GoCorral

This session was attended by Trajan, Will, Avery, Tyler, and Ben. The session was held over Google Hangouts using Roll20 as an app. Another note, Draco was reworked into a Fighter instead of the Rogue/Wizard he was previously. This was because Salzar’s character in the high level campaign switched from a Cleric to a Rogue/Wizard type. Not wanting to play the same mechanical concept in both campaigns, we simply retconned what type of skills Draco had and moved on with our lives.

Helping Hand of Nature

The party had arranged a meeting with a representative from the Druids Guild of Tetalya named Trachendolf. The party was ushered in to speak with the druid. No tables or chairs were in the room, only a floor covered in growing grass. Trachendolf greeted them and introduced himself before asking the party to take their seats.
Trachendolf began, “Now what can I and the Druids Guild do for you today?”
Korjak said, “We have a matter of some delicacy we’d like your assistance with.”
Gregor continued, “There’s a group of condors we’d like to reach in the Dominarie Mountains. They’ve been keeping a piece of information for generations that we need to retrieve to stop the Xorian advance.”
Trachendolf’s mouth dropped open, “You seek the prophecy to restore life to a god?”
“Yes.”
“Our brother group in the west kept that secret for a long time, you were sent by them.”
“In a way. The last druid has allied herself with the Rebellion against Xoria. She sent us to find the prophecy to revive Zeus.”
Trachendolf said, “Splendid. I had thought someone would come eventually.”
Gregor said, “Whatever you can tell us about the condors and how to get to them would be helpful.”
“Of course! Where to start? The condors live on the desert side of the mountains. They hunt and scavenge food in the desert. Their nests are in the cliffs of the mountains. They live in small communities of 10-20 condors.”
Gregor asked, “Could you show us where those communities are on a map?”
“Of course.” Trachendolf got out a piece of paper and sketched a rough map of the Dominarie Mountains and marked each of the communities on the map. “The communities will be quite difficult to find, but if you near each of these locations and look to the skies you should see the condors flying to their nests. Follow them and you’ll find where they are.”
“Do the condors have any natural enemies?”
“Not that I know of. The blue dragons are predators to everything in their domain, but they rarely attack condors. No treasure and no real meat on a bird’s bones I imagine.”
Sivirdm said, “We’ve found the other animal clans and each one of them had a dragovinian or multiple dragovinian animals that ruled the clan. Do you know if that’s happened to the condors as well?”
“I don’t. We haven’t had a representative sent to the desert in about two years and even then, they don’t usually visit the birds. Condors tend to be a little aggressive if you approach their nests.”
“How do we get to the nests?”
“I can think of three ways to get into the desert. You could go around the mountains to the west. You could go upriver and directly over the mountains. Or you could go through the mountains I suppose.”
The party talked amongst themselves and decided over or around were the best routes with a slight preference for over the mountains.
Gregor asked Trachendolf, “Do you know any guides that could help us?”
“My cousin, Tory, lives in Yuettencal and works as a jungle guide there. Ask for him at the Painted Turtle tavern and say that I sent you. He can take you anywhere you want to go.”
Gregor addressed the rest of the group, “Anything else we wanted to know?” The orc was met with silence. “Then thank you for your help Trachendolf. Is there any message you want us to bring your cousin?”
“Yes actually. I’ll write a letter for you to bring to him if it’s no trouble.”
“Of course.”

Guides and Supplies

The party bought a few supplies for their journey and used the rest of their boat tickets to get a ride to Yuettencal, picking up the letter from Trachendolf before they left. Upon arrival in the capital city they went to the Painted Turtle and asked for Tory, saying that they knew his cousin. The innkeep told them Tory should be coming in tomorrow night or they could visit his house, giving them directions. The group decided to hang out at the inn for the night and relax. They heard some disturbing news about the castle being closed due to some threat on King Ballard’s life, but everyone assumed it was some sort of ruse so the King’s Court wouldn’t have to meet.

