The Iron Principalities, Session 20

Just a quick write-up for this week.

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 5
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 5
Jaeger, Human Fighter 5
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 5
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 5 (NPC'd for this session)
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 5
Lakka Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 5

When we last left our heroes, they were watching three giant "barnacles" on the ceiling of a ruined, alien temple dilate open and start to release something into the room. 

"Whoa, what's that?" Came a voice at Lasair's elbow.  Turning, she saw Lakka, her third cousin twice removed on her mother's side, standing there.  Questioned as to his arrival, Lakka could only shrug.  [DM's Note: We had another player join us this week and he'd coincidentally given his elf rogue the same last name as our pre-existing elf rogue.  I rolled with it.]

The "barnacles" released their contents - three floating horrors, like beaked brains trailing jellyfish tendrils, into the room.  These were soon identified by the party as Grell - extradimensional monsters driven by an uncontrollable hunger.  Having eaten the brains of the cultists that had accidentally summoned them, the Grell had encysted themselves on the ceiling to await fresh food - i.e., the PCs. 

Kholark launched himself on top of the nearest Grell, while Lakka and Mivahl were quickly paralyzed by stinging tentacles.  Shrugging off the paralysis, Mivahl delivered a Shocking Grasp to the Grell that had attacked him, only to learn that these creatures were immune to electrical damage.  Regardless, the party soon made short work of the creatures, varnishing the floor of the temple with their blue-gray ichor. 

Searching the rest of the temple, they soon figured out that it was dedicated to a minor avatar of Yog-Sothoth, the Key and the Gate, Alpha and Omega, The Guardian of All that Is, Was and Will Be Again.  This piqued Dormammu's interest, given that he derives his warlock powers from pacts made with the Great Old Ones, and renewed his desire to see what was in the sealed box they'd found. 

What someone with the Eye might look like.

Breaking the seal, they found a roughly spherical, cut into facets resembling an insect's eye.  The sphere, in the light, scintillated in all the colors of the normal visual spectrum and three other colors that the party had never seen before nor had names for.  Mivahl recognized it as the Eye of Rhynn - an ancient and powerful artifact, literally an eye torn from the face of a Lesser Outer God vigintillions of years ago and cast into the multiverse, forever to be sought and fought over by wizards, said to bring power to any willing to tear out their own left eye and replace it with the Eye. 

No sooner had Mivahl explained the provenance of the Eye, then Dormammu was thrusting the Eye and a dagger into Sylvus' hands, urging him to cut out Dormammu's left eye. 

With his original eye removed and the Eye inserted, Dormammu got the unsettling experience of feeling the Eye rerouting blood vessels and nerve endings to nourish and support itself.  He soon realized he needed an eyepatch - he could only see out of one eye or the other at a time without experiencing overwhelming vertigo and disorientation, as the Eye does not see the in the same spectrum he's used to, instead presenting his brain with a thermal image of what's in front of him.  As his body attuned to the Eye, he got a sense of what it could do - X-ray vision for a cumulative two minutes per day with concentration, the ability to determine if someone is acting under magical compulsion, resistance to psychic attacks, and most excitingly, an ability to, once per week, fire an optic blast that mimicked a Cone of Cold spell.  On the down-side, that half of Dormammu's face is now a spiderweb of varicose veins radiating out from the eye-socket. 

The rest of the party's journey to the Groaning Keep passed uneventfully, and after burning away some Assassin Vines, entered without difficulty.  The party spread out, investigating the castle courtyard, where the remains of the skeletons they had defeated on their last visit still lay moldering on the ashen soil. 

Lakka and Jaeger entered one of the side-buildings lining the north wall of the courtyard, and soon stumbled directly into one of the undead knights of the Groaning Keep.  The knight swung its rusting longsword at Jaeger and then grabbed his face with a bony claw, its necrotic grip burning a handprint into Jaeger's skin. 

The Iron Principalities, Session 19

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 5
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4 (NPC'd for this session)
Jaeger, Human Fighter 5
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4 (NPC'd for this session)
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

When we last left our heroes, they were faced with a pair of Hill Giant "toll collectors," demanding every coin the party had in order to be allowed to cross the desert.  Fooled by Dormammu, the giants agreed to let the party pass.  Thirty feet down the road, the party turned around and decimated the giants; Dormammu took a thrown boulder to the chest but other than that the party took little damage and Lasair dealt the finishing blow to both giants with her bow.  The cowhide sacks tied to the giants' belts held a LOT of treasure, which the party helped themselves to.  

Two days of uneventful travel later, Sylvus accidentally led the party into a nest of vipers - specifically, thirty-foot long serpents with venom-dripping heads at either end of their bodies.  No tail, just more venom.  Sylvus was envenomed and knocked out almost immediately, and recurved fangs sank into Jaeger's arm as he tried to pull the druid to safety.  

Dormammu held back to pepper the snakes with Eldritch Blasts and Flora cast healing spells while the rest of the party raced into combat.  The party was in real danger as dose after dose of venom was pumped into everyone in the fight.  Lasair's arrows snuffed out two of the vile reptiles, while Kholark crushed the third under repeated blows from his flail.  

The rest of the trip to the city of Molekh was uneventful; upon arriving, the party was greeted warmly with a feast of roasted wildebeest in their honor; Kholark and the Khan wound up dueling with roasted haunches, a duel that almost ended in Kholark being knocked unconscious.  The following morning, the party were inducted as honorary hobgoblins and granted the right to wear the ironshod boots of the hobgoblins.  They were also given a pair of nine-foot-long mammoth tusks as payment for retrieving the enchanted lance known as the Empyreal Vengeance.

Paid and satisfied, the party set out for the Groaning Keep, intent on avenging their past embarassment at the hand of the undead knights that infest the Keep.

Halfway there, with night falling, the party found a green stone ruin, half-buried in the sand. A quick preliminary investigation revealed splashes of long-dried blood and the scattered remains of purple-robed skeletons - one of which had managed to scrawl "Gods forgive us" in blood before dying.  Every skull had the same injury, like a seven-pointed star punched out of the bone.  The party decided to camp well outside the ruin.

In the morning, the party quickly realized that Dormammu had slipped out of camp during the night.  They found him inside the ruin - a ruined temple, they quickly realized - attempting to figure out how to open the altar, claiming to have detected powerful magics within.  The party looked uneasily at the skeletons scattered around and at the Kali-like idol behind the altar.  The trick to opening the altar was soon found, and inside - an enormous pile of gold and silver coins, assorted jewels...and a small iron casket, like a snuff box, its lid sealed shut with lead.  As Dormammu pried at the lid, Lasair took another look around - and noticed the trio of fleshy, barnacle-like things, each the size of a wine butt, hanging from the domed ceiling of the temple.  As she watched in horror, one of the barnacles began to dilate open, its contents beginning to slither out with a wet sucking noise.  

The Iron Principalities, Session 18

First things first, I am king of the idiots.  I had pulled the folder containing everyone's character sheets from my backpack between sessions 17 and 18 to look up something in one character's inventory, and then failed to put the folder back into my pack.  Thus, I showed up for Session 18 without anyone's character sheets; given that it would have been a half-hour of everyone else's time wasted for me to drive home, get them, and return to the store, we elected to free-form this shit. 

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 5
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4
Jaeger, Human Fighter 5
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

With the Demogorgon cult extinguished, the party celebrated by feasting on Bawss Hawg, slow-roasted in honor of Kholark's victory over the giant pig, and Kholark himself received all four of Hawg's tusks as a trophy.  Jaeger took Lord Vesper's ornamental saber and broke it, creating the new sign for Cor's new Broken Blade Inn, on which construction soon began. 

In the morning, there was the issue of the Red Brotherhood to address.  While a number of the mercenaries had been slain in the fierce fighting the day before, there were still more of them then there were town guards.  With officers and NCOs sequestered in the dungeons under the castle and the rank and file disarmed and placed under guard in a makeshift prison camp, Ariska the Red Witch (now the de facto ruler of the town by popular opinion, supported by the sheriff Edras and bailiff Borut) asked the PCs their ideas regarding what be done with the Brotherhood.  Turning them loose would just result in there being a large camp of brigands just outside of Craghold, it was swiftly realized. 

