Session 36: Double Dragon

82nd day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
The Guardians followed the trail, and ended up in a cave, where they confronted L'Utrax. They tried to convince him that they weren't there to kill him, but to no avail, there was no reasoning with the paranoid drow. 

The failed diplomatic attempt ended in fight. As it turns out, L'Utrax had company in the cave. And it wasn't a dragon, but two purple dragons.  Things looked very bleak for our heroes. Not only were they facing a master assassin, but two dragons. Luckily for them, Tic-Tac's Rod of Dragons proved up to the test. For most of the fight, he managed to keep one of the dragons charmed, forcing it to help them. The fact that he seemed more or less immune to their breath weapons also helped quite a bit. Yet, despite not having to deal with both dragons at the same time, it was still quite a challenge, and it was, for a long time, very touch and go. But in the end, the Guardians managed to deal with both the dragons and the drow.

After the fight, Henry interrogated the drow, and they learned that Lady Victoria was behind things, and so were the devils. She was the traitor El'Rull had gone to kill in the castle. 

HUSK at vi spiller næste gang (d. 12 juni) hos mig, i Virum, og at vi playtester 5e (eller dndnext som det lige pt bliver kaldt). Jeg regner kraftigt med at sørge for, at der er lidt mad til lejligheden. Molin vil som sagt gerne spille wizard, det er okay hvis en anden også gerne vil spille wizarden. Men det ville være rart at vide på forhånd, hvad jeg kan regne med af characters. Og på forhånd er IKKE en SMS kl 17.57. Det er weekenden før. 

Session 35: The Underdark

80th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
Arriving at the fomorian castle, the Guardians decided to approach stealthily. As they climb the tall iron walls, Henry is almost discovered by some orc slaves that turn a nearby corner, but he just manages to pull up his leg and the rope he is using to scale the fortress.


Once they make it all the way to the top of the iron castle, they attempt to break in, but manage to set of some sort of psychic trap. They quickly enter, and find themselves facing R'kor, the fomorian king of this particular castle. Realizing (some of them) that attacking him might be the stupidest thing they have ever done, the face-off quickly turn to a negotiation. At the end, R'kor settles for the guardians doing him a favor. Nearby, there is a blue slaad that has been attacking his slaves and killing them. The Guardians must travel to its lair and kill the creature of chaos. 


Since it's a bit late to leave, R'kor offers them to stay and sleep in his slave quarters. The Guardians respectfully decline and sleep in some nearby caves.


81st day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
The next morning, the Guardians head into the dark twisted tunnels, looking for the ruins who hold the slaad. 

After about 2-3 hours of walking, they find the cavern, and start inspecting the ruined town it  holds.

They are soon attacked by the slaad, who has heard them coming. As a surprise bonus, he even brought along his tentacled friend, mr. Mindflayer. 

The fight is long and hard, and while the fight ends with a dead slaad and a dead mindflayer, it also ends with a dead Heian, who bleeds out on the floor while his friends are fighting. 

Henry, overcome with grief, decides to test the medallion, and ask Heian some questions about his sword, which seems to be gone (but Jelestra has a shiny new offhand axe!)... But the answers are very vague, and Henry is no longer convinced that the medallion forced them to tell the truth. He does however learn that Heian wants to live.

Henry gets the idea to bring Heian back to the fomorian king. He might be evil, but he could definitely be bargained with.

Back at the iron castle, a deal is struck, and the Guardians are now 50.000 gold poorer. Heian is raised. As per the agreement about the slaad, R'kor tells them where L'Utrax is hiding out, in a series of caves, about 5 hours away.

82nd day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
After a day of rest for Heian, the Guardians move out, heading towards the caves indicated by R'kor. As they approach the area, the rangers find traces of clawmarks on the otherwise extremely solid walls. Dragon clawmarks.....

Afstemning

Pep Der er en lille afstemning her på bloggen. Kig ude i venstre side. Husk at der også er en doodle der skal udfyldes. mvh Chris

Khiran around Bragan Map

Spilleoversigt og doodle om ekstra spilledag

22. maj - Spiller
29. maj - Spiller
5. juni - Aflyst
12. juni - Aflyst
19. juni - Spiller (der er Sverige-Frankrig og England-Ukraine, ved ikke om det er et problem?)
26. juni - Spiller (ingen EM-kampe)
3. juli - Aflyst, DM er på ferie
10. juli - Aflyst, DM er på ferie

Doodle om ekstra dag i juni

Bemærk at der er 4 forskellige dage i spil, og derudover 3 tider den ene dag. Vi spiller ikke alle dage, kun en af dagene ;)

Bemærk ydermere at fredag starter EM, men ved ikke hvor mange der bare må se Polen-Grækenland og Rusland-Tjekkiet.