The group got rooms for the night and went off to Tory’s house bright and early in the morning. They knocked on his door and a bearded man answered, “What can I do for you?”
Sivirdm said, “Your cousin, Trachendolf, sent us. Said you could guide us through the jungle.”
“Yup, I can do that. How is Trachendolf?”
“He seemed fine. He sent you this letter.” Korjak pulled out the letter and handed it to Tory.
“Yes. Thank you. My rates for friends sent by my cousin are fifty gold per month plus a fifty gold retainer.”
“Sounds within our budget.”
“Great! Where did you want to go?”
“We want to go over the Dominarie Mountains and into the Shacklack Desert.”
“I can manage that no problem. Come on in and let’s look at same maps and plan out where to go.”
The party chose a route with Tory’s help that took them to a mining town on the southern edge of the mountains and then up so lesser known paths into the mountains. Tory had some mountaineering books describing paths used to get through the Dominarie Mountains near that mining town. The group got along pretty well with Trachendolf’s cousin. They put together a list of supplies they’d need for the journey, along with ten goats to carry all the supplies. The party purchased the supplies and in a day or two they were ready to go into the wild!

Into the Jungle

The party rented a boat to travel upriver to the mining town. Apparently this was a fairly common procedure. Returning the boat at the dock upriver got you a little bit of the fee back. The meandering tributaries of the Aractrash River crisscrossed their path north. Tory took them on a shortcut that he said would cut a half day off their journey. Unfortunately, things don’t always go as planned.

While on Tory’s shortcut the party came to an area where hundred of webs stretched between the jungle’s trees. The river narrowed before splitting around a small island. Tory had said a way station was on the island to shelter in case of a storm, but the way station was no longer there. In its place was a pile of rubble that blocked the river.

Tory said, “Must’ve been that bad storm last spring, completely knocked over the way station. Not many people come this way but me. That’s probably why it isn’t rebuilt yet. We’ll have to get out and pull.”

The larger humanoids, Tory, Korjak, Reggy, and Gregor, spilled out of the boat while the smaller folk, Stanton, Draco, and Sivirdm, held on to the goats to keep them from jumping overboard in fear as the boat rocked. Tory tied four ropes to the boat and the big folk began to pull the boat forward.

Korjak spotted something moving in a tree on the island. He looked a little closer and saw a giant spider covered in barbs and spikes. Korjak quickly raised the alarm, “Look out! We’re under attack! Spiders in the trees!”

Everyone dropped the ropes and pulled out their weapons. Two more humongous spiders, but without spikes, showed themselves in the trees on the northern bank of the river. Gregor and Reggy moved to engage the spiders on the northern bank. The three spiders zeroed in on Gregor. The two on the bank lowered themselves from the tree and scurried forward, one managing to bite him. The spikey one shot forth a barb on a ligament at Gregor, embedding in his leg. The barb instantly retracted, drawing Gregor into the waiting maw of the beast.

Korjak transformed into Baldr, god of plants, and moved forward against the spiders while Draco, Stanton, and Sivirdm got out of the boat. The goats spooked and began jumping into the water as well. Tory drew his weapons and moved against one of the spiders on the bank.

The spiders tried to bite Reggy and Tory. Reggy’s armor protected him, but Tory slipped on the rocks and received a nasty bite to his shoulder. Baldr swung his sword at one of the large spiders and cracked its exoskeleton open on its abdomen. Sivirdm, hopping from goat to goat, made it to the bank, rolled under the other spider on the bank, and stabbed it in the belly.

Tory backed away from the spiders after getting his injury. Stanton and Draco, seeing that the fight was in good hands, prevented anymore goats from getting away. Gregor wrestled with the spiked spider, but couldn’t prevent it from getting another bite in.

The two spiders on the bank began to flee. Sivirdm and Baldr hit one as it ran away, but allowed the other to escape. Reggy grabbed the boat as it was beginning to slip downstream. Baldr melted away and Korjak ran to help Gregor. Everyone else grabbed goats left and right.

Gregor pried the spider’s jaws open and snapped one of its mandibles off. The spider screamed, dropped Gregor, and began scuttling away. Korjak ran up and stabbed his sword deep into its side. The beast writhed upon the sharpened metal before falling dead to the ground.

Reggy, Korjak, Draco, and Stanton rounded up the goats. Sivirdm offered antitoxin to Tory and Gregor. Tory gladly accepted and ignored any further effects of the poison coursing through his body. Gregor hadn’t felt anything previously from the bites, so he denied treatment.

