentation are cast, and Chlodomer (with Thorismund and Ingunde) and Shadagrunde (with Merideth) march up the hill in plain sight to parley and/or fight.
Vulfelind (with Grizzba) simultaneously sneak in, trying to get close to the sphinx.
Chlodomer starts with diplomacy. Sadly: the sphinx hasn’t finished his meal; is Chaotic; and was a friend of the necromancer, and here saunters the murderer. It is on.
The sphinx opens with a roar, stunning Merideth and Thorismund, and terrifying Ingunde; Shadagrunde removes fear on Ingunde, and Chlodomer steps in and subtracts a quarter of the sphinx’s hit points in one shot. Vulfelind and Grizzba carefully close the last of the distance.
The sphinx roars again (all of the henches flee) and claws at Chlodomer, but Chlodomer is unmoved. Shadagrunde drops a flame strike, Chlodomer stabs, … and then Vulfelind and Grizzba both do something horrible to the sphinx’s back end. The monster whips around and bites and claws Vulfelind within an inch of her life (she’s an easier target than Chlodomer, too). And then Chlodomer and Shadagrunde both dish out grievous blows.
The sphinx gives a last roar, Shadagrunde removes fear on Chlodomer, and Chlodomer (sensing that the sphinx is preparing to retreat) grabs onto its mane. Vulfelind retreats to lick her wounds and Grizzba stabs it in the foot.
The sphinx retreats, taking to the air … and Chlodomer comes with. Between magic missiles and Chlodomer’s continued stabbing, the sphinx dies midair. Chlodomer is lamed from the fall, and Shadagrunde is out of fifth level spells, so the Grim Fist takes the rest of the day off to search the rubble for loot and roast smores.
Among the sphinx’s scattered goods:
A staff of healing, which the Grim Fist immediately employs; once used, it goes to Veneranda le Vulin (Vulfelind’s clerical hench).
Another pair of gauntlets of ogre power, which this time Chlodomer keeps.
Hex #1510: The Oak Circle
A massive, open grotto with hot springs (not scalding - just right) feeding into a warm stream; inside the grotto it feels like Spring. Six massive oak trees form a circle around the largest pool, and a heavy wood of oaks and yews surround those.
The party almost march in with their army, before Shadagrunde points out that it looks like it might be a dryad grove.
In fact, it is a dryad grove, and so much more:
- Six dryads in the circle of trees, one of whose trees hosts an entire pixie village in its branches.
- Another six dryads scattered about the nearby woods who visit regularly.
- A few dozen naiads who lair in the hot springs.
- Several treants.
- Another pixie village in a quartz-rich cavern offshoot of the grotto.
-
Another pixie village laid out in the stone foundation of a long-gone watchtower.
- A pack of blink dogs who hunt the area.
- A guardian owl nesting in one of the treants.
The party is very, very, very respectful. And for once, the high Charisma quotient of the party is a serious problem - the dryads and naiads, collectively, are interested in keeping most of the party with them as friends, entertainment, and objects of admiration.
Through heroic parley, and the assistance of the guardian owl, the Grim Fist assures the citizens of the grove that they will visit at least once a year and manages to leave without losing anyone forever.
The Oak Circle is marked on Shadagrunde’s map as “our eventual wilderness preserve.”
Hex #1607: Utena’s Shadow
As the party has been moving regularly, and checking the weather, they eventually notice that the DM always says “and heavy altocumulus clouds to the northeast.”
They start observing more carefully … and the altocumulus clouds never move. Wind reshapes them occasionally, but that’s about it.
And then they have the bright idea of borrowing Adela’s eyes of the eagle and outfitting Veneranda’s giant hawk Fierce on the Wind with them, to take a good look at the clouds. One speak with animals later confirms that cloud giants live there, some eight thousand feet off the ground.
They leave that one for later - eight thousand feet is a long way to climb - but do check the shadowed ground beneath for alternatives.
Hex #1608, #1609, and #1709: Bugbear Forest Lake, Ugly Hill, and Valley Lake
OOC: After some discussion, I just yielded on these. Hopefully Domains at War will let us handle stuff like this better in the future, but I didn’t really want to spend the whole weekend rolling and accounting for dozens of d20s.
Hex #1610: Galaufchulis
Atop the largest hill in the region (but not quite a mountain), lies an immense oak tree over a thousand feet tall, whose roots entwine the entire hill. The stream that flows past it runs all the way from the Oak Circle grotto, and indeed, there is another village of pixies here, and a family of treants.
There are also a dozen small rocs nesting in the branches, and almost two dozen pegasi nesting here. Galswintha notes with some bitterness that these pegasi are far more accessible.
The party decides to leave this one for later - the rocs are Lawful and so Chlodomer and Galswintha don’t want to hurt them, but they are also aggressive and refusing to parley.
Hex #1708: Azure Hot Springs
The westmost hex had four hot spring locations, feeding a series of war streams surrounded by snow. The result is gorgeous and creates a perpetual fog amidst the trees visible from Pegasus Mountain.
Up close, each hot spring turned out to be incredibly deep … and housing an aquatic hydra. Three are comparatively small (6, 7, and 9 heads) and one is a 12-headed monster. All can breathe steam blasts and are resistant to heat, and have an easy retreat into water too hot for most of the party to fight in.
Unfortunately for the six- and seven-headed hydras, Galswintha knows water-breathing and Chlodomer has a ring of fire resistance. Support spells are cast, ropes are tied off, additional magic items from other party members are layered on, and Chlodomer dives in for a little mano-a-monster. Between Chlodomer’s current AC 11 (the hydra manages about one hit per round) and his attack ability (1d6+8), he outlasts a single hydra by a mile. One of the two small ones does try biting through the rope, but that just wastes an attack.
The nine-headed hydra, they bait near the edge where those tough enough to survive the steam breath can fight it, and Chlodomer goes around behind it to keep it from retreating. That works so well (aside from the shore party suffering from gouts of steam), that they try it again on the 12-HD monster.
They also find a crossbow with grecian markings - some experimentation identifies it as a crossbow +3 which ignites arrows fired from it (dealing 1 point of fire damage). Vulfelind claims it.
… but the baiting fails. And the canny beast disappears into the deep blue depths of the spring. They decide to leave this one alone for the moment.
Session End
Azure Hot Springs (#1309) still has a HD 12* hydra extant, and it has proven to be too smart to be baited out. Some additional, careful research has also revealed to the party that all four springs are connected by deeper tunnels.
Red Meadow (#1407) still has shroom-sniffing centaurs running free.
The Oak Circle (#1510) is still a lair, but that may be okay: a wilderness preserve of mostly Lawful creatures isn’t a bad thing, as long as no one expects peasant families to settle in that hex. And given the history of the Grim Fist, they may manage to get some use out of it anyway. I counted this one as a “win,” because the party didn’t lose anyone forever to the dryad or naiad parties ;-).
Utena’s Shadow (#1607) still has cloud giants, which is worrisome. And I’ll just issue a spoiler here: the giants ain’t friendly sorts.
Galaufchulis (#1610) still has rocs and pegasi, and there is no plan in place for dealing with the rocs in a manner that satisfies everyone in the party.
And there is a Bandit King somewhere in the Sheltered Wood (#1308) …
Overall, however, not a bad winter-worth of work.