Interviewing the prisoners was a lengthy process, but turned up some interesting information; Sir Dorian had begun approaching his officers about joining the Demogorgon cult, suggesting it to them as means of greater personal power and of swifter advancement within the Brotherhood.  Additionally, a percentage of the rank and file had come to the conclusion that they didn't need to hold any sense of loyalty to a dead commander, and were willing to hang up their red cloaks and join the City Guard of Craghold. 

Turning this information and their own suggestions over to Ariska, the party was a little shocked when she coldly called for the officers as a whole, and any soldiers who refused to join the City Guard, to be hanged outside of town.  Reasoning that if they were set free and became brigands, they would have to be hanged anyways, Ariska decided that it was the solution that best fit the safety of Craghold. 

With that out of the way, the party took advantage of the discount the town was offering them for being heroes to get some shopping done.  Mivahl purchased a morningstar to replace the flail he'd given to Kholark, and Jaeger, Dormammu and Sylvus found the local leatherworker to get some new leather armor made.  The tanner, a half-orc named Elgar, made an immediate impression - gruff, perfectionist, a craftsman who took pride in his work and expected his customers to take pride in what they bought from him.  Sylvus was nearly thrown out of the store for walking in wearing a dirty, badly-tanned wolfhide, and Elgar gave Jaeger a bit of an education on the realities of boiled leather as an armor in response to being shown Jaeger's sketches of what he wanted.  Appreciating a customer who knew what he was after, however, Elgar went through the sketches and explained what he could do to give Jaeger what he wanted - leather armor that would allow for increased flexibility and range of motion in combat without sacrificing protection.  Mollified, Elgar even agreed to produce a new, better quality wolf-hat for Sylvus. 

Waiting on production of the armor and taking care of the issue of the Red Brotherhood kept the party in town for a week after the death of Lord Vesper.  Finally setting out for Molekh on the 23rd of Rainmont, the first day of travel through the mountains proved easy until they neared the border of the desert; waiting for them at the end of the road was a pair of Hill Giants. 

"Toll collectors!" one of them bellowed.  "Gotta pay da toll ta cross da desert.  Toll is every coin and shiny jewel ya got!"

"Yeah!" the other chimed in.  "Give us yer cash, or yer heads we will, uhhhh," he squinted at the script written on his palm, "Smash! Yeah!"

"We already paid," Dormammu bluffed, sending the giants into a huddle of confusion.  Jaeger and Mivahl, eyeing the bulging and jingling sacks tied to the giants' belts, recognizing that even if they got past the giants unscathed via deception, the giants would continue to prey on others.  Kholark had his hand on his flail, ready to crack some heads (even if those heads were fifteen feet off the ground).  Lasair whispered to Mivahl and Jaeger that she'd follow their lead. 

The Iron Principalities, Session 17

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4
Jaeger, Human Fighter 4
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 4
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

When we last left our heroes, Cor was working with a cordon of guards - both regular town militia and the elite soldiers of the Red Brotherhood - to secure a perimeter around the House of Pavel, now known to be the lair of diabolical cultists.  Paired with a Brotherhood soldier named Desrick, a large, placid-looking man, Cor found in him an appreciative admirer.  Unfortunately, a pyrotechnic blast from one of the windows of the House of Pavel caused Desrick to say, "Well, there's the signal.  I'm sorry to have to do this..." drawing his short-sword.

The rest of the group was inside, where they discovered - they thought - Lady Erzebeta about to sacrifice one of her step-daughters to the Demogorgon as Sir Dorian, commander of the Red Brotherhood, looked on expectantly.  An arrow from Lasair dispelled the illusion, and Sir Dorian (not an illusion) ordered the two guards present (also not an illusion) to attack.

Dormammu's entrance was cut short as he passed the threshold and a pair of crossbow bolts struck him - the real Julia and Wanda, Lord Vesper's teenage daughters, were using a pair of raised choir boxes in this desecrated temple to turn the floor below into a shooting gallery.  He fell, but was soon back on his feet thanks to Flora.  Sylvus, still in wolf form, charged Sir Dorian, as did Kholark.

As the battle raged, it occurred to the party - "Where did Vesper go?" His half-elven eyes piercing the gloom of the balcony between the two heads of the Demogorgon painted on the wall, Dormammu saw Lord Vesper and Lady Erzebeta watching the battle with glee.  He called out his discovery to the party.

Stepping into the flickering carmine light, Vesper announced, "Did you not suspect that a Cult of the Demogorgon would itself have TWO HEADS? All would have been fine if you'd just done as you were supposed to and killed that troublesome Red Witch.  Ah well.  Take my secrets to your graves."

He cast Cloudkill on the party, including the still-living Sir Dorian and his men.

Before too much damage could be done by the poisonous cloud, Flora cracked the Elemental Gem of Air that the Red Witch had given her, directing the summoned Air Elemental to funnel the poison gas out of the room and back up towards the balcony.

Flora then caught sight of a towering, unholy creature shambling towards her through the thinning fog, and screamed - but either an arrow from Lasair or an Eldritch Blast from Dormammu [DM's Note: I honestly forget which, and nobody sent me notes this week] shattered Erzebeta's concentration, revealing the creature to be an illusionary Phantasmal Killer.

Jaeger had the Air Elemental throw him at the balcony, but failed to catch the railing, falling 20 feet on to a descending staircase below.  With Sir Dorian and his men dealt with, Kholark raced to those same stairs, and together he and Jaeger found a way up to the balcony, while the Air Elemental simply floated up.  Lady Erzebeta was thrown thirty feet horizontally out from the balcony, while Lord Vesper took a pounding from whispy, unseen fists.  Kholark smashed his flail down on Vesper again and again, and Jaeger, seeing the old man clinging to the barest threads of life, picked him up and PILE-DRIVERED HIM OFF THE BALCONY.

Seeing their father and step-mother (and fellow cultists) dead, Wanda and Julia opted to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, much to Lasair's dismay.

Meanwhile, Cor killed Desrick with his dagger and quarterstaff, and looting the body, retrieved some gold and a platinum ring that was too small for Desrick's fingers.  He quickly identified it as a Ring of Protection.  

The death of Vesper caused the mouths of the painted Demogorgon to open and bellow in stereo "NOOOOOOOOOOOO!" temporarily deafening Mivahl and Kholark.  The sonic boom also blew out all the windows, causing enough confusion outside for the town guard to overpower the Red Brotherhood and bring them to heel.

Searching Lord Vesper's body, Jaeger came away with an elaborate cloak pin of gold and obsidian - identifiable as a Scarab of Protection.  He also claimed Sir Dorian's single-edged, basket-hilted sword for himself.

That night's scheduled pig-roast proved far more celebratory than originally planned, as the city celebrated the removal of the Demogorgon Cult.  Ariska the Red Witch was called upon to replace Lord Vesper as the ruler of Craghold.

In the morning, a delegation of Hobgoblins arrived, asking for the group.  Zerin, their former companion turned leader of New Dawn, had informed Borgai, Khan of the Hobgoblins, of the party's successful capture of the lance known as the Empyrean Vengeance.  The leader of the delegation demanded that the party turn the lance over to him to deliver to Borgai, which Mivahl gladly did.  With a bow, the hobgoblins withdrew, riding back into the desert from whence they came.

With that, Cor announced his retirement from adventuring, settling in to run an inn and decode the iron-bound Book of Skelos.  The remainder of the party, giving a fresh ear to rumors, decided on their next course of action - they would return to the city of Molekh to claim their reward from Borgai Khan for finding the lance, and then turn their attention back to the Groaning Keep, eager to avenge themselves on the undead knights contained therein.

The Iron Principalities, Session 16

Dramatis Personae:

Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4

Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4

Jaeger, Human Fighter 4

Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4

Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4

Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 4 (out for this session)

Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4

Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

Stormsday, the 16th of Rainmont.  

The PCs awaken to learn that following Kholark's victory over Bawss Hawg the previous night, the porcine behemoth was given a final keg of beer, washed down and shoved into a smoker.  He'll be ready to eat this evening, at two gold a plate.  They resolve to get a few plates that evening, along with the remainder of Dormammu's medication.

Firming up their plans for the day, they head to the castle to try and sell Lord Vesper on their plan to "bless" his chambers.  Instead, they find the castle in disarray, and their presence called for - Lady Erzebeta has disappeared at some point during the night, and appears to have taken all three of Vesper's children (his daughters Wanda and Julia from his first marriage, and his son by Erzebeta) with her.  Fearing that the rumors of Erzebeta being a sorceress are true, Vesper begs the PCs to find her - and asks to accompany them to help rescue his children.  

