Gyfli, Goliath Cleric of Vassa

Gylfi of clan Katho-Olavi is not your typical cleric. At nearly eight feet tall he looks like he should be leading his troops into battle. However the gods had a different plan for him.

Gylfi was born into one of the few permanent Goliath settlements. He spent his childhood learning how to fight and trading with a local settlement of hill dwarves. Both settlements were under constant attack by tribes of goblins seeking to acquire their rich farmland and mining resources. On one such attack his use of a hammer to smash the heads of goblins earned him the moniker Goblin Skullcrusher.

Shortly before Gylfi reached adulthood the clans of hill dwarves and goliaths decided to come together to destroy the goblins once and for all. While fighting to protect the hill dwarf settlement Gylfi found himself outnumbered. As he was overwhelmed by the little beasts a bolt of lightning suddenly flew out of his body and struck down several of them. Before being completely routed the little beasts cursed Gylfi and swore vengeance on him. Realizing he had been chosen by the gods, Gylfi took up a new path and became an acolyte of Vassa.

Session 19: Chased by Hobgoblins

Hobgoblins are not that smart. They lack skills of planning and strategy. Take their god forsaken keep for instance. The architect must have been drunk. Following the hobgoblins' failed attempt to ambush us in the hall, we wandered their silly castle for some time. Despite the hobgoblins' supposed superior knowledge of the keep's byways, they seemed to be as lost as we were. In our passings, we left traps. We could hear their screams as they fell to the traps in their searchings for us but they did not seem to ever grow any closer.

Eventually, we happened upon a dark, shadowy room where the slaves were being held. The shadows moved about as if alive and the slaves seemed to be bewitched in some way. Thinking the flitting shadows about the room were more ominous than they seemed, the dwarf cast a spell and began to glow with a powerful holy light. We then realized the room was merely creepy. The dwarf feared his spell might harm the slaves so he ventured down the hall to prepare for the approaching hobgoblins while the ranger, paladin, and myself roused the slaves from their stupor and prepared them to flee. At that moment, the drapes grew teeth and attacked the paladin. I told him to hold still lest we harm him as we attacked the hellish curtain but he may have panicked a bit and mistakes were made. We killed the creature but not before the paladin was significantly harmed. Resolved to healing him, I began to sing a spell of curing but, so dusty was the room, that I may have sneezed the last word of the spell and possibly obliterated the paladin's hand. There was no time to remedy that misfortune, however, as the dwarf yelled from down the hall that the hobgoblins were upon us.

Joining the dwarf in the hall, we found ourselves beset by no less than 30 of the cretins. 30 of them. Against 4. They crashed upon us like waves of stupid and foulness and inevitably broke themselves upon the dwarf's spell of protection while the rest of us finished off the survivors of the wave with spell, sword, or arrow. Their captain, an understandably frustrated creature, had the misfortune of wearing metal armor and quickly succumbed to a spell cooking him in his own breastplate. Though we depleted many spells and did not come out unscathed, we managed to prevail due to the hogoblins' idiocy. But our trials are not over. We now face two overfed, mammoth hobgoblins. Being without spells, and minus a hand, I don't like our odds.

Session 18: Halloween Hobgoblins

Having taken out a ghost and several parties of hobgoblins and humans, Galathil and Flint were low on spells but confident the curtain wall of the fortress was safe for now. While Flint rested and Lynnya watched, Galathil was dispatched to find help from the more martial members of the party. She managed to give Dyn-bach and Volodemir good enough directions back to the fortress, before disappearing on some elven family business.

Lynnya signalled to Dyn-bach and Volodemir and lowered a rope for them to join with Flint on the top of the curtain wall. From here, they could see that the fortress had a large portcullis, seemingly allowing for space to crawl under, but there was a large muddy patch in front of it. Above the portcullis, two guardhouses were apparently occupied by groups of hobgoblins, and along the top of the fortress, two more groups, consisting of 2 hobgoblins and an unidentified humanoid shape patrolled. Not wanting to risk being discovered, Flint cast silence on a spot on the curtain wall that allowed the party to descend undetected to the ground by the corner of the fortress.

