Saturday 20th of September

After visiting with Ike at the temple of Wee Jas our party gold feels a lot lighter; although I feel like my old self again.

Visit with Jenya; she shares all she knows regarding Vampires after we describe the attack on Khandalar. Jenya says that identifying the creature that had compelled Orak made her task easier.

We decide to go back into the Goblin infested enclave under the bath house once again

Main corridor
Head east and enter first door on the right and enter
Small room

Two Goblins, they shout “Beyark, beyark”
Owyn attacks missing the goblin he is facing
Anari tumbles past and coming up onto her knee swings the sword with the momentum of the move slicing the goblin almost in two.
Kellen strides in and dispatches the remaining goblin with one stroke of his sword
Searching the bodies we find 18cp
Gain 4 ears
Door heading south, leads into

Barracks

Eight Goblins are visible as we enter
Owyn rushes in and is unable to hit
Bran starts to sign a song of heroes past to raise everyone’s spirits
Bran charges in and is unable to hit
Kellen rushes into the middle of six Goblins and attacks

His sword is a flurry of movement with a red trail flowing from it and connecting each Goblin in turn
The sixth Goblin manages to duck and Kellen’s sword bites into the stone above its head; a large puddle appears under the Goblin
Around Kellen are five dead Goblins

Anari charges in and kills the damp and smellier Goblin
A Goblin takes a swing at Anari but the blow is easily parried away
The eighth Goblin tries to move past Anari and Kellen

Kellen almost lazily cuts it down, removing its head from its shoulders

In the corridor Khandalar and Cass are set upon by Goblins leaving the barracks
Khandalar is attacked and slightly wounded
Khandalar creates a ball of burning fire and rolls it up the corridor over the four Goblins

1 is killed screaming
3 are seriously burned and writhe in agony

Cass moves in a slashes the throat of one of the burnt Goblins; the roasted skin parts easily and Goblin falls to the floor with its dark blood pumping between its fingers as fire baked eyes roll back in their sockets.
Owyn and Bran move into the next room of the barracks and engage two Goblins
Both Owyn and Bran fail to connect with their intended targets
Kellen moves into the room and almost casually kills another Goblin
Anari enters the room and kills another Goblin with a piercing blow from her silver rapier
A goblin attacks Anari but she parries the blow and smiles sweetly at it
In the corridor a Goblin lashes out at Cass causing a deep cut on her leg
Khandalar rolls the fiery ball back over the two goblins killing them both and causing the smell of burning flesh to further fill the corridor
In the barracks Owyn breaks through the defence of a goblin and kills it
Bran slashes at the last remaining goblin and causes it a grievous injury
Anari almost without looking opens the goblins neck and moves towards the corridor as its body crashes to the floor
We retrieve 16 ears, although some are crispy
Searching all of the bodies we find:

108 sp
73 cp
200 gp worth of goblin sized armour and weaponry

We set to rejoin Cass and Khandalar in the corridor from the second door of the barracks when a direwolf comes around the corner snarling.
Bran calls for help

Corridor

Direwolf attacks Cass

Attempts to trip her
Cass falls to the floor
IT bites her and laps blood from Cass’ neck

Anari attacks Drakthar in direwolf form and misses
Khandalar fires a scorching ray at the direwolf causing grievous wounds
Bran misses when he slashes at it
Owyn misses when he attacks
Kellen blinded by rage on the violation of Cass misses the direwolf
Cass gets to her feet

Pale faced
Eyes glowing green
Pure rage painted across her face

She grabs hold of either side of the direwolf’s head

Casts shocking grasp
Electricity crackles through the fur

Drakthar howls in agony and turns into his gaseous form.

