Interlude - Looting Malareth's Stuff

With Malareth & Kurrash dead, the group inspected the room. General List:

• Hollow Triangles: A very sturdy blockade across the door. The other side is the dragon's room. The blockade includes heavy chain wrapping the handles, benches bracing the door and various bits of rubble and stone at the base of the door.
• G: A hot brazier with coals. Does not appear to contain a fire elemental. Signs of wear and scratches around it suggest it was used for experiments of some sort but you're unable to determine what experiments occured. Ungood ones you suspect.
• 1: Crates and assorted baskets containing various goods. As a whole, appears to have a shiny +1 chainmail, a holy relic (Symbol of Life), about two month's worth a rations for a single person, 50 feet of rope, 4 short swords, 60 arrows, a +1 long bow (made of Yew!), a pendant of Avandra (goddess of luck) (With the blessing of Avandra, your attacks luckily hit more accurately. Daily power: your next natural 19 counts as critical hit, effect lasts to the end of the encounter) and about 320 silver pieces.
• 2: Bookshelves in Malareth's room. You find about 40 books and scrolls in various languages. A few are in common and describe necromancy and general history. Skimming through you see various rituals for raising dead, for reinforcing undead, for transferring life force & bridging connections to the Shadowfell. All very not nice stuff. On some shelves you find various labeled jars containing blood (human, dwarf, vampire, goblin), bone dust, salt, various herbs and candles.
• 3: Tables in the room. (the 2s next to the center door should be 3s) The large table in the middle contains largely crushed vials and alchemical supplies and a leather bound journal. You can't read it as it's in dwarven (no one knows dwarven, right?) but you can make out some dates in the entry headers -- the main entries appear to be roughly a hundred years old. In some of the pages you see scribbles in the margins (in common) which you assume to be Malareth's writing. Without knowing what the writing says you can't make much sense of the scribbles. The couple bits that you can make out are references to places -- (Hammerfast and an unnamed keep, appears to be somewhere in the Witchlight Fens). Without the context of the descriptions in dwarven you can't get any more detail from it.
• The smaller tables (were not smashed) contain some vials, herbs and distillation devices. Of interest here are a potion of healing, a potion of anti-hemmoraging (will stabilize a dying character) and a couple black vile bile vials which appears to have some necromantic purpose. Holding them makes you feel bad and depressed.
• 4. The chest. Inside the chest is a bag. Inside the bag is a cloak which appears to do a better job of shielding you from cold than normal clothing (+4 cold resist), a smaller bag with 400 gold & a handful of gems of various qualities and clarities (roughly 200gp worth), a journal of Malareth's which writes up experiments and observations in great detail (he took good notes), a silver dagger and a wand of magic missile (+1 to evocation attack rolls using the wand, magic missile does 1 extra damage and can slide a target by one square), a week's worth of food. You assume the bag to be his travel kit. It holds far more than a normal bag which makes you see it as a bag of holding.
• Malareth's body: a large staff made of multiple segments of bone. The work on it is fine and smooth where the segments are joined. It's effectively a quarterstaff with +1 to attack rolls and +3 necromantic damage. However holding it feels draining, at the cost of 6 necromantic damage per hour. He has a ring on his finger which has an odd symbol on it. A religion check identifies it as the symbol of Orcus (short story, evil god). Holding it in your hand you feel like it protects you somewhat from necromantic damage. You guess that having the ring counteracts the damage from the staff. Arcana check on it says you feel like you're giving up something more than stamina in exchange for the protection.
• The box itself: The box is a fine wooden box of remarkable craftsmanship. Before closing it Marix saw that the box contained a small blackend skull which had a symbol on it which matches the symbol of Orcus from the ring. The outside of the box has two symbols engraved on it, one of Moradin (a deity of the dwarves) and the Raven Queen (unaligned god of death, opposes Orcus in the grand scheme of things). Arcana check again suggests these are what allow the box to contain the evil inside. History check suggests that Travus's most recent story was on the up and up -- it's a couple hundred years old and you recall a confrontation in hammerfest where a dwarf necromancer tried to raise the dwarven ancestors buried under the city only to be opposed by the priests and paladins of the temple.
• Kurrash's body: +1 leather armor (very large, needs to be reworked for anyone but Kriv) and a spiked mace which has a +1 bonus to attack & damage rolls.
• The skeletons: 1 long sword + chainmail each.

