Session #71: The Knights of the 13th Moon

The thugs demanded money and charged at Taumir, Tselem, and Maak Tol, who were still guffawing at the absurdity of this moment. Taumir shot lighting bolts, Tselem blasted them with fire, and within seconds, three of the four thugs lay unconscious on the ground. The party took pity on the last thug and shoved him into a zone of vines Taumir had cast, trapping him and rendering him not a threat. Tselem went and fetched the local police, who came quickly. They apparently recognized the thugs as local frequent troublemakers, and were as astonished as the party that these rabble would try something like this. "Seriously guys," one of the cops asked, "why would you try to take on the Knights of the 13th Moon?"

Tselem, Taumir, and Maak Tol returned to the rendezvous point and returned to the cave. The next morning (2 Sypheros), they decided to make their way to Krona Peak, capital of the Mror Holds and the seat of House Kundarak. They wanted someplace more secure and accessible to stash the hoard, and figured the dwarven house and its vaults would be the best choice. (They'd considered going to Flamekeep, but had not had good luck selling a Rod of Forceful Invocation in Fairhaven a few days before, so decided to go straight to the top.)

So they teleported to Krona Peak, to the House Orien teleportation station. The attendant immediately recognized them and went into full fangirl mode. She led them to the main center of House Kundarak, where the party was again well received and ushered into a VIP lounge. They were given luxurious treatment for the short wait, and then who should appear but none other than Morrikan d'Kundarak, the head of the House himself!

The party explained that they had a large treasure hoard they needed to stash in the vaults, and negotiated with Morrikan for the arrangements, eventually agreeing on an initial setup fee of 100,000 GP and an annual account fee of 100,000 GP.  The setup was so that the House could create a semi-permanent portal for them to use to get the treasure into the vault to begin with. After all the agreements were signed, Morrikan said it would take them three days to get it all ready.

The party agreed and then went to go find a dealer to sell the afore-mentioned Rod to. They were able to find better dealers here in Krona Peak than in Fairhaven, and sold it off for a cool 2.1 million gold, netting them 525,000 gold each!

The party then returned to the cave, where they spent the next three days cataloging the hoard. They knew they had hit the mother-lode of course, but were still stunned to realize, at the end of their inventory, that the total value was around one billion gold!! (Not all of it was coin, about half was in items.) They separated out the fragile items and then got the rest of it ready to be transported.

On the morning of 5 Sypheros, they returned to Krona Peak, and then used the same gravity-assisted draining technique to 'drop' the hoard from the cave to the vault. It landed with the loudest and most satisfying crash they had ever heard.

Rewards

• 625 XP each

Session #70: The Diamonds in their Eyes

The party did not let Ovisra get up, and continued their relentless assault. Within minutes, the great monster was dead!

The party took a moment to breath and celebrate! Azeri dispersed her magical chariot, Maak Tol turned back into a tiefling, and Tselem let the vortexes and portals he had created fade. Then they went about the business of stripping the corpse. Tselem made an earring out of one of the bones, and Taumir took some of the ribs to make arrows. Azeri and Maak Tol were less inclined to make such trophies and collected what they needed for their divine weapon.

After resting for a bit, the party took stock of their situation. They knew that the dragon's lair, which was sure to contain a massive hoard, was certainly somewhere under the swamp. They weren't sure they felt like mucking around in said swamp, but they didn't want to just leave. Tselem cast Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion and the party went in, and they spent the next several hours thinking of different plans.

Taumir, half-jokingly, suggested they drain the swamp. They all chuckled ... and then Tselem's face lit up. He realized that they could absolutely do that! By casting a magical gate at the bottom the swamp and have the other end come out on top of a linked portal, they could remove a huge portion of the water! Simple calculations of the size of the body of water told them they'd have to get over 225,000 gallons of water out. A linked portal could only be held open for 30 seconds, but they realized that Tselem and Azeri could cast consecutive portals, and that a minute was almost enough time to drain everything!

