Session/Game: Northern Marches 3e #1 Date: August 20, 2000
Campaign Date: Sau
1-14 Imperial Year 468
Characters:
Rannos, human, fighter,
level 1, CG Bob LaForge
Malaiki, human, cleric of
Bor, level 1, LN, Jonathan Clark
Bayne, high elf, ranger,
level 1, CG, Matt Diguglielmo
Whitefire, human, rogue,
level 1, CN, Charles Fleurie
Log:
Sir Malcolm of Old Fort had pulled together an expedition
consisting of his personal chaplain, Father Lucas, 10 mercenary footmen, two
scouts (Bayne, an elf ranger, and Whitefire, a human rogue),:Malaiki—esquire in
the order of St. Hugo—who hated banditry in all forms, and Rannos a mercenary
axe man. They had left Old Fort on the first day of Sau to track down a roving band of kobold
raiders who had wandered into the area and were causing havoc.
At a point where the trail to the Storm Wood Monastery
passed through a small wood near a small hill, Sir Malcolm halted the column,
fearing an ambush. He sent Whitefire
and Bayne ahead to scout the path. They
discovered that there were kobolds in the woods, so they returned with the
news. Sir Malcolm and Father Lucas took
7 of the men-at-arms to encircle the woods from the left, 3 men-at-arms were
left on the path to prevent escape, and Bayne, Rannos, Whitefire, and Malaiki
were sent to seize the hill on the right and then circle around the wood from
that direction.
When they reached the base of the hill, Whitefire was
sent to scout ahead, while Bayne, Malachia and Rannos waited at the base. Bayne however heard the noise of Sir Malcolm
and his column coming under heavy attack and immediately ran off to help
them. Whitefire discovered there were
12 kobolds at the top of the hill, singled the others and fired a few arrows at
the raiders. Rannos and Malaiki
eventually reached the top of the hill, and Rannos had to be healed because of
severe arrow damage. Among them the
party killed 5 of the kobolds and drove the rest off.
Meanwhile, Bayne had arrived at the site where Sir
Malcolm and his column had been attacked.
The kobold position along the forest path had been a decoy, set up to
make enemies move around the forest into the real ambush site. 24 kobolds there had killed Father Lucas and
4 of the men-at-arms, the other 3 had fled, and Sir Malcolm was lying wounded
and unconscious on the ground. The
kobolds, however, had fired all their crossbow bolts. Bayne rushed to Sir Malcolm to bind his wounds, but one group of
12 kobolds rushed up to stop him. Bayne
killed 5 of them, drove the rest off and rescued Sir Malcolm.
The entire force then returned to Old Fort, where Sri
Malcolm was tended. When he regained
consciousness he asked Bayne, Malaiki, Whitefire and Rannos if they would track
the kobolds to their lair and destroy them.
He offered them some up-front money, and a bounty of 2 gp per kobold
killed. They eagerly agreed and set off
that very night, arriving at the ambush site just after dawn.
Bayne easily tracked the kobolds back to their lair,
killing 3 who had been left as a rear-guard.
Although he did throw away 25 gp worth of tobacco the kobolds had
dropped. They approached the kobold’s
lair, where they killed three more kobold guards who were guarding a stone
throne surrounded by cheap offerings near a cave entrance.
Entering the cave, they rushed forward and killed 5 more
kobold guards and a Dire Rat who were protecting the entrance, one guard
escaped to warn the others. The party
then worked around and entered one barracks room, where the kobold guard had
just awakened the 10 sleeping kobolds there.
The party attacked and killed all 11 enemies, although Rannos was
grievously wounded and had to be healed by magic. Bayne began to relentlessly mock the Rannos for the
ineffectualness of his “Great Axe”.
Through blind luck the party then stumbled forward and found the leader
of the kobold band—A lizardman druid who has set himself up as “god of the
kobolds”---and his three elite guards.
After some hard fighting the “god’ was slain and the party retrieved the
treasures from the nearby treasure room, although Bayne was whacked on the head
by a falling rock trap. Feeling
exhausted, wounded and out of spells, the party returned to Old Fort for the
night.
In Old Fort they had their wounds healed, bought some
healing potions from Father Brewster, the village priest, and gave a report to
Sir Malcolm. Bayne went to a local
weaver and had her embroider a surcoat for Rannos which said “I have the Great
Axe” and had a target on the back. Not
wasting any time, they returned for the lair the next morning.
When they arrived, they found that the kobold band had
departed, since they no longer had their great god to guide them. The party recovered a few human-sized
pieces of armor and weaponry that the kobolds had left behind, and they
collected the left ears of the kobold and lizardman corpses left behind (for
Sir Malcolm’s bounty).
But, they discovered there were two sections
of the underground complex where the kobolds did not go. In one section they avoided a trap filled
with giant centipedes, which Whitefire and Malaiki killed. Then they killed a few stirges, who had
managed to suck some blood from Whitefire and Malaiki. In the stirge room they searched through a
large pile of old junk. They found some
small useful items, except for Malaiki who only found an old boot, a wad of old
soap and a sack full of maggots.
Another
room contained a trap, which Bayne triggered with his head again. Inside they found a secret panel hiding some
masterwork arrows and a valuable gem.
Finally, they fought a pair of giant ants who opened a can of hurting on
them, but were killed at last. Bayne
climbed up the wall and inched down an ant tunnel, finding the rotting corpse
of a halfling. He told the party that
there was nothing of value on the corpse.
On
the opposite end of the dungeon, they found the way blocked by a small horde of
animated kobold-sized skeletons, all charred black. Malaiki turned them and the party proceeded onwards. They then entered a room with 8 more
skeletons, whom Malaiki also turned.
There were 4 treasure chests in an adjacent alcove. Whitefire detected traps on the 1st
and 3rd. A large argument
then broke out because Whitefire, although skilled in finding traps and opening
locks, refused to learn anything about disarming traps. The party called him a useless sack of shit,
and he countered by saying disarming traps was for suckers. Whitefire opened the locks on chests 2, 3
and 4, dodging the fire trap on chest 3.
The other three muscled open chest 1, and Bayne was hit by an arrow
trap. They recovered some valuable gold
and gems, an elf statuette (which Bayne claimed as part of his share), and 260 pounds of copper. The next room contained an evil looking
black stone, which they avoided. The
big horde of now 20 skeletons were covering before the last room, Malaiki
arranged for them to move down the hall, and the party examined the door to the
final room.
The
turning effect, however, had now worn off and the 20 skeletons returned,
trapping the party at the end of the hall in front of a door they could not
easily open. Bayne and Rannos held the
skeletons at bay, eventually joined by Malaiki when Rannos had pushed open some
space. It was the Great Axe of Rannos
that hacked the greatest number of skeletons to pieces in this fight, although
he was at last forced to pull back.
Whitefire was making a feeble attempt to bash in the door with a mace,
until Rannos pulled back and he entered the fight at the very end. The exhausted party had triumphed over the
skeletons, and recovered some strange treasure from the room beyond. They found a crystal blue key, a strange
silvery scroll, a masterwork elf chain shirt, and a silvered masterwork
rapier.
They
then returned to Old Fort with the kobold ears pack in the box of salt they had
found in the lizardman’s lair (ruining 20 lbs of salt, which was worth 100
gp). They received their bounty and
spent 10-12 days resting, training and recuperating. All four characters reached 2nd level. Rannos becoming Fighter 2, Malchai Cleric 2,
Bayne Ranger 2, and Whitefire Rogue 1 / Wizard 1.