Session Three - Showdown with Malareth

After the zombie slaughter fest the group rested a bit, caught their breath and searched the area. Erevan noted there was potential for goodies in the previous halls so they went back and found it. While it forced Huorn to undo his precautions (wedging doors shut) she was able to sense something special about a statue. There was a statue of a old Dwarven General, General Leo. A great general with many great victories under his belt. In the end he died and someone made a statue of him. The sculptor graced the statue with a minor enchanted longsword. Deciding that it could come in handy Kriv went and tried to pull the sword from the statue. He did a good job at that but the statue came crashing down around him. And there went General Leo’s monument. Poor Leo. Had a nice sword through, came down as a +1 longsword for Kriv. And he only took a healing surge’s worth of damage.

Valenor, Kriv, Chali and everyone else debated a bit on what path to take. Should they explore pieces of the dungeon they passed earlier in the day or should they continue on? Press on they decided! And press on they did into a crowded room filled with zombies, skeletons and a small flying drake. The drake appeared to be leading them (as much as anyone can lead the undead). And they fought, long and hard. Spells flinging and weapons flashing our heroes pressed on their foes. These undead were stronger and sturdier than most and resisted. The drake balanced the brute strength of the zombies. Flittering back and forth it went, poisoning Kriv and then Marix, disappearing to hide in plain sight when it was hit only to strike again from the side. Having enough of that, Erevan hit some zombies and the drake with a spell throwing them to the floor. While this broke the stalemate between the two groups it wasn’t enough to prevent Kriv from falling. Down he went as the zombies pummeled and bit him. All through the fight however, one zombie appeared to be staying back from the fray. When the main group was nearly defeated Valenor rushed to it to smite it only to realize it was no zombie! As he hit it squealed and whimpered and fled. Also not very zombie like. As the last of their other foes went down Huorn came to assist and keep him in a corner. The zombie changed from a Zombie to a Doppleganger! Well, it was always a doppleganger but now it was obviously a doppleganger. And it was scared. It wanted to get the hell out of there and fast. Being spent after the fight the group decided it was a good time to retreat and rest up, bringing the doppleganger and the drake’s body with them.

Once outside and a safe distance away our heroes setup camp and proceeded to question the doppleganger. He was incredibly skittish and terrified (though less so for being out of the dungeon) so Huorn helped him calm down by providing him with a hot meal, a warm campfire and some time to rest. Once he had relaxed, they set to work. They played Good Marshal Bad Paladin, intimidating on one side and comforting on the other. In his fragile mental state this worked beautifully. He explained that he and been hired by Malareth about a week ago and he thought it would be a pretty standard job. Guard the wizard from people with sharp objects, get paid 50gp. Simple, right? Well, that’s what he thought and why he signed up. But then the experiments began. Malareth turned two of the other mercs into zombies. He hid then realized he might escape detection if he pretended to be a zombie. Who’s going to notice another zombie around? And it worked! For most of a week he hid in plain sight, pretending to be a zombie. Eating was tricky but he was careful. Unfortunately he couldn’t just leave, there was Malareth’s drake around. Not only was it nasty but it was his familiar, reporting back to him all that it saw. He knew the heroes were there! That cinched it. They needed to head back to town, resupply and prepare for the final fight. And they needed to go in eyes open. That meant tracking down Traevus and asking some hard questions.

Back to town they went! The trip took a couple days but it was a fruitful visit to town. They stocked up on supplies, got the local apothecary to extract a usable amount of poison from the drake’s body and rounded up Traevus. Kriv, Erevan and Valenor went especially hard on him, asking what was with that box he sent them to retrieve. They received more help than was originally planned for and it was still pretty hard to get it back! Sighing, he told them the full story. Though he’s just a merchant, his family wasn’t always in this situation. The Stonehammers used to be one of the great houses of Hammerfast. A few hundred years ago there was an uprising in Hammerfast where a dwarf necromancer raised the dead against the living. More so than most necromancers, this was truly an abomination. He raised the ancestors against us. Ones meant to sleep forever were raised up against their descendants. No one knew what his end goal was, but he was stopped and his artifacts sealed. His grandfather was entrusted with the safekeeping of this artifact, which was sealed in it’s box, preventing anyone from using it. Over the years, his house declined until he was forced to take up life as a merchant. To continue safeguarding it, he felt the safest place to keep the artifact was with him on the move. In hindsight, perhaps that wasn’t exactly the wisest thing to do but there you have it. He still didn’t know how the rider knew to ambush him but he would compensate the party as much as he could. He’d pay an additional 60 gold plus 180 when they got back (which was his entire haul for this merchant trip). Kriv felt sad for him. Erevan and Valenor however wanted recompense and Marix, Huorn and Chali wanted in on the action! He agreed.

