The Goblin Hulk (Catching Up with the Silver Elites)

It's been awhile . . . sorry.

After the Battle of Dalton's Camp, the heroes returned to Edmund Keep to reconnoiter and make next plans.

A visitor from Silver's Bay had come with information relating to the recent assassination attempt against Prince Jorum. He offered to lead the heroes to Silver's Bay and to help find the responsible party(ies). (Side note: a friend of mine was in town for the weekend. He played a one-shot half orc rogue that was the PCs' contact).

The heroes make their way to Silver's Bay and meet a drow merchant lady by the name of Kallistra who gives the information to help find the Goblin Hulk. Jaks, their guide, claims those responsible for the assassination attempt are on the Hulk.

On the Goblin Hulk the heroes learn that Jaks has an ulterior motive. He owes a debt to one of the crime bosses on the ship and needs their help to rescue his lady friend and get the hell out of there. He agrees to give over the information after they help him.

In the prison deck on the Hulk they fight some spore zombies and find and rescue Jaks's girl. Jaks and the girl make their escape and tell the heroes that kobolds living on the ship hired the dopplegangers to kill Prince Edmund.

The heroes head for the kobold deck to "talk it out." They meet the kobold leader. Conversation is not high on anyone's agenda so they duke it out. When bloodied the kobold tranforms into a full grown green dragon. Eventually the heroes win the day and later beat a hasty retreat off of the Goblin Hulk. It seems some goblin crime boss is pissed at them about something to do with a half orc named Jacks.

this game happened in April

Session Recap: the Battle for Dalton's Camp

The Silver Elites returned from Prospect Hill to Stonehome with the Brow of Farlgrim which they handed over to King Arnulf. The dwarf king has promised to provide each of the heroes with a griffon or hippogriff mount after his wisemen perform the Cycle of Calling.

In the meantime, the party headed back to Edmund Keep where they received several items of news. Most interesting was the loss of the iron mines around Dalton's Camp. So, they set off to Dalton's Camp to recapture the place from the Razorclaw kobolds.

In relatively routine fashion, the Silver Elites make short work of a kobold supply train, some patrols and the kobolds holding the camp. They set up shop in Dalton's Camp and prepare to recapture the mines. A bit of interrogation reveals that the kobolds are supported by dragons in the area.

As the heroes head to the nearest mine a young red dragon attacks. The Silver Elites expend a great many resources (daily powers and actions points) and down the dragon with little effort. Aeral's use of the Flaming Sphere spell augmented by her Shadowfell Gloves has a peculiar effect on the dragon's hide: the necrotic energy of the gloves combined with the fire resistant nature of the dragon makes the dragon's hide suitable for constructing a suit of Black Iron Drakescale Armor +2 which Grim dons.

The heroes continue their push into the hills around Dalton's Camp to recapture the mines.

All the News That's Fit to Print

Here are several things of note in no particular order:

The next game begins after you have made the trek across the mountains back to Stonehome. You arrive in Stonehome on the Eve of Winter (night before the first day of winter). The dwarfs of Stonehome are well provisioned for the winter; the humans of Edmund somewhat less so due to the recent bad weather.

You've successfully recovered the Brow of Falgrim (and several other magic items) from the dragon Korzinalikur. Korzinalikur is a potentially strong ally for the future, and is very grateful for the rescue of her children.

To the best of your knowledge the village of Drummond's Point is back in proper working order; standard traffic to and from has resumed.

The dwarf Kharas Fireaxe, wanted by King Arnulf for treason, has not been captured and the last information is that he was heading to Drummond's Point from Edmund Keep several months ago. No news about him from Drummond's Point.

The kobold activity in the mountains continues. Worst of the news: the dwarf and human soldier/conscripts at Border Watch were routed some weeks ago by several dragons and a horde of kobolds. The Chisel Path is now firmly in the hands of the Razorclaws. About half of the contingent from Border Watch managed to escape back to Stonehome.

The people of Dalton's Camp have abandoned the place entirely. Too many kobold raids have made holding the mines there untenable. The kobolds have a strong supply of iron and other ores from the mines now.

A contingent of elves from the Witch Wood has sent word to Stonehome. The dwarf warlock, Draigdurroch has returned to his tower, the Icy Spire. Additionally, some cold-adapted goblins bearing the standards of the Bloodbane tribe have allied with him. Draigdurroch and the goblins have taken control of much of the northern part of the forest.