Session 34: Killing the Emperor?

48th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
After some investigating, the Guardians realize that getting a face-to-face meeting with Daniel Ramar might not be as easy as they thought. Then Tweeks recalls Alvaro Gomez, the young noble he brought back from the dead, back when they had just arrived from Sigil. The Gomez family was based in Ran, so maybe that could be exploited.


Arriving at the Gomez mansion, they were greeted by a seneschal that would  not let them in. Until he found out that it was indeed the Guardians, the heroes that had saved a son of the family. With that established, the Guardians were quickly brought before Esteban Gomez, the very grateful father of Alvaro. When he heard about their plight, he suggested that they might come to his party in five days, since Daniel would be there. That way, they could get an introduction and a chance to talk with him as well. 


49th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
While waiting on the 5 days to go, the Guardians were pretty much doing nothing, except Heian who was having weird visions. Visions of a holy fighter, first healing people, then fighting devils (or demons?). Heian recognized a statue in his visions from the streets of Ran, but Ran had never seen a demon/devil incursion. 

53rd day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna 
At the Gomez party, the Guardians were introduced to Daniel Ramar. He turned out to be friendly enough, and after hearing they had items from another world, he agreed to meet them the next day, to take a look at things and see if a deal could be struck.

54th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna 
At the Ramar Palace, the Guardians were guided past the many, many guards by the seneschal called Fandrik. They eventually ended up in the room they had seen in the vision. They tried to pawn off the necklace that Tic-Tac had bought for the tiefling harlot in Presidio, but that didn't take. For a while, the Guardians danced around the subject, until Henry cut in and said they wanted the gem, and would do anything to get it.

Fine..

said Daniel

Kill the Emperor, and the gem is yours.

He refused to tell them anymore than that.

55th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna 
The Guardians once again set out, north towards Bragan and the Emperor.

73rd day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
 After 18 days of travel, the Guardians had a chance to discuss and think things through. Maybe killing the Emperor was not the wisest move. Maybe they should go back to Ran and just kill Daniel. Or maybe there were things they could do here, with the army, or maybe in Presidio.

That proved to be fairly accurate. Barely had they arrived, and contacted Lord Colonel Nordentaft, before they learned that the Emperial Mages had found L'Utrax K'don, hiding in a small town (mirror of Bragan) called Ty'bal in the Shadowfell. 

The Guardians immediately volunteered going to Ty'bal and finding L'Utrax.  

74th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna  
The Guardians are sent to the Shadowfell by 3 Emperial Mages, after getting a scroll so that they can get back home.


Once in the grim Shadowfell, the Guardians made their way to Ty'bal, a small city where undead are lawful (but still rare) citizens. There they found the Dark Elf Inn, but no L'Utrax. They did however meet Vjak, a shadar-kai friend of L'Utrax. However, when they tried to pass themselves off as working for the Drow High Priest mentioned in the scroll, Vjak and his pet troll in plate attacked them. 


After disposing of the shadar-kai and the troll, Henry condocted his somewhat special interrogation, and the Guardians learned that L'Utrax was gone, probably back to the Underdark in the mortal world. From another drow present in the inn, they bought the information that L'Utrax was probably hiding out in the iron castle of his friend, King Rkor, one of the many fomorian kings.


The Guardians left Ty'bal and headed back to the spot, where they could cross. Heian almost failed to open the portal back home, but they made it through, and headed directly to the Underdark entrance they had been told about - about 37 miles north-east of Bragan.


75th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
From there, they ventured underground, looking for the iron castle of Rkor.


80th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
After 5 days of searching, they finally found tracks towards the castle and continued towards it. On the way there, they stumbled over a fomorian and killed him. 

Vi spiller på tirsdag hos Jensen 

Ran

Ran:
Immense city, more than 1 million inhabitants. The city spans 9 islands in a big bay, connected by 50’ wide bridges. All islands but Vilos and Odos are walled, with walls ranging from 30 feet to 70 feet.
 
Egos: Emperial Palace, statues of emperors everywhere, guardian statues everywhere as well. Open to the public every 10 days, otherwise only accessible to the nobility and the diplomats.
 