“I don’t need any antitoxin. I feel finnnnneeeee…” Gregor slumped forward falling fast first into the river as the delayed poison took effect, paralyzing him. The party got him out of the water quickly.
Sivirdm asked Tory, “Is there anything you can do for him? The antitoxin only works before the poison reaches the heart.”
“I’m afraid I can’t do anything for him once he’s unconscious. We’ll just have to hope there’s a cleric willing to treat an orc in the mining town.”

Medics and Maps

Sivirdm did a little bit of searching in the rubble as the others loaded the goats and Gregor back into the boat. The little halfling found the corpse of what looked like an alchemist with five identical potions in vials untouched by the rubble’s collapse. Sivirdm took the vials and hopped in the boat with the others, showing off his find. The vessel was even more crowded now that Gregor wasn’t sitting, but lying on the bottom. The adventurers reached the silver mining town by dusk and carried Gregor into the local inn. Tory rushed to the local temple while the others cleared a space on a table and plopped Gregor down on it.

The innkeep remarked, “Your orc is in a bad way there.”
Sivirdm said, “Bitten by a spider.”
“Ah. That’ll do it. Don’t worry. Priest Farian will fix him up.” The innkeep turned to the other patrons in the inn, “It’s alright everyone. Their orc’s been bit by a spider. Tory the guide is going to get Priest Farian.” He turned back to the party, “It’s a gold a night for you fellas. Your orc can stay for free tonight, but he’ll have to sleep on the floor, not on the table.”

The party waited for Tory to return with Priest Farian. Sivirdm headed over to sit by the fire next to the miners drinking the yellow colored beer of the establishment. Tory came back in at a brisk pace followed by the priest. Sivirdm returned to the table that Gregor laid on.

