Eleasias 18
Eleasias 18, 1369:
The party spent most of the day ascending into the Nether
Mountains and looking for the start of the pass. Around
midafternoon they found a promissing looking canyon, about 7' to
15' wide that headed in the right general direction and got
gradually deeper as it climbed. They travelled up it for several
hours until they were suddenly set upon by kobolds throwing rocks
down from either side of the canyon. It was initially estimated
that there were 30 or so kobolds standing on the low (East) side,
on top of the 30' cliff and roughly 15 on the high (West) side, on
a ledge 50' off the ground and 15' below the top of the cliff.
Those on the low side were in an area enclosed by an 8' palisade
set about 8' back from the cliff and running around the curve of
the pass in either direction.
The first wave of rocks was concentrated on Darius and knocked him
out, nearly killing him. The party began to return fire, with
most folks firing arrows, Stewart throwing rocks with deadly speed
and accuracy and Mrap-Merap dive bombing the leaders. Steve
ducked under the cart and removed his armor so that he could cast
sleep spells, eventually casting two of them to good effect. The
kobolds, who seemed to have limitless numbers to replace their own
fallen, took to targetting Stewart primarily, as he was killing
the most of them.
After several rounds of killing infinite kobolds and taking
occasional damage, Henkles, Maanamere and Misery Jones advanced
along the pass to look for better options. They discovered that
their path was blocked by 4 mountain lions dangling on ropes from
a log that stretched across the pass. This log was also how the
kobolds were getting from the low cliff over to the ledge on the
high side. They called Dexter over to see what he could do with
the lions. While they were waiting for him, Henkles killed the
one on the east end and began climbing the rope with covering fire
from Maanamere and Jones. When he reached the top he blocked the
log bridge while Dexter entangled the other lions and Maanamere,
miraculously overcoming his fear of heights, followed him up.
They found that the palisaded area ended shortly beyond the log,
which was hinged to swing out across the chasm from that side.
There was a gate in the palisade through which the reinforcements
were entering.
50xp each to Henkles, Maanamere and Misery Jones for looking
for options
200xp to Henkles for foolishness in the face of the enemy
-500xp to Maanamere for ignoring his disadvantage, forgiven
this time
Meanwhile, back at the cart, Steve had put his armor back on and
was throwing javelins. Stewart finally was forced to retreat
under the cart to heal his numerous injuries. Stewart loaned his
grapple to Narthan, who used it to head up to the top of the low
cliff, with cover from Steve and Mrap-Merap and distractions from
Henkles and Maanamere.
50xp to Narthan for the direct aproach
Shortly thereafter, their numbers dwindling without
reinforcements, the remaining high side kobolds retreated up over
the cliff. Henkles and Maanamere then managed to cut off
reinforcements to the low side and as Narthan and Maanamere
finished off the few trapped between them, the remaining kobolds
tried to flee. The kobolds outside the gate closed it on about 8
of their unfortunate comrades, trapping them between the fighters
and a wall. They were ordered to surrender and the fight ended
with the party having killed 144 kobolds in roughly 10 minutes.
1149xp to AFAL (except Cassie, who was sleeping) for the battle
The party took a look around and realized they could see
Silverymoon from the top of the cliff and it looked roughly like
it did in the mural. They found a kobold who spoke orcish and
asked him what was on the other side of the stockade fence and
learned that the kobold village was out there. Stewart climbed up
on Henkles shoulders and glimpsed the kobold village surrounded by
another stockade fence about 20' away. Then he nearly got his
head taken off with a small ballista bolt fired from a tree in the
village and ducked back down.
The party questioned the kobold about about caves and learned
there were caves in the cliff below the village. Meanwhile,
Stewart and Maanamere were searching all the bodies for anything
interesting. They found coins and gems (see below) and discovered
that many kobolds from this village were missing fingers. They
tried to question their kobold about this, but he refused to
explain on the grounds that the witch doctor would put a curse on
him if he told. Cassie tried to charm him, but failed.