Ratos: Guild-houses, very rich people (often followed by slaves or servitors), wide streets, many patrols. Know for its many coffee-houses and lounges, where the rich and wanna-be-rich meet to deal in all matters. Also famous for the statue of Empress Simone, which is said to grant visions of the future to the deserving.
 
Menos: Trading, bazaars, markets, warehouses
 
Boros: Diplomats, foreigners, non-humans, the ordinary rich
 
Giros: Temples. Patrolled by holy warriors of the gods. Closed off from the rest of the city, except during 6 hours a day. The rest of the time, it is forbidden to the public.
 
Navros: Normal people
 
Akos: Normal people
 
Vilos: Slum
 
Odos: Even worse slum

Bragan

Bragan:
45.000 inhabitants, low walls
Duke Elling rules

Fixtures: City separated in 3 by river that splits (north, east and south ward)
 
East Ward: The rich, the temples, the administration, the Duke’s mansion. Streets are wide and clean, often patrolled, magical lights at night, known for Equinox, a belltower towering over the city, for the Fable, an inn and pleasurehouse for the rich, and Magicum, a wizard university.

North Ward: Merchants, traders, those who can make decent living. Main streets still wide, but plenty of tight alleys and dark corners. You can always hear someone haggling over something. Know for the Duke’s Market, a huge marketplace where you can buy anything smaller than an elephant. Also known for Demon House, a house where a demon summoner opened a portal that got out of control and demons poured in. Was sealed in behind a huge magic “wall” which no one can penetrate, altough some things did get destroyed before so. Buildings near the Demon House are somewhat newer. The Demon House is a huge attraction. Also known for Alfredo, a blind kid who can see the future.

South Ward: Home of the below average and poor. Here, the streets are tighter than a goblin’s ass, there is a lot of noise and the guards rarely come here. It smells and people are always running around. After nightfall, it’s dead, except for the drinking places.

Session 33: Heading South

28th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
After heading south along the Forest of Dreams for a bit more than a week, the Guardians arrived at Bragan. They found the city surrounded by an army of epic proportions, even dwarfing the orc horde that invaded Presidio. Unfased by the presence of the empirial army, they entered the city of Duke Elling and found a nice inn called the Dancing Unicorn, which they decided to make their base of operations. 

From there, they started to investigate the hammer and balance and L'Utrax. They quickly found out that the hammer and balance seal belongs to House Ramar, the biggest merchant family of the empire.


Then they ran into Christobal and Garix, both of which were considering their options. They had escaped the fall of Presidio because Garix had had a bad dream, in which the city had fallen. They had decided to trust his gut feeling, and get out of dodge. Christobal was looking for a place to buy or build a new inn.


Further investigating taught the Guardians that the leader of House Ramar was a man named Daniel Ramar, and that his description matched the vision fairly well.


After a open meeting with a Lord Colonel of the army, they also learned that the empirial army was going to head north in a couple of weeks, but they were still investigating about what had happened during the fall, how it could fall so quickly. They were very happy about hearing the tale of the Guardians, about Lady Victoria and the devils.


29th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
After a day in Bragan, the Guardians headed further south, down to Ran, the capital of the empire.

41st day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna 
After 12 days of riding, the Guardians arrive in Zi, a small costal city where they hire a small ship to sail them (and Christobal and Garix) to Ran.

47th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna 
They arrive in Ran, and set up on the isle of Ratos. They pay Garix to investigate further, about their artifacts. 

Session 32: Leafblower

12th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
The Guardians quickly decided to put some distance between them and the 300.000 orcs, so they walked south all through the night. Come morning, they stopped to rest in a small forest. It was still snowing. 

After a couple of hours of rest, Jelastra and the rest of the Guardians were disturbed. Timothy, a baker from a small village south of Presidio, his wife and their children, who all had fled the orc army, stumbled over the Guardians' camp. They were seeking shelter and protection, and after Henry had scared them into waiting until he had put on his armor, they were allowed to share the Guardians' fire. From Timothy, they learned that the orcs had attacked and burned down several villages near Presidio.

20th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
For eight days, little family accompanied the Guardians southwards. The family was heading to Bragan, a large city on the western side of the Forest of Dreams. Once the group reached the Forest of Dreams, they parted ways. 

Entering the forest, the Guardians soon found something they hadn't expected to find. A stone-road, perfectly straight, going through the forest. Jelastra found a piece of red high quality cloak, indicating someone had recently been moving east on the road.

