Session 5/12/07

                The adventurers steel themselves and move forward into the Slaughtergarde Armory in battle formation.  A raised platform of thick logs has been erected as a barrier down the 20’ wide corridor leading deeper into the Armory.  A series of wild howls and barks fills the corridor and three raging gnoll barbarians rush forward, leaping over the barrier with greataxes swinging while two more gnoll archers provide cover fire from the platform.

 

                As battle is joined, the gnoll barbarians fall to the party’s might.  The two archers retreat beyond the far side of the barricade with Klar and Jack hot on their heels.  Klar smashes through the barricade with his double axe, but what awaits on the other side shocks even he: a massive, blind mountain troll well over 15’ tall guards a crude elevator platform to the lower levels!  The gnolls are nowhere to be seen.

 

                The mountain troll sniffs the air and seems to sense the party’s presence, lashing out randomly as it attempts to free itself from the enormous chain which keeps it anchored to a nearby wall close to the elevator gears.  Klar, Jack and Dvalin weave in and out of the creature’s reach while Altaer evokes wave after wave of fire magic to burn through its thick hide.  Jack takes a mighty blow which knocks him prone against a wall, and the troll then pulls itself free from its chain to finish the job.  Unfortunately for the blind troll, Altaer uses a lesser heart of fire (metamagic component) to empower his last fireball of the day, which catches the grey-skinned sentry full in the face and ends its miserable existence.

 

                As the troll falls, the elevator begins to rise.  Already nearly exhausted, the party sees where the two gnolls have gone: they are on the elevator platform with a hill giant guardian called up from deeper inside the Armory.  The giant surges forward, sensing weakened prey, but Jack slices him deeply with a critically placed blow from his scythe.  Klar smells blood and chops at the giant aggressively, while Dvalin moves to flank the gnoll archers, who by this time are retreating back towards the elevator shaft.  The dwarf cuts down one of the gnolls and severely wounds the other.  Ayotunde stands at range, keeping her companions on their feet with her powerful healing.  Altaer finishes off the weakened hill giant with a cluster of magic missiles just as Dvalin cuts the throat of the final gnoll archer, pushing him over the edge of the elevator with a grunt of satisfaction. 

 

                After this furious battle, the upper corridors of the Armory lie silent except for a rhythmic mechanical grinding from deeper within the complex.  The group’s daily resources are nearly exhausted, so Dvalin takes a moment to jam up the elevator gears and the party rests for the night in the shelter of the partially splintered log barricade.  Though their sleep is plagued with demonic nightmares and strange sounds echo through the armory, nothing disturbs their night’s rest.

 

                Alindor 11: Refreshed and alert, the group heads down the elevator after Dvalin sets its gears back to the proper positions.  Descending to the second level of the Armory, they come upon a large high-walled central room about 120’x60, with a crumbling, fallen statue of some nameless demon lord lying ruined in the center.  Four fiery gates block progress to the northeast, northwest, southeast, and southwest.  However, Dvalin holds one of the looted claw medallions from the Temple up to the southwest gate, and a small magical sensor beam activates, scanning the medallion.  The fiery gate shuts off temporarily, allowing access to yet another lift which moves between this level and the third at a regular interval.  Closer examination of the room reveals that all four of the fiery gates have similar platforms down, and that they are the source of the rhythmic grinding sound the party heard last evening.

 

                The group moves down the southwest elevator onto the third level of the Armory.  They ignore a larger fiery gate to the south, choosing instead to descend a staircase along a northern corridor heading west.  Beyond the staircase is a smaller room that appears to be an armor and weapons cache – but Dvalin’s keen senses pick up the sounds of female gnoll voices casting spells and quickly shuffling away.  As the party enters the room, it appears to have been abandoned.  Further, a cursory search reveals that the three gnolls picked up a large item (about the size of a coffin or large chest) and moved it from the room just as the party arrived.  The path the gnolls took leads around another descending staircase, which seems to loop back towards one of the elevators to the statue room above (in this case, the northwest elevator).  However, the corridor also branches north before the elevator to a set of 20’ wide steps leading further downwards.  The sounds of a massive bellows and the hissing and clanking of an active forge attract the party to this wide staircase, and they descend as a group.

 

                As they come around a corner to the west, a fearsome war troll cries out a manic, joyful challenge as she charges forward, greatsword at the ready.  She is a marvelous example of her species: strong, lithe, fearless, skillful with her blade and knowledgeable in combat tactics.  Klar, Jack and Dvalin bravely form a line against the whirling troll even as she laughs and taunts them, striking each warrior in turn with damaging slashes from her blade.  The troll has absorbs some serious punishment from Altaer’s magic and the blades of the three front liners, and even one or two solid blows might finish her off. 

 

As the party fights on, they hear some scratchy little voices commentating on their battle through a set of heavy iron double doors down the western corridor.  Some twisted little beings seem to be laying bets on their survival against the troll!  But the cowards aren’t too keen on opening the door and joining the battle.

 

Dvalin tumbles into flanking position, but try as he might, the dwarf’s weapons are turned aside by her breastplate and thick hide.  The exchange goes badly for Dvalin, and he is knocked off balance by the troll only a heartbeat before she cuts him open from belly to neck.  Dvalin’s life ends as he crumples in a bloody heap.

 

                The war troll screams triumphantly as her blade cleaves through Dvalin and into Klar, who has himself taken a number of solid blows already.  Her oversized greatsword sings out with a deadly steel clash as it critically slashes through Klar’s chain shirt into his belly, cutting him almost in half.  Klar gives a surprised grunt as his guts spill out before his eyes, and he flops to the ground twitching and quite dead.

