Sunday, May 8, 2022

Ironguard Keep: Session 12

Shit! We're now into May and the Ironguard Campaign is starting up again in June, so I need to get my faithful readers caught up!  On top of this is the final planning for the start session, after all, 18 months have passed in both the real and game worlds, and lots can happen in that time.

That said, I have prepped the remaining posts, and it looks like things taper off at the 18 mark.


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Original Session Date 7/28/20 - 

PCs in attendance: 

Klayton - human warlock 

Yelrah - halforc barbarian

THE Svetlo - human cleric of Odin

Kirsten - elf 

Albrecht - human sorcerer

NPCs: 

Ulster - human fighter

Morgan Ironwolf - human fighter

Steve the Mule

unnamed pseudodragon

 

The morning was warm, but overcast when the Group awoke.  Preparations for Operation: Capture Podman included purchasing manacles, ropes, lots of provisions, a cart, and a mule to pull said cart.  The mule’s name was Steve. 

While preparations were made, Albrecht visited Mario’s shop and convinced Constanzo to take his money.  For 450gp, Albrecht walked away with a blue-painted, gold-inlaid bullroarer that was guaranteed to drive off Owlbears and probably other such things - that said, Constanzo warned that it’s noise might also attract different other things.  In addition to the Bullroarer, Albrecht also purchased a curious display case containing 6 pinned butterflies, each sporting a different label:

Theodotus of Byzantium

Epiphanius

Eustathius of Sebaste

Nestorius

Vettius Valens

Decimus Valerius Asiaticus. 

(I do love this wiki page for random names).

Stock image from Google; close enough for this blog.

Mario asked Albrecht to take it outside if he planned to open it; better safe than sorry, and all that.  After all, “magic is unpredictable and dangerous,” as NPCs often tell the PCs.

Albrecht obliged and pulled the pin from the butterfly labeled “Theodotus of  Byzantium.”  In a flash of light and puff of smoke appeared a pale man with mesmeric eyes.  He smiled and Albrecht saw his eyes flash, but made his saving throw versus charm.  Not that it mattered, as Albrecht struck up a conversation.

The pale man introduced himself as Theodotus of Byzantium, and asked the place and year.  When told, he seemed confused, but at least recognized the mountains in the distance, so was pleased.  As a crowd gathered, he thanked Albrecht for freeing him and disappeared into a drifting cloud after laying hands on Albrecht (another saving throw made).  When Theodotus parted, Albrecht realized that the pin he had pulled had become a silvered stake.  

Gary Oldman as a vampire from some movie I have never seen.

When Albrecht declared he wanted to ‘free them all,’ the other members of the Group intervened and then led Steve the mule to Wyrmsback Ridge.  Along the way, they encountered the brownie Jack-in-the-Green, who traded his Acorn Cup Cap to Albrecht for the pretty butterfly collection.  

Bets were made about how badly this trade would turn out, and the DM added VAMPIRE to the wandering monster chart.  

Arriving at Wyrmsback Ridge, Ulster admitted fear at entering.  The Group reached a compromise, with Ulster and Morgan waiting with Steve the Mule at the entrance.  To facilitate communication, Klayton summoned his familiar - a pseudodragon.  To both Klayton and the dragon’s amazement, the summoning called up the physical body of the wee beastie, and now it won’t (can't) leave.  Klayton could tell his voodoo head was excited at the prospect of being mounted on a dragon.

No one noticed the gathering squirrels.

Into the depths the five went, retracing their steps. The Hanging Snagworts had been replaced/regrown, but the thunderous waterfall drowned out the sound of combat and nothing investigated THE Group's butchery.  Klayton and Albrecht used cantrips to weaken the ceiling a bit to make planting again difficult.  The Group made a beeline using the route they had previously walked, pausing only to search the moldering mound for missed treasure.  Albrecht rolled a 20, discovering a stoppered bottle containing a purplish liquid that sparkled from the motes of light within it.  He tucked it away for later.

Eventually, the Group found themselves in the cavern where they had rescued Ulster several weeks prior.  To their joy, there were podmen feeding someone else into the mulcher.  To their dismay, the thing in the cage was STILL there, and roared, alerting the podmen to danger.  All things considered, it was an anticlimatic fight, but with a podman slain and the other manacled and bound in ropes, the Group had met the first half of their goal.

Tragically, the DM’s dice were unkind for each wandering monster check to this point.  Luckily, Albrecht wanted to again visit with the caged dwarf that roared in a decidedly nonDwarven tongue.  As it turns out, the beast had an impressive, if somewhat limited, vocabulary of curse words in a variety of languages.  When Albrecht stepped close, it reached for him, its arms transforming into green, spindly things that ended in clawed fingers.  Sadly, it missed.

The DM’s dice then rolled a wandering monster! A giant centipede! 

How disappointing.

Albrecht used his session d30 on the Centipede, exploding it like a blood sausage.  As the Group left the caves, they encountered another giant centipede, and Albrecht did for that one, too, albeit less impressively. Once back under the cloudcover of the overcast day, Klayton learned that his pseudodragon REALLY loves catnip and both Morgan and Ulster seem to be taken with the pseudodragon.

The Group moved off a distance to call up Klayton’s cabin (man, this DM regrets that item), but decided to keep the cart, mule, podman, and 2-person guard shifts outside.  After dinner, Albrecht and Kirsten had the first shift when suddenly the ground began shaking and trees came crashing down.

A massive two-headed giant burst through the trees, lunging for Steve the Mule who was screaming in fright as it tried frantically to escape, but as it was hobbled for the night, it could not.  The screaming ended quickly as the Ettin’s morning star crushed the beast. 

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed by Tyler Jacobsen and WotC 2013 - run this card to aggravate blue players.

Noise (particularly that of Kirsten and Albrecht screaming and pounding on the door) stirred the others and battle was joined! Yelrah and Klayton used their session d30s to little effect on damage rolls, but in the end, the beast was felled by THE Svetlo’s Guiding Strike. 

Being THE Group, they beheaded the Ettin for trophies and moved camp.  Why they didn’t search it is beyond this humble DM’s knowledge.  Still, morning arrived, and the Group started back to the keep, the podman over Yelrah’s shoulder, and giant heads over the shoulders of Morgan and Ulster.  Truly, they made a gruesome sight.

Sharing their adventures with Captain DuBois, she thanked them and told them to stay in the Keep for the next few days, as she would arrange a meeting with the Castellan because something was certainly afoot.  She also spoke of the Three Chaos Temples - one to the East beyond the river, one to the North of the Keep, and one to the South in the swamp - and how she suspected they had been rebuilt.  The Captain also planted the thought that an intelligence was behind the people-mulching, the podpeople, and the horrid plant life.  The members of the Group agreed.

RIP Steve the Mule

So, join us next session, when we meet with the Castellan, kit out Ulster and Morgan, research the temples, and sew a voodoo head on a dead squirrel!  

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Moving forward, I want to be using the familiars as described at Goblin Punch in my games.  This is at least one thing that has changed in the 18 months.  Chaos IS rising, after all.


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