We had a really good session this time around. I think everyone who came had a good time and got excited about it. Only six of our original nine heroes partook in the second session. The bard left the party for good, the sorceress took an extended break, and the monk missed only this session.
The previous evening the town's folk had told the party that Grim and his reavers had just left after raiding the town. They spoke of evil looking men and Duergar, commonly known as grey Dwarves, led by a fearsome cleric, a vicious half-Orc sergeant, a crazed gnome dressed in faded motley, and of Grim himself armored in rune-covered plate and wielding his deadly executioner's axe. The reavers had come earlier in the day and terrorized the town, killing some and kidnapping others. In particular they seemed bent on ransacking and defiling the poly-temple at which the locals prayed to a diverse pantheon of gods. One of the captured citizens was a former brother of the Halfwayton monestary, Brother Benedict, who came to the village 13 years ago to act as the temple's caretaker.
The villagers feared for the well-fare of those who had been taken, and suggested that the adventurers attempt to catch up with the reavers on the road before it was too late. Against the urging of the beleaguered populace to make haste, the party chose to stay the night in Portyngton. Our heroes awoke well rested and refreshed from the road the next morning while Brothers Annocs and Gregor had spent most of the night awake with the frightened villagers, tending the injured.
One of the most grievously wounded was the mayor of Portyngton, who's wounds seemed to have been complicated by a magical poison. Brother Annocs recognized the symptoms and remembered something about a cache of magical curatives hidden in the poly-temple. Brother Benedict had once told Annocs a cryptic hint as to its whereabouts, something about "Boccob knows...". Could this have been what Sir Grim and his minions were looking for?
Beornweynne, Hildagarde, Dignar, Elrothian, Sir Andros, and Gignus headed off to the ruins of the poly-temple to search for any hidden items that could prove useful. Outside the oddly shaped building, the paladin cautioned his companions of the evil he could feel emanating from within. As if on cue the skeletal remains of long buried dead burst up through the ground in the small lichyard out in front of the temple. Blades and axes proved ineffective against the animated skeletons, but they were soon destroyed by the divine power of the party's cleric.
Inside the darkened temple they discovered the bodies of slain villagers left in a bloody pile. The shrines and altars on the first floor had been desecrated. Beornweynne was particularly disturbed by the scene, due to her fear of corpses, but took courage at the sight of her god, Kord's, symbol displayed on the wall . They heard shuffling and moaning coming from above and went to investigate the second floor.
A group of walking dead lurked on the second floor. As before, the cleric easily destroyed them by channeling divine power. After the undead were dealt with they investigated the temple further in search of the hidden cure-alls. The second floor had statues depicting four of the worlds Good gods. Boccob's statue held a book, and when removed and opened was blank except for one page that contained a rough sketch. The sketch seemed to resemble one of the other statues in the gallery, but with a slight difference. Hieroneous, the god of Paladins and patron deity to Sir Andros, held a sword and a shield, and a wide leather belt with a scabbard was strapped around his waist. In the sketch the scabbard and belt were missing. The party removed the scabbard and when overturned it disgorged a small metal key. The key's decorative end resembled a mask with its right eye drilled through.
Hildagarde recognized the mask as the symbol of Olidamara, the goddess of debauchery, and that there was a shrine in her honor on the first floor. They returned below to investigate. As promised the altar was there and a large mask was hung on the wall behind it. A careful search revealed that the right eye hole hid a lock, which the key fit into. Turning the key released a lock and the section of wall behind the mask swung outward like a door and opened to show the hidden nook behind it. Inside was a small wooden cask.
At that moment, Elrothien the elven wizard heard the rapid approach of hoof-beats. Running out onto the second-floor balcony he was able to spot the source, a band of reavers on horse-back lead by a swift half-orc barbarian on foot and a pair of hell-hounds. Elrothien watched as Thrak, the half-orc, took an amazing leap up and over the 15' high barred gates. Single-handedly the brute lifted and tossed the wooden bar too the ground and threw open the gates for his hounds, Rorge & Biter, and the company of mounted human reavers. Their destination appeared to be the poly-temple as they strove directly towards it, ignoring the frightened villagers who ran in all directions.
