The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Halflings...

June 23, 3430, Age of Kings

As Grabby arrived home at the cottage it began to rain. The exhausted, shamed, hung-over, rain-soaked, muddy, naked (he may have eaten his cabbage loin cloth at some point) and love stricken halfling walked in, and threw himself face down on the rug by the smouldering hearth.

Sitting nearby, Ander tried his best to ignore the whining halfling that was complaining about his heartbreak to anyone who would listen (no one). After vomiting into the fire place, Grabby picked himself up and decided he would attempt to win Audry Wachs (we'll call her Miss Wachs to avoid confusion). After calling out Miss Wachs' name several times, this of course awok Audrey from upsatirs who then came down to see what was going on.

Over the course of breakfast—and Ander fashioning a burlap sack into clothing to cover Grabby's shame—Grabby convinced the others to help him get back his belongings. And he would also hope to win back Miss Wachs' affections.

They set out after breakfast and made the hour long trek to West Leedshire. Grabby's first stop was to pick up some clothing—the medieval fantasy equivalent to Gap Kids. Grabby then devised his plan: Ander and Audrey would go past Miss Wach's townhouse to she i she was home while Broak and Grabby stayed out of sight down the street.

Still raining, Ander and Audrey approached the door and saw some halfling-sized leather armour, clothing, and other items piled in the wet, refuse clogged gutter—but his weapons were not present. Carefully tying the wet mess together into a bundle, Audrey knocked at Miss Wachs' door. Eventually Miss Wachs opened the door, perplexed as to why a burly north-woman and an elf would be calling. Audrey confronted her about stealing Grabby's belongings which quickly escalated into Audrey punching Miss Wachs in the face. Seeing the assault, three bystanders ran to Miss Wachs' aid to see what was going on, one of them quickly ran off to get the local watch.

After a tense standoff while Miss Wachs struggles to try to close the door on her assailant, two memebr of the watch and a sergeant showed up to break up the scuffle and determine what was going on. Demanding to know why Audrey struck a defenseless citizen, the watch demanded Audrey and Ander drop their weapons—this did not go over well with Ander.

Ander threw the soggy belongins at the sergeant a brief, but non-lethal melee broke out between the watch and Ander and Audrey. Seeing they might be overwhelmed, Ander cast a magical fog over the area, obscuring everything around them in a thick, white fog.

Despite not be able to see one another, the melee continued on between the five of them, and Miss Wachs was finally able to slam shut her door. At one point, the sergeant gained the upper hand and managed to force Ander onto the ground and pin him down in attempt to place manacles on him.

Watching this from down the street, Grabby decided to rush in and help his comrades, while Broak approached from a back alley. Groping blindly, Grabby manged to find his things and even deliver a shocking grasp to one of the watchmen.

While fog shrouded melee carried on, Broak decided to break in through a side window into Miss Wachs' home in hopes of retrieving Grabby's things. Seeing a dwarf smash a window and crawl in, Miss Wachs—naturally—began screaming hysterically. Not wanting to draw any more attention the situation, Broak made an attempt to silence the terrified woman by slamming her over the head with butt of his hammer in hopes of knocking her out. It worked a little too well: he rolled a critical. Miss Wachs fell to the ground unconscious with a bloody gash across her forehead, and due to the arcane nature of his weapon, Broak succumbed to its power (he failed his Wisdom saving throw).

Out on the street, those involved in the street fight could hear the terrified screams of Miss Wachs inside, suddenly cut short, then immediately followed by another, more Dwarfish scream. Broak fell to his knees screaming in emotional agony as he relived that fateful killing blow so long ago. Eventually composing himself  and wiping the tears away from his cheeks and beard, he set about ransacking the home in hopes of finding Grabby's things.

Outside, amid the dense fog, Ander managed to squirm free of the sergeant's grasp and crawl his way out of the fog. Audrey easily evaded the other two guards and ran head-long into a wall before finding her way out. Grabby, with his gear in hand, also managed to feel his way out of the fog. During this time two more watchmen arrived from the south side of the street and couldn't see through the fog and could only hear the angry yells and the confused state of their allies within. Audrey fled through back alleys and met up with the filth-caked Ander, both unaware where their two allies were.

