Are you a new reader of the Asheraven Play Report? Consider reading from the beginning with part 0.
Good morning. This is part 9 of the Asheraven Play Report, where I continue my seemingly futile efforts to simply become current with campaign events. Remember when I boldly said it’d take three of these bad Boyz? Wishful thinking. Anyway, by the end of the previous report, the party was gifted a property south of Narwell by Gingledoof’s family. They had also applied the cure for the guards’ rot grub infestations, and Sergeant Renault and a few lesser men passed away from the effects of the toxifying elixir. The party also began to render aid to the hill giants west of Narwell to expel the cyclopes that displaced them. They have made a temporary alliance with a nomadic tribe of bugbears to do battle with the cyclopes in the near future.
The party rested a couple nights at their new home, a decrepit shack under a high canopy deep in the woods that seemed to stand only by the sheer will of the ancients who built it. This hovel the party called their “shithole”. Over the period of rest in the shithole, the party caught sight of a lone wickhead several yards from the structure dragging a greatsword in one hand as it ambled slowly about in the middle of one night. Although wickheads have no discernible eyes, the party got the feeling that it met their gaze when they spied it. The wickhead was gone before morning came. Nothing else of note passed in that time. The party then returned to the hill giant camp to plan an assault against the cyclopes. Their previous scouting excursion revealed that there were about a dozen cyclopean warriors, and it allowed them to demoralize them with a rot grub infestation of their own as well as decorating the perimeter of the village with animal carcasses. Perhaps due to confidence from this information, the party planned for a direct assault on the cyclopes. There were about as many hill giants as cyclopes and twice as many bugbears. The party had the hill giants begin the attack, and then the bugbears came from one direction as the party came from the other to surround and cut down the cyclopes. No heed was given to whether and how the stone giants might respond, and that topic never made it into the prior discussion. The combat went in the party’s favor, with all the cyclopes being killed, although the bugbears lost a little more than half their number, and they cursed the entire operation and fled before the battle concluded. The hill giants had no serious casualties, and Stinky fled after taking serious but not life-threatening wounds. The PCs themselves all survived as well. Just as the combat was winding down, rocks began to rain from the sky as the stone giants hurled boulders to quiet the noise. The party and giants deserted the area and waited back at the temporary camp until all was quiet again, and, fortunately, nobody was crushed by the rocks.
The party figured the hill giants could handle the situation from there, since the stone giants were merely acting in reaction to being disturbed in the first place. Since there would be no more noise, there would be no more stone giants. The party did want to chance the mountains and see if they held anything of interest to them. Before the cyclopes stirred everything up in the region, the stone giants were in a sort of hibernation state, so the party hoped they would go back to it and allow them to explore. Once the stone giants stopped their missile attacks, the party hiked across the hills and began up into the mountains. They did not get far before meeting a stone giant. It regarded the party stoicly and unmoving for several moments before rolling large boulders both behind and before the party to keep them anchored where they were, and the giant turned and bounded away. The party discussed different ways to escape their situation, but the giant returned before it was necessary to make any attempts. The stone giant placed a large flat oval stone - about five feet long, three wide, and one thick - in the party’s midst. The stone had a symbol carved into its upward face, but its meaning was unknown to the party. The giant nodded as if satisfied and lifted away the stone behind the party, which allowed them to return the way they came. They all joined efforts in picking up the large stone and brought it back to the shithole, where they rested and learned of some of the recent events in Narwell. With the guard back in force, the Lionheart mercenaries were moving on. All of the caravan, except for Gandolfo’s circus, had also left to continue its route. A rumor in town sprouted up that claimed there was an insect-filled warren that a small number of adventuring parties had not returned from after declaring intentions to plunder and conquer the den. Lord Tarban announced that the harvest festival would begin in a few weeks’ time, and Gandolfo’s circus would be the cornerstone of the affair. Finally, the party was called on personally by a courier of Lord Tarban to lend him their presence.