Delighted with the audacity of this strategy, they plunged ahead: where should send all this water? Someone brought up the idea of sending it to the prison Edge was in, to set him free! They worried for a second this might drown him, only to remember that, as a living construct, Edge doesn't need to breathe! They used scrying magic to find Edge, and discovered he was in prison in Greenheart, in the Eldeen Reaches, and there was a portal near him they could use! The scrying showed them their friend ironically playing the harmonica in his cell. Taumir shouted hello, but Edge couldn't see or hear them, the magic was 'one-way'. He appeared intrigued by the magic window that appeared in his cell but in true Edge fashion, he then shrugged and went back to his harmonica. The party was gladdened to see their friend still in good spirits, and were now even more resolved to spring him.

The next morning (27 Rhaan), they emerged from the Mansion and walked to the edge of the swamp. Maak Tol and Taumir handed over the gold to compensate Tselem & Azeri for the spell components they were going to be using up here, and then stepped back. They started working on their portals, and then, at the exact moment, Tselem cast the gate, and a massive flood of water poured out from the end of the gate into the portal! Maak Tol cheerily tossed in an ale bottle which the night before he'd replaced the liquid contents with a note for Edge. The bottle disappeared into the stream. Through the portals the party could hear surprised and baffled shouts as the flood poured down on the heads of the jailers in Greenheart. As soon as Tselem's portal closed, Azeri opened hers in the same spot, and the flood continued!

Once Azeri's portal closed, Tselem dispersed the gate. A final thousand gallons of water splashed onto the forest floor, and the party turned back to look at the swamp. It had indeed been drained! There was still several feet of water in the lowest section, but what had once been a dark and forbidding cesspool was now a plain, damp pit. (Tselem later estimated that they got about 65% of the total water out.)

The party made their way down the newly exposed mud cliffs to the remaining water below, as they could now clearly see the entrance to the dragon's lair just below the surface! (Maak Tol more fell down, reaching the bottom in a muddy heap.) They dove under the water, and swam a good distanc through an underwater tunnel, breaking the surface of an underground lake within a huge cavern. In the middle of this cavern was an island, and on that island, was a massive, enormous treasure hoard. Two thousand years worth of ill-gotten dragon loot glittered and gleamed before their eyes! Piles of gold a dozen feet high, armor and scrolls and weapons and diamonds and books and trinkets and even mundane items like mirrors, all piled so high and thick they couldn't begin to guess how many there were.  It was more treasure than they'd ever be able to spend in a lifetime, and it was all theirs for the taking!!

The party swam to the shore of the island, overwhelmed with how well this was paying off!!

After a few minutes of metaphorically swimming in their pile of money (and Maak Tol carving his name into some things), the party began to think about what they were going to do with all of this. At first they were inclined to just leave it here and come back when their adventures were done, but they decided to take some of it out. They decided they should pay it forward - or back, as the case may be, and give some to the various people who'd gotten wrapped up in their adventures inadvertently. So the next day (28 Rhaan), Azeri teleported the other three to Fairhaven. Tselem took a whole wheelbarrow full of gold to Miri, the professor they'd nearly gotten killed some months back. They also donated a significant sum to the University, not-so-subtly mentioning they wouldn't mind having a building or two named after them. They they spent some of their loot on ale and books, and at a pre-arranged time, Azeri teleported them back to the cave.

The next day (the first day of the month of Sypheros), they repeated this, this time going to Owl's Perch, where Akta and Reita lived. Again, a wheelbarrow of money was exchanged. Akta and Reita were a little apprehensive to see them - their visits were typically harbingers of doom after all. But after Akta and Tselem caught up, and the money was exchanged, all their fears vanished. Reita make them a wonderful home-cooked meal, and that evening they started making their way back to Azeri's pick up point.

As they walked through the streets of this town, a gang of four human thugs stepped out and drew their weapons. The party nearly doubled over with laughter.

Rewards

• 47,000 XP each!
• Well what do you know, there actually was an Iron of Spite in the dragon's hoard! (Player's Handbook p. 249)
• You also found a Rod of Forceful Invocation +6 (Player's Handbook 2 p. 205)
• 35,000 GP each!
• What happens with the rest of the hoard will be determined in the next session.

Session #69: The Culmination of their Efforts

The party emerged from the Mansion on the brisk morning of 26 Rhaan. Even in this tropical clime they could feel a little bite of autumn air. Little light penetrated the gloom of the jungle canopy, and the humid air hung thick and oppressive around them. But they felt confident and rested, and trekked deeper into the jungle.