Elrothien warned his companions before taking his lookout position up. The rest of the party (Hildagarde, Sir Andros, Gignus, Dignar, and Beornweynne) set up a gauntlet just inside the temple doors. As Thrak approached the temple with his minions in tow he was assaulted with throwing axes and arrows, but his barbarian reflexes allowed him to dodge and deflect the projectiles. Thrak was enraged by being ambushed so predictably flew into a barbarian rage and charged into the temple while his minions scrambled to set up a proper assault.
Thrak's charge into the temple was ill-fated. Since the party was prepared they were all able to get opportunity attacks and pummeled him mercilessly. Seeing he was outnumbered, Thrak drew a weapon in each hand, a flail and a light pick, and retaliated, but the heroes withstood his ferocious attacks and then combined their attacks to cut him down.
Elrothien could see from above that the reavers were not deterred by their commanders death and that they must have feared reporting failure to Sir Grim more than mere death. He cast Sleep upon four reavers he could see, and they tumbled from their mounts. The rest of the reavers dismounted and took cover behind tombstones while firing arrows into the temple blindly. The hell-hounds Rorge & Biter rushed to the temple entrance and belched flame at the closely packed adventurers, scorching them slightly.
Elrothien shot arrows down at the fiendish hounds from the balcony above while Beornweynne and Sir Andros took turns smiting them through the doorway. A few well placed blows slew the horrid canines. Dignar decided to meet the aggressors head-on by diving out through one of the stain-glassed windows. He landed in a heap on the front lawn and while he was prone a brave reaver tried to stab him, but was foiled by the tough armor protecting the dwarf's back. Dignar stood and cut the unfortunate human down. Hildagarde smashed out some of the window panes in order to get a better shot at the opposing archers, bringing another one down. A pair of the reavers decided to find a safer way into the temple and circled around to the North and South sides in search of a window entrance. Gignus followed one while Sir Andros lay in wait for the other.
Beornweynne and Dignar rushed forward into the graveyard to meet the remaining reavers and began a new tradition of attempting to intimidate their foes repeatedly before mightily striking them down. Sir Andros surprised the reaver attempting to sneak in a back window. They parried and riposte each other through the window until Sir Andros reached a gauntleted fist out and pulled his opponent bodily through the aperture. Gignus caught up with her target and Held him in place with divine power. The remaining reavers were either slain in their asleep, paralyzed or grappled into submission.
Once the party had dealt with their captives they turned their attention back to the chest in the hidden nook. They pulled it free, set it in the center of the room and examined it thoroughly. No one was able to detected the presence of anything untoward, but they still nominated Dignar to open it while the rest of the group stood outside well clear of any potential trap. As expected the chest was trapped with heat sucking mold that burst into Dignar's face, chilling and painful but otherwise not permanently damaging. Inside the main compartment he saw 100 gold coins, five small white pearls, a leather scroll case containing a divine scroll, and a single jar of ointment sealed with wax. Dignar took out a sack and filled it with the coins and turned the rest over to the party.
Lukana joined the party at this point, coming down from the tavern to see what all the commotion was about. She took one look at the chest and suspected that there may be a hidden compartment. Tipping it provoked the clicking of additional coins hidden somewhere inside. Hildagarde and Elrothien scoured the chest and eventually discovered a false bottom to the chest. Lifting the panel revealed additional treasures including: 300 gold coins, one large black pearl, an arcane scroll on ivory rollers, a set of masterwork thieves tools, and a lens of detection.
Additional treasures found on the bodies of the slain reavers included a total of 1600 gold coins and 8 sets of reaver gear. Thrak had an adamantine flail of improved sundering +1, an adamantine light pick of improved disarming +1, bracers of armor +4, boots of striding and springing, a potion of cure light wounds, a potion of rage, a pair of masterwork throwing axes, and a mysterious belt of bronze medallions depicting both female and male orcish faces.
Dignar, not satisfied with the compensation of 100 gold coins, laid claim to the flail and the belt. On donning the belt he felt his muscles flush with power (+1 strength), but suddenly a curse struck switching his gender from male to female. From that point forward she was known as Digna. This caused some disturbing speculation as to the original gender of Thrak. Beornweynne reluctantly took the pick of disarming, but excitedly took the magical boots, potion of rage and axes. Elrothien took the bracers, lens, white pearls as components for identifying items, and arcane scroll. Gignus took the ointment and divine scroll. Hildagarde took the tools, and Sir Andros got the remaining potion. The rest of the monetary treasure was divided up evenly amongst the group.
Characters that took part in solving the puzzle and defeating the reavers gained about 1500 experience points.
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