Meanwhile, Grabby disturbed by the horrific scream that came from Broak crept down the space between the two townhouses to peer into Miss Wachs' home, which had a broken window on the first floor. He peered in to see Broak (who had just finished scouring the home and come up empty handed) and Miss Wachs—slumped and motionless with a face covered in blood against the front door. Broak forced his way out the window after convincing Grabby Miss Wachs was just unconscious.

By this time some of the watchmen had organized themselves and started moving out down the back alleys to make their way around the mysterious fog. Just as Broak had pulled himself out the window and was standing next to Grabby one of the watchmen passed by the alley and saw the two standing there—curiously close to the melee that had just occurred. Without hesitation—and the quick thinking worthy of a 90s action film—Grabby grabbed Broak by the face and said, "Quick! Kiss me!" Disturbed by the sight of a dwarf and halfling kissing passionately in a dirty, rain-soaked alley, the watchmen simply yelled out, "'ey! Get outta there!" They had avoided the watchman successfully, and perhaps taken their friendship to a new—and most likely uncomfortable—level.

Grabby Scores!

June 21–23, 3430, Age of Kings

After a quick rest, the party moved down the north hall that ended in double doors, flickering candle light could be seen from between the door cracks. Cautiously opening the door the group gazed into a 20x20 foot room, brightly lit by hundreds of lit candles along the walls. The centerpiece of the room: a massive stone statue of Orcus, Demon Prince of the Dead. Several human skulls were scattered about the bloated demonic statue's cloven feet. Infront of the statue sat a stone altar, stained dark from long dried blood, and sitting atop it: a copper goblet with Orcus' visage carved onto it.

Broak, with great subtlety, decided to approach the altar and bring his warhammer down upon the goblet, smashing it, then exited the room. From here, the rest of the party noticed a wooden chest tucked away into the south-east corner of the room. Opening the chest they found 3 dark, hooded robes—similar to the one worn by the mysterious man in the other room that Ander caught a glimpse of—and 2 heavy iron medallions on chains depicting the icon of Orcus. Odd findings for a goblin lair, indeed.

Taking the robes and medallions with them, the party doubled back to the chamber they had entered through, and continued down the unexplored south hall.

The hall wound around to 2 more rooms that lay in ruin: a small chapel devoted to St. Eliah, now destroyed and desecrated, and a small room that was once the personal chambers of a priest. Finding nothing they headed down a hall that lead further to the south that opened up into the woods.

Satisfied with what they had found, they decided to journey back home for some much needed rest, and to cash in on their sack full of goblin ears.

*   *   *

Deciding to go out and celebrate and resupply, the group left for West Leedshire. Before hitting the taverns, Ander decided it was time to purchase a new war dog, luckily he managed to find one, named Skoobius, and bring it along with him and met up with the others. Deciding to tavern-hop between The Pale Lamb Barroom, The Silver Rose Tavern, and They Grey Cauldron Inn (all randomly generated names, by the way!) to do some drinking, gambling, and other random carousing (ie: I used the carousing random table in the DMG).

Audrey and Broak managed to have an uneventful, but profitable night playing games of chance and even managed to find a new friend named Bartlen Gormell, a local labourer.

Grabby managed to find himself wrapped up in a whirlwind (and drunken) romance with a woman named Audry Wachs, which ended rather poorly the next morning when she awoke to find Grabby trying to leave her townhouse with armfuls of silverware and other bric-a-brac.

Meanwhile, Ander, wanting to take a darker turn, sought out the pleasures of illicit substances—which seemed to have worked. He awoke the next morning, his head pounding, in a barn in the outskirts of the village, his weapons and brand new war dog were nowhere to be seen. It was a long walk back home.

*   *   *

Deciding the previous night was a source of wholesome entertainment, they decided to head into the village of West Leedshire once more for a night of carousing. Not wanting to tempt fate a second time, Ander simply purchased the last available war dog, Skrapeth, and headed back home for a night in.

That night Audrey made out the same as the previous night and Broak manged to make another friend, a visiting dwarf merchant by the name of Baern Krondar. The 2 dwarves headed out on their own and Broak wasn't seen again until the next day.

It seems Grabby didn't learn much from the previous night and sought out Audry Wachs in a desperate attempt to redeem himself... and "git some." He managed to find her and once again the 2 got drunk and wound up back at Audry's home...

