Entering Eastern Edgewood

This session happened Friday, July 16, 2010, and was the only session I ran this past weekend.

No new players (see my posting on the 14th) and only five players at the table. This is one of the reasons I'm delaying adding more players. If it is like this regularly, I can add a few more players, especially if they will be infrequent. If this is just the lull before the storm…that's another matter.

Adventuring Group:
Mog the Doomed (half-orc barbarian)
Tycho von Helmont (elf alchemist)
Agnes (dwarf rogue)
Thorngrim (half-orc sorceror)
Rhapsody (half-elf rogue)

Note: the list of players is sitting order, from my left around the table. Just clarifying that as I never stated it earlier.

After some discussion that never quite formed up into an actual decision or plan, the group marched out of the Iron Keep to Dropoff Tower. They arrived after a day of walking Gravemarker Road, finding the tower still secure and intact. After camping for the night, the group decided to explore east, trying to track down the Tower of Raan. All they knew about the Tower of Raan was that the adventurers of forty years ago never found it, but verified that Dropoff Tower was NOT it.

The group explored east until they reached the river on their map. The river was too deep for them to cross, so they explored upstream, looking for a fordable point. They eventually found a ford and camped there for the night. During the evening, an owlbear moved across the ford to investigate the smells and the campfire. Mog attempted to intimidate the owlbear, which made it pause long enough for the adventurers to ready themselves (and Mog to drink a potion of enlarge). The owlbear then decided that Mog was challenging it for territory and charged. In the amazingly brief combat, Mog nearly cut the owlbear in half, twice, and killed the beast with some assistance from Agnes. The owlbear never landed a paw. [Note to self: owlbears look cool, but really suck otherwise. Get them off the encounter table soonest.]

The next day, the group pressed into Eastern Edgewood. During their exploration, Thorngrim was ambushed by an assassin vine and nearly killed before anyone else was aware there was a problem. If Rhapsody had not been particularly observant, Thorngrim would have disappeared without a trace. Once again, an enlarged Mog saved the day (and Thorngrim) by killing the assassin vine. Tycho revived Thorngrim by applying several healing distillations, nearly using up Tycho’s entire supply for the day. As a result, when the group found first a nest of giant stag beetles and then a den of owlbears, they avoided the monsters.

After getting lost for a bit and then circling back towards the river, the group found a circular set of hills with some ruins in the center of the ring. Night was falling, so the group camped for the night – outside the ring of hills and adjacent to the river just to be safe. During the night, a group of six small humanoids with longspears attacked the group. The adventurers resisted and killed the attackers. Tycho quickly identified the creatures as vegepygmies. No more attacked during the night and so the adventurers gave them little thought afterwards.

The following morning the adventurers returned to the ruins. The ruins appear to be the base of an immense tower. Rhapsody located a route into the enormous pile of rubble and the group entered a rough tunnel heading down. Agnes and Rhapsody located traps of increasing difficulty, bypassing two but triggering the third, a chamber of blades scything back and forth, catching all but Thorngrim. The group retreated out of the trap with Agnes, who had the furthest to retreat, being the worst damaged. The group used what healing magic they had while the waiting for the trap to wind down.

Once it did, the group pushed on, finding some finished hallways, possibly part of the original construction. After a small bit of exploring, the group came upon a door made of adamantine and locked with an intricate lock. Agnes, Rhapsody, and Tycho spent an hour puzzling out the inner workings of the lock, drawing suspected schematics of the lock on the adjacent wall in chalk as they probed it. Just as Mog was getting REALLY bored, they successfully unlocked the lock and opened the door. Beyond was a five-foot wide, short hallway and then stairs leading up.

Recognizing a veritable fortune in the adamantine door, the adventurers quickly set about removing it from its hinges and then packed it out of the ruins, not caring where the stairs led or why such a strong lock was on a nearly unbreakable door. They made it back to Dropoff Tower [after spending a resolve token to avoid a chimera that flew by] and camped for the night. The next day they followed Gravemarker Road through the forest and back to Iron Keep.

After finding a buyer able to take the door off their hands, the group realized 50,000 gp for the door. When they immediately asked the buyer if any of the adamantine would be available for making weapons, they got an equally immediate, “no”. Ah, well. At least Mog was able to pay off his debts and get some restorations, right?