The Scar Mines

Apr 26, 2015

PCs present:
Osirian Silvertongue
Zaya
Fluffy
'Boy'

After The Fall Of The Giants

The litter....the limo of it's day

This session begins with the battle of the giant scouting party defeated and the soldiers of The Order Of The Thundershields slowly dispersing.  The group debates long and hard as to what direction to take the adventure in next.  They delay long enough that an emissary from the Lord Of Diafthora, Amael Ogonborn, arrives and invites the party to the Thundershield Keep to receive praise from the lord himself for assisting in saving the city.

The group declines in favor of inviting Amael, instead, to visit them, here at the city gates.  After some discussion the elderly emissary leaves to deliver the message.  The group sits back to rest, tend to their wounds and wait.  While doing so they impress the couple of soldiers assigned to the gate with stories of their adventures.   The emissary returns, this time with a retinue of soldiers carrying, in a litter, the Lord of Diafthora himself, Amael Ogonborn.

He is set down just outside of the gates and gestures to the group with a effeminate wave of his hand. His manner is light and carefree and seemingly not of any local accent or mannerisms.  He praises the group and offers them a place within the ranks of The Order Of The Thundershields, as reward for their endeavors.  The group debates long and hard.

Finally the lord, tiring of the late day sun and the wait, orders his men to take him back and tells the group the find him and tell him of their decision when they are ready.  So the group decides to seek out a friendly inn to eat and sleep, and perhaps to make a few coin.

The Sons Of Cenarius
2,050 XP

We haven't had a good bar fight in a while.  Just what the doctor ordered.

The group, curious of the rest of the city, decides to explore the city on the other side of the river.  They approach one of the three bridges but are turned back by the soldiers.  The soldier claims that they are trying to enter the more affluent side and if they have no business there then they are not allowed.  Asking about for a good inn, they are told of the massacre at the SoldShort Inn (which they are intimately aware of already) and finally of an in called Haven, which is very nearby.

Haven's patrons are of the more wealthy clientele.  They are those from the wealthy and well-to-do families on the south side of the river.  They come hear to seek out a taste of the 'other-side-of-the-river' with all of its adventure and seediness (while still being close to the protection of The Order and it's Keep).  The group quickly picks out easy and wealthy marks to prey upon.

They have good luck up until the point, Zaya pushes her luck a little too far.  She sees a large overfed man flagrantly doling out the coins to the waitresses to keep the food and drink replenished at his table.  While Osirian tries to distract him with a song, Zaya brazenly walks past him and tries for the money purse at his side.  Unfortunately, she is a bit too obvious and the man moves quicker than expected and grabs for Zaya's arm.  Zaya quickly ducks behind a few bustling people moving past and is gone from sight.  While the man shouts for assistance, Zaya hoods up and finds the keeper of the rooms, purchases one and moves immediately into her room.

Finally, separated from her companions, two thieves who were trailing her ambush her alone in her room, grab her and force her at knife point to go back downstairs.  They tell her not to make a move or sound and no harm will come to her.  They just need to talk.  Zaya, makes more than a few attempts to escape but none to avail.  Finally though, with a dexterous move while going down the stairs she tucks and rolls and is back up on her feet, away from the thieves, and makes  a signal noise trying to get the attention of the group.  Only Fluffly is alerted and tries to come to her aid.  Fluffy is quickly grabbed and Zaya is re-grabbed.

Zaya tries to make the hidden struggle a little more obvious and tries to get the attention of the entire inn by exposing her elven face by tossing back her hood after being struck by one of the thieves. People immediately notice and the room is filled with gasps and after realizing that a full on bar-room-fight is occurring, the gasps turn to screams.  It is only after the battle becomes more obvious that Osirian and 'Boy' are alerted, and they too join in to try and save Zaya.  A move of notable worth was Osirian running along the bar top and flinging himself towards the thief holding Zaya, only to smack into the wall and fall among the kegs.

Dragging Zaya outside the group discovers the thieves plan is to get her into a readied horse drawn wagon.  If they succeed in getting her into the wagon it would be very likely that the pursuit would be difficult.  Realizing this 'Boy' sends a magic missile off and hits the horse.  The horse scared and injured rears back, it's handler unable to keep it at bay, and it runs off down the road not to be seen again. The thieves change their tact and more thieves emerge from the shadows.  The battle is fairly even when Zaya and the main thief start to talk about possible deals they can make.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I had no idea what hit points a horse might have. I think it was fortunate that I could find stats that said the horse wouldn't just die after being hit by a magic missle. I'm sure it would've worked out either way but this is less gruesome and more fun.

