Session 17 (part 2): Showdown With the Dark Priestess

The stairs were slanted slightly to the west, and of a different construction than the chambers the group had just explored. They led about fifty feet down to an empty room that had a fair amount of stone and tile debris all over the floor. A oil lamp sitting on the floor provided illumination. A single door led to the east, and a search revealed nothing save the lamp. Larissa listened at the door, and hearing nothing, entered.

Beyond the door was a corridor leading east, lined with semicircular alcoves. In each alcove was a stone statue of a robed man holding a glaive. At the end of the corridor were doors heading north and south. As Larissa quietly walked down the hallway to scout ahead, she heard a disconcerting "click." Without time for thought, she sprang backward just astwo steel portcullises dropped on either side of where she had stood, falling with a loud clang! Safely on the party's side of the metal gate, she watched the stone statues in the alcoves inside this newly-formed cage animate and begin to sweep the area between them with their glaives. After a few seconds of that, the statues recessed into their alcoves, just as a trap door in the floor dropped away, revealing a spiked pit. After a few more seconds, the trap door closed again, but the portcullises did not retract. Halfred and Charrone managed to lift one portcullis and spike it open. Larissa found the pressure plate and disabled it, then they opened the far gate.

At the end of the corridor, Charrone threw open the door to the north. Upon touching the door, a previously-unseen glyph glowed brightly and then exploded in fire, burning the paladin badly. She threw open the door and stepped inside. The room was round and lined with bookshelves. A single candle provided dim illumination. A fountain of normal-seeming water bubbled soothingly at the far wall. "Ah, the Sandpoint Heroes. I've been expecting you," said a sultry female voice. From the shadows stepped a silver-haired woman with unearthly beautiful features and violet eyes. She was armored in a breastplate and greaves, but the plate that should have been covering her abdomen was missing, and her midriff was bare. Her abdomen was terribly scarred, as if something had clawed its way out of her womb. She held a falchion in her right hand-- a hand that was a red and scaly, with three fingers that each ended in a razor-sharp talon. Her entire right arm was likewise demonic. Her left hand held a potion bottle, which she quaffed, and there were then four duplicates of her standing side-by-side. Charrone couldn't tell the real one from the illusion. "Nualia," said Charrone, "you shall pay dearly for your crimes," and the paladin drew her sword.

Halfred charged her with his ranseur, but only managed to strike one of the illusions, which winked out. She sidestepped and presented an unholy symbol, calling out to Lamashtu. A wave of crackling black energy shot from the symbol, weakening all of the heroes. Charrone repositioned so as to strike her, but suddenly felt a stabbing pain in the back of her leg. Whirling, she saw the black-cloaked half-orc female from the previous day, her face half-hidden behind a black veil. She drew another dagger, and even in the dim light, Charrone could tell that there was a sticky substance clinging to the blade. Larissa entered the room and aimed an arrow at the priestess, but another of the demon dogs seemed to appear out of nowhere and bit her arm, spoiling the shot. Ted cast a spell to strengthen Halfred, and McGregor cast a magic jet of flame at the half-orc, singeing her badly.

"Lamashtu will feast on your souls, and Malfeshnakor shall gnaw your bones!" shouted Nualia, as she slashed at Halfred with her falchion, slicing into his arm. Declan moved into the room, holding forth his symbol of Sarenrae. "No, you shall feel the cleansing fire of the Dawnflower!" he replied, and a fan of flame shot from his outstretched symbol, immolating both the half-orc and the priestess. At that McGregor used the sorceress' skull-tipped wand to cast a ray of crackling black necromantic energy at the half-orc. The ray struck her right in the head, and she collapsed.

"In the name of Iomedae the Inheritor, the Lady of Justice, I smite thee!" shouted Charrone. Holy energy enveloped her, and she swung her sword at Nualia. This blow struck true, cutting a nasty-looking gash across the evil priestess' demonic arm. Scarlet blood gushed from the wound. Halfred turned and skewered the demonic dog, killing it in one mighty blow. Ted cast magic missile at Nualia, striking her once and dispelling one of her illusions. Nualia stepped back again, and invoked Lamashtu again; this time a ray of brilliant energy struck Charrone, wounding her gravely. Larissa fired arrows at the priestess, striking her once, and winking out another of the illusions. McGregor used the wand to cast another ray of necromantic energy at her, and dispelled the last of her illusions. Charrone feinted with her sword, and Nualia fell for it. The paladin then lunged at the off-balance priestess, running her through. As the life left the fallen asimar's eyes, she whispered, "Damn... you... all..." as her final words.

