The once strangers were all invited to a dinner party party being held in the castle and gave chances for the party members to interact with each and other people at the party. After dinner, one of the Kings advisors comes and collects each member of the party for a meeting in the King's side chamber and as the party enters, they encounter a heated argument between the King and Prince Claren about the prince leaving the kingdom to travel and learn the ways of the giants. After what seemed like an eternity but probably lasted only five minutes the King storms out and the court wizard enters the chamber from a side room and the court wizard places a chest on the table and opens it. The chest contains a royally sealed scroll for everyone present and a pouch for everyone that contains 100g. The court wizard goes on to explain that the scrolls are your ticket to claim the final award when Prince Claren is safely escorted and the gold is for traveling expenses.
The party spends a good portion of the night getting to know each other over drinks and A'anri challenges Harl to an arm wrestling contest and no bets are taken but Helestina comments about them making fools out of themselves and going to pull a muscle before the journey even begins. The arm wrestle contest had a lot back and forth but in the end, A'anri won. After the contest, the party poured over maps to plan the route they were going to take on their travels.
The party eventually decides to travel south to Barcheluna and hire a ship to sail across the inner sea until land is reached, then travel the rest of the way on foot pending tactical uses of rivers and other modes of transportation as needed. As the party was about to head to their rooms for the night the court wizard entered the room again and engaged in a discussion of their route and explained that the route will take them to close to a Firetop Mountain and they castle have received alarming reports of people and animals being mutilated. The court wizard went on to explain that it sounds like the Warlock has somehow returned because twenty years ago the King and the his guard liberated Firetop Mountain, saved the surrounded villages and farms, and slew the Warlock which put an end to the wicked experiments taking place. The court wizard did not know who is behind these reports but highly doubts it is the original warlock. The party has a quick discussion and agrees to investigate Firetop Mountain and the villages as it is not out of the way. The party then took their leave of the court wizard and headed up to their rooms to sleep before they start their journey in the morning.
Harl could not sleep and unbeknownst to the rest of his new found friends and people as a hole, on his travels he picked up a ring that talks to him in an alluring female voice. It is a voice that has kept him company for a long time and has Harl's only consistent traveling companion. As Harl was drifting off to sleep, he notices a strange pale women in the room and has he lunges for the spear next to his bed but it is not there and is in the pale woman's hands. The pale woman approaches Harl and Harl takes up a half sitting defensive stance as the pale woman stops within striking distance and the pale woman whispers something to the spear that Harl cannot understand but Harl witnesses runes appear wood burnt into the spears haft a along with a cracked skull. As the last word is whispered, the pale lady vanishes and the spear falls onto the bed. When Harl retrieves it, he is filled with sturdy confidence.
As the party regroups in the courtyard of the castle to prepare for their travels some of them had encounters with other royal staff and were given gifts and some of them were given a gift in the courtyard. As farewells were said, the party decides to do some shopping and explore the city proper before exiting the out gates. A'anri finds a shop called the "Blue Unicorn" and decides to get the belt that was gifted appraised. An old portly gnome exclaims warm welcomes and inspects the belt. After looking up the belt in an old tome, the portly gnome explains that this belt as the power to create and dispel light as well as some latent abilities that are not awakened yet. A'anri decides not to sell the belt regardless of the gnomes attempts to buy and they exit the shop. The party makes a last stop to buy a mule before heading out of the city.
The party passes through villages or small farming communities about every ten to fifteen miles and Gareth decides to entertain the traveling mates with music and everyone applauds Gareth's skill.
