D&D 4e: Things To Do In Gloomwrought When You're Dead 3

[Poh Tun Kai]

Or, "The Melancholy of Lin Mercyknife."

Comics Corner, this Saturday, 14 November, at 2:30pm.

Known Locations in Gloomwrought:
Lin Mercyknife's Laboratory, near the waterfront
City Market, in the Plaza of Gargoyles
The Tenebrous Cabal, school of shadow magic
The Dark Moon, a friendly little inn and tavern, home away from home
for many drow mercenaries.
The Veiled League, the merchant house controlling the town's pleasure
trade
The Bloody Vengeance, orc pirate ship at anchor in the port
The Yearning, spelljammer ship hovering over the harbour
Raven Eyre, temple of the Raven Queen
Aposkys, temple of Erathis

Known Locations in The Skins:
Tree portal, leading to Denzel's dungeon in the mortal world

Known NPCs in Gloomwrought:
Lin Mercyknife, sister of Varg The Necromancer, imperfectly raised the
party from the dead so they can KILL VARG
Captain Kalash, eladrin adventurer, agent of Varg The Necromancer
Solith, drow mercenary
Eyebite, beholderkin slave, owned by Solith
Simon, acolyte of the Raven Queen. Earnest and zealous.
Piper Underhill, halfling black marketeer (last seen dead)
Ithanor, drow mercenary, lost his horse on Unicorn Hill and is
heartbroken about it
Gothgar, warlock of the Brock Pact (last seen dead)
Halfpint, halfling barkeep, owner of the Dark Moon Inn
Hakeswill, high priest of the Raven Eyre. Complacent and only
interested in his studies.
Magram, paladin of Kord.
Prince Rolan The Deathless, ancient and mostly impotent ruler of
Gloomwrought, no relation to Rolin, really.

Known NPCs in The Skins:
The Skin Sisters, siren singers that lure travelers to their deaths.
Varg's new girlfriends.
The Ferrymen, Dark Ones who guide travelers through the swamp for a
price.

Known NPCs elsewhere:
Varg The Necromancer, also known as Varg Mercyknife, partykiller,
Lin's brother.
Denzel, master teacher of the Brock Pact, Lin's mentor.
Hamish The Golden, paladin of Pelor, heard to be hunting the dark
immortal Lord Brock.
Lord Brock, dark immortal lord, power source of the Brock Pact,
missing in action.

[Poh Tun Kai]

We may have to look at some rescheduling, since Douglas is not
available on Saturday. I'll keep you guys informed. Are any of you
free on Sunday? Yes, I know Sunday is Mutants and Masterminds, just
asking at this point.

[Poh Tun Kai]

Sunday is free now, the Mutants & Masterminds group is unable to meet.
Can we all make it to CC on Sunday?

[Razzman Khaliff]

okay already replied to you by sms but yeah sunday is fine with me

[Poh Tun Kai]

Thanks for coming, folks. Sometimes you get the dragon. And sometimes
the dragon gets you. And sometimes you slay the dragon but then you
drown trying to save a miserable colleague and then your other party
member dies holding off another dragon while said miserable colleague
escapes with the rest of the party.

What will become of our party now?

[Poh Tun Kai]

New NPCs introduced on Sunday:

Young Black Dragon Bard, Gelicaphasien, aka "Girly" (currently dead)
Young Black Dragon Bard, Cauldimordax, aka "Dax"

Oh yeah, and four innocent sacrifices joined the group. I'll figure
out their names in a blue-book later.

[Poh Tun Kai]

BTW, if Jonathan is changing character, can I suggest a Shadar-Kai
follower of the Raven Queen? I'd allow the Monster Manual race since
it's very appropriate for the campaign... :) would make an interesting
Avenger or Rogue.

[Poh Tun Kai]

OK, looks like we will be having session on Saturday after all. Will
put up some formal posts tomorrow, including Lin's little account of
Varis' last stand.

Jonathan will be playing a Deva Avenger of some kind.

[Dessan]

I'll forward you the character builder file later (or do you mind just
the character sheet on game day?) but I would like to request one
little add-on

Can my Avenger of Avandra start off with fuzzy dice in place of a
clasp for his cloak? :P

[Poh Tun Kai]

Fuzzy dice works. Send the file, I'll take a look.

[Poh Tun Kai]

Now for the report.

Last session we had Chen (Rolin), Razzman (Vandemar), Jonathan (Varis)
and Doug (Enma Ai) all in attendance.

We started with dreams. Rolin, Vandemar and Varis dreamt of their
former teammate, Lucan, a brash young half-elf fighter who turned out
to be the lost Son of Varg. Funny how fast Lucan decided to change
sides and betray you. Enma dreamt of a past life where she was an
adventurer named Red who traveled with her roguish dragonborn
boyfriend Blue. Red and Blue failed to recover the Obsidian Egg of
Creation and fled the destruction of the Eighth Bastion of Order, and
then Enma woke up.