Henkles tried experimenting with the balista crew's intelligence
by holding up kobolds to see if they would get shot at. The
balista crew fired several times, killing one of the kobold
prisoners on one occasion.
Strong Alignment Drift (LN --> NE) to Henkles for using live
prisoners when dead bodies would have worked just as well.
Minor Alignment Drift (*G --> *N) to Maanamere (and Cassie?)
who were there and let him do it.
Cassie charmed another kobold, Freegz, who explained that the
vines that ran up the cliff face below the village and could be
used for climbing to the caves where trapped with hidden razor
blades and sometimes kobolds grab the wrong vine by mistake. The
party tried convincing any kobold to go get the chief so they
could explain that they just needed to come into his cave for a
few minutes, but they got a lot of skepticism and no help. They
hauled Darius up the cliff and settled in for the night. Henkles
continued holding up kobolds to tempt the ballista crew.
Shortly after dark, the kobolds tried to burn them out with
flaming balistas, but Narthan summoned a dust devil which put them
all out and the ballista crew gave up because they couldn't hit
the dust devil. After that the party decided to use an unseen
servant hoisted over the gate to unbar it from the outside and get
past the stockaded are they were in. Cassie used a scroll to cast
the spell and the party got the door open. Henkles, Maanamere,
Narthan and Misery Jones rushed the village gate while the others
provided covering fire. Henkles got the unseen servant over the
gate and then went over after it. He managed to get the gate open
and the others rushed in. Meanwhile, Stewart, Steve and Dexter
made short work of the balista crew. The kobold's morale failed
and they fled across the village and out the other side or down
the vines and south along the pass.
100xp to Henkles for jumping alone into a village of angry
kobolds
Henkles and Maanamere began a house-to-house search of the
village, chasing away any remaining kobolds they found (mostly
females and young). Some of the others began checking out the
cliff face below the village. During the search, they noticed
that coins had been embedded in the trunk of a large pine tree in
the village center that was being used as the central support of a
lean-to style hall.
100xp to Maanamere for making a sincere effort to evacuate as
many kobolds as possible alive
A few minutes later, the kobolds who had fled down the pass came
running back and hid in the caves. Darius sent Mrap-Merap to
investigate. When the Tressym returned, Darius hastilly called
Steve and Cassie over for a private discussion. Narthan and
Stewart were close enough to hear what was said and join in the
discussion. Narthan then asked Stewart to cover him and began
casting call lightning. Steve and Cassie then tried to disable
Henkles with spells. Both spells failed, but Henkles didn't
notice because he was also attacked at that moment by a balista
crew on a tower on the south end of the village near the cliff.
The next round, as Henkles was attacking the tower, Cassie cast
scare on him and the crew and several people rushed over to tie
him up. At about the same time, Sear started glowing. Maanamere
and Dexter rushed up the ladder and wiped out the balista crew on
the tower.
-500xp to Darius for ignoring his disadvantage, forgiven
this time
A few minutes later, 3 Trolls and 2 Giant Trolls came up the pass
from the south, making it obvious why Darius wanted Henkles
disabled. When they got in front of the village, Narthan called
lightning on them, Stewart released a fireball from a Chardalyn,
and Maanamere shot one with the balista. All 5 trolls were
killed.
7000xp to AFAL for trolls
The party tried calling down to the chief and convincing him to
let them in to look for the secret door, but even after the
lightning show, he was unimpressed (or at least didn't trust them)
and told them "Go away and we no kill." Narthan tried calling
lightning again as a demonstration of force, but their stance
(that of a cornered rat) was unchanged. Henkles then tried
challenging the chief to single combat and was invited in. When
he got to the cave mouth, there were about 30 or so kobolds
standing around the room jeering and taunting him. The kobold who
was obviously the chief was sitting in a crude stone throne and
wildly gesticulating and shouting at Henkles - presumably
insulting him. This went on for about a minute before Henkles
grew bored and killed him with a dart. After that he realized
that heat metal had been cast on his armor (the chief was
stalling) and fled the cave to take off his armor.