Searching Lady Erzebeta's chambers turned up a vial of powdered Devil's Foot Root, confirming her as the murderer of Lady Talia, two years prior.  Similarly, a wavy black dagger, seemingly dropped in haste, was found next to Wanda's bed.  

Cor cast Identify on the teleportation circle in the chimney (something Vesper had been unaware of) and determined the magic words to activate it.  Intoning the words, the group (minus Cor, who agreed to join a cordon surrounding the target site) jumped through, finding themselves on a stone platform with a fountain in the center of it, seemingly in the middle of a forest, with paths leading off to the north and south.  Closer examination, however, determined that the "sky" above was enchanted ceiling, and that this "forest" was in fact growing inside a building.  

"I know this place," Vesper said, "This is the house of Count Pavel.  It's stood empty for two years; he was a loyal retainer of mine, falling to a troll-thrown spear while fighting orcish marauders two years ago.  An empty house on the edge of town...this must be where the cult has been meeting. Tread cautiously; no doubt the bitch has summoned up things to defend from us."

As if on cue, a pair of shadowy, demonic shapes detached themselves from the darkened forest and attacked, their insubstantial claws tearing at the psyches of the PCs; every successful hit forcing them to recall painful childhood memories.  Kholark recalled being laughed at by the other children as they chanted "Fang face, fang face, fang face!" at him, and Sylvus relived his mother drunkenly telling him he was a mistake.  

In the heat of battle, Kholark's flail broke, the chain snapping and sending the ball flying, while Vesper accidentally threw his sword at one of the fiends.  

Handing off his flail to the barbarian, Mivahl summoned the Empyreal Vengeance, the magic lance they'd found in the dwarven crypts beneath New Dawn, which proved much more effective against the creatures.  As Mivahl drove the lance deep into the chest of one of the fiends, bloody skeletal hands erupted from the floor to drag it, struggling and screeching, down into the Abyss - confirming Mivahl's decision that he didn't really want to keep this weapon for himself.  Jaeger drew his flintlock pistol and fired, putting a lead slug through the head of the second demon, vaporizing it.  

Before they had a chance to catch their breath, a scream rang out.  "That's Wanda!" Vesper gasped. Jaeger leaped on to Sylvus (in Dire Wolf form)'s back and they took off running up the path, with Jaeger just barely throwing himself off before Sylvus impacted the giant oak double-doors the path terminated at.  Sylvus had hoped to go straight through the door, but it was too sturdy.

Throwing open the doors, the PCs were greeted with a nightmare scene, hellishly lit by two smoldering braziers; a once-proud chapel of the Unconquered Sun, now defaced with obscene murals, including one of a two-headed, baboon-faced fiend leering down; an altar on a raised dais, where Lady Erzebeta, naked save for a golden tiara, held a knife high, ready to plunge it into the heart of Wanda, bound naked on the altar, with Julia bound (and the baby in a basket) nearby.  Sir Dorian, commander of the Red Brotherhood, looked on gloatingly, while a pair of Brotherhood soldiers stood guard.  

Lasair loosed an arrow, hitting Erzebeta in the chest; the sorceress and the three sacrifices disappeared instantly, while Sir Dorian and his men smiled and drew their swords.

[DM's Note: Initially, Dormammu had declared that he was using Prestidigitation to extinguish the two braziers, plunging the opponents  - all human - into darkness.  We are retconing this because the braziers were not within range of the spell.]

The Iron Principalities, Session 15

The last paragraph of last week's write-up caused a bit of consternation among my players, who had missed Jaeger's player mentioning it to me as we'd packed up for the night.  This spawned a great deal of discussion over the course of the week, and my biggest take-away was that, with eight players at the table, A) I'm not always hearing everyone clearly and B) in-character and out-of-character speech at the table is not always being clearly defined, and comments made at the table are being taken as being in-character and acted upon when they were not meant as such.  So this week I instituted a simple rule - each player was issued a playing card.  When speaking out of character, the card must be held up and be visible.  Otherwise, whatever they said was to be taken as their character saying it.

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4 (out for this session)
Jaeger, Human Fighter 4
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 4
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

Wiseday, the 15th of Rainmont.

Mivahl is stunned in the morning, waking up to Jaeger throwing his old unit badge at him.  "I can tell when I'm not wanted," Jaegar growled, "And this group doesn't want me." Mivahl called an emergency meeting of the group over breakfast at the Golden Boar.  Jaeger laid out why he felt unwanted, despite Mivahl having vouched for him, and the rest of the group explained their attitudes and reasonings.  A lot of air was cleared, Jaeger was welcomed as a member of the adventuring party without reservations, and to celebrate the former bounty hunter bought the group breakfast. 

The party spent the day in preparation - Cor, to read the strange enchanted scrolls found in the dwarven tomb beneath New Dawn once the full moon rose and revealed their concealed text; Kholark, to wrestle the porcine behemoth known as Bawss Hawg behind the Drunkatorium; Jaeger purchased the tools and materials necessary to assemble a breaching charge of the sort he and Mivahl used to use in blowing open wizard hide-outs; and Lasair drew up plans to meet with Ariska, the Red Witch, that evening at the Drunkatorium. 

That night, Kholark threw his gold piece in the bucket and took his shirt off, downing three beers and allowing the dwarven barmaids to slather him in grease to wrestle Bawss Hawg.  Hawg, likewise, was fed a pony keg's worth of ale and greased up.  Wading into the sty with a bellowing call upon the strength of Bormo, Kholark slammed into the giant pig, grappling the greased grunter.  The sinews standing out on Kholark's arms like steel cables, he heaved the half-ton hog over his head and slammed the mighty beast down into the mud and filth, throwing himself atop it.  Holding the squealing monster down in its own semi-liquid waste, Kholark strained to keep Bawss Hawg pinned.  A count of five was announced, and Kholark stood victorious. 

When Kholark seized the bucket of gold that was his due, the bartender yelled, "Wait just a minute!" and hauled up two additional buckets - three years' worth of entry fees from contenders who had tried and failed.  Kholark had won 376 gold pieces, while the party members who had bet upon his victory each walked away with 200 gold. 

As the moon rose, Cor unfurled the scrolls, watching with glee as the silvery runic script unveiled itself under the moon's rays.  One scroll revealed a map, a section of the Worldsfang Mountains, far to the north, an X marking "The City of the First Masons, Where Fell the Hammers of the Gods."

The second scroll revealed a dire warning from Magister Eckhardt, the dwarf whose tomb had contained the scrolls:

May the gods have mercy on me in my weakness, that I feared to burn this map and the information it contains.  Long have I pondered whether to destroy the information within or to release it to the world.  In my weakness I have done neither, allowing indecision to rule.  I am the last of my clan; when I am gone, perhaps this damning sheet of vellum will go with me.  Let none seek what the map shows; let that first, hateful secret of the dwarves be left buried for all eternity. 

Cor's eyes lit up.  This sounded like treasure!

Meanwhile, in the Drunkatorium, Flora received a letter from Ariska, asking her to come - alone - to the back room.  There, Ariska beckoned Flora be seated after closing the door behind her.  "I am fat, drunk and old," Ariska said, throwing back her hood to reveal a heavyset human woman, her hair still mostly coppery, in her mid-50s.  "I'm neither blind, nor stupid, though I suspect your companions may mistake me for such.  They could have tried to keep their story straight from bar to bar."

Ariska explained to Flora that Talia, Vesper's first wife, was no simple case of illness; she'd come to realize - too late - that Talia was being repeatedly dosed with an extremely rare poison - Devil's Foot Root - likely in the form of fumes off a burning source.  She suspects Erzebeta, Vesper's current wife, as the poisoner, but confessed she's unsure how involved Vesper was in the plot - he was away, fighting orcs, when Talia fell ill.  According to Ariska, whatever the cult or coven operating around Craghold was, it had corrupted the psyche of the region; the bizarrely aggressive dogs and wolves were a symptom of this corruption. 

Welcoming the aid of the party in addressing this threat, Ariska gave Flora a polished oval of quartz, explaining that it was an Elemental Gem of Air; breaking it would release an Air Elemental that would serve her for one minute. She also gave her the first dose of a potion that would help with Dormammu's veneral disease; he would need to take a dose a day, for a full week, to clear up his problem, and she'd bring the remaining doses with her to the Golden Boar tomorrow. 