A couple of hours later, heading eastward, the Guardians stumbled over something even more surprising, an Inn. Next to the stone-road, lay a pretty big inn, called the Friendly Elf. Once inside, they met Hurgar, the elven owner and Captain Jerome, leader of a squadron of scouts in the empire's army.

The scouts are spear-heading the emperor's army, which is headed north. They are seeking information about the fall of Presidio, which the Guardians give them willingly. Henry grossly exaggerates especially his own skill and accomplishments during the Fall of Presidio. The Captain admits they are also here to warn the elves about the possibility of a huge army of orcs coming their way. Heian quickly suggested that the Guardians could pass on the message, but were told that Hurgar would do so, as everyone else was pretty much very unwelcome. 

21th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna
The next morning, the Guardians chose to head south, into the forest anyway. They soon stumbled into a elven patrol of 8 elves. Heian managed to stop them from attacking them, but at the mention of 300.000 orcs, they simply laughed and told the Guardians that they were lucky to have an elf with them and to leave or die.

The Guardians traveled back towards the inn, only to circle around and once again head south. But the elves had been shadowing them, and soon enough, they were ambushed by 5 elves and an owlbear. After taking care of the elves and their fey monster, the Guardians realized that 3 elves were missing. 

They tried to find them, but instead they were found themselves. Or rather, they were contacted. A'na, an elven female, called for parlay and after finding out what the Guardians wanted, she suggested an alliance. She would lead them into the heart of the elven area, to the "palace" of King Leafblower, if the Guardians killed Leafblower for her, so that her family could take over control of the tribe.


Deal struck, and the Guardians were lead south, deep into the forest. Late the same day, they arrived into an area with huge trees and buildings built into those trees. Through trees, secret passages and living walls, the Guardians soon arrived in what A'na had named the "palace". An area made up by walls of living trees. 


The Guardians proceeded on their own - she would wait there in case they should fail. 


Soon the Guardians arrived to the throne room. Empty but for some wooden benched place in a half-circle around a throne of a gnarled but living throne and the elf sitting on it.

 Ah, what have we here.. Outside assassins? No doubt the Sunshines or the Meadows have sent you. I wonder what they promised you? Gold? Gems? Or perhaps insight into elven lore and knowledge. Not that it matters, you will not be around to collect. It’s been a while since I got to stretch. You seem capable enough, perhaps  you can make me work up a sweat. But first you need to earn the right to fight me.

 As he said that, one of the trees stepped out of the circle and attacked them, while a small fey creature moving incredibly fast blurted out from nowhere and joined the fight. Not content to fight the two monsters, Jelastra chose to attack the king as well, who was still sitting on his throne.


The fight was very long and came incredibly close to ending the career of the Guardians. Both Henry and Jelastra were down and out more times that can be counted, while Heian was doing his best keeping all the foes distracted. In the end, however, the bad guys died, and the Guardians found a good bit of gold and of course the medallion.


As soon as Henry grabbed the Medallion, he saw a vision of an elderly well-dressed man, sitting in a large room behind a big desk of darkwood. Above his head hung a sigil, a hammer and a balance scale. In his hands were a big egg-sized pink gem. That must be the next item, the Gem of Divination.


After gathering things, the Guardians quickly left, met up with A'na and were lead out of the "city" and headed north, out of the forest.
 

5e playtest og næste gang

Pep

5e Playtest bliver udgivet den 24. maj. Bliver interessant at se, hvad det er for en størrelse.

Husk at vi spiller på tirsdag, hos Jensen, og at I stadig er level 13.

Session 31: The Fall of Presidio

11th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

As the Guardians re-enter Presidio through the south gate, they are being closed. The Orc army is here, approaching the north gate. Inside, the city is busy, people have a lot of things to do before the imminent battle. As the Guardians make their way through the crowd towards the palace, someone bumps into Henry and presses a note into his hand, before vanishing into the crowd.

Meet me at high-sun behind the Dancing Wyvern.
E

The Guardians quickly figure that it must be El'Rull, the drow that they saved and then turned over to the authorities of Presidio.

They decided to head up to the palace and talk to the Lord General, but he is busy prepping the walls, and after waiting an hour for him, the Guardians head down to meet up with the drow.

At the appointed time, El'Rull meets with them, offering them an alliance:

You trusted me once before, I need you to trust me again. For unknown reasons, my matron mother wants to save your city. While she must have ulterior motives, surely you can agree that anything is better than being sacked by 350.000 orcs. I am here to help stop the invasion. And I need some help. You see, some of my allies have been discovered and killed. And I know of two sets of spies who must be disposed of immediately.

