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Prologue
The party's mission is to discover the mystery behind the disappearance of town folk from the local
environs (and on a personal note, Geraldo (NPC) is trying to find his kidnapped young lady, one Vandalla).
Initial clues indicated that the disappearances might be concentrated around the now abandoned Temple at
Sounder's Gap.
The first attempt on the dungeon resulted in various party members deaths and being forced to re-sit their
'Dungeoneering 101 Exams' back in Essendare. Six months later, the party re-attempts their investigations
of the temple. After surviving, if 'surviving' is the correct term here, the trial that was the flaming
dungeon beneath The Temple at Sounder's Gap (also known as 'The Temple of Extreme Pain') the party are
camped outside the temple, in the ruined remains of the smithy (for once not the party's fault) taking
stock of the situation; which, on the whole is not good.
On the positive side:-
- Large amounts of money were 'liberated'.
- A few things which may or may not prove to be beneficial magical weapons & items were found.
- Some documents which seem to indicate that there is some connection between the major players in this
dungeon and another location called 'Neoscornath' in the Arunane Mountains to the west of their current
location. A map indicates that the path to this place is via a mountain pass which begins at a rock
formation called 'Thor's Twins'.
On the negative side:-
- No sign of the missing people was discovered,
- The mage, Raven B'Ender, seems to have developed an allergy to magic wands,
- Rabba Shanks the elven mage / priest, harbinger of much of the party's woes in the dungeon, is a severely
damaged, both physically and mentally.
His god Thor, has removed his clerical powers and most of the rest of the party would happily string him
up by his fire-scarred testicles from the nearest tree. To add insult to injury, Raven B'Ender's newly
discovered wand allergy has meant that the only wand liberated from the dungeon could only be used by
Rabba.
The party's mission is to discover the mystery behind the disappearance of town folk from the local
environs (and on a personal note, Geraldo (NPC) is trying to find his kidnapped young lady, one Vandalla).
Initial clues indicated that the disappearances might be concentrated around the now abandoned Temple at
Sounder's Gap.
The first attempt on the dungeon resulted in various party members deaths and being force
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Chapter Two: Gone in Sixty Seconds
It is late January and the temperature in Sounder's Gap is decidedly nippy. Because of the cold rain,
everyone is bivouacked close to the fire. During the second watch of Messrs Krunt-Phoenix & Leondegrance,
the deeply scarred Rabba Shanks, unnoticed by the watchers (whether by mystic intervention or crap
perception rolls we will never truly know), disappears into the night, taking with him those few remaining
charred scraps of equipment and of course the newly found wand.
Rabba's absence is only noticed when the party is making breakfast and there is much rejoicing until it is
pointed out that he took the wand with him.
Bugger!
The morning is grey and overcast. Geraldo persuades the rest of the party to carry on with their mission
and follow the map to Thor's Twins to the west. The party set out north east, out of Sounder's Gap and the
rest of the day passes uneventfully part from a sighting, far to the north, of a massive band of Orcs
(around 250 strong) heading eastwards.
The next morning, the weather is still overcast but much colder now. The party bear eastwards along the
foothills of the Arunane Mountains across the plains. At about 10 am the party reach the edge of a forest
not marked on the crude map that they have. It seems to skirt the edge of the mountains and there is a
recently used cart path leading east into the forest.
After a futile attempt to climb a tree to see how far the forest extends, Messrs Hamwold Stoat, Herman
Krunt- Phoenix and Ooerr Missus decide to scout ahead into to forest in a line-abreast formation along the
axis of the path.
The line-abreast formation is made that more difficult by Ooerr being invisible but the cunning Halfling
co-ordinates the scouting by hooting like an owl.
After twenty minutes the scouts return with no new information except that the recent cart tracks appear
to be accompanied by 6-10 hobgoblin sized footprints and two horses.
With some trepidation, the party enter the forest and follow the track. After about an hour the party detect
multiple creatures ahead of them in ambush positions. The party approaches and succeeds in flushing out 5
bugbears who decide that running away is the better part of valour and disappear into the dense forest.
The previously assembled scouts pursue hot-foot but give up after 5 or so minutes after they realise that
the disparate tracks of the bugbears are converging.
At supper, that evening whilst the rest of the party are enjoying a meal of iron rations and dwarven bread,
Hamwold decides to be more adventurous and try some herbs and horse poo.
Still feeling hungry, Hamwold decides to investigate the bag of beans discovered in the dungeon. As he eats
on of the beans, it explodes in his face for 8hps of damage. The now unconscious Halfling is tended by
Raven, treating the wounds with the standard poultice of herbs and horse poo.
Raven goes into full Jamie Oliver mode and tries out some of his famous mother's recipes with herbs and
garlic found nearby. The soup is truly dreadful.
Uryens, takes this opportunity to sharpen his sword so that it will be ready for the next action.
Once again, bedded down for the night the party sets up its traditional watches. Again, during the second
watch of Messrs Krunt-Phoenix & Leondegrance, the violence that is the cornerstone of life in the land of
Essendare, descends upon the party.
The 5 bugbears, not happy about being deprived of their attack earlier in the day decide to wreak their
wrath upon the mostly sleeping party. Most of the party members fail to be aroused by the first round of
attack and it is left to those on watch and Geraldo to take the initial onslaught.
After, a couple of rounds, with the wounds starting to build up amongst the combatants on both sides, Uryens
decides to take immediate and decisive action, to wit, he fumbles badly, causing himself a double
critical-hit self to the leg with his freshly sharpened sword, fortunately, for him his dice rolling is so
crap that he only causes 4 points of damage to himself.
