Winterhaven... At last!

We have been gone for about three weeks from the game. A combination of FoW tournaments and WM events conspired against our intrepid party to continue their quest into the dark. We gathered at around three, while Kyle did anyways, at my basement and set out for adventure.

After a quick recap on last months happenings the party settled into their roles. Arriving at Winterhaven the settled into the Wrafton's Inn for the evening and learned that the Lord Mayor Padraig was at the next table having an evening ale with Valthrun the Persistent. Sliver engaged Padraig and presented the letter of introduction. Intrigued to here of their adventures against the Kolbolds in the manor house, Padraig agreed to see them in the morning. Valthrun however sat at their table to hear their story, and requested a favor. It seemed that an old friend of Valthrun, a fellow scholar from down south, was visiting and using Valthrun's as a base camp for a search for a dragon's burial ground. Poor Douven has been missing for about a week and he was concerned. He asks the adventures to check in on Douven to see if all is all right.

After an evening of rest the part goes to the Manor House and meets the Lord Mayor who states he has tracked the kobolds to a lair in the south east. He can't get the villagers to work with him to destroy them, so he is willing to pay the adventures to accomplish the task.

Our hearty adventures set out with two tasks under their belt. Shortly after departing town however they are again ambushed by a set of kobolds. It is a tricky fight with the Dragonborn Warlord (Yes he is a warlord now. Re-booted to first level! :) ) going down a few times... Which seems to be a common theme. After the engagement, Halladen and Sliver found a set of tracks leading away from the road to the south east. Convinced that this will take them to the Kobold layer, they head out in search.

When they come upon the stream they find a set of kobolds engaged in a ritual outside a waterfall. Combat ensues with a slinger dodging off to 'warn Irontooth'. The party clears the outside and sets fourth to attack the lair proper. Sliver, Halladen, Extell, and Uhlk enter through the waterfall while VIII, Eldacar, and Zoltan entering from the main cave entrance. Many minions died and it was looking good for the away team when Irontooth and a pair of Worm Priests showed up to swing the battle back in their favor. The Dragon Shields held the line and Irontooth engaged VIII, but despite his great amount of hit points he went down in the end to a sly flourish and a floating burning orb. With Irontooth and the Dragon Shields gone, the Worm Priests didn't last long.

Deciding to rest for the evening, the party headed to the Dragon burial site. They found a Gnome (Look a Monster!) leading a pair of halflings and some human rabble. With the exception of the triple stone shot on Eldacar the battle was pretty simple to handle. They rescued Douven and were rewarded with a magic locket.

Having collected evidence from Irontooth of a death cult of Orcus and Douven's statement that the team was looking for artifacts for a ritual to re-open the rift, the party finds out about a keep that was built to protect a rift between the world and the Shadow fell.

Can our heroes find their way through the keep? Will they be able to stop the ritual before it is completed? Who is the mysterious Kalarel and how powerful is he?

Stay tuned for next weeks adventure!


Some out of game notes:
- I had a great time. I think, by and large the guys enjoyed too.
- We only got four encounters for the night, but we did have a lot of interruptions with food ordering and arrival. Plus we had two in town encounters that might have slowed things as well.
- My basement is snug with eight guys. Next time I'll set up the two 4x4 vice the painting table for use.
jp
I like D&D!

Illumination Part II

So our second session had two less players. The Scum had a baptism he had to attend too and the Nobel Arbiter was moving back to the big O! I picked them up in a NPC status for the time being... The gang returned to Stern Hope to report on the beast that attacked. Artimus looked as tired as always and a bit distracted. The NPC players stayed and conducted watch while the players went about the community to try and find something useful. Questions were asked, Cathedrals were visited. They tried desperately to find a hidden chamber or secret door, but alas none existed. After a bit they retired for the night. In the morning the players see Artimus and he still hasn't slept well, but tells them to join the service for the morning that will start the consecration and he will join them this afternoon for the high ceremony. Player head out and get their first glimpse at the Dark Singer/Widower Raine and the Warlord chieftain Ko'osk. Inquiries are made and they know that Raine is a big time imperial supporter, thinking it will help her backward folks, but she isn't pleased with the location of Skae's cathedral due to some ugly pasts... (bing) eyes start to pay attention and pieces start to be seen as a whole. The characters go to the service which starts and Artimous, despite being tired shows up anyway. After the opening a loud explosion is heard and the camp is under attack. The players head out to see what the matter is and they see the chaos of the gate being destroyed and invaders with yellow headbands attacking all over. The characters each see different things and charge into the frey. The Arbiters, Klightus and Thadius, attempt to come to the aid of a young lady protecting a pack of children. The murderous villains are advancing and shooting. Several shotgun shots do no good and soon the bad guys are in the midst of the young ones. Thadius charges in with his club while Klightus uses the shotgun at short range. Dar and Talon spot a band of vermin heading to the generator farm. They fire and follow in pursuit, engaging in a bloody battle while generators explode. Rapid thinking by Dar allows them to 'toss' the bombs before it gets worse. Raltus and Frak see a group of yellow bands heading to the cathedral with a big ass bomb strapped to their backs. Going full auto, Raltus and Frak take care of the bad guys and the bomb goes off well short of the chapel. As the chaos subsides, the gang heads back to the front of the cathedral to find Skae and Artimus in deep conversation with Raine. Raine's pissed and feels that these crazies are just the tip of deceit that is going on (bing!). Artimus, obviously tired and in a foul mood that his Grand^5 Dad's cathedral is being dumped takes out his las pistol and shoots the only living yellow banded guy who is blinded and jibbering about the 'Crow Father' and the "end coming" (Bing!). Shocked Raine picks up and leaves saying that this place is cursed and she will not return. Her and Warlord Ko'osk pack up and head out. Skae says he needs to meditate and should be left along, Artimus appoligizes for loosing his cool, but hey, he is with the =][= so it is OK. Everyone else starts cleaning up the mess. The players fan out to help out and get some more info. Dar finds out that the scary Brother Severus who was 'suppose' to help repair the gate is missing and was 'summoned' by Abbott Skae... (bing!) Odd . Klightus finds Brother Larmark drowning his sorrows and crying about not being able to protect their flock. If only Abbott Skae would have allowed him in the 'secret' discussions between Severus and Artimus he could have helped (bing!). About then they hear screams and find Abbot Skare in the middle of the street surrounded by Severus and Artimus with cuts and blood over his face/body (bing!). He claims that a woman attacked him, a witch... Artimus orders the party to go find Raine at her place up in the hills a few hours. (bing!)It is obvious to the team that something is not right, but being good little baby =][= they head out to find the witch Raine as ordered. They hit her little camp just before dusk after driving through a horrid sand storm. She steps out from her hovel to great them, flanked by her posse. Raltus steps up and explains that people are hurt and need her help back at the camp. Raine, looks at them with her eye and says she will not return, but there are things a loyal imperial servant should know. She invites them into her house when they hear a maniacal laugh on the wind and the Shale Crows that have been hanging around all over swarm and attack. Dar fails his fear test badly and develops an OC about cleaning his axe... :) The team dispatches the swarms and finds that Raine has an old book that details how the old Saint Darrus (Artimus' Great ^5 Dad) battled a demon that was possessing the final warlords body on the exact location of the cathedral (BING!). And that this demon was a master deceiver (Bing!). Raine finishes by stating that per legend the demon only fears which it likes to inflict most upon its victims... (BING!)

