The Crystal Dominion - Session 14 Summary

[avisarr]

The Crystal Dominion - Session 14 Summary

The Heroes:

RedEye - A sayune darkwalker with rogue skills and a few spells of sorcery.
Eiran - An elven ranger and archer with a gift for communicating with animals.
N'sahd - A human wizard, born without vocal chords, who casts all his spells silently.
Sir Tristan - A knight in shining armor, man of honor and courage, and a skilled swordsman.
Alan - A human arcanologist... a magic tinkerer with a keen ability to "reprogram" spells and magic items.
Rikhaal – A human priest of Barrinor with an array of spells and powerful healing magic.

NPC Characters:

Koeglur – An ogre warrior, former prisoner of Boss Vorgan, now freed and serving the party.
Osh – A 12 year old human male serving as a squire to Sir Tristan.


The Story:

Last session ended with the party camping out at the base of Bloodspire Mountain.  They had been in contact (using the magic mirror) with the primary group of soldiers sent out from the Swordtongue Guild. To review, a number of soldiers had been sent out from the guild to support the party. They were sent in three small groups traveling discreetly. The plan was for all groups to rendezvous at the base of Bloodspire Mountain. Then, our intrepid band of plucky heroes would climb the mountain, find the entrance, explore the mine and secure it. The soldiers would merely be on hand to serve and support as needed. They would be under the command of the party.

The party waited a little over a day and a half for the first group of soldiers to arrive. During the previous two nights of camping and waiting, the party had briefly seen a strange distant blue light drifting silently through the clouds around the top of the mountain. They couldn't make out what it was.

The soldiers showed up at noon as expected. The group consisted of five foot soldiers led by Captain Durgan. The other two groups were still a ways off.

Now that their base camp had been established and secure, the party decided it was time to head up the mountain and see if they could find the entrance to Kalrothis.

The party consisted of RedEye the sayune sorcerer/thief, Eiran the elven ranger, N'sahd the wizard, Rikhaal the healer, Alan the arcanologist and Tristan the knight. They were also accompanied by the ogre warrior Koeglur and Tristan's squire Osh. Finally, the party decided to take two of the foot soldiers with them. The party therefore consisted of a total of 10 men.

Captain Durgan and the other three foot soldiers stayed behind to maintain the base camp and wait for the other soldiers from the Swordtongue Guild to arrive. All of the soldiers would stay there at the base camp until the party sent for them.

The party and their retainers climbed for several hours. About half way up the mountain, the party spotted something in the distance. It looked like a small two story building built of grey stone and timber that blended into the mountainside. The party approached cautiously. The building, which was no larger than a common house, appeared to be crudely built and was likely of orcish construction.

The party slowly circled the house at a distance to view it from all sides. It appeared to be in a state of disrepair. The roof on the second story sagged and was completely caved in on one side with a gaping hole. Firewood was stacked around the back of the house, but it was old and rotted. The place seemed lifeless and deserted.

The party cautiously entered what seemed to be the front door. The door had a symbol on the front which was an orcish clan rune of some sort, but no one recognized it. They walked into the front room. They listened carefully. They could hear something scratching and sniffing behind a door in the next room. Toward the back of the house was a rhythmic metallic scraping sound.

They decided that caution was the best approach. Rikhaal cast a silence spell and under the cover of that spell they proceeded to spike all the doors on the first floor shut.

RedEye used his sayune dark magic to peer through the walls. In the back of the house was what appeared to be an orcish zombie standing in a kitchen stirring something in a large cauldron and it was this stirring that was making the metallic noise.

The scratching sound was a pair of giant rats and a nest of young in a small side room.

Another orcish zombie was in the small basement of the house. There appeared to be no other threats. The party quickly dispatched the two zombies and then conducted a thorough room by room search of the house.

This crude little house appeared to be some sort of orcish outpost. Judging by the number of rooms and bed and cots, it had been home to about half dozen orcs, one of which was a shaman of sorts. The place appeared to have been hastily abandoned sometime in the last year. All of the food was rotted away. The building itself was weather worn and falling apart.

During their search, the party found various chests and locked iron strong boxes. From these, they obtained some coins, gems and other trinkets of value. A few treasures, such as a beautiful elven dagger, were obviously stolen loot... perhaps from orcish raids. Of greater value was a parchment upon which was a map of Bloodspire Mountain. The map appeared accurate. It indicated this orcish outpost. It also indicated several other things on the mountain that intrigued the party. The map mentioned "Krael's Cave", "The Death Crystals", "The Chasm" and "The Great Stone Face".  The chasm was at the base of the mountain on the far side. Krael's Cave was a little further up the mountain and to the west. The Death Crystals were around the east side. And the Great Stone Face was up near the top of the mountain.

N'sahd was convinced that the "great stone face" on the map might be the Weeping Rock mentioned in Mazuris' letter... the weeping rock that the party was hoping to find somewhere on this mountain.

The party continued their search. One of the rooms in the house was clearly the private quarters of an orcish shaman, judging by the decorations and orcish roeda glyphs scrawled on the walls. In the shaman's room, they found a box in which was a strange crystal object. It was roughly spherical, but composed of many jagged crystalline shards jutting out from a central point. It was a semi-translucent crystal with a leaden grey color.

In the shaman's room, they also found a box containing four orcish spellsticks... although they could not identify what spells they might contain.

