Session 10: "It Becomes a Bag of That Size."
(September 23)
The party decides to escape the duergar city rather than risk pilfering the powerful magical amulet from Gralkhar Fellgren, the Gray King. The paladin Vaelin can now summon a steed, so after extensive discussion and debate, touching on such topics as anaerobic decay and what happens when you turn a bag of holding inside out, his horse Jericho II is butchered and its meat stuffed into a bag of holding.
The adventurers rope themselves together using Dara's climbing kit and venture out on the drow's secret escape route along the outside of the mighty spire. Treacherous hand- and footholds cause Ward to slip, but the precautionary rope keeps her safe, and the group continues upward to the tunnels used by drow spies and strike forces to infiltrate Darjheim Cavern. The house captain Nyrul O'rd has given them detailed instructions on how to return to the surface using a side branch of the tunnel system. They meet up with the dwarf scouts they had sent on ahead to keep the proofs of the mind-flayer threat safe, and together they all set off through the Underdark.
The journey takes three days. They encounter a colony of thirteen troglodytes occupying a wide space in the tunnel ahead; they appear to be led by an aggressive, bullying alpha female. Lan's vast experience traveling the world and seeing strange "marvels" on display in port cities allows him to tell the party that troglodytes can be intimidated by a show of force. The party charges into the troglodytes' lair, and Dara snipes the bully with a pair of eldritch blasts that kill her instantly, making her fall into the small smudgy fire in the center of the chamber. The party proceeds through the chamber while the surviving troglodytes cower in fear.
Next, while traversing along the bottom of a vast fault crack, the party hears clacking sounds and birdlike screams above them, which prove to be the threat display noises of two hook horrors climbing the walls overhead. The two hook horrors swarm down to defend their hunting territory, and the party makes short work of them. Ward wears down one of the hook horrors by cornering it and standing firm with her sword, while Lan slips in and out, roguelike, to stab it in the back. When Lan "steals" her kill with this tactic, Ward attempts to trip him.
During the following long rest, while Lan sits watch, he hears and finally sees an approaching xorn, a harmless burrowing monster that has scented the party's gold and gemstones. Xorns, elemental creatures unable to digest organic matter, eat gems and precious metals; Lan, however, doesn't know this. He sees the creature lurking at the edge of the firelight, making no threat, and decides to see if it would like a snack. He tosses some horse meat toward the xorn's toothy maw. The creature retches up the meat and flees, tunneling into the solid rock to get away.
The party emerges from the Underdark without further incident, perhaps unaware of how lucky they have been. The tunnel reaches the surface in a crack hidden behind a waterfall in a high mountain valley. Vaelin triumphantly blows his horn as they clamber out into the sunshine, startling birds out of the low heather in the valley below them. They find an ancient dwarven wall on their way down the valley, a hundred feet high and still intact after untold centuries, but the path takes them through an empty gateway in the wall, and the rest of their journey to the dwarven military encampment (and the party's parked airship) occupies two more days without incident. They return to their airship after a grand total of nine days away.
In their absence, Ward's "squire," the kobold Bargin, whom Ward captured and/or befriended back in session 1, has been doing a lot of thinking. Ward has shown her much kindness, outfitting her with a lovely child-size dress and large brass buttons and bright yellow epaulets from the giff mercenaries' coats, keeping her safe from danger, even entrusting her with the airship. When the party returns, now aware of the plans of the Lich Queen and the approaching threat of the mind-flayers, she decides to come clean and tell Ward the truth. All this time, Bargin has been tagging along on her leader Snargle's orders. She has been spying on the party and standing ready to guide them into an ambush at Snargle's base of operations, an underground settlement called Gronk'rk. Snargle plans to rise up and establish an empire of "little folk" in the chaos of the Lich Queen's conquest of the world. Ward's kindness and trust has won Bargin over to the possibility that maybe not all the "big folk" are awful, evil creatures. Bargin wants to lead the adventurers to Gronk'rk to have an audience with Snargle, and maybe find a way to get Snargle on their side.
