Back to the Fortress

June 16, 2020

The group starts out near the ruined dwarven fortress.  After all that had happened, they realize they want a break.  They carefully make their way back to Pryde Ranch.  Aaron greets them and gets the update on how it went.  Aaron is grateful for all they did, and will do, and sends them on their way with some food for the road.  Raz approves.  

They get back to Nesme and divide up the coins and treasure they found.  They are curious about the gems but decide to talk to Tessa first.  They find her training the troops and putting them through drills.  She hands it off to someone else to come speak to them.  She is happy with their progress and asks them to keep digging into this.  When they show her the sigils they found, she suggests they talk to Marko, the local sage, or to Marik, the high priest of Tempus.  She also tells them where to find the forge and trading place.  The group splits up to cover what they want.  

Raz, Volhoric and Shyrrik go to the forge to meet Maxx Blueaxe, the dwarven forgemaster.  He's happy not to have a commission from the nobles or the city to work on.  After discussing what is needed, they haggle on prices.  The big part comes when he mentions he has adamantine and that will give some additional protection (read damage resistance) and Raz can't agree more.  Apparently, being hit by a creature over sixteen feet tall with a weapon taller than him hurts?  Who knew?  

Marcus, Drewgan, and Daxker go speak with the sage, Marko.  They find out that these are all demon sigils and demon lords at that.  Most deal with undeath or undead, except the demon Kostchtchie, who is a patron of frost giants.  They find out that Marko has heard of a ceremony where initiates get something called the blood of Kostchtchie and it transforms them.  He asks them a lot of questions about how effective it was and how many there were.  The other demons were Kabriri, the demon of ghouls, and Zura, the demon of vampires and cannibalism.  It doesn't calm the group no matter how much they talk about it.  

Raz, Volhoric, and Shyrrik go speak to Seth and Tantlor's Outfitting and try and find some items of protection.  Again, it's more Raz shopping than the other two.  He's interested in a few things but doesn't have the coin and they haven't appraised the gems yet.  While there, the rest join them and they ask about a few items.  They also commission Seth to find some items but he warns them it will take time.  

Drewgan says that he can get them to Silverymoon faster but they will have to learn to hold their breath for five minutes.  Maybe six.  

The group goes to the House of Tempus and speak with Marik.  Boisterous and wanting to hear more, he sells them holy water and after showing their coupon, that's a dwarven word for token, to him, he gives them some healing potions as well.  

They have to wait for fifteen days for Raz's armor to be done.  They sell some gems for coins but keep many as easier to carry.  Then the rest and reflect.  Raz goes back to Seth to get the cloak he wanted but finds it had been sold already.  Another adventuring group had gotten it, and he remembers Rhona, a paladin of Ilmater, had picked that up.  

After Raz gets his armor, which in part meant Maxx wrote runes on slabs of granite that were the size of his hand, and pressed them into the armor.  Magic swelled from the runes and helped the armor fit better.  Eventually, he attaches several other runes, to make it enchanted at the Noble level and also resistant to cold.  

The group heads back to the dwarven fortress.  Once there, Drewgan says he will scout up to the other place he saw.  When he heads up there, it's strange.  He sees tracks of elk, bear, and other animals, but they end.  No tracks of what took them.  When he sees the other manor, it's empty but there are lights on in the windows?  He takes a chance and flies closer and lands on the wall.  Before he lands, he flies through the illusion and sees the dragons and giants in the courtyard.  The dragons both whip their heads around to look at him, narrowing their eyes.  

One rumbles, "I will see to it," and takes off into the air!  Drewgan decides not to stick around.  Fortunately, his hawk form is fast and he soon has out distanced the dragon.  Actually, it was easy.  Too easy.  Drewgan rejoins the rest.  

They decide not to go the overland route and instead take to the tunnels, if they go toward the fortress.  They take a quarter hour to reverse what they had done to the mechanism and then use it to go down to the first level.  They find the giants bodies gone.  Not only that, but they got up and walked out.  They check the first level and find no giants.  All walked out.  The next level, though, still had the bodies of the half ogres and orogs, as well as the rejects. 

The sacrifice level, they decide not to check it out as they don't need to go to the temple.  The stairs wind down and after the first turn, it's cold.  By the fourth turn, there is frost on the floor and walls.  No ice, it's not treacherous, but it's cold.  They come to the bottom and it opens up into a cavern.  They can see their breath, it's that cold, and are glad for their winter gear.  They walk down the hallway and when they come to the first corner, they see a room full of ice statues.  Drewgan and Marcus realize that these are ice elementals.  They start to plan their attack, getting ready to cast spells.  However, after Daxker casts his first spell, they start to animate and walk!  

Drewgan blasts a fireball into the area with devastating effect.  Most aren't moving very fast and it's doubtful they could do more than attack two at a time where they are.  The group holds their ground as the rest slowly walk forward.  

We end there.  

1500 xp

GM Notes

• I didn't run the first blood fight with the high priest of Tempus.  
• I don't think DND is the system to do it with hit points only an abstraction.  Or we would have to redefine and agree what it meant.  
• For example, is the first critical hit one that draws blood?  Or the first hit?  If it's the first hit, probably the first attacker does that.  
• It was anti climactic for the player, and maybe the group, but I didn't see it being that exciting.   
• I don't know if we "bought the robe" or had just the right amount of time role playing. 
• We did have different people talking and taking the lead, so that was nice. 
• I had one NPC talk slowly and with a stutter of a kind.  Ish.   
• Again, my hope is that even if you don't get the item, it's interesting or fun to see a team mate do it. 
• The players did swap around spells to account for the potential of undead and I think that the elementals did throw them.  Fortunately, fire is a universal language. 
• I'm also torn between back tracking and not.  Would Raz have forgotten because the player did?  Besides, they will have a chance to recover it.   

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