=============================================================================== Logged and edited 23-Aug-2006 by the Doctor (Sviar) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- DM: Gronwin PCs: Sviar, Tylan Summary: doing some leg-work in preparation for the next full session. They interrogate the prisoner (Sviar has him under a charm spell) and later kill him. The group searches for and finds a secret vault under the keep, apparently untouched since it fell to the giants. They spend the night there, then take a few items, leaving the rest to remain hidden for later retrieval. Time: right after the conclusion of the big fight at Vraath Keep Note: The PCs have found a map on the hobgoblin spellcaster/leader, indicating an imminent invasion of Elsir Vale. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- While the experts do the looting, Sviar goes to find whatever it is that the hobgoblins kept for drink. "I need to talk to the prisoner before this spell wears off, eh?" He looks at Tylan. "Maybe you and the cleric can wake him up, give him a good scare? Then I'll have a chat with him. After, maybe let him loose, die with a sword in his hand? An honorable death wipes out all stains." Tylan nods to Sviar, the suggestion suiting him. They can't let the guy go, after all. He walks over, crouching over their captive, and smacks the side of his face lightly. "Hey, wake up. Huh?" After abit of yelling and shaking the hobgoblin wakes. He looks only partialy scared. More resigned then anything else. He could try and figure something out to scare the guy, but when someone is willing to die, it makes it harder. So he tries honesty, and what little he knows about hobgoblins. "Good, about time you woke up. So which type are you, the strong, silent, not going to tell us anything type, or the 'you will all burn in unholy fire' type?" The hob tries to look, but can't see the group and the wreckage of bodies through the makeshift blindfold. He seems to mull things over. "Where's Koth?" [OOC note: pose edited to reflect that the prisoner was blindfolded last session] Tylan shrugs. "Don't know which one he was. Odds are he's dead. Most of your boys are. We might have one or two others not bled out yet. I wasn't paying much attention to prisoner taking." Sviar hides a short sword under his jacket, then skulks off to take a look at the map found on the leader's body, as Tylan does his thing, keeping out of sight. "Hmm." The hob speaks again. "Koth is the Wyrmlord. Leader and spellcaster." Tylan considers a few moments, glancing towards the spot where they fought the initial commander, then towards the room where they fought the minotaur and the spellcaster. "Dead, I think. Our cleric is poking around, so maybe he got lucky, or unlucky." The hob sighs abit. "I'm not talkin till I see Koth..dead or alive." Tylan considers a moment, then looks off towards Sviar. "So apparently their spellcaster's name's Koth. Anything left of him?" Sviar makes his way towards Tylan, gestures, then goes to whisper something to him. "Let me have a go. There was this map on the spellcaster. You need to see this...the others, too. Can you all go into another room for now? I want to create an illusion of privacy, he may loosen his tongue more." Tylan nods to Sviar and takes the map. It won't mean a lot to him, more use to Hayli, in all likelihood, but maybe he can make something of it. "Have at." Sviar studies the prisoner. The dwarf is still wearing his ugly (uglier) troglodyte form. He squats down by the hobgoblin, taking out his dagger and cutting the blindfold off, perhaps checking to see if his charm spell took effect. He whispers, "Shh! The damn elves have gone into the other room...we have a chance...." The hob looks about and then nods. "What's the plan?" Sviar slides the flask over to the hob. He says in a low voice, "I can see y'all got some kind of army going. Elves got lucky this time, but I bet you got lots more out there somewhere...they recruiting? Had a minotaur and a manticore here...where d'ya think the manticore's gone, by the way? Damn coward flew away..." The hob nods, "Wyrmlords are always on the lookout for talent, friend. And that damned manticore was new to the ranks. Was rather cowardly..stupid too. Sviar nods. "If we escaped this place, where could we go? You have any forces, secret hideouts in Elsir Vale?" The hob nods. "The horde is coming our way. Plan is already in motion. We head back to the horde we'll be set. Info of this place falling is worth our lives for failure." Sviar hmms. "Horde, eh? About how many is that? I know Elsir Vale looks like fat easy pickings, bunch of dumb peasants, but there's steel there. And is there a /real/ wyrm leading?" The hob shrugs. "Not sure how many we have now. I know we had a bunch. More then just a few tribes. Not real dragons in charge but we do have at least one dragon. Green one named Ozyrrandion. He's been here a few times to talk to the Wyrmlord Koth....Is Koth really dead? He was one tough bastard." Sviar grimaces. "That elf with the two swords.../he/ eats tough bastards for breakfast. That's why I want to make sure your lot isn't all losers." He shakes his head. "Who's the top leader...wyrmlord? In case we get separated escaping, maybe I can have a name to say before I get my throat cut." THe hob shudders abit and shakes his head. "No..not a chance. That name will not escape my lips, friend. Not for another horde to add to our own. Just