Gronk'rk tunnels underneath a sandstone spire called Jangavad Tor, in the heathland plateau near a halfling village named Cadervale. Cadervale is famed for its apple orchards and its strong hard cider, but the airship sails over the settlement without stopping, setting down in the heather near Jangavad Tor. Bargin leads them up faint tracks around the back of the tor. On their way they meet with a party of halflings, all of them sullen and narrowing their eyes at the adventurers, carrying empty cider bottles and crates away from Gronk'rk.
Then two goblins mounted on giant weasels block the path. They don't recognize Bargin in her finery, especially after she has been away for so many weeks, and are belligerent and reluctant to let her bring the party into Gronk'rk. After some debate back and forth, and reassurance from Ward and Lan, Bargin has a flash of inspiration and tells the goblins that the party are high-ranking "big people" here to negotiate terms of peace and surrender with Snargle. The goblins let them pass, but follow behind the party as an escort.
Bargin quietly points out small tunnels and boltholes from which glittering eyes watch their progress, explaining that kobolds are delicate creatures who prefer hit and run tactics, striking at intruders and then escaping into the small tunnels where the big folk can't pursue them. The main tunnel winds downward beneath the tor, hollowed into the sandstone, at last widening into a chamber festooned with climbing ropes, where kobolds armed with crude "bombs" wait overhead.
At the opposite end of the chamber, Snargle advances at the head of a group of guards and high-ranking members of his personal retinue, including two kobold inventors and a sorcerer. Snargle has no trouble recognizing Bargin, who was his lieutenant before the jailbreak back in session one. He demands to know what she is doing bringing big folk into Gronk'rk.
A standoff ensues, with Bargin, Ward, Lan, and Vaelin all trying to reason with Snargle while, bit by bit, Snargle's story comes out. He had been an adventurer once, going on missions with a party of "big folk" who patronized him and treated him like a pet rather than a person. "The big ones never see the little ones as equal. The big ones think they run everything." But then Snargle had a profound vision in which an abishai, "an ancient dragon spirit" in his eyes, visited him and told him that the kobolds could be freed from the big folk if Snargle cooperated with the Starling by placing the big gunpowder bomb on the airship back in session 0. "The world of the big ones will be in chaos! The kobolds and the goblins and the little fey folk will be free of all the big ones at last."
Lan leaves Snargle shaken by lying that the party had been tricked by this selfsame abishai. Vaelin recognizes the name, pulls out his picture book of fiends, and shows everyone that an abishai is a type of devil created by the evil dragon god Tiamat to serve her purposes. "A god is pretty much the biggest guy of all." Snargle is stunned, and asks Bargin (who can read) to verify whether Vaelin is telling the truth about what's in his book. When Bargin confirms this, Ward steps in and offers to bring up the little folks' plight with the Empress Sulana herself. Snargle's eyes light up at the mention of the golden dragon; he clearly idolizes her. He sits on a rock and calls for his followers to bring hard cider and for everyone to sit with him for a peace conference.
Snargle agrees to Ward's suggestion that the kobolds coexist peacefully with their halfling neighbors instead of coercing them into service, and also agrees with her to send Bargin with the party to meet Empress Sulana and discuss ways that kobolds, goblins, and other "monstrous" folk could free themselves from big folk exploitation without coming into conflict with their neighbors. By now Snargle is quite drunk. Vaelin pledges his sword to slay the abishai who misled Snargle, and Snargle hugs him, slurring that Vaelin is "the best big person in the world," before falling asleep on Vaelin's tummy. Ward gets so drunk that she gains a level of exhaustion for the next day.
The plan, for now, is to fly to Rajgan to meet the Empress Sulana, and to track down the location of the one oblex bomb that slipped through their fingers: the one that was shipped to Sashi, a bandit leader in the capital itself. There is also Gargax, the blue dragonborn at the Winged College, to consider.
