Oathday, Desnus 15

Before leaving the forge room, we inspected the forges themselves. Acrid black smoke continued to pour from the now unattended forges and made its way to the entrance. Lying about were many completed and incomplete weapons, mostly swords and ogre hooks. The forges were still hot enough that dumping these weapons back into the forge was sufficient to warp and even melt most of them. So much for the war machine.

There were still the unguarded passages to the north. We all wanted to rest and recover spells, but we needed to know it was safe to do so.

From the forge chamber, we listened in all directions.

From the west we heard distant hammering sounds, of metal hitting stone.

From the southeast, we heard nothing.

From the southwest, we heard more hammering sound, somewhat louder.

The hammering sounds were likely miners, but how many? Best to deal with those closest first. To the southwest, then.

The passage here descended, heading down into what was obviously a mining area. Scouting carefully, we were able to see 4 ogres working. We left them alone for now.

Returning to the forge room, we next went west. This passage was long and twisty but had no branches. Eventually we quietly came upon three ogres harvesting ripe rocks. We also left these alone.

The passage southeast branched only twice, and seemed to contain no ogres. This showed promise as a resting place due to the lack of workers and the relatively low branching passageway.

But there was still, too, the passage to the west northwest in the room that lay between the entrance and the forge, and there was another passage that went due north. Trouble, reinforcements, or both might still lie in that direction. Even though we knew we were running low on magic, some felt we needed to check this out before resting. I was not among those, but I also had, I think, more magic left than most. Admittedly, I only had one or two fireballs left in me but hopefully that would be enough if needed at all.

Sabin, with his dark vision, led the way. There were stairs going up that seemed to lead to another cavern. Nolin and Rigel were close behind, Rigel ever vigilant for traps, snares, and gold. There was a distinct, putrid fragrance wafting from this room that those of us behind could detect quite easily without dark vision. And we also had no trouble making out the conversation: “I think they are coming this way.” “Might they have children?” “Shhh, get your pet!”

Then Sabin came upon a giant, pustule-pocked personage peering perniciously upon the group. As he saw it, it saw him, and suddenly an invisible cage was in place around Sabin, Nolin, and Rigel. Tekkad immediately tried to dispel it, but failed. With surprise no longer an option, we brought out the torches.

Three uglier creatures one could not imagine. I identified them as pustule-face, lumpback, and skeletor, although we occasionally heard them call to each other using proper names of some sort. The ‘pet’ seemed to be a ghast or a wight; it was hard to tell from the claws alone. However, it seemed entirely possible that this ghastwight was what remained of the former commander of the fort, Lamatar.

The creatures started chanting, and since they did not appear to be particularly musically inclined, this probably did not bode well.

Many things were tried to break our friends out of that cage. I gave Sabin Bull’s Strength, and two adamantine swords were also applied. Tekkad tried stoneshape to remove the bars from the stone, but apparently they extended farther into the stone than he thought. A magic missile was fired at the ghastwight. Several magic missiles and a flaming sphere were applied to lumpback.

One of them yelled at Nolin “Hah! How brave are you as a rabbit??” and then looked a little surprised when nothing happened. Impatient, skeletor yelled, “I’m done with this!!” and the cage disappeared as she clawed at Rigel viciously. I desperately wanted to toss a fireball into that room but wasn’t sure I could do it without enflaming my friends. So I contented myself with magic missiles and flaming spheres, which didn’t actually do too bad. Fighters, freed from the cage, attacked with their swords and rearranged themselves to be at the front.

Then an obscuring mist made it hard to see everything and we backed up to the chamber in back of us so we could better spread out. Once I realized everyone was out, I knew I was fireball-ready! There was a brief distraction as a voice from the fog croaked “help me”. Some in the group were concerned that Lamatar may have changed back to his normal self and needed rescuing, but I believed it to be a ruse so I threw a fireball into the mist. (I couldn’t see what I was hitting, but didn’t need to with an area effect spell!)

Turns out I was right but a few party members were dismayed that I hadn’t been more sure. I actually was pretty sure but I think they just didn’t believe me. The fireball did have the side effect of dramatically evaporating some of the mist.

We did see a ranger standing and urging us to stop and parley, but I was pretty sure ghasts and wights can’t turn back into the form from whence they came, so I continued with flaming spheres and magic missiles. Others started to move in as well as the creatures retreated into the cavern we’d found them.

Sweet! Another fireball. Poof.

They were not faring well any longer. They claimed Barl Breakbones had brought them here and held them here against their will and that if we but would let them go they would be grateful and gone. Our fighters and one of my flaming spheres sealed their fate.

About this time Derrell showed up. He caught up to us just as we were finishing off these hags. The cavern was littered with body parts, but little else. We tossed the hags into the smoldering body pit (how thoughtful to have one of those going) but found no magic available for us to lift.

