Session Summary #13

[Nathan Sherman]

Session #13

Cast of Characters
Theren Moonshadow, a Moon Elf Bard played by Payson
Lutheo, a Halfling Paladin played by Dale
Otep, a Half Orc Fighter played by Nelson
Akronos, a Human Wizard played by Alec
Ceress, a Saurien Monk played by Graham
Zug, a Half Ogre Ranger guild from Kitar

The morning after the party was attacked by the troll the party splits up the treasure from the knoll attack from two nights ago and gets ready to leave camp and head to Storm Port.

Zug asks them to wait a little bit for him and he heads off into the forest. About an hour later he comes back with a small bird on his shoulder and carrying a muddy old cloak wrapped around a bunch of treasure. Apparently he talked to the woodland animals to help him in tracking down the home of the troll in a muddy hollow of a fallen tree. In the treasure is gold, platinum, gems, a potion of healing, an Ioun Stone and a magical javelin in addition to all the other random items he grabbed from the troll lair.

The party sets out and has one last night of camping in the forest before making it to Storms Port. That evening, Akronos gets a message from Master Elodin through a Sending spell. Elodin tells him "Challenges finding the Conclave ruins. Narrowing in but taking longer than expected. Most likely they are blocking us. Fifth rune has failed. What's your updates?" Akronos responds back that they are about to enter Storms Port in search of the remains of Hardin.


On their travels they have asked Zug about Storm Port and Hardin and have gathered the following:

Storm Port was lost to Duthelm in the last war and the loss is still keenly felt by those who fought the war. Storm Port was originally populated by people from both countries but during the Demon War 150 years ago it became a Duthelm town. Many in Kitar still feel that Storm Port is theirs but the feeling is not longer mutual.

The city is made up of sturdy buildings with stone, timber and stucco and large eves to help keep the rain off the buildings. The buildings definitely feel a lot like Myranor.

Storm Port is a shadow of its former self. With Kitar owning and controlling the channel access to the ocean, shipping and trading with the outside world by sea ended with the Demon Wars. It is now the fishing capitol of Duthelm as well as a military outpost. The signs of its decline show in a lack of upkeep in the buildings and the roughness of its citizens.

It has been a long time since Kitar forces have been at their walls but the fortifications are still very evident even if a bit rundown. Storm Port is heavily fortified against invasions and has a large garrison of the Duthelm Military for patrols and strikes against Kitar or any internal uprising. The military plays a huge role in the economy with about 10% of the towns 8,000 population being military and another large group being military support. The bulk of the population is tied into the fishing trade but the military is the main purchaser of the fishing trade and what the town relies on to survive. While Duthelm isn't currently at war, they have been ready to be at war for most of the past 150 years and often in skirmishes with neighboring countries. The city is a melting pot of races and is made up of humans, orcs, half orcs, ogres, half ogres and the occasional halfling, saurian or other race. There are no elves in the city of Storm Port and very few Saurians that aren't in the military as members of the Berserkers.

Despite its small size, Duthelm maintains a large standing army and wields it like a machete. Any problem that arises - be it rebellion, incursion or other - is usually solved by sending out several battalions to ride out and slaughter the problem.

The armies of Duthelm consist of a ragtag miscellany of orcs, ogres, saurians, humans, goblins, half breeds and the occasional trolls. On the whole, they are unorganized and lack discipline. But what they lack in order, they make up for in sheer numbers and raw brutality. Standing out from the ranks of common warriors are three groups... the Orcish Rippers, the Ogre Iron Fists and the Saurian Berzerkers.

The Rippers are are highly skilled orcs known for their spiked armor and their whirling, rapid attack style.

The Iron Fists are are ogres that wear extra heavy plate armor and wield huge spiked iron gauntlets. They close range with their opponents relying on their armor to protect them from ranged weapons and then pummel their opponents with crushing blows.

The Berserkers are all Harothi Saurians that take aggression to new heights. They rush into combat with no regard for style, enter a berserker rage and attack with suicidal ferocity.

Having grown up in Kitar and being a part of their military protecting the nation against raids by Duthelm and the ever present threat of war, Zug is also familiar with the basic history of Hardin the Crusader who is a great hero of Kitar.

Hardin died behind enemy lines in Duthelm territory in the town of Storm Port. He was a native of Kitar before the demon war and returned there after the war to continue fighting Duthelm. He dedicated his life to regaining as many towns and lands as possible for Kitar and led many army crusades into battle. Storm Port was in many battles during the war, but it was the site of the last remaining serious offensive against Duthelm by Kitar after the war. Without Hardin leading the efforts to regain lands, Kitar lost the will to sacrifice more lives in exchange for retaking more territory.


The next morning the party has their cover story ready as traveling merchants with their cart full of wine, traveling from the Duthelm city of Dominion with wine stollen from the Falkir Clans to sell. They approach Storms Port from the south and enter the poor district outside the walls. This is where more of the commoners, poor fishers and farmers live as well as access to the unregulated docks.

They continue through the poor district and approach the large gate to the walled city. The gate is functional but shows signs of neglect, kind of like the four guards that are at their posts there. One of them nods to the party as they come in with their covered wagon containing their carefully staged merchant wears as well as a hidden elven bard. They aren't challenged or charged an entry fee, reflecting the lack of organization of Duthelm and Storm Port.

They party rolls into the city and discreetly checks the magical finger of Geldan to see what direction to go to find Hardins remains. It leads them a short ways across the city to a large statue by the harbor.