King Arnulf hopes to have his seers enact the Cycle of Calling (the ritual enabled by the Brow of Falgrim) in the spring. The ritual requires numerous items of power which he has sent people to recover, and must be cast either on the Day of Spring Dawning or Midsummer's Eve.

Jadestar Kaldoran and her conscripts near Fallcrest are training with the dwarfs, and the defense of the village appears to be in good hands.

A message from Prince Jorum to you via King Arnulf: a contingent of eladrin from the Court of the Shimmering Dream in the Feywild arrived about two weeks ago. They are staying at Edmund Keep indefinitely. They are here as ambassadors on behalf of Queen Charlindra. They want to maintain good relations with Prince Jorum and his people, as many Feywild crossings occur between their land and his. However, there seems to be a problem: some people acting on behalf of Prince Jorum, one of them his bastard daughter, destroyed the prison holding the dwarf warlock Draigdurroch in the Feywild. He has escaped and returned to the World. The eladrin, and their queen, are very concerned about him and believe that Prince Jorum and his people should capture him forthwith.

Prince Jorum sent a spy to Silver's Bay to investigate the attempted assassination. The spy has been gone about a month and has reported in via sending twice. There is a powerful goblin tribe, the Waverunners, making their home on an impossibly HUGE ship called the Warhulk. They have representatives in Silver's Bay. It appears they were the ones that hired the doppelganger to kill Prince Jorum for reasons unknown.

The Brow of Falgrim Recovered

The heroes rush to the nearby gnoll hideout where Korzinalikur's children are held captive.

They pass the "all clear" message to the gnoll sentry who delivers the message to the leaders not to kill Korzinalikur's children. The heroes hunker down and wait for the sentry to return. They slaughter him and make their way into the gnoll cave.

The Silver Elites battle their way through several waves of gnolls and finally reach a dark chamber in the back of the lair. Here they meet the stiffest resistance: a powerful gnoll brute, several archers and a bizarre creature from the Far Realm, a grell.

The gnolls and their grell ally push the heroes to the absolute limit, but after several of the heroes fall, near death, they finally manage to overcome the challenge. Battered, bloodied and bruised, they find and rescue two young copper dragons . . . and find the picked bones of three others in the well where the grell laired.

Back at the fort of Prospect Hill the heroes present Korzinalikur with her living children and the bones of the dead. The enraged dragon turns on the captive Chevoks and eats him; feet first. Having disposed of the evil warlock, the dragon gives the Silver Elites several magic items from her hoard, including the Brow of Falgrim. She promises to be a protector over Prospect Hill and come to the heroes' aid at need.

Now, back to Stonehome . . .

Battle at the Fort of Prospect Hill

The heroes made their way across the Smokestack Mountains to the tiny hamlet of Prospect Hill. There they discovered the people were not particularly friendly and appeared very frightened. Jordin managed to get the local innkeeper to open up and he told them about the evil warlock, Chevkos, and his bandit bully boys that have been terrorizing the hamlet for weeks. They have a dragon ally to enforce their will.

The dragon, named Korzinalikur, also has the Brow of Falgrim according to the prophecy from Stonehome. The heroes lie in wait in the village for the nightly visit from Chevkos's bandits. They easily lay waste to the thugs and capture three of them.

The villagers are terrified of the prospect of Chevkos's vengeance. The Silver Elites manage to convince the villagers to hold two of them captive while the heroes make their way to the nearby fort held by Chevkos and his allies. They take one of the captives along to lead the way and in an attempt to pretend to be the six returning bandits from the "night on the town".

At the fort the heroes are challenged by the gate guards and a fight quickly ensures. A long, sprawling battle occurs as guards and lackeys pour from various barracks around the keep. The battle is a very close thing when suddenly one of the soldiers calls to "bring out the dragon!"

A rampaging copper dragon bursts from one of the larger buildings in the keep and rushes into battle. It breaths a cloud of acid on the heroes and several of the bandits, and it's powerful presence stuns Kalim.

The battle continues for several minutes, but the dragon seems to intentionally miss attacks against the heroes. In the midst of the battle it quietly pleads with Torv, "The warlock holds my children captive; please help me!"

As the last of the bandits fall Chevkos and his bugbear guards rush into the battle. The dragon turns on Chevkos and takes the side of the Silver Elites. They quickly beat down the bugbears and manage to capture Chevkos.

