We met up for our last session of the year at Olivia’s place in Green Lake. We ordered pizza from Turnpike. They ended up burning our first order so had to wait a little longer for them to bring us our pizza. We got a pepperoni pizza as well as a pizza with fake cheese for Lee.
We also had lots of snacks as usual. We had lots of bowls of various nuts and chips and even some skittles, Nick’s favorite. The hummus with pita is pretty hard to resist too.
We were awoken by the light of day which we hadn’t seen for four days. We made our way out of the tunnel to find a bridge crossing a river much like the broken down bridge we had crossed days ago. Beyond the bridge we could see four towers with orc archers atop each one and running towards us was Toothack the Pummeler riding on top of a giant dire boar. Toothack carried a Giant maul in one hand and a net in the other. Six more orcs were scattered between us and the keep beyond the towers.
We readied ourselves for battle. Melisandra cast a stinking cloud just on the other side of the bridge which blocked the sight of all but one of the orcs so they were unable to attack. They moved in closer to us to avoid the stinky cloud and attack. My first shot was at Toothack which hit him so hard, he fell off of the boar and onto his ass. The boar charged at Duggin and knocked him into the river. He made his way back to shore safely and avoided being caught in the fast moving current that led to a waterfall. After we took out one of the orc guards on top of one of the towers, I made my way up the tower to get combat advantage on the orcs below. After killing all the orcs, we had access to enter the keep. Before we proceeded any further, Adarray cut out the boar’s husks, tail, and belly.
We spotted a black dot in the sky that was hard to make out. Melisandra was barely able to make out what looked like a ship. A ship that might be used to travel between planes. We all shuddered at the thought of what it could be transporting.
In the morning, we were greeted by our friend Adarra, who had stayed behind to help heal dwarves in need.
We continued walking down the hallway and could hear dwarven voices. They spoke to us saying, “Whoever you are, be wary. The orcs lie in ambush ahead.” We proceeded down the hallway and could see two bowls of fire at the end of the hall with two orc arches behind it. I felt a large battle with orcs in our near future. Adarra blessed us all before we continued any farther. We heard dwarven chanting coming from a door on the right, the same dwarves that had spoken out to us before. 10 more orcs suddenly appeared, coming at us from all directions. Melisandra attempted a ray of frost but it fizzled and fell to the floor which froze causing anyone to stepped on it to slip. The chanting dwarves were listening to our fighting and cheering us on to victory.
We entered the room where the dwarves were huddled. They had the same chain tattoos as the fallen dwarves we had seen earlier. They were formed in a circle in the corner of the room performing a protection ritual. One of the dwarves spoke up and said, “Thank the Gods, we’ve been waiting for you, hand over the artifacts.” We all looked at each other in confusion. They too seemed confused by our puzzled looks so they introduced themselves as Gwendar, Duggin, Serka, and Rigden, the protectors of the pit. We figured they were talking about the pit which we had come across yesterday. We asked more about the pit and they explained a Stonefang Titan is imprisoned and would break free if the four artifacts are not recovered and placed into the colored circles surrounding the pit. They said the artifacts were pieces of the titan, a rib, an eye, a heart, and a hand. Serka held the rib and we were in possession of the hand. We would need to recover the other two artifacts from the orcs.
I did some cooking this week. I prepared an enchilada casserole the night before and baked it in Kelly’s oven so it was nice and fresh. I prepared an individual portion in a ramekin without cheese for Lee. Everyone seemed to love it. I think they all went for seconds, including myself. I’ve been wanting to make this recipe on Jults & Jollie’s blog for Green Chile Chicken Enchilada Casserole. I was a little hesitant at first when I saw the cream of chicken soup in the ingredient list. I’m half Mexican and it’s definitely not your traditional enchilada recipe. But, I went ahead and made it anyway. I added some of my mom’s green chile to the recipe and it turned out pretty tasty.
Besides that we had our usual before dinner snacks. A cheese plate, tortilla chips and salsa, grapes, nuts, and puffed veggie sticks.
After spending another night in the mountain, we got up and continued to walk and walk some more. The tunnel was much longer than I had imagined. We had a few more after shocks from the earthquake that caused some of us to fall to the ground.
We came across a door propped open by a dead female dwarf. It looked to be a secret door. Winston found a pair of greaves on the body of the dead dwarf. Melisandra peeked around the door to find several more dead bodies littering the floor. The dead dwarves had tattoos of chains all across their bodies including their hands and face. We didn’t recognize the markings but thought they could be followers of Torog.
We decided to investigate the secret room. It was very dark except for a bit of light coming from beneath the door at the end of the hallway. We heard some low grunting noises coming from the other side of the door. One was lower than the other. Rhed hurled himself at the door, breaking it down. We found 4 orcs and 2 bears on the other side. The was a stairway on the other side of the bears that went down about 80 feet. While attacking one of the orcs, Winston’s sword flew out of his hand and landed in Rhed’s side. Rhed shot Winston a dirty look but kept fighting. The bears were tough and strong. They dealt some good damage. Rhed got the idea to pull out the stone to take control of one of the bears. He successfully took control and ordered the bear to attack the other bear. The control didn’t last very long but it was helpful. After the bears were dead, Draven skinned one for its pelt. We recovered 60 gold and an elven silver ring with emeralds. Continue reading
Last weekend we met at Nick’s place. I was the only one who showed up in costume to celebrate halloween a little early and for a few brownie points. I had on my leather pants, shirt and boots with a brownish/green robe. I even brought a homemade bow (made by Mark) and arrows. If I had more time, I would have made the arrows myself too.
