Dragonlance Dragons of Menace - Dragonlance Session Report 1 - 2015 Jan 07

[DMZ2112]

Dragons of Menace
Session Report 7 - Spring-Summer 2016

Palast, the 13th of Brookgreen, 352 AC

Upon learning that the Resistance was assembling a caravan full of liberated dragonarmy supplies to send through Nightlund to the resource-strapped Whitestone Army, the party volunteered to protect it on its way, and set out once again for the blighted province.

They were hampered on their way by countless undead and trackless grassland softened by a recent rain, culminating in an attack by a huge blue dracolich. The party barely managed to drive it off, Arn striking the final blow and severing the vertebrae of its tail nearly at the base. The monster struggled back into the sky and toward the Dargaard Mountains, booming curses over its withers at its mutilators.

While recovering overnight from the unexpected attack from the skies and recovering what could be recovered from the wagons ruined by the colossal undead, the circled caravan came under assault as sharpened tree trunks whistled out of the night. The party rode hard for the nearby ridge, losing horses as they went to a blistering volley of arrows, discovering upon arrival that the undead forces of Nightlund had pressed four decaying hill giants into service as artillery.

The ensuing battle was frantic and spectacular. Flynn and Bryn bombarded the archers and infantry on the ridge with ice storms, shattering their ambulatory corpses and spreading a thick slush on the ground that caused two of the giants to lose their footing and fall thunderously to the earth, crushing even more of their support unit. Dale rebuked the remaining giants in the name of Mishakal and drove them off, their lumbering strides taking them far from the battlefield.

The rest of the party swarmed onto the ridge, cleaning up what undead forces remained and ensuring the fallen giants would not stand up again. As they fought, they became aware of the company’s commander, on nightmare-back to the rear of the position.

Sir Victorian, retainer to the fearsome Lord Soth and a death knight himself, warned the party off attacking him, claiming that it would be their demise -- and when they struck at him despite his chivalrous warnings it nearly was. Victorian brought low every adventurer on the field -- some twice -- except for Lea, even going so far as to mercilessly cut down the returning undead giants as their lumbering stomping interfered with his personal battle tactics.

Lea evaded the death knight’s baleful gaze among the tall grasses of the Nightlund wilderness and eventually fired the shot that sundered the death knight’s tenuous grasp on solidity and banished him back to his undead lord’s court.

Linaras, the 15th of Brookgreen, 352 AC

The coming of dawn revealed the Whitestone Army camp on the horizon, and heralded the success of the party’s mission. Sturm, Laurana, and Tasslehoff were glad to see the party and their supplies, and grateful for the news of Maelgoth’s liberation.

Berias, who had somehow arrived at the camp ahead of the party, told the story of their confrontation with Sir Victorian, and showed begrudging respect for their success against such brutal odds. Much was made of the party’s contributions to the war effort, although circumstances made any celebration subdued at best.

Hesitant to ask more of the party than they had already accomplished, Sturm expressed his reservations about the ultimate siege of Kalaman that would drive the Blue Dragonarmy out of Northern Solamnia, describing the city’s formidable defenses and the comparative lack of resistance presence there compared to the less thoroughly conquered -- and less strategically important -- Maelgoth.

Understanding what needed to be done, the party prepared to leave for Kalaman immediately, knowing they could travel much more quickly than the army and would arrive several days ahead of the main force. Sturm offered the party intelligence that Grandar Uth Milius, a retired Knight of Solamnia, was still working in the city as a blacksmith, and had gotten word to his old allies that he wished to help the war effort.

If the party was able to make contact with Sir Grandar, they were to say they were “interested in having a unicorn shoed.” The proper response was that “some tasks were best left undone.” Tasslehoff offered Bryn a map showing a nearby entrance to an ancient dwarven viaduct running the length of the Dargaard Mountains -- a potential straight shot to Kalaman, if it were still intact.

Majetag, the 16th of Brookgreen, 352 AC

The party opted to attempt the viaduct route and had little trouble locating the old burial-mound like entrance to the underground complex. Trolls and giant spiders had made separate lairs in the ruins, but the party dispatched these and found the elevators and stairs beyond, both descending deep into the earth. Not trusting the elevator, the party took the long and exhausting spiral stair, finding themselves in a station of sorts, far below the rolling hills.