After only a few moments, they came across an open area with a large pond in the middle. There were some bones scattered along the banks, and the dark, dank water seemed to be hiding something. Tselem scouted to one side, while the rest of the party investigated the other. They feel the presence of the dragon so near.

And then, with a great crest of water, the dragon burst from the pool! Tselem recognized this black wyrm - it was Ovisra, an ancient dragon who's history went back over two millennia. She had a fearsome reputation, and immediately began to live up to it, spraying the party with acid and surrounding herself with a cloud of gloom that made it difficult for them to see her.

The party was caught flat-footed by the appearance of their quarry after so many weeks of searching, and for a moment it seemed the dragon would have the upper hand. But then Tselem cast a vortex that yanked Ovisra out of the water and tossed her to the ground at the edge of the clearing. Seeing this, Azeri wasted no time casting her magical chariot and hovering above Ovisra, pinning her to the earth. The other party members took further advantage, casting spells and using attacks to restrain her further. Taumir used a nest of magical vines, and Maak Tol used his animal forms to sprout wings and join Azeri in the airborne pincer movement.

This combined assault left Ovisra unable to bring her full abilities to bear. She hissed, shot her acid, and raked her claws and tail, but the party's blows fell uninterrupted. Very soon, Ovisra was fighting for her very life! She cast the cloud of gloom over herself once more, but Azeri and Taumir used invisibility powers that stymied her other counter-attacks. Tselem then followed this up with blasts of fire and ice that left Ovisra bellowing with pain and rage!

The party pressed their assault. Now, it was only a matter of time.

Rewards
No XP or GP yet, but all the bragging rights! This is amazing!

Sessions #66 - 68: The Death in the Deceit (Parts I - III)

Part I

The party trekked all day through the territory of Clan Watros. They often saw, off in the distance (very far off in the distance) members of said Clan observing them, but they never came close. The fear of them had spread far and wide across the land.

When evening fell, the party was deep in the jungle, and felt they were getting close to the dragon at last, though they were not there yet. They made their camp for the night, and built a fire.

As they were relaxing before turning in, they saw several figures approaching the camp. The figures made no effort to hide themselves, and soon came into the light. It was a group of Eladrin females - one was clearly a warrior, while the others looked like peasants. They all looked very bedraggled and wary. The warrior introduced herself as Evanora, and the other women as Koume, Nyx, Thessaly, Lavina, Keziah, and Thais. They claimed they were fleeing yet another clan dispute far to the northeast (the party was now in the central-western part of the jungle). 

The refugees asked if they might share the party's fire for the night. The party let them come and sit, but were suspicious of them. Tselem in particular doubted their story, and they all began to look for ways to find out the real truth.

But before anything could be done, an unseen force began attacking the party. They leapt to the ready, only to have their new guests turn on them! These women were not at all what they seemed - as the fray commenced, all but Evanora transformed into hideous hags with sharp, cruel claws and raspy voices. 

Taumir used some of his magic to turn invisible and take up an striker position outside the close, intense contetst. As the party rained blows on these deceitful females, they were surprised to see another form appear, somewhat: a ghostly apparition that was launching itself at them and draining their energy! It was dark and malevolent, but they could hardly see it, and it kept disappearing and reappearing.

One of the hags was able to kick the fire out, snuffing out the only light in this heart of the jungle, but the battle still raged on in the sinister darkness...

Part II

Tselem recast the magical light, centering it on a pine-cone he tossed up in the air, restoring light to the battlefield. The hags began shooting out blasts of necrotic energy, sucking away the party's life force and restoring themselves. But the party was not down and out by any means. Tselem and Azeri let out blasts of powerful energy too, searing and blinding their foes. The dark phantom that had been vexing them was annihilated, and Evanora, Thessaly and Lavina soon fell to these attacks as well.

Part III

The night grew darker, and both sides of the fight grew tired. Koume, Nyx, Keziah, and Thais continued to try to suck the party's life force away, and even succeeded a few times. But the party was not out of tricks yet, and a long battle was finally brought to a close with arrows and several blasts of magical lightning.

The exhausted party then filed into Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion, which Tselem had cast with the door in a tree, to rest out the rest of the night in peace.

Rewards

• 19,500 XP each! Time to level up to 25!
• 55,000 GP total!