With the main threat defeated, the party decided to take the bodies of Nualia and her conspirators back to Sandpoint. They also put togehter a dossier from the many documents found throughout Thistletop and its dungeons that fully documented Nualia's crimes and her now-dead companions' complicity in the Goblin Day raid. Returning to the surface, they found the newly-liberated Marla Forsythe (to whom they gave a spare set of clean womens' clothes from the half-orc), and the warhorse, which seemed to be in much better spirits.

The journey back to Sandpoint was brief and uneventful, and they returned a little before dusk. After giving Deverin and Hemlock a full briefing, the bodies of the fallen were gathered and burned in a pyre on the beach below the Sandpoint Boneyard,in a funeral ceremony for fallen enemies presided by Brother Zantus.

[Continued next week!]

Session 17 (part 1): In the Dungeons of Thistletop

Session date: 10 October 2011

Game date: Friday, 16 September 4711

[The session picked up immediately following the previous session.]

Charrone crouched into a defensive position, and raised her shield to take the impact of the demonic dog's flying charge, but the second one found an opening and mauled her leg. The paladin swung her enchanted sword and connected; foul-smelling black ichor bubbled out of the creature's wound. Halfred charged in, smashing the other demon dog on the head with the magical heavy flail he'd claimed earlier in the day from the bugbear. Larissa sneaked into the room while the enemy creatures were distracted by the fight, and let loose an arrow from the shadows, grazing one.

Once inside the room, it was apparent that it was indeed a temple to Lamashtu, as a ten foot tall black stone statue of the Demon Mother of Monsters dominated the north end of the room. The statue held a glowing stone kukri in each of its hands, and the two weapons each glowed with magical energy: one blue and one orange. Under the glittering red eyes of the statue, Charrone, Halfred, and Larissa managed to drop the demon dogs while sustaining minimal injuries. The Abyssal creatures began to dissolve into a pool of ichor almost immediately, but McGregor managed to acquire two vials of the stuff before it boiled away.

After the fight was over, Declan examined the black marble altar below the idol of the demon-goddess. He noticed iron rings set into its sides, presumably used to tie down sacrifices. The group also saw ashes and bits of charred bone on the floor beside the altar. Larissa noticed that the idol's eyes were set with large garnets, which she pried loose. The heroes did not find anything else of value in the room.

Continuing to explore the complex, the group next found a room that was obviously a torture chamber. Six prison cell doors lined the south wall. As soon as they entered the chamber, they heard a hoarse voice say, "Please, water!" in both the common Taldan tongue and Goblin. The voice came from behind one of the cell doors. Larissa picked the lock, and opened the door to find a human woman huddled in a tiny cell. She was naked, filthy, and her arms were chained to the wall. Larissa freed her from the manacles, and offered her a cloak, her waterskin, and some trail rations. "By the gods, are you all right? How long have you been here?" asked Charrone. After taking a long swig of water, the woman introduced herself as Marla Forsythe, a merchant from Magnimar. She said that she was with a trading caravan going along the Lost Coast Road to Windsong Abbey, when they were ambushed by goblins three weeks earlier. She said that herself and five other humans were taken prisoner and held in this room. One by one, her fellow prisoners were taken out of the room, sometimes by goblins and sometimes by a human, and then she never saw them again. She said she sometimes heard them, though... and shuddered. Declan escorted her back up to the goblin fortress, gave her a weapon, and told her to hole herself in the room. The group would be back later to escort her back to Sandpoint.

Winding their way through the rest of the chambers, they found a workroom where weapons were fashioned from refuse from human settlements, and a grotto guarded by squid-like monster. Halfred made short work of the squid creature, and siezed its treasure.