In a flooded maintenance chamber, they found old rusting carts and the animate stone rams that had once pulled them. Although harnessing the rams was challenging underwater and while being attacked by a pair of hydra that had chosen the watery ruins as a nest, the party was eventually successful and started their ancient dwarven cart ride northward along the flooded viaduct, following the shallow flow of water.

Their journey reached an abrupt end as the sound of rushing water grew loud enough to give them pause. Careful investigation of the tunnel ahead revealed that it had been broken by a perpendicular fissure through the rock of the mountains, and that the river was pursuing its gravitational path to the bottom of the crevasse.

Crossing the crevasse was more harrowing than actually dangerous, in the damp conditions of the shattered viaduct, and soon the party found itself on the far side, facing another obstacle. When the Cataclysm broke the viaduct, the tremendous forces at work also collapsed its north end, leaving the party with no option other than to try some of the numerous iron doors that occasionally appeared along the viaduct, hoping that one would lead to another option.

Most of the doors were hopelessly welded shut by shifted stone and ancient rust, although a few lead into long-abandoned maintenance areas suffused with fungal growth. One such area had at its back a second elevator, leading up to an abandoned emergency station among the northernmost slopes of the Dargaards. After cutting its way through the surprisingly antagonistic fungus, the party was on its way back to the sunlight.

The forgotten emergency station had long ago been converted into a monastery of Majere by opportunistic believers, and its sole occupant, a young monk named Perren, was shocked when its ancient mechanisms suddenly began to turn, shredding banners and toppling incense sconces. When the party arrived through the long-sealed door at the back of the temple, he was shocked to learn of the lost viaduct and the ancient purpose of his home.

Perren fed the adventurers and gave them a place to sleep, and that night had a curious dream. Majere appeared to him as a senior monk of his order, and invited Perren to spar. The fight was predictably short and the smiling Majere ended it with a rib-creaking roundhouse kick to the chest that sent Perren flying through the front windows of the monastery and down the side of the mountain to land with a crash in the marketplace of Kalaman. Looking up at the sky, the monk saw that he was surrounded by the faces of the adventurers who had interrupted his quiet contemplation.

In the morning, Perren announced to the party that it was his intention to travel with them from the monastery. He would show them the mountain trail to Kalaman and see what Majere intended for him in the city. The journey took a day and a night, and the party arrived in Kalaman in the late morning, aching for real beds but none the worse for wear.

 

[DMZ2112]

Dragons of Menace - Dragonlance Session Report 8 - Autumn 2016

Dragons of Menace
Session Report 8 - Autumn 2016

Misham, the 18th of Brookgreen, 352 AC

Almost immediately upon arrival in Kalaman, Tharivol announced that he would be leaving the party. The wild elf had become increasingly taciturn as their journey deep underground stretched from hours into days, and upon seeing the sun again he had realized this was no longer the path he wished to travel.

The party bore their valorous bard no ill will, and wished him well on his way. For Tharivol’s part, he found himself a short-term gig at the Amphidragon Arms, near the docks, and set about making some steel to pay for passage back to Southern Ergoth.

Kalaman was a different animal to Maelgoth. The city had resisted dragonarmy occupation and as a result it had been thoroughly pacified. The city watch had been completely replaced by Blue Dragonarmy soldiers and their patrols marched along every street. The only ally the party knew they had was Sir Grandar, the blacksmith and retired Knight of Solamnia that Whitestone command had identified.

In the slums, Lea sought other allies and a method of smuggling their more conspicuous party members into the city. In the process, he made contact with the black market, and a sly half-ogre who was willing to do some trade with the party in magic items, as well as offer Lea a lucrative reward -- possibly a deep, deep discount on a very rare Manual of Quickness of Action -- if he could find a way to get an untaxed, unrationed shipment of food into the city under the army’s nose.

In the market, Bryn, Perren, and Poe sought out Sir Grandar. Unfortunately, Grandar had little to offer them in the way of support, but recommended investigating the murders happening in the sewers as a way to ingratiate themselves to both the people of Kalaman and the occcupying dragonarmy while also doing some good.

