Kobold Hall: Session 4

Exhausted by their efforts in clearing the manor house of the kobolds, the party decided that sleep and a meal was in order. They cleared an area of the detritus left behind by the kobolds, and settled down for a rest. For the next few hours, they chatted about their exploits.

“Us, a bunch of itinerant caravan guards,” remarked Thorfinn, “defeating a horde of kobolds. Who'd have thought it?” So happy at their victory was he that he didn't notice Eilonwy's cold, appraising stare.

Eventually, Eilonwy roused the others and they set out to discover what other dangers awaited them. Opening the secret door they had found earlier, Jia again scouted ahead of the others. The passage was rough, low and dank. Only in places was there any evidence of the walls being hand carved, and most of the rock was covered in a slimy grey mould. As they moved along the passageway, an unnatural coldness crept over them, and the grey mould was replaced by a rime of frost.

Having travelled some two hundred yards or so, Jia espied ahead a natural cavern, glistening faintly. Carefully creeping forwards, she arrived in a natural cavern, with ice covered walls, and a frozen pool in the centre. From the roof of the cavern some forty feet above, light shone down through a shaft that reached to the surface. All was silent.

She moved forwards to examine the pool, while the others entered the chamber behind her. As she bend down at the edge of the pool, from behind a wide pillar of rock sprang a young white dragon, some twenty five feet long, with wings thirty feet wide. Screaming in Draconian, it danced forwards across the surface of the frozen pool, it's claws giving it purchase on the slippery ice. From its mouth it breathed a gust of shockingly cold air at the adventurers, like a blizzard from the northern wastes.

Recovering from the icy assault, Jia quickly fired her crossbow at the dragon, but to no effect. The front line fighters arrayed themselves around the dragon, and began a barrage of blows, aided for once by Thorfinn's staunch leadership. However, the dragon's leathery scaled hide turned aside many of the blows. Eilonwy and Kaza began a magical assault, with Kaza shouting, “Kaza casts her Sleep spell! The dragon is unaffected! Kaza curses!”

Jia crept behind the dragon and pulling out her short sword began stabbing at its tail. However, the dragon turned on her, and grabbing her in its claws picked her up and bit her viciously, icy white teeth sinking deep into her flesh. It dropped the unconscious Jia and turned back to Doomgrad and Gilee.

Eilonwy ran forwards to help the prone rogue, her healing magics sealing Jia's wounds and bringing her to conciousness. However, the dragon took the opportunity to fly out of reach of the fray, and once more opened its jaws to breathe icy shards of death at the party. This time, only Jia was hit, but not badly. Doomgrad moved to Jia, and saying “Don't worry, I'm going to touch you in that special way that only a paladin can touch a woman.” His caresses soon soothed away her hurts and eased her pain.

Following this disturbing cross species encounter, the close combat specialists ran forwards to engage the dragon once more, and Kaza also closed with the dragon. Shouting “Kaza casts Burning Hands at the dragon! Kaza has hit! And injured the dragon badly!”.

However, she had strayed within reach of the dragon's claws, and had to quickly duck below its attacks.

Doomgrad and Gilee, aided by Thorfinn, continued their unrelenting onslaught against the dragon. Sensing defeat, the dragon began to take off in an attempt to flee via the rock shaft in the chamber's roof, but its youth and inexperience proved to be its downfall. As it began to flap its wings, Doomgrad swung his longsword, and his blade pierced it's icy breast and impaled its heart. Crashing to the floor the dragon shuddered once, and died.

The adventurers were unable to believe what they had just accomplished. Doomgrad sat on an icy rock, and wiped his sword clean, contemplating his new title, “Doomgrad Dragonslayer”.

Once the shock had faded, they examined the room, looking for the dragon's fabled horde. All they found was an iron bound wooden chest, and the dragon's bedding which contained the green dragon hides that they had come to reclaim. Jia attempted to pick the lock, but the cold, and her injuries, meant she was unable to do so, so Thorfinn spent a few moments smashing the hinges with his warhammer. Inside they found a pile of gold coins, a pearl in a small felt bag (“I wonder if the bag is significant” enquired Jia), and a longsword in a black leather scabbard. This magical Longsword of Lifedrinking was regarded with some trepidation by the party.