The main thief releases Zaya and the two of them talk and it is discovered that Zaya has a bounty on her head by someone nicknamed 'The Orc'.  It seems all the thieves guilds in much of the land has been informed of the bounty and they tell Zaya that she is not safe anywhere.  This guild, The Sons of Cenarius, is willing to let her go and not let on, if she pays them at least half of the bounty.  The full bounty being 1,000 gp.  She declines without even a thought and counter offers. This goes back and forth until it is agreed upon that the group will try to get the gold flowing from the, supposed, haunted mines and as a show of good faith, Zaya gives them 'magically powerful mushrooms', which in reality are the green glowing mushrooms that she just found in the vampire's lair in the sewers.

MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: I still at the moment have no idea what the mushrooms will do when the thief/thieves finally ingest them. I'm thinking there's a good possibility that it will come back to bite Zaya in the ass. But come on! Really?!? It's like selling magic beans to a gullible farm boy.

The group gathers their things up.  Re-enters the inn.  Zaya thanks them for the room but tells them she will sleep elsewhere (while flipping the boy at the bar a coin for his troubles.  But all the boy sees is the elf tossing something so he quickly ducks back down behind the bar before the coin reaches him) while Fluffy refills his keg and has a drink with nerve shattered boy to show him all is well.

They find quiet refuge yet another inn, The King's Court. This time with no excitement.

The Burning Spires
2,350 XP

The Scar Mines.  Not a great vacation destination

The group finally decides to take up Amael's offer of the position of officers in the Order Of The Thunderhsields.  They enter The Keep to meet Amael, who seems not to care about details or trivialities of such things.  He directs them to his financial officer, Keyon Lightglove, who is a slight and tired and fairly overwhelmed man in an ill fitting Order of The Thundershield uniform.  He gives them the option to don Thundershield attire, the keys to the officers quarters and a stipend of 1 gold piece a day.  The party declines most of this in return for a letter identifying them as officers in The Order.

One of their first actions as officers they investigate the mines.

They ask around the barracks and discover that the mines are not producing because workers refuse to enter the mines out of fear that it is haunted.  Approaching the mines they find workers milling about and hear of a group of miners that had entered and a few of them returned, harried and terrified, telling of horrors that had taken the others.

The group enters the mines.

The mines start off as typical mines.  Smooth tool marked tunnels reinforced with wood.  Much further down a break in one of the tunnels exposes a rough naturally warn cavern with smoking fiery spouts scattered throughout.  The group moves cautiously through.  In time they encounter two hell hounds, a harpy and imp.  It would seem that they have been imprisoned here for thousands of years only to recently find themselves able to leave....and neither miners nor this group is going to stop them.

Through the black and caustic smoke a person appears, and it would seem to be Zaya's companion from long ago, Fade.  He beckons to Zaya, but Zaya feeling something is obviously wrong resists and finds her self psychically damaged and laying on the ground.  To Fluffy, this creature appears as a beautiful kobold but he too resists.  To Osirian, the creature which the group has by now discovered is a succubus demon, appears as the comely bar maid from the SoldShort Inn.  She beckons to him and he succumbs and as a result is forced to hit Zaya, injuring her.

The battle is long and hard with the group finding themselves close to death more than a few times. Finally, all their powers nearly depleted, the group is able to defeat the last of the creatures.  After a quick rest to tend to their grievous wounds they find a treasure hoard that would seem to be thousands of years old.

They find gold pieces minted in a long ago age, gems, a beautifully carved porcelain scroll case and a large stone in the shape of an egg.


MetaGame Spoiler Inside

(DM Note: The group was so near death that I didn't blame them for wanted to lick their wounds and retreat. Carrying on and finding any sort of challenge could easily mean their death. But I felt that having worked through such a gruelling battle only to leave while a great treasure hoard lies just beyond the smokey barrier would be a crime. So after a not so subtle hint, the group finds the treasure and the cheer of joy, for me, was definitely worth game breaking hint.

What's next.  Who the hell knows. Definitely not me.