I will head to the palace and kill the spy there, while you track down the Red Horn, a devil-worshiping sect and deal with them.

Easier said than done, but the Guardians agree and decide to meet up again with El'Rull at dawn, once again behind the Dancing Wyvern.

As soon as the meeting is over, the Guardians start to investigate the Red Horn. After a couple of hours, they run into Jackson, a young cousin of the Vildar family (nobles):

Larissa? Yeah, can’t say I have been there, my allowance doesn’t quite measure up, but I have heard about her. One talented whore. She supposedly uses that tail in ways you can not imagine... She lives down by Artists’ Square. It’s a red-painted house. Hard to miss.

Arriving at Artists' Square a bit later, they find the red house with little trouble. The entrance is guarded, and they soon learn that Larissa expects gifts, just too meet her. After a lot of consideration and debate, Tic-Tac buys an expensive necklace, and they gain entrance.

There they encounter Larissa, a hauntingly beautiful tiefling woman, with a dragon-tattoo on her left thigh. She asks for 10.000 gold pieces to divulge the information she knows about the Red Horn. When pressed, she asks for 15.000. Obviously she does not like being bullied, but Tic-Tac doesn't like being extorted either, so he draws his dagger. The servant runs for help, and Larissa calls on her pet flesh golem hiding in the closet, which she has been given by a wizard suitor, some years ago.

The fight is hard and brutal. Larissa turns out to be handy with a dagger as well, and the golem proves to be a handful as well. Plan is to capture her alive, but unluckily, Tic-Tac's dagger ends up sticking out of her eye when the battle is over. Just as Larissa and the golem dies, the city guards arrive, and arrest the Guardians, who let them do it. The Guardians plead self defense and say they are on a mission from the Lord General, and that Larissa was part of a cult of devil summoners. Unfortunately for them, the guards can find no evidence thereof, and they are then escorted to one of the guard-houses on the palace grounds.

There they are placed in chains and under lockup in the mass. Soon the guards are joined by Court Mage De'Bent and High Priest Porash of Asmodeus. De'Bent does the interrogations, and Porash seems content to mostly listen in.

The Guardians tells their story again, mentioning Lady Victoria and Garix as witnesses. Unfortunaly, De'Bent returns from talking to Lady Victoria and claims she knows nothing about it, and Garix is nowhere to be found.

The city is under attack, and it is getting late. De'Bent leaves at the behest of High Priest Porash, and spured by his mental suggestion to Heian, the Guardians kill the guards and get their own weapons back. They part ways with Porash and sneak out of the guard-house, and immediately head to the stables to make a plan. Then they sneak up into the palace, in order to kill Victoria. She must be the spy El'Rull was talking about. Once inside the castle, they are discovered by a servant, but Henry quickly slays him. Alas, the alarm is raised, and soon the corridors are filled with palace guards looking for them.

The Guardians manage to dodge them all, and arrive in the throne room and the private area of the Lord General and his wife. There they find Lady Victoria, who is outraged. She has heard nothing from De'Bent, and never claimed not knowing the Guardians or not giving them a mission. She sends the Guardians to find De'Bent and deal with him.

They quickly navigate the palace and find the area belonging to the court wizard, but as they try to break into his room, Tic-Tac fails to deal with a magical trap properly and all the Guardians are roasted badly. De'Bent arrives, and a fight is on. While De'Bent certainly is powerful and the Guardians are wounded badly after the fire-trap-bomb, they have him in a corner and 4 against 1 is very effective. Soon he is knocked out and bound.

Then his apprentice arrive, saying that the city has fallen. The gates have been breached. Apparently a large group of devils were summoned near the main gate and they killed all the guards and opened the gate and the orcs just started to pour in.  

The Guardians decide to get the hell out of the castle, and move De'Bent down to the sewers to question him. Once awakened, he claims they are the traitors, that he did speak with Victoria. Not being able to verify this, due to the palace being either on lock-down or overrun, the Guardians kill off De'Bent and leave Presidio....

Vi spiller næste gang 1. maj. Håber I hyggede jer forleden, var en fed aften for mig som DM. Der skete en masse, også uventede ting.

Jeg sender nok en oversigt over muligheder på et tidspunkt, så vi kan få styr på, hvad der kan ske. Så kan vi tage en kort brainstorm over mail, hvis det er nødvendigt. Men generelt lød det som om, at I rykker sydpå for at finde det næste artifact.

Session 30: The Helpful Drows?

