The Cave of Clan Shadowscale

Tell us how you are using our gaming tools and how your sessions are going.

Moderator: Azhrei

Post Reply
User avatar
Brigand
Read-only User
Posts: 1623
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:57 am
Location: Nosy GM's can go frak themselves!

The Cave of Clan Shadowscale

Post by Brigand »

So, I ran a pickup game for Untoldglory and a few other people last night. it was my first real lengthy game using maptool. After some initial connection woes (entirely my fault), we got underway.

The story begins in media res...

Part One...
Distant thunder rumbled in the leaden skies. A gray shroud of clouds hid the setting of the sun. The light drizzle of rain pattered off leaf and blade, soaking the weary travelers to the bone. For nearly six hours they had tracked a group of kobold raiders that had kidnapped a dragonborn cleric named Dorgo, and his retinue. The kobolds were members of the Shadowscale Clan, part of the Black Dragon Tribe notorious for their brutality.

Sia, an eladrin soldier from a war in the past, led the party along the kobolds muddy trail. She'd gone into seclusion at the end of the war and learned much about surviving in the wilderness. Arianna, another eladrin, called upon arcane powers to light their way with eldritch gloves of multi-colored light. Feanor, a novice ranger and dabbler in the arcane arts, followed Sia around like a lost puppy, his longbow held in trembling hands.

A crash of thunder and the sizzle of nearby lightning covered the sounds of the party, but it also hid the shadowscale lurks, lurking about in the trees from the eyes of the rangers. A volley of thrown daggers pierced the night, striking several of the adventurers. Sia noted the twisting of the branches and called out four targets as the kobolds descended from the trees. The onyx scales of the shadowscale clan gleamed in the eldritch light, highlighted by the rain. Each one carried a vicious, barbed spear. Fortunately the rain had washed away the poison they normally covered their spears with.

The battle was swift and fierce, Sia nearly falling to the spears of three of the lurks that had surrounded her. A furious string of attacks and then a short jaunt through the Feywild brought the wounded ranger to safety. Arianna confounded two of the kobolds with a breath of ice and wind that knocked them prone and covered them with a rime of hoarfrost. The third skittered across the ice and sought out Feanor. The young, inexperienced ranger let loose with several arrows during the battle, few finding their marks except at opportune moments.

With three of the lurks dead, the fourth fled through a heavy grey tarp on the hillside, that hid the cave entrance. A smear of thick blood showed the way through.

After a short rest and much bandaging of wounds, the would-be rescuers, led by Sia, push their way through the tarp carefully, fearing an ambush. They find little to worry them, except rustlings in the shadows of the tunnels to the east. Tunnels covered in a thick maze of old and new spider webs, as big around as the trunk of a young tree. To the west, a clatter of stone and steel warns Sia of another impending battle. A kobold, taller than the other four, shook a heavy iron ladle in the direction of Feanor, who was attempting to sneak closer.

The kobold cook hurls a ceramic jug in the direction of the ranger. It crashes against the rough hewn stone walls of the kobolds home, spilling a bright red fluid that ignites in a whoosh of flame and smoke. The other four kobolds each hurl a spear down the hall towards the adventurers, though no one is struck. With careful positioning and attacks, the adventurers take down the sentries quickly, leaving the cook by himself with only his stew bubbling over the fire.

Sia quickly covers the distance between her and the cook, striking him twice with her broad-bladed spear. The cook shifts away from the ranger, and kicks over the stew, sending a steaming, boiling spray of dinner at the ranger. The foul reek from the stew is almost as bad as the burns. Sia falls back to catch her breath. Feanor strikes the cook with a critical hit. The cook retaliates with a resounding thwack from his heavy iron ladle, which bends the handle.

The culinary kobold falls to the combined efforts of the adventurers, leaving them sore and wounded, but the fight isn't over yet. As Feanor and Sia finished off the cook, Arianna noticed a figure struggling amongst the webs in a small alcove. It took a couple tries, but she frees Kella, one of the captives who was given over to the spiders the inhabit the eastern caverns.

Hungry arachnids tumble out of the webs in droves as they fear their dinner is getting away. The adventurers, already weary from the battle against the brute of a cook, turn to face the new threat. Arianna steals the show by igniting half the caverns covered in webbing, killing hundreds of spiders and several spiderlings. Two of the full grown jumping spiders have all the black hairs singed from their chitin.

Sia once again is severely wounded and weakened from repeated attacks and the mild spider venom coursing through her veins. The adventurers overcome the spiders and take a long rest, hoping the kobolds will stay in the western caverns, believing the spiders to still be living and the rescuers a late snack for the hungry arachnids.

User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

Post by UntoldGlory »

Awesome read, can't wait for part 2!

User avatar
Brigand
Read-only User
Posts: 1623
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:57 am
Location: Nosy GM's can go frak themselves!

Post by Brigand »

Part Two (The Annotated? Abridged? version....)

After an extended rest, the would-be rescuers explore further into the caves, discovering numerous tunnels that branch off in every direction. The sound of a battle cry and the clatter of javelins on stone and steel forces them into battle with several kobolds. Two guardians stalk out from the shadows, clad in dragonscale armor with shield and spear. Behind those two, a number of sentries with claws full of javelins, lurk in the shadows. The sound of battle wakes up something... even the kobolds start to worry and try to flee from the horrible roar that resonates from a tunnel below.

One of the sentries manages to give the adventurers the slip shortly after they had taken down the rest of the sentries and one of the two guardians. The other kobold managed to dive into a corner and hide, though the party never found out how until too late.

A horrendous screech, like a thousand fingernails on slate, crashed into the small cavern as a four-legged and feathered monstrosity with a clacking and snapping beak charged into the fray. Despite several attacks from ready members of the group, the abomination trampled over the adventurers, flattening several of them. Sia charged in and whirled around in a frenzy of attacks, bloodying the beast.

It roared like a waterfall in a thunderstorm and drove the party to their knees, blood dripping from shattered eardrums. Through careful maneuvers, Arianna was able to revive the fallen warlock, Kella, and the ranger, Feanor. She paid for her attention to her allies when the hidden kobold leapt out of a secret alcove and cracked open the wizards skull.

Feanor, Sia, and Kella finished off the screeching abomination and the kobold. They revived Arianna by dribbling a potion of healing between her lips. The kobold revealed a hidden captive, a cleric named Dorgo. The cleric brought a measure of confidence to the bloodied and beaten group. They pushed on to see if they could rescue any other captives.

The next battle pitted them against numerous sentries and two more of the dragonscale armored guardians. With the agile spearmaiden, Sia, dancing among the kobolds and the blasts of fire and ice from Arianna, the sentries were quickly eliminated, leaving the two guardians back to back against the five adventurers. The remainder of the battle was short and brutal, leaving two more dead kobolds bleeding on the cold stone.

The End

Ok... so it wasn't really annotated or abridged or whichever it should be. I got carried away. ^_^ Anyway, it was a fun, nearly six hour game session and I can't wait to get started on a real campaign.

User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

Post by UntoldGlory »

Yeah, I had a blast!

User avatar
Brigand
Read-only User
Posts: 1623
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:57 am
Location: Nosy GM's can go frak themselves!

Post by Brigand »

Glad you enjoyed it. It felt good to DM again. Last time I DM'd was shortly after the new year... and then my DM in an OpenRPG campaign passed away unexpectedly. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt and slid off the road.

User avatar
UntoldGlory
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1649
Joined: Sun Mar 16, 2008 8:12 pm

Post by UntoldGlory »

Bummer.

Post Reply

Return to “Session Report-Back”