From there, they then found a corridor off of which were five bedrooms. Halfred explored them. Most of these bedrooms were unoccupied, but in one Halfred found the human soldier they had encountered in the first fight in the Throne Room the previous day. In a burst of rage, Halfred skewered the sleeping figure through the gut with his mithril ranseur. The man's eyes opened wide and his face took on an expression of great pain and surprise, locking his gaze with Halfred's with an expression of shock. He only managed a blood-choked gurgle before he died.

One other chamber that appeared to be empty actually had three female goblins. After a short fight, two of the goblins were dead, and a third captured. She said that they were Ripnugget's wives, and now were Bruthazmus' wives since Ripnugget was dead. Charrone locked her in one of the cells until they could secure the rest of the complex.

As they explored this underground lair of the complex, Larissa sketched a map of the layout in charcoal on a sheet of paper. "I would guess that we've explored all of this level, but no Nualia. I think we may have missed something. Let's start over," and headed back to the room in which they had encountered the necromancer. A through search of the room revealed a concealed door which led to a set of stairs descending into darkness.

Session 16 (part 2): The Dungeons of Thistletop

Session Date: 03 Oct 2011

[Continued]

The Heroes found a second, wider set of stone stairs leading down into the depths of Skull Rock, but decided to take the narrower set of staris that they had found earlier. At the bottom of those stairs was a stone door. Larissa descended the narrow stairs and pressed her ear to the door. She could hear the quiet but animated voices of two goblins. It sounded as if they were arguing. She quietly checked the door and saw that it was unlocked, and motioned for Halfred and Charrone to come to the door. Charrone threw open the door and rushed in, closely followed by Halfred.

The room held a large wooden table with chairs. Stone doors led east and west. There was a paper map of the town of Sandpoint tacked to one wall, and two chalkboards on other walls. The table was littered with papers-- and sitting at it were two goblins playing cards with a poor-quality Harrow deck. The goblins appeared surprised at the intrusion, but quickly recovered, shouting death threats in goblin and pulling out swords. But two goblin warriors were no match for the combined forces of the Sandpoint Heroes, and they lay dead on the stone floor in scant moments. Ted quickly scanned to papers, and saw that they appeared to be plans for a full-scale sack of the town.

Larissa noticed some kind of writing on the western door, and investigated it. As soon as she got close enough to make out the script, the letters exploded in a burst of magical energy, the force of which blasted her flat on her back, and she lost consciousness. Declan saw to her injuries. The door itself seemed to be weakened by the blast, and Charrone threw it open and stepped through.

A black bolt of magical energy struck the paladin, and she felt both chilled to the bone and that it was slightly difficult to breathe-- almost as if some of her essential life energy had been sapped. An attractive young human woman stood in the corner of the room. She had the dark skin and hair of a Garundi, and her long hair was done in dozens of tight braids. Most of the braids ended in the skull of a small animal. She wore a black silk dress with a silver skull pattern embroidered onto it. She held an ebony wand tipped with a human skull. Charrone could also see that the woman had Thassilonian runes tattooed onto her face and hands. "So, you're the ones who slew all those goblins. I expected better." She began to cast a spell.

That was the opening Charrone was looking for. With lightning-like speed, the paladin swung at the sorceress' arms, interrupting her spell. Halfred then burst in, swinging his axe, and he connected as well. Larissa then ran in, and shot the woman with an arrow. McGregor wtruck her with a bold of magical energy, while Ted just looked at her with disdain. Surprisingly, she still stood after taking successive hits, and pointed her wand at Halfred. The black ray went wide this time. Charrone thrust her sword through the sorceress' chest, twisting the blade. Still trying to summon her magic, she feebly pointed her wand again and tried to utter a command word, but only blood came out of her mouth. She collapsed to the floor, dead.

The sorceress had several spell scrolls on her, but the big find was a black leather-bound book. Inside the front cover was written in a neat hand, "Hermetical Grimoire of Lyrie Akenja." Inside were spell formulae in the manner of wizards. The spells in the book were mostly necromantic, but with many others that dealt with exploration or discovery.

The room itself held archaeological artifacts of ancient Thassilon, texts about the same, and also shovels, picks, survey tools, and other implements that one would use to explore ancient ruins. However, the party decided to explore the rest of the dungeon before their defensive spells expired, so they pressed on.

