Naze Valley Rangers - Session 4
This was a short session for a variety of reasons, including the no-show of a player and his son (so two players actually). I don't know the details yet, but when I do... ...I won't actually be posting them here. I suspect it is a private matter and that's all I'll say about that.
First we started out with the passing out of the loot from the last two sessions. Items of interest were a masterwork cold iron long sword, a savage-looking +1 longsword from the gnoll leader, an efficient quiver (renamed quiver of Elohna from 3.5), an elixir of flame breathing, a moonstone statuette of a gnollish deity, and a lot of turquoise. The coinage was mostly Sovereign Manticores (an ancient gnoll coinage from the time of the Gnoll Hegemony), some Gold Commonwealths (over 500 years old but still common currency), and even some Gold Marks (only recently coined), indicating that the gnolls have been sending slaving parties into the Kingdom of Kaldahnaka.
The Rangers then stood watch over the ruins while the Redbird Expedition members got their first good nights sleep in weeks. On second watch, Bones heard the sound of things moving about in the woods. He pretended not to notice and continued his circuit around the wall. On the next circuit, he heard what sounded like some quiet arguments in the area the gnolls had been leaving their dead. On his third circuit, he heard nothing at all. It was too quiet.
He woke up Clem by the simple expedient of throwing a rock at her. He missed, but she woke up to the sound anyway and he didn't have to throw a second rock. Lucky him. She looked around and the spotted him pantomiming bow fire. She put on her chain shirt and headed up the scaffolding to the top of the wall. While Bones used the remains of machiolations for cover, Clem just looked. What ever was out there spotted her and ducked down into cover, so she quietly invoked Natea to sense if there was any evil afoot. There was, a sickly and hungry evil. Concentrating further, Clem was able to determine there were approximately seven distinct focuses emanating this evil, but they were at the very edge of her abilities and there could be more. After a short conversation with hand gestures, she sent Bones down to wake Owen and Oralon and the Redbird Expedition members.
By the time the rangers were all on top of the wall, the hunger of the creatures in the forest had finally overwhelmed them and seven of them charged the wall. It was dark with only moonlight and so the rangers could not clearly see what the creatures were, but their odd gait and low gibbering was all the rangers needed to be convinced to shoot their bows - to minimal effect. The creatures rapidly scaled the walls and the fighting began in earnest.
The fighting was tough. Oralon was paralyzed early by the touch of the creatures, confirming that these were ghouls. As the tide was slowly turning towards the rangers, two additional foul beasts charged the wall. As they closed, the stench of death emanating from them sickened Owen and the still re-paralyzed Oralon (one of the ghouls had forgotten himself in the fight and started eating on Oralon until Owen rescued him with an acrobatic throw of Oralan). When it became clear to the creatures that the fight was turning against them, they grabbed paralyzed rangers (Oralan and Clem at this point) and jumped from the wall, 30 feet down to the ground!
Bones was down, paralyzed and unconscious, but the warrior-diggers of the Redbird Expedition finally arrived at the top of the wall. This allowed Owen to jump off the wall himself to give pursuit. While being dragged by one of the foul creatures, Oralon regained control of his body and slew the creature with a blast of electricity.
Separately, Clem also shrugged off the paralysis effect of the creatures attacks and channeled the healing power of Natea through her hands into the creature, damaging it and forcing it to drop her. The creature attacked her, attempting to recapture its meal, which allowed Owen to catch up. After two rounds of furious fighting, both Owen and Clem were paralyzed, with Clem on the verge of unconsciousness. As the creature brought back its claw to to rend Clem one final time, Oralon blasted it with the last of his magic, destroying the creature. The three rangers then limped back to the Moon Mountain Ruins.
The next two days were spent healing as Sereah used her entire complement of healing spells each day to bring the rangers back to full health. On the third day, Sergeant Lars Bloodaxe and twenty soldiers of the County Guard arrived to reinforce the ruins. Clem brought Lars up to speed on the situation and discussed options. Clem decided she and the rangers would track down the ghoul lair to determine if they were all killed or more still existed. After half a day following trails and ghoul-sign, the rangers located a cave that seemed to be the lair of the ghouls and prepared to enter.