20xp (full credit for the chief) to Henkles
Narthan called lightning on the cave mouth and Henkles, Narthan
and Stewart rushed in. The shaman cast dictate and ordered them
to jump out. Henkles failed his save and was forced out. General
combat broke out. Maanamere, Steve and Cassie climbed down
Stewart's rope and joined the party and Henkles returned. The
party focused on the shamen, with Stewart using silence 15' to
prevent further spells. The shamen were quickly killed with the
rest being killed or slept shortly thereafter.
794xp to AFAL for second wave of kobold killing (from village gate
to chief's cave)
-500xp to Maanamere for ignoring his disadvantage, forgiven
this time only because the GM feels he should have
caught it at the time.
A total of 2888cp, 2223sp and 41 tiny gems (chips really, Stewart
estimates the combined value at 100-200gp) were taken from the
slain and captured kobolds.
This left the bulk of the party standing in a cave full of dead
kobolds beneath the village looking around. The only noteworthy
features in the cave (aside from some puffs of blue smoke where
some wild boars evaporated due to DM oversight) were:
- The chief's crude stone throne - essentially a granite
boulder with chunks haccked off of it.
- Some (somewhat) dried/preserved foodstuffs and (apparently)
related containers. This included 11 crude clay jars
(sealed) lined up along the wall behind the throne.
- The bedding the kobolds slept on. These were loose piles
of leaves, hay, scraps of cloth and somewhat tanned fur.
- The shaman's fire pit, over which was suspended a small
(1.5 gal.) cauldron of some foul-smelling brew. The
cauldron is covered (at least on the outside) with strange
symbols, as is the wooden ladle that was obviously being
used with it. The tripod holding the cauldron and the
ladle are further decorated with tasles of stone beads
and feathers.
- A cave painting on the wall behind the fire pit. The
painting seemed to be a map of the mountain you are on and
the valley to the south with a semi-circle marking the
location of the village. There were some other symbols on
it of unknown meaning:
o A lightning bolt in the valley,
o A tree on the south face of the mountain,
o A kobold skull on the far side of the mountain, and
o Two animal stick figures (probably squirrels), one
on the north face of the mountain and one at the
east end of the valley.
Stewart cast detect traps and scanned the room. He detected a
magic trap that would be triggered if the throne was moved and two
non-magic traps on jars 3 and 7 if they are opened. Nobody had
detect magic at the moment, so the party was planning on grabbing
the cauldron to test it later. The bedding was searched, but all
the party found was a tattered Silverymoon banner and a mouse
nest. Narthandarkanas suggested that there would be no point in
firetrapping the throne unless there was something under it.
The party searched for the secret door they had originally come
here to find and managed to locate it. Henkles got it open.
Inside was a crate, lined with wax to seal out moisture. Stewart
pried it open. Inside the crate where some backpacks with clothes
and purses in them, two charged +1 daggers (50 charges each),
three Potions of Shopping and a map. The map showed a trail
leading across the south face of the mountain this cave was on
(also shown on the shaman's map outside) and continuing to a
marked spot on the south side of the next mountain to the east.
The crate was thoroughly disassembled, but nothing else was found
in the remains.
Stewart disarmed the firetrapped throne from a distance with a
rope and the party found the gold, platinum and gemstones the
chief was hoarding there. They collected the cauldron and all the
jars, lowered Maanamere to the ground and returned to the village
to sleep. Maanamere, the bear and Cassie slept with the cart and
the horses (and the mountain lions).
Stewart disarmed the trapped vases by lowering them down to the
canyon floor, opening them and running like hell. They proved to
have nothing in them except lead. The other 9 vases contained
large sums of copper, silver, electrum and gold, in decreasing
quanities.