After resting up from the disappointment of Denzel's planar dungeon,
the party decided to head back to town to try to get some
investigation done before Gloomwrought shifted into the mortal world.
More dreary Shadowfell swamps... and eerie singing was heard in the
distance, which was totally not a reminder that Varg was dating some
mysterious monster chicks called the Skin Sisters who ruled the Skins
swamps and lured travelers to their deaths with their singing.
Totally. And not foreshadowing, really.

An encounter with nasty tentacled vine horrors and a swarm of vampire
spawn slowed the party down and proved to be an excellent way to
discover that you were all resistant to necrotic damage and vulnerable
to radiant damage. But really, the swamp things were more of an
annoyance and a threat to the party's horse than anything else.
Vandemar had his hands full defending the horse all by himself, while
Varis and the others held the line. And the vampire spawn were just
kind of sad and pathetic when they learned they could not harm you
guys with their attacks and had to resort to grabbing you and dragging
you towards water. Enma cleaned them out with lots of blasts.

Just when you were ready to move on to town, another surprise emerged
from the mists. The spelljammer ship, the Yearning, flew overhead,
dumping a body into the swamp as it passed. Someone (possibly the
villainous eladrin Kalash, captain of the Yearning) had been etching
words into the back of a naked man, then for some reason got tired of
doing so and cut his throat. Enma was quite infuriated, and Lin
pointed out that there was no time to go casting Gentle Repose on
every body you found because the ship seemed to be heading for her
childhood home, the swamp shack of the old witch Mercyknife.

So you followed. And this led up to the most ferocious fight to date,
possibly more epic than the showdown with Varg (which happened before
the campaign anyway, and doesn't count).

The shack sat on wooden legs out on the water by the lakeside,
surrounded by thickets of trees and large patches of marshy shallow
water. Lin remarked on a swing set she used to play on as a child, and
you also found more dead bodies - possible sacrifices, and once again,
with half-written words carved on their naked backs - out on the
water. Enma decided she was going to play Jesus and cast the Water
Walking spell, while Varis did some stealthy sneaking around the area
and found an important clue that would greatly benefit the party if
only he could survive long enough to inform the others. Hahaha.

After hearing enough voices of terrified innocents from the shack, the
party finally charged on in (without coordinating with their water-
walking friend Enma), and found that Lin's childhood home had been
turned into a place of imprisonment for a human male, a dwarf male,
and two halfling sisters, all of whom had been chained up, marked on
their backs, and adorned with golden amulets. They said that they had
been kidnapped from the streets of Gloomwrought, together with many
others, and imprisoned on the ship, where they watched as their
captors had cut the backs of each of the prisoners. Many had been
killed and thrown overboard, and only these four had been chosen to be
placed here. "They said we were to be offerings!" said one of the
women.

Enma got very paranoid and recommended that the amulets be removed
immediately. "It must be some sort of ritual. We have to get the
amulets off them!" Lin got to work with her lockpicks. Varis quickly
pocketed two amulets before getting to work trying to cut the chains.

Then the Magic Mouth ritual triggered, and the voice of Varg could be
heard as his message greeted the sisters 'Dax' and 'Girly',
apologizing for his absence, professing his eternal love, and offering
them the goodies that awaited within the shack - namely the sacrifices
who had "Will You Marry Me" cut in large letters on their backs.

"Varg, you slut!" shouted Lin, "you turned my childhood into your love
shack!" and this seemed to get the attention of whatever it was that
had triggered the Magic Mouth by her presence. After distracting the
party with a ventriloquism trick, the young black dragon smashed up
through the big trapdoors in the floor of the shack and the battle
began. "Tell your gods Gelicaphasien sent you!" she roared, engulfing
the shack in darkness and singing a fearsome chord that stunned
everyone but the paladin.

What followed was several rounds of confusion and terror in the
darkness, with the dragon spitting a hail of burning acid, then
clawing and biting at various targets. Vandemar tried to keep the
dragon's attention, and the others did their best to break all the
prisoners out of their chains and send them out of the windows of the
shack. You completed your heroic rescues just in time to see Vandemar
luring the dragon outside, and at last the real battle broke out.
Enma's fire angel was only able to face the dragon for a short while
before being banished back to the Astral Sea by the dragon's attacks,
and Vandemar was busy molesting himself and other people with his Lay
on Hands ability (as well as his potions, once his powers ran low).
Everyone used every power and trick they had, just to get the dragon
bloodied...and then it used its bardic song to heal itself! Once
again, it dropped darkness on the group and swept out to single out
one target, and this time it was Enma, who had relocated to shore. The
rest of you ran as fast as you could, leaping from bridge to land and
crossing shallows with all due haste, to join Enma's side and face the
dragon. Once the party could focus all their attacks on the dragon,
the fight didn't last much longer. And then the dragon fled...

