Apologies for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks - I had a hard drive crash on my PC and it has taken me a while to get a new PC ordered in and set up. Luckily, my data was fully backed up but I lost all of my email and contacts - bummer! Still, it could have been a lot worse. Anyway, here's last week's installment of the Dragon Warriors campaign...
Into the Inferno (17th April 2013)
The Dragon Warriors
Aethelfrith – Thane
Sir Erich of Barton – Knight
Hillson - Warlock
Nazir al Khalid – Barbarian
Solaran – Elementalist
Karban Telos – Sorcerer
The Hide-Out (Day 11 (91) – just after midnight)
The pressure that the adventurers were under took its toll on
Thormann, and he left them during the course of the evening. The party were a
little perturbed by the lack of a sorcerer in their midst, but their prayers
were answered as they were approached by a fellow named Karban Telos, who had
been tailing them and watching their progress for the last few days. He
mentioned that he had a beef with the Scorchers and would like to join them on
their raid that evening. The adventurers were a little sceptical of his motives
to begin with, but he gradually won them over with his charm and wit.
The party huddled together in their private room and made
their plans for raiding the Scorchers’ lair that night (so that their magic
users all had their full complement of spells and powers). They arranged with
Toby for him to guide them and suggest a safe house that they could retreat to,
or at least get Mary and Edith to after the raid on the lair.
The party left the tavern just after midnight and they made
their way to the street where the Scorchers’ lair was pointed out by Toby. He
then bid them farewell and left the party to it.
The adventurers stealthily approached the side of the Scorchers’
building and their new accomplice used his magic to peer through the walls of
the tavern. He informed them that there were about ten or so people within the
confines of the building. They then made their way to the main door at the
front of the building and readied themselves.
Fight on the Ground Floor
Sir Erich and Aethelfrith booted the doors open and held
their ground whilst the rest of the party let loose with their bows and threw
daggers. One of the thugs fell before they could collect their wits, but then
they recovered and charged those defending the doors. Their leader, sporting a
yellow bonnet, stepped back a little from the group of rogues and began barking
orders. Spells flew in both directions, filling the air with magical hues and
sparks of bale fire. A second thug went down under a barrage of magically
conjured rocks, but the thugs were not to be outdone; six more of their
brethren approached the flanks of the party from two side alleys, hemming them
in.
The fighting at the main door was fierce, and remained a
stalemate with the thugs trading blow-for-blow with those guarding the door. The
occasional blast of magic caused a thug to drop out of the fight, but the
pressure was still immense. Outside the walls, the six Scorchers who had
emerged from the side alleys were given short shrift by Hillson’s Phantom
Warrior and Nazir’s singing axe blade. However, the warlock took the brunt of
the Scorchers’ attacks and required healing from Karban the Sorcerer.
Back at the door, the superior skills and strength of Sir
Erich and Aethelfrith began to show, as slowly the Scorchers were beaten back,
but not without a few cuts and bruises being collected on the stalwart warriors’
bodies. The space created by the two warriors allowed for more of their
companions to join the fight inside the tavern, and the numbers that were now brought
to the fight by the adventurers began to tell. The combination of magic and
more earthly weapons soon took a toll on the Scorchers defending the doors that
they finally broke and the party streamed into the room, hacking down the rest
with abandon, the final kill going to Aethelfrith, who took pleasure in taking
down the Scorcher mage.
Those members of the adventurous party still outside the tavern
quickly dragged the bodies of the dead Scorchers off the street, closed and
blocked the door, and then piled the bodies up in a corner of the tavern. The
bodies were quickly stripped of any valuables and decent weapons and the party
advanced on the only door at the rear of the tavern common room.
A quick listen at the doors was cut short by Nazir just
kicking the door down; he mentioned why should they bother with stealth when
they had just been in a huge, noisy fight? The others sheepishly agreed and
followed him into what was quickly identified as a large kitchen. A quick
search revealed nothing of value, but another small door led into a store room containing
food stuffs, and a flight of stone stairs that led down into the shadows below.
Rats in the Basement
The fighters again led the way down the stone steps and soon
found themselves in a large room with tapestry covered walls, lit by torches in
sconces. At the far end of the room they spotted four figures, two in armour
and two in flowing red, orange and yellow robes, who quickly prepared their
weapons and eldritch wizardries.
The fighters rushed straight into battle to take one of the
guards out as quickly as possible whilst the magic wielders, two of whom were
now nearly out of power, used their bows to pick off the enemy wizards. This
tactic worked well because one enemy wizard was quickly struck by two shafts
from the sorcerer’s bow and collapsed in agony. However, the second druid was
able to get a magical blast off at the barbarian, who fell under a large slab
of magically animated rock. Spurred on by seeing their companion go down at the
hands of such deviltry, the party renewed their attacks. Solaran and Karban
struck the second guard with arrows from their bows (Karban was becoming quite
a good shot with it now - certainly showing the fighters how it should be done!)
and the two remaining fighters made short work of their opposite number who
fell with a gaping spear wound. Aethelfrith moved straight on to support
Hillson who was battling the second druid. He felled him with only one stab of
his spear. Karban made count yet another of his arrows, letting it loose into
the last remaining guard who quickly fell to another of Aethelfrith’s spear
strikes.
The party quickly rallied around their fallen companion to
make sure that he was OK. Nazir was made of stern stuff, and it would take more
than a few rocks to make him leave this world. The sorcerer and warlock used
the last of their magic to heal him a little, so that he would be OK for a
short while at least. The rest of the party stripped the druids and their
guards of any useful materials.
The two fighters, Aethelfrith and Sir Erich, made their way
to the set of doors at the far end of the room and thrust them open. Beyond the
valves lay darkness, the sound of slowly running water and the stench of the sewer.
The party knew where they were now - directly below the main street running
down to the docks.
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