With additional knowledge in hand (and a rough map drawn by the doppleganger) they ventured back to the dungeon. Fasil however stayed behind. He hadn’t been much use in the previous couple fights and knew it. He was dead weight and didn’t want to slow the group down. He also thought it wise to heed the dopplegangers warning of “you’ll die if you go back”.

By the time the group made it back it had been a week since they had left so they approached cautiously. They pushed through room by room, wary of traps and encounters only to find none. None until they got to the doors the doppleganger told them about. As they approached Huorn noticed a disturbance in the floor as he approached. Chali investigated in detail and found that the door itself had been booby trapped. She disarmed one of the traps and left the other in case they wanted to retreat and get the enemies. This was it, likely the final showdown with Malareth. They set up and Kriv kicked the door in.

Inside was Malareth himself, hunched over a table working with two skeletons assisting him and two zombies standing guard. When Kriv kicked the door in they got Malareth’s attention. He sicced his minions on them as they entered. A frantic brawl ensued. The group got into position in the room and attacked the zombies but Malareth kept himself at a distance. Marix crouched under his table, stabbing at whatever he could reach, Valenor stood above him on top of the table, crushing foes and healing as much as he could, Kriv took the brunt of the damage with Huorn healing and backing him up. Chali and Erevan dealt damage from a distance. After seeing the extent of the group’s strength he called for Kurash and joined the battle. As he waved his hand he paralyzed heroes, sucked life from them and helped his minions out. The group noticed his ring shone brightly as he attacked and the open box on another table shone with it. Kurash (a giant bugbear) joined the fight while Marix made a run for it to close the box hoping to hinder Malareth’s efforts. Well, it worked. And boy was Malareth upset. Fortunately for Marix, Erevan got the attention of the zombie behind him (and the goblins coming in after Kurash) while Valenor, Kriv, Huorn and Chali brought their attacks on Malareth. With his attacks less effective because of the box being closed he went down more easily. However at this point Kurash was beside him helping so he didn’t go down that easily. But down he went. And when he went down the goblins and Kurash tried to flee. One goblin managed to get away but the rest were cut down.

Session Two - Meeting new friends

Upon further inspection in the rooms the group found Huorn and Chali tied up. They had been looking for Huorn’s brother when they were bushwhacked by goblins in the bushes. His brother wasn’t in the bushes. Given that, they were pretty upset and wanted to get back at those who had inflicted such wrongs upon them. So they joined the group. Huorn noticed the horse and decided to go through the next set of doors in style. He led the charge into the next room from the saddle of the horse. That’s when he learned there was a reason the horse was so far from its rider. The next room was a closet with a rat. And boy did the group unleash righteous fury on the rat until it squealed. Effective at killing. Not so effective at going undetected by the group of goblins in the next room. The goblins attacked and good times were had by all but the goblins. Oh, and Marix. He was standing behind a statue (unknown to the rest of our heroes) and he managed to get burnt by a blast of fire, stumble through a door and get whacked by a goblin all in the course of one fight. Once the goblins were gone it was him vs the group. Not being wise, he asked the die for advice. Surrender it said and surrender he did. Somehow he managed to convince the others that he was no lackey and was really only interested in phat lootz (an honest thief at least). He joined the motley crew and they set forth.

Moving on through the dungeon, the group came to a door, a little colder than the rest, and decided to push in. Being the thrifty sort (he minored in accounting after all) Huorn soaked the room’s rug in oil, planning to set a trap for whatever lay upon the other side of the door. Prepared for anything, Kriv and Huorn burst open the door as the rest of the group held position behind them. What they found was a dragon, perfectly willing and ready to bite and snap at them, angerly shouting “More of Malareth’s minions?”. Our heroes had an unvoiced plan they all put into action at once! “I’m sorry don’t kill me” was one response. Another threw down his weapon pretending to be as meek as a kitten. Someone else said “Who’s Malareth?” Somehow this plan worked. The dragon (Faralax) paused and allowed them to explain themselves. Since he could talk to him in their native tongue, Kriv stepped up. Though Faralax secretly hoped they would give him a reason snack on them, Kriv did well and even managed to get some information from him. (Speaking Draconic to a Dragon definitely helped, possibly the offer of a Virgin Sacrifice helped too... only one way to be sure...).

