| Player | Characters |
|---|---|
| Mike | Oscar, Jade, Jorella |
| Corky | Furion, Jerri, Jack |
| Mac | Cade, Tyrade |
| Felix | Warrex, Garan, Alydra |
| NPC's | Meercon |
Cade attempted to climb up and over the side walls of the path to get a look around, but when he climbed the wall, the cliff like edges gave way and he fell back in to the path. It was obvious that the banks above were altered to make it difficult to escape the ravine path. Warrex followed with his own attempt and while difficult for him too, he managed to make his way up and out. He found a wasted area of crags and rocks that were impassable except through the path they now tread. From this better view, Warrex also spotted several dead fall traps that guarded the path they tread. But aways to the south, in the direction the ogre had escaped, the terrain seemed much more hospitable and potentially an easier climb. So they decided to head back down the path and try the other approach.
Back they went and made for the apparently easier path. As they worked their way up, a sound was heard from above very much like a catapult loosing. A look up revealed a hail of arrows raining down on the group. Jade cast a Shield spell to help her defenses. Only Oscar was hit badly although others sustained hits. The team moved quickly on to egt out of the range of the weapon. Some yanked the arrows from their bodies as they ran, others waited until they had a moments rest. The rest came soon as Cade and Jeri spotted a trap blocking their way up the new path. It was close in enough to shield them from the weapon above and to give the hobbits a chance to clear the problem.
What they found was a series of pressure plate type traps and one explosive 'sucker trap'. All was proceding well, until they came across a plate that appeared to be already tripped. There was a rumbling sound that came to their ears and a rush of air towards their faces. Screaming a warning to all to retreat to the shelter of the lea wall of the bend, the party made for the cover. Almost immediately thereafter a rush of water came down the path and passed by harmlessly as they had read the situation correctly. Now washed away, it was easy to detect the location and method of disarming the pressure plate traps in their way. Which the two halfling did quickly and the party moved on and up the path.
It wasn't long thereafter that the day was ending and it was neccessary to rest for the night. They did not want to continue on and stumble in to an assassins trap in the dark, but rather hold up and prepare for something. So a camp was established and a watch rotation assigned. And a good thing it was as the party was attacked just before dawn the following morning by giant constrictor snakes that set upon them from over the rock walls surrounding the path. Jade was the first victim and quickly found herself in the wrap of one of the snakes. It squeezed and worked at ending her life. Other party members were called to wake and join the defense.
Meercon strode in and swung mightily at one and hit it several times. Jarella worked on one alone and struck it deeply. Others tried to shoot the snakes with arrows. Jade was alone in her fight and found herself out of breath and fell as the snake continued to tighten its grip. Jarella soon was in the same situation, with her arms pinned and unable to strike the creature. But the archers of the group finally got the best of the creatures, piercing them in critical locations. Cade, Tyrade and Furion finished off the one holding Jade and then Tyrade killed the one wrapped around Jarella. His shot was too good and continued on in to Jarella further wounding her. And Garan, one of several ganging up on the third and last snake, finished it off with his mace. Garan moved to Jade and administered one of the healing potions to her to revive her. The party rested further and dispatched their healing to restore themselves as well as possible.
As the morning came, they moved on. As they climbed the path, a symbol was spotted carved in to the rock of the path. Garan, digging in to his ancient knowledge, recognized the symbol as a marking of an ancient assassins organization. Specific details he could not fully recall, nor their name, but that the guild was powerful and used magic did come to his mind. They knew they must be careful as they proceeded. And it was not long before more trickery struck the group. While walking at the front of the column, Cade and Jeri disappeared from sight. Some of those immediately behind them could almost swear that the fell through the ground. Jarella was one of them and she moved forward, using her spear to poke the ground in front of herself as she advanced. She moved slowly forward and finally convinced there could be nothing there walked on and disappeared herself. Now convinced that something was at work here, the group concentrated on dispelling what must certainly be an illusion. Which there was. An illusion of a false patch of ground covering what were two large holes in the path that fell down and away.
Down the holes Jeri and Cade fell. Cade managed to control his descent using his acrobatics and sprung to his feet as the tube ended and deposited him in a large underground chamber. Jeri was not quite so adept at the controlled fall and he bounced and caromed around the tube on his way down. He was ejected from his tunnel and came to rest with a thud on the rock floor sustaining heavy damage to himself. There he lay at rest trying to catch his breath. But right behind him was Jarella, spear in hand, tumbling in much the same out of control manner. She shot from the tube and landed squarely on top, crushing Jeri under her weight and Jeri stopped breathing. Cade had healing potions of his own, forced a few shots down Jeri's throat and he began to breathe again. The cave was featureless except for the two tube openings and shafts of light streaming in from far above. There was no accessible way out.
