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Bastard Son of the great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.75e
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster
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Bastard Son of the great-grandchild of the sister's gibbon's friend of the nephew of the Campaign that Would Not Die, now in 3.75e Møøse Trained By: Hugh Foster |
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Glancing across the valley to the bugbear camp, it was obvious that events on the watchpost had been observed. Calcryx did a loop high above, and reported six bugbears and "many" goblins - moving around too far to count - setting up for a defensive action. The goblins were being forced to the front of the line and were not happy about it.
The ruins at the very head of the valley were deserted, he reported, and very fragmentary; only near the centre was there a closer grouping of piles of stone. Perhaps, if they headed for that, they could draw out some of the remaining raiders and continue to deal with them piecemeal.
As they spoke, one of the two devil birds left in the camp reared up onto its long legs and set off hell-for-leather across the valley, heading for the ruins, with two figures atop it. This raced into the ruins and disappeared from view towards the centre.
When the party reached the centre of the ruins, they could see that the scatter suggested a shape fitting a central castle with a curtain wall across the valley further out. The stonework was similar enough to that of the watchtower that they had to be connected, making this the remains of an elf-castle from before the Dragon, easily a thousand years old and probably older.
Calcryx, still circling, reported no sign of a bolt-hole or a bird emerging. He was told to remain above ground to watch for reinforcements.
The mounds of grassy stone were small enough to make concealment impossible and it took no great time to confirm that the bird and its crew were not anywhere above ground - and to find a cleared space in the centre of the denser ruins. This was the remains of a flor, made of an intricate pattern of different stones and once very beautiful. Now, rubble edged it where it had been gathered and cleared, revealing a flight of stairs leding down. It was ten feet wide and high, enough for the bird to have squeezed down. No light showed from below.
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Descending, the party found that the stairs led into the centre of a square room thirty feet on a side. A dark corridor led away from it to the south. Borax descended to the foot of the stairs, while Ruby peered over the side, wondering about a hanging drop to the floor. Borax peered down the corridor and launched a crossbow bolt into the darkness. It bounced off something made of stone some distance away. As the echoes faded, he caught the rapid shuffle of running steps from behind him, and turned to see two bugbear warriors sprinting towards him from the back corners of the room. Ruby was already running down the stairs towards one. As she engaged it, Meepo cast a spell at it, and it blinked and paused, unsure for a moment what it was doing.
 DM Note: Unless we're all missing something, the Sunder action is actually rubbish.. |
Borax charged the one on his side, smashing into it with his great flail, as he heard Calvis cast his usual Bless, Lynien improving their chances in her usual way by putting a finger on the scales of fate. Ruby, deciding to test Shatterspike's magic, on a bugbear who wasn't currently paying attention, lunged at the bugbear's scimitar with it, producing a ringing clang and a fat blue spark; but doing no appreciable damage to the weapon. So much for that, she thought sourly. Behind her, Meepo repeated his spell, extending the effect.
On the other side, Borax had battered his foe into jelly and was listening intently for the approach of more. Nothing was audible, even after Ruby had brought down her opponent, and Calvis came down the steps to join him in peering into the dark. "We need to be able to see down there," muttered Borax. "I can help with that," said Calvis brightly, and cast Light on the bolt ready in Borax' crossbow. "Shoot that down the room and it will light it up," he finished. Borax began swearing loudly. "Now I can't see anything, anywhere!" he shouted. He shot the bolt, which stuck in something at the far end of the room beyond, and began belabouring Calvis with the empty crossbow.
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Ruby, not dazzled to the same extent, could see what it was illuminating. The bolt was stuck into some kind of collapsed statue, and in front of it was a bugbear rather different to the others; lightly armoured, wearing loose leathers over the top, and kneeling before a faintly reflective and intricate pattern scribed on the floor. Between that and the party were four more bugbears set in a line, advancing towards the party. Near the presumed sorcerer was the expected devil bird, looking alert and ready.
As the light settled into place, the four bugbears broke into a jog. Meepo tagged one with a Magic Missile which didn't seem to bother it all that much. Ruby launched some arrows but to similar results, while a sulking, blinking Borax managed to tag another with his crossbow. From the end of the hall, they could hear the sound of spellcasting.
Backing up, the party returned to the entry room, Borax scattering a mixture of caltrops and lamp oil on the outer ten feet of the corridor. As the bugbears came back into view, Calvis shot with his crossbow and Meepo sent another Magic Missile into his original target. Behind, the bird could be seen setting off towards the fight.
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The centre two bugbears suddenly charged for the corridor. One managed through luck or judgement to dance through the trap only mildly punctured, but the other got a foot full of caltrops, danced a few steps, and went flat on his back. The momentum of his charge set him sliding along the corridor, delivering him at Ruby's feet prone and shocked. She duly walloped him with glee.
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Borax, meanwhile had squared up to the lucky bugbear, and struck out with his flail. It was a perfect blow, the very tip of the hurtling weapon smashing full into the monster's face, and it dropped instantly.