They decided to sneak their way over to the portcullis. Wary of getting stuck in the mud, Flint decided to sound the bottom before hopping in. Doing so, he struck something hard, and partially averted the surprise of an ankheg attack. He cracked at it with his warhammer while the rest of the party waited for it to emerge. When it popped out, it spat acid on everyone, was hit a few times, then started biting and clawing, and was taken down by force. Suspecting the combat had alerted the guards above, the party tried to scramble under the portcullis. Just as Volodemir was passing below, burning liquid came splashing down from above in the guardhouse murder-holes. Running across the small courtyard for the cover of an archway, the party was fairly riddled with arrows from the groups of archers in the gatehouses. Figuring that surprise was out of the question at this point anyway, Volodemir cast an ear-ringing shatter spell on one of the arrow-slits killing a couple of hobgoblins and leaving more slightly more exposed.

Eying up the developing situation and their pin-cushioned bodies, the party decided to push further in to the keep. Flint healed everyone and they moved through a large room with a fountain and some lovely shrubs to find a very stubborn locked door. With time of the essence, Dyn-bach slammed into the door with his body 3 times before it finally gave way. Closing the ruined door behind them the party was faced with a choice of two directions to proceed.

Heading to the left, they proceeded down a corridor to a large door. Listening at the door for danger, and hearing none, Flint opened the door. A huge silent bear lunged out from behind the door, but his quick reflexes prevented this from happening. However, at the same time, Volodemir disappeared. Volodemir had fallen into a hidden pit that covered itself back up. After some investigation, Flint found the seam from the pit's cover, and working together, Dyn-bach and Flint were able to lift the cover enough to let him crawl back out.

Examining the room they had found, they discovered the mechanism by which the bear had been rigged to fall, and they re-set the trap to slow down any guards who might have been following. The room presented them with two exits, one to the north and one to the south. To the south, they saw light beneath the doorway and decided to proceed. They saw a hallway lined with torches, and a large floor to ceiling mirror 20 feet down on the right. In the distance, mummies started shambling closer. A few pot shots at them seemed to be deflected off something in midair, so Flint examined the mirror to the right while they were still fairly distant. He spotted it was a secret door, and asked Volodemir to open it.

This foiled the plans of the 6 hobgoblins and their captain waiting to ambush them, but also opened them up to a flanking attack. The mummies turned out to be more hobgoblins in crude disguises approaching from around a corner reflected by another mirror. The ensuing battle was fairly difficult, between the highly armored nature of the foes, the ability of their captain to inspire them, and their pack tactics. After some sleeps and a shatter, there was room to attack the leader, and Lynnya damaged him and Flint took no chances and unloaded his wand of magic missiles on him, taking him out. Dyn-bach cast a shield of faith on himself and Flint blessed his companions. At one point, he channeled divinity to preserve the lives of his companions who were close to death. Eventually, all 10 hobgoblins were taken out. Around the same time, the sound of a bear falling on someone was heard from behind, so there was no time to hang around. The party had to keep moving....

Session 17: Of things that are not medusae

Having agreed to the demand of the Crom-priest, but lacking companions, as Dyn-Bach chickened out (preferring to room near petrifying chickens), Volodemir sought some help for investigating Sculpter's Dale. He found two willing souls -- Biggly, a wizard, and Dench, a barbarian. They said they'd help him, in return for a fair share of the treasure.

The Dale itself was difficult to find -- if orcish children had indeed been playing here, Volodemir was at a loss to explain how they had arrived there in the first place. A single valley had some narrow passages, but these opened up into a plush meadow, studded with statues of various sizes. The statues nearest the entrance were classically inclined, but those further in showed people in differing states of terror. Exploring the dale further, Dench found a depression, in which was a defile leading up and around the obvious entrance to whatever lay beyond.