Following the worked stone passages, they found themselves in a small room where the illiterate goblins seemed to records their exploits. Painted onto the walls were representations of goblins raiding caravans, fighting a bat-winged creature, fighting other goblins, and setting things on fire. One particularly large drawing apparently showed Skull Rock from the side, with Thistletop at the top, a layer of passages just below the surface, and in the middle an immense goblin with snake-like eyes and a sword in each hand. If the scale were to be believed, the goblin would be about thirty feet tall. "Hmmm," said McGregor, "Tsuto's letter mentioned that Nualia was working in the 'lower levels' to free something called Malfeshnakor. I wonder if that's it?" Without commenting, the group pressed on.

They came to a chamber with several passages leading out of it, including a set of stone double doors. The doors were covered with detailed carvings, but the carvings were extremely disturbing: monsters engaged in sex acts with seemingly unwilling women; creatures bursting from the wombs of pregnant females; the face of a three-eyed jackal watching over all of it. "Lamashtu," said Declan quietly, "this is depicting rites of the cult of Lamashtu, Demon Mother of Monsters. This must be a temple."

Charrone tried the doors, which opened easily. The paladin brought to mind the Sight of the Inheritor, which let her see the evil that needed to be judged-- and felt the strong presence of otherworldly evil hovering near the ceiling just on either side of the door! Glancing up, she saw two demonic doglike entities staring down at her. They both lunged, their fangs bared!

[To Be Continued!]

Session 16 (part 1): Second Fight in the Throne Room

Session Date: 03 Oct 2011

Game Date: Fri, 16 Sep 4711

[The session picked up immediately at the end of the previous session]

Inside the bedroom of the slain Thistletop chieftain, Larissa crouched by the door that led to the goblin throne room and pressed her ear to it. She heard the shrill guttural voices of goblins, but did not understand their language. “Stupid little freaks,” she thought. She motioned for the others to come into the room, and the other five Sandpoint Heroes crept in. She tested the door, finding it locked. She locked eyes with Charrone, who nodded back, and Larissa stood clear of the door, pulling out her bow as she stepped back. The rest of the party likewise took out their weapons. Charrone silently mouthed, “One, two, three…” and threw her weight into the door. It burst open, and the Sandpoint Heroes rushed into the throne room.

Inside the throne room were about ten goblins, including a warchanter sitting on what had been Ripnugget’s throne. Towering over the goblins was a heavy flail-wielding bugbear—the same bugbear that led the second attack on the party on the previous day. The goblins apparently had been alerted to the party’s presence, probably from the sound of Halfred and Charrone chopping through the secret door. Two female goblins stood aside the door through which the party ran, and they took swings at Charrone’s knees as she stepped through. The crude goblin swords bounced harmlessly off of Charrone’s greaves. Halfred ran straight at the bugbear, swinging his greataxe. Larissa tumbled into the corner, letting arrows fly.

The fight was on! Charrone engaged the goblin warchanter to prevent her from casting spells. Two other goblins attacked the paladin, but weren't able to get past her defenses. Halfred and the bugbear swung their heavy weapons at each other, but could not connect.

"You longshanks back? We kill you MORE!" shouted the bugbear.

"You didn't kill any of us the first time-- how can you kill us more? WE killed a lot of goblins-- and we're gonna kill you!" shouted back Halfred, and he connected, spilling bugbear blood. The bugbear screamed in rage, swinging his heavy flail, connecting with the barbarian's shoulder.

Larissa held off three goblins plus the slain chieftain's pet giant lizard. The lizard leaped at her, catching her arm in its jaws. It tried to bite her arm off, but the rogue stabbed it in the eye with her rapier, and it let go. Decaln also waded into combat, fending off goblin attacks with his black Orcish scimitar, but the goblins were too agile for him to strike a solid blow. Ted charged his magic wand of shock, and zapped one of the goblins that got too close. McGregor fired bolts of magical energy.

