Session 13: Battle by the Tuskwater

in which the group storms the Stag Lord's fort, a ruined fortress near the Tuskwater lake


Once the feys had laced the alcohol barrel the bandits were using with poison, the group waited a tense hour before asking the feys to open the door to the owlbear's cage, then pandemonium started... the adventurers opened the trapdoor that led from the secret tunnel to the fort and listened to the sounds chaos and shouts of fear from the bandits as they tried to escape from the owlbear, while trying to decide when to jump in.

Their decision was suddenly easier when they came face to face with a group of 3 bandits rushing from the tower closest to the stairs under which the trapdoor had opened. One of the bandits was a gigantic man of at least 2 meters high, but he was destabilized by a hail of stones from the kobolds' slings and Am used the opportunity to score a lucky shot that pierced the right eye of the poor wretch, leaving him dead on the spot. The other bandits tried to retaliate, but their firepower was no match to the combined efforts of Am and Cardot.

Auchs, one of the Stag Lord's lieutenants

In the meantime, Kii and another group of kobolds surrounded the inner walls of the fort by the east and came head to head with a sinister looking character holding a rapier and some daggers. He attacked Kii with one of his daggers, then disappeared from view. Soon afterwards, the owlbear "Beaky" charged Kii, who had to retreat some steps but decided to stay calm and prevent the beast from reaching his companions. He danced around the beast, a whirlwind of steel and magic, dodging every single blow from the owlbear and dispatching it with several strokes from his scimitar, together with some Magic Missile wand shots.

Dovan, one of the Stag Lord's lieutenants

Gam'el'gar and Am started surrounding the inner walls from the south. As they neared a door, it suddenly opened and a man wearing a stag mask, the Stag Lord, made his appearance. Even though by the way he stumbled and talked the bandit was obviously drunk, he still managed to severely injure both Am and Gam'el'gar. To make matters worse, the sinister bandit (a man called Dovan) backstabbed Am as he was stepping out of the Stag Lord's reach...

the Stag Lord

The situation seemed dire, and they decided to retreat to show a tougher front to the bandits... Cardot used his miracles to the fullest, healing the party from their grievous wounds, but all seemed lost when the Stag Lord shot an arrow that seemed aimed at Am's heart; the arrow would have pierced his heart if not for an amulet from the temple where he had trained to become a monk.

At that moment, Kii dispatched the owlbear and was able to help the rest of the group. Dovan fell to the ground from several wounds caused by the group, though the Stag Lord looked menacingly enough still... It was at that moment that a new bandit came into view. He was wearing a symbol of Erastil and seemed lost in his thoughts. The Stag Lord shouted and ordered him to attack the adventurers but Akiros, that was the name of the odd-looking bandit, threw his silver Stag Lord amulet to the ground and charged his former boss... The bandit lord was still very dangerous, and he managed to injure Gam'el'gar and Akiros several more times before, tired by the attacks from so many people, two last shots from Am caught him in the chest and in the mouth, felling the dangerous bandit lord once and for all...

Akiros, one of the Stag Lord's lieutenants

 The group fell silent. After so many dangers in the past two months, they stood victorious over the bandit lord! When they took off his mask, they saw that the Stag Lord's face had been severely burnt and had so many scars as to make his visage that of a monster...

Akiros surrendered himself to the adventurers, but they were happy enough with his help to allow him to keep his weapons... They explored with him the fort and found the grisly remains of the owlbear's attacks... All in all, 6 bandits and the Stag Lord were dead on the ground, Dovan was dying but Cardot stabilized him and 1 bandit (who luckily turned out to be Falgrim Sneeg, the bandit for whose capture a reward had been offered) was sleeping from the sleep poison; only 1 bandit managed to escape the fort unharmed.

As they explored the fort and made an inventory of the loot found in it, Akiros told them that there was also a cellar (accessed by a half hidden trap in an abandoned courtyard of the fort) which was inhabited by a strange old creepy guy. He told them that the man healed the bandits when they were injured, but he was so frightening that many bandits preferred to endure the pain of their wounds better than visiting the old creep.

