Session 8/11/07

                Klar takes a good look at the tower, remembering the tales he heard in Drellin’s Ferry of Vraath Keep being haunted by its dead lord.  However, after a moment the half-orc chuckles and hands the spyglass back to Jack.  “It’s a skeleton, but there’s nothing undead about it.”  Jack’s knowledge of the arcane confirms this as he looks through the spyglass: the “ghost of Vraath” is nothing more than an inert skeleton strung up on a wooden rigging with some green dancing lights rotating around its skull.

                Satisfied that they will not be met by hordes of undead, the adventurers move up towards the Keep in a loose battle formation. They attempt a measure of stealth since the light is fading, but sharp hobgoblin eyes pick them up and a hail of arrows greets them from the courtyard.  Klar, Jack and Kaelin charge into the barricades where the hobgoblin archers have taken cover while Ayo, Jorr and Altaer support them from a nearby shed.  As Klar breaks through the barricade of the crumbled Keep, a fierce minotaur clad in a red and black breastplate charges out from the stables, slamming into him and bellowing a war cry: “More trophies for Karkilar!”  As the hobgoblins join the melee, Kaelin spots a manticore taking flight from the tower.  The beast lands on a parapet and fires a hail of tail spikes at her, but Kaelin’s shield blocks most of them.  Ayotunde and Altaer advance a bit, and Altaer evokes his magic missiles against the manticore, who snarls in anger as the fiery dragon heads slam into him with great force.  Jorr hangs back on Ayo’s orders, since this battle seems beyond his abilities.

                As Jack joins the melee in the courtyard with Klar, he sees a hobgoblin clad in black and red full plate emerge from a nearby room to his left.  This one has a stylized red hand painted on its chest plate, and it growls precise tactical orders at the others, rallying them and stabilizing their ranks.  At the same moment, a bugbear clad in white dragonhide leathers and exotic furs crashes out of the second-floor tower window, brandishing a morningstar in one hand.  “Fools!  You can never stand against the Red Hand.  Koth’s magic will bring you to death’s embrace!”  The bugbear Koth casts a lightning bolt into the party’s midst, sending them diving for cover as he flies around the battlefield.  Koth’s appearance seems to bolster the other enemies and they fight with extra verve for their warleader.  Karkilar taunts Jack as his massive battleaxe crushes the fighter… “I save the last blow for you, Wyrmlord Koth,” he says to the bugbear, who laughs in anticipation of the kill.  However, Jack is tougher than he appears, and he hamstrings Karkilar with a scythe swipe just before Klar finishes the minotaur with an upward cut from the sternum.

                The manticore fires another barrage of spikes towards Altaer and Ayo, but they manage to avoid the worst of the thicket.  Altaer returns fire with his own magic while Ayo moves up to heal Jack, and his lesser orb of fire severely burns the beast.  The melee in the courtyard continues, but Kaelin’s arrival signals a shift in the momentum for the heroes.  She, Klar and Jack wade through the Red Hand hobgoblins, cutting them down with grace and precision.  Though their warleader (the plate-clad marshal) puts up a good fight, he soon falls to a well placed slash across the throat from Kaelin.  The manticore, its spikes exhausted, lands in the yard to fight Kaelin, but she whirls into action again and deals the beast a mortal blow to the guts. 

Wyrmlord Koth has spent the battle flying high out of range and blasting the heroes with his spells, so he is nearly undamaged.  Seeing his forces routed in the courtyard by the party’s concerted tactics, the Wyrmlord flees north at top speed… but Altaer spots Koth as he begins his egress beyond the Keep’s walls.  Kaelin quickly switches to her bow, while Jack dives and manages to fire off a single eldritch blast at the fleeing bugbear.  Both Jack’s blast and Kaelin’s arrow strike true, and Altaer follows up with another barrage of magic missiles.  Though Koth flees at top speed, the party’s final volley finishes him off: Kaelin connects with two more arrows at range, and Altaer expends his last fireball of the day to finally knock Koth out of the sky.  His burned corpse tumbles from the air, twisting as it passes through the tree canopy and finally crashing with a sick “thwack” against a heavy tree trunk.  Koth’s broken body is recovered and looted by the party before they return to scout and loot the remainder of Vraath Keep.  Aside from his battle gear, they find a small steel key in his belt pouch.