*   *   *

Grabby awoke early the next morning in a stinking alleyway strewn with garbage. The horribly hung over halfling then realized he was completely naked, apparently robbed of everything by his vengeful lover. Slowly making his way to his feet, Grabby managed to find a piece of cabbage to cover his shame and fashion himself a makeshift cabbage loincloth. 

Furious with the thought that someone else had Mr. Shiney (his trusted magic dagger) in their possession he made his way back to Audry's home, thankful it was still very early, and few people were in the street this early in the morning. 

Looking through a first floor window he looked inside, and only saw a man, fast asleep on the floor by the smoldering fireplace. Deciding it might be wisest to retreat back home to get some clothes and nurse his hangover (that and it is a well known fact that hungover halflings wearing nothing but a cabbage leaf are not very intimidating) he wandered off down the lonely road back home. 

A small halfling, a giant walk of shame.

A Bad Day for Broak and Grabby

June 21, 3430, Age of Kings

After spending the day in town to resupply and gather themselves, the party set back out to find the goblin burrow in the woods.

After traveling for the day, Ander managed to lead his companions to the entrance. Lighting a lantern the party squeezed down the narrow passageway, clogged with stones and deep tree roots. The pathway twisted and turned as the party pressed on through the claustrophobic space until the found a hole that dropped into a flagstone room. Tied to thick roots were three chains that hung into the chamber below—the means by which the goblins could come and go.

One by one the party descended into the chamber 40 feet below. Once there, they found themselves in a 20 by 20 room, with a corridor leading to the north, and another to the south. From the north, the sound of goblins speaking could just barely be heard—so they headed towards the sound.

Coming around a corner the voices got louder, and the hall descended down a staircase that ended in a set of double doors—the voices were coming from the other side. Several goblins could be heard talking with one another, and another 2 or 3 could be heard squabbling of a game of cards (Ander speaks Goblin). Realizing the goblins were unaware of their presence, the party burst into the room to launch an attack.

Sitting around a table, playing cards, were 4 goblins, and in the far end of the room were another 8 goblins relaxing among a pile of dirty animal furs—jumping to their feet when the doors burst open.

The party launched their attack, with Broak and Audrey leading the way. In an epic—an somewhat comical—feat of agility, Audrey leapt into the fray by launching herself off of Broak's helmeted head with her foot. As they began cutting down the goblins, 2 broke for a corridor that led to the east.

Positioning himself near a group of goblins and the table, Grabby made a gesture with his hand and spoke some arcane words that unleashed a thunderous crack that shook the chamber, dislodging small stones and dirt from the ceiling—and alerting everyone in the area—sending several goblins flying through the air, landing on their backs. In addition, the heavy oak table flipped through the air, sending cards and shillings all over the room. The table landed squarely on a goblin that was knocked onto his back, crushing him with a crunch and a muffled scream.

The 2 goblins that had fled were making their way to a door, and out into a corridor heading to the south. The party tried to chase the 2 down as they fought their way through the goblins, Ander chased them in to the hall just in time to see them escape through another set of doors at the end of the hall. Just before they slammed the doors behind them, Ander got a brief glimpse of what appeared to be a human wearing dark robes move in the room beyond.

With the rest of the goblins laying dead on the floor, the rest of the party spilled into the hall and down to the doors to continue their assault. From the other side of the doors and argument could be heard between what sounded like a human, and deep, gruff voice that spoke with a Goblin accent. 

"We need more time," said the gruff voice.

"We need more, just get it done!" responded the human voice, which followed by the sound of grinding stone.

Not wasting anymore time, the party was about to charge into the room, but the gruff voice, speaking in Goblin, shouted, "Get back out there!" and the doors swung open by 2 goblins suprised to see the party standing right there.

Inside the room were several more goblins, and 3 hulking bugbears. In the room sat a table with a sizable pile of random loot on it.

Ander fell back down the hall to provide cover from a distance as Audrey and Broak fought the goblins hand-to-hand, while Grabby provided support against any that got through. Eventually the bugbears manged to make their way to the front line to engage Broak and Audrey, dealing devastating hits to them both. Broak suffered a horrible cut to his abdomen that bled profusely (House rule: criticals with slashing weapons cause d6 bleeding at the end of a character's turn, unless they use a standard action to staunch the wound).

As hits were delivered between goblins, bugbears, Audrey, Broak and Grabby, a goblin who was lurking in the room made several failed attempts to cast spells on some of the party, who eventually resorted to blasting them with magic missile spells down the hall.