The party pushes on for a handful of days before stopping at a village that us within eyesight of the single Firetop Mountain that obviously gets its name from the reddish hues of its peak. The party decides to lay down for a night of good rest at a Tavern called the Fairweather Inn. As the party pays for their rooms and their meals with the Innkeeper, they notice that there is a bartender and the common room is about a third full of people drinking and eating. The party splits up to talk to various people and Harl engages the bartender named Shaleera and explains that they have come from Ry'leigh to investigate the rumors of the warlock and the various instances of people going missing. During the interaction Harl notices that Shaleera is good looking as Shaleera explains that you all better enjoy your last night alive and might as well spend all of your gold. Your group is not the first sent to investigate the rumors but the ones before have not returned. Harl then exclaims, "well if it is my last night in this world, I can't think of any way I would rather spend it then with you." After some additional conversation and sweet words Shaleera tells Harl she gets off in a few hours and would not mind keeping Harl company.
The party eventually regroups and shares the information they have picked up from the locals. The information gathered is as follows:
- Six months ago a group of guards under the conscript of the King and they have never returned.
- The warlock somehow has cheated death and returned.
- The warlock is actually a demon in human form.
- There is an old goat path that splits into a fork a ways up the Mountain, take the left fork, and follow it to a cave. In the cave, there is an entrance to the Warlocks old hold.
The next morning everyone eats a hearty breakfast and Shaleera blows Harl a kiss on their way out the door. The party decides to follow the advice about the trail and eventually comes to a cave that appears to be empty. After sometime exploring the cave, the party discovers another opening that was hidden by an illusion. The party enters the maze of corridors that are often narrow enough they need to move in a single file line. A'anri was able to sneak up in a sleeping goblin in an alcove by a large bell and ended its life without trouble.Gareth rips off some cloth from the dead goblins clothes and carefully stuffs it inside the bell just in case anyone or anything attempts to ring the bell later. The party continues to explore the maze of corridors and comes across a room that is used as an armory and an careful search Harl uncovers a well made shield that was gilded with gold and had a crescent moon on embossed on its face which he claims without contest.
Helestina decides to take lead and they discover a door that is jammed shut and the party quickly decides not to break it down as making that kind of noise could be hazardous to their health. Shortly after moving on they came across a room that is designed as a barracks with old smelly straw mats and two boxes on a broken table. A'anri sneaks over and knocks out the sole sleeping goblin in the room as Harl searches the boxes and as Harl tips over the first box a rather large pissed of snake pops out and Helestina destroys it with some frost magic. Harl discovers a key and a single gold piece in the boxes after the snake incident. The goblin is woken up and the party learns that the goblins do not know how to navigate the maze as it seems to change all of the time and the goblin proudly explains that everyone will die. The goblins existence is ended with a single stab of Prince Claren's sword.
As the party explores on they encounter a rather large area that is designed like a tavern and there are four goblins playing cards and drinking. It does not take long for the goblins to realize there are intruders and a vicious melee ensues that ends with four dead goblins. A few more twists, winds, and empty rooms later the party comes to a room that is lined with prison cells and against the far wall an obviously dead dwarf is strung up with two goblins torturing the dwarf. Prince Claren and Gareth are able to kill both goblins without them ever even turning around as they were to engaged with their torture. Upon further inspection of the cells, they discover an older emaciated man dressed in rags in one of the cells, upon the mans release the man explained that his name is Abel and he has been year longer then he cares to remember. Abel is the last surviving member of another group that was trying to help the local villages and Abel recounts how one of his friends was killed by undead, gored by a Minotaur, and burnt to a crisp by a guard drake. Abel refuses help from the party and proudly exclaims that he can find his out but leaves the party with the following warnings:
- When you get to the river, respect the Boatman.
- The first portcullis is trapped on the left lever.
- There is a boat house that is guarded by a man and his dog.
Abel takes his leave of the party and the party continues on and discovers an antechamber with a rather large goblin whipping a smaller goblin and yelling at the smaller goblin. The goblin being whipped notices the party and calls out as A'anri attempts to walk up next to the big goblin to with a whip to assist the goblin. The taskmaster did not take kindly to this and quickly turned the aggression to the party members along with the goblin the taskmaster was whipping. The melee was quick, cramped, and deadly for the goblins. In the aftermath, a chest is investigated and Helestina decides to break the lock with her quarterstaff which triggers a trap and a dart barely misses Gareth. Inside the trap, the party acquires 10 pieces of gold, 3 poison darts, a single black glove, and a vial of blue liquid.