Chevkos has Korzinalikur's children held captive by a band of gnolls in the mountains. He sends a message nightly by way of the bandits going through Prospect Hill. The message is sent to tell the gnolls not to kill Korzinalikur's children . . . this night. The message has not been delivered as the heroes intercepted the bandits.

Korzinalikur begs the Silver Elites to save her children and she will give them the magic items in her hoard . . .

The Story So Far

Here's a recap of the game to date . . .

The story opened with the heroes finishing off a band of kobolds in the foothills of the Smokestack Mountains near the town of Fallcrest. The Silver Elites, a strike force acting on behalf of Prince Jorum Edmund, finished off the leader of the kobolds and put an end to their depredations around Fallcrest; at least that was the plan.

On their return to Edmund Keep the heroes learn that the kobolds' battle cry praising Gafir means more than they originally thought. Gafir, an ancient black dragon believed slain some 100 years ago, was the most recent major threat to the region. Winged kobolds calling themselves Razorclaws and praising Gafir does not bode well for the region.

The dwarf merchant Kharas Fireaxe reveals that a party of dwarfs were recently in the Smokestack Mountains searching for Gafir's lair in hopes of recovering some booty. Did the dwarfs wake an ancient dragon? Prince Jorum sends the heroes to Stonehome to meet with King Arnulf Blademeister to get to the bottom of this matter. If the dwarfs stirred up trouble with Razorclaw kobolds it's going to take the combined efforts of man and dwarf to handle them.

On the way to Stonehome the heroes take the Chisel Trail, a path in the foothills of the mountains that has been mostly abandoned for 30 years. This path was dictated by the action of Prince Justin Edmund, the ruling Prince's son, who had taken it upon himself to "see to this dwarf mischief". The Silver Elites catch up to Prince Justin, stop him and send him back to Edmund Keep in the care of Captain Tiberious Johns.

At Stonehome the heroes get involved in local politicking as the leader of the Fireaxe clan, Drusilla Fireaxe, attempts to deflect blame for problems with the kobolds from her clan. She brands Kharas and his brother Tallos renegades and traitors. King Arnulf puts a bounty on the capture of the dwarfs which the Silver Elites quickly move to collect.

Back up the Chisel Trail the heroes find Tallos Fireaxe in the company of some bandits of the Blue River Thieving Guild and goblins of the Bloodbane clan at the long abandoned Border Watch. The heroes make short work of the bandits and capture the leaders, including the goblin raid leader and Tallos. The bandits and goblins were working together to deal with the kobold threat. The heroes let them go in hopes that they will serve as a speed bump of sorts against the kobolds.

The heroes stay the night at Border Watch and rudely surprised the next morning by a band of Razorclaw kobolds and their red dragon wyrmling ally. The going is tough, but the heroes prevail. Now they are dragonslayers!

Back at Stonehome they collect the bounty for bringing Tallos to justice and reconnoiter for a few days. They hear of trouble in the village of Drummond's Point to the south and set out to investigate. As they travel south the weather, which has been unseasonably cold for early fall, turns worse. Apparently some magical force from the Witch Wood is imposing an early winter on the area. The heroes press forward to Drummond's Point intent on figuring out the problems there before braving the Witch Wood.

At Drummond's Point they find a thorny briar forest has grown up around the place, it is interminably hot, and the village is under the control of a cohort of devils. Making contact with dusk elf refugees from the Feywild, the party learns that a powerful relic that exists in three planes at once can banish the devils. A future revealing dream sequence and more investigation lead them to sneak into Drummond's Point, through a portal to the Shadowfell where they find and destroy the Black Dagger, freeing the people of Drummond's Point.

Unfortunately, their efforts also upset things pretty badly in the fabric of space and time. They destroyed a chaos creature from Far Realm in capturing the dagger and doing so opened a rift back to the World from the Shadowfell. Stepping through they found themselves in the future about 15 years.

In the port city of Silver's Bay they discover that they are great heroes having helped defeat Gafir's horde and many other dangers over the last decade or so. They also learn that the perpetual winter from the Witch Wood has never been undone and Justin Edmund, the self-proclaimed King of Winter, sits the throne in Edmund Keep after having murdered his parents.