Broak, realizing he was in a bad spot with his wound still bleeding, hastily pulled a vial out labeled "VAPORS" in Dwarvish that he had found from their previous adventure, took a chance and chugged it down. The gambit payed off as is body suddenly became ethereal, and his smokey incorporeal form bagan floating back down the hall away from the battle so he could be healed by Ander. But Broak's tactic quickly turned south, despite being ethereal, his mortal flesh was still bleeding profusely, as he floated back he suddenly felt woozy and passed out from the blood loss—causing his form to revert back to its physical form. Everyone in the hall, ally and foe alike, was shocked to see the dwarf that had just escaped in a puff of smoke suddenly rematerialize just 10 feet away, and fall flat to the ground with a heavy THUD.

As the battle carried on Grabby also fell unconscious from his wounds with, when things looked their darkest, the tables were turned on the Bugbears with some well placed arrows from Ander, and a critical strike from the now raging barbarian, Audrey.

With the bugbears defeated and the few goblins left (that had now retreated into the room) Audrey and Ander roused their uncnoncious friends and led the charge back into the room. They found one goblin trying to grab as much as he could from the loot on the table, and another that was standing in the corner of the room in the opening of an open secret passageway—the spell casting goblin was now already long gone. Killing the goblin in the passageway, the party chased after the last on as he dodged past the party and down the secret hall, but was felled by one of Ander's arrows.

With the battle over, and Audrey very exhausted (she had gone into her barbarian frenzy twice so far), the party looked through the spoils. Finding plenty of coin, some red gems, and an iron ring set with a diamond bearing the icon of the demon prince of the dead, Orcus.

The party decided to find a safe location to rest and heal their wounds...

Predator and Prey

June 20–21, 3430, Age of Kings

Grabby managed to get close enough to the entrance of the hidden tunnel to hear Ander's response when he called out for him. Ander and Grabby then hid in the narrow passageway and waited for their companions, not daring to call out and reveal their position.

Meanwhile, Broak was (rather foolishly) trying to make it past the dragon to get back to the camp site to reunite with his chainmail as Audrey blindly ran through the darkened forest, avoiding goblins, and more importantly, the angry, acid-breathing dragon. She managed to find a large tree to hide next to as she heard the dragon descend upon an unfortunate goblin—one that happened to be close to the hole. Ander and Grabby hid silently as they heard the dragon tearing the goblin apart just yards away from the entrance to the hole.

By this time Broak had managed to grab his armour and made his way back into the forest, avoiding the dragon's path. As he was doing this, another goblin fleeing the dragon had doubled back to the camp, only to have the dragon come crashing down upon it. The dragon began investigating the campsite, rooting through the things the party had abandoned, and destroying some of their wolf pelts in the process. Both Audrey and Broak were too scared to make move, but knew they had to find the hole where Ander had fallen, but not entirely sure of its exact location.

Feeling pressured to move, knowing the dragon would likely eventually find her, Audrey decided to light a torch and drop it at the base of the tree where she was hiding and make a run for it, hoping the fire would draw the dragon's attention. She ran towards the area of the hole, tripping and stumbling her way through the forest as the dragon turned its attention toward the fire.

Once Audrey was close enough to the hole, she managed to find Ander and squeeze herself into the narrow tunnel with Grabby. Periodically Ander would peek out to look for their dwarven friend, still unsure of his location, having last seen him at the camp site gathering his armour.

Unable to find anything, the dragon took to the air and began circling overhead, looking for its prey. Scanning the forest for movement while Broak stayed hidden, not daring to move, the dragon eventually gave up and flew off into the night.

Lighting a torch and calling out to Broak, Ander managed to get the dwarf back to the party. At this point, exhausted and beaten, they decided to spend the rest of the night sleeping close to the tunnel's entrance in case the dragon returned and needed to make a quick escape.

The next morning they gathered their three viable wolf pelts, collected 11 ears from the fallen goblins, and made their way back home to regroup before returning to the hole to explore what must be the goblins' lair.

They arrived back home in the evening and went to bed.

*   *   *

In the morning they set out for town to collect their bounties on the pelts and ears.

Where's That Goblin Hole?