The defile led into an unworked cavern, where several spider lay in wait for the adventurers, but they were quickly dispatched. Moving up, they found a rectangular room with a large gargoyle head opposite a door with scorch marks surrounding it. Dench and Biggly went to investigate the head, and set off a trap! The head blow out a gout of flame, hitting Biggly in the face, though Dench and Volodemir were able to avoid the brunt of it. They examined the trap after that, and found it would require a refill of fuel before it could activate again. Behind the scorched door they found a squad of mercenaries, who surrendered after half of them were killed in the first round. Volodemir let them live if they left. Going deeper in, they finally found the lair of the master of this dale. The wizard let loose with a spell that unleashed a foul mist, but it did not prevent Dench from burying his weapon in the mage's skull. In the magic-user's study, they found sculpting tools, a half-finished sculpture of a maiden screaming in terror, and a diary detailing his attempts to craft a spell that would turn living flesh to stone. Once they returned to Crom's temple, the priest was able to heal both the lazy Dyn-Bach and Volodemir from their curse. Some time remained until Volodemir was to meet Galathil and Flint at the Slaver's stronghold, and so they decided to explore rumors of a wizard's tower 12 miles north of Darkshelf.

The tower was tall, topped with a large sphere and surrounded by iron spires. Lightning struck with some frequency. The party went up to the door, where Dench grabbed one of the handles to open it. The handle turned into a snake and bit him! Fortunately, he shook off the poison, after which Volodemir suggested knocking. Upon using the knocker, the door swung open. The first floor was largely empty. Biggly found a trap door leading to a basement, The first room was filled with mysterious crates, marked by labels reading "The spine of a soldier who sold butterflies." The next room appeared to be a workshop of some sort. It contained several corpses, mirrors to the north, and a door to the south. To the south was a line of cells, and as the party moved to investigate, several apparitions attacked, but were swiftly dispersed by Volodemir's cloud of blades. Investigating the cells, there was little remaining in them other than corpses. One corpse, strangely preserved, seemed innocuous until something leaped out of it into Biggly's mouth! It had no visible effect, so the party shrugged and moved back into the workshop. There, they examined the elevator for a long time trying to figure out how it worked, until they turned the dial to reflect which floor they were on. Once they did, a shimmering disc appeared.

They initially took the disc to the top floor, which was dominated by a large telescope. Dench noticed the levers, and he went to pull on them while Volodemir and Biggly were distracted. He managed to destroy the telescope by extending it while the roof was still closed. Biggly was upset, but Volodemir calmed him down, and they went down into the lowest level. They found a treasure trove, but were blocked by several force fields. After convincing Dench not to smash the levers, they began to experiment. For a long time they were plagued by shocks whenever the fourth lever was up; eventually, the put it down, and that led them to eventually access the treasure. After all the tricks, they decided to quit while they were ahead, and went back to Darkshelf.

The night after returning, they celebrated. Two days later, Biggly was dead. Dench found the body, and when he looked to figure out how his friend had died, something leaped out of Biggly's mouth into Dench's. Dench died two days later. Volodemir burned the body, keeping his mouth closed.

Session 16: An Interlude in D Minor

After the party returned to the surface, they parted ways. Galathil and Flint went to the east to scout out further leads. Volodemir and Dyn-Bach, on the other hand, decided to spend some more time in Darkshelf to try and get in good with some of the extra factions. A priest of Fayon, also part-time barber, named Irenicus told them that there were some issues with a graveyard just outside of town. It appeared some graves had been disturbed. Dyn-Bach decided it was a good quest for a paladin to take, and so the two of them headed out to investigate.

When they reached the graveyard, it was nightfall. They were immediately attacked by skeletons, which were quickly dispatched. The graves yielded no clues, but there were two crypts on the grounds. One was empty, but the other contained a passage leading to an underground complex. Following the passageway left led quickly to a priest apparently performing some ritual before a minotaur skeleton. The priest caused a miasma to arise in the room, but despite that, was quickly killed.

On the body of the priest was a note indicating a secret room where the priest stored his treasure. Eager for enrichment, they went to where the note showed, and found the room as indicated. Inside the room was a sarcophagus. But upon opening the coffin, they found what awaited them was a curse! A cloud of black smoke billowed out of the coffin, leaving them with coughing fits. Despite the coughing, they continued to explore, finding three more zombie infested rooms and clearing them out.

They returned to Irenicus, who thanked them, but told them he lacked the power to cure their illness. Disppointed, they turned to the priests of Crom, who was more than happy to help for a price. They had mentioned a vale earlier, with mysteriously life-like statues. Perhaps the two could investigate that, and in return, the priests would cure their illness? So Dyn-Bach and Volodemir turned to investigate.

