01 The Black Klan, The Deep Cave, and Rescue Nurensachs

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netjiro
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01 The Black Klan, The Deep Cave, and Rescue Nurensachs

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The Black Klan - 5 sessions

After rescuing Sleepy Cove from the Return of Uchly Namen the Stalwart Heroes enjoy the benefits and perks of being viewed as Saviours of All by the townsfolk, as they slowly collect the extortive payment agreed upon under duress as the Demon Uchly Namen was marching into town.
Good thing that the townsfolk haven't figured out that the Monstrous Demon was probably there mainly because the Heroic Saviours had brought the controlling necklace into the village...

One evening a weary traveller steps into the "Sleep with the Fishes" and immediately proclaims: I need some Heroes!
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Datarian, Maras, and Farsalos turn their greedy eyes, shimmering with lust for gold, in his direction and put on the best game face their comfortable drunkenness allows. After a short introduction the man says he is from Merna, and that a band of Svartfolk, orcses and goblins, have settled in the region and is plundering the trade caravans which come in with much needed supplies for the rebuilding of the town after the mayhem caused by the Demon's Rampage a while back. He is willing to pay 10 gold, 5 now and 5 later for the Heroes to follow him to Merna and rid the town of the evil bandit gang. Maras Blackhammer takes advantage of the Weary Traveller's dire need of assistance and haggles a bit, although not very well.
They quickly go through their gear, then set off towards Merna. A day and a half later they arrive, and set out for the cave where the Horrible Bandits are thought to reside.
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They leave their guide behind and advance on the cave. Soon arrows start flying through the air, and Farsalos initiates an exchange with a group of hidden goblin archers, as Datarian manages to cross the stream and close in to slaughter them with his sword. Meanwhile Maras slooowly crosses the stream.
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One goblin archer manages to escape into the cave, and the planned surprise attack is now impossible.

They advance into the cave and immediately run into trouble. First and foremost their lack of light the first few rounds, as goblin runt knifers climb all over them with their rusty knives and sharp claws. Maras gets his staff light shining just in time for the a few groups of goblin fighters and warriors, which are soon assisted by orcs.
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As the push deeper into the cave they leave an ocean of blood behind them. They soon manage to clean out the cave of the fighters and warriors, as well as one shaman who nearly barbeques Maras Blackhammer.

After the cave is "safe" the Heroic Trio goes through the alcoves and offshoots, killing the women and looting whatever seems to have any value. Their donkeys are brought into the cave and get loaded up. After that it is time for bed.

During the night they get assaulted by the bandit boss' main group, returning from a raid. The bandits' scouts easily sneak by the hawk eyed Farsalos who is the night watchman. The gobin scouts manage to wound Datarian before they are spotted and Farsalos kills them with his mighty bow and arrows. Then all hell breaks loose as the main group of bandits assault, and the Heroes retreat to a better fighting spot.
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The fight is fierce and a very close call. The Orc Chieftain and Champion, supported by a couple of warriors and archers manage to nearly kill Maras, who faints from lethal wounds, and seriously wound Farsalos, before the strike blast charged arrows and blood thirsty attacks of Farsalos and Datarian finally smite them dead.

Some more looting follows, then the Heroes make camp again. Once again the watchful eyes of Farsalos is no threat to a scout sneaking into their group camp to reconnoiter. After a long while Farsalos does manage to spot her, a lightly armoured halfling. She holds her hand high and ask for peace and a talk.

Her name is Imnel and she and her group is here to look for a small gemstone, "The Eye of Karakash". The orc bandits stole it a while back and her employer wants the stone back. They are willing to pay more than stone value for it if the Heroes have found it. But Maras says they have not, so the Halfling Imnel leaves. They will be in Merna for a few days if the stone should be found.
Of course, the rest of the Heroes does not know that Maras has the stone and treasures it greatly to pimp his low self esteem due to his poor economical situation.

After a day they return to Merna to rest and recuperate before going through the dark passage deeper into the dark unknown. In the town they are greeted as heroes, especially since they volonteer to give up the loot that the bandits have stolen from town the reconstruction workers.

In Merna they meet the band of adventurers Imnel is working with. As Maras opens his mouth a bit too wide and mention that the cave is not fully explored yet the other adventurers set off in haste to the site to start looking. The Heroes quickly set off after them to get back and defend "their loot" still left in the cave.
As they get back to the cave a discussions clears up the potential hostilities and Maras realizes he has to give up the stone. They sell "The Eye of Karakash" for 5gold to Imnel's gang, which is more than double the estimated value of the stone. Maras grinds his teeth.