Blending in on the docks like a good minotaur sailor, Arn was able to learn that the murders appeared to be organized animal attacks, but by vicious, monstrous animals no hunter, trapper, or soldier had ever encountered. The attacks were mostly centered in the southeastern part of the city. Once the whole party was safely inside the walls (thanks to a thieves’ guild hay wagon) and resting in a small cheapside tavern, a plan to explore the sewers and search for possible secret entrances to the city along the south wall began to take form.

Dale rented a nearby townhouse from the owner of the tavern, and Lea took a room at the thieves’ guild before the party ventured into the stinking tunnels beneath the city that afternoon. Like most old cities, the sewers were a mish-mash of overlapping and redundant city projects, and the party spent a full 24 hours investigating their twists and turns.

They encountered a pack of ghouls that showed signs of fighting creatures with many long, wicked teeth, and an advance party of kuo-toa up from deep below the city in search of the “toothbeasts” that had slaughtered their kin. The kuo-toa agreed to stay out of the sewers as well as reward the adventurers if they could provide proof that the toothbeasts had been slain. Much to Arn’s frustration, though, all of the tunnels leading up to the walls of the city were blocked with strong bars in heavy stone culverts. There was no secret entrance to be found.

Ultimately, however, the effort bore unexpected fruit. Up a disused and long-dry sewer tunnel, the party found a place beyond an Arachnesti guard post that intersected what appeared to be an ancient classroom. The classroom was part of the Academy of High Sorcery at Kalaman, lost in the Cataclysm, and a bit of exploration brought them to a large domed chamber dominated by a vast summoning circle.

In the summoning room they encountered the ghost of the long-dead Headmaster of the Academy, who begged the party to help him destroy the summoning circle and find peace. It seemed that, in a final act of hubris, he laid the circle days before the Cataclysm, believing that the Council of High Sorcery was sure to choose his school as the location for a new Tower of High Sorcery.

The order never came, and now he lurked beneath Kalaman, fretting that his rash decision had left a gaping hole in the city’s defenses that he was now helpless to close. The party tried to convince him that the city was now under the control of evil forces, and that the circle could be used to teleport Solamnic Knights into the city to fight them, but they were unsuccessful. The Headmaster summoned daemons to keep his secret safe, and the party was forced to destroy them and temporarily banish the Headmaster’s spirit.

Bakukal, the 19th of Brookgreen, 352 AC

After a night’s rest in the very secure summoning chamber, Dale sent word to the white robed wizard Hennihoya the Wise, with the Whitestone Army, regarding the summoning circle’s existence. She tested the circle, and appeared in their midst. Congratulating the party on what might be the linchpin in the battle for Kalaman, she returned to the army to set their plans in motion.

There was still the matter of the grisly murders to resolve, and so the party spent the remainder of the morning scouring the tunnels for clues. They discovered the northern terminus of the dwarven viaduct that had taken them so close to Kalaman under the Dargaard Mountains, but opted not to descend and explore it. They also found a large hatch leading up into a mostly empty public works warehouse, that Flynt posited could be a useful staging area for any Whitestone troops coming through the summoning circle.

In the storm drains just beneath the streets, they met a talking rat that lured them into a watery trap concealing a nest of strange draconian crocodilians with rows upon rows of needle-sharp fangs. They had discovered the toothbeasts! Reacting instinctively to the sudden danger frothing the brackish water around them, Bryn and Flynt dropped a catastrophic fireball and ice storm in turn, carefully molded around their allies, ending the threat almost instantly and killing the strange rat besides. “All I wanted was to hit something with my axe today,” Arn lamented.

In death, the rat returned to its natural form, that of an infernal imp -- a creature both Bryn and Flynt recognized as a devil often utilized by black robed wizards as a familiar.

Returning to the surface hardly meant the party’s day was over. Lea immediately went to his contact at the black market and informed the half-ogre that he had a way to get the food into the city if the black marketeer had a source for the food itself and a line on a reasonably powerful wizard.