Returning to the Golden Boar (and with Mivahl asking Lasair to join him for a moonlit scroll later), the party went over what they knew and planned their next move.  It was proposed returning to the Whore's Arse to try and get some information out of Borut, the castle bailiff, since the party - especially Kholark - already had a good rapport with him.  Lasair was annoyed that Mivahl was welching on their walk to return to the Whore's Arse with Kholark, and took her annoyance out on Dormammu, who was trying to talk up a barmaid, informing her of Dormammu's unfortunate disease and ordering him back to his room. 

At the Whore's Arse, Kholark, Mivahl, Cor and Jaeger sat down with drinks with Borut.  Asking him about the Sheriff, Edras, Borut declared his boss a good man who was doing a hard job to the best of his abilities and ran a tight ship.  Seeing a nearby guardsman puking, the party proposed carrying the man back to the barracks to sober up.  Borut, deep in his cups, agreed.

At the barracks, Jaeger perused a series of maps of guard patrol routes and various written orders, finding everything above board.  On their way back to the Golden Boar, Mivahl picked a flower, hoping it would in some measure make up for standing up Lasair. 

Reassembled, the party came up with a plan.  Under the guise of concern for Lord Vesper's health and safety, Flora would "bless" the lord's chambers, and Lasair would check on the well-being of his daughters.  They would use this opportunity to further investigate the teleportation circle and see if they could at least copy the runes for translation, to see if they could figure out where it went.  They considered trying to activate it, but feared where it might take them. 

A plan in place, the party retired for the night. 

The Iron Principalities, Session 14

This was an odd session.  I went in with almost literally no notes, no real plan of how the session would go, and trusted to my own skill and my players' creativity to make things happen.  And happen they did.

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4
Jager, Human Fighter 4
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4 (out for this session)
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 4
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

Picking up where we left off, the party split in two; Kholark, Flora and Dormammu went to the Drunkatorium to see if the Red Witch they are seeking ever comes and drinks there, while Jager, Cor, Lasair and Sylvus paid a visit to the Fang and Flagon.

The Drunkatorium proved to be almost a "light" version of the nightmare dive bar known as the Whore's Arse, where much of the party has been spending their evening since their return to Craghold, and also largely a demihuman bar - most of the clientele were half-orcs, half-elves and dwarves.  Speaking with the bartender, Kholark learned that the Red Witch would be at the Drunkatorium tomorrow, the 15th of Rainmont, as per her usual schedule.  The bartender also encouraged Kholark to meet "Bawss Hawg" - an enormous, four-tusked pig in a sty out back.  Put a gold coin in the bucket, the bartender explained, and take your chance trying to pin the well-greased (and drunk) Hawg.  Pin the pig for a five-count and win all the gold in the bucket.  No one in the three years Bawss Hawg has been wrestling has managed to pin the monstrous boar.  Tomorrow night was wrestling night, the bartender said, and Kholark enthusiastically agreed to be there to face down the Hawg.

At the Fang and Flagon, they learned that the Red Witch would likely be there tonight, and that at last count, Roz, the half-orc prostitute from the Whore's Arse, had left 11 corpses in her wake from disease and broken pelvises alone.

Exiting the Drunkatorium, Lasair headed to the castle.  Jager, meanwhile, decided he wanted more information on the wolf attacks that the town had been suffering, and made his way to the north-west gate to ask the guards there for more information.  Zeroing in on an ordinary guardsmen (not one of the mercenaries of the Red Brotherhood), Jager began barking orders, berating the man for the supposed state of his equipment, and leading the man to believe he'd been sent on a surprise inspection from the Sheriff.

Unfortunately, Jager decided to mention that if the guard wanted a better review, he better cough up some coin.  Recognizing the ruse, the guard swung his halberd at Jager; in response, Jager tried to do a flashy move while drawing his flintlock, but fumbled the roll and shot himself in the leg.

Panicking, Cor cast Hold Person on Jager while Sylvus wildshaped into a mastiff and, grabbing Cor by the collar, ran off carrying him (as the townsfolk began screaming about werewolves and a mad dog snatching a child).  Paralyzed by magic, Jager was easily taken into custody by the guards, stripped of his armor and weapons and thrown into a cell in the watchtower.

Meanwhile, Lasair gave some basic self-defense lessons to Lord Vesper's daughters, Wanda and Julia.  Satisfied with their progress, Lasair took her leave and, raising the hood on her Cloak of Elvenkind, began to explore the castle, following her nose in search of the same whiff of infernality she'd smelled before.  Her keen elven senses led her straight to the private quarters of Lord Vesper and Lady Erzebeta.  Listening at the door, Lasair heard a pair of chamber maids arguing over whose turn it was to empty the chamber pots, and she slunk into the shadows to await their exit.

Once the maids were gone, Lasair let herself into the chambers and began her search, turning over the room carefully for evidence of foul doings - she still suspected Lady Erzebeta of being the demon summoner.  She found nothing until she chanced to look inside the fireplace - and discovered a series of runes and sigils inscribed on the bricks inside the flue.  Unsure what they said or were for, she quickly made her exit.

Kholark, Dormammu and Flora soon made contact with Cor (now riding Sylvus, still in dog-form, through the town), and learned of Jager's imprisonment.  Debating what to do about that, they settled on going to see about having him freed, and offering to pay for Jager's bail (a simple matter of 55 gold) out of Jager's own pocket.

Reconvening and sharing what they'd learned, the party decided to return to the Fang and Flagon to await the Red Witch.  Instead, they were met by a magically-delivered letter, addressed to the individuals who had been so indelicately asking after her at every bar in town.

The Red Witch - Ariska being her given name - explains that, given the current situation in Craghold, with her being technically banished but remaining nonetheless, she must assume that the individuals seeking her are looking to arrest her or worse.  If that is not the case, she would be willing to deal with them, but will require them to meet her at the Drunkatorium, unarmored and unarmed, tomorrow night to do so.

Lasair quickly penned a response, advising Ariska that they wanted to hear her side of the story of how Vesper's first wife died.

With nothing else to do for the evening, Dormammu sent his imp, Francis P. Mordo, to investigate the inscription inside Lord Vesper's chimney.  Looking through the imp's eyes, Dormammu was able to identify the inscription as being the main part of a teleportation circle, permanently keyed to a single location.  Anyone standing inside the fireplace and saying a trigger phrase would be instantly teleported to this other specified location.  The party debated whether the existence of this teleportation circle was a sign of nefariousness on Lord Vesper or Lady Erzebeta's part, or simply an arcane bolthole created by a paranoid warlord who'd come to power via coup in the first place.

Later, at the Golden Boar, Jager paced his room, angry.  He'd heard the way the rest of the group had spoken about him, how they didn't consider him a member of the team.  Hadn't Mivahl vouched for him? Hadn't he fought that strange, steel-feathered bird by their side? Hadn't he given Cor his freedom on the way to Craghold, and carried Dormammu out of the Whore's Arse when he was dead-drunk? They had accepted Flora into the party without question or hesitation, but if after all this, he was still an outsider? Perhaps he'd never be welcomed.  He took of his badge, the sign of rank and service he'd shared with Mivahl.  Looking at it for a moment, he tossed it angrily on the bed.

The Iron Principalities, Session 13

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4
Jager, Human Fighter 4
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 4
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 4
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 4
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

Moonsday, the 13th of Rainmont.

After the events of the previous night, Cor sat down with the two mysterious enchanted "blank" scrolls they had discovered in the dwarven catacombs under the Golden Castle.  Casting Identify on the first, he discovered a simple enchantment that rendered the text written on the scroll invisible except under the light of the full moon.  Consulting his star-charts, he sees that the full moon is two days' hence, on the 15th.  The second scroll bears the same enchantment, as well as a secondary spell - casting Dispel Magic to remove the ink-disguising dweomer would trigger an Explosive Runes, destroying the vellum scroll before it could be read.  Cor decides to wait until the full moon to read these scrolls and see what is hidden behind these spells.

