The Shackled City, Day 13 (2006-12-08, 6:30 PM) Chapter 4: Zenith Trajectory

Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Tony (Roland)
Rachel (Horkina)
DM: Tom (Garlen)

As the party walked along Magma Avenue toward the church of St. Cuthbert, a low rumble caught their attention. Suddenly, a large beast with huge forearms and an insect-like head burrowed up from the ground and smashed a fist into the corner of a warehouse. Grokk and Horkina charged at it and smashed it with their axes, and the umber hulk quickly burrowed back underground. A few moments later, Rain heard it inside the neighboring warehouse. The party charged in and surrounded it, killing it with a magic missile and a few stabs. A quick search through the rubble in both warehouses revealed the remnants of what may have been a summoning circle. This umber hulk did not come here on its own.

A few hours later, a beautiful blonde woman calling herself Celeste handed a business card to Roland, saying she'd like to arrange a business dinner the next night. The card pointed the party to the Cusp of Sunrise, an upscale dinner club to the northeast on Obsidian Avenue. When the party arrived, a large bald man in light blue robes greeted them: "you're the umber hulk people. I'm Renjin -- welcome to the Cusp of Sunrise." Roland sat down and started reading in the library. The others sat around a small gaming table, ordering drinks and playing a dice game with some of the nobles. Grokk earned several gold pieces from the others for winning the game, and was asked to tell a story as is tradition for winners of Snatch the Gem. Grokk obliged: "Once, Grokk was walking in the forest. Grokk see a frog. Frog say 'ribbit'... so Grokk SMASH!"

A few minutes later, Celeste arrived and greeted the party, inviting them into a conference room in the east wing. There sat a dwarf, aged and scrawny with his hair and beard starting to fall out. He wheezed out "you're the heroes of the city right now, and it's heroes I need. I'll pay you well if you'll rescue my son from the Underdark." This man introduced himself as Davked Splintershield, and said his son Zenith had disappeared during a foolish crusade against the denizens of the Underdark. Unfortunately, Davked's wife Marta put a curse on him as she died: he would waste away to nothing unless he made peace with each of his three sons. The final son, Zenith, was still missing -- divinations located him in a kuo-toan shrine called Bhal-Hamatugn. Celeste explained that the nearest entrances to the Underdark had been caved in during a series of adventures by the Stormblades, but there was one entrance to the north, near the home of a hermit called Crazy Jared.

In the morning, the party set out for Crazy Jared's. Most characters rented horses, while Amber took flight on Redtail, her hippogriff. At the end of the journey, this provided her with a great view of the red dragon breathing fire toward the countryside below. The party hurried over the next hill to see Jared's hut -- surrounded by a wooden fence painted to look like a stone wall -- on fire. As the party approached, Jared called out "onward, my knights, for Anduria!" Seeing no reason to argue, Grokk, Horkina, and Rain fired arrows at the dragon, while Amber and Roland spread out and fired spells at it. The crazy hermit's play-by-play of the fight inspired the party to be courageous in their fight, and the dragon was quickly slain.

Jared called out "behold the beautiful and peacable realm of Anduria!" as he cast an illusion, making the land look lush and covered in vineyards. The party requested lodging for the night while gathering as much information as they could. Jared spoke of a nearby Underdark entrance, called the Pit of the Seven Jaws, where "just last week I sent five hundred of Anduria's finest to guard against an incursion by the mind flayers." Roland later joked that he expected to see cardboard cutouts of knights standing around the pit.

In the morning, the group approached the pit, and walked down the metal staircase. As Rain stood on a platform about halfway down, several bursts of ice fired at him. A seven-headed cryohydra had just popped up from a fissure below. Grokk and Horkina rushed to assault it, and a few solid smashes left the hydra bleeding and unconscious.