Session two of my new campaign:

Session two of my new campaign:

New Characters: 

Mab the Druid

Wild haired, wild eyed dirty halfling. Carries a spear. Raised by wolves. Always has wolf ears even when in halfling form.

Ramonde the Bard

Wild eyes, fiery red hair, tall and thin. Storyteller. Plays a magic horn.

Gorm the Glorious (Barbarian)

Loincloth ONLY. Long dark hair. Comes from the north. Huge sword.

As well as the three previously introduced heroes: Gesse the Thief, Aldara the Wizard, and Thaddeus the Paladin (aka Sir Not Present for This Session).

Spent a few weeks in Dunspur mostly living off Grand Mayor and Captain of the Guard Cornwallis. Accepted a job from him to investigate what happened to the guards who went missing after he sent them to check out an underground passage revealed by a collapse in his wine cellar during construction.

After a few minutes of travel, the passage opened to reveal an ancient stone bridge over a steep-sided ravine with a stream running through it. Mab took the shape of a wolf and his keen nose detected a lurker under the bridge. As they crept closer for a better look, a long rubbery arm shot out and grabbed Aldara’s staff, flinging it (and their best source of light) down into the crevasse. A chaotic melee ensued, with Gorm tumbling down the slope while attempting to grapple the beast (a choker) and dodge arrows and bolts from his friends at the same time. Bolstered by Ramonde’s warbling horn solo, Mab (as a polar bear) knocks the beast from Gorm’s back and the group inflicts enough nasty wounds to drive it off.

They had little time to recover, however, as the ruckus drew the attention of a cave yeti. This fight was intense but brief as Gorm took advantage of the beast’s initial fixation on Gesse to land several strong blows, eviscerating it messily with the last.

A search of the ravine bottom revealed a few coins, many bones and some scraps of a Dunspur guardsman’s armour (as well as Aldara’s staff).

They pushed on down the dark, narrow passageway for half an hour before encountering another stealthy foe – a roper. Against Ramonde’s advice (admittedly delivered a bit late) Gorm charged the beast as soon it was pointed out. The heroes made short work of their stationary foe, suffering only a few moderate wounds for their trouble.

Their next obstacle was a confounding maze of interwoven tunnels worked over the ages by the seasonal passage of water. Gesse’s keen eyes kept them out of the maze’s many pitfalls, but Gorm, fired up by the earlier bloodletting, insisted on chasing down every shadow just in case it might be something for him to slay. His antics cost them several hours but he did eventually find a minotaur to “play” with. Mab’s wolf nose once again pinpointed the danger before it appeared and the group made short work of what could have been a nasty monster. Unsurprisingly, Aldara kept immaculate notes on their path through the maze – they’ll be able to easily retrace their steps should they need to.

The maze ended in the largest space they had encountered so far – a cavern nearly 100 feet long, 50 wide and 20 high at its broadest. The passage of time had weathered the chamber severely, but there was a sense of design to the place. The most striking feature, however, was a perfectly preserved black stone altar. Merely drawing near to it was enough to rattle Mab and Gorm, but it was Gesse who most clearly heard its siren call. Overwhelmed with love for the beautiful object, Gesse grievously wounded Mab in an attempt to quench the altar’s thirst with his companion’s blood. Ramonde took a certain amount of pleasure in “subduing” Gesse by smashing his head into the altar, repeatedly (for his own safety of course). Ramonde then managed to summon and hold the perfect note with his horn so that the other heroes could break free of the altar’s enchantment.

While Aldara focused her attention on a more lasting solution to the altar, Gorm wandered off to explore the rest of the cavern. He immediately noticed that it terminated in a pool of water, which he decided to investigate. As he approached he was startled by three grotesquely bloated flesh golems who shambled out of the water. With Aldara locked in the depths of a ritual and the rest of the party injured and scattered about, Mab decided to ignore his own wounds and take care of these new antagonists himself. In the form of a raven, he flew to the highest point above the golems then quickly shifted into an orca, falling and crushing all three of them. The impact was devastating to Mab as well though, and it was only luck that kept him from death’s cold hands.

A quick song, a prayer and some bandages later, however, and the plucky halfling was back on his feet and into the water, where he did some exploring in the form of a squid. Not one for rational decisions, Mab deliberately drew the attention of the snakelike creature he encountered and he lead it back to his friends. There was a brief exchange of magic between Aldara and the lurker that left part of Aldara’s flesh withering, but her answering blast of searing light was enough to chase the creature off, for now…