We celebrated Dusty (Rhed)’s bday. I got him a new set of red/black dice which seemed to work pretty well for him that night. I brought some root beer, sesame sticks, and peanuts to share. For the main course, we had BBQ’d hot dogs with Macrina buns provided by Olivia. We didn’t let the rain stop us from BBQ’ing. Dusty brought a couple of apple desserts, an apple crisp and an apple pie. Unfortunately I only had room to try one and went with the apple crisp which was delicious.
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We had a good rest with no interruptions since Melisandra cast an arcane lock on the door at the end of the hall. We decided to proceed through the door and up the stairs in hopes to find a way to open the door that leads to the other side of the mountain.
Rhed was first through the door and as soon as he walked into the hallway he heard a click as if a trap was just set off. Darts came flying out of some slilts in the wall to the left and Draven was hit by one. We hurried through the hallway to avoid getting hit by more darts. We all huddled at the end of the hallway which made a turn to the left. Rhed continued to lead us through and another trap was set off. A huge blade swung down from the ceiling which nicks Rhed in the arm. The blade stopped in the middle of the hallway and blocked us from going any further. Together, Rhed and Winston were able to lift the blade and Rhed grabbed one of his javelins and stuck it underneath the blade to hold it up so we could go through.
We spotted a couple of piles of steel laying in the middle of the hallway up ahead. As we got closer, we found they were actually steel cobra constructs which turned out to be very poisonous. Any hit from them seemed to release their venom so the fighters were suffering. Melisandra passed her amulet to Winston to give him poison resistance. After taking out the snakes we proceed down the hall and find a door labeled “Control Room” in Dwarven. Continue reading
So, we didn’t actually BBQ but Dusty brought in some shredded chicken soaked in BBQ sauce which simmered away in a slow cooker while we played. He also brought some pasta salad to go with it. We didn’t actually start eating the chicken until fairly late because most of us got full on all the goods Kelly kept bringing us as well as an over abundance of other snacks. She also offered a shot glass of some of the best maple syrup you can buy. I can honestly say I’ve never drank a shot of maple syrup before. It was some good stuff. We had more food than usual this session and I think we all got pretty stuffed.
I brought some cheese and crackers. Nick and Olivia also brought some tasty cheese, crackers and other snacks. We had licorice, chex mix, peanuts, chips, and hummus. Then Kelly went and made us some yummy potato skins and tater tots. Have I mentioned I love potatoes? Yeah, so my belly was happy. Lee brought some nice pear sake to wash down the snacks. We cleared off the food from the table and did some playing for a while before our stomachs could handle some bbq chicken sandwiches and pasta.
Before heading out, a woman came up to Draven and asked for a favor. She requested us to be a lookout for a sending stone belonging to her niece. She didn’t know where her niece was or if she was still alive. For some reason she was too afraid to use it. She offered to give us her sending stone to help us find the other one, but after much discussion, it was decided we would leave the sending stone with her so we could communicate with her if we find the other one.
About half way there we came across an abandoned outpost with two buildings. We didn’t find anything but some old tools. Beyond the buildings was a river with a bridge that was in pretty bad shape. I saw a huge shadow fly by but when I looked up I couldn’t see anything. Suddenly, two hippogryphs flew over us. Melisandra immediately cast a ray of ice at them and they fell to the ground, immobilized. Not long after the hippogryphs showed up, some giant archer fish started spitting at us from the river. They had such spitting power that I couldn’t get far enough away from them and soon I was bloodied. Rhed came to my aid and healed some of my wounds. It didn’t take long for us to take out the immobilized hippogryphs. I finished one off while Rhed finished off the other.
The ground rumbled. I shot my arrows at the fish from as far away as I could get while the guys got up close to swipe at them with their swords. Draven fell into the river and almost went down the waterfall while fighting one of the fish but was able to pull himself back to shore. We finally killed all 5 of them and continue on our way.
We entered the tunnel through the mountain. It was dark but luckily Rhed bought a torch that never goes out to light our way. Creatures hovered around some dwarf corpses on the ground and ate at their flesh and bones. We killed several stirges. Continue reading
As we were riding our horses towards Mortimer, we noticed a young man following behind us on a mule. We stopped to let him catch. He said “You guys don’t mind if I follow you to Thirsty Dragon do you?”. He introduced himself as Tarik. He seemed afraid of going alone and decided to follow us for protection. We told him it was ok with us.
A little further up the road we reached the Thirsty Dragon. It was a small town. There were dwarves wandering around and tents set up all around. A two story inn was on the right and some barracks were on the left. Everyone slowed down and looked our way when we rode into town. A man named Brenermeer road up to us on his horse to introduce himself and welcome us to the town. He said we were welcome to stay at the inn or pay him to pitch up a tent. We decided on the inn. Tarik talked us into having some drinks at the tavern. Some world famous bartender was serving up some special drink called “dragon’s bite”. I have to admit it was pretty tasty. It was an expensive drink, made with elven limes and dragon fire brandy.
While in the tavern we met Rangrim Glinshield, the owner. He bought us another bottle of dragon’s bite and tells us a story. He told us about a keep they had on the other side of the mountain that was overtaken by the Severed Eye Orcs so they had to leave hastily and left some of their own behind. He wants us to help them regain control of the keep and save their friends if any are still alive. If we do this for him, we would gain an ally which could be very helpful. The road to the keep goes through the mountain instead of over the pass as the other road does. Not many people know about this other route. The path is sealed and can only be opened from this side so the orcs cannot come through.
He told us a little about Mortimer. He said orcs won’t even go there. He described it as a “hive of scum and villains”. It’s full of monsters from other planes and indescribable horrors. He didn’t make it out to be a very pleasant place. We weren’t sure it was a place we should venture alone so Draven asked if the dwarves would be able to assist us and he agreed. Though most of the dwarves were currently in the Westernlands and wouldn’t be returning until they regained control of the keep.
We spent the night at the inn, each having our own rooms for a change.
