Book 1: Burnt Offerings

Friday, May 31, 2013 @ Debbie & Barney’s

Day 7:

After leading a goblin coup, the party spent the night in the warchief’s old chambers, safe from interruption and harm. There were two stairways leading into the lower levels of Thistletop, and the party selected the one more centrally located. The stairway opened into a rectangular room with several exits. The party heard what seemed like crying behind one of the doors, and decided to investigate.

The crying was coming from several cages lined up along the walls of the room, containing goblin babies. The party was suspicious of this arrangement, but Gogmurt assured them that it was merely a nursery consistent with the goblin parenting style.

The party then heard grunting and female giggling behind one of the other doors. The party guessed that this was some sort of a harem, and the appropriate course of action would be to open the door, push Mackintosh into the room, and slam the door behind him. As it turns out, this strategy was effective, as Mackintosh easily killed Bruthazmus, the bugbear who had been enjoying some goblin concubines with no clue of his impending demise. Mackintosh’s first strike cleaved him nearly in half, reducing him from 47 to 1 hp with a critical blow from his oversized greatsword. His second strike finished the job effortlessly as Bruthazmus reached for his heavy flail. The goblin wives shrieked in fear and cowered before the gruesome display. The party delivered the concubines to their rightful master, Gogmurt, the new chief of Thistletop, who solemnly accepted responsibility for comforting them. In his bedroom.

The next area the party explored was a series of bedchambers. Listening carefully, they heard the sound of a weapon being sharpened. Nymeria opened the door, and an armored warrior asked “Who the hell are you?” Mackintosh burst into the room, and took a blow from the armored warrior’s bastard sword. The fight went downhill for the warrior from there. He was beaten and bloodied, and during the fight he was loudly complaining about how he hates his job and that he was quitting. As Wanga grappled and pinned him, he was subdued without inflicting any more harm, his declaration of intent to quit turned into formal surrender. He identified himself as Orik Vancaskerkin, and expressed concern only for the welfare of Lyrie, a wizard elsewhere in the complex, and the only thing he really cares about, even though she was more interested in Tsuto. The party revealed they had not harmed Lyrie, and relieved Orik of his belongings, which he did not seem to miss. Orik also provided information about the layout of this level of Thistletop, and assured the party that he was merely a mercenary, and had no loyalty to Nualia and had little knowledge or interest in the things she was doing here. He desired to beg Lyrie to give herself up, and he accompanied the party.

The party continued exploring the residents’ bedchambers, but found little of value. Tsuto’s chambers had some more notes about a Sandpoint invasion, Lyrie’s chambers contained an everburning torch, Bruthazmus’ room had a pile of uneaten bird feet, and Nualia’s chambers contained a fancy bed and a little-used desk.

Before the party continued exploring, Orik warned the party of some monster dogs that guarded the chapel. The party exercised caution, but through a stroke of bad luck, were observed sneaking past. The monster dogs, known as yeth hounds, were on high alert, and swiftly attacked.

One of the hounds immediately let out a terrifying supernatural howl, its Bay ability, which caused Nymeria and Wanga’s allosaurus companion Tini to flee in panic, and which would have certainly announced the party’s presence to everyone around. Nymeria fled east down an unexplored hallway toward a vine-covered opening above a sheer drop over the ocean. Tini fled south back toward the sleeping chambers, taking refuge in Nualia’s room. Combat ensued between the yeth hounds and the party, the hounds flying just above the ground. The hounds did little damage, except one of the did critically bite Lisanji, bringing her low. Orik chased after Nymeria, catching up to her at the cliffside opening. Mackintosh dealt killing blows to both of the hounds, dispatching them before they could cause any more significant harm, but the implications of their fearful baying would soon be known.