The heroes venture back into the Shadowfell and back to the portal at Drummond's Point. Here they see signs that the Chaos Beast is ripping apart the fabric of reality in the Shadowfell. They make their way to and through the portal and back to the World. They end up in Evermeadow, a forest northeast of Edmund Keep and about two weeks into the future. Good enough.

Back to Edmund Keep where they check on the royal family. All is well, so off to the Witch Wood. In the Witch Wood they discover the Icy Spire, a tower belonging to the dwarf warlock Draigdurroch. They fight their way into and through the place to a magical crystal on the roof which is the source of the winter weather. They defeat the guardian of the place, a Spirit of Winter, and see the weather begin to return to normal. The crystal shattered into numerous shards, one of which contains the Spirit of Winter. Torv makes a pact with the spirit . . . what may come of this?

On the way back to Edmund Keep the heroes meet a band of eladrin from the Feywild come to investigate the prison break of Draigdurroch. It seems the eladrin had imprisoned the dwarf some fifty years ago and the heroes' actions freed him. The eladrin blame the heroes for freeing the dangerous warlock and charge them with resolving the problem. The Silver Elites tell the eladrin to stuff it and go on about their business. The eladrin leave, but not without a warning that there will be a price to pay for their meddling.

Back at Edmund Keep the Prince throws a grand party for the Silver Elites to celebrate their recent successes and heroism. In the middle of the party Justin and some of his friends barge in and Justin calls to his father, "I'm here to claim my birthright!" as he attacks. Jordin quickly recognizes that "Justin" is not her brother and they manage to kill or capture the would-be assassins. The doppleganger assassin claims goblin pirates from Silver's Bay hired him. What the hell is this?

In the meantime, King Arnulf Blademeister of Stonehome, calls on the Silver Elites to travel north of the Smokestack Mountains to find for him Farlgrim's Brow. This relic will enable the dwarfs to command griffon and hippogriff mounts; such a valuable air force may be the difference in battles against flying dragons and kobolds.

The heroes set off through the mountains to get at the relic . . .

Adventure Hook Incoming!

King Arnulf sends reports to Prince Jorum: the dwarfs at Border Watch have been lost to a massive attack by kobold soldiers supported by dragons and dragon-mounted warriors. The deciding factor in the battle was the dwarfs' lack of air support.

In times past the dwarfs of Stonehome had a powerful air force of dwarfs mounted on griffons and hippogriffs. Unfortunately, the dwarfs have lost the knowledge and ability to command their erstwhile mounts. King Arnulf's sages and historians have uncovered information about a relic that will restore the now-forgotten art of aereal combat to the dwarf nation. The relic, a helm called Farlgrim's Brow, lies buried in a lost dwarf temple deep in the Smokestack Mountains. King Arnulf wants to send an able-bodied strike force into the mountains to recover the relic. Prince Jorum suggests that force is you!

What do you do next?

Session Rewards

The following magic items/rewards have been distributed of late:

• The Shard of Winter (Torv?)
• Bloodclaw Fullblade +2 (Kalim)
• Foe Chaser Boots (Grim)
• Shadowdance Leather Armor +1 (Aeral)
• 840 gp worth of Residium (who's got this and what are you doing with it?)
• Cash: ~200 gp

Non Standard Magic Item/Boon

The Shard of Winter
Level 8 artifact

Honor the Winter Spirits, seek and understand the power in nature's harsh challenge to life.

The Shard of Winter bestows power on anyone willing to enter a pact with it. The pact requires the immediate, permanent expenditure of a healing surge, representing the sacrifice of the supplicant's life source to the power of Winter. In exchange for entering the pact, the supplicant can now make a second use of one daily attack power of level 5 of less. Doing so counts as a use of a daily item power.

As the pact continues, additional powers and/or sacrifices accrue.

Session 10 Recap

The Silver Elites find themselves back in the World after their trek through the Shadowfell and through time. They returned to the World in Evermeadow, the fey forest northeast of Edmund Keep and traveled to the nearby mining village of Dalton's Camp.

In Dalton's Camp they learn that they have returned to the World about a month after they began their adventures in Drummond's Point, so in relative time they are about 2 - 3 weeks younger than they should be. They also learn that the kobold menace has increased to the point that many of the folks of Dalton's Camp have fled the area and there is talk of abandoning the place entirely. Abandoning Dalton's Camp would cost the people of the Principality of Edmund significant sources of raw metals.