The party decides to escape the duergar city rather than risk pilfering the powerful magical amulet from Gralkhar Fellgren, the Gray King. The paladin Vaelin can now summon a steed, so after extensive discussion and debate, touching on such topics as anaerobic decay and what happens when you turn a bag of holding inside out, his horse Jericho II is butchered and its meat stuffed into a bag of holding.
The adventurers rope themselves together using Dara's climbing kit and venture out on the drow's secret escape route along the outside of the mighty spire. Treacherous hand- and footholds cause Ward to slip, but the precautionary rope keeps her safe, and the group continues upward to the tunnels used by drow spies and strike forces to infiltrate Darjheim Cavern. The house captain Nyrul O'rd has given them detailed instructions on how to return to the surface using a side branch of the tunnel system. They meet up with the dwarf scouts they had sent on ahead to keep the proofs of the mind-flayer threat safe, and together they all set off through the Underdark.
The journey takes three days. They encounter a colony of thirteen troglodytes occupying a wide space in the tunnel ahead; they appear to be led by an aggressive, bullying alpha female. Lan's vast experience traveling the world and seeing strange "marvels" on display in port cities allows him to tell the party that troglodytes can be intimidated by a show of force. The party charges into the troglodytes' lair, and Dara snipes the bully with a pair of eldritch blasts that kill her instantly, making her fall into the small smudgy fire in the center of the chamber. The party proceeds through the chamber while the surviving troglodytes cower in fear.
Next, while traversing along the bottom of a vast fault crack, the party hears clacking sounds and birdlike screams above them, which prove to be the threat display noises of two hook horrors climbing the walls overhead. The two hook horrors swarm down to defend their hunting territory, and the party makes short work of them. Ward wears down one of the hook horrors by cornering it and standing firm with her sword, while Lan slips in and out, roguelike, to stab it in the back. When Lan "steals" her kill with this tactic, Ward attempts to trip him.
During the following long rest, while Lan sits watch, he hears and finally sees an approaching xorn, a harmless burrowing monster that has scented the party's gold and gemstones. Xorns, elemental creatures unable to digest organic matter, eat gems and precious metals; Lan, however, doesn't know this. He sees the creature lurking at the edge of the firelight, making no threat, and decides to see if it would like a snack. He tosses some horse meat toward the xorn's toothy maw. The creature retches up the meat and flees, tunneling into the solid rock to get away.
The party emerges from the Underdark without further incident, perhaps unaware of how lucky they have been. The tunnel reaches the surface in a crack hidden behind a waterfall in a high mountain valley. Vaelin triumphantly blows his horn as they clamber out into the sunshine, startling birds out of the low heather in the valley below them. They find an ancient dwarven wall on their way down the valley, a hundred feet high and still intact after untold centuries, but the path takes them through an empty gateway in the wall, and the rest of their journey to the dwarven military encampment (and the party's parked airship) occupies two more days without incident. They return to their airship after a grand total of nine days away.
In their absence, Ward's "squire," the kobold Bargin, whom Ward captured and/or befriended back in session 1, has been doing a lot of thinking. Ward has shown her much kindness, outfitting her with a lovely child-size dress and large brass buttons and bright yellow epaulets from the giff mercenaries' coats, keeping her safe from danger, even entrusting her with the airship. When the party returns, now aware of the plans of the Lich Queen and the approaching threat of the mind-flayers, she decides to come clean and tell Ward the truth. All this time, Bargin has been tagging along on her leader Snargle's orders. She has been spying on the party and standing ready to guide them into an ambush at Snargle's base of operations, an underground settlement called Gronk'rk. Snargle plans to rise up and establish an empire of "little folk" in the chaos of the Lich Queen's conquest of the world. Ward's kindness and trust has won Bargin over to the possibility that maybe not all the "big folk" are awful, evil creatures. Bargin wants to lead the adventurers to Gronk'rk to have an audience with Snargle, and maybe find a way to get Snargle on their side.