The goblin spellcaster attempted to ensorcell Charrone, but the paladin's will was too strong to succumb to such a petty enchantment. In return, she ran the goblin through. Halfred and the bugbear were wearing each other out-- but the barbarian managed to get better positioning, and in a furious swing, brought his axe down squarely into the monster's chest. The bugbear locked its lizard-like eyes onto Halfred and hissed "No...you...die..." as it dropped its flail and sank to its knees. Halfred swung again in a wide arc and connected his axe into the bugbear's neck, almost completely severing it. The monster's lifeblood poured out of it, and lay motionless on the dirt floor.

With their leaders dead, the goblins increased the frenzy of their attacks, but what little coordination they used fell aside, and they were little match to the combined forces of the Sandpoint Heroes. After two more rounds, all of the goblins and the lizard were also dead.

Declan healed everyone, and Ted felt for the presence of magic. The bugbear and the warchanter each had a few items of interest-- including the bugbear's heavy flail. Halfred claimed that. McGregor took the warchanter's magic wand. The bugbear also had a smaller keyring with three keys, each of which were identical to keys on Ripnugget's key ring that the party had found a day earlier.

The group explored the rest of the wooden complex, finding workrooms, a crude goblin armory, barracks, and an extremely unsettling larder-- which included fresh and preserved human meat. No other combatants were found in the rest of the Thisteltop fortress.

Session 15: Thistletop: Second Incursion

Session Date: 26 September 2011

[Game Date: Friday, 16 September 4711]

Leaving Charrone's horse at the Goblin Squash Stables in Sandpoint, the party set off on foot to return to Thistletop. Since they'd already been there and back, finding the goblin lair took much less time that the previous day, and after about an hour, the Sandpoint Heroes found themselves before the entrance to the Thistletop goblin-tunnels in the thicket across from Skull Rock. The leafy curtain that served as a hard-to-spot door was closed. Larissa listened for activity beyond, and hearing none, opened the door. They looked into a familiar tunnel through the thorny thicket. Halfred, remembering that he fell into a pit trap, probed where he remembered the pit to be with his ranseur, and the branches and leaves covering the pit fell into it.

Larissa scouted ahead, and saw a goblin dog in the tunnel that led to the rope bridge. Reporting back to the party, they attempted to sneak up on them, but the rat-like creatures noticed them anyway and charged them. However, these goblin dogs didn't move or act normally-- they all appeared to have gaping bloody wounds, their eyes seemed milky, and they moved with a lurching stagger. To the party's horror, they quickly realized that these goblin dogs were some of the ones the party had killed yesterday, and that someone or something had animated the corpses as new guardians (which was something they had seen earlier in the week in the Catacombs). One of the undead creatures bit Charrone, but she lopped its head off with her sword, and Halfred hacked a chunk out of another with his greataxe. While they fought the two undead goblin dogs, four undead goblin warriors lurched forward from their hiding place in a watchpost and joined the fight. The wizards zapped the zombie goblins with magical energy, and Larissa fired arrows at them. While one zombie managed to claw Halfred, the heroes destroyed the zombies with little difficulty.

The party approached the bridge over the chasm across from Skull Rock. Charrone spotted one goblin in each of the watchtowers, but neither of them seemed to be paying any attention: One was throwing stones at seagulls, while the other pretended to throw stones at seagulls but was really throwing them at the first goblin. Under cover of nearby brush, Larissa examined the bridge, and determined that the goblins had reset the trap that would cause one side to drop away if too much weight was applied to it. She ran across the bridge to disable the trap. Thankfully, the goblins seemed too interested in their game of killing birds with stones to notice. Larissa gave the signal, and the party ran across the bridge. They all attempted to hide in the bushes next to the towers in case the goblins decided to actually do their jobs as lookouts.

Larissa picked the lock on the door, and Charrone threw open the doors. Suddenly, the sound of a loud bell ringing could be heard. Ted recognized it as an alarm spell that had been placed on the door. Looking through the door, the party saw that the trophy room was now filled with zombie goblins! Also, at the sound of the alarm, the goblins at the watchtowers turned their rock-throwing attention to the party, but then switched to their shortbows. As the zombies clawed at Charrone and Larissa, Declan summoned the Holy Light of the Dawnflower at the zombies. Smoke rose from the zomies as the burning rays of golden sunshine shone from Declan's holy symbol. A few of the zombies remained standing, but they quickly fell to Halfred's axe, Charrone's sword, and Declan's scimitar. The group pressed into the room.

