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DnD Session 3-24-10

  The battle being finished, you try to heal the last surviving child you found hanging. This leaves searching the area to complete. Sets of armor and a cloak are found along with a chest under the cloak. When the chest is tried to open, a glyph of warding goes off that was not detected.  A blast of 5 engulfs everyone in the group. And that would have been fine after the 12 damage but when an after effect blasts for 21 points of damage, everyone but Horace falls. Still damaged from the battle, Alebran has hit his bloodied negative and dies as well as the saved boy. Potions of healing are distributed by Horace and everyone else is back on their feet. Another attempt to beat the chest gains assistance bonuses from others as the 28 DC is barely matched and the chest is opened. Within is a necklace along with gems and coins. It is split up amongst the party.

  Using perception checks to look for Gorgon Mud within the wetland, you slowly make your way away from the rise and back to more solid ground. A path curves out from the area and brings you to a make shift shelter the dwarves must have been using. Tools, clothing and a partly burned paper are found there. You can make out on the paper the statement, “once the node is complete, return to Dragonspear Castle.   Kalarel”. Late in the day, you head back towards Waterdeep with the bodies of the 4 children and Alebran in tow on a Tenser’s Floating Disk.

  Once you reach the gates, the guards ask about the bodies you carry, priests are called and they escort you to the Pelor Temple. There you are greeted as the fallen are taken care of while you are told of troubles in Waterdeep. A missing young girl from a well to do family and her dead body guard found in an alley not near where the girl disappeared from a dance hall last night. There are tales of ghostly apparitions and evil lurking in that part of the city. Also a tale of an evil ritual coming to power at the peak of a new moon 2 days from now. Then you are shown a note received by the temple this afternoon from Sindri stating he has the girl and she will be used to finish the new moon ritual that was interrupted and then he will have time to even the score.

-Brian takes over as DM at this point-

  We rest here at the temple and head out as soon as we are ready with Horace, Sri, Wither, Adrik and Omni. We all make out way down to the dance hall to investigate the area. Wither and Sri search the alley next to the building while the rest enter the hall and seek out info. Speaking with the bartender and later lead into a meeting room for some wine and conversation with a fella that knows who Omni is and that he is associated with the Pelor Temple. Omni ends up being knocked out by the wine as battle ensues.  Meanwhile Wither and Sri enter the building through a door at the bottom of a ramp along the side of the building. Dark halls, wine or beer kegs and a room with skulls on a shelf are what they find. When they make their way back out and into the front door, they questions the doormen and get rejected from entering. But then the battle breaks out into the main room and clients come running out the exits. Wither and Sri teleport into the building and engage the enemy in battle. The person that entered the room to share wine disappears as the bartender enters the meeting room from a secret door to enter the battle himself. In time the bartender falls with no sign of the other combatant as the crowd outside is yelling for authorities. We make a quick search and exit the building through the dark halls and come out in the alley. We are seen by patrons but quickly escape view running down the alley and heading for the alley the bodyguard was found dead in.

  Once we enter this darkened alley we are walking between 2 human figures on each side of the alley. One seems crazed and the other wants to share a drink. Once we choose to pass and move further into the alley, they move up behind and attack. Figures! We fight one to the crazed one to the death as the other runs back out of the alley and escapes. The alley travels in a distance then splits left and right.

What will we find there?

Resting the night at the Pelor Temple is needed while Wither goes in search of alchemical components and a few items. Toma decides to stay here and help with the reconstruction of the temple and also guard it against evil powers for what he can. Adrik sticks around town after the treasures are divided amongst you. In the morning a priest performs the speak with dead ritual and you get your 5 (3 sir) questions to ask the corpse. You find out another power node is outside but not far from the city and that Kalarel is planning on snuffing the good light of Pelor out here at the temple. Rumors of attacks and missing persons is reported around the wetlands south of the city. The priests agree this would be a good place to investigate and you head off. Making your way off the road that runs along the swampy area, you find an animal path that leads in. Several hours in moving at a slower than normal speed, the path reveals other travelers have used it when you find footprints, deposited milled lumber and a wider area to the path. The rogues, sorry, Wither and the sorcerer Sri lead the party quietly to a 12' wide open water path with a somewhat cleared area arcross from it with a rise of earth in it's center. Some 100' across, this clearing ends up to hold more than meet the eye. Some jump across, some swim and some end up swimming to the other side and moving in the 2' tall grass, try to move closer. 3 dwarves are seen. One concetraiting on the top of the rise while the other two are busy bleeding hanging prisoners from wood supports. Cries and screams are heard and you try to move in. The soil has a varying consistancy and color. There are times it seems to attach itself to legs and arms causing immobility, restraining as well as petrification if saves are not made. This causes some members to not reach  the rise and the coming battle. Also there are several small geisers the when approached spew forth acid blasts, this casues damage to several members and hampers the battle as it gets going. Sri is the first to reach the rise, he is greeted by the dwarves and some summoned bloodied suits of armor animate. The other dwarf seems to the a preist working on a visible pentagram situated ontop of the rise. Battle insues. Wither battles acid and enemies as the rest of the party tries to reach the rise. Sri lures a few of the animates out into the soft ground as Alebran and Wither do hand to hand. Horace gets in late because of the Gorgon Mud but enters melee never the less. As the dwarf warriors reach bloodied, they expand into large size and dish out more damage with their attacks. Wither throws the magic item you found that brings forth a summoned Skeletal Cyclops which enters teh melee too. The priest has an ability to slide enemy which Wither learn about the hard way but the priest is the first to fall as the battle goes on. One of the other dwarves falls as the remaining minions leaving one final large dwarf to defeat. Besides onging damage and magical obsticles, the battle is well handles victory is yours. Experience points gained allow more of you to level up. There is treasure here too but not the time to examine it all, that is for next time.

We formulate a plan for attacking the room. But we're not really that good at planning, are we? Horace goes in, disguised as a mouse. So far so good. Sri and Wither move to the edge of the room, ready to pounce. But then we get the idea in our heads (Omni, does, anyway) that we should be on the other side of the fast-moving river of sewage. Alebran goes for it, and makes it about 5 feet before he's swept into the stream, and ultimately into the room, gargling poop. Then Sri activates an alarm as he enters the room.

From there, things could have descended into disaster but amazingly, they don't. The dragonborn cleric summons a coupla demon minions and a big undead thingy, and Wither and Adrik square off against them. Horace, Toma and Sri chase after Sindri while Omni lobs in some ranged strikes. Alebran wrestles with sewage.

As expected, Sindri turns invisible and tries to make an escape. Omni makes a great perception check and sees Sindri, then makes a lucky strike. What happens next is still kind of a mystery. Sindri seems to turn visible, then fall. Or did he get away?

Soon the fight winds up ... the dragonborn falls into the stream and Sri, Alebran and Wither go downstream to confirm that he's dead. He's pinned to a grate full of spikes. Loot includes a big pile of gems, one magical, and a magic assassin's dagger. We don't find Sindri.

Afterwards, we huddle with the Pelor clerics and return the bodies that had been strewn up in that room. Moving forward, we ought to interrogate the corpses of the bad guys - especially that dragonborn. Anyone have any questions they want to ask? Maybe we could find out if the Asmodeus cultists have any other hideouts in town? What did they have planned with that power node?