Gronk'rk tunnels underneath a sandstone spire called Jangavad Tor, in the heathland plateau near a halfling village named Cadervale. Cadervale is famed for its apple orchards and its strong hard cider, but the airship sails over the settlement without stopping, setting down in the heather near Jangavad Tor. Bargin leads them up faint tracks around the back of the tor. On their way they meet with a party of halflings, all of them sullen and narrowing their eyes at the adventurers, carrying empty cider bottles and crates away from Gronk'rk.
Then two goblins mounted on giant weasels block the path. They don't recognize Bargin in her finery, especially after she has been away for so many weeks, and are belligerent and reluctant to let her bring the party into Gronk'rk. After some debate back and forth, and reassurance from Ward and Lan, Bargin has a flash of inspiration and tells the goblins that the party are high-ranking "big people" here to negotiate terms of peace and surrender with Snargle. The goblins let them pass, but follow behind the party as an escort.
Bargin quietly points out small tunnels and boltholes from which glittering eyes watch their progress, explaining that kobolds are delicate creatures who prefer hit and run tactics, striking at intruders and then escaping into the small tunnels where the big folk can't pursue them. The main tunnel winds downward beneath the tor, hollowed into the sandstone, at last widening into a chamber festooned with climbing ropes, where kobolds armed with crude "bombs" wait overhead.
At the opposite end of the chamber, Snargle advances at the head of a group of guards and high-ranking members of his personal retinue, including two kobold inventors and a sorcerer. Snargle has no trouble recognizing Bargin, who was his lieutenant before the jailbreak back in session one. He demands to know what she is doing bringing big folk into Gronk'rk.
A standoff ensues, with Bargin, Ward, Lan, and Vaelin all trying to reason with Snargle while, bit by bit, Snargle's story comes out. He had been an adventurer once, going on missions with a party of "big folk" who patronized him and treated him like a pet rather than a person. "The big ones never see the little ones as equal. The big ones think they run everything." But then Snargle had a profound vision in which an abishai, "an ancient dragon spirit" in his eyes, visited him and told him that the kobolds could be freed from the big folk if Snargle cooperated with the Starling by placing the big gunpowder bomb on the airship back in session 0. "The world of the big ones will be in chaos! The kobolds and the goblins and the little fey folk will be free of all the big ones at last."
Lan leaves Snargle shaken by lying that the party had been tricked by this selfsame abishai. Vaelin recognizes the name, pulls out his picture book of fiends, and shows everyone that an abishai is a type of devil created by the evil dragon god Tiamat to serve her purposes. "A god is pretty much the biggest guy of all." Snargle is stunned, and asks Bargin (who can read) to verify whether Vaelin is telling the truth about what's in his book. When Bargin confirms this, Ward steps in and offers to bring up the little folks' plight with the Empress Sulana herself. Snargle's eyes light up at the mention of the golden dragon; he clearly idolizes her. He sits on a rock and calls for his followers to bring hard cider and for everyone to sit with him for a peace conference.
Snargle agrees to Ward's suggestion that the kobolds coexist peacefully with their halfling neighbors instead of coercing them into service, and also agrees with her to send Bargin with the party to meet Empress Sulana and discuss ways that kobolds, goblins, and other "monstrous" folk could free themselves from big folk exploitation without coming into conflict with their neighbors. By now Snargle is quite drunk. Vaelin pledges his sword to slay the abishai who misled Snargle, and Snargle hugs him, slurring that Vaelin is "the best big person in the world," before falling asleep on Vaelin's tummy. Ward gets so drunk that she gains a level of exhaustion for the next day.
The plan, for now, is to fly to Rajgan to meet the Empress Sulana, and to track down the location of the one oblex bomb that slipped through their fingers: the one that was shipped to Sashi, a bandit leader in the capital itself. There is also Gargax, the blue dragonborn at the Winged College, to consider.
Comments
Post a Comment