say Koth sent you. Now how we gett'n out of here?" Sviar glances around warily, to make sure no one is watching. He slips the short sword out from under his jacket. "Here's a sword..." He adds, "They're probably busy searching for some vault under here...did Koth loot it already?" The hob curses. "A vault? Never heard of a vault or loot! Damn Koth! Probly collected it himself." It takes the sword and tucks it away. "You find Koth's notes and stuff? He wrote everything down..maybe he wrote about the loot. Might make things easier getting outof here if we could find it before that groupd of pointy-eared scum." Sviar nods. He says, a note of greed in his voice, "Money makes lots of things easier. I know they took a bunch of papers from Koth...I'll just go and see if I can sneak in and swipe them. You stay here for now, don't get them all agitated..." He heads back to the room with the others... Sviar mutters to Tylan, "I'm... about... of... before..." You whisper "I'm breaking him out now. Got about all I could out of him. Be ready to cut him off before he really escapes..." to Tylan. Tylan nods to Sviar and begins moving to find a way to cut off the escape. Wouldn't do to have this guy reporting them to the horde, after all. Sviar sneaks slowly and casually back to the hobgoblin. He mutters, "Damn. No way to slip past them into the vault...we'll just have to make a run for it." The hob nods. "Get me out of these ropes then and lets move." Tylan listens as best he can for movement, slipping around, and staying tensed and ready to go as soon as they start moving. Sviar puts his dagger in between his teeth, while his hands unknot the rope. The "troglodyte" quietly unwraps it and tosses the rope a few feet away. "There." The Hob gets up and stretches, then gets out his shortsword and moves for the exit. Sviar follows, dagger in hand. As soon as he hears real motion, Tylan shifts around so he can pretend some surprise when they pass him. The hob notes the elf warrior and makes a dash for the nearest hole in the keep's walls. Tylan rushes him, drawing his swords as he goes, trying to make this quick and merciful, but definitely final. The wounded hobgob goes down swiftly and without a sound. Tylan finishes him off cleanly to make sure he doesn't suffer, then stops to clean his swords before replacing them. "Hopefully you got what we needed." Sviar lets out a breath as he goes down. He mutters a dwarven prayer for the dead, and "Rockfather forgive me for the deceit." He nods to Tylan. "It's not good...between the map and what he said, there's already a horde on its way to attack Elsir Vale. The leader is not a dragon, but strong enough to command a dragon! That's already on the other side of the river." Gronwin pages: Other side of the gorge.. Sviar amends that to "other side of the gorge" Gronwin pages: To the north :) heh Tylan rubs his chin and nods. "Figured as much. We'd be hard pressed to deal with a whole attack strength horde. Even without a dragon. That's... something else entirely. We'll need to think this one through, because we don't have a lot of help to call on." Sviar nods. "And we don't have much time. The attack on Drellin's Ferry is marked as "Day 5", and if they're already on the way, eh? Let's have the experts search for this vault, then we'd best warn people and see what we can do." Tylan nods. "I'll see if we can find a choke point or something where we might be able to set ambush. We might also be able to buy some time if we can take down their scouts or something. Hmm." OOC: Loot from the corpses, surface level of the keep: From the manticore's lair/room...216gp and 8pp and a necklace." from the hobgobs and minotaur..351gp and 8 potions." A bunch of masterwork stuff." From the worg riders. masterwork stuff and a small dagger and a small shortbow that come up magical." From Koth. A bag that comes up as magic. as well as the wand. 4 potions. a scroll and inside the bag are the notes (in infernal) 743gp 2,980sp." Sviar says, "Hmm. Kyliea knows Infernal." Gronwin says, "That's it for bodies and such. Kyliea can and will tell you it's in some kind of code." Sviar while trying to identify the potions, grumbles, "I hope that manticore didn't join up with the horde and report us." Tylan shakes his head. "He probably did, unless they figured they'd kill him for running. Hobgobs are weird." Gronwin says, "After an hour...Lana and Hayli find the trap door down in the room where you killed Koth." Gronwin says, "It's also dark by this point." A set of sturdy but rusted iron rungs goes down 40 feet and into the vault. Tylan is happy enough to volunteer to take a look around, or, more accurately, stand guard while those with better eyes scout out the room. With a whole horde, and little time, anything they find might help. Game: Sviar casts the level 2 wizard spell Detect_thoughts. Base DC for saving throws: 16. Sviar tries to scout it out mentally. "I can detect anything living. Undead or constructs...or traps...can't do much with the unthinking, eh?" Gronwin says, "No thoughts." Tylan nods up, as he drops the last few feet, drawing his swords. "Yeah, you never know. But we'll have Lana scout for traps as long as it stays quiet." Sviar says, "And note Lana has an everburning torch." Sviar mutters something to the rat. [Rat doesn't smell anything dangerous.] The walls of this small vault are of worked stone, the ceiling twelve feetoverhead. The air is thick and smells stale