Players (Characters)
Scott (Rain)
Jeremy (Grokk)
Catherine (Amber)
Rachel (Horkina)
Tom (Garlen)
DM: Tony
Over the course of the next year following the blight, Roland began to get inklings of some sort of plot. Periodically he'd express worry over the telepathic bond, and eventually, he requested a meeting of the Rubble Rousers back in Cauldron. The night before the meeting was to take place, a sudden surge came over the bond. The party got an image of Roland saying "it's too soon", and an antimagic dagger flying directly at him. Each party member recieved a little more information before the link went dead:
Grokk: "Stop them."
Horkina: "Divide and conquer."
Amber: "Stop them; don't save me."
Garlen: "Knowledge is key."
Rain: "In the end, knowledge is just a tool."
Once Rain could be extracted from his adventure with a random female, the party headed for Roland's tower. Percey, who had been recently awakened, stood guard at the base of the tower. He escorted the party into Roland's study, which is where the vision seemed to have taken place. The closer the party got to the room, the less organized the furnishings. The furnishings of this particular study looked to have been thrown all over the place, as if someone had come looking for something. Roland had clearly been attacked in this room, but there was no body and only a tiny bit of blood.
To one side of the room stood a carefully crafted portrait of Roland and his father, which was somewhat suspicious -- Roland's father had died before the portrait would have been made, and the two were never close. This was obviously a well-crafted illusion, suspected to be designed to draw our attention. Amber cast "detect evil" and noted that a strong, but not overwhelming, evil aura lingered in the room. Detect Magic showed that Roland's backpack had no aura; Rain suspected it might have had Nystul's Magic Aura cast on it to hide it from whatever had torn up the room. Amber confirmed this by casting True Seeing. Roland had also left his coin gateway to Occipitus in a carefully stacked pile of coins on his desk. Inside his bag were two objects: a single book and a map. The first page of the book read:
"Five powers seek keys to the living tomb
Four burn with vengeance for plans undone
For Three it's related to a cherished one
Two have plans that took years to make
One seeks the power to make a break"
As Rain finished reading this, words faded onto the second page:
"Earth and magic wove into a womb
in ancient tunnels dark with wings
a mithral key sits idle
left alone when creators fled
it waits to know its title"
The map appeared to Horkina like a dwarven mine route, and the cartographer's signature looked like one from Naurim, the Blackrock Mountain. Amber cast Discern Location to try to locate Roland, and found that he was somewhere on Occipitus, but that his exact location could not be found. The party began to suspect that Roland wanted to keep them away from him (and whatever was attacking him) until enough resources and information had been gathered that we could face the threat. Garlen suspected the "cherished one" from the first riddle might be Adimarchus, and that his friends or enemies might be trying to claim the power of Occipitus.
The party headed to Kerah, the capital city within Naurim. The city was in a frenzy, but they were able to secure an audience with King Uther. Above his throne were several nice axes and a single beat-up axe, but before the party had a chance to really look them over, Uther exclaimed "it's a good day for strange visitors!" Earlier in the day, a mine that had long been overrun by dragons was suddenly invaded by demonic hounds with a wolf-riding bugbear creature at their head. Amber said "that sounds like our kind of party!" Rain showed Uther the map, and he confirmed it was the mine in question -- and a better map than was in the royal archives! The mine was deep and confusing, so it would be best to stick to the path marked on the map.
At the entrance of the mine, Garlen transformed into centaur form for better mobility. After walking for nearly an hour, the howling of far-off demon dogs started to test Rain's sanity. Patches of magical darkness, probably left by Shadow Dragons and the like, made navigation difficult, so Amber cast Daylight on herself and Horkina. Soon, Rain heard a group of large hounds behind the party. One of the demonic hounds leapt and dragged Amber to the ground, laying on top of her. Another charged and tripped Horkina. The third howled, trying to frighten the group. Rain stabbed one of the hounds, which moved on top of Horkina, blocking off her light source. The howling hound bit Grokk and dragged him to the ground. Horkina was able to wiggle free, providing light for the party again. Garlen, upset at being caught unaware, dealt a flurry of jabs into the two hounds within his reach, killing one and wounding the other. Rain finished off the second hound, leaving only the one atop Amber. Grokk and Horkina moved to surround it. Garlen used a spell of Lion's Charge, as well as his anti-demon weaponry and training, to kill the final hound and free Amber. Amber passed her everburning bracelet off to Garlen so that the party would have more light sources in the next such encounter.
As the party kept moving along the map route, corpses of the dogs and mid-sized dragons began to appear. Rain recognized both Black and Shadow dragons from subtle differences in their scales. The sound of fighting in the distance made it clear that the demon-hound horde and the dragon horde were not friendly with each other. Soon, Garlen heard another group of large animals sneaking behind the party. He turned and charged, pouncing on a huge Howler and killing it. Two more Howlers converged on him, tripping him and jabbing quills into him. Rain, Horkina, and Grokk all ran towards the Howlers. Amber cast Greater Command, telling the Howlers to stop fighting and sit down. Garlen and Rain moved to flank one of the Howlers, while Grokk leap-attacked and Horkina landed a critical hit on the other. The Howlers continued to sit as they were slain.
Further along, more dog corpses and larger dragon corpses started to appear. It became clear the party was entering still-contested areas. Amber cast Fortunate Fate on everyone for extra safety. A few moments later, a Black Dragon dropped on top of Amber, pulling her down directly between Grokk and Horkina. At the same time, a Shadow Dragon dropped in front of Garlen and clawed him several times. Garlen responded with a slightly less effective attack and yelled at the dragons "you idiots, get out of the way so we can kill more demon-dogs!" Horkina pounded on the Black Dragon while Amber cast a quickened Freedom of Movement to free herself. Amber then dispelled the Shadow Dragon's Blur effect and hit it with a Moon Bolt. Grokk attacked the Black Dragon and landed a critical hit with the Holy Cow Axe, pulverizing the foolish dragon. Rain snuck behind the Shadow Dragon and stabbed its kidney, leading it to realize it was in over its head. It tumbled a few feet away and breathed negative energy at the party, draining energy from Grokk and Horkina. A few seconds later, it was dead, and the party was left unsure as to who had actually killed it. Amber restored and healed the party.
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