GoCorral

The session was attended by Trajan, Will, Ave, Jamie, and Ben. The session was done using Google Hangouts for all the attendees. Ave and Ben left about halfway through the session. At the beginning of the session the party leveled up to Level 2!

Crime and Consequences

We left off last time at the surrender of the Xorian supply caravan. After talking over what they would do with the captives and Elerie, the group woke up the sleeping guard. Stanton magically charmed the guard, gave him a knife, and told him to go kill Elerie. The guard did so. Then the brave adventurers turned nasty. They executed the charmed guard as well as the two drivers who’d surrendered. The bodies of the Xorians were dumped into the river while Elerie’s body was buried. They then pulled the two wagons out of the wagon ruts and headed back to the Rebel base.

At the base they talked with Major Dactirian. Stanton explained that everything had gone fine, but Elerie had died in the attack on the supply caravan. He gave Dactirian the necklace to the shock collars that all four party members wear. Dactirian asked, “Is there anything else you have to tell me?”
Stanton said, “No.”
Dacitiran pressed down on the green gem in the center of the necklace. The characters all started screaming in pain. Dacitiran stood up and walked around his meeting table towards the players saying, “You thought I didn’t know?!? You thought you could lie to me?!! You may not have killed her, but you put the knife in their hands!” The entire party passed out due to the pain coming from their shock collars.

The party was woken up at the meeting table by water being splashed on their faces from a bucket that a Rebel guard carried. Dactirian dismissed the guard. The meeting table had four people on the other side now. Dacitiran, an old woman wearing armor made from leaves, an even older woman with purple eyes, jet black hair, and armor made from skulls, and a strong half-orc (The half-orc is Ben’s character, Korjak).

Dactirian told the captives that he had hoped turning them back into their mortal forms would create a shining example of the Rebellion’s power to redeem dragovinians. Unfortunately, they’d been evil before they were dragovinians. That’s why they were rewarded with that immortal status. To change them back to their mortal forms was just a reversion to their original mortal, but still evil, state. He’d known this from the beginning but hoped it wouldn’t be true. Dactirian hadn’t brought them back to show the Rebellion’s power, but because he needed them for a different purpose.
The old woman in leaves then spoke up, “My name is Alkmene Halkias. I am the sister of Amalgami the Betrayer, the one who doomed the First Alliance to failure. I am nothing like my brother and I will redeem my family.
“Dactirian brought you four back from the undead at my request. You see, I am the last of the elder druids of the druid council of Semanarie. The rest of the druids were kidnapped, tortured, and killed by the Xorians during the First Alliance War. Long ago the druids were given a prophecy and I am the last carrier of it. Or at least a part of it. The prophecy was split into five parts to keep it safe. The druids gave a piece to each of their loyal animal clans. You’ve already encountered one of them, the wolves north of this forest. The other three animal clans are the Bears of the Terror Mountains, the Condors of the Dominarie Mountain Range, and the Sharks of Jovy’s Isle. Each of these four carries a piece of the prophecy that was given to the Druids. I carry the fifth and final piece. The prophecy says:
Should one of the gods forever close his eyes
Find the weapon that caused him to die
Add it last with great caution
Then pour the mix on the great god’s coffin.“
Alkmene continued, “The prophecy is clearly about curing a god of a severe illness. Zeus is currently ill or dead and the strife on Mount Olympus because of this prevents the gods from purging the dragovinian affliction. In order to win this war, we must find the lost pieces of the prophecy and heal Zeus.
“Unfortunately, the secret of the prophecy was tortured out of the druid council when they were in Xorian captivity. The Xorians knew of the prophecy and the locations of the four animal clans. When Jevaninada II took the throne he found the four clans and turned a member of each of them into a dragovinian. Additionally, he put wards around the clans, so that if any intelligent non-dragovinian approached them he would instantly know. That is why I cannot recover the prophecy on my own. He would know and he would come to kill me.
“However, you four are exempt from the wards. You were once dragovinians and the alarms on the clans will recognize you as such still.”
The former dragovinians asked a few questions about the situation and Alkmene answered them truthfully and honestly. (Unforunately, I don’t remember the questions.)
Dactirian spoke up after the group’s questions were answered, “Your new commander will now be Corporal Korjak. He can journey with you past the alarms on the animal clans due to his unique… condition.”

Korjak is a member of the Champion class designed by Rich Burlew. I’ve used the class in my DMing in the past for General Antapike, a significant NPC in the last campaign. Antapike’s hero form was Thor. I decided that all Champions would have a nordic themed hero form. Ben’s choice was Baldr.