The party eventually finds themselves in a large room with a portcullis and a couple of goblins on guard. The goblins rush the party which was the last mistake the goblins ever made. Upon further inspection of the room, the party finds to levels for the portcullis and the left one has an odd looking black spot on the stones in front of it. Harl also discovers a tome with the title of "The making and Perfection of Dragons Fire" and a scroll of Dragon's Fire. Harl puts these items into his pack as the party decides to pull the right lever. This lever opens the portcullis without incident and the party soon finds themself at a crossroads of sorts where there is a way that leads up and a way that leads down with a small door off to the side.
Prince Claren opens the door and discover inside what feels like a well stocked pantry and with industry items is a heavily cloaked person sitting on a barrel in front of a make shift table. The person greats the party warmly and quickly explains that no harm is meant and that he is a merchant out to make money. After a lengthy conversation the party decides this merchant is harmless and believes that the merchant pays the goblins rent and the merchant comes and goes as the merchant pleases. Once this rapport is built, the merchant quickly becomes adamant about how the party will need blue candles and the merchant just happens to sell them for 5 gold pieces a pop but does not explain what exactly they are for. Most of the party members buy a couple of the candles and with a tip, the merchant tells them that the black glove is just a glove, the vial of blue liquid is a poorly made invisibility potion, and the shield that Harl now carries is enchanted to assist the wielder to better block incoming blows.
After this strange interaction, the party decides to head up but after the first little bit the eyes on the skull of Harls staff begins to glow and Harl suggests they should not go that way. The party then decides to head downwards and they come across a single door that blocks their path. As Helestina opens the door the eyes on Harl;s staff begins to glow again and but after a quick discussion the party decides to enter the room but they soon discover the room is not a room but a grand hallway with floor to ceiling tapestries that seem to move and depict scenes of the various layers of hell and torture. As soon as the last party member steps into the hallway the lights go out and strange voices are heard as A'anri exclaims "I can't see". This causes everyone to exit out the way they came and quickly decide to use the blue candles they were price gauged on and everyone enters the hallway again. The candles allow them to see in the dark and the odd voices stop. After an instance where portrait trues to mind control Helenista the portrait is taken down as some of the candles burn out and the party finds themselves exiting the hall onto a large pebble beach with a fast flowing river in the distance. As the party walks towards to river they are interrupted by ear splitting screeches and as four giant bats swoop down from the darkness above...
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PLAYER NOTES: I play Sir Harl Smith and at the table there is me, the person who plays Sir Claren, and the Dungeon Master. The rest of the players join us over discord. Due to this, I had my character list wrong as I thought A'anri and Enama were the same character.
In addition, I did not have in my notes how the other players exactly received their gifts/items outside of Harls, A'anari's belt, and a rumbling crossbow. These will be updated in a future post which they will probably get their own post as the DM has basically started everyone off with a magic item that will grow in power as the character's level which I think is an amazing idea and I wish more DM's would do this. If I remember correctly, 3.X had an entire supplement book called Legacies of ??? that created a system for this to be done.
Other then that, the game has been a lot of fun so far and there has been a lot of funny moments. My favorite interactions so far has been the arm wrestling contest, Harl and Shaleera, the old man in the cage, and the crazy merchant in the dungeon. Combat has been pretty uneventful and we have not struggled with the goblins though one of them was finally able to land hit and do some damage to one of the characters.
In hindsight, the scenes where the eyes on the skull of Harls Spear started glowing had me paranoid as I or Harl did not know what it meant. Though, after the session, I learned that I missed a email from the DM that explained what the spear could do at its current power level and the glowing eyes meant that there were undead nearby. Go figure and it coincides with the old man in the cells warning.
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