* * *

LIN'S STORY:

My adventurer minions were still regrouping on shore, discussing their
next move. They feared that the Skin Sisters would return in full
force, maybe with Varg as well. But all I cared about was seeing if
the house had been desecrated, damaged in any way. The walls were
scorched by acid, and there were marks of the fight here and there.
Varg's henchmen had defiled my childhood home. Our home, the one we
inherited from our mother. But at least it still stood. I should have
been more careful. I stood too close to the trapdoor where it opened
over the lake.

I didn't expect the dragon, Girly, to come at me out of the water,
hissing the way she did, monstrous jaws yawning wide.

"So you're Lin," she said. "Varg told us about you. What you did to
your father. You're disgusting. You sicken me." She grabbed me with
one brutal claw, the talons digging into my waist. I couldn't break
free. I was too stunned at what she said.

She knew. That hurt me, more than anything else. Not that Varg slept
with her and her hideous sister, but that she knew that thing. That
thing that I've never told anyone. That thing that ruined things
forever.

Oh, Daddy. How did it all go wrong?

"Varg won't like it, but I'm doing him a favor. I'm going to dissolve
you and crunch on your bones!" And she opened her jaws and I
screamed...

My minions saved me, of course. Girly took too big a risk coming for
me. She must have hated me that much. The paladin hacked at Girly's
neck, and Enma unleashed her radiant blasts. That nice elf, Varis, he
ran right up with his twin blades and tried to save me. And Rolin the
shaman struck the final blow with a cold blast. Girly went down, her
last act, diving into the depths, dragging me with her. Varis and
Vandemar dove in after me.

Daddy always warned me against diving too deep. Maybe he knew the
truth about the lake, that it was a portal pool to the mortal world.
If so, he never told me. I felt the pressure constrict my body as
Girly took me into the cold and the dark...and suddenly we were rising
again, into a different lake in a clear night sky in the mortal world.
On the lake shore, tribal huts, burning bonfires, and scores of
lizardfolk wielding spears and chanting "The Goddess! The Goddess!"

Girly lay dead in the water, and as I kicked free, I saw that Varis
had made it through after me. But because he had been Imperfectly
Raised by my ritual, the mortal world was killing him slowly. He
didn't care. He hacked away at Girly's carcass even as I swam free.
The lizardfolk rushed into the water after him, and in the distance
the other black dragon, Dax, raised her terrible long head and roared.

I dove deep, and it was the last I saw of Varis. Brave, stupid elf. He
saved me. Too bad, I liked him the best of all my minions. I think I
heard the other dragon say: "Tell your god Cauldimordax sent you!" And
that was it. We have no body, no way to recover him against an enemy
that strong. Not after all the strength we lost fighting Girly.

When I returned to the Shadowfell side of the portal pool, I broke
surface and found Rolin and Enma waiting for us. I told them the news
about Varis. After that, I dove again to find where Vandemar had
drowned, the silly paladin, and now we're all hidden in the swamp
again, in one of Enma's ritual camps. Rolin is seeing to the four
rescued townsfolk, while Enma sanctifies the dead victims, and I work
on Vandemar's stitches. I can fix this one, raise him back again. But
Varis is gone, and I doubt they'll leave enough for us to raise.

I told my minions all this. Except for the part about Girly and what
she said about Daddy. Nobody must ever know.

What will we do now? I'm lost. Varg is a slut and a dragon is dead and
my home is defiled. And my minions can't return to Gloomwrought for
long; we only have six hours or so before sunrise. Where will we go
from here? There's a Shadar-kai trading outpost somewhere to the east
of here. Maybe we can make it there...

Daddy. I miss you. I'm sorry for what I did to you...

* * *

The vine horror and vampire encounter was pretty much a 1350XP
encounter, while the dragon fight was a 1050XP encounter. You also
earned 400XP for your discoveries of your special qualities (Resist
Necrotic 5, Vulnerable Radiant 5) and another 700XP for saving the
hostages. You'll be getting more XP for stopping Varg's wedding, and
probably more for helping rid the swamp of undead, but that will have
to wait for next session...

You've managed to hit level 5 before I was done giving out treasure,
and thanks partly to Varis going off and dying on another plane while
carrying some of the treasure, you're lacking about 3-4 treasure
packets. Hopefully you'll have a chance to earn some more to make up
for your poverty next session, but that depends on how it goes. :)

Song:

This used to be my playground
This used to be our pride and joy
This used to be the place we ran to
That no one in the world could dare destroy

(Madonna / Shep Pettibone)