Faralax informed them that someone was up to dark magic in the area. That someone was Malareth (who he initially thought the group was working for). And this dark magic made the place stink to high heaven. Farallax didn’t like that one bit. So he made a deal with them. Dispose of Malareth and he wouldn’t eat them. In fact, he might give them something in return. Maybe. And only if they managed to defeat Malareth. Thanking Faralax for his patience and info the group set back towards the way they came. At that point Marix returned a dagger to Huorn that he had borrowed because he had “borrowed” a different dagger from someone else (Kriv... I mean the dagger was just under Marix’s eye level on Kriv’s waist... can you blame him?). After some confusion around what to do with Marix the group moved on towards where Farallax directed them. Inside were zombies. A big one and some littler ones. Some holy smiting, fire pits and good old hacking later, the zombies were down. After the fight, Marix (again, unwise) decided to loot the zombie bodies. He came up with a nasty rash, but nothing that he couldn’t shrug off.

Session One - Meeting the poor merchant

The adventure began at an inn in Fallcrest. The players were having drinks when a rather stout dwarf named Travus came in (a little stouter and a littler dwarfer than most dwarves). He greeted the barkeep and started ranting about being ambushed on the road and needing to find adventurers to get his item back. Hearing this the players approached him about his predicament. In short, he was ambushed on the road by goblins and lost his family heirloom and small bits of food from his cart. The group felt for him and agreed to retrieve it for him... if he could compensate them for it. After he agreed they became suspicious. Why would the goblins take such a small trinket and not more glittery things? After agreeing that something was up (and 30 gold pieces seems like a lot for a family heirloom), Kriv turned up the heat. Was he leaving anything out? It seems like they targeted the heirloom, why would goblins do that? If they find out he’s not being honest with them, they may be having a different conversation when they come back with the heirloom. On that, Traevus spilled the beans. “Well, there was a rider in the distance... I couldn’t tell if he was leading the goblins but they ran back towards him when I chased. I tried catching up but... I don’t run very fast, or very long.” Erevan interjected, “and the heirloom? I’m pretty knowledgeable about artifacts... if you’re lying...”. “No, it’s just what I said, a family heirloom. It’s been in our family for many many generations... it’s very old but I don’t know why someone would want it... please help me. I don’t know where they went but I could give you directions to where they ambushed me.” After a final bit of conferring, the party set forth.

Along the way to where Travus was amushed, the adventurers came to a crossroads. Being pretty aware of their surroundings they noticed goblins setup to ambush from behind a ruin before the goblins saw them! They quickly (okay, not so quickly) came up with a plan. Erevan would quietly cast a spell to draw their attention to the far side of the ruins, hopefully drawing out goblins while they attacked from the rear. And the plan worked! Mostly. About a third of the hiding goblins were drawn to the sound Erevan created. The others held back and attacked the heroes as they approached. The battle itself was swift and fierce. Kriv took the brunt of their attacks, most of which glanced harmlessly off his plate. As he kept them occupied, Erevan and Valenor dealt with another then helped him finish off the ones near them. As they mopped up, someone (or something?) began attacking the other three goblins. Arrows downed two with resounding “Thwummm”s and the group took care of the last.

In the aftermath, the mysterious archer introduced himself as Fasil, a ranger in the area. He warned the party of a small army of goblins on the road. “Something has got them all riled up. I don’t know what did it, but whatever it was happened in the last couple days.” The party met this advice with a mix of interest and suspicion. They chatted and found out he knew the way to the goblin’s cave. Kriv tried to bully him into guiding them. He succeeded... at making Fasil think he was a boor. Valenor and Erevan calmed him down and explained they were looking for something for Traevus. He knows Traevus! Nice guy, kind of short, gives him some food when they meet up on the trail. Seeing an opening, Kriv tried again, more nicely, appealing to his love of the land and curiosity. He finally agreed to take them.

When they got to the cave they found it was empty, though there were a couple tunnels in it. Following one of the tunnels they came to a door, set in masonry. Valenor recognized it couldn’t possibly have been made by goblins. The opened the door slowly and carefully. Opened a crack, they were able to see two goblins in the room. As they conferred on what to do, they goblins noticed them. The fight was on! After a few minutes, the fight was concluded with three dead goblins and one dead drake. As they made their rounds, they found a muddied pool, some clear pools, a saddled horse and a room seemingly for rituals. Erevan recognized the rune on the ground as being the symbol of an ancient fire god, and the brazier as containing a fire elemental.

The merry band

Setforth here are the continuing adventures of friends experiencing D&D for the first time... with a couple more experienced friends joining in on the fun. We were nervous about trying it, particularly trying it with people who were regular players. What if we fail at it and get embarrassed. What if people find out and they think we're dorks?

Well, we're past that. Playing is tons of fun and it isn't worth worrying about what people think. If we are dorks who cares? We're having fun! Adventure logs to come.