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At the far end of the room, the pentagram flared suddenly, and when the light died back, a figure was standing in the centre of it. A rubbery, repellent integument covered it, with a twisted, unnatural face staring outwards, its mouth lined with teeth. Beyond doubt it was some kind of fiend. It was horrible, uncanny and frightening. And it was also only a little over three feet high... It set off towards them, rather slowly.
The prone bugbear struggled to stand up, but pushing up with his hands was a serious error; all three heroes struck at once and he sagged back into the oil without most of his chest. The remaining two bugbears had reached the corridor and were considering what to do when the bird ran up behind them, chittering and screeching. Calvis turned pale. "That's Infernal," he muttered, "it's speaking," This seemed to disturb him. "It's demanding they move-" The bird clearly lost patience, delivering a mighty peck to the back of the head of one of the bugbears and knocking him forward out of the way, advancing into the oil. Borax came to meet it, once more killing it in one strike, and trying to hit the last bugbear on his backstroke - it was just too far away. He backed up a bit to let the bird come.
Stepping through the caltrops without apparent harm, the bird launched a peck at Borax, who ducked to the side. Ruby lashed Shatterspike across it, and Borax clobbered it with his flail. Beyond the bird, they saw another flash from the pentagram ... and another devil bird appeared standing over it.
Meepo got a light tag in with Ray of Frost, which seemed quite effective, so he settled in to burn through his lower spell slots with that. The bird split its attacks, clawing at Borax and levelling its beak at Ruby; she responded by hacking at it, while Borax threw his cigar butt into the oil, filling the north end of the corridor with fire and killing the bird. They paused for a breather while the flames died down. Borax, realizing that the hill of slain was getting towards obstacle level, grabbed a dead bugbear and hefted it up, meaning to pile it atop the dead bird. Bugbears appeared to be heavier than he'd realized, because it sort of splattered onto the near side of the bird; making the obstacle longer if not higher. Good enough.
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Ruby turned her attention to the slowly approaching little fiend, sinking a couple of arrows into it and looking quite surprised when it keeled over dead. Obviously not all things the sorcerer was summoning were of equal power! The second bird reached the pile a few seconds later and started trying to climb it. Both got nice clear hits on it and it died on top of the heap, extending it still further. "Got any more birds?" taunted Ruby, before putting two arrows into the sorcerer bugbear. Realizing he was now a target, he scrambled sideways and into one of the side rooms out of view. His last summoning produced another Dretch - and another, presumably slow on the uptake, walked out of one of the western rooms. Ruby and Borax advanced from their redoubt, heading towards where he'd gone as the two Dretches converged on them. As they did, screams began to erupt from the room he'd taken refuge in.
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As they reached the fiends, one attacked Ruby while another tried some kind of spell-like ability on Borax. With a somatic component of "Boo!" it was clearly some kind of fear effect, but stacking Dwarvish intransigence atop Calvis' Bless it was never going to work. The Dretch proved equally squishy to melee combat, and the pair broke into a run toward where the sorcerer had disappeared. Like all the other side rooms, this was set five feet or so lower than the main hall, and had the remnants of a tomb in the centre. Pressed against the south wall were around a dozen civilians, mostly human, all chained, two of whom had just been brutally slain. Standing over them was Gwynn the sorcerer, now far less injured than the last time they'd seen him. He was not, however, prepared for a headlong assault by fighters of Borax and Ruby's skill, and a few moments later he was twitching in a pool of blood. Borax unsheathed a blade and carved his head off, with plans to present it back at Aeglor's Fist.
The prisoners were eager to be released, but citing the possibility of more fighting the pair declined to do so, though they did provide food and water and release one, a Tellaran locksmith called Crysterradas. One of the prisoners was a small, rather grubby boy, who named himself as Solly, son of the tailor of a village the Tanks had never heard of and suspected probably didn't exist any more, and he insited that his father would certainly pay handsomely for his return - and would also make Ruby a very nice dress. This seemed unlikely, though Borax mused that Lt Faran might up their pay for rescuing these sad sacks, and Ruby was strangely tempted by the idea of the dress.
In the room next door they found the accumulated loot from some considerable raiding, packed into sacks as if ready for shipment. There was a fair bit of coin and a couple of magical items - including a handy Bag of Holding full of rations. These were stacked for removal, and the rations passed out to the survivors. Ears and beaks were collected as token of their kills.
Examining the statue at the end of the room, they confirmed that it had been systematically and thoroughly smashed. Being elvish, it was possibly of Elmaria, the gentle goddess of healing, but was too badly damaged to be sure of. In front of it stood a small bronze idol of some sort of demon, obviously put there by Gwynn, which Borax battered to scrap, and the still softly-glowing pentagram which he erased by urinating on it.
Finally they settled in to rest, as all were tired and - espcially Calvis - wounded, and the casters were out all of spells.
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Session Date: 25th May 2026 |
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