“It is an evil thing, created by demonic powers,” said Doomgrad, drawing it and examining the dull grey blade and haft with black leather and dark gems. “I should take it. As a paladin I am most suited to resist its corrupting temptations.

“It is a blade crafted by men,” commented Gilee, “for dwarves or elves would not fashion such an evil thing. As a human it falls to me to dispose of such a terrible weapon, so I should take it.”

Kaza's eyes shone with a certain Dwarven curiosity. “As a wizard, Kaza should take the sword. Perhaps she can use her magical abilities to remove the taint.”

Thorfinn's desires were more obvious and less well hidden. “I can hardly hit a barn door when I'm holding the handle. I should take this as it would make me less crap.”

Jia was silent, as she shoved the cash and gems in her pouch while the others were otherwise engaged. It was only as she was prizing the teeth from the dragon's mouth that Eilonwy saw her and forced her to hand back the loot.

Bickering about the ownership of the sword, the party left the way they came, climbing back out of the kobold's lair into the early morning sun. Their argument was quickly stopped when they saw the remains of Carter the Unstoppable Cart Machine. Overnight, left tethered outside, he had become Carter the Easily Accessible Wolf Meal.

Distraught, they made their way back to the cart, untouched on the road where they had left it. Loading their gains on the cart, they dejectedly walked back to town pulling the cart behind them. The journey back to town took all day, and, exhausted, they arrived back at Fallcrest just before the gates to town were locked for the night.

Making their way back to the Silver Unicorn inn, all thoughts of collecting their rewards forgotten for the moment, they left the cart with the stable boy and went inside to find warmth and sustenance.

Inside they were greeted by Wisara Osterman, who saw them to a table and soon serving staff brought them an array of fine foods, roast chicken, roasted potatoes, sausages, steak and kidney pie, and fried fish with yamps and capers, and a supply of fine wines.

Once their bellies were full and their aches soothed by the alcohol, they began to smile at their good fortune. Dragon slayers! They were dragon slayers!

At that point a voice said “Thorfinn? Is that you, Thorfinn?” They turned to see a suave looking tiefling walking towards their table.

“Bakaan?” Thorfinn looked shocked.

“Thorfinn?” asked Eilonwy, “Is this a friend of yours?”

“Allow me to introduce myself,” said the Tiefling. “My name is Bakaan, and I am an old colleague of Thorfinn. We met some years ago at Warlord College in Suzail.”

“Warlord College?”

“Oh, yes, myself and Thorfinn were in the same classes in the first year of college. I myself have just qualified summa cum laude, and am looking for an adventuring party to join.” He sat down at the chair at the head of their table, and poured himself a goblet of wine. “So what happened when you dropped out at the end of the first year, Thorfinn? Did you find fortune as a merchant, as you claimed you would? Are these your employees?”

Eilonwy turned to Thorfinn. “You mean to say you never graduated from Warlord College?” she asked, stunned. “What was that certificate you showed me when I hired you?”

“Er, it was, it was my mumble-mumble-mumble,” he replied.

“Your what?”

“My dishonourable discharge papers. I forged them to say honourable discharge,” Thorfinn admitted.

Eilonwy turned red with anger, and pointed one finger at him. “Thorfinn. You're fired. Get out.” Thorfinn got up from the bench, picked up his pack, and left the inn.

“So, Bakaan”, the cleric said, turning to the tiefling. “You're a warlord looking for work, you say?”

Bakaan simply leant back in the chair, sipped his wine, and smiled.

Kobold Hall: Session 3

While Thorfinn was berating the drake over the loss of his shin, Jia took the opportunity to scamper up the table that Doomgrad had conveniently placed. Darting forwards she stabbed at a kobold stood behind the drakes. It was only when Jia's vicious strike slid past his ear and sliced the end off his hand rolled cigarette that he realised she was there. Dropping his fag end to the floor, he turned to face her.