Farian approached Gregor and began examining him. He lifted his arm and felt for a pulse. “You said it was giant spiders that bit him?”
Reggy said, “Uhuh. Spiders.”
“Could you describe them?”
“Well he was only bit by the one spider, right?”
“Yeah,” Draco confirmed.
Reggy continued, “Right, the one spider. It was about as big as two or three outhouses and it was covered in spikes. It blended in pretty well with the jungle, but I do remember seeing a few red spots on it in places. And it had the thing where it shot a spike from next to its mouth,” Reggy indicated his mouth, “like a tusk. And the spike hit Gregor and dragged him towards the spider because it was attached by webbing or something. Then it bit him.”
Farian nodded, “What you are describing is a harpoon spider. Your orc is lucky you save him. Those red spots you saw weren’t coloration, but blood from previous victims. The harpoon spider paralyzes its prey and then impales it on the spikes to slowly consume it over several days.”
Everyone in the party had a look of disgust on their faces.
Priest Farian completed his examination and said, “There’s nothing I can do for him until the morning. There’s no mundane cure I have for his condition. He requires magic and I won’t have the spell ready until tomorrow. Until then it would be best if you brought him to the temple.”
Sivirdm said, “If you don’t mind we would prefer to keep him here.”
“I suppose if you wish. Keep him cool if you can, but not cold. Put a warm rag on his forehead and try to keep his head elevated. If anything bad happens come get me at the temple. I’ll see you there in the morning.”
Priest Farian turned to go but Sivirdm interrupted, “Actually, could you come here in the morning?”
“If that is what you wish. Now if you’ll excuse me I need my rest to properly prepare the spells for tomorrow.”
Farian took his leave. Reggy volunteered to be the first to look after Gregor. A space was made for him closer to the fire, but not too close. Sivirdm returned to the man he was chatting with earlier by the fire.
“What was it you were saying earlier?”
The old miner who introduced himself as Spilnat to Sivirdm earlier said, “I was saying that I have map to a fantastic treasure.”
“Tell me more.”
“I’d like to tell you, but it’s hard with a throat as dry as mine.”
Sivirdm signaled for the innkeep’s wife to bring over another mug of beer.
“Ah! That’ll do the trick! Well one of my buddies was wandering out in the jungle. On a vacation or something. Who knows why he enjoys that stuff. Too dangerous for me. Anyways, he was wandering around out there, doing sightseeing and such. And he finds these ruins you see. He pokes around and found a big old shield, glittering and glowing. Probably magical. Next to the shield is a sack filled with gold and silver.
“Now he’s thinking, ‘I’ve struck it rich!’ but what comes up behind him, but an ogre! My buddy, he scrambled out of there as fast as he could. He could hear the ogre chasing behind him. He turned to look and all he saw was the branches on the ground crashing as it came closer. Damn thing must’ve turned invisible when it chased him. Fortunately for my buddy, the big beasty couldn’t fit through the tighter parts of the jungle and my buddy got away.”
Sivirdm ordered another mug of beer for Spilnat and asked, “Where in the jungle did you say this was?”
“It’s on the map my buddy made. He’s got good direction sense and remembered exactly how to get to the ruins. Wrote it all down. And I’ve been looking for someone to buy the map ever since.”
“How did you get the map?”
“Inheritance. Mining pays well, but it ain’t a job without dangers. He didn’t have a family and I was the one who knew him best so I got the map. S’ about the only valuable thing he had left to his name. He spent all his earnings on trips into the jungle.”
“So are you selling this map?”
“In a manner. I’m looking for someone to go out there and bring a share back of whatever you find at the ruins. So you’ve got how many people in your group?”
“Six.”
“Right, six. So I’d be wanting one seventh of the treasure you find there.”
“I’d need to talk to the others, but I think we could swing that.”
“And I don’t want to be gallivanting in the jungle with you either, so I’d need some assurance you’d come back with my share and not just skedaddle into the wilds. From what my buddy said the treasure there is worth thousands of gold pieces. I think it’s fair to ask for one hundred gold pieces to ensure you come back with my share. You bring what you find back and I’ll take my share, minus the hundred you gave me for the map.”
Sivirdm ordered another round of yellow beer. “You sure you couldn’t part with it for less?”
Spilnat was holding a mug of beer in each of his hands and taking alternating swigs from each of them as he talked. “I’ve thought on this for a long time. I can’t part with the map for less than that. It’s my ticket to the good life and what remains of my buddy’s life and dreams as well. If you don’t like the deal then I’m sure someone else will come into town eventually who does like it. No skin off my nose.”
“Well, like I said. I’ll talk to my fellows and see what they think.”
“Much obliged little man.” Spilnat toasted Sivirdm with one of his mugs.
The party enjoyed the comforts of the inn before bedding down for the night.

Ogre Hollow

In the morning Priest Farian returned and set up his ritual with incense and holy water to purify the poison affecting Gregor’s body. In a minute or two Gregor was able to move around once more, albeit a little clumsier than he was previously. Sivirdm asked Farian to perform the ritual another time to restore more of Gregor’s functionality and this was done. The matter of donations came up and Sivirdm agreed to donate generously to the temple of Hephaestus in the town. The party each ponied up an equal amount to pay for Gregor’s restoration.

Next they discussed the deal that Spilnat had offered. It might be worth delaying their trip to gather the condor’s piece of the prophecy if they could find a magical shield. Plus, killing an ogre just sounded fun! They spoke to Spilnat again and agreed to his terms.

After receiving his gold Spilnat got the map from his home and spoke to the party, “Now here’s the map. You can see the ruins to the west and my buddy wrote some instructions on the side for each of the landmarks. Your guide should be able to follow these and get you there in about two days.”
The party bought a few more pieces of equipment for their journey into the jungle and set out to the west. Tory led the party using the map as a guide, fording rivers and going through the jungle along the easiest paths available. After two days of travel they drew close to the big X on the map.
Tory said, “The ruins should only be a mile or two west of here. Also, there’s a lot of tracks on the ground. A lot of them are ogre tracks, but there’s a few others that might be something else. See here?” Tory indicated one of the tracks, “This one is barefoot. It’s smaller than an ogre foot, but way too wide to be a human or even an orc. And it also has these little claw impressions at the end.”
Sivirdm asked, “Like a cat man?”
“Could be. I’m not really sure. It’s definitely a humanoid’s footprint from the shape of it, but I can’t explain those claws. Ogres don’t have clawed feet. But that’s not the weird print! There’s also some boot prints. Same wide shoe size as well. It could be whatever had those clawed footprints recently got some shoes.”
Korjak asked, “And these are all creatures in the area recently.”
“Yes. And definitely more than one ogre.”
Korjak said, “Alright. We don’t want the goats getting in the battle. Let’s find a good place to camp for today with the goats. Once we have a camp we can send Sivirdm to the ruins if he’s alright with scouting for us.” Sivirdm nodded. Korjak continued, “And then we can come up with a plan based off of what Sivirdm finds out.”