and slightly smokey. Three alcoves have been cut into the walls, two to the north and one to the east. Each alcome is sealed by an iron gate and locked with chains and a large padlock. Beyond one alcove are several shelves bearing no less t hen ten small iron coffers. Beyond the second is a small desk and chair, the desk piled high with papers and books. Beyond the third sits a single large trunk. A human skeleton lies slumped against the eastern alcove's gate. Still dressed in tattered chainmail and feebly gripping a sparkling bastard sword, the skeleton has a massive arrow protruding from it's ribs. Tylan wanders over to the skeleton, not seeing anything moving. He keeps his swords out, just in case, but otherwise is a bit more relaxed. "Got three locks for Lana to have a look at. And a ton of reading for someone." Gronwin says, "Actually..3 locks to start with and then 11 more locks." Sviar keeps behind Tylan, slowly sweeping his gaze about as he concentrates on finding any living presence. He whispers, "Nothing..." Tylan nods. "Nothing so far. Keep your eyes open, but I think we're the first down there in a long time." he answers, pointing out the locks, before he heads over to take a look at the jewelled bastard sword. "Poor guy." Gronwin says, "No jeweled..sparkling...white sparkles." Tylan whistles. "Didn't save this guy, but this looks like some fine work." Sviar nods. When it seems clear, he warily steps forward to check out the papers and books, trying to read them from at least 5' away if possible. [Lana takes 20 on searching for traps (on locks), and then opening them. Giving about 5 minutes/lock, that's just over an hour ICly] Gronwin says, "In the coffers 6 contain money. 3 contain old and outdated notes of credit (not valid) and the last contains the deed to the keep." Gronwin says, "The desk contained notes and comments by the old ruling lord. Abit of history and some rather arrogent blather." Gronwin says, "The large chest holds a young black dragon skull a huge spiked gauntlet. a sting of giant teeth as a necklace. a staff and a mithral shirt." Tylan says, "huge spiked gauntlet as in sized for a giant, or just big for a human?" Gronwin says, "For giant" Gronwin says, "The gauntlet doesn't resize." Gronwin says, "You get the feeling that the large chest is like a trophy case." Tylan lets the others handle that. He in turn whispers a prayer to the morninglord for the dead guardsman, then sees if he can free the sword without taking off any fingers. The books are definitely not of interest. Sviar seems disappointed to find no spell scrolls or books among the papers, but he does note the history for later reference. He says to his rat, "We must come back for these later. When we have time." Tylan wanders over with the new sword in hand, having tested its balance a bit. Uninterested in the rest of the findings, he does at least look the gauntlet over, and eventually, out of curiosity while others read, puts his hand into it, either testing, or just getting an idea how big the residents were. As soon as Tylan takes hold of the sword it lights up with the briliance of a torch. Tylan grins, liking this already. Sure, it didn't help the guard, but still. Magic swords are much better than dusty old tomes. Sviar remembers something, and takes a closer look at the scroll from Koth's bag. He chews on his beard as he attempts to decipher it. Gronwin says, "Mount" Sviar mutters, "Did he want to make a quick escape? This spell summons a horse or pony...at least two hours, maybe more." Tylan shrugs. "Could be. Good thing to have in an emergency." Sviar nods. "One detect magic, 2 ID spells. Not /too/ costly. The wand is obvious too, it's just a matter of how many charges, and if it runs out, it runs out." Sviar says, "Are we fast-forwarding to the next day? (We camp at the keep?)" Gronwin says, "no monster attacks here. Not a 'safe' leveling place but nothing is going to attack right away." Gronwin says, "And the vault is a great camp." Sviar says, "If it's a new day, I'll detect magic on everything again (with the addition of the new pile of stuff)." Gronwin says, "Ok..A pair of gauntlets on the skell, the huge gauntlet, the sword, the mithral chainmail, and the staff all show up as magical" Tylan ooohhhs, we missed the gauntlets. Have a guess on those. Sviar says, "Ok, can we have people try on the gauntlets, see if they feel stronger or whatever?" Gronwin nods. Gronwin says, "GoOP BABY!" Gronwin says, "Bastard sword of frost +1" Gronwin says, "staff of life (7 charges)" Game: Sviar casts the level 0 wizard spell Detect_magic. Base DC for saving throws: 14. Game: Sviar casts the level wizard spell Identify. Base DC for saving throws: 14. Game: Sviar casts the level wizard spell Identify. Base DC for saving throws: 14. Gronwin says, "You heard the sorcerer call the comand word for the wand 2 times." Sviar says, "Oh, and how much was in the chests?" Gronwin says, "2500sp, 2100gp, and 120pp" Tylan suggests, everything of value, like the tons of MW stuff, that we're not going to use, we put into one of the alcoves here and re-lock it up for the return. The Doctor checks. "Wand (magic missile), staff of life, scroll of mount, bag of holding (type 1), 12 unidentified potions, mithral shirt (M), gauntlet (L), gauntlets of ogre power, bastard sword of frost+1." Gronwin says, "and Small dagger and shortbow" ===============================================================================