The black marketeer was no dummy, and he wanted details on this new magical route into the city. To his credit, Lea realized quickly he had misstepped, as the half-ogre offered him substantial remuneration for the location of the summoning circle. The black marketeer even offered an even partnership in his business, if Lea would come clean! Lea made excuses about having to confer with his business partners and went to find the rest of the party at the rented house.

The black marketeer immediately sent out word through his network that he wanted any and all information about where the so-called Midnighters of Maelgoth had been and what they had done since arriving in Kalaman, particularly in the last day.

Lea explained what had happened, and the party suddenly found itself grappling with ideological differences it hadn’t been aware that it had. Dale in particular rebuked Lea soundly for jeopardizing the victory of the Whitestone Army, which Lea could neither appreciate nor understand. Plans to recover the situation were quickly formulated and as quickly discarded. Arn, disinterested, left on his own, ostensibly to find a pub. Lea eventually stormed out, exasperated, and returned to the black market, half the party on his heels and still not certain of their strategy.

Unbeknownst to anyone, however, Arn hadn’t gone to find a pub at all, but had gone to the black market. Figuring the chickens had already flown the coop, he offered the black marketeer everything he knew about the summoning circle in exchange for the best weapon the half-ogre had. The black marketeer showed Arn a few weapons, but nothing impressed the minotaur until he saw a Mithasian Imperial Guard fauchard fork, three tined, gold filigreed, and scrimshawed with images of ancient minotaur heroism. Even after this, however, Arn tried to bargain, but was interrupted by Lea, Poe, and Bryn knocking at the warehouse door.

Lea tried to reopen negotiations for an equal share in the black market but the inclusion of additional partners gave the half-ogre justifiable pause. Lea explained that the party would happily take one equivalent share to the half-ogre’s to split between them, and the black marketeer appeared to be about to shake on it when Arn knocked over a crate of weapons to regain the half-ogre’s attention.

Arn informed the black marketeer that he had a deal, and Arn would take the huge trident. This was a much better deal as far as the black marketeer was concerned, so he shook on it and instructed Arn in the use of the secret exit through his office. On his way out, Arn scrawled a hasty parchment map to the summoning circle and left it on the half-ogre’s desk. All minotaurs, of course, have an unerring sense of direction and always remember their path through mazes and catacombs. Unfortunately, all minotaurs are not known for their artistic skill.

The half-ogre returned to Lea and informed him that the deal was off. He already had a solid lead on the location of the summoning circle and saw no reason to bargain. Bryn surreptitiously attempted an investigative spell to discern whether the black marketeer was lying, and he caught a poisoned crossbow bolt from the rafters for his trouble, falling unconscious instantly.

The black marketeer demanded the party leave, and Poe gathered up Bryn and the three adventurers headed for the door. Upon opening it, they found Flynt, Dale, and Uri waiting outside. Thinking quickly but not necessarily clearly, Lea shouted that the black marketeers had attacked Bryn. Flynt stepped into the warehouse, arms flung wide to cast.

Unfortunately the crossbowman was not the only ally the half-ogre had hiding in the rafters, and a second figure was illuminated for a half second as she unleashed the wrath of a wand of chain lightning on the doorway of the warehouse. The party was savaged in the narrow entryway, and fled back to their rented house to nurse their wounds and lament lost opportunities.

Lea instead went to his room at the thieves’ guild. Arn returned to the house later in the night, pleasantly drunk and with a long burlap bundle he had “won gambling…”

Bracha, the 20th of Brookgreen, 352 AC

Before dawn on the Festival of Spring Dawning, Lea returned to the house but instead of entering, broke into an abandoned property across the street to watch, certain that the black marketeer would make some kind of move in revenge.

In reality, the half-ogre wasn’t interested in revenge at all -- he thought he’d gotten away lucky the night before and was in damage control mode. He had sent a runner to the castle after the party left the warehouse and had informed the Blue Dragonarmy that adventurers matching the description of the “Midnighters of Maelgoth” were hiding out in the Kalaman slums.