10th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

The next morning, Henry is woken up by Gorgyr, who wants to know how things are progressing. When he hears about the attack on the city of Presidio, he asks whether they had considered not helping the city.

After talking a bit about things, Jelastra meets up with the Shadow(?) and is told to let go vis-a-vis the Garotte-man. He is sacro-sankt atm. Then the Guardians head down to the sewers, to find out what is going on. They found an abandoned thieves' guild, which has been occupied by new residents. 

As they sneak in, they a woman speaking elven:

…. It is absolutely imperative that all leading members of the Red Horn die tonight or tomorrow at the latest. Their plan could interfere in a very bad way with the war....

We will return in 5 hours. Be ready to go.

When the Guardians finally get to the room, they find 5 drows playing "Skulls". A short but pitched battle, which sees Heian go down, leaves them with 4 dead and 1 prisoner. He acknowledges that they are here to kill the Red Horn members, but knows little beyond that.

Heian goes back up to meet with the Lord General, but he isn't there. Instead he speaks with Victoria, the Lord General's wife, who strikes him as slightly blonde. He tries to ask around about the Red Horn, but only person who is even slightly helpful is Garix, who thinks he once met a woman named woman named Larissa at a party, who looked like a noble (or perhaps a very expensive whore), who mentioned the Red Horn. But he couldn't remember anything else. 

Back down in the sewers, they decided to execute the remaining drow and wait for the priestess to return. 

First came a necromancer, who summoned 3 wraiths. His magic was strong and the wraiths were ripping through Henry. Things looked for a long time as if this might be the last day of the Guardians. In the end, they managed to turn the tide of the battle, and kill the necromancer, which killed off the wraiths as well. Just as he died, the priestess returned, and the Guardians had to tap into every reserve they had in order to beat her and her summoned demon as well.

The priestess had a note on her, along with some nice-looking gems.

By the will of Lolth, it is imperative that we stop the orc that are attacking the human city Presidio and their allies inside the city. I am sending L’Utrax K’don to instruct you further. Do not return if you fail.

After a long and hard battle, the Guardians decided it might be best to ditch Presidio and head down south, for the medallion. They snuck out the sewers and climbed down into a ravine and made their way away from Presidio.

11th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

The next morning, Tic-Tac contacted Gorgyr, and after a loooooong discussion, the Guardians decided to (at least for now) return to Presidio and get some more info.

Nobles of Presidio

 

Session 29: The Purple P***y

5th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

After a good night's rest, the Guardians were once again ready to brave the perils of the Hill Giants' Steading. Sneaking past the prison area, the Guardians eventually found an ancient-looking temple with an altar. As they approached the altar, they started to be affected by evil magic that forced them to fight among each other. Having noticed an odd purple rift suspended over the altar, Tic-Tac dove in and pulled out a ebony rod with a dragon claw as head. That stopped the magic of the altar.

As soon as he pulled it out, Tic-Tac was overwhelmed with pictures and information.

The six items of power (rod of dragons, sword of demons, ring of travel, medallion of necromancy, ring of illusion and gem of divination) belonged to Amir Zel Bardin, a mage of legend from the earliest days of Athas. Said to be immensely powerful, even so powerful as to aspire to godhood, Amir ruled an empire which the likes Athas has never seen since. Then one day, he disappeared, never to be heard from again. His empire quickly fell apart, part taken over by the sorcerer kings who was rumoured to rule somewhere down south.
Ever since, some of his items of power have resurfaced. Easily recognisable for those who know what to look for, they are speculated to hold a small fraction of Amir’s essence and power. It is said that the closer the items are, the more power their wielders can use.
The rod of dragons shows where the nearest part is, until attuned with said part.

Tic-Tac saw Heian, with the sword at his side.

That prompted some very strong reactions. Could they trust Heian? Could they trust Garix? Could anyone really be trusted? Should they try to get the next part? Etc. 

In the end they decided to attune the two parts (rod and sword) and got a vision of an elf wearing crown (circlet) and sitting with the medallion on a throne made by a living tree. 

They then left the Steading through the tunnels made by the umberhulks they ran into. First Heian got lost, but Henry managed to find the way above ground, and soon the Guardians were heading back to Presidio.

9th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna 

Arriving at Presidio, they crashed at Christobal's for a night. They learned that the noble-but-not-noble man had been looking for them again, and there was also a message to Jelastra from the Shadow. Also, Garix was a rookie adventurer about 10 years ago, where Christobal took him under his wings. Christobal had been good friends with his father. So Garix was hired to find out more about the elven "king".