June 19–20, 3430, Age of Kings

(note: Boots' player was away this session)

After dispatching a pack of wolves for their pelts to sell to a buyer back in town, the party got a fire going and Audrey and Ander set about skinning the wolves. Well after midnight they managed to get six pelts worth selling and strung them up in a tree to start drying them and decided to get some rest.

While the party slept (or meditated in Anders' case) Grabby sat up on a low tree branch to take watch. Just as he was getting ready to wake Audrey for her shift, he noticed the flicker of torch light moving through the dark forest. Through the darkness of the woods, passing behind trees and bushes, he could see two distinct torches, and soon heard the chatter of goblins.

The torches stopped, and so did the chatter: the band of goblins seems to have noticed the party's camp fire. Grabby used his new Mage Hand spell to rouse Audrey awake, at this point, Ander was alerted to the approaching goblins and awoke the snoring Broak.

In the darkness, one torch moved to the left flank, the other to the right as Audrey, Grabby and Ander all dug into ambush positions—and Broak made an attempt to hurriedly put his armour on.

Without warning, four goblin arrows whistled from out of the darkness, not from either torch's location, but from the south—three of which sank into Broak's armourless belly (one of which was a critical hit) causing him to stumble back. Realizing a force of goblins was hidden in the nearby tree line, Ander cast a magic fog onto the campsite to provide cover from the attack.

 From within the fog the sound of several confused goblins could be heard and even more began to come out from the dark tree line, having avoided the fog. The torch bearing goblin clambered up the boulder near Audrey, and another two emerged from the trees, weapons drawn, rushing at the barbarian. Audrey broke into a frenzy and swung her halberd wildly, cutting the two rushing goblins down (rolling a critical and maximum damage on both dice) and scampered up the boulder to skewer the third goblin, and flung his corpse into the middle of the fog (once again rolling maximum damage).

Soon, more goblins began to make their way out of the fog to engage the party. Broak, the half-dressed dwarf, quickly found himself swarmed as Ander fell back to a position of cover to pick off goblins with arrows, and Audrey and Grabby jumped into the fray to help Broak.

As Ander was leaping to and from cover to take down the goblins from afar, his quiver got snagged on some of the ruins he was using as cover, snapping its strap, sending his arrows spilling all over the forest floor. Embarrassing. As he was ducking back into cover, an ominous rush of air passed by overhead—something large had passed by over the treetops, sending leaves and small branches raining down. All the others engaged in melee hadn't noticed anything.

Just then a large dark shape came crashing through the forest canopy into the midst of Anders' fog, thinning it out. A roar could be heard and a large, shadowy form moved violently from withing the fog, and the death screams of goblins could be heard. As the fog dispersed, a dragon stood amid the terrified goblins, the body of a limp goblin clenched in its jaws—the dragon from their encounter under Orespire Mountain. The dragon, seeming to be only aware of the goblins, now glanced around, realizing the presence of the party. Its eyes then locked with Audrey's, seeing the thief who stole from its treasure hoard, the dragon narrowed its eyes at her and yellow-green fluid seeped from around the goblin in its mouth. Acrid fumes whisped from the dragon's flaring nostrils and the goblin's body who was dissolving it its mouth, which then fell into two separate heaps in front of the dragon.

Not wanting to wait around to be next, the party and the goblins all began to dash towards the dark forest to escape the enraged dragon. In the confusion and dark, Ander tripped and fell into a narrow passageway. As he stayed hidden. Ander could hear the goblins running and shouting something about "finding the hole," and "it's around here somewhere."

Update

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, it's been a great summer here on the west coast, so it's not always easy herding the nerds on Sunday nights. Hopefully we'll be back soon for the next thrilling installment.

Wolves in the Night

June 18–19, 3430, Age of Kings

After a few awkward questions to Boots from the party about the stink of sulfur coming from the cellar, the party got on with day and settled into their new home.

The next day they geared up and traveled back to West Leedshire to take a look at the bounty board to see if Ander's bounty sheet had showed up, pick up Broak's chain mail (which was being repaired from his run in with a grey ooze in the kobolds' lair) and to look some work (to test out their new level 3 abilities). On the board they found postings for a few things:

"The nearby forest be infested with goblin-folk, the town of Leedshire will give a bounty of 5 shillings for every left ear of a goblin brought in."