Moving onward, they journey to Fallcrest where they meet with the local ruler, Count Dougal, who informs him that he has turned to conscription to fill out the ranks of Jadestar Kaldoran's militia. The militia has suffered serious losses against the kobolds. The heroes convince Count Dougal to keep the militia close to home, stop hunting the kobolds and train up in preparation for an extended war. They also send a message to King Arnulf's troops at Border Watch to exchange men for cross training and shared defense.

Finally back at Edmund Keep the heroes learn more details. Prince Jorum has sent forty soldiers to Border Watch in answer to King Arnulf's request. The unseasonable winter weather has gotten worse, and they view this as the most pressing issue seeing as they believe it is the source of the future problem with "the Winter King" Prince Justin who will supposedly murder his parents in a palace coup.

The Silver Elites make their way to the Witch Wood. On the way they advise the people of the villages and hamlets to seek shelter from the coming war in Edmund Keep.

In the Witch Wood they fight their way through a terrible and unnatural blizzard. They overcome an ambush by some cold-adapted goblins bearing the marks of the Bloodbane tribe. It appears the refugees from the kobold predations have made their way into the Witch Wood and have been affected by the weather.

Finally, they reach the Icy Spire, the tower of the dwarf warlock, Draigdurroch. They fight their way through guardians and a band of ice elementals, and finally reach the source of the winter weather: a magical gem that has a connection to a powerful creature called the Spirit of Winter. They manage to defeat the creature, shattering the gem and they recognize immediately that the weather is beginning to return to normal. Perhaps the people of Edmund will manage a late autumn harvest.

Having defeated the Spirit of Winter they gather the sapphire shards of its gem. One of the shards burns with a terrible cold and speaks to anyone holding it. It offers great power to anyone willing to honor it with a blood pact . . . an offer that Torv considers thoughtfully . . .

Brief History Lesson

The Principality of Edmund is the center of the World as you know it. You've lived/grown up here for most of your life. It's a humanocentric pocket of civilization with a fair smattering of all of the "standard" D&D races mixed in. Geographically it is south of the Smokestack Mountains and north of the Silver Sea. To the West lies the forbidding Witch Wood and the dwarf nation of Stonehome. Northeast of here is the magical forest of Everwood. Rumors speak of faeries and a link to the Feywild in the forest.

Historically, the dwarfs of Stonehome and the humans of Edmund are allies against the monstrous humanoids (orcs, goblins, and kobolds) of the Smokestack Mountains. Some time ago (less than 100 years) the dwarfs and humans banded together against a tribe of kobolds called the Razorclaws that united under a great black dragon named Gafir. Jorum Edmund's (current Prince of Edmund) grandfather and King Arnulf Blademeister fought the dragon toe-to-toe. The dragon fled the battle after sustaining serious wounds and has not been seen since. Jonar Edmund died of his wounds after the battle with Gafir.

Game on tomorrow night

So, you've just saved Drummond's Point from devils (you think) . . . what are you gonna do next?

• Is Drummond's Point really ok?
• What's up with the weather in the Witch Wood?
• How are the dwarfs doing up in the mountains and at Border Watch?
• Is Justin really planning to kill his parents and take over the place?
• What about all that chaos madness in the Shadowfell?
• How's Jadestar and her bands of mercenaries/conscripts doing against the kobolds around Fallcrest?
• Are there really a bunch of dragons running around in the mountains?
• Is Gafir awake? Why are the kobolds worshipping him?

Catch Up

A few games have happened in the last two months.

Who's in?

Situation: you have returned from the future. You are now in Edmund Keep days after having saved Drummond's Point (you think) from the devils. Kobolds are massing under the banner of Gafir. Stonehome (the Dwarf kingdom) is sending an army to Border Watch to secure against the kobolds. Jadestar Kaldoran (dragonborn border guard from the north) is rounding up peasants and conscripts to fight kobolds in the north. Prince Jorum has sent some extra troops north to deal with any kobold incursions and may send troops to Border Watch. He hasn't yet answered King Arnulf's request. An unnatural early Winter emanates from the Witchwood. Goblins and their ilk flee from the Smokestack Mountains and the wrath of Gafir's Horde. Dragon sightings have been reported near the mountains. No one has seen or heard from anyone in Drummond's Point in several weeks; something about a thorny forest blocking passage that way. Kharas Fireaxe is still missing and wanted for treason by King Arnulf.

That's about it for now. What do you wanna do next?

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