This is where we ended the session. More next month!
First we started out with the passing out of the loot from the last two sessions. Items of interest were a masterwork cold iron long sword, a savage-looking +1 longsword from the gnoll leader, an efficient quiver (renamed quiver of Elohna from 3.5), an elixir of flame breathing, a moonstone statuette of a gnollish deity, and a lot of turquoise. The coinage was mostly Sovereign Manticores (an ancient gnoll coinage from the time of the Gnoll Hegemony), some Gold Commonwealths (over 500 years old but still common currency), and even some Gold Marks (only recently coined), indicating that the gnolls have been sending slaving parties into the Kingdom of Kaldahnaka.
The Rangers then stood watch over the ruins while the Redbird Expedition members got their first good nights sleep in weeks. On second watch, Bones heard the sound of things moving about in the woods. He pretended not to notice and continued his circuit around the wall. On the next circuit, he heard what sounded like some quiet arguments in the area the gnolls had been leaving their dead. On his third circuit, he heard nothing at all. It was too quiet.
He woke up Clem by the simple expedient of throwing a rock at her. He missed, but she woke up to the sound anyway and he didn't have to throw a second rock. Lucky him. She looked around and the spotted him pantomiming bow fire. She put on her chain shirt and headed up the scaffolding to the top of the wall. While Bones used the remains of machiolations for cover, Clem just looked. What ever was out there spotted her and ducked down into cover, so she quietly invoked Natea to sense if there was any evil afoot. There was, a sickly and hungry evil. Concentrating further, Clem was able to determine there were approximately seven distinct focuses emanating this evil, but they were at the very edge of her abilities and there could be more. After a short conversation with hand gestures, she sent Bones down to wake Owen and Oralon and the Redbird Expedition members.
By the time the rangers were all on top of the wall, the hunger of the creatures in the forest had finally overwhelmed them and seven of them charged the wall. It was dark with only moonlight and so the rangers could not clearly see what the creatures were, but their odd gait and low gibbering was all the rangers needed to be convinced to shoot their bows - to minimal effect. The creatures rapidly scaled the walls and the fighting began in earnest.
The fighting was tough. Oralon was paralyzed early by the touch of the creatures, confirming that these were ghouls. As the tide was slowly turning towards the rangers, two additional foul beasts charged the wall. As they closed, the stench of death emanating from them sickened Owen and the still re-paralyzed Oralon (one of the ghouls had forgotten himself in the fight and started eating on Oralon until Owen rescued him with an acrobatic throw of Oralan). When it became clear to the creatures that the fight was turning against them, they grabbed paralyzed rangers (Oralan and Clem at this point) and jumped from the wall, 30 feet down to the ground!
Bones was down, paralyzed and unconscious, but the warrior-diggers of the Redbird Expedition finally arrived at the top of the wall. This allowed Owen to jump off the wall himself to give pursuit. While being dragged by one of the foul creatures, Oralon regained control of his body and slew the creature with a blast of electricity.
Separately, Clem also shrugged off the paralysis effect of the creatures attacks and channeled the healing power of Natea through her hands into the creature, damaging it and forcing it to drop her. The creature attacked her, attempting to recapture its meal, which allowed Owen to catch up. After two rounds of furious fighting, both Owen and Clem were paralyzed, with Clem on the verge of unconsciousness. As the creature brought back its claw to to rend Clem one final time, Oralon blasted it with the last of his magic, destroying the creature. The three rangers then limped back to the Moon Mountain Ruins.
The next two days were spent healing as Sereah used her entire complement of healing spells each day to bring the rangers back to full health. On the third day, Sergeant Lars Bloodaxe and twenty soldiers of the County Guard arrived to reinforce the ruins. Clem brought Lars up to speed on the situation and discussed options. Clem decided she and the rangers would track down the ghoul lair to determine if they were all killed or more still existed. After half a day following trails and ghoul-sign, the rangers located a cave that seemed to be the lair of the ghouls and prepared to enter.
This is where we ended the session. More next month!