—The Noble Houses of Leedshire

"In the last month several people from West Leedshire have gone missing, usually while in Leedshire Forest. It is thought they may have encountered goblins coming down from the mountains. We seek anyone's help in bringing them back, or discovering what befell them."

—Families of the missing

"Six of my sheep been melted into sum kind of glop! Nuther 8 vanished. Gives you 50 shillings and a sheep to find out what's done this en stope it!"

—Farmer Giles Ackermann

"I wish to procure six wolf pelts in fine condition for winter clothing, at a price of 100 shillings each."

—Devis Starck, Leatherworker, West Leedshire

 Grabby and Audrey decided to set off to the village's tavern, The Pale Lamb, to see if they could gather any information on the missing people. With some breakfast ales and pottage in them, they spoke with a server and the bar keep, but weren't able to get much information other than a few names of some of the missing people (two of them being the Sprecher brothers, Hans and Fritz).

With Anders' knowledge of goblins and forest survival skills, they eventually opted to hunt down the marauding goblins in the nearby woods.

They set out and late in the day, once deep in Leedshire Forest, Ander picked up the trail of some goblins that had passed through in the last day. Knowing the goblins wouldn't be out during daylight hours they decided to find a spot to make camp and wait for nightfall. Still wary of the dragon they encountered, and wanting to get the jump on the goblins, they decided to go without a fire.

Broak decided to take first watch after nightfall while Audrey and Grabby slept (Ander and Boots would meditate when they felt like it). A couple of hours later the howls of wolves could be heard throughout the forest drawing nearer and nearer. 

Soon a pack of ravenous wolves led by two alpha worgs stepped into the clearing and quickly set upon the party. The worgs led the charge, attacking immediately. Audrey quickly awoke and woke Grabby with a swift kick, then shed some light on the area with her lantern.

A melee quickly ensued as the pack worked their way into the campsite. Boots was able to cast Mirror Image on himself to confound the attacking beasts (and to defend himself). One by one they managed to kill the wolves, and with a few well placed arrows from Ander, managed to kill several with minimal damage to their pelts.

At one point Grabby was separated from the rest of the group when a wolf started to drag him off into the forest, but he managed to wriggle free and slay it. When the battle was over, seven wolves and two worgs lay dead at their feet.

The Yattering and Boots

June 16 – 18, 3430, Age of Kings

After a harrowing night spent shivering deep within Leedshire Forest, the party awoke to find themselves all at level three. Oh yeah, and Boots was there, too.

*   *   *

Grabby went with the Arcane Trickster path, presumably to cause mischief more than anything else.

Ander went with the Hunter path, taking the Colossus Slayer feature which should come in handy should one of his arrow's actually find its mark. He can also cast heal light wounds now, so that should help everyone out quite a bit.

Audrey took the Berserker path because, well, she's a barbarian. She also realized that when she rages she gets significant damage reduction, that could have helped earlier.

Broak decided on the Battle Master path, granting him access to maneuvers, which I'm curious to see in action.

Finally, Boots took the Pact of the Chain path, selecting an imp (of course) as his chosen fiendish familiar.

*   *   *

After traveling another day, the party reached Leedshire and returned to Albrecht's estate. They dropped off some of their gear and were beckoned by a guard to report to Albrecht.

Going into the manor they passed by a familiar guard named Willem (a guard friendly to the party) who was standing outside of Albrecht's study. Upon entering the weary party was greeted by  Albrecht who was anxious to discover if they were successful in their task or not. Audrey pulled out the Forge Hammer much to Albrecht's delight, which he greedily took from her and carefully studied it. He quickly composed himself and handed the relic off to Gotri, his dwarf bodyguard who was standing nearby, to place it in a secure location somewhere in the manor.

Quickly dispensing with pleasantries, the got right down to business: payment. True to his word, Albrecht puled out a formal looking piece of parchment, signed it, scribbled down a note, folded the two papers together and put his wax seal on them and passed them off to the party as well as the keys to the manor. They were now the custodians of a manor on the outskirts of the village of West Leedshire, about a three hour march outside of Leedshire. In addition, they were given a horse, cart and a cask of ale to celebrate with to carry them to their new base of operations. 

As the party left the study, Albrecht asked Ander to stay back so he could speak with him in private. When the two of them were alone Albrecht called Willem in to the study to hand Ander a folded parchment...