This taken care of, the party descends into the burned out ruins of the Broken Blade Inn, curious to see if the tunnel and accompanying dungeon crawl they had observed, but not investigated, on their last visit [DM's Note: 9 sessions ago!] was still extant.  They found that it was, and that a small formerly-sealed crypt was down there, a tomb of some knight of Law, buried 300 years ago.  It was likely then that the tomb had been forgotten long before it had been built over, and had no real connection (other than spatial) to the Broken Blade.  Inside, they found that the sepulcher itself had been recently broken into, and arcane residue suggested that a magic item of not-inconsiderable power, some sort of item of protection, had lain here until very recently.  Untouched, curiously, was a stone chest filled with coins as well as a carved ivory drinking horn, inlaid with malachite and moonstones.  The party helped themselves to the contents, though Flora decided on donating her share to the Church of Law in Craghold.

Emerging from the rubble, the party was met by a messenger from the castle, informing them that Lord Vesper was requesting their presence at dinner that night.  Deciding they needed better than their adventuring clothes for this, and suspecting a trap, the party went to the local general store, where the proprietor, a dwarf named Slambo Stumphammer, as happy to help outfit them.  Cor bought a spare spell component pouch, some antitoxin, and a wide, blue conical hat with arcane symbols stitched in gold and set with a crazy amount of rhinestones; Lasair bought a dagger in a thigh-sheath and a nice dress, though most of the party ultimately decided to go in their clothes from the hobgoblin fete they had attended.

At dinner, the PCs and Lord Vesper were joined by Vesper's wife, Lady Erzebeta; his two daughters from his previous marriage, Wanda and Julia; Sir Dorian Hawkwood, commander of the mercenary company known as the Red Brotherhood; Brothers Bertram and Ambrose, clerics of the Church of the Everlasting Sun; and Sir Edras, the town sheriff, as well as Borut, the bailiff (whom the PCs already knew).  Over an excellent meal, Lord Vesper quizzed the PCs on their experience hunting witches and what they planned to do about whatever they found in town.  He was suitably impressed as Mivahl and Jager described their old exploits as part of a commando team sent out after rogue spellcasters.  Also over dinner, the party learned that there were no dogs left in Craghold - some unknown force over the past six months drove dogs and wolves mad, like rabies without the foaming, and Vesper had been forced to issue an edict calling for the destruction of all canines, even his beloved hunting hounds.  Sir Dorian's men were often called upon to perform wolf culls in the forest north of Craghold as packs of blood-maddened wolves would come down and start attacking outlying farms.

After dinner, Vesper brought the male PCs up to the ramparts for brandy and cigars, while Flora and Lasair followed Lady Erzebeta, Wanda and Julia for "needlepoint" - i.e., more wine and gossip.  Both groups swiftly learned that the rumors of Lady Erzebeta's demonic consortship stem from the fact that Vesper had been carrying on a poorly-disguised affair with her while married to his previous wife, and married Erzebeta swiftly after his first wife had died of a mysterious illness about two years ago.  Wanda and Julia have more or less accepted Erzebeta, if not as a step-mother, then at least as their father's wife.

Both Vesper and Erzebeta proposed that a woman known as the Red Witch, a flame-haired middle-aged woman who had long been the villagers' source for cures for baldness, warts, impotence, constipation, etc., may be the one summoning demons; Vesper had banished her and made dealings with her illegal after she had failed to successfully treat his first wife's illness.  If she was still lurking around, perhaps she is the source of these summonings.

Dinner concluded, the party decided their best course of action to find the Red Witch was to talk to the people who might still be using her services.  They headed back to the seedy tavern known as the Whore's Arse for clues.

Jager struck up a conversation with Roz, a splay-legged half-orc prostitute whom Dormammu was renewing his business relationship with, asking her how she protected herself from disease-carrying customers such as Dormammu.  He learns that the Red Witch comes in to drink at the Whore's Arse on Bridesdays, and should be there in four days' time as per her usual.

Meanwhile, Mivahl targeted Melvin, a schlubby balding guy hunching over his beer at the bar. This proved a mistake, as Melvin launched into an entire saga of his life's misfortunes and failures: "I had my first midlife crisis at 11; I was a real pessimistic kid. Y'know, I really just came in here tonight hoping to find a woman who'd drank her standards low enough to go to bed with me."

Seeing Mivahl's trouble as an opportunity to have some fun, Jager paid Roz to "go over and take care of my friend over there." Roz sauntered over, spun Mivahl around on his bar stool and slammed his back against the bar.  "Looking for a good time, stud?" she growled.  All Mivahl can see are the blisters lining her lips.  "N-no," he squeaks, "But my friend Melvin here is," redirecting Roz's attention to the schlub still droning on about his failures as a living creature.  Roz took him right there on the bar stool as Mivahl beat a hasty retreat.

Cor orders a shot of Father Jack's Unstoppable Pissup, the local favorite that's like a 50-50 blend of Everclear and codeine cough syrup, and after signing a waiver, drinks it down.  He narrowly makes it to outhouses in time before the liquor starts kicking everything Cor has ever had inside him out.

Meanwhile, at the more upscale tavern The Golden Boar, Lasair attempts a different approach; she discreetly inquires where she might acquire a "little blue potion" for a male friend of hers having trouble with his "man-servant." The barmaid, throwing a glance at some nearby off-duty guardsmen, whispers back that the Red Witch drinks at the Golden Boar on Stormsdays, and should be there in three days' time as per her usual.

Justday, the 14th of Rainmont

Reconvening (and pulling Dormammu off the chalk outline erroneously drawn around him in the Whore's Arse), the party discussed what they'd learned, debating whether to wait to meet the Red Witch at one of the establishments they already know she frequents, or whether to see if she's also a regular at the other two surviving taverns in town, the Fang and Flagon and the Drunkatorium.  The party decides to split up and case both remaining establishments today in search of the Red Witch.

The Iron Principalities, Session 12

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 4
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 4
Jager, Human Fighter 4 (Replacing Zerin)
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4
Mara, Human Cleric 3
Flora, Half-Elf Cleric 3 (Replacing Mara)
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 4

Just after dawn, a posse of five men rode into town, most of them rough-hewn, hard-bitten men with steel loose in their scabbards; the fifth a poncey git with waxed mustache and van dyke, ostrich-feathered hat and slashed silk doublet.  The ponce, identifying himself as Sir Bosch, demanding the surrender of "the criminal gnome," producing a wanted poster from the town of Craghold, declaring a bounty on Cor for "arson, manslaughter, attempted regicide and insurance fraud." It was explained that the Broken Blade, the inn Cor bought for a song in Craghold, burned down right after he left town, which looked very suspicious.  The fact that Cor had invited Lord Vesper to stay at the inn shortly before this had the Lord, already paranoid, very suspicious of the gnome's intentions.

The party refused to turn over Cor, and when Sir Bosch was killed for refusing to stand down, three of his four henchmen just shrugged his shoulders and left.  The fourth, it's revealed, is Jager, who had formerly fought under Mivahl's command up north and whose life Mivahl had saved once, years before. 

like this, but with beefy arms and stork legs.

With Zerin and Mara staying behind to administer to the town of New Dawn, Jager was invited to join the party as they went to Craghold to demand answers.  The three day trip was uneventful, save for picking up Flora, another cleric of Mishakal, and an encounter with a strange, man-sized bird-monster, with shining steel feathers and beak and a pair of big, muscular human arms, ending in weapons instead of hands.  The bird was no match for the party, and they quickly dispatched it, with Lasair's arrow to the brain ending the abomination's life.  They took a number of feathers - primarily long flight feathers from the wings, but Cor took several tail feathers as well - for future study. 

Arriving in Craghold, Jager and Kholark negotiated with Borut, the town bailiff, for the bounty, arguing that the wanted poster just listed bringing the gnome to Borut for the reward.  Borut assented, and handed a bag containing 500 golden suns to Kholark. 

When Cor demanded the opportunity to prove his innocence, it was announced that he would face Trial by Drama; a team of prosecuting actors would put on a play depicting their version of Cor's actions, and then the party would put on a play in Cor's defense.  Innocence would be decided by audience reaction.  Taking a full day to prepare, the party's various spellcasters prepared various illusion spells to make their case more compelling while debating which details to include and whether or not to try and pin the arson on the inn's former owner, Tetra, as well as how much of what they knew about their being a demon in the basement of the Broken Blade to mention. 

