The Dragon of Thunderspire Mountain - Rumbles Slim Framework

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Jagged
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:27 am
Location: Bristol, UK

Re: The Dragon of Thunderspire Mountain - Rumbles Slim Frame

Post by Jagged »

Trying to complete my write up. The campaign is successfully finished now, so no excuse really ;)
Workshop of the Master Smith
The adventurers gather themselves and head out across the second bridge, warmed by their success and the lava below them. At the third balcony they find doors heading south and west. Scouting south they discover two rooms of sleeping quarters, one shared, one private. In the private quarters they find a locked chest containing 340gp and a note signed by someone called Paldemar. The note obviously came with the gold and is the final payment for "the last component."

Heading back to the balcony and carefully opening the western door, Happy Angel reveals a short corridor that opens onto what appears to be a workshop. A couple of Duergar guards stand either side of a work bench, while two spiny creature stand close to a roaring furnace. The hairs on the back of Warpriest Haagan's neck rise as he whispers, "Devils!" Alykacha fires a crossbow at one of the Spiny Devils but misses and one of the guards returns fire, charging down the corridor and narrowly clipping Happy Angel.

The party find their way blocked by the guard but Moonscale advances, lobbing a crackling orb of lightning that explodes on the work bench. The Master Smith is caught fully by its electric embrace while the devils are only singed. Pontuus charges the guard blocking the corridor, but in the cramped conditions his spear fails to strike home. The Master Smith, Urwol, takes advantage of the closely grouped targets and casts a strange spell. A cloud of shrapnel explodes into existence on the balcony, a whirlwind of nails and metal scraps batter Moonscale, Happy Angel and Pontuus. Only Rangrim manages to find room to duck out of the way.

The Duergar guard attempts to hold his position and trap them in the Iron Storm, while the Devils fire the very spines off their skin at Moonscale and Haagan. Alykacha manages to mortally wound the guard and Moonscale finishes him off with a blast of ice that sends their enemies sliding down the corridor. The adventurers take the opportunity and break out into the workshop, at last having room to maneuver.

The evil Smith has more powers at his disposal, seemingly able to summon the fires and fumes out of the forge, to cast at the party. The devils concentrate their attention on the Warpriest, causing the Paladin Rangrim to jump in front of an attack, saving Haagan from an otherwise critical wound. The Warpiest heals the Paladin with a divine prayer and smashes Urwol with his warhammer. His divine wrath, massively damaging his enemy. Sensing his weakness, Alykacha and Pontuus close in, bringing his down in a flurry of blows.

In the meantime Happy Angel and Moonscale have been concentrating on the devils, assuming they may be resistant to heat and so blasting them with ice. Eventually all the enemies are defeated and only the last devil remains, Moonscale bringing it down from afar with a trusty Magic Missile.

Treasure:
Potion of Stormshield 125gp 2xStone of Shielding

XP:
Urwol, Duergar Master Smith lvl 5 Controller xp 200
2 x Duergar Guard lvl 4 Soldier xp 175
2 x Spined Devils lvl 6 Skirmishers xp 250
Total: 1050

Once the fight is over and the party has licked their wounds, they examine their surroundings. A door to the west leads them to the squalid room where prisoners are being kept. Once released, they find members of the Rendil Halfmoon's extended family and other people kidnapped at the same time.

The workshop itself is dominated by a large work bench and a strange golden shield-like item the Smith had been working upon. Moonscale examines the thing using all his arcane knowledge, never having seen anything quite like it before. He determines that it is enchanted with some kind of fear spell, and that perhaps that was why the prisoners were still alive, that their fear was being used in its enchantment?

The party head through the southern doors, escorting the freed captives and dragging the strange item. They pass through the main gate house to the Duergar bastion and out onto one of Thunderspires many underground roads. They haven't gone more than a few steps when a small voice from the shadows asks if they are adventurers? With a little coaxing, the voice reveals itself to have come from a small mechanical dragon.

The size of a familiar or cat, the clock-work creature claims to be in thrall to a powerful magician called Paldemar, who sent it here to escort "the item" back to the magician's lair. It claims to have few memories of "before" but was once a human or humanoid and asks the adventurers to defeat the magician, who it cannot directly disobey.
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Jagged
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:27 am
Location: Bristol, UK

Re: The Dragon of Thunderspire Mountain - Rumbles Slim Frame

Post by Jagged »

Long after it was due, he is a much abridged write up of the final few sessions:
The Church of the Articifer
The Church of the Articifer
Our party escort the freed slaves back to the Seven Pillared Hall and are greeted as true heroes by the relieved relatives. With some time on their hands, they speculate about the true nature of the mechanical pseudo-dragon. Was it really once a person? Can you trust something that admits it cannot directly disobey its master? Who is its Master? It can only be the missing Mage of Saruun, Paldemur. The construction of the tiny dragon looks suspiciously similar to the Bronze Warden the Mages keep in tow. Has Paldemur discovered the means of their construction?