So the spy Lea saw casing the house the following morning was not a black market agent, as he suspected, but rather an agent of the Dark Queen. He watched as she observed Dale, Flynt, Poe, and Uri slip out of the house to discuss their plans over breakfast at the tavern on the corner, and tried to follow as she left the street but could not reach the door fast enough. Instead, he tied a warning note to an arrow and fired it through an upstairs window of the rented house, hoping those remaining inside would get the message.

Perren, still asleep, caught the arrow instinctively as it caromed across his makeshift bedchamber, and took it to Arn and Bryn, who recognized Lea’s handwriting. Finding their companions already gone, the three adventurers gathered their possessions and left the house, heading for Arn’s haunt on the docks, the Amphidragon Arms.

Unfortunately this left no warning for Dale, Flynt, Poe, and Uri, who returned to the house after breakfast to find that their mistrusted companions had flown the coop. Before they had an opportunity to discuss what this could mean, however, there was a great rushing of wind outside the house and the bay window of the front room exploded inward in a sudden storm of coruscating lightning.

Barely still on their feet, the party stared out the front window in horror at the blue dracolich with the forged-steel tail perched on the roof of the opposite rowhome. Atop its skeletal back rode the unmistakable Sir Victorian, replete in his panoply of corrupted Solamnic armor.

Lea, suddenly finding himself directly underneath an undead dragon and its death knight rider, sought some way to affect his foolish companions’ escape but came up empty. He fled to street level in time to see squads of blue dragonarmy soldiers marching up and down the street toward the house through the boarded up bay window on the main floor.

A crash like an overturned armorer’s cart signaled Sir Victorian’s arrival on the street as he leapt from the back of his circling mount, shattering cobbles beneath his heavy boots. Flynt blocked the door with the quickly cast summoning of an air elemental and the group fled into the basement, heading for the root cellar door at the back of the house. Uri cast a spell of long striding upon himself, and when the basement hatch turned out to be blocked by something stacked atop it, he struck it with his shoulder at top speed.

Uri’s magically enhanced momentum shattered the old hatch and launched its cargo of empty crates into the air, knocking one of the dragonarmy soldiers guarding the alley senseless. Uri himself sped into the air and landed in a heap on the far side of the cobbled track.

Lea could hear the soldiers fighting the air elemental at the front door of the house and assumed his allies must’ve fled out the back of their house by now. He did the same and circled around the block as quickly as possible.

There were still three soldiers in the alley behind the rented house, but the air elemental held the line long enough for Flynt to fire off a couple of lightning bolts of his own, turning the tide in the party’s favor before he went down to a wicked pike thrust.

Poe and Dale were able to finish off the remaining soldiers with the help of expert sniping from Lea at the end of the block, and a quick appeal to Kiri-Jolith’s courage from Poe had Flynt back on his feet and in fighting form. Dale blocked the root cellar door with a Sacred Guardian and Flynt fired a powerful Gust of Wind into the basement itself.

The adventurers then ran, but Lea remained behind just long enough to get a parting shot in on Sir Victorian as he emerged from the basement, forcing his way through wind and radiant fire. The arrow hit the death knight in the eyeslit so hard Lea could hear his helmet ring, and the monster collapsed backward with a roar, down the steps and onto the soldiers behind him.

Thus began a harried flight through the slums of Kalaman, pursued from above by the blue dracolich. Fortunately, with Lea’s expert guidance, the party was able to find a bolthole and escape the mighty undead dragon’s notice.

Across the city at the Amphidragon Arms, things were similarly grim. Arn, Bryn, and Perren had been followed from the house -- they knew this, but still unaware of the nature of their pursuers they thought they’d be safe in a public place. A few minutes after arriving at the Arms, the inn was surrounded by blue dragonarmy soldiers and the adventurers were ordered to emerge or face torture before their inevitable deaths.

Arn offered good steel to any sailor who would aid him, Bryn, and Perren in their defense of the Arms, and there were many enthusiastic takers. Even Tharivol emerged from his room to fight on behalf of his erstwhile companions. Unfortunately, the disciplined, organized blue dragonarmy force proved overwhelming to the rag-tag crew. After the last of his companions had succumbed, Arn dueled the blue dragonary sergeant almost to a draw, but in the end the old soldier’s cunning won out and sent the mighty minotaur to join his allies in oblivion.