It would seem Ander's past had caught up with him. Surprisingly, Albrecht seemed unconcerned by this turn of events, and simply warned Ander that Willem had found the bounty posted early in the morning in Mercenary Square, which he quickly brought to Albrecht. 

Knowing that the bounty was most likely posted at all of the gatehouses leading out of town (Ander did notice a gate guard staring at him when they had returned earlier) it may be difficult for him to leave town.

Returning to his friends, he found them packing up their belongings in their new cart and Ander informed them of his situation. They decided to leave that night under cover of dark knowing that the gates would only be lightly guarded—but more suspicious of travelers.

Both Ander and Boots covered themselves in gear in the cart (Boots didn't want to be mistaken for Ander) and they headed out the town's west gate. They managed to roll through without incidnet, and Audrey and Grabby enjoyed the cask of ale as they traveled down the road.

After a few hours of travel they past through the village of Elmshire and onto West Leedshire. After traveling for about an hour to the outskirts of West Leedshire they found their small manor near midnight where they rested for the night.

They woke early in the morning (Grabby and Audrey a little later due to their road ales) and were greeted by Petterlen at their door, the former custodian who lived in nearby West Leedshire. The old man took the papers from them and looked them over. Satisfied, he showed them around manor and the small plot of land and offered his assistance with any matters that might come up. With that he wished them well and headed back to his village.

Needing to replenish their gear, as well as make some repairs, the party left for West Leedshire to trade and purchase goods. Once there they split up and went about their business of purchasing gear, repairing armour (from Broak's run-in with some grey ooze), cashing in on some art items, and food for their larder. Boots found the supplies he needed to cast his find familiar ritual and quickly rushed back home before the rest of the party.

Back at the manor Boots descended into the cellar and locked himself in the second room. There, he he added the components he needed into a brazz brazier, lit some candles and cast the ritual. Soon the contents of the brazier becan to smoke and burn. They began to coalesce into a black mass of tissue and bone and smelled of burnt flesh and sulfur. It bubbled and smoked and suddenly two leathery bat-like wings snapped out from the mass, and the small creature stood to its feet, ready to serve its master.

Calling itself Yattering, the demonic imp showed its willingness (if somewhat reluctantly) to serve its new master. Upstairs Boots heard his allies coming home, and he immediately dismissed the imp... for now.

A Narrow Escape

June 16, 3430, Age of Kings

After narrowly escaping a horrendous encounter with an acid breathing dragon by winding their way through a narrow cave tunnel, the party returned to the kobolds' lair. Momentarily they could hear the enraged roars of the dragon behind them, but it was soon replaced by that barks and screeches of hoards of kobolds in pursuit.

They fled through the winding corridor back to the ruined smelting chamber and up the immense, winding stone staircase. Once at the top they were relieved to find their rope still in its place on the oil-slicked ramp, which they all hurried up as the sounds of kobolds echoed all around.

They quickly moved into the Great Forge Hall to make their way to the stairs up to the first level. Just as they ran past the Great Forge a set of doors ahead of them swung open and a small group of kobold warriors jumped out, accompanied by two sentries mounted on disease-ridden giant rats.  Simultaneously another, larger group poured out of the doors to the south-west.

Concentrating on the kobolds blocking their path, the party managed to fight their way through, pressing on towards the stairs. Broak slowly fell behind as he tried to beat back the oncoming wave of kobolds to give his allies more time to escape. Audrey, still severely wounded from her encounter with the dragon downed a healing potion—most of which she wound up spilling on herself.

After felling several kobolds, reinforcements continued to stream from the south-west corridor and as Ander and Audrey made their way up the stairs. Seeing Broak greatly outnumbered, Grabby stood by the dwarf's side to help him fall back. Broak then decided he needed to bolster his efforts. After a quick discussion about player knowledge, Broak quaffed his potion labeled "Dragon's Breath." He stood blocking the entrance to the stairs and mercilessly crushed kobolds with his hammer, Dwarven Despair, and spewed fire from his mouth (singeing his beard hair a bit) causing sever kobolds to fall to the ground engulfed in flames.

As Grabby and Broak ran to join their allies, Ander tossed caltrops on the stairs to impede the kobolds' progress. Between the caltrops and a fire-breathing, enraged dwarf, the kobolds backed off, knowing they had another force already waiting for them in the next chamber—led by their chief.