Tory found a small clearing that the group widened with axes. They set up camp there with the goats while Sivirdm snuck off to take a look at the ogre’s ruins.

Sivirdm approached the area around the ruins where the trees thinned. Five buildings once stood in the area cleared of trees. Four of the buildings formed a square, but had fallen into disrepair, more rubble now than walls. A fifth building stood to the north apart from the other four. The separate building had a large stone column at each corner with stone walls in between.

Sivirdm snuck around and counted five different ogres with beds laid out in the rubble of the four destroyed buildings. Each of the ogres wore armor made from animal hides with a quiver of javelins and a club tied to their belts. The halfling saw an open entrance about ten feet wide to the northern building. He wanted to get in close enough to see inside the building, but there was no way to do that without the risk of being spotted by the ogres. Sivirdm retreated into the jungle and went back to the camp. He related what he saw to the others.

Gregor said, “Well there are fresh tracks outside of the ruins, so they must be coming out to get food or something. We could look around for one of their snare traps and set up an ambush there. Hopefully pick one or two of them off.”

Everyone agreed. Tory started searching for a snare traps that the ogres frequented and soon found one. The snare lay at the end of a small pile of boulders which restricted entry to one direction. The party hid in positions around the path leading towards the snare and waited.

After waiting for about half a day noise could be heard coming up the path. An ogre appeared out of the jungle and walked towards the snare. Sivirdm and Draco loosed crossbow bolts. Draco’s bolt went wide but Sivirdm’s went deep into the ogre’s eye. The ogre clutched his eye and Gregor took advantage of the situation by rushing forward and slicing deep into the ogre’s leg. The ogre fell screaming to the ground and quickly fertilized the jungle ground with its lifeblood.

The party rejoiced in their victory and searched the body. They found only a few coins. The ambush had worked though! Hoping to catch another ogre they moved a mile or so down the path to see if another would approach.

While waiting for another ogre, Sivirdm heard a noise approaching from behind. He alerted the others. They turned and saw nothing. A quick search turned up fresh tracks matching the clawed footprints Tory had pointed out earlier. Fearing their ambush had been discovered the party raced to the ogre encampment to defeat the remaining ones before they were able to erect defenses.

The party arrived at the ruins and saw the ogres gathered in the middle of the ruins. In the middle of the group a human sized creature stood. The creature looked like a man except for its face which was red and resembled that of a frog. It wore chain armor and carried a spear and shield. The shield bore a remarkable resemblance to the one Splinat’s buddy had seen. The frog man had a bull dog on a leash. The dog had metal plate armor which appeared to be bolted to its body.

As the party of adventurers watched the ogres Gregor’s poison-addled body didn’t obey him. He misplaced his foot and stepped on a large branch. The ogres turned at the sound and the fight was on!

Bulldog Battle Blitz

Korjak yelled and transformed into Baldr, god of plants! Baldr and Gregor charged at the ogres, dropping one near the front and engaging a second. The location where the two of orcine blood engaged the ogres was restricted by the rubble. Only two ogres could approach from that angle. The others circled around the rubble to come from another direction. Reggy and Draco met the other two ogres on that side.

The frog man shouted, “Drop to the ground!” Baldr and Gregor felt compelled to obey. Baldr resisted the compulsion, but Gregor could not. The frog man then loosed the bull dog. It ran forward and opened its mouth revealing that it had not one, but two sets of jaws. One that opened up and down and another that opened left and right. A twenty foot long barbed tongue shot out and coiled around Gregor’s leg. Gregor felt a tug and decided to go along for the ride. The dog’s tongue retracted, bringing Gregor in range for a bite.