NOW we were TRULY bereft of magic, and all agreed it was time to rest. Tekkad did a stoneshape to make it even harder to reach us in the mine passages, and we set guards and rested.

During my watch we heard a large giant bellowing. Nolin said he was complaining about missing guards and having to clean up after himself.

Fireday, Desnus 16

This would be the day we faced Barl Breakbones. We’d gotten used to killing ogres fairly easily, but a giant … ah, a giant will be a new test of our skills.

We made our way back to the northern corridor (despite the ruckus the night before, there appeared to be no guards) and peeked around the corner. “Sooner than we thought” ran through my mind, because at the far end, sitting on a throne, was a giant. Another giant (a guard, I suppose) was at his side. We strategized, decided on a plan, and rounded the corner.

Only to find we’d been seen. Barl was floating 15 ft above the ground and the guard was already halfway to us. Now the plan had been to use distance weapons (in particular, fireballs) until they were no longer viable, then utilize our big swords. But Derrell apparently had trouble following the script, and rushed out. He was pummeled severely by the guard, but having the guard focus his attack on the poor man DID insure he was not pummelling on anybody else.

I dropped a fireball under the floating Barl, followed quickly by a second, but it was almost impossible for me to get his guard, since Derrell and quickly some of our fighters surrounded him. Although they were doing well, and the clerics were channeling healing to them, the guard was still a formidable enemy. He was, after all, still a giant. About this time, Barl whipped out a wand and shot a black ray at Avia which caused her to get much weaker. Tekkad successfully cancelled Barl’s flying spell and I enlarged Nolin, both of which served to level the playing field considerably. Nolin’s next swing pretty much dealt the guard a death blow.

Barl, however, made a effortless gesture and suddenly we had an undead giant on our hands Still, Barl was on the ropes, and when he tried to run away, it seemed completely natural to give him a fireball to measure himself against. Turns out he was closer to death than anybody might have thought. Ooops. Gosh.

Searching the bodies, we found

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p style=”padding-left: 30px;”From the guard we got a [540] Great club (masterwork).

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p style=”padding-left: 30px;”From Barl we retrieved [541] earth breaker hammer (masterwork), [542] wand of enervation (11 charges), [543] ring of minor cold resistance, [544] sihedron medallion, [545] black onyx gems (worth 545 gp), and a [546] spell book.

A lizard popped off his body as we searched it, so we popped the lizard too. Wouldn’t do to have an angry (or depressed) familiar around.

At the top of some tall stairs (boy the steps were big in this place) in the last room we hadn’t checked, The clerics discovered a Lamashtu altar, and just couldn’t leave without paying their disrespects. They desecrated it in ways that would make Lamashtu proud, were they priests of Lamashtu, or really angry, were they not, which they were not.

The ogres were liberated! Wow, seemed weird to be thinking that. Normally we kill ogres, but there was one last thing we needed to follow through on, because after all we promised. We summoned Glark (via a sending spell by Tekkad). He was most happy to take over the stronghold again and seemed held in high regard by the remaining ogres, although not so high a regard as to remain anything other than skeptically neutral of us. Then, while making a point during our ongoing discussion, he unfortunately removed the giant sihedron amulet from the reposing giant in the entrance … and the one symbol of the Kreeg clan that had remained constant for dozens if not hundreds of years turned to dust and blew away.

Others considered this a curse, and clearly this would come up at his annual chieftain review. I think the Kreeg clan will be in disarray for a while longer.

However, it did leave us with some very valuable (historically and actually) giant sized armor, helm, and glaive. One of our party judged it might be worth several thousand gold pieces to the right party.

[547] armor + helmet (400 lbs, 5000+gp?)
[548] glaive (30-40 lbs)

We gathered our new artifacts, and we gathered our ghastwightbody, and off we headed to the forest to fulfill our quest. The two day trip was punctuated by Tekkad’s idea to speak with the dead head of Barl (Tekkad is accumulating quite a collection of macabre charms for his charm bracelet). His conversation revealed there was an even bigger player in the attempt to take over the fort, and gave us yet another loose thread to pull after visiting the Willowwood. Jorgenfist, or Mokmurian, if I recall correctly.

Sunday, Desnus 18

When we got there, Myriana was glad to see us, or at least as glad as an angry ethereal presence could be. Lamatar was resurrected as a halfling, and vowed to stay in the woods working to improve it, while Myriana’s mood improved dramatically and she returned to the plane where spirits dwell. We believe that the forest will recover from her despaired influence over the coming weeks and months. Lamatar will stay to assist for the remainder of his new life.

Okay, now THIS, Father, is more like the adventuring stories you told!