The party quickly moved through the chambers with the statues of Moradin and other dwarves then through the corridor that opened to the Great Hall. They burst through the doors to find the kobold chief and his elite guards (all mounted on giant rates) and a retinue of warriors, as well as a robed kobold who stood close to the chief.

Knowing the only way out was through the group of kobolds, the party charged forward, using the pillars and well for cover as they moved up. Audrey and Broak off to the right while Ander and Grabby moved up the left flank, meeting the kobold force in the middle. A fierce melee ensued, with Ander trying to make his way toward the chief and Grabby finding himself in sufficient cover to deliver a killing blow from the shadows on an unsuspecting kobold going after Ander.

Ander managed to weave his way past the pillars, stowing his bow and drawing his gleaming, razor-sharp dual scimitars, he dove into the fray with a searing ferocity... and missed, and missed, and missed again, turn after turn he was an elvish whirling dervish of failure. Seeing his elvish friend not faring well, Grabby moved into flank the chief and his guards, eventually the two of them managed to bring them down. With the kobold chief lying in a heap on the floor, Grabby decided to throw caution to the wind and leap on the back of the chief's rat-mount.

Amidst the din of battle, a great crashing of stone and wood could be heard from beyond the doors to the west, and the bellowing of the enraged dragon followed—he had come down the lift room (from where the party was attacked by the bats). 

Meanwhile, Broak and Audrey stood side-by-side defending their position from the onslaught, but while Ander was rolling miss after miss, I was rolling critical hit after critical hit. First Broak fell from a well-placed spear thrust from one of the warriors, and despite drinking another healing potion given to her by Broak just moments earlier (most of which she also seemed to spill on herself) she was also cut down by a kobold's spear.

After seeing their chief brought down, many of the remaining kobolds darted back into their tunnels to escape, while a couple remained fighting, but were quickly dispatched by Grabby and Ander after Grabby realized he couldn't control the rat he decided it was best to drive a dagger into the beast's brain.

The kobolds slain or retreated, Ander and Grabby rushed in to help rouse their unconscious allies, with the sound of the dragon drawing ever closer down the corridor. Once everyone was on their feet, Ander ran to the doors to set his warhammer through the door handles in attempt to slow down the beast.

Just as the party was leaving the Great Hall, the group looked over their shoulders to see the doors from the west corridor explode into a shower of splinters and buckled iron as the dragon smashed its way through, stick it head through and roar in fury.

The group rushed up the long staircase with Ander falling back slightly to unleash arrows should the dragon make its way to the stairs before they could reach the safety of the surface. Once at the top of the stairs they found the trap door to the surface held fast (if you recall, the entry only appeard in moonlight, it happened to be about 8:30 in the morning now). Broak put his weight into it, and while it was heavy, he felt the door had some give to it. With Audrey helping (and Grabby standing nearby unable to help), Broak put his back into the door and it began to move, spilling earth and stone on them as they pushed with all their might.

Soon the dragon stuck its head into the stairway, roared, and began charging up towards the party with Ander firing off arrows as he moved up the stairs.

All eyes were fixed on the charging dragon that filled up the stairway as Audrey and Broak continued to force the door open, until at last a stream of morning light started to break through and they could smell the fresh air. With one final heave, they pushed the door opened and leapt out, quickly followed by Ander and Grabby with the dragon close behind them. Although the opening would be too small for the dragon to fit through, they didn't take any chances and pushed the pile of earth and stone into the opening to seal it off.

After taking a moment to catch their breath they found a smoldering camp fire, and a cart laden with gear, tipped over, still roped to a horse who lay dying on its side, ripped open by a pair of immense claws. They also found the remains of the other guard that Boots had come with: reduced to a pile of melted organs  and exposed bone, only his forearms, lower legs and the top of his head were recognizable, an obvious victim of the dragon. Seeing nothing of value that could help them in the cart, they quickly moved on knowing the dragon would most likely be coming to the surface exact his revenge.

The party moved on quickly but cautiously, staying in cover until night fall. Occasionally they stopped and hid when they heard the ominous roar of the dragon echoing of the mountains, and on a few occasions saw it soaring overhead, searching.

With night upon them they set about making camp (with no fire, of course).

*   *   *

All of the characters will be at level three where they get to select their class' path, and Boots should be back in the mix.

Okay...

Next week for sure...