Following the directions provided by their new companion, the party head deep into the mountain and arrive at the Articifer's lair. Conscious of the miniature dragon's words, they arrive ahead of the creature, so that it cannot give anything away. The villain's hideout looks very much like a church carved out of the rock. Through large double doors, they see an alter and stairs leading away in the distance. But blocking their way, stands one of the ancient Bronze Wardens. While around the room are place four, similar (but newer?) bronze statues, slightly smaller in size.

A voice calls out from the back and challengers the party. They attempt to bluff, saying they are here to deliver the final component, but the voice is not convinced and the Bronze Warden begins to animate. The animated Minotaur rampages round the hall and it takes a giant floating hand made of chiselled ice, conjured by Moonscale, to slow it down. The four surrounding statues inevitably animate, moving in to assist the original. However it is not long before they are all, nothing more than broken chunks of bronze, littering the floor.

Slow clapping emerges from stairs as a the arrogant mage Paldemur, strides into the room. He confidently belittles the party and the two groups are soon at war. Paldemur's confidence is not without reason though and with each attack made upon his person, he strikes back at his attacker with his mind. But it is six against one, is the outcome ever in doubt?

Treasure:
Residiuum: 300gp
2 Health Potions
2 viles of Alchemist's Fire: +9vs Ref 2d6
Rituals: Tenser's Lift, Speak with Dead, Linked Portal

XP:
Paldemar Lvl 8 Elite Artillery xp 700
Weakend Bronze Warder Lvl 7 Soldier xp 300
4 x Bronze Warder Statue Lvl 7 Minion xp 75
TOTAL: 1300
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Last edited by Jagged on Sat Mar 22, 2014 7:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Jagged
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:27 am
Location: Bristol, UK

Re: The Dragon of Thunderspire Mountain - Rumbles Slim Frame

Post by Jagged »

The Dragon Restored
The Dragon Restored
The party search through Paldemur's room, which is full of many interesting writings on the workings of the ancient contructs and more still on the ways of necromancy and methods of keeping a brain alive. From the balcony of the room is revealed a large, rough formed cave. Dim rays of sun, arcing down from hole far above, make ominous shadows on a large canvas covered construction. While the orange light from hot coals in brazier, heats a small collection of tools.

Knowing it can only be a trap, the heroes make their best preparations and enter the construction site. As they approach, the canvas rises up, revealing a huge mechanical dragon, complete except for a missing chest plate. This creature is the once mighty Kerg, who ruled and terrorised the Nentir Vale many hundreds of year ago. Brought down and thought killed by heroes long forgotten, his body had laid rotting and decaying until found by the mad Paldemur. But dragons are creatures of magic and his mind was still intact and so Paldemur started work on a new body for Kerg. Paldemur hoped to be able to control the creature and made it so Kerg could not disobey Paldemur's orders. At least, that's what Kerg would have done in his place, he thought it best not to find out, so he needed to find some heroes to move the Mage out of the way. That done, Kerg now just needs to test his new body on a group of suitable heroes, to see if he is fit to rule again. The miniature dragon? Oh, that is Kerg as well. A first test constructed by the mage.

The party fight the dragon Kerg and his pseudo-dragon familiar. The latter trying to dart out of the shadows and paralyse with it sting, while Kerg-proper attacks with multiple claw, bite, tail and lightning breath weapons. The adventurers assume that hitting it with lightning based powers might not be a good idea. A correct assumption as that would have automatically recharged its breath weapon. Apart from that, Kerg's powers were fairly normal for a dragon, except that because it did not have its chest plate, it lacked use of its fear weapon.

XP:
Kerg Lvl 8 Solo Lurker xp 1750
TOTAL: 1750
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TheShadow
Kobold
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Re: The Dragon of Thunderspire Mountain - Rumbles Slim Frame

Post by TheShadow »

Hia, You campaign looks really cool. Anyway you could use a ranger? (I'm guessing it is 4e)

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Jagged
Great Wyrm
Posts: 1306
Joined: Mon Sep 15, 2008 9:27 am
Location: Bristol, UK

Re: The Dragon of Thunderspire Mountain - Rumbles Slim Frame

Post by Jagged »

Thanks for the compliments. Unfortunately its a full group, though. Cheers

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