 

                Altaer cries out in rage as his companions fall, and he blasts the troll to cinders with a powerful fireball.  Her mocking laughter echoes off the walls of the Armory even as she burns to death.  The three remaining adventurers have no time to rest, as the voices beyond the door stop for a moment – but the doors then fly open and three murderous, giggling derro artisans charge them.  Right behind the derro is a huge column of living flame – a fire elemental!  Its deep, fiery roar in the Ignan language can be heard as the party cuts down the insignificant derro.  The elemental seems enraged by the party’s destruction of its little friends, and it moves aggressively down the corridor as Jack and Ayo scramble to grab their friends’ fallen bodies.

 

                Altaer, Ayo and Jack flee desperately from the towering elemental as its flames nip their heels and backs.  Burdened by the corpses of their friends, they barely manage to escape up the northwestern elevator into the statue room, and only then because the elemental refuses to leave the foundry it is tasked to guard.  The three survivors – two of whom are heavily encumbered – don’t stop running until they find themselves outside the Armory, deep in the spiraling ravine of the demon-tainted Slaughterscar.  A long, dangerous journey awaits them on their path back to the Shining Citadel.

 

                Lacking Klar’s orienteering skills, Ayotunde is forced to use her crude survival training to find a path out of the ‘Scar.  The horrible, twisted landscape seems to shift and confuse her as she wanders aimlessly, trying to find the looping trails which Klar brought them through on the way in.  The land grows bleaker and evening begins to fall.  Ayo is certain that a generally west-southwest direction will get them out, but she can’t be sure if they’re traveling in the right direction. 

 

                A pair of hungry vampire spawn spot the three friends as they cross a barren waste choked with dead thorn bushes.  The fledgling bloodsuckers move in to attack, but Ayotunde turns them away with a prayer to Shandae.  Altaer enlarges Jack and Ayo as the vampires flee, but a minute later they return with a vengeance, chasing the party towards a bubbling lava flow in the wastes.  Forced to make a stand, the enlarged adventurers slay the vampires and re-establish their path out of the blighted ‘Scar.

 

                As they trod on, the group comes to a series of shallow tar pits which bubble and pop with horrible fumes.  A greater shadow haunts the pits, and its threatening whispers greet the three humans as they approach.  Ayo suggests that in their weakened, exhausted state this foe is beyond their capabilities, and they carefully skirt the edges of the tar pits, avoiding the shadowy guardian’s wrath.

 

                Alindor 12: The journey continues into the late night hours, and darkness falls on the Slaugherscar before they can escape.  A few miles further south, the three companions find the ruins of an old Thulkarr fortress.  They stop to seek shelter, but are immediately chased out of the ruins by four babbling allips.  The dark, incorporeal creatures briefly give chase, but once the party is out of sight of the fortress ruins they turn back.  Ayo despairs of ever finding the path back towards the southern hills as the night deepens, but she encourages the others to move forward nonetheless.

 

                In the deep of night, Ayo suddenly cries out in excitement.  She has found a recognizable path out of the ‘Scar and back towards the cleansed cave full of Shandae’s vines!  The group picks up speed despite their fatigued state, but as they come into a narrow canyon sloping upwards, three hungry wights emerge from cover and move to attack, slobbering hungrily.

 

                Jack charges forward and slices one of the wights apart as Altaer fires magic missiles at another from his wand.  Ayotunde tries to turn the wights, but her prayers to Shandae go unanswered.  Jack spins and cuts the undead, shouting his anger as his scythe sings.  Before long, all three wights lie broken beneath the three heroes, and their path back to the vine cave is finally clear.  After a final hour of forced marching, they collapse inside the safe confines of the cave, sleeping deeply on the soft vines.

 

                The adventurers awaken in the late afternoon and finish the hike back to the Shining Citadel.  Physically and mentally exhausted from the ordeal in the Slaughterscar, they arrive at the gates of the Citadel just before midnight.

 

                Alindor 13: After sleeping at the Citadel barracks, Jack, Ayo and Altaer bring their friends’ corpses before Luminous Champion Layna Jaran.  The commander expresses her sympathy for their losses, and says that they are far from the first victims of the Slaughterscar.  Fortunately, the Citadel’s ranking cleric of Bahamut (a human woman named Litora) has the materials on hand for raising the dead, and Champion Jaran is even willing to pay one quarter of the cost of the ceremony since Dvalin and Klar died while questing on behalf of the Order.

 

                The solemn ceremony begins, and diamond dust is prepared for the completion of the ritual should Dvalin and Klar’s souls wish to return to their bodies.  After several minutes of prayer and supplication, Litora sadly informs the three friends that Dvalin’s spirit has chosen to remain in the Great Halls of Thiannon the Forgefather.  Though they are sad to lose their companion, Jack, Altaer and Ayo respect Dvalin’s last wish, and promise to remember his valorous deeds.

 

                Klar’s spirit, however, is eager to return to his body and finish the job that he began.  As Litora sprinkles the valuable diamond dust over his body, Klar’s huge belly wound closes and he sits up with a start: “Huh?  Where’s the troll?  Did we kill ‘er?” He asks, and the four companions spend the next few hours catching up on details and mourning Dvalin’s passing from this world.  Each adventurer mourns in his or her own way.  Ayotunde removes her dreadlocks for a time, while Altaer carries Dvalin’s body to a forge in the Shining Citadel and immolates it respectfully with his fiery bursts. Jack and Klar head to the tavern, where Jack promptly drowns his sadness in a bottle of fire-whiskey.  He’s next seen heaving into a bucket in the Citadel’s courtyard several hours later.

Azarr Kul's Ambition