Before the party had a chance to regroup, a wizard appeared from the northern section, and stepped past Echo, who honored Orik’s wishes by declining to interfere, and into the hallway that Nymeria had fled down. The party tried to talk to Lyrie, telling her that they were with Orik, and that he was trying to protect her. Her response: “What? I don’t care about him.” At the same time, two tentamorts came out of a side cavern to investigate the disturbance. Lyrie began casting a spell, which Oz identified as fireball. The party realized with dread that they were tightly packed into the chapel such that they would all be caught in the blast. Flames filled the room, and Mackintosh and Lisanji lost consciousness, and Echo was disabled. With her single action, Echo channeled positive energy, bringing herself and Lisanji to positive hit points, but Mackintosh was still down. Hildabrandt cast truestrike in preparation for taking vengeance against Lyrie, Oz moved to block the northern hall, and Wanga blocked the southern hall. Echo also restored Mackintosh to health with a spell, and Lisanji quaffed a potion to heal up some more.

One of the tentamorts went down the hallway toward Lyrie, but its attacks failed. The other tentamort went toward Orik and Nymeria. Orik, instead of shoving Nymeria out the cliffside opening, managed to calm her down, assuring her that the fearsome hounds were dead and gone. Lyrie cast invisibility and shoved past Oz to get back to the room to the north from whence she came. Hildabrandt, unable to see Lyrie, used her truestrike on the tentamort that had been attacking Lyrie, dealing a solid blow, and the other tentamort threatened consecutive critical hits on Nymeria, but failed to confirm them, but did deal some constitution damage through its poison. Orik borrowed a hand axe from Nymeria and helped her against the tentamort, sustaining significant damage in the process.

Oz pursued Lyrie to the north and cast some damaging spells into various squares of the room, but Lyrie’s total concealment spared her from its effect. Lyrie began casting a spell, which was identified as sleep, becoming momentarily visible. Wanga pursued Lyrie into the room, blocking the other door, and managed to grapple her. Lyrie maintained her concentration, putting Wanga to sleep, and followed that up with mirror image, which did not last long against the party’s attacks.

Hildabrandt finished off the first tentamort, and proceeded to go after the second one that had Orik near death (WORST DAY EVER), and Nymeria fighting bravely on. Hildabrandt dealt the killing blow to the second tentamort, leaving only the wizard that was uninjured, but outnumbered and fleeing for her life.

Lyrie stepped west through the door, closed it, and began casting yet another spell, grease. Meanwhile, others opened the door in pursuit, used acrobatics to corner her in the hall between two rooms. Ultimately, Lyrie tried casting another spell, shatter, but Mackintosh and Nymeria cut her down before she could complete it. A search of the premises revealed all of her treasure, including a ring of protection, a cloak of resistance, a wand of magic missile, several scrolls, and her spellbook.

TL;DR: The party cleared dungeon level 1 of Thistletop, defeating two fighters and a wizard, and collecting their gear. They left Orik Vancaskerkin alive, and he showed himself to be a reliable, if temporary and unfortunate, ally. Because of the howling of the yeth hounds in the chapel, whatever lives on the lower level is likely to be aware of the party’s presence, so be careful proceeding. Party gets to advance to level 4 before finishing Thistletop.

Treasure gained dungeon level 1 of Thistletop:

+1 banded mail (medium)
+1 ring of protection
+1 cloak of resistance
masterwork cold iron bastardsword
masterwork cold iron heavy flail
masterwork composite longbow (+5 STR bonus)
masterwork composite longbow (+3 STR bonus)
scroll of see invisibility
scroll of sleep
scroll of whispering wind
wand of magic missile (CL 3) (38 charges)
everburning torch (x2)
350gp
Spellbook containing:
3 – daylight, darkvision (communal), dispel magic, fireball, shrink item, wind wall,
2 – invisibility, mirror image, shatter, locate object, minor image, see invisibility, spider climb
1 – burning hands, comprehend languages, detect secret doors, floating disk, grease, identify, mage armor, obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement, sleep
0 – acid splash, detect magic, mending, prestidigitation, ray of frost, read magic, spark

Level 2 of Thistletop remains, but the party earned enough experience to reach level 4.