the Goblin King and the Lord of Werewolves have renewed their ancient alliance in the dungeons beneath the Howling Tower ...
the secret treasury of the Bronding Kings is said to lie hidden behind the Brokenbrand Falls, haunted by enchanting naiads ...
Jaer the Windlord looks down on the world below from the Eyries of the Eagles atop the Greyhame Mountain itself ...
and the Stars themselves are singing an eerie, eldritch song, night after night ...
12 April's roster: (I think? my notes are sketchy)
Blackleaf (Elf)
Koko (woman-ape)
Aethelwulf (paladin)
Astia (hireling raised to 1st level ... I forget her class)
Maira (new magic-user 1)
Little Bob (? was he present?)
Baby Face (? showed up late?)
Following last session's capture of Morholt, usurper of the rightful lordship over Brakeridge, the men-at-arms of Lady Sonora, rightful widow-lady of Brakeridge, took the lone watchtower in town (jokingly nicknamed "the Citadel").
Meanwhile, Sonora, Moria Morholtsdotr, and Morholt-imprisoned set off to the north to seek the judgment of King Vialar the Cruel over Morholt ... Lead (cleric) and Aria (Elf) elected to accompany the party, along with a number of mercenaries hired by Aethelwulf and Baby-Face
Dogs were bought by the characters in town. Blackleaf bought a bloodhound and named it "Droopy", forgetting her other dog already named Droopy and killed; but more excitingly, as Astia, former hireling-woman of Lead, equipped herself for adventuring, she managed to acquire the lone warbat rolled up with my spiffy new table. Named him Wayne, a fitting name.
And to the Howling Tower they all went.
Using the insectoid-tunnel-entrance, they entered into the first dungeon level with only a minor encounter--Koko the ape was paralyzed by the tentacle-attack of an insectoid horror in the tunnels, but the monster managed to escape death by backing off real-fast when the party moved in around it ...
Next in my notes are a series of crossed out numbers; I assume they're slaughtered goblins ... and cornered wolves, as the next textual note is, "Blackleaf throws meat to wolves--wolves snarl defensively, cornered. ... Party continues."
Beyond that, Blackleaf took point ahead of the party and ahead of their light, hoping to use her Elfin infravision to good effect to avoid surprise. The party moved quickly through the first dungeon level seeking the stairs down to the second level. On the second level, they sought out the Goblin-King's quarters about which they had been informed on a previous expedition. On the way, Maira was stopped by party members from "bothering" the pool that opens onto the stars and the vastness of space; and the statue room contained different statues again, this time a statue of a maiden, a dragon, and the Queen of Stars in full regalia.
Entering a room to the south of the statue room, the party found a throne room with a throne on the west side carved from a star-stone. Baby Face sat on it; but whatever happened he did not inform the rest of the party.
Moving on from there, the party found corridors to the west that led to a couple doors. The first door had thoughts behind it, detected courtesy of Blackleaf's medallion of ESP 30'. Thoughts about how best to spin this child up in spider silk?
The door is locked; Baby Face failed to unlock it; Koko used her apish feat of strength to force it, and inside, the party discovered a strangely handsome goblin hard at work sewing a human child into a cocoon of spidersilk. In the room with him were a large spider, and an Elfin woman with coal-black skin, white hair, and who was otherwise nude with the easy pride of a native of Barsoom, or some such.
 |
| Like this except more nude, black skin, white hair |
"Why are you disturbing my work?" the Goblin King intoned as he turned to the party--for surely it was he, finally!
"To destroy your evil!" the party cried. They charged; but the Goblin King won initiative, got his spell off, and the party was webbed. He and his female assistant disappeared the next round with another spell, and disappeared through another door to the north; meanwhile the spider killed the dog Fluffy with poison, but was shortly thereafter killed and the web cleared by the party.
With the spider killed and the others fled, the party freed the child in the middle of the room, and then found six more already cocooned and half-transformed into goblins in the room to the north. Aethelwulf remanded the children to his hirelings, Nietzsche, Lesing, and Aquinas (he named them), and had them exit the dungeon while the party pressed on.
Meanwhile, the party found a secret door back to the star-throne-room. Continuing back out into the corridor south, they found a southern door; ESP revealed a jumble of hostile thinking beyond, and when thrown open, the door revealed a group of goblins being rallied by their King.
The goblins were slaughtered; the Goblin King disappeared again, while the coal-skinned woman stepped up to fight (spells from the party failed to affect the King and his compatriot ...). An inky black monstrous cloud began to appear behind the party, but Blackleaf successfully identified it as an illusion. As the party meleed the goblins and the woman, Aethelwulf demanded her surrender; and she proffered it once the Goblin King was gone.
Questions collated with Blackleaf's ESP established that the woman was Callirath, the djinni spirit who aided the Goblin King's escape from the Elves after he seduced her. The party demanded her knowledge about treasure, and she informed them about the treasure of Lososkelax the Spider, also on the second dungeon level; Blackleaf then attempted to sow unrest with the spirit by implying that the Goblin King, whom Callirath loves/lusts after, was more interested in the Star-Being he had summoned/trapped with his machinations. But Callirath was having none of it.
Lastly, the party swung by the spider's web-filled halls to find Loxoskelax and her treasure. They quickly murdered her 8+ hit dice and helpful smaller spiders and zombies, and then took her treasure. It wasn't of terrible value.
On the way back to town, Callirath turned into a whirlwind and escaped from her "captivity."
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Remembrance for the Fallen:
Clara and Ilana (normal women), Marlo and a number of dogs, Gram, Dorcas, Frida, and Johann Haybaler (normal hirelings), Hauka and Wilmerand (weasels), Blade and Boar (boarhounds), Hubert the Peacock and Lysimmachus (normal men), a nameless mastiff, Livy (normal man), Orkie (orc mastiff), Fang (boarhound), Droopy and Snoopy (mastiffs), Dream Destroyer (ghosthound), Arrow (pack dog), Freyja (normal woman), a nameless cur, Hot Dog and Cross (mastiffs), Orion II (lion dog), Bacon (boarhound), Tore (half-orc fighter 1/cleric 1), Jimmy the Snitch (dog), Orion (lion dog), Harambe (man-ape 1)
and for those Enchanted away:
Dol (fyrdman hireling)
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