In the main room, the remaining slinger began firing a barrage of stones at Kaza. After receiving a couple of nasty blows, including one to the head, she suddenly began talking in the third person, “Kaza is firing a Magic Missile! Kaza hits! Kaza is stunned that she got a spell to work!”

Eilonwy ran forwards to throw healing magics at the two party members facing the drakes, but her magical prowess was not enough to keep Thorfinn concious as the drakes took more bites from his body. Swearing as he passed out, the warlord slumped to the floor. Doomgrad ran forwards to aid Gilee, only to receive serious wounds himself. However, the blows from the warrior and the paladin were beginning to tell on the drakes.

Jia finally managed to stab the kobold on the stairs behind the drakes, and moved into a flanking position where she could make best use of her short sword. With additional healing magics and the staunch fighting abilities of Doomgrad and Gilee, the kobolds and their drakes were soon no more.

Once more the party took a few minutes to bandage their wounds before pressing on. Searching the two alcoves, they soon found a small stash of coins and gems, apparently the kobolds' betting funds.

Jia stealthed forwards once more. The next chamber she came to was a large one, with two raised areas and, strangely, a wide wall in the middle of the room on which two kobold slingers kept watch. Arranged against the party were the two slingers, and on the far side of the room stood two kobold guardsmen, and the leader of the kobolds, wearing his distinctive bone mask. A small flying drake swooped around the room.

A sudden barrage of crossbow bolts and magical energies killed one of the slingers and badly injured the other. Shouting commands, the kobold leader, a Wyrmpriest of Tiamat, pushed forwards to the lip of the alcove he stood on. His guards pushed forwards to either side of the room to take up flanking positions.

The party moved into the room, and were shocked to see a large spherical stone drop from the second raised alcove, and proceed to roll around the room. Thorfinn and Doomgrad, having swiftly defeated one of the Wyrmpriest's guards, ducked out of the way of the rapidly rolling stone into a handy narrow corridor.

On the far side of the room, Gilee engaged the other kobold guard. The small flying drake harried the magic users and the rogue, sweeping past them and making swift biting attacks. Kaza blasted away at the small drake, “Kaza fires magic missile! She misses! She fires again!”. Jia fired crossbow bolts at the drake, unable to swipe at it with her short sword as it flew by.

A final magical blast defeated the remaining slinger, and as the stone rolled past their hiding place, Thorfinn and Doomgrad rushed the Wyrmpriest. Unfortunately, Thorfinn made it to the Wyrmpriest first, inadvertantly blocking Doomgrad's path.

The stone rolled round to the far side of the room, with the party dodging out of its path. Gilee hacked apart the remaining guard with a series of vicious strikes, and then turned her attention to the flying drake. Between them, Gilee, Jia, Kaza and Eilonwy soon defeated it.

The Wyrmpriest launched a blast of freezing energy at Doomgrad and Thorfinn, but this was not enough to save him. Thorfinn struck him a vicious blow, which in combination with the spells cast by Kaza and Eilonwy, soon had him bleeding his life blood over the rough stone floor.

As the clamour of battle faded, the party looked around for further foes, and realise that they had defeated the kobolds, forever ridding the town of Fallcrest of this particular threat. Congratulating themselves on a job well done, they searched for any valuable items and started collecting Kobold ears.

Kaza took a look at the staff that the Wyrmpriest had been using, and realised that it was a magical Warstaff. Grasping it in her hands, she felt the magical power imbued in the staff flowing through her. “Kaza has found a magic staff!” she announced to the others, and continued searching for other magical adjuncts. She was unsuccessful, but did find a small silver key, and a map of the room, showing the location of a secret door.

The party examined the area where the door was supposed to be, and soon discovered a small concealed keyhole. With a swift twist of the silver key the secret door opened before them, revealing a narrow, rough-hewn passageway, leading down into the darkness. Their time in Kobold Hall was not over yet!

Kobold Hall: Session 2

Once they had spent a few minutes bandaging Thorfinn's multiple wounds, they found their way onwards blocked by the portcullis. A short way beyond the portcullis was a prominent lever in the wall. Eilonwy instructed Doomgrad to go and pull the lever, and once more he forced his way through the bars despite his large stature (at 4'5” he was reputed to be the tallest halfling alive, apart from the famed Fungo The Rackstretched).