When Baldr was born he was a sickly baby. His mother took him around to all the creatures and plants of the world and got them to promise not to hurt Baldr. She got promises from everything except mistletoe because it looked so non-threatening. The gods would often play a game called Throw-Dangerous-Things-At-Baldr. They could throw anything they wanted and Baldr would be fine because of the promises all creation had made not to harm him. Mischievous Loki gave a spear to Baldr’s brother. His brother threw the spear and it killed Baldr. Loki had made the spear from mistletoe! The death of Baldr heralded the beginning of Ragnarok, the apocalypse of the Norse myths. The power of Baldr passed to whoever killed him. It has passed down and down through many different hands until finally Korjak claimed the power by killing the previous owner. Korjak is still learning to master Baldr’s godly power.

Gregor asked if the other old woman in the room was actually the Princess of Xoria, Tarigananata. Her distincitve features of jet-black hair and purple eyes matched those of the princess. She told him that she was.
Gregor asked, “But I thought you died in the First Alliance War.”
“No. I escaped and wandered the land for a while. However, that bitch, Queen Anajakaze found me and sent the most powerful of the Seven Rages, Grave, to kill me. I killed Grave and took his armor. That’s why I wear skulls. After that I came to Bigby’s Forest to lead the Rebellion.”
Gregor said, “Forgive me my lady, but wasn’t Grave killed by a shadowy demon?”
Tarigananata let a creepy smile cross her face and her pupils became cat-like slits, “That was me.”

Dactirian thanked the group for the food supplies they’d captured. He would’ve sent the party back to the wolves, but he felt they weren’t ready to fight and kill a dragovinian wolf yet. Instead, they were sent after more food. The party went south to a small village named Riverton. There, the party was to collect “taxes for the Rebellion” from the farmers in the form of grain. The party would canvas the northern third of the town. Korjak would be the new unit leader and he would carry the necklace that controlled the shock collars of the other four.

Taxation

The party party collected food from the villagers for three days. Each time they came to a farm they sarcastically spoke of the importance of the food to the Rebellion. Sometimes the farmers gave them grain, sometimes the farmers were Xorian supporters who grabbed pitchforks to “git the Rebel scum off ma’ land,” sometimes the farmers had a bad harvest and couldn’t donate. Gregor, Sivirdm, and Stanton wanted to respond in kind with violence, but Korjak stepped in to calm them down. Whenever someone could not or would not donate, Korjak apologized and got the party off the farmer’s land as quickly as possible. Eventually, the party ended up with a wagon and a half of grain. They turned back to the Rebel base and camped on the edge of the forest for a night.

On the next morning as the party was packing up for the night, they saw a dust cloud on the southern horizon. Fearing that one of the Xorian supporting farmers had informed on them the party hightailed it into the woods with the wagons. Later on, they saw smoke rising from the south. Their pursuers had set the woods on fire. Luckily, the fire didn’t spread.

The adventurers’ passage through the woods was interrupted by the same group of bullies they’d tussled with in the practice yard before. The big human guy was at the lead. He said, “Get out of the way, Korjak. You don’t want to get involved.”

Sivirdm shot first with his crossbow at the big guy. Wu shot his bow at the big guy as well. Three arrows thumped into him and he fell down. Gregor drew his sword and prepared to defend himself. The other thugs pulled the big guy behind themselves and took up defensive positions. Stanton used a hypnotism spell to entrance the front three of the six other bullies. Korjak activated the shock collar on Sivirdm because he fired the first shot. Sivirdm fell down in convulsions. Korjak shouted, “Everyone sheath your weapons and calm down!” The fight ended there.

The thugs backed off to allow Korjak to heal the big guy with a wand of cure light wounds he carried. Korjak then ordered the thugs to return to the base. After half an hour passed the party journeyed into the base as well. The food was delivered and a feast was held. Each soldier was served one and a half rations of food and double rations of alcohol. Everyone got drunk on their success.

(We took a break for dinner at this point. Middle_Snu and Ozymandias left as well.)

Where is Diveereus?

Hungover the next day, the party was called into Dactirian’s meeting room once again. A usual donator to the Rebellion in Riverton was strangely absent when one of the other “tax collection teams” went out. The donator’s name was Diveereus. The tax collection team described Diveereus’s farm as “ripped up and his wagon was broken.” The team shouted to the house but got no response. They decided to report back to their superiors instead of entering a possibly lethal situation. Dactirian ordered the characters to go in and find out what happened to Diveereus, his wife, his children, and his grandchildren who lived with him.

The party journeyed back to Riverton once more. They saw the broken wagon on the path to Diveereus’s house and two coyotes eating the dead oxen next to the wagon. The party chose to wait until sundown to see if there was any activity in the house or on the farm. Nothing happened as they waited. Still determined to investigate, Stanton and Wu snuck up to the house through the field. Wu almost fell into a pit trip in the field. Wu searched the rest of the field on their way up to the house and spotted a bear trap and another pit trap. At the house they saw a dog chained to the front porch. Stanton magically sleeped the dog and Wu snuck up to slit its throat. Convinced that the danger in the house was not immediate, the sneaky folk went back to regroup with the rest of the party.