A set of stairs led from the kitchen and dining area to the upper level. The party asked RedEye to use his sayune magic to peer up to the second level and make sure nothing was up there. He swept the upper level with his mind, looking for life energy. He found something. Seven small auras of life clustered together.

The party ran up to the upper level with weapons at the ready. They found a large nest containing seven eggs. The nest was six feet across and composed of branches and bits of armor and tattered rags. The seven eggs were large, oblong things with a thick, green leathery surface.

None of the party had seen eggs of this type. But Eiran was sure they were reptilian and N'sahd was certain, based on his readings, that they were too small to be dragon eggs.

While the party discussed what to do with the eggs, Eiran spotted something in the sky. A distant shape with flapping wings that quickly passed behind a cloud.

At this time, Red Eye, growing tired of the debate and feeling that the eggs were a clear threat, drew a blade and quickly sliced through the first egg before anyone could say a word. Whatever primitive half formed creature was inside was killed instantly.

Without pausing, RedEye hacked and slashed the rest. N'sahd joined him. Within seconds, the two men had butchered all seven of the eggs.

Tristan and others sputtered protests, but the act had been quick. A defiant RedEye defended his action. Meanwhile, Eiran barked at the group to get there attention as the thing had reappared in the sky and now was clearly drawing closer at an alarming speed.

All eyes turned to the sky to see the shape of something winging its way toward the house. Quickly, the party scrambled to take up positions.

Tristan and Alan, who felt the creature must have somehow sensed the slaughter of the eggs, ventured back down into one of the central rooms of the first floor. They felt that this creature was an angry mother and dealing with it was up to RedEye and N'sahd. Tristan ordered Osh and the two foot soldiers to follow them.

RedEye and N'sahd took up positions on the wrecked second floor with a clear view of the gaping hole in the roof and the nest. They expected that this creature was the mother of the nest and they expected her to land on the edge of the second story next to her nest.

Eiran took up a position on the first floor next to a hole in the wall. He had his bow knocked and ready and was partially concealed behind a wall.

Koeglur took up a position at the base of the stairs ready to move wherever he was needed.

Rikhaal sought shelter in the first floor away from the battle, but readied his healing magic for when it might be needed.

The beast glided in on powerful wings. It appeared to be some kind of small dragon. It was a scaled reptilian beast with a 20 foot wing span. It's lean frame was roughly the size and weight of a full grown horse. The beast had a dead and bloodied mountain goat in its claws which it dropped as it approached the house.

As it swooped in to land, Eiran fired 3 arrows in rapid succession. The first two glanced off the beast's scales. The third stuck in a scale, but did not appear to penetrate.

The beast flapped its wings and landed on the second floor, right next to the nest. It let loose with a wailing screech.

N'sahd, who had been preparing, let loose a lightning bolt spell. The flash of energy arced from his outstretched hands and hit a glancing blow against the serpent. It loud out a roar of pain, but seemed only angrier. It quickly advanced around the nest trying to get closer to the only two opponents standing defiantly before it – RedEye and N'sahd.

Eiran charged half way up the stairs until he could see the beast and fired three more arrows. All three glanced off of the beast's  thick scales. Koeglur, charged up the stairs, past Eiran and attacked the beast with his sword.

Ignoring Koeglur, the beast inhaled and let loose with a burst of flame directed toward the wizard and the sayune in front of it. It had a breath weapon! Clearly, if this wasn't a dragon, it must be something related. Both RedEye and N'sahd were burned by the flames, but not badly.

The magic rings that four members of the party wore channeled some of the damage to Rikhaal and Koeglur. Rikhaal responded with a healing spell which also was channeled through the rings and affected all four men.

RedEye through his magical flaming dagger. It struck the beast in a burst of flame and then magically flew back to his hand. The beast seemed unharmed.

At this point, N'sahd  threw a fireball against a portion of the collapsed roof beyond the beast, hoping to engulf the beast in flame and not Koeglur (who was still hacking at the monster with his sword). Again, the beast was unphased. Clearly, fire did little against it.

Eiran, pulled out one of his magic arrows. This was a green arrow with green fletching. He had picked it up much earlier in his adventures. The bladed headed was formed in the likeness of a lizard's head. He had been saving this arrow for just such an occasion.

The arrow struck the beast in the neck. There was a tremendous flash of light was temporarily blinded everyone. A second later, the light faded and they all saw the serpent collapse to the ground. It's head was completely gone and the beast's serpentine neck ended in a smoldering stump. The party cheered.

The beast's nest had no treasure, although they did find a women's jeweled necklace and scarf woven into the nest. The blood stained scarf had embroidered upon it the heraldry of a Drakkellian guild house.

Both the eggs and the smoldering headless beast gave off a terrible stench. The party decided to remove them from the house. With great effort and team work, they managed to roll the winged serpent off the second story and on the to the ground below. They then rolled it down the mountain side a short distance. They also removed the eggs from the house.

Having disposed of the beast and the eggs, the party set about cleaning the house up a bit and decided to stay there for the night.

Koeglur took advantage of the kitchen and cooked up a fine meal of steaks carved from the belly of the beast they had just slain. After a good meal, everyone slept in the house. They took turns standing guard. It was a quiet night with no surprises.

The next morning, Osh indicated that he had seen the strange blue light again, drifting quietly through the clouds near the top of the mountain. He is sure that he saw two lights, but only briefly. They were very far away and made no sound.

This is where we ended session 14.