Adventure 07 - River Cruise

River Journey

Played October 18, 2004
Dateline Karrnath: 1 Therendor 999 (early spring – equivalent to early March)
Featuring Jory, Kirin, Metal Guy, and Quarion


Capsule Summary

Our heroes spent the winter in Aundair – training, getting their newly inherited manor in order, and recuperating. Come the spring, Charon Kessel arranged for them to get passage – working passage – on a salvage boat. Since the Day of Mourning, brave (i.e. greedy) individuals have been plying the River Cyre braving expeditions to the wastes that was once the Kingdom of Cyre – the Mournland. Their contact was in the city of Reddenmark, in the neighboring Kingdom of Karrnath. Karrnath had been a major rival of Aundair in the Last War – due to huge losses, Karrnath resorted to animating their dead soldiers as skeletons and zombies – so a soldier could die twice in the service of his country. Reddenmark was just across the straits of the Scion Sound – the beautiful White Arch Bridge once spanned the gap, but had been destroyed a century at the dawn of the Last War.

The captain of their keelboat was Drekel, a huge half-orc who spoke with a rasping voice – an apparent side-effect of surviving having his throat slit. The crew of the keelboat was about ten humans, orcs, and half-orcs. Drekel was rather interesting in hiring the characters – last autumn his crew had salvaged a chest only to lose it at the bottom of the river following a disagreement with a rival team of salvagers, led by the hobgoblin Vrenn. Drekel had a rough idea where the chest was – Jory with her Mark of Finding should be able to locate it precisely – and he could lend her a potion of water breathing to recover it (along with the Metal Guy who will answer to anything – and who didn’t need to breathe).

Their journey was, for a while, fairly uneventful – lots of stops along the northern bank of the River Cyre (the Karrnath side – they stayed clear of the mist-covered southern bank of the Mournland). However, as they neared Karrlakton, they had a visitor from the Mournland – a very young green dragon, probably hatched only a few years previous – quite possibly an orphan from the Day of Mourning. However this young, dog-sized dragon was still able to do plenty of damage. His acidic breath slew most of the crew of their keelboat and destroyed its sails. Our heroes eventually overcame it, though in the aftermath the only survivors were our heroes, Drekel, Ahrnul, and his twelve year-old son Nifras.

Before heading to Karrlakton, they made a quick visit to the south banks in search of the dragon’s lair. With Jory’s Mark of Finding they were able to locate it – only to find it being looted by a band of Warforged – Warforged who had claimed the dragon’s treasure in the name of the Lord of Blades, nominal ruler of the Warforged of the Mournland. The dragon’s lair was in a cave located some 50 feet up on cliffs bordering on the river. This gave the Warforged a tactical advantage – Jory and Metal Guy climbed up, though Quarion had some trouble climbing the rope Jory had thrown up there. After a somewhat successful melee, Jory was thrown down into the river by a Warforged warrior. Eventually Metal Guy’s metal fists and Quarion’s magic and arrows dispatched them (and Kirin’s magic healed Jory from her long fall). Our heroes made off with the loot – and Metal Guy repaired one of the Warforged with a message for the Lord of Blades that they didn’t seek any trouble. They then took their loot and headed into the metropolis of Karrlakton – the last major city they expected to visit on their trip.

However, while looking for some surplus sails and other equipment, Nifras seemed to have disappeared…

Experience

• Wyrmling Green Dragon – CR3 for 900 XP.
• Warforged – Three Warforged warriors and one Halfling-sized Warforged scout, CR ½ each. – 600 XP
  
  Total XP: 1500 or 375 each. This brings most of you to 2613 XP (Quarion is a few less due to creating some scrolls). You will reach 3rd level at 3000 XP.

Treasure

• Coins: 16000 cp, 400 gp, 200 sp (580 gp value)
• Goods: silver-plated steel longsword with jet jewel in hilt (550 gp, worth 225 if sold)
  
  

Adventure 05-06 - Moving Day

Moving Day

Played September 20 and October 4, 2004
Dateline Aundair, 3 Vult 998 (late autumn – equivalent to early December)
Featuring Jory, Kirin, Metal Guy, and Quarion

Capsule Summary
Our heroes have gotten the deed to Thorn ir’Barges’ small barony. They learn there is one catch – the place is apparently haunted – and the peasants have all abandoned it. Our heroes arrive and find it has indeed been haunted – they find a ghoul in an outlying barn who had eaten a girl and was about to feast upon her brother. The heroes rescued the boy and defeated the ghoul. For good measure they also defeated some evil twigs and avoided a living burning hands spell within a smithy.

Within the actual keep they discovered that Thorn ir’Barges was not the hero he was made out to be – in the Last War he was renowned for chasing a rebel band led by the Shifter Xira all the way through the Eldeen Reaches to the Icehorn Mountains. There they captured and killed the rebels – but that wasn’t the whole story. It turned out that his band did capture the rebels but they were ambushed by orcs afterwards – and lost all their provisions. Trapped in a blizzard, Baron ir’Barges and his men ate the flesh of the rebels. Only one escaped – Xira’s son, Bartom. Bartom later led a revenge squad to ir’Barges tower, killing the baron, his guards, and his family – though Bartom died in the process. The Baron rose up as an undead ghast and his men as ghouls. Bartom, wanting to end the heroic tales of the baron also returned – as a ghost.

Our heroes dispatched the baron and his ghouls (though Metal Guy was disappointed he could not learn the secret of undeath). Bartom’s ghost reacted to a casual comment by Quarion about publishing the baron’s unedited memoirs (which told of the cannibalism) – Bartom possessed Quarion and later Kirin to encourage them to do just that. Secure that the heroic myth of Baron Thorn ir’Barges would be dispelled, the tortured soul of Bartom finally went to its final destination.

Experience

1. Twig Blights – CR 1/3, you fought three of them for an XP total of 300.
2. Spiders – You fought one large spider with a CR of 2 for 600 XP.
3. Ghouls – You fought one ghoul within the tower and one in the stable. Each had a CR of 1 for 300 XP each or 600 total.
4. Ghast – You fought one ghast with a CR of 3 for 900 XP.
5. Avoidance of the living burning hands spell – CR of 1 – I’ll give 100 XP.
6. Dealing with ghost – we’ll use DM fiat to add another 100 XP.
   

Total XP: 2600 or 650 each. This brings most of you to 2238 XP (Quarion is a few less due to creating some scrolls). You will reach 3rd level at 3000 XP.


Treasure

• 2100 sp (210 gp value)
• four tanglefoot bags (worth 200 total, 100 if sold)
• medium chain shirt (100 gp, 50 if sold)
• disguise kit (50 gp, 25 if sold)
• masterwork javelins (301 gp each, 602 gp total – 301 if sold)