Cor was deeply offended by the prosecution's performance; from casting a human achondroplasic dwarf to play him to suggesting that the arson was performed as an outlet for the gnome's deep-seated sexual frustration, Cor seethed through the entire performance.  [DM's Note: I actually got down on my knees and performed a bit of the "Winter of our Discontent" soliloquy from Shakespeare's Richard III to play the prosecution's portrayal of Cor.  ACTING!]

Putting on their rebuttal, the party told a tale of fighting a demon in the basement of the Broken Blade, believing it slain, and it returning to torch the inn out of spite after they left before pursuing them, and that they finally laid the demon to permanent rest in New Dawn.  With an illusion spell cast over Kholark to portray the demon and narration by Dormammu, the party swung the crowd in their favor, eking out a ruling of innocent for Cor. 

Recognizing that Lord Vesper was not happy with this and was itching to hang someone for some crime, the party offers their services as witch-hunters; since someone must have summoned the demon the Craghold.  Given that rumors swirl throughout the principalities that Lord Vesper's wife consorts with demons, and fearing that a cult-cell similar to the one they rooted out in New Dawn may be at play in Craghold, the party wants to get to the bottom of this and managed to bargain Vesper into agreeing to pay 500 gold for the delivery of a witch. 

The Iron Principalities, Session 11

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 4
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 3
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 4
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 4
Mara, Human Cleric 3
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 3

Following the memorial service led by Mara, a number of the villagers at the town formerly known as Rodrigosburgh, but now rechristened "New Dawn," approached Mara asking for more information about the worship of Mishakal, and to ask her to take over the Cathedral at New Dawn, making it a site holy to Mishakal.  The townsfolk were very upset to hear that the cathedral had been promised to the Cult of Bormo, arguing that a religion of drinking, wrestling and fornicating was not appropriate to raise their children in.  The adventurers ultimately agreed with the town's reasoning, and it was decided to consecrate the cathedral to Mishakal, adding a shrine to Bormo to the Triumphant Hare, the inn now owned by Cor. 

The party decided to investigate the dwarven catacombs under the Golden Castle again, in search of the hidden treasure chamber the demon had held over them as a bribe.  They found the chamber, behind a trick wall.  Opening the doorway, they found a short hallway leading to another door; Mivahl, entering, stepped on a pressure plate.  Glass plates, two inches thick, slammed down, sealing half the party into the short hallway and half the party outside. A nozzle opened in the ceiling, long-still gears whirring to life. 

Unwilling to wait to be dosed with poison gas, Cor cast Shatter, blasting the glass plates to splinters and destroying the reservoir in the ceiling above - resulting in the long-dormant Black Pudding contained in the ceiling above pouring down on them all at once, rather than being sprayed at them in a pressurized stream. 

The vast blob of inky blackness poured down, spilling over Mivahl as he tried to block its descent with his shield.  The party attacked the slithering shadow pooling around their ankles, with the Pudding splitting twice, forming three attacking slimes - once divided by Zerin's sword, and once by a lightning spell cast by Cor.  The Puddings flailed out with pseudopods but failed again and again to connect, while the party pounded on them with blunt weapons and non-electrical spells.  Ultimately, the Pudding was beaten into so much lifeless slime. 

Beyond the second door, the party found wealth beyond anything the demon had hinted at - 470 platinum pieces, 500 electrum pieces, 1,000 gold pieces, 3,900 silver pieces, and 9,500 copper pieces, as well as a Cloak of Elvenkind and a Brooch of Shielding.  Lasair took the Cloak and one of the casters [I want to say Dormammu, but I honestly forget at the moment as there was a lot of debate over who should have it] took the Brooch.  Ultimately, the party took only a small amount of money for themselves, deciding to devote the remainder of the cash to making improvements to the town of New Dawn. 

The next day, Anoroc, last priest of Bormo, arrived in New Dawn, riding a wagon drawn by his trusty bear companion Jaroslav, carrying the ceremonial items of Bormoism, including his ceremonial head-gear -- the dwarven equivalent of a baseball cap with cup-holders on the side.  He also had the Book of Bormo, a scrap-book of weightlifting advice, protein shake recipes, brewing tips and softcore dwarven pornography.  It's not every holy book that has a centerfold, but the Book of Bormo does - an image of a chainmail bikini-clad dwarf woman bench-pressing a zebra. 

Once Anoroc was situated, the party took stock of their situation and debated their next move.  They decided to return to Craghold to see how Cor's first inn was doing, then zig-zag up the Maw to Molekh to treat with the Great Khan about hanging on to the lance Empyreal Vengeance for the time being, and then try their luck again with the undead knights of the Groaning Keep.  From there they will head west, where Mivahl wants to challenge Duke Beldor to a joust - the Duke having a long-standing offer to name the first challenger to unseat him as his heir.  Once that is addressed, they will head south-west to investigate claims of an ancient road of enormous stone blocks, all carved like dragon scales, half-sunk in the slimy waters of the Dismal Swamp. 

The Iron Principalities, Session 10

This was one of the most emotionally intense sessions I've ever run, of any RPG ever.  Players reported afterwards that their hands were shaking during play.

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 3
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 3
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 3
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 3
Mara, Human Cleric 3
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3 (out for the session)
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 3

Picking up where we left off last week, Kholark and Hobgoblin Recruit #1 (honestly, I forget the names I gave them) pretty handily wiped the floor with Magro, the commander of the guard at the Golden Castle, and Generic Castle Guard #14, though Magro left some serious bruises on Kholark.

As Zerin explained to Count Rodrigo the flaws in his delusional belief that he's the deposed heir to

Glabrezu by VegasMike

the Empire and the failures of his military stratagem, a spearblade erupted from Rodrigo's chest, and then the unthinkable - Rodrigo's body, spurting gore, twisted inside-out like high-speed footage of a blossoming flower of raw, bloody meat.  Behind him manifested a 12-foot, four-armed demon, the Glabrezu that the party has known was manipulating events at the Golden Castle and the associated village of Rodrigosburgh (which hadn't been named until this session).  In its hands, the enchanted lance known as the Empyreal Vengeance.

The horror of watching Rodrigo's body turn inside out blasted the minds of everyone watching - Kholark, Mivahl, Mara took off running, their psyches savaged.  The two hobgoblin recruits' heads exploded like in SCANNERS, as did a number of the assembled townsfolk.  A fairly large number.

Scraping the remnants of Rodrigo off the lance, the demon boomed, "He was of no further use to me. The question now is, will you vagabonds serve my purposes? You have eliminated my agents here, and awoken this unwitting dupe to my manipulations. Shall I simply kill you? You were kind enough to desecrate the dwarven catacombs and allow me entrance to find the Vengeance for myself. Let none say that Ygo-Ythorr, Puppetmaster of the Seventh Tier, is without gratitude. This, I offer to you; your lives and freedom, plus the accumulated wealth of the dead dwarves below. An entire hidden room of buried treasure. All this will I give to thee, if you will just bend the knee to Ygo-Ythorr."

A swipe of the demon's claw dropped Zerin to the ground, bleeding and unconscious, while a Power Word: Stun put Dormammu out of commission.  Cor and Sylvus swiftly dropped to their knees.

Transferring the lance to the crook of an elbow, Ygo-Ythorr stalked forward.  "I know you're in there," he smirked at Dormammu, "Will you serve?"

Moving on, the demon picked Cor up off the ground, licking a taloned fingertip and carving a symbol into the gnome's forehead, marking him.  Mivahl took this opportunity to grab the lance from the demon and stab the fiend in the side, but was seized and crushed in one of Ygo-Ythorr's claws, dropping the lance as he lost consciousness. Kholark grabbed the fallen lance and drove the point into the demon's wounded flank as Mara began firing off healing spells.  Conscious and recovered, Zerin charged in, laying a Divine Smite across the demon's back.  Shrugging off the stun, Dormammu began throwing Eldritch Blasts, while Cor, back on the ground, began casting Magic Missiles into the fiend's chest.

Ygo-Ythorr lashed out again and again with his giant claws, sending Mivahl and Zerin flying, and punched Cor in the face with one of its slender, clawed hands.  Surrounded, however, the flurry of attacks being directed at him (especially once Kholark flew into a frenzy) began to wear the demon down, and finally, Kholark drove the lance deep into the fiend's side - a shockwave shook the entire battlefield, and the demon's already lifeless body was thrown back 70 feet, impacting a cottage and blasting it to matchsticks. Cor took off running with unprecedented gnomish speed, undoing his belt as he ran; he managed to clamber on top of Ygo-Ythorr's rapidly-sublimating corpse and drop a victory deuce on the demon before it completely evaporated. 