Long on brawn but short on brains, Doomgrad looked at the lever for a short while while he pondered the situation.

“It may be a trap,” he said eventually, “Kobolds like traps.”

“Just pull the lever,” called the rest of the group, prepared to sacrifice him in an effort to continue on towards the loot. Standing back, he pushed the lever down with his sword, and with a juddering clanking, the portcullis rose into the ceiling.

Jia scouted on ahead a short distance, stealth her watchword, and found herself in the remains of a wine cellar. Ruined bottle racks surrounded the walls of this large room. On each side of the room, in an alcove previously reserved for wine, stood a suit of armour. At the far end stood a crude altar, where four kobolds were busy worshipping. Stealthily making her way forwards, Jia took cover under a large table, and loaded her crossbow pistol. Taking steady aim at the head of one of the kobold, she let fly the bolt, only to curse as the firing mechanism stuck momentarily, sending the bolt wide.

The kobolds, alarmed by the sudden attack, easily spied Jia's companions as they rushed into the room, but missed her as she crouched down in cover. As they ran forwards, a fusilate of bolts fired at them from the visors of the two suits of armour. Gilee was struck, but Doomgrad was able to duck down behind one of the tables, sure that the bolt would not be able to hit him, despite him being the tallest, strongest, widest halfling paladin in 6 counties. Luckily, the bolt missed him as he pushed forwards.

Thorfinn once more found himself in the thick of the fighting, and once more received the brunt of the attacks, but some timely magical assistance from Eilonwy and Kaza gave him the opportunity to crush a kobold skull. Meanwhile, Gilee and Doomgrad were busy occupying the remaining kobolds, giving Jia the opportunity to sneak out and get into a flanking position. With a lunge, she rammed her shortsword through the back of the neck of one of the kobolds, and with a cruel twist severed his carotid, spraying Doomgrad in a shower of blood. Within moments the remaining kobolds were felled.

Examining the altar, they found crude representations of Tiamat, the Dragon God of Chaos, and some coins which they quickly pocketed. Once more they took a few moments to bandage their wounds, and pressed on.

Taking care for more traps, Jia scouted ahead. Down a short staircase she came to a rough chamber, not part of the original cellar, where a strange sight met her eyes. The kobolds had set up some sort of strange game room, where they would swing a rock on a rope at skulls placed on tables. As she watched, one of the kobolds managed to get a hit on a skull, which stuck to the slime covered rock. “Kobold bar billiards, it seems” she thought.

Reporting back to the party, they decided that they needed to do something about the rock, as being hit by a rock the size of your head, being swing at you with force, could cause a nasty contusion.

“Don't worry, my powerful mystical magical mojo shall defeat this vile trap,” Kaza informed them.

“You're just gonna catch it with Mage Hand, aren't you?” asked Gilee.

“Yes,” replied the crestfallen wizard.

They crept clanking down the steps and prepared themselves. Kaza summoned up her powerful mystical magical mojo, and caught the rock mid swing. The kobolds, surprised to see a glowing, floating hand stop their game of Skull-Skull-Stone mid swing, were rightly outraged, and as the party rushed forwards they began to cast sling stones and javelins.

This onslaught of missiles was met in return by an onslaught of a more magical nature from Eilonwy and Kaza, who managed to kill some of the weaker goblins with a scorching burst. Doomgrad used the opportunity to grab one of the tables that the kobolds has used for their game and use it as a ramp up to the alcove they were playing their game from, as Gilee and Thorfinn burst through doors at the far end of the room.

On the far side of the doors they were met by a pair of large lizard creatures the size of a large dogs, which rushed forwards. These guard drakes immediately attacked, and one of them sank his sharp teeth into Thorfinn's leg, biting off a large chunk of flesh and swallowing it whole. Thorfinn's language turned the air blue.

Kobold Hall: Session 1

The party found themselves in the town of Fallcrest, having travelled there as caravan guards from Arabel in Cormyr. After a week in the town, they came to the conclusion that they needed a source of income to pay their accommodation bills.