During the combat, Eustace becomes at one with his newly dungeon-discovered sword and correctly estimates
that it is a +1 bastard sword. Hamwold muses that the contents of the bag of beans may be better employed
as a weapon rather than a food source and efficiently dispatches several of the more difficult bugbears.
Overall, the attack was brutal, violent and short lived (just like the bugbears). The rest of the night is
taken up with healing up people and learning spells.
The next morning the party realises that it's Normus Genitals birthday and to celebrate Raven B'Ender bakes
him a cake from herbs and bugbear jism. I guess it's the thought that counts!
The morning is arse cold and by 9 am snow is starting to fall. As the morning progresses the snow gets
heavier. As the party progresses along the track, they discover that there are cart tracks in the newly
fallen snow and thus the creatures with the cart cannot be more than a half a day ahead of them and they
are actually gaining on them. Hamwold gives the horses in the party a stiff talking to and persuades them
to speed up. Travelling through the night, with 4 hours on and 2 hours off, their path lit by the light of
the gibbous moon and clear but cold skies, the brave adventurers continue their pursuit.
At daybreak, they reach the edge of the forest. The tracks formed by the cart and its foot companions, now
estimated at only 1-2 hours ahead, leads from the forest edge in a southeasterly direction..
The snow is still falling heavily and party continues to follow the cart tracks across the relatively level
plains. Occasional respites in the snowfall gives glimpses of two prominent pyramidal peaks on the horizon.
Thor's Twins at last.
As the party gets nearer, the party spies the group of creatures with the cart now confirmed to be
approximately 16-18 hobgoblins, some of whom have be riding on the cart. The hobgoblins are about a 1 - 2
hours away from the party and about 1 hour from the entrance to a pass between Thor's Twins.
The party, rather than meet the hobgoblins on the plain, decides to build a snow wall behind which they can
hide until the hobgoblins have entered the pass. The arduous job of piling up the snow bank is achieved
using Raven's Unseen Servant spell (with much nashing of teeth from the Unseen Servant).
Whilst they are waiting for the creatures to disappear from sight, 'the huntn', shootn' & fishn' lobby' of
the party decide to lay snares for rabbits. Due to freak weather conditions or a mass outbreak of 'Mad
Rabbit' disease, what seemed like the entire bunny population for this area decide to throw themselves
lemming-like into the snares of the party.
Suffice it to say, the party is not going to be running short of rabbit meat anytime soon. And should they
survive, could probably set up a reasonable trade in 'lucky' rabbit's feet trinkets.
Once this leporine slay-fest was complete, the party resumed their pursuit of the hobgoblins, in the hope
of overtaking them in the confines of the mountain pass. They do not have to wait long. Fortunately for
our heroic adventures, the hobgoblins ahead, were making worst time in the ever-climbing mountain pass than
they had in the forest or the plains.
The hobgoblins had made camp in a relatively flat area of the otherwise rocky mountain pass with exits to
the south (uphill) and north (towards the party), in a site overlooked on all sides by easily accessible
rock ledges. And thus the master plan was hatched!
The Ranger/Cleric Mr Krunt-Phoenix easily climbed to the ledges overlooking the west side of the camp,
longbow in hand, ready to deal out flighted willow-shafted-death. From his vantage-point, he could see the
18 hobgoblins arranged around the camp fire and what appeared to be two covered humanoid forms sleeping or
dead on the back of the cart.
The rest of the party arrange themselves just below the ridge to the north of the encampment and prepared
their spells and weapons. Mr Krunt-Phoenix begins the surprise assault, taking out a hobgoblin every round
with his mighty bow.
The rest of the fighters joining in the attack on the confused and disorganised hobgoblins with the
hobgoblins definitely having the worst of it. Two hobgoblins decide to take out the bastard with the longbow
on the ledge and start to climb towards the Ranger. The Thief, Ooerr Missus, slips on his ring of
invisibility and approaches from behind the second of the two hobgoblins as they prepare to climb the ledge.
At this point, the invisible Ooerr Missus (played by Sukh), who obviously did not pick up a 'lucky' rabbit's
foot when he had the opportunity, decides now is a good to really cock-up a back-stab dice roll. DaveG's,
traditional dice-rolling form comes back. Ooerr Missus fumbles big time!
In one moment he is invisible & stealthy, the next he is highly visible and unconscious after doing a
Critical Hit- Self for triple damage in front of a highly pissed-off hobgoblin. The hobgoblin has a 30%
chance of turning around and doing to the thief what the thief was about to do to him (Rolling 24%). [DM: If
it's good enough for the party to do it, it should be good enough for the creatures too].
One slit throat later (no saving throw), the two hobgoblins continue their assault on PJ's position.
Fortunately for PJ, he dispatches them in quick succession with his mighty smiting morning star, then
returns to his bowing activities.
With the numbers of hobgoblins rapidly decreasing, PJ decides to help their cause by firing from his ledge
into the melee below rolling a fumble followed by a Critical Hit Other (3% chance, he rolls 98%).
He has three possible targets, two hobgoblins and Hamwold Stoat the Druid. Hamwold drops like a stone
(-11hp) after receiving double damage. Only his high constitution (12) keeps him from joining Ooerr Missus
in the House of the Dead.
Shortly after, the hobgoblin camp is 'pacified' and wounds, serious and not so serious are attended to. In
the back of the cart, the sleeping forms of Jerkin Merkin (an elven 1st level Fighter/Mage) and Slaine
(a human 2nd level Ranger) are discovered.
Eustace and Uryens decide that the body of Ooerr Missus deserves a Viking burial. Not having a long ship
(burnable or otherwise) to-hand, the cart, in its place, is utilised as the flaming funeral pyre for his
journey to the lap of gods.
...and thus it ended...for now...
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Ethereal voice: Hi There Rabba, I've been watching you..