The group started descending the stairs into the darkness, with Cardot calling out to the old guy to announce themselves as friendly...

(to be continued)


XP:
- 945 (bandits in the fort)
- 2000 (the Stag Lord's lieutenants: Auchs, Akiros and Dovan)
- 1200 (Beaky the Owlbear) 
- 2400 (the Stag Lord)

Total this session: 6,545XP
Total campaign: 27,325XP

Loot:
a. from Auchs: 2 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds, 2 potion of Lesser Restoration, knight and dragon toys of very good craftsmanship, silver Stag Lord amulet.
b. from Dovan: +1 rapier, silver Stag Lord amulet, turquoise earrings (StolenLands50)
c. from Akiros: silver Stag Lord amulet.
d. from the Stag Lord: 1 potion of Cure Moderate Wounds, +1 leather armor, masterwork longsword, +1 composite longbow (+2 Str), amulet of natural armor +1, stag's helm (special magical item), several crudely stitched leather masks, a silver locket with a tress of silky green hair (obviously from a fey).
e. from the bandits' stash: 250gp, several gemstones and pieces of jewelry (a polished azurite crystal, a carnelian, a piece of hematite, a shard of obsidian, a red garnet, a pewter belt buckle depicting a pair of entwined succubi (inscription in the buckle: "Q.T.") and a silver charm bracelet; StolenLands51)

f. enough weapons to arm a group of 10 soldiers.


Spent:
- Am: 2 hero points, Leprechaun Luck, 1 potion of Cure Light Wounds, 1 potion of Natural Armor, 1 potion of Shield of Faith
- Cardot: 1 hero point, 1 potion of Shield of Faith.
- Gam'el'gar: 1 potion of Cure Light Wounds, 1 potion of Shield of Faith.
- Kii: 1 hero point, Leprechaun Luck, 1 potion of Shield of Faith.
Remaining charges of Color Spray wand: 31
Remaining charges of Burning Hands wand: 3
Remaining charges of Magic Missile wand: 22


Time Passed:
- 2 hours.
The time now is 22nd Gozran (April), in the evening. The group is near the Stag Lord's lair.

Session 12: Preparing the assault on the Stag Lord's fort

in which the group prepares a plan to assault the Stag Lord's fort


Back at Oleg's
Back at Oleg's, the adventurers gave back the wedding ring to Svetlana. She was very happy and, in return for the ring, Oleg offered them 1000 gp in trade credit.

They also talked with Kesten Garess about their alliance with the Kobolds, and the soldier promised them he would soon have their reward (800gp).

Finally, they bought rations and mining equipment from Oleg, who also lent them some horses to carry all the materials to the Sootscale kobolds.

After having prepared as well as they could, they started their journey towards the Stag Lord's fort... would they be able to survive the dangers ahead?

Visiting Bokken
They found Bokken's hut surrounded by several visitors, who were buying some of his potions. Thanks to the characters' good job in ridding the area of bandits, many trappers, merchants and hunters were now flocking the northern Greenbelt. This had caused a boom in the potion business, but Bokken was a bit grumpy, as he had built his hut away from civilization so as not to be disturbed.

Nevertheless, Bokken received the adventurers warmly, specially since they had brought him the fangberries he needed. He offered them a 25% discount on all his potions for a month, and the showed them his stash. The adventurers chose the ones they thought would be more useful in their coming encounter with the Stag Lord.

The Fey Friends
They proceeded south and gave back his luck coin to the leprechaun. The creature changed humor instantly and started hugging the adventurers and dancing around them. He said he would go on exploring the region, and that he would love to meet them again in the future. He wished them good luck and the characters felt a strange warmth as part of the creature's luck rubbed on them.

The following day the adventurers met Perlivash and Tyg-Titter-Tut in the outskirts of the forest and proceeded towards the Kobolds' lair.

The Kobold Braves
Chief Sootscale was impressed by the equipment brought by the adventurers, and relieved to see them fulfilling their side of the bargain. He assigned Mikmek and 6 Kobold warriors to go with them and help them in the assault of the Stag Lord's fort (the adventurers thought most of them seemed to be the old followers of Tartuk).