Asking around, they were directed to Moonstone Keep, home of the local noble, Lord Warden Faren Markelhay. Outside the main guardhouse, they found the town noticeboard, used for the advertisement of things such as town meetings, group gatherings, etc., and also offers of work. On the board, they found a couple of notices that attracted their attention.

Firstly there was a job offer from Lord Warden Markelhay himself, advertising a bounty on kobold raiders who had been attacking travellers between Fallcrest and the town of Winterhaven, some three days travel to the west. The group asked at the keep, and were introduced to Lord Warden Markelhay's seneschal, Luther Gethsemane. He explained that a bounty of 10gp was being offered for each pair of kobold ears, with a 100gp bounty offered for the bone mask reported to be worn by the kobold's leader. The group gladly accepted the commission, and were given directions to the kobold's suspected base of operations, a ruined and deserted manor house some fifteen miles from town.

Secondly, there was a notice from the town's armourer and weapon smith, a dwarf by the name of Teldorthan “Goldcap” Ironhews, asking for a band of bold adventurers to assist him in recovering some stolen goods. As there were no bold adventurers in the region, the party decided to speak to him themselves. Presenting themselves at Teldorthan's forge, he informed them that a valuable cargo of green dragon hides had been stolen by the kobold raiders. As he had been intending to use the hides to make an item for Lord Warden Markelhay himself, he was very keen on getting them back, and was offering a 200gp reward for their return.

The party were happy that they could combine the two jobs, and quickly prepared for the journey. Expecting to be loaded down with huge sums of gold and magic items, they purchased a cart and carthorse, who they immediately named Carter.

They travelled down the road, but by late afternoon had encountered no traffic. About a mile to the south of the road they spied the ruins they were looking for, in the fringes of a small wood. Carefully approaching, they saw that the manor house was in a very poor condition. Half of the roof was gone, and walls had collapsed. The manor's grounds were overgrown, and ivy and other climbing plants had covered the remaining structure.

Venturing into the ruins, the party found some signs of recent habitation. A path had been cleared through the rubble, and following this, they found themselves in the remains of the manor's kitchen. A set of stairs led down to a cellar area.

As they reached the cellars, they were greeted by the sight of a storeroom, smashed crockery and broken boxes pushed towards the walls. Strangely, in the centre of this room was a pit, some 20' by 10', from which a noxious looking green vapour was rising. On the far side of the room stood a kobold, holding a sling. As the kobold shouted a warning, Jia fired a bolt from her crossbow pistol at him, and injured him badly. The kobold fled around a corner, and the party surged into the room. As they did so, two more kobolds, both skirmishers, rushed out from the passage the slinger had fled down. At the same time, two more skirmishers and another slinger joined the fray from a side passage, squeezing through the bars of a portcullis blocking the way.

Bravely pushing forwards, Thorfinn found himself surrounded on three sides by the kobolds, and received a number of wounds, each of which caused him to curse enough to turn the air blue. However, his constant calls of “Hit 'em harder!” bore fruit as Gilee attacked a kobold and having unbalanced him with a brutal strike to the shoulder, pushed him into the pit with her shield. With a wail the kobold fell into the glowing green slime, and disappeared from sight.

“Don't drop them in the pit! We need the ears!” shouted Gilee's companions, and contritely she forced her way forwards to assist Thorfinn.

Meanwhile, Doomgrad rushed at the slinger behind the portcullis, who was surprised and shocked to see the paladin make his way through the bars of the portcullis, despite being as tall as a dwarf, wearing full plate armour and wielding a longsword as tall as he was. However his shock was short-lived, as Doomgrad cut him down with a pair of powerful blows.

Eilonwy and Kaza kept up a concentrated magical assault on the kobolds, though no one was quite sure if Kaza was aiming at the kobolds or the cellar walls. Jia crept up to assist Thorfinn and Gilee, and once Doomgrad joined them, the kobolds were soon dispatched. After a few moments to catch their breath, someone asked the question they were all thinking.

“So how do we get the one in the pit out so we can get his ears?”