Session 15: To the hills

After liberating the slaves from the slave pits under Darkshelf, Flint, Galathil, and Lynnya turned east, to investigate reports that the slave caravans were passing through a fortification there.Along the way, they spotted some masked dwarves ahead on the road. Having heard about "chaos dwarves" Flint was cautious, but asked them if they knew anything about the slavers. When it was clear that the
party was not pro-slaver, a fight ensued. The strangely masked dwarves fought briefly before two of their number were knocked out with a sleep spell, and the last one turned invisible in an attempt to flee. In a rare stroke of luck, Lynnya was able to both detect the invisible target and pinpoint it twice in a row, taking him down with a brace of arrows from long range. Examining the corpse and removing its mask, Flint noticed that the creature did not have a face, so much as a darkness that suggested a face. Disturbed, and not wanting to take any chances with more disappearing dwarves, the party euthanized the other two.

Some time after this, and after about a day of travel, they were face to face with a four story fortress with a large curtain wall and drawbridge. Spotting sentries actively walking the top, they decided that a frontal assault was not a viable option, and decided to wait in the surrounding woods, keeping a close watch for any parties leaving or arriving. In the middle of the night, Lynnya spotted a rope being thrown from a second story window and a malnourished, disheveled man came darting into the woods. The party surprised him and made their intentions clear. Though startled, the man said his name was Parzifal and that he had escaped his captors but he did not know much information about the inside of the keep. After accepting some food, he was content to run along and try to find his way to safety.

The party then stealthily crossed the remaining distance to the rope that dangled from the window and climbed into a dusty room. They backtracked Parzifal's trail in the dust through several rooms until they came to stairs going up and down. They decided to go up to work their way to the sentries. Passing through the third floor, they found abandoned rooms and heard the eerie noises of the din of an ancient battle echoing on the sound of the crickets and the wind. Undeterred, they came to a cobweb, bone dust and old blood stain filled room with a ladder leading up on the opposite end. Attempting to sprint through the room, they were set upon by a ghost haunting this area against trespassers. It was unresponsive to being turned, and proved resilient against the arrows that were fired through it. However, Galathil's magic took no notice of its incorporeal nature and soon had the unnatural creature destroyed. Upstairs, the party ambushed a party of three hobgoblins and three humans, including one barechested knife thrower. Putting the weaker humans to sleep and killing the hobgoblins was simple enough, but the barechested man gave as good as he got in the fight against Flint.

There was a door to the outside of the curtain wall above the gate, where two groups of hobgoblins were quickly dispatched with sleep and violence. At this point, running low on spells, they decided to lower a rope for their remaining companions. At this point, Flint also began to obsess over the schematics for the mechanical construct he liberated from the Harpell's library. He wonders if he can make sense of them with the help of the tinker's tools and the broken animated armor parts he took from elsewhere in that odd manse.

Session 13-14: Slave Pits of the Undercity

Feeling a bit put-off by the typical antics at the Golden Cockatrice, the party decided to go visit their old friend Kwon, Kwon mentioned that the Society suspected the abandoned temple on the outskirts of town was a front for the slavers. He gave them instructions on how to find the back door, so that they could sneak past the guards hidden at the front entrance.

Pushing into the first level, the party is ambushed by a feast of ghouls. They land a few solid hits, but are otherwise quickly dispatched. The rest of the level is mainly traps that they evade. There is a "pleasant" garden that is avoided, before they take one of the available stairs to go down into the lower level.

Once in the lower level, the Sinisters turn left. The rough-hewn, almost ant-hill like tunnels quickly turned into more worked tunnels, and the party came into a circular room. There was a small study in front of them, in which a man was working at a desk. They attempted to sneak up on him, but his weasels heard the Sinisters and attacked. The fight was stressful at times, especially when 10 orcs stepped out of the shadows and added their firepower. But the party was victorious.

Beyond the circular room, they discovered a number of slave pits. There were more orcs beyond the pits, so the party decided to rescue the slaves there and move on. The slave lord's desk contained a map to a fortress to the northeast through which the slave caravans passed. The Sinisters decided to briefly split up, most bringing the slaves to safety while Galathil and Flint went ahead to scout the fortress.