In the aftermath of the battle, the party healed up and took stock; 180 townsfolk were dead, plus Count Rodrigo.  Mara was the closest thing the town had to a local priest.  The cathedral had never been consecrated in the first place.

While Kholark rested (he had gained two levels of exhaustion from frenzying), the rest of the party led efforts to bury the dead and comfort the survivors.  Deciding to bring in Anoroc to consecrate the cathedral to Bormo, Dormammu sent Francis to deliver the invitation.  Delighted, Anoroc set out on his way to Rodrigosburgh, despite a heavy thunderstorm rolling into the region.

Zerin took some time with a local carpenter, Tavish, crafting wooden holy symbols representing Bormo, Mara's goddess Mishakal, and his own deity, Fharlanghn.  Zerin inquired about Tavish's religious beliefs, and those of the community.  He finds the local population to be more spiritual than religious, offering prayers to agricultural deities and having some vague inclination towards the Church of Law (which is akin to the Catholic Church in my setting, widespread and the official religion of the large empire to the north)

Two days after the battle, Mara leads the surviving community in prayer, conducting a stirring, nondenominational memorial service to honor those who died.  Afterwards, Kholark stood up, and delivered a crude testimonial to how his worship of Bormo, god of bears, beards, drinking contests and manly wrestling, aided him in defeating the demon.  A few people in the assembled crowd nodded thoughtfully.

The Iron Principalities, Session 9

I think at this point the Iron Principalities game is the longest-running fantasy game I've run in something like five years, is three sessions away from tying for longest campaign I've run, period, in five years.  Whether it will surpass the Call of Cthulhu campaign I ran in college remains to be seen. 

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 3
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 3
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 3
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 3
Mara, Human Cleric 3
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 3

Resuming where we left off last week, the party entered a large, circular room and challenged the two animated suits of armor that guarded the only other doorway.  It was a slow, arduous fight for our heroes; blows that would have sundered armor and crushed limbs of a mortal foe seemed to glance off the enchanted suits of ancient dwarven plate that confronted them.  Finally, however, the party finished off the pair, with Zerin striking the killing blow on both of them.  The suits collapsing into pieces, Cor shoved as many pieces as he could into his Handy Haversack, filling it to capacity. 

Unlocking the other door, within they found a gigantic stone sarcophagus, laying on an even larger dais, the walls covered in intricate bas-relief carvings.  Sending Dormammu's imp, Francis P. Mordo, in to scout, Dormammu is able to read the inscriptions on the sarcophagus, identifying it as the final resting place of Magister Eckhardt, the Sword of Justice, Last of his Clan. 

Francis, acting on his own initiative, tried to lift the sarcophagus lid, wrenching his tiny spine in the process.  As the imp groaned, "My back!" one of the dwarven figures in the bas reliefs detached itself from the wall - a lumbering, 10-foot stone dwarf, lurching towards the imp, fists raised menacingly. 

Already tired and drained from fighting the armors, the party found themselves drawn into a fight against this guardian statue - all except Zerin, who stood back, arms crossed over his chest.  "The imp got himself into this, he can get himself out," he declared. 

The fight against the statue was even harder than the fight against the armors - blades and arrows bounced ineffectively off its stony exterior, though the flails wielded by Kholark and Mivahl were a bit more effective.  Eventually, however, they managed to wear the statue down and Sylvus, in wolf form, dealt the killing blow, chomping down and shivering the battered stone to splinters. 

"Untiring guardians" defeated, the party forced open the sarcophagus, expecting to find the magic lance, the Empyreal Vengeance, inside.  Instead, inside a series of successively-smaller, nesting sarcophagi, the party found the remains of Magister Eckhardt, a scroll case emanating magic clenched in his bony hands and a magical amulet around his neck.  The amulet, Lisair was able to determine, was connected to the statue they had just destroyed; the statue would guard the wearer as long as they wore the amulet. 

Inside the scroll case, they found two sheets of seemingly-blank vellum that radiated powerful magic. 

Recognizing that they'd explored only a fraction of the complex but needed to rest, the party returned to the surface, Lisair burgling the jewels and finery of the dwarven mummies they'd passed on their way in on her way out, netting - by her estimation - over 500 GP worth of jewelry.  Cor, examining the gold and platinum filigree and inset gems on the pieces of armor he'd taken, estimated their value at 500,000 GP.  He may be mistaken. 

Spending the night in the castle, in the morning, refreshed and ready to go, they first went to the cathedral, where Mara was able to determine the site had never been properly consecrated, but was not necessarily desecrated into unholy ground.  The acolyte priest tried to run when he saw them, but was swiftly captured and interrogated, revealing his and Father Markus' involvement in a demon cult broken into terrorist-style cells, working on missions across the land to further the overall goals of their unseen masters.  They turn the acolyte over to Count Rodrigo, who orders him placed in stocks, to be hanged tomorrow. 

Questioning Count Rodrigo to determine the depths of his delusional belief that he is the heir to the Empire to the north, Zerin decides to try and break Rodrigo of his delusions; he proposes a mock-duel, between Rodrigo's bellicose drill sergeant Magro and one of his men, and Kholark and one of Mivahl's hobgoblin charges.  If Kholark and the hobgoblin win, Zerin proposes, Count Rodrigo should give up his mad dream of ruling the Empire. 

The Iron Principalities, Session 8

So this week was interesting - I went in vastly underprepared compared to even the loosey-goosey way I normally run these Iron Principalities games, as I'd been prepping to run three sessions of Call of Cthulhu, back to back to back, this past Saturday at Queen City Conquest in Buffalo.

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 3
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 3
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 3
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 3
Mara, Human Cleric 2
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 3

When we last left our heroes, Zerin had his blade to the throat of the apparently-villainous priest Father Markus, while Sylvus had Count Rodrigo held and threatened.  Mivahl quickly sent the guards running with a threatening wave of his flail.

Knocked unconscious, Markus dropped a small red gem he'd palmed - which, when it shattered on the floor, released a towering entity of flame, a fire elemental eight or nine feet tall.  Zerin and Sylvus were on fire before they could react, while Kholark raged and charged the flaming entity and Cor blasted it with a casting of Tasha's Hideous Laughter.

Doubled over in hysterics, the elemental fell to the ground on top of the unconscious Father Markus.  The creature lashed out with fists of flame, igniting the clothing of Kholark as well.  Though it was a hard-won fight, the party eventually won over the creature, with Mivahl delivering the killing blow, his flail extinguishing the elemental like a candle in the wind.

Getting more details from Count Rodrigo (Dormammu cast Suggestion on him), the party learned that Father Markus, and an entity he served whom Count Rodrigo had only ever seen as balefully-glowing eyes in a darkened room, and flattered and toadied their way into Rodrigo's confidence, feeding his ego while encouraging him to take part in sinful rites.  With Father Markus gone and Dormammu's influence over him strengthening, Rodrigo agreed to return the body of the stone giant Petroikodromos to his brother, Lithotomos and pay the agreed upon price for the brothers' labor.

Unfortunately for the party, Rodrigo has no idea where the enchanted lance known as Empyreal Vengeance was, believing it to be no more than a legend.  He did admit, however, that the watchtower he'd claimed as his castle was built over an ancient dwarven ruin which had never, to his knowledge, been investigated.

Lithotomos, however, was able to provide aid, in the form of a small, mole-shaped Earth Elemental.  While incapable of understanding the finer details of the adventurers' questions, Mole was able to find where a trap door leading into the dwarven ruin had been mortared over and helped clear the way to getting it open.

Descending into the ruins, they determined that they dated back to the First Dwarven Empire, some 5,000 years old, but more recent graffiti - in the Common of two centuries back - claimed that a paladin known as Alaric the True buried "the Bloody Spear, Vengeance of the Gods" here, leaving behind "untiring guardians" to protect it.

Forcing open a door, they found themselves in a semi-circular room full of mummified dwarves, which, when they did not immediately animate, the party laid face-down to make it more difficult for them when they did, assumedly, animate on the party's way out of the dungeon.

Exploring further, they discovered a circular hallway with a number of doors leading outward, directing Mole to lead them in the direction of the nearest source of magic it can detect.  It leads them north, where a narrow hallway branched off from the broad, curving structure they'd been following.