The party up on the path moved quickly to retrieve the fallen members. They tied several ropes together and lowered Sasha down the opening. She was able to descend cautiously and made it to the chamber. There she assisted them up the rope. Jeri just couldn't resist going ahead of Jarella and faking a fall on top of her, just because. The party was able to extricate the fallen members from the holes and after Furion and Tyrade had collected a large enough log to span the gap, they moved on crossing the problem area.
Up the path they continued until they approached the aerie where the enemy was camped. Outside the cave entrance, two ogres stood guard. Cade spied their location and the layout of the area and a plan was formulated. The melee combat members wuould rush in close to the rock wall and the archers would sweep around the outside and all would attack like a hammer fall to dispatch the ogres quickly. And the plan worked as expected as Furion and Warrex cut the first ogre down quickly. The second fought on and was able to sound a cry of alarm to those within the cave. Garan struck the creature with blow from his mace that staggered the creature, but it did not fall. But all this gave many a chance to sweep around the skirmish site and ready themselves to assault the cave itself.
And it was a good thing. Just then two Goblins came rushing from the cave mouth, wielding no weapons, but wearing large backpacks. Surprised and frightened by what they might be, the archers let loose in to these onrushers. And it was a very good thing. Jade laced a perfect shot in to the heart of the first. It was stopped in its tracks and dropped. The arrow embedded in to the creatures chest and through the back, in to the pack and as he fell, he exploded in a burst of flames. Alydra shot and killed the second with almost as good a shot as Jade had loosed and this one fell too, but he did not explode as the other. The goblins were suicide attackers. The very thought of this sent shivers down the spines of the entire party.
The group moved to the cave opening and prepared to attack. But the defenders were ready and had their own assault to unleash. An arrow launcher was set and operated by another ogre. In the room were 4 dwraves dressed in varying degrees of red, another goblin and one more ogre. Garan tried to disable the arrow launcher by the use of a flaming oil. But, while it did hit the machine, it did little to the device and a volley of arrows were loosed at those in the opening. Though some miracle, the arrows struck a few of them but all were only grazing shots and no one was hurt badly by this attack. In they all charged to engage the foes as Jack finished off the second ogre outside the cave.
Meercon and Garan had moved in to attack one of the ogres in the cave, but the last remaining golblin moved towards them and let loose his bomb attack which knocked down both of them, wounding both severely. Jade used one of her Enlarging Arrows on what appeared to be the leader of the dwarves, but on struck a glancing shot as the dwarf attempted to cast a spell at Oscar that failed. And then another that failed, which was followed by the other dwarves firing crossbow shots that missed their targets.
Alydra shot and killed the ogre standing by Oscar, freeing him to move on to other targets and the remainder of the group moved in to engage the dwarves wielding crossbows. Warrex and Jack moved in to engage two of them. The dwarven leader continued what seemed to be a personal battle with Jade as they traded shots and spell attempts. He moved for some cover but Jade followed and he surprised her with a volley of darts. Several struck her, but the hits never made it through her Armour spell, preventing any of the poison on the darts from reaching her system. And then Tyrade let fly his best shot, which struck and knocked down the master dwarf, followed by a second shat that finished the foe.
The conflict was becoming one sided except for the battle Meercon faced against the last ogre. He traded blows with the creature but was struck again and this time he fell. Warrex was finishing off his enemy and Furion moved in to dispatch the last ogre that had felled Meercon. There were only two of the dwarves left now and Jarella approached him and intimidated him in to dropping his weapon and surrendering. The last dwarf went to the bitter end and was finally killed by Tyrade. Oscar had moved in to assist the battle and his companion Garan who had taken some serious damage in the battle. He concentrated and attempted to cast a Healing spell on the fellow dwarf and this time the spell worked. A surprise to Oscar and all, but a welcome one. The remaining dwarf was bound and forced to watch as Garan and Oscar removed the hearts from those that were dead.
The group gathered themselves and searched the area finding lots of supplies, weapons, food and a chest that held some money, gems, a spell book and poison vials. They also found a back room that was more suited to the dwarves and therein also was another symbol like that they found out on the path. But this one was glowing and obviously magical of some nature. When no one else was near, Warrex tried to destroy the symbol with his weapon, only to be struck by magical backlash, causing no harm to the symbol. Jade tried to read the spell book, but was unable to decipher the script.
Oscar and Garan were greatly encouraged by the apparent return of some of Oscar's abilities. He even tried to perform healing on other party members after the conflict that worked. While not fully restored of at full strength, they did at least do some good. The party decided to use the supplies they had found and set up camp for now to rest and recuperate for a day or two. It seemed apparent that theses were not all of the dwarves sent out to kill them. Only one of them was what could be declared a 'full assassin'. Here they would decide where to go next and if they needed to continue looking fo rmore of these evil dwarves.
Next time ...
This page and its contents are presented solely for the purpose of the RPG game events conducted by a private group. Any references to people or places is explicitly within the context of these RPG games and has no connection to any other similarly named source.
Bob Senkewicz / Howell, New Jersey / senk@optonline.net