Before doing anything else, they went to see the Lord General Raul Sarazin, to inform of the plot. By now, the General had learned that the orc horde was about 300.000 strong, a number which might pose a significant problem, so the emperor's army had been called up for backup. 

The Lord General confirmed what the giant letter had mentioned. There was something fishy going on. The army probably had allies inside the wall. Guards had been dieing more often in a certain part of the sewers, and the Lord General asked the Guardians to go down and check it out. They weren't too happy about it, but decided to do it none the less.

While at the palace, they met with an elven ambassador (Sundew?) and got some more info about the elven king, Jasra Leafblower, who controls the northern part of the Forest of Dreams, south of Presidio. They also met Victoria, the Lord General's much younger and very pretty wife.

Session 28: Giants, More Giants, And The Thing In The Cellar

4th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

With the Guardians barricaded in the meeting room and the giants surrounding the room, they quickly debated whether to stick around for the fight, or escape through the chimney. Heian skillfully threw a grappling hook up through it, so they could get out quickly. But Henry insisted they could do it, and told the others they were staying.

Soon the door was battered down, and giants swarmed into the room, both through the door and through the room where the dire bear had slept. All in all nine giants came for them. 6 regular giants, a shaman, the leader (a monstrously large and fat giant wielding the biggest crossbow they had ever seen) and one which was very adept at throwing stones. The fight was long and fairly hard. But due to great positioning and the tough shell Henry wears, they eventually killed all the giants. 

Still, there were other giants around, that much they knew, and the young ones, they previously had seen in the bedroom area were gone, presumably to find help.

The Guardians quickly checked out the Main Hall, but decided to return to the Meeting Room, there had to be a secret door. 

And they found it. Behind was a staircase down, and a chest which turned out to have a lot of hollow bones used for scrollcases. One of the cases had a note in it.

“Dear Nosra. You will soon be approached by orc emissaries who wish to mount a large scale attack on Presidio. Not only will you agree and offer all your giants, but you will also send word to your many cousins around, convincing them that this time, you will win over the humans. If they hesitate, inform that both the frost and fire giants of the Silver Peaks will join the war as well. The stone giants probably too. Oh yeah, we will need you to bring your special friend, the one you keep down in the cellar. It is also imperative that the orcs think they are in command. At some point, we will send word to you, and you must obey the orders without hesitation. Failure will earn you an eternity of torment for you and your wife.
Please eat this message at once.”

Going down the stairs, the Guardians took a short break, then continued. They quickly ended up starring through bars into a huge arena-like room with iron spears on all walls and columns. Quietly sneaking into the room, they made it across, before finding another door with bars. Unfortunately it was locked, and Henry had just woken the Iron Dragon living here. The Dragon, which was adept at teleporting, turning invisible and breathing lightning engaged the Guardians as they were making their way to another exit, and while they did well to handle it initially, it clawed it way back into the fight and soon things looked very bad for the Guardians of Athas (consencus on name???). As the fight dragged on, the Guardians started to drop left and right. Even the moral cheers of Garix could not keep them up on their feet. But somehow, they managed to hang on, stay alive and kill the grizzly beast.

At this point, Jelastra was very, very tired. But there is no rest for the wicked, so after finding a little treasure, the Guardians continued their search of the area, which turned into natural caves to the north. Henry stumbled over a hole in wall and spotted an umberhulk, and at this point, finally agreed that they needed some rest. They did go a bit south first, but stopped at a large door, because it sounded like something very big was moving behind it. They figured that maybe the giants left alive upstairs didn't know the secret entrance, or maybe the giants were too scared of the dragon. Either way, they decided to take a chance and return to the dragon's cave rest in it, hoping the umberhulk(s) wouldn't go near that area either....

Nobles of Presidio - Overview

Nobles in Presidio are historically divided into 5 groups, based on alliances. On the chart, these groups are shown by colors. If a noble family is placed away from the main noble of the same color, it is because that family has strong ties to the group it is placed below. For example, the Samot family belongs to the Ballard group but also has strong ties to the Vildar group.

Also, most importantly, the closer to the top of the picture, the more power the family has. It might be political, economical or military power.

Sidste gang

Vi sluttede sidste gang midt i en combat, så her er et billede til at hjælpe hukommelsen på gled.