Deciding not to press straight to the Throne Room this time, they followed a corridor to the west. They found a couple of unoccupied store rooms, including one that held mostly foodstuffs (barrels of pickles and apples, sacks of grain, hanging sausages), and one that held goblin dog riding gear and bales of straw. Thinking that goblins might be distracted by food, Charrone took a pocketful of apples and some sausages. They also checked out the west tower, which by now was unmanned. From there they went north, and found an open-air courtyard.

The courtyard ground was packed earth, with a few tufts of grass sticking up here and there, and liberally sprinkled with of piles of fecal matter-- this place appeared to be where the goblins once kept their ratlike pets. But now, the goblins seemed to be using the courtyard as a charnel-house: about a score of goblin corpses were neatly stacked like cordwood along the eastern wall, and six dead goblin dogs were piled along the western wall. A wooden shack stood along the northern wall, and two bloated goblin corpses lay next to its door. These two dead goblins appeared to have been laying there for several days at least, and a quick examination showed that both of their heads had been bashed in with a large blunt object. The door to the shed was nailed shut, then covered over with more boards that were also nailed in. The door itself was battered, as if something inside had been trying to bash its way out. Larissa listened at the door, and heard the sound of a large animal breathing, and perhaps a sickly whinny.

They pried open the door, and found inside a once-handsome heavy horse, but now it seemed both very sickly and wild with rage. It bolted out of the shed, charging past Larissa, and then reared, striking at Charrone with its hooves. Charrone, being an expert horsewoman, stood her ground and managed to calm it by offering it an apple. She could tell that the poor beast hadn't had anything to eat or drink in days, and must have been shut up in that shed for the whole time-- and that probably it had been what had killed the two goblins. Someone went back to a storeroom for the straw and more apples, and they then took a few minutes to see to the horse's needs. Once it seemed that the horse would probably stay put, they continued to explore the goblin lair by taking the northern door.

That led to a winding corridor that led past a few empty rooms, including the goblin latrine, and to another door that led to a stone staircase leading down. Larissa searched the area and found two things of interest: the wall behind the latrine was hollow, as was a section of the corridor wall across from the door to the stairs. She found a catch in the latrine to open a sliding door, and in the tiny room behind it was a large seaman's chest. She dragged the chest into the hallway. As she got out her lockpicks, Ted said, "Hey, why don't you try one of these?" and offered her Ripnugget's key ring. One of the keys seemed to be the kind that would fit the keyhole, and she tried the key. However, she had an odd feeling about the chest, and decided to turn the key to the left instead of the right, and the chest opened. Looking at the lock, she saw that if she had turned it to the right, she would have been stuck by a spring-loaded needle that seemed to be covered by a black tarry substance. "Glad I didn't set that off," she said. Inside the chest were a thousands of coins (mostly copper and silver, but a few gold), a fine chainmail shirt, some jewelry, and a few other useful items. They dragged the chest to the shed that used to hold the horse, and nailed the door back shut.

Larissa turned her attention to the hollow-sounding panel in the hall. She estimated that this panel was most likely a secret door, but one that could not be opened from this side. Tapping it again, she said that the panel was likely not very thick, and that someone strong could probably chop through it with an axe fairly quickly. Ted handed Charrone a hatchet and suggested that she and Halfred should strike the door simultaneously to try to bust it down in one blow, so as not to give anyone on the other side any warning. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea.

So, on a silent count of three, Halfred and Charrone chopped at the door at the same time with all of their might. The door, being of goblin construction, couldn't withstand such an assault, and splintered open. Everyone rushed into the room. The room appeared to be a richly-furnished (for a goblin) bedroom: a four-poster canopy bed with an ornately carved headboard stood at one side, it filthy silk sheets in a messy pile. Horse and dog skins covered the floor, and the walls were "decorated" with horse and dog ears nailed to them. Empty wine bottles littered the floor and a table, which also was covered with bloody seagull feathers, beaks, and feet. A single door led south. Larissa listened at the door, and heard goblin voices beyond.

[To be continued...]