They spent the night in the Sootscale lair and followed the Shrike river to the Stag Lord's fort.

Arrival at the Fort
The whole trip took them longer than expected, as they got lost a couple of times and were delayed some hours because of the bad weather, but all in all their trip to the fort from Oleg's Trading Post was uneventful (except for a pack horse that got lost and eaten by bears) and they arrived without any major trouble to the camp they had used in their previous approach to the fort.

They spent the next few days gathering information about the fort, their inhabitants and the bandit patrols of the hills surrounding the fort:
 - The adventurers left Mikmek and the kobolds spy on the trail leading to the fort. One day they spotted a group of 6 bandits approaching the fort with a wagon full of loot. The adventurers overheard their conversation with the bandits at the fort's gate and learned the master phrase the bandits used. Nevertheless, they decided it was too dangerous to infiltrate the fort using the main entrance, even knowing the master phrase.
- They had the feys infiltrate the fort while invisible. Thanks to their telepathic bond with Cardot, the adventurers learned about the distribution of bandits inside the fort (and that they were approximately a dozen), that the bandits had a captured owlbear in a cage. As they were leaving back to the camp, they also learned that there was some kind of secret tunnel leading into the fort from the outside, almost opposite from the main entrance, and in an area that the bandits on lookout did not monitor much.
- One of the nights, during a violent thunderstorm, Kii and Gam'el'Gar explored the outside area of the fort's palisade to find the secret entrance the feys spoke of. As they were climbing the hill towards the palisade, the earth erupted and four zombies lurched to attack them (this was one obvious reason why the bandits only monitored the main entrance). The adventurers took cover in the line of trees surrounding the hill and came back later with Cardot, who used the power of Cayden Cailean to sever the undead link to the Negative Plane. After dealing with the zombies, the adventurers explored the secret tunnel during the stormy night. Gam'el'gar predicted that the weather would still be stormy the following night...

Zombies erupted from the earth to attack the adventurers

 
- All in all, the adventurer's spent 5 days to reach the fort from Oleg's trading post, and another 4 days scouting possible ways to attack the fort. At the end, they decided that Kii would craft a debilitating poison that the feys would add to the bandits' alcoholic reserves, then open the owlbear's cage to cause a distraction that the adventurers would use to infiltrate the fort using the secret tunnel to attack the remaining bandits.

On the night of the 22nd Gozra, the adventurers, using the cover of the night and a noisy thunderstorm, approached the fort from the side opposite to the main entrance. They formed three small groups and approached the secret entrance. At some point during their approach, lightning illuminated the field just as Am was crossing between several boulders, but the Gods smiled on the Monk and the bandit on the closest lookout tower was at the time being called by some companions to join the alcohol drinking binge.

The kobolds, directed by Kii and Cardot, dug the entrance to the tunnel, and they all saw that it had not been used in a long time, though it was still in good condition. The tunnel was only 50 feet long, although enough to allow them entry to the fort... the moment was tense, and as Cardot told the feys to open the owlbear's cage, all of them held their breath for a moment... would their plan survive the clash with reality?

XP:
- 400 (completing the Svetlana's Ring quest)
- 400 (completing the Kobolds in the Hills quest)
- 400 (completing the Gathering Fangberries quest)
- 400 (completing the Leprechaun's Luck Coin quest)
- 800 (defeating 4 Zombies protecting the fort's hill)
Total this session: 2400XP
Total campaign: 20,780XP

Loot:
- 1000gp in trade credit from Oleg.
- 800gp (Kobolds in the Hills reward)
- 25% discount in Oleg's potions for a month.
- Leprechaun's Luck (may reroll a d20 once)


Spent:
- 1 pack horse, lost during the trip to the Stag Lord's fort (to be paid to Oleg).

Time Passed:
- 9 days.
The time now is 22nd Gozran (April), in the evening. The group is near the Stag Lord's lair.

Objects inventory and group treasure