This is a large and elaborate statue in one of the squares overlooking the harbor. There is a sour odor in the air in this area. On a raised platform is the statue of Hardin laying on his back, being torn apart by burrow hounds. His face is upturned and his mouth is open in a scream of agony with three burrow hounds bitting him from different directions. A Knight of the Abyss is pinning him to the ground with a spear through his chest. There is a plaque that states "Site of the final battle where Duthelm defeated Kitar. This monument is dedicated to the army of Duthelm and the guards of Storms Port for their valor and sacrifice." In smaller text it states "By the oder of the city guard, do not damage this monument upon pain of death."

Just down hill from that statue is a slab marking the spot where Hardin died in the final battle. The slab has a plaque on it stating "Here lies Hardin, buried in a shallow grave, the last of the Kitarian invasion." In smaller text it states "By the oder of the city guard, do not damage this slab upon pain of death."

While the group is looking at the slab, a huge ogre in heavy armor comes out of the guards headquarters on the west end of the square and walks over to the monument. He drops the heavy, spiked gauntlet off of his right hand and pulls his cock out of his trousers. He arches his piss high in the air and after a slight adjustment his piss starts splashing in the open, screaming mouth of Hardin. It was apparently mostly full already and after it has overflowing for a bit he adjusts his aim to piss in the agonizingly wide open eye of Hardin. The ogre pisses like a horse and chuckles while taking his time at it, nodding to the rest of the party with a grin on his face.

The urine runs down the statue and through a cleaver design it drains over the slab covering Hardins grave before tickling down the cobblestones and down to the harbor. Once he is done, the ogre puts his cock back in his trousers, puts his iron gauntlet back on and goes back into the guard headquarters.

The party decides to get a couple hotel rooms close by and have Otep and Zug watch the activity around the statue. There is a bar on the east side of the square and as the regular city traffic on the harbor slows down in the evening the activity in the bar picks up. The city night life is wild and unrelenting for hours. Pissing on Hardin seems to be a regular pass time and even the tough women of Storm Port join in the sport and squat directly over the slab and piss on his remains as a sign of defiance to Kitar and support for Duthelm.

Around three in the morning the activity has died down to just a trickle and the fishermen haven't started going to the harbor yet. The party decides to put their elaborate plan into action.

The plan is that Akronos will levitates the slab while hiding in a nearby buildings shadows. As soon as the slab is a few feet off the ground Otep will push it out to the harbor where Akronos will release the levitate and let the evidence disappear. Lutheo will take the shovel that they bought and dig up the "shallow grave" to find the skull of Hardin. Meanwhile Theren will be hiding in the shadows with Akronos and be ready with an illusion to cover up Lutheo if someone happens to stagger by. This is the plan, but it didn't last for more than a couple seconds before it fell apart.

Apparently the party should have checked to see if the statue and slab were magically warded against being tampering with or damaged. When the slab was levitated it activated a Magic Mouth spell on the statue, emanating from the mouth of the Knight of the Abyss yelling "Guards, Guards, Fools are Damaging the War Monument Again! Surrender Now Fools or Feel The Wrath of Storm Port! Yours will be the eye we piss in." At the same time both Lutheo and Otep feel the tingle of magic upon them but fortunately they resisted whatever the effects were. The ground, statue and floating slab are suddenly outlined in a green light giving off dim light in the area.

Instead of pushing the slab that is now glowing green and floating five feet off the ground across the square and into the harbor, Otep pushes it just a couple feet so it is off of the grave site and he runs back to one of the buildings surrounds the square.

Theron acts quickly and casts Silence on the statue, cutting it off in mid repeat of the warning cry.

Lutheo casts detect magic and determines where the skull of Hardin might be and starts digging in that spot. The ground is hard packed with a layer of compacted sand on the top so digging isn't easy. Akronos raises the glowing slab another 30 feet in the air.

There is the sound of guards string in the command center that boarders the square to the west, followed by and running booted feet. Theren casts an illusion to cover Lutheo while he digs. When Theren concentrate on his illusion, his silence spell ends and the statue alarm spell starts screaming for the guards again. Lutheo abandons digging and runs towards the harbor and round to the eastern edge of the square. Akronos decides they can't miss this opportunity to unearth the skull so he casts Exploding Earth at the gravesite and memorial statue. The explosion of earth, paver stones and bones is spectacular, damaging the statue of the defeat of Hardin in the process.

The falling debris, glowing statue that has just been severely damaged and glowing slab 30 feet in the air is what the guards see as they come running into the square. Apparently this isn't the regular minor damage to the statue or drunkard getting too frisky in his show of disrespect to Hardin that they usually see.

With the guards coming into the square, Akronos throws the snatch pit onto the ground and Theren casts invisibility on Akronos and then jumps in the pit, suspecting that an elf in the area will be executed on sight. Akronos picks up the snatch pit and runs to the site of the exploded earth to try and find the skull of Hardin. Otep has made his way around to the east end of the square and joins up with Lutheo.

Akronos realizes that he is the least qualified within the party to find the Skull of Hardin because he has poor human eyes that don't work nearly as well in poorly lit areas as everyone else in the party. He calls Lutheo and Otep over to join him in the search in the dark for the skull. One of the guards confronts Lutheo and Otep as they get closer, telling them to stay out of the area while the guards investigate what went the hell just happened, but while the guard is talking to them, Akronos turns them in visible. Unfortunately, to concentrate on the invisibility spell Akronos has to let down his concentration on the levitate spell and the slab that is glowing and levitating 30 feet off the ground plummets to earth.

This is where the session ended. Everything is going perfectly according to plan, if the plan was to create chaos, destroy the square and the war memorial statue, wake up the city and summon all of the guards within a ten block radius.

Next session: The party will pick up the skull that is laying at Akronos feet and saunter out of town, celebrating their smooth recovery of another skull of the Conclave of Freedom!


Experience from session #13 will be combined with session #14 when we see how it all plays out...