1. Kæmpe soverum med mindst 8-10 unge hill giants

2. Soveplads for dire bear (død), med adgang til Main Hall

3. Mødelokale uden udgange - på nær pejsen. Den blå dør i rummet er pt spærret af en kæmpe stol

4. Main Hall. Der var mindst 4-5 hill giants og en stone giant derinde (død)

5. dør til der hvor I kom fra, bl.a med giant werewolf.

Bring your A-game!

Session 27: The Hill Giant Steading

88th day of Autumn, Year 185 of Vecna

Arriving in Presidio, the Guardians quickly got a hold of High Priest Nugga, and turned over the 3 artifacts of the Moradin-church. After finishing the "deal", they told Nugga of the invasion, and asked him if he could get them in to see the Lord General, leader of the city. The High Priest wrote them a letter of introduction (something like: Let the bearers talk to Raul, or face the wrath of Moradin) and the Guardians immediately headed towards the palace where Lord General Raul Sarazin lives. 

About an hour later, the Guardians found themselves in Raul's war room. They told of the army, he asked some questions, and then thanked them for riding hard to warn Presidio. He told them they would be contacted, if the city needed to call upon their services once again. 

89th day of Autumn, Year 185 of Vecna

The next day, the Guardians asked Christobal about a sage to tell them about the rod they had found, and were introduced to Garix, a gnome friend of Christobal, who apparently also knew Balaros. They struck a deal with Garix to find out more about the rod. He told them it would cost about 500 gp per library he would need access to, and there was no way of knowing how many libraries he would have to bribe his way into. They gave him 1000 gold to start with.

While Garix the gnome started his investigation, the Guardians decided to find out about who attacked them. Via Nugga, they found the smith who had made the weapons that a lot of the riders had had, and it turned out he had sold large shipments of weapons to the church of Moradin, to the palace and to a noble named Zuckran within the last year.

Jelastra also hired a guy to make a sketch of Mr. Garotte, based on what Jelastra could remember. He then spent the rest of the day trying to find anyone who knew anything. At some point, he was referred to the Rotten Rat, where he should look for the Shadow. Contact was made, and the Guardians were told to show up at a certain place in the severs at midnight. There a cloaked figure met up with them, and took the picture. He told them they would be contacted.

90th day of Autumn, Year 185 of Vecna

The next morning, Garix had news. He had connected the rod with an ancient giant temple about 4-5 days up in the mountains. The Guardians quickly decided to investigate, and Garix suggested that they bring him, so that he could decipher things if needed.

Before leaving, Christobal told them that someone associated with the House of Zuckran had been there the night before, looking for them. Not a noble.

4th day of Winter, Year 185 of Vecna

Arriving at the site of the temple, the Guardians were in for a surprise. There was a huge giant fort built right were the temple was supposed to be.

After some scouting, the horses were left a bit away, and the Guardians snuck over the walls under the cover of Heian's magical mist. Inside they avoided 5 direwolves, and entered the main building. Heading through a dining room, they ended up in a kitchen with some hill giant cooks. They doubled back to avoid making too much noise, but when they got back into the courtyard, a giant exited another building and saw them. The giant and the wolves attacked. All were quickly killed, although the Guardians had a bit of a scare, when the giant changed into a big ass werewolf. 

The Guardians moved into the building, going through a room or two, avoiding a lot of young giants playing and wrestling in what seemed like a huge bedroom area, only to find a small meeting room, with chairs covered in human skin. There Jelastra almost "stumbled" over a huge dire bear. He tried to kill it before it woke, but no luck, and while they did manage to kill it fairly quickly, the noise had attracted a lot of giants from an adjacent room. First a stone giant, who was dispatched as well, before they tried to barricade themselves in the meeting room......

Sharn Loot

Mighty Dwarven ThrowerLevel 15+ Rare

Thunder peals as you hurl this hammer through the air on a collision course with your enemy’s skull.

Lvl 15

+3

25,000 gp

Weapon: Hammer

Enhancement Bonus: Attack rolls and damage rolls

Critical: +1d6 damage per plus, or +1d12 damage per plus against Large or larger humanoids

Property

You gain an item bonus to damage rolls against Large or larger humanoids. The bonus equals 2 + the weapon’s enhancement bonus.

Attack Power  Encounter (Standard Action)

Attack: Ranged 10 (one creature). You throw the weapon but make a melee basic attack against the target. On a hit, the target also falls prone. After the attack, the weapon returns to your hand.

Utility Power  Daily (Free Action)

Trigger: You hit a creature adjacent to you with this weapon.

Effect: The creature is dazed (save ends).