Of course, the last part intrigued the party most, and they felt it would be a terrible idea to snub the summons from Lord Tarban, so they immediately gathered their gear and delivered themselves to his estate in Narwell. They were led to Tarban by a servant, and he told them of the recent disappearance of his son, Gerald. The younger man has given his heart to one Lady Noëlla, and Lord Tarban would rather Gerald marry a woman whose status would be of greater strategic advantage for the Tarban household. Gerald stormed from the household one night a few days prior, taking off with his Noëlla to live in peace elsewhere. This alone did not trouble Lord Tarban, as he remembered doing something similar when he was a young man. However, it was reported recently that the couple, along with others in the region, had fallen into the hands of a large band of slavers. Lord Tarban, conscious of some of the party’s recent activities, implored them as capable adventurers to seek out the slavers and secure the return of Gerald and his betrothed. Tarban promised 4000 gold coins to the party for their success, as well as an additional 1000 coins for bringing back alive anyone commanding the slavers. He knew that the slavers’ lair was on an island in the middle of the river to the east, but that he did not want to make it common knowledge that his son was being held by slavers in case some other adversary gained custody of him. Tarban was able to provide the party a riverboat, however.
The party accepted the task, and immediately set off to accomplish it. It was a few miles to the riverbed, and then they boarded the riverboat to paddle to the island with. (The island I am using is the “Island in River” mini-setting from Basic Fantasy’s Adventure Anthology 1 by J. D. Neal. I’m using it as-written, except that I place the Slaver’s Fortress from the same book on the island to the east of the South Docks. Also, the cardinal directions are rotated 90 degrees clockwise, so, when I say north as a general direction, I am referring to what is east on the map.) The party landed on the south side of the island and soon came across the block of buildings that were once a resort of minor reputation. The party, apparently having less urgency now that they’d reached the island, poked around some of the buildings curiously. Nothing of note was found on the lower level of an inn, but the party heard a sound above them as if a heavy cloth were being dragged across the floor. The party made its way slowly upstairs, which was a straight hallway with rooms on either side all the way down. The party counted ten rooms in total and made its way down the hall while pushing doors open to the rooms as they passed. As they neared the end of the hall, they heard a small number - from two to four - of impacts that might be made by dropping something heavy into sand. They heard in one room ahead more of that sliding sound. The party kicked the door in and immediately entered combat with a lizard man, as the reptilian won initiative and attacked them. They neutralized that foe, found some minor treasure in the upper level, and went back outside, where they entered combat with another two lizard men who also won initiative and attacked them without making small talk. These two were also taken care of, but the party knew then that there was a population of lizard men somewhere on the island. The party moved northward toward the center of the island and found a temple. It seemed long abandoned, but they entered anyway with torches lit. The temple contained rows of pews which led to an altar of a plain nature. On top of the altar was a glass ball resting on a pewter bowl-like stand. It looked like a classic-styled crystal ball. The sphere seemed to entice those of elven ancestry to collect it, as Asora and Laurana felt a strong mental tug. The party debated what to do, but Laurana failed her save against the orb’s siren call to her. She went to lift the orb and stow it in her pack, but it split and then shattered as she touched it. From where the orb was, a front of icy fog washed over the area, and the torch seemed to be fighting with all its might to just stay lit. A spiritual being made completely of ice and snow appeared in the party’s midst, an ice devil. It gave special thanks specifically to Laurana before deserting the temple, and the party was left to think about what had just transpired. After that encounter, the party was in no mood to search the island further besides just what they went to the island for.