We follow the gaseous form through the enclave until it enters a

Room painted in blood

The blood has dried so it gives the room a rusty brown colour
The air tastes of copper from all the blood
The is a crevice in the wall which the gaseous Drakthar passes through
In front of the crevice there is a large chair made from bones and stitched skin

In some areas the faces of the victims use to make the chair are visible

As we approach the chair it starts to move
It stretches up the arms of the chair being monstrously long arms with long skeletal hands; it is propelled on four legs

Bran moves into a position near the centre of the room and starts singing of Kellen destroying all enemies he faces; preparing to strike the chair when it comes into range
Owyn moves into position near the centre of the room; also preparing to strike
Anari moves into a similar position ready unleash a flurry of blows when the time comes
Kellen strides purposefully, sword ready and his face a mask of pure anger, we can barely hold himself back as we wait for the chair to come to us.
Cass casts a spell on Jazz and sends her in
The chair moves towards us
Anari attacks heavily damaging the chair smashing on of the bone supports and slicing through the skin
Bran misses the chair
Owyn misses the chair
Kellen misses the chair
Chair lashes out at Kellen but he avoids the blow
Bran attacks the chair and kits it but causes no damage, even though the blow was heavy and well landed
Anari attacks again and her clear hit slices through some more of the skin
Kellen hits and smashes some more of the bones
Jazz touches the top of the chair delivering a massive electrical charge and the chair burst apart and the skin burns away

We look around the room for more enemies and finding none we walk through the hole in the wall into:

A small cave

The cave has a door in it
Owyn checks the door for traps
Bran has a look around the cave
Owyn declares the door safe and opens it Kellen and Anari enter first into:

A small room

The room is filled with various treasures
A small chest
Bran searches the room and finds a 5’ section of floor can be lifted in the middle of the room
The section of floor is lifted exposing Drakthar’s slumbering form
Bran pulls out a stake and prepares to drive it through Drakthar’s heart
Cass puts a hand on Bran’s arm.
Bran looks at the festering bit of the ivory neck of Cass and gives her the stake
Cass drives the sake through Drakthar’s chest and into the ground

Drakthar’s eyes snap open and he screams pinned to the floor

Cass draws her dagger across Drakthar’s throat, blood oozing out of the wound
Cass works the blade until she is able to remove his head from the body
We remove the chest and all the other treasure from the room and into the little cave
Bran uses a flask of alchemist fire on the body of Drakthar to make sure it is utterly destroyed
Owyn unlocks the chest and finds

Golden bracelet (appraised at 50gp)
Silver comb inlaid with amber (appraised at155gp)
Ivory flute with jade inlays (appraised at 250gp)
Necklace in a purple velvet cloth

Looks like five beads on a string
When worn it looks golden to the wearer and there are three sizes of bead

Necklace of fireballs (type 2)

Each bead represents one fireball

x2 - 4D6
x2 - 4D6
x1 - 6D6

Appraised at 2700gp

Small Feather

Will deliver a message, without error, to a target no matter their location
Appraised at 300gp

The rest of the treasure is examined:

17200cp
3500sp
Rusty battle axe – discarded
Composite longbow (+3) (not appraised)

Kellen is interested

Quiver inlaid with the symbol of Ehlonna (appraised at 1800gp)

Three compartments

First is able to hold 60 arrows or equivalent sized objects
Second is able to hold 6 javelin sized objects
Third is able to hold 6 spear sized object

The user suffers no weight restrictions using this item.

Masterwork rapier (not appraised)

Owyn is interested

Masterwork spear with silvered head (not appraised)

Cass is interested

Breastplate shaped in the likeness of a Griffon (not appraised)
Mithril chain shirt (appraised at 1400gp)

Anari is interested

Heavy shield made of Dark Wood (appraised at 407gp)

Once finished we returned back to the natural fissure, over which we had passed when following the gaseous for of the now vanquished Drakthar. Cass had placed his head atop the spear with the silvered head.

A goblin on a ledge fires an arrow at us and misses
Bran returns fire and kills the goblin

The body remains on the ledge so we are unable to collect the ears

We walk down the fissure towards day light due to the acoustic nature of the fissure we can hear people playing a game and manage to identify the following names:

Xoden
Graytusk
Haller
Krawlag
Mincer
Trollock
Vahlar

Getting closer we see the group to be made of six half-orcs and one dwarf.