The gang piles back into the truck and heads to Stern Hope to see what the heck is going on. On arrival they find the camp dark and the gate unrepaired. The only people they seen have either dead with their eyes gouged out, or are wandering around lost and insane. The local inn has been ransacked and destroyed, but they find in Artimus’ room a data slate that they Raltus repairs and finds out that Artimus new of a ‘Miracle’ that was going to happen and that he would be the Saint’s new vassal (Bing!). Marching up to the cathedral they stumble upon Brother Lamark, pulling himself towards the cathedral with his arms, his legs shattered. “Save my flock” he begs and expires a martyr to imperial faith. Entering the cathedral the team sees the members of the community chanting and rocking in the pews. They see Artimus standing on the alter with his ever present Tarot cards swirling around him. The ceiling of the cathedral appears to be loosing its planer integrity as the warp seems to be entering. And standing at the top of the processional is this Skae-Thing… It is bloated and vile and most defiantly demonic. (BING!), (BING!), (BING!), (BING!).

Players take action and begin to fire and engage. The Skae-Thing seems to have some massive regeneration and shrugs off the hits. The Skae-Thing states he will blind them as he has blinded Skae and Artimus in their faith. The players take some damage, until Dar puts it together. Blind? Blind! Shoot the eyes. After a bunch of missing and some fancy dancing around, the players manage to take the eyes out which sends the beast hurtling back to the void. Artimus, awakes, perhaps for the first time in the adventure and says… “what have I done” and falls into the swirling Tarot cards that tear him to shreds. The players recover a single tarot card that Raltus determines is Xenos in origin.

The night ends with the party heading towards Port Suffering…

Session Two

Well,

We had session two about a month ago. Just taken me a long time to post it out.

The players fought there way to the lower level and entered a large room connected to long tunnel across to the far power station.

A set of droids activated and attacked the players and they were able to fight them off, with some minor injury. After the post fight clean up, Storm hacked a lock on a strange door and the party found a Mon Calamari in deep stasis.

• Oro - A run away Mon Calamari who improved his natural repair talents for Star Commercial Combine. When the base fell, he used his skills and a dark secret he keeps to stay alive.

The party woke the Mon Calamari up and hauled him up to the med droid on the upper level.

With Oro now a party member (Guest player and NPC), the party engaged still more droids. After arriving at the far end of the service tunnel, they found the bases power station and a evil appearing Security Droid wearing a dark Jedi robe. His 'bodyguard' of other droids attacked as 'Naga Sadow' moved forward to engage with his shock arms.

IG-107 and Markel's skills come forward to help clear the droid army, but not with out taking heavy damage. IG-107 shutdown due to damage while the other players were severely injured. Oro used his computer knowledge and found himself in a battle against an unknown foe to shut down the droid nodes.

At last the final droid fell as Oro shorted the system. Around the corner the scream of an Astro-tech droid could be heard.

Finishing the survey of the base reviled that nothing much remind, other then the physical infrastructure. The party took the R-5 unit as well as the Medical Droid and the GONK unit in the hanger and returned to Ord Mandell.

On the return, they were told the Senator was off planet, but payment was given and a new contract was offered. The party sold the R-5 unit as well as the GONK and went to get a drink to discuss taking the next job.

While at the Cantenia, a bounty hunter spotted something odd and began firing at the Xander and/or Markel. Seeing they were out matched, the players sought escape as clone troopers entered the Cantenia to arrest the wildly firing bounty hunter.

We leave our party as they make there way back to accept the next mission...

Stay tuned for the next update!

jp