They rest for the night, then push through the dark tunnel, taking hours to clear up the cave-ins. Then they enter into a strange smelling cave with sounds of pick axes digging and light coming from ahead. Farsalos takes a few steps forward and a fire inferno engulfs him...

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netjiro
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The Deep Cave

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The Deep Cave, 3 sessions

The Heroes have decided to investigate the dark tunnel from the Dark Klan lair, and have come out into a cave area with strange smells and the sound of pick axes striking rock. Farsalos have immediately gotten himself into a fire inferno and is fast getting his burning feet out of the heat.
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They soon realise that they have stumbled into a slave mine of some sort, guarded by strange Blackscale Antorg critters. And of course, the entry was rigged with more than one fire trap. The inhuman slavers attack with their weird but effective lightning rods, which stun the heroes, making the advance so much more difficult.

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They successfully kill off the first few slavers and free the slaves chained to the cave walls. A sad mistreated bunch of goblins and orcs, and one very angry dwarf. Hergemacher Nurensachs, the angry dwarf, quickly explains the basics. That the Antorgs are slavers that mine copper in large quantities, for some obscure reason. There are more of these monsters here, and they are led by a large one, which is not to be underestimated. They also carry strange batons for close combat, and they are much worse than the weird lightning rods.

The heroes manage to get a few of the orcs heading further into the cave warren, but most of the svartfolk goblins and orcs scatter and disappear in all directions. The Heroes, together with Hergemacher Nurensachs continue through the warrens toward the antorg master, and the portal through which they arrive.

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After a lengthy battle with lots of retreats, regrouping, renewed attacks and serious blood loss they manage to finally slay the beast.

Hergemacher explains that the swirling blue magic light is the portal to the Antorg staging base and it is there they are holding his cousin. He promises 30 gold once his cousin is safely returned to their family.

The greedy Heroes readily accepts, but they need to recuperate and stock up on supplies before setting out anew.

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netjiro
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Rescue Nurensachs

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Rescue Nurensachs, 6 sessions

The Heroes have gladly accepted the task of rescuring Hergemachers cousin from the clutches of the evil Antorg slavers. They stay for a while in Trade Town to shop for gear, ordering the best the master craftsmen have to offer, and buying copious amounts of expensive Quaff(tm) restorative potions, etc. They know they have to go into an Antorg slaver's central lair, and it is not going to be easy.
They also lend money to Hergemacher Nurensachs to get some decent swords and armour so he can help out in the rescue attempt.

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During their stay in the big city they get into contact with other gangs of happy adventurers, and find out that there is a group asking around for information about the death of Honorbliz Wize. It turns out that their Banor's Gate was lost from his lab around the time of the wizard's unfortunate demise. Of course the Honourables Heroes feign ignorance of the expensive device now sitting in their room at the Sleep with the Fishes inn.
They also find out that Sam Slick has been seen heading east towards the War Zone, and of course it was Sam Slick who killed the Wizard Wize.

A week or two later their master crafted weapons are finished and they buy passage across the straits to Sleep Cove, to once again continue on foot towards the deamon stricken town of Merna and the Black Klan cave system.


Datarian Blood, Maras Blackhammer, Farsalos, and Hergemacher Nurensachs now stand prepared to penetrate the Antorg slaver's central lair, where the misery of countless slaves weighs heavy in the air. Rested and Ready for Action they venture into the Deep Cave and activate the Antorg Portal which leads them to a dark abode excavated from the bedrock. Immediately they hear the strange sounds of foreign machinery and antorg activity. Directly south of their entry they encounter an antorg master and a few of his slavers.
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The battle is fierce and continues as a stream of antorg slavers emerge from a hidden door in the north west corner of the room. After a long while it finally goes silent as the last antorg wheezes out his insect-like death rattle.

They leave a lake of blood and a dozen hacked up antorg corpses in the processing room and head west through the hidden passage way into a maze of dug out tunnels, now almost empty after the antorg slavers have tried reinforcing their kindred in the processing room. Farsalos stays behind in the northern access corridor to scout the eastern section and watch out for approaching enemies. Mandak joins the game and his pale elven eyes are very useful in mapping out the tunnels. Little do they know that another Antorg Master is waiting for them, devising a plan to separate them into more manageable groups.
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Another fight ensues with the second master and the few remaining antorg slavers, but despite successfully trapping and sedating Datarian blood and splitting up the main force of the Heroes into smaller groups the Antorg Master is not long lived. The onslaught of magic infused arrows from Farsalos together with the empowered hammer strikes of Maras and furious hacking swords of Hergemacher finally kills the beast, although it is a very close call as both dwarves and Datarian are knocked out from the fight in the end. Mandak leaves the reality again, unfortunately.