They were able to see the larger structures from the island’s center, since it was at a higher elevation and spotted the only fort-like structure, the likely location of the slavers. They went back to their boat to move it from the south end of the island up to the northwest by the location marked as the Overlook. They went to the structure they saw before, approaching it from the rear, and entered it through a window with the use of a grapple hook and rope. (The “Slaver’s Fortress” module doesn’t have any windows on the building, but I figured the bedrooms at the least would have windows in them.) The only window they saw from the rear entered into a 20-by-20 bedroom, room 11. Inside, there was a large bed, a wardrobe, and a floor-to-ceiling painting of an armored woman in the room, as well as a single door exiting the room. The party investigated the painting to find it lifted out from the wall to reveal a small vault set into the wall, which seemed to be a new addition based on the clean look of the stone around the vault. The bed had nothing in or under it, but it was upholstered with very fine black satin. The wardrobe was found to have a false back to it, which opened into a short corridor that came to a dead end with a button on the side. Everything in the room suggested that it was currently being occupied by a man and a woman. The party put the room back the way they found it, entered the secret corridor, and pressed its button. The wall opened to a perpendicular passage continuing both left and right. The space was illuminated by magnifying lanterns, and the party heard multiple armored footsteps coming from their left. They pressed the button again to close the wall and waited about thirty seconds before opening it again. They saw to their right this time a pair of men in plate mail with shields and sheathed longswords that were walking away from them down the corridor. The party decided they would not allow the men to get away and opened combat with the Sleep spell, the saving throw for which the two men failed. The party quickly dragged them into the secret corridor and into the bedroom, and they used their own manacles - apparently these were jailers or guards - to link them to each other and the bedframe. Once they were secured in place, the party removed the patrolmen’s armor and had Asora and Stinky don the suits. (Normally, plate mail is made specific to the measurements of the wearer, but due to the fact that these were slavers, I figured most of the armaments of the “grunts” would be repurposed from stolen equipment. In this case, the plate mail would be rendered more or less universal as long as the wearer was within the normal range of human size. The tradeoff would be that gaining surprise would be impossible as long as they wear the suits of armor.) The plan was to have the two party members act like they were delivering more slaves to be held prisoner. They awoke the sleeping men and demanded the location where slaves are kept, so the party could enact their plan. One of the guards gave the location away, room 9 which was the first room found by going left from the secret door. The party stuffed gags into the mouths of the men and followed their directions to find the slaves, except for Logar who stayed at the secret door to operate the button, since there was no way to control it from the regular hallway.
They entered the door to the room they were told about, and spotted another man with the same type of gear as the other two on the other side of the 40-by-40 room by the only other door in the room, but this one also had a shortbow and quiver of arrows within easy reach. As the party entered, he drew the bow and ordered them to halt and then explain what they were doing. They did so, attempting to explain that they were delivering some slaves as planned. The guard scowled at their excuse and pointed out that Morgath and Sharana did not employ women, as he nodded toward Asora. He let fire his bow, and the party attempted to take him down at range as Asora and Stinky charged forward. They were too slow to eliminate the guard, and he ran out of the room through the door near him. The party attempted to follow but found that the door would not budge to allow them through. Inside the room they were in were several people who were obviously slaves being kept here, which included Gerald and Noëlla. The party decided they would save the slaves first, bringing them back to Narwell, and then come back to settle things with the slavers. They brought the slaves back the way they came and found one of the cuffed men had escaped and was nowhere to be seen. The other one, Figlar cast the Charm Person spell on and took him with them. They reached the boat without issue, but, as they were pulling away from the island, over two dozen men swarmed over the beach and fired arrows at the boat. None of them struck any people, but what the party was not expecting was another magic-user, who cast a spell that caused Stinky’s eyes to immediately begin discharging blinding light, and the man-at-arms was rendered himself blind. Other than that, the party returned to Narwell unharmed. They were able to discreetly deliver Gerald back to Lord Tarban, who rewarded the party as agreed. The party, through Figlar, noted that a normal Light spell should have worn off on Stinky by that time, but they did not make any attempts to look into why or how to cure it.
The party discussed a proper assault on the slavers’ fortress with Lord Tarban. Now that his son was rescued, he had no reason to keep any information hidden from the public and could spare a few Narwellian guards to help handle it. The party would need to rest themselves, since they took a few hits between the lizard men and slavers, and they used their time resting to get some preparations taken care of. They purchased a riverboat of their own and two onagers. They’d wait and see if the light on Stinky’s eyes would ever go away on its own. If it did, they’d have him see if he could convince any of his friends from the lower castes of Narwellian living to volunteer for pay and also have him train with some of the Narwell guards to learn how to operate an onager. They had one onager put on each of their riverboats - the one they purchased and the one Lord Tarban has been letting them use. The party planned to approach the fortress from the front, using the onagers to hurl rocks at its face while the PCs would enter on foot. The charmed slaver, Justice was his name, would accompany the party.
The situation with the giants is, for the time being, resolved, but now the party kicked a hornets nest by becoming known to the slavers. The frontal assault may pay off, but it’s a great risk of men and siege equipment. Besides that, since they were going to wait for Stinky to have use of his eyes back, that would delay the assault and give the slavers more time to recover from their initial intrusion. There’s also the uncertainty that remains in the wake of the appearance and disappearance of the ice devil. The beings of hell are crafty and intelligent, and it’s unlikely that the fiend will simply leave the party alone. Thankfully, there were no surviving lizard men to remember the party. With that, I end this report. God bless, see you in the next one.
Next: Play Report #10