It was decided that Sivirdm would watch the horses and provide backup while the other four party members went in. Korjak, Gregor, Stanton, and Wu walked the same path back to the house. Korjak and Gregor used their darkvision to peek through the windows of the house. They saw three rooms, a dining room, a kitchen, and a sitting room. There was also a door to the stairs to the second floor and a door to a closet under the stairs. The dining room was wrecked. The table and all the chairs were overturned except for one chair on which a dead woman’s corpse sat. In the kitchen, two dead children were slumped against the cold stove. Cooking ware was tossed around the room. The sitting room was likewise messed up.

Gregor went first. He was upset to find a paralysis poison on the doorknob. He fell rigid to the floor as the door opened. The dead woman’s corpse animated and attacked! Korjak stepped up to fight the undead beast. Wu shot an arrow in, but accidentally hit Korjak in the back. Wu decided that perhaps shooting arrows inside was a bad idea. Stanton broke a window, but found himself too small to climb up through it. Gregor recovered from the paralysis contact poison. He got up and joined Korjak in the fight. With two fighters acting together the undead was brought down quickly.

Bloodstains on the floor indicated that the woman’s body had been dragged from the kitchen and propped up in the chair. The children’s bodies were drained of all blood. Nothing was in the closet under the stairs.

The group headed upstairs. A hallway upstairs had four doors, two on the right and two on the left. Stanton did a detect magic and sensed an aura of necromancy and transmutation behind the second door on the left. The group decided to save that door for last.
The first door they opened was the first door on the left. Inside was a boy’s room with boy’s toys and a wooden horse. The toys were all burned and broken. The room had obviously had a small fire set in it. Against the opposite wall was the burned skeleton of a teenage boy. A quick search revealed no treasure in the room.

The second door opened was the first door on the right. Inside was a girl’s room. Spinning tools and dolls along with girls toys were strewn about the room. Two beds were in the room. The bigger one had its blanket ripped off towards the door. Again, no treasure found.

The third door opened was the second door on the right. Inside was another bedroom. A large bed, a desk, a dresser, and a closet were in the room. A man had been thrown into the desk. The impact had destroyed the man and the desk. A young dead woman lay on the bed, drained of all her blood. Blood covered the bed and the floor. A search revealed some jewelry which was pocketed.

The Trouble with Diveereus

While Korjak, Wu, and Gregor searched the third room, impulsive Stanton opened the door to the fourth room where the magic auras originated from. Inside was a large bedroom. A bed, two dressers, a closet, and a desk were in the room, largely untouched by the violence in the rest of the house. On the bed at the center of the room was a black egg the size of a chair with red spots on it. The egg was hatching. Stanton got the attention of the rest of the party. A scaled arm burst out of the egg as the party watched.

Another arm came out and Gregor reacted. He grabbed the egg and threw it out the closest window. The egg shattered on the ground below and out came a fully formed dragovinian. A red and black scaled humanoid with a dragon’s face and fangs. The dragovinian climbed up the walls of the house like a spider to fight its way back in. It tried kicking Gregor through the window, but Gregor shoved it back down to the ground. Gregor then leaped down after it to fight with his greatsword. Korjak soon jumped out a window to join in as well. Stanton used daze successfully on the dragovinian from the upstairs. Wu tried a few bow shots, but found his arrows were not strong enough to pierce the dragovinian’s skin.

Gregor’s strong sword attacks wore down the dragovinian. The deep cuts seemed like they should have incapacitated the monster, but it would not die. It begin scuttling away from Korjak and Gregor on all fours like a demon spider. They raced after it continually stabbing it and cutting it. It still wouldn’t die! Finally, Gregor brought his sword down on the dragovnian’s head. His blade passed through the monster’s neck. Decapitation served to kill the beast.

A little freaked out, the party checked the barn of the farm. They saw two horses drained of blood and a full grain silo. They decided to come back for the grain later. Stanton remembered the transmutation aura in the room. Thinking it might have been something besides the egg they returned. The party’s diligence was rewarded when Wu found a magic composite longbow underneath the bed. With their loot secure, the party gathered up the egg shell pieces, the dragovinian body, and the head before setting off back to the rebel base.

The group force marched through the night and suffered no random encounters. In the morning they gave their report to Dactirian. He congratulated them on killing the dragovinian as well as recovering the egg shells. The rebels had known the dragovinians hatched from eggs, but they’d never had the actual shells to study before. He gave the soldiers some leave time before dismissing them.