Carefully examining the geometric designs on the walls, Dormammu was able to figure out that they formed a very strange map of the complex, a poem written in acrostics, the nouns marking where rooms are and verbs tracing hallways.  He can't read enough of it to determine the subject of the poem.

Going down the narrow hallway, opening the door at the far end revealed a 50-foot diameter circular room, a door at the leftmost point on the curving wall guarded by a pair of suits of ornate armor.  Experimentation quickly revealed that the armor was animated, and reacted to anyone entering the room.  Lasair was almost able to enter the room unchallenged by magically disguising herself as a dwarf in matching armor, wearing a family crest copied off the door the armor is guarding - but unfortunately, one of the suits of armor seemed to see through her disguise.

We ended the session with the party debating if it was even possible to get past the suits of armor without fighting them, and concluding that, if they wanted to get through that door (and presumably, to the lance), combat was inevitable.

The Iron Principalities, Session 7

After a week off, we're back with D&D.

Dramatis Personae:
Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 3
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 3
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 3
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 3
Mara, Human Cleric 2
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 3
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 3
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 3

Arriving at the Golden Castle and its attached village, they discovered it to be misnamed; the "Castle" is a refurbished Imperial watch-tower of a style not built in 50 years, the village is a dirt-poor hamlet of goat-herders, and the town guards are all basically the Squeaky-Voiced Teen from The Simpsons, poorly trained and overwhelmed by their positions.  The only tavern in town, The Triumphant Hare, could offer only cots and blankets in the common room for the night, with it being a toss-up whether the ale or the vegetable broth was more watered down.  Only the Cathedral, built by the stone giants Lithotomos and Petroikodromos, is in any way impressive, though questionable in its own way - the holy symbol worn by the acolyte priest they talk to, and hanging on the building itself, they realize are displayed upside-down.

Undeterred, Cor talks to first the innkeep, Egil, and then his overbearing and shrewish wife, Endora,

about the possibility of partnering with them and investing in the Hare, to help support the anticipated growth the town is hoping to see due to the new cathedral.  While Cor's bargaining is ineffectual, Dormammu turns on the charm and leaves Endora red-faced, flustered and giggling, agreeing to the deal.

Asking around, the party quickly forms a pretty good image of Count Rodrigo - that he's a selfish, vainglorious man, eager to avoid personal danger while claiming the glory of those who don't flinch from it.

Calling on Francis, his imp familiar, Dormammu uses the tiny devil to spy out the Golden Castle, watching Count Rodrigo undress for bed (kinky...) and observing the Count's spiritual advisor, Father Markus, searching through books in the library.  Sylvus, meanwhile, has Wildshaped into a cat and snuck into the castle, being mistaken for one of the castle's rat-catchers, and listened stealthily at a door, hearing two male humans, and an unknown, grating, inhuman voice arguing.  The inhuman voice commands, "I don't care for your excuses, I want that lance! Find the Empyreal Vengeance and find it NOW!"

Father Markus

Francis gets nervous, because the entire second floor of the Castle smells like Demon, and not a wimpy Quasit or simpering Dretch, something big and powerful.

Reconvening, the party assembles and digests this information, coming to the conclusion that Father Markus is the power behind the throne, and wants the lance for some nefarious purpose.

Debating on a course of action, they finally agree to present themselves, in their guise of travelers and cartographers, to the Count, assess him and Father Markus firsthand, and figure out where to go from there.

In the morning, the group cleans up as best they can (Sylvus still looks like a crazed homeless person), and present themselves to the "court" of Count Rodrigo the Black.  The Count is sitting resplendent in a chair that, in the Principalities, counts as a throne, flanked on his right by Father Markus, and attended by four guardsmen.

Count Rodrigo, the Black

As the Count launched into a recounting of how he single-handedly slew the Stone Giant Petroikodromos, complete with wild thrashings of his rapier, they realized their assessment was correct.  And it dawned on Zerin, Mivahl and Sylvus (confirmed by whispered comments between them) that they could easily take down everyone in the room.

"NOW!" yelled Mivahl, raising his hand and summoning his flail to him; Zerin charged Father Markus, grabbing him by the collar with one hand and holding his sword to the old priest's throat, while Sylvus cast Hold Person on Count Rodrigo, transforming into a wolf to ensure that the petty despot didn't move a muscle.  One of the four guards panicked and fled the room, while the other three, spears raised, advanced cautiously on the group.

Meanwhile, Cor, Kholark, Lisair, Mara and Dormammu are just going, "Uh, what just happened?"

The Iron Principalities, Session 6

Dramatis Personae:

Kholark Sunderstone, Half-Orc Barbarian 2
Dormammu, Half-Elf Warlock 2
Zerin of Birdsall, Half-Elf Paladin 2
Mivahl Shimov, Human Fighter 2
Mara, Human Cleric 2
Cor, Rock Gnome Wizard 2
Lasair Lightfoot, Wood Elf Rogue 2
Sylvus Treeshroud, Wood Elf Druid 2

As the Gorgon emerged blinking into the sunlight on the far end of the arena, the adventurers swiftly arranged themselves, spread across the width of the arena to minimize the damage the creature could do.  Cor threw out a minor illusion of a goblin bouncing around in a red cape, hoping to distract and delay the creature.

The Gorgon proved to be grossly outmatched by the adventurers, especially once Dormammu cast “Dissonant Whispers” on it, causing it to run headlong into a wall.  Lasair finished the creature, burying an arrow to the fletching in the bull-like monster’s heart.  

The crowd of hobgoblins in the stands went wild, with Borgai Khan, Great Khan of All the Hobgoblins, declaring that the Gorgon was to be roasted and served to the adventurers at a feast in their honor.  Two enormous casks of ale were then rolled up on either side of the Khan, and with a jeweled mace, he knocked the bungs off both of them, sending sharp, bitter ale cascading into the arena over the adventurers.  

The feast was a wild affair – in addition to the Khan and the adventurers, present were various priests, sorcerers and advisors to the Khan, members of his immediate family, as well as Erdo and the soldiers under his command.  Kholark presented the Khan with a cask of whiskey from the Shrine of Bormo, and then the party really went wild.  The last thing Mivahl remembered before blacking out was Vekra, the hobgoblin warrior woman whose advances he’d previously rejected, suplexing him through a table.  

Standing up, Kholark challenged the Khan to a friendly wrestling match, which the Khan accepted by crushing a pewter goblet between his pecs.  The fight was brief but memorable, with Kholark quickly pinning Borgai Khan for a three-count. Helping the Khan back to his feet, and Borgai seized Kholark’s wrist, raised his arm, and declared Kholark a brother.  

In the morning, Mivahl woke up with two black eyes and a number of bite marks, to the sight of Vekra putting on his championship belt.  “I think I earn this last night, yeah?” she grunted lasciviously.  Nursing a massive hangover, the Khan summoned the adventurers before him with a proposal.

The Golden Castle, nestled amidst the peaks of the Mountains of the Moon, is built atop the crypt wherein is stored the Empyrean Vengeance, an enchanted lance, forged by spirits of violence and bloodshed, the children of a god of war so ancient that its name has been forgotten even to the memories of dragons.  The current ruler of the Golden Castle, Count Rodrigo the Black, is thus the current protector of the lance’s resting place.  If the adventurers will steal the Vengeance for Borgai Khan, they can ask any boon they like from him in return.  

The four-day journey to the Golden Castle is largely uneventful – two horse-sized scorpions fall quickly to the party, with Kholark taking a spearhead-sized stinger to the chest without flinching.  

A few hours from the Golden Castle, the party is accosted by a stone giant that identifies himself as Lithotomos.  Upon ascertaining that the party are not friends of Count Rodrigo, Lithotomos tells his tale of woe; his brother Petroikodromos and himself were hired by Rodrigo to build a massive cathedral, the finest in all the Principalities.  The task was completed, but when payment came due, Rodrigo refused to pay.  When Petroikodromos protested this, he was killed by Rodrigo’s men and hung over the city gates as a warning. 

Lithotomos asks the party if they will help him seek vengeance against Rodrigo for his betrayal of the brothers’ trust and the murder of Petroikodromos.  The party agrees, seeing in Lithotomos their opportunity to steal the Empyrean Vengeance.