Sivirdm circled around the fight that Baldr and Gregor were in to get a good shot at the frog man. He kept himself hidden behind the rubble. Stanton cast a glitterdust spell on the ogres fighting Reggy and Draco, but the ogres shielded their eyes in time.

Gregor tried to draw his dagger, but dropped it as he took it out of the sheath. Then he braced himself and began pulling on the dog’s tongue, trying to rip it out of the monster’s mouth. The dog pulled back and bit Gregor for his trouble. Baldr sliced into the ogre in front of him, almost felling it in one blow. Sivirdm got into a good position and shot a crossbow bolt into the exposed side of the frog man. The creature flinched in pain, but now seeing Sivirdm advanced on him and commanded him, “Bow!” Sivirdm resisted.

The fight went poorly for Reggy and Draco. Reggy took a knock to the head and had to drop back. Draco remained okay, but found his dual-wielded daggers to be ineffective against the knees of the ogres. Stanton tried another glitterdust, but failed to blind the ogres.

Baldr finished off the ogre in front of him. Gregor motioned him on to help Sivirdm while the orc continued wrestling with the demonic dog. Gregor pulled the dog’s tongue back out of its mouth in his struggle and hoped to sever the tongue entirely. Baldr moved to intercept another ogre that had arrived on the scene.

Sivirdm took a stab at the frog man, but the creature caught the thrust on its shield. Again, it commanded Sivirdm to, “Bow!” Sivirdm felt his will breaking and he prostrated himself before the creature. Sivirdm couldn’t lift himself back to his feet, but he could still stab the frog man from the ground. The red creature was distracted by the approach of Baldr. Sivirdm struck while the thing was distracted and drove his dagger deep into its groin. The frog man howled and fell to the ground bleeding. Sivirdm came to help Gregor against the dog while Baldr traded hits with the new ogre. The dog continued to enjoy Gregor’s flesh.

The combat went poorly for Draco, but he stuck in it. Reggy provided some support with his crossbow and Stanton managed to daze one of the ogres. Draco took another hit and swayed before recovering to continue the fight. Draco fought on against the ogres. Stanton moved closer and cast another daze spell. Draco sliced the ogres knees some more, but victory was too much to hope for. Another club blow fell down on the warrior halfling and he was no more.

Stanton panicked with nothing between him and the two ogres. He retreated a little ways.
Baldr finished off the new ogre, but the pair that defeated Draco and Reggy now threatened to attack Gregor and Sivirdm. Baldr moved to protect them.

Sivirdm and Gregor’s continued struggle against the demon dog finally ended in victory. The dog collapsed under a blow from Sivirdm and the continual wrenching on its tongue performed by Gregor. Gregor’s wounds threatened to incapacitate him and his inner rage no longer fueled him, but he grabbed his sword and stood to face the ogres.

Stanton moved in and cast a color spray on the two ogres. Both were stunned and then summarily executed by the party. A victory, but without cost. Draco lay dead on the field of battle.

Funerary Explorations

Tory was fetched and wood was gathered to burn Draco’s body. Sivirdm, ever the pragmatist, removed any useful items from the body before it was placed on the pyre. Stanton started the eulogy, “I didn’t know Draco for very long, but he was the finest sort you could ever know. We fought together and he died protecting me and Reggy. I wish I could’ve saved him with my magic and I promise I’ll keep getting stronger so that this will never happen again. Plus, he was a halfling and we’re pretty cool folk. I’ll miss you Draco.”
Stanton lit the fire and the others said their goodbyes.

After the grief no longer controlled them the party searched the bodies and the surrounding buildings. They found a load of copper, silver, and gold coins squirreled away in a few sacks. They also found a large pearl and two potions. And of course, the magic shield the frog man had used both for defense and offense during the battle.

Whilst searching the intact northern building, Sivirdm found another surprise, a hidden trap door. He opened it and saw a twenty foot drop into a stone room. Korjak lowered him down on a rope. The dark room was about twenty foot square with stone walls. Two passageways left the room from the eastern wall and ended in stone doors soon afterwards.

We ended the session there with the rest of the trap door as yet unexplored. Salzar was sad to see Draco go, but hadn’t particularly attached himself to the character yet. There was talk of him taking over Tory and turning him into a PC.