                The second level of the tower contains the collected plunder of Koth’s Red Hand contingent.  Aside from coins and trade goods, a notated map depicting the Elsir Vale is of particular interest.  This map appears to show the basic battle plan of the Red Hand army: the horde will assemble north of Skull Gorge Bridge, use the bridge to cross southward into the Witchwood towards Drellin’s Ferry, and then head steadily eastward, burning and looting as they move in to siege the city of Brindol. 

                The tower contains other secrets as well: a hidden trapdoor leads down into Lord Vraath’s personal dungeons.  A princely hoard of treasure, including a magical sword of fine quality, lies beyond a portcullis of thick bars here.  Kaelin uses the steel key from Koth’s pouch to unlock the portcullis and claim the +1 keen longsword for herself.  Klar reads the orcish inscription on the blade and informs Kaelin that she now bears Lord Vraath Dragonbane’s family blade.

                Ayo has managed to stabilize a few hobgoblin prisoners, who Klar promptly throws into the dungeons beneath the tower for interrogation.  The soldiers are frightened of his terrible rage – they saw what Klar did to their cohorts during the battle – and they give Klar solid information on Koth’s map.  They verify the accuracy of the plans (as much as foot soldiers know, in any case), and they confirm that the Red Hand army was to march over Skull Gorge Bridge in the next few days.

                Maia 4, 22CR: After resting and regaining their strength, the party decides to move north through the Witchwood towards Skull Gorge Bridge.  They elect to send Jorr back to Drellin’s Ferry to warn Wiston, Sorrana and the others about the approaching army.  Jorr readily agrees and heads off silently through the woods southward.  The five companions gather their gear and make off in the opposite direction soon after.

                Marching through the Witchwood in the late morning they come upon a huge hunched forest giant being assaulted by a group of goblin worg riders.  The heroes are led to the site of the battle by the giant’s loud cries of anger, and they move into battle formation against the small raiding party of Red Hand scouts.  The goblins wear the recognizable livery of black and red leather and stylized red hands; this workmanship can be seen in the barding of their worg mounts as well.  After a brief battle, the party and the giant manage to drive off or kill the goblins.  After a few moments of tense stand-off, the grateful giant thanks the heroes and invites them into his huge hut for some food.  His name is Warklegnaw, and he claims to be the chieftain of the Twistusks, the oldest and last clan of forest giants in the Witchwood.  The old chieftain is pleased that the group has come to deal with the goblins, and after hearing of their plan to scout out Skull Gorge Bridge he offers to put them on his back and shorten their journey north through the woods.  Jack tries to recruit the giant and his kin for the defense of Drellin’s Ferry, but Warklegnaw is unwilling to discuss any such arrangements yet.  There is some bad blood between the giants and the inhabitants of the Ferry that must be dealt with first.  “No help ‘til them talk plain with us about old times,” says Warklegnaw.

                The giant chieftain is as good as his word, though, and he makes excellent time crashing through the forest towards Skull Gorge.  By sunset he has dropped off the heroes and bid them farewell.  Before he leaves, Jack extracts a promise from Warklegnaw that he will at least move his giants out of the forest towards the Ferry for safety and further negotiations with Speaker Wiston.  Then the gnarled old giant stomps off into the woods, shaking the earth with each step as he moves.

                The party creeps towards Skull Gorge under scrub cover, using the contours of the land to keep themselves hidden.  As the sun begins to dip low beneath the hills it covers the land in hues of red, gold and orange.  Jack spots the bridge over the next hill, but the party is still too far way to make out any details.  What is clear, though, is that the bridge is the only crossing point for miles, and were it to be destroyed, the Red Hand army would be delayed several days while it found a detour.

Azarr Kul's Ambition