The hear us coming and Bran tries to bluff his and the parties presence in the fissure as they had recently joined forces with Drakthar to cause trouble in Cauldron and spread the corruption. It all seemed to be going well until the dwarf, Xoden, noticed Cass’ staff and pointed out we had Drakthar’s head on top of it; the only words to escape Bran’s lips if anyone had heard them were, “Oh bugger”.

Xoden order the half-orcs to attack and the inevitable fight ensures:

Anari attacks Mincer, injuring him
Kellen attacks Greytusk but misses
Haller attacks Anari and injures her
Mincer attacks Anari and significantly injures her
Tollock attacks the weakened Anari and hits her causing yet more damage
Owyn attacks Trollock, misses and then moves away
Krawlag attacks Owyn, injuring him
Khandalar attacks Xoden with a scorching ray seriously injuring him
Kellen attacks Greytusk and kills him
Kellen swings at Trollock but misses
Cass charges up Jazz
Jazz touches Haller shocking him and causing significant injuries
Vahlar attacks Anari and misses
Xoden attacks Kellen and misses
Bran starts singing a rousing song about the legend of Zenith Splintershield
Bran hits the weakened Hallar and kills him
Kellen misses Trollock again
Anari hits Mincer opening up a nasty wound
Owyn hits Mincer killing him
Trollock misses Anari
Krawlag hits Owyn powerfully and Owyn crashes to the floor bleeding badly
Cass recharges Jazz
Jazz attacks Trollock with the shocking grasp bit is unable to grasp him
Vahlar starts to withdraw
Xoden attacks Kellen
Kellen drops Xoden
Kellen attacks Trollock causing a minor wound
Bran uses the wands to heal Owyn
Anari kills Krawlag
Cass fires her sling at the withdrawing Vahlar but misses
Bran misses Vahlar with his crossbow
Kellen hits with his longbow
Anari kits with her longbow
Jazz flies past but fails to make contact
Bran misses again
Jazz grasps Tollock, the electricity coursing through him causes his internal organs to rupture and he busts apart steam escaping the ripped and seared flesh
Xoden starts to come round

Anari and Kellen guard him

Bran and Owyn search the bodies and collect the valuable items

In total the following is gathered from the half-orcs

6 master work halberds
6 breast plates
6 bucklers
6 short bows
20 arrows
8 gp in coins
Appraised to be worth in total 2400

Xoden is stripped of his armour and weapons

+1 Scale armour – not appraised
Potion - not identified
Master work Dwarven war hammer – not appraised

The heads of the half-orcs are removed as evidence of their involvement under Cauldron

Goblin ear total from this excursion:

36 (180gp)

Outstanding questions:

Why is Dwarf gaming with half-Orcs while consorting with Goblins and a Bugbear Vampire?
Why are there pictures of cages on things?
What have the “brave” Stormblades been up to while we sorted out this issue?
Why is Cauldron all of a sudden getting this much attention:

Kidnappings
Underdark slavers
Beholders
Goblins vandalising the town
Vampire controlling the Goblins
Half-Orcs and a Dwarf working together

Outstanding tasks:

Healing Cass
Clearing out the rest of the dungeon
Hawking our loot
Deliver ears and head to Skellerang
Report findings to Skellerang
Getting Orak back to his bath house
Telling our story in the Tipped Tankard and the Drunken Morkoth
Find chick that gave me the note
Trying to find out what the heck is going on in Cauldron

Learning points:

Bluffing your way through a situation is a whole lot easier when you don’t have their bosses head on a spike.

Coinage accrued:

549gp
70sp
1cp

Ear accrued:

Session	Ears	gp
8	20	100
9	14	70
10	4	20
11	36	180
Total	74	370

Appraised items total: 9662gp

Seven items not appraised, including one unidentified potion

Party gold before session: 3112gp

Party gold after session: 3661.71gp

Appraised items have not yet been sold and therefore are not available to party gold.

Ears have not yet been sumbitted for bounty and are therefore not available to party gold.

Bran Journal Session12