Having secured the south part of the antorg stronghold the Heroes recuperate for a few rounds before heading to the north east to open the slave pens and free the human, dwarven, and orc slaves. The thankful slaves immediately go down to the equipment racks and arm themselves with pick axes.
The last cell holds some strange looking Nikrit critters. Not being able to communicate with them Farsalos nontheless decides to release them. This turns out to be not such a good idea, and after a furious two rounds of trying to contain them in the prison they manage to escape.
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A bloody battle ensues as a large group of vicious fast Nikrits escape and swarm over the Heroes and the escaped Slaves, some of which loose their lives and new found freedom very fast indeed.

Once the Nikrits are dead the Heroes again try to secure the area. Datarian and Farsalos stay in the slave pens to mop up the nikrit larva left behind, while Maras and Hergemacher go south to investigate the machinery and secure the portals for transportation of loot.

Unfortunately for them all they fail to notice the advancing Antorg Slave Hunter party returning from a raid. Since they group is split in two, and Datarian and Farsalos are already volontarily in the slave pens the four Slave Hunters have no problems at all to lock up the slave pens and then subdue Maras and Hergemacher. The remaining freed slaves immediately flee into the eastern mines.
A protracted exchange of arrows and lightning stick bolts ensue for tens of rounds between Farsalos and Datarian locked in the pens and the Slave Hunters just outside wanting to subdue them to be able to lock them up properly.
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After a while it is obvious to the slave hunters that they need reinforcements, so one of them goes back through the west portal to seek help. After a while the fighting through the jail bars end as both Farsalos and the Slave Hunters get low on ammo.

In the mean time the freed slaves make their way into the east mine tunnels and encounter the few antorg slaver guards on duty there.
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The slaves are poorly armed and not very good at fighting, and they loose a few of their numbers before the slavers are brought down and several more orcs and goblin slaves are freed.
The bolstered ranks of recently freed slaves then revolt and return to the main cavern to free the Heroes, since Maras and Hergemacher are the only ones who know how to activate the portals to get out of the hellish place.

The slave revolt makes its way back into the main cave and storms in with a dozen or so slaves, ready to take on the three remaining Antorg Slave Hunters. The divide into two groups and quickly takes on the first slave hunter before the other two join in the melee.
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The slaves are no real match for the well trained, strong and well equipped slave hunters, and one by one the slaves are either killed or stunned into submission. But in the mean time, as the Slave Hunters are busy fighting, a couple of goblins manage to make it past the killing zone, up to the main slave pens and the goblin holding area, to pull the levers releasing all prisoners and the goblin slave horde.
As the Antorg Slave Hunters quickly take care of the remaining slaves Datarian and Farsalos escape their cells and join the fight. With the two heroes out and rested the fight very quickly turns against the Slave Hunters. One is killed fast and the two other flee to get new weapons as their charges are all but spent. Farsalos and Datarian are in hot pursuit.

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One of the fleeing Antorg Slave Hunters run straight into the advancing horde of freed goblin slaves. The angry goblins swarm all over their torturer and slowly wear him down. In the mean time a small group of goblins close in on the other Slave Hunter together with Farsalos and Datarian. Soon the last slave hunter lies dead on the floor, holding his new thunder stick to no avail.

Datarian and Farsalos go back to heal and wake up Maras and Hergemacher from their deep stun immobilization. They manage to wake up Maras but notice that another Antorg Master comes through the west portal vortex, along with four slavers and the last slave hunter. The Heroes try to make their way through the milling goblin horde, but it is slow going. As the Antorg Master finally comes into range to cast a gas cloud the chances of escape look bleak indeed. The path to the portal is blocked by panicking goblins. But, as the gas descend the goblins pass out, falling to the floor, allowing the heroes to escape down to the portal and out into the Deep Cave system on the other side.

And so the Heroes have escaped enslavement, but were not able to rescue Hergemacher's cousin this time. As Hergemacher is determined to aid his blood relative he will perhaps get them to make another attempt?

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