Session 8, 2007-09-08: Captured in Myriad Ways

Session 8: wherein an arms race leads to blended goblins, a salty giant, and a dead dog

Players (Characters)
Scott (Filthy Ike)
Jeremy (Flynn Flamm)
Tony (Brother Jakob)
Rachel (Lotus)
Tom (Nathaniel Graythorne)
DM: Catherine

The party continued toward Lonely Sparrow with Baern and the paladins. Lotus, in eagle form, spotted four spellcasters and footprints from four invisible archers on a nearby hill. Jakob ran up to one caster and threw him into the middle of his group of friends, and Ike shot at another with poisoned arrows. Nate disguised himself as Garlen and then cast phantasmal killer on a goblin, leading him to exclaim "oh no, The Garlen is real!" Bearn trampled the pack of casters while Flynn and Lotus used glitterdust and faerie fire to reveal the archers. Tara bit one of the archers, which fled along with two others. Jakob chased one of the invisible archers, whose panicked screams gave away his location. Ike fired a pair of arrows to kill and paralyze one of the glowing archers while Nate yelled out "your doom is near!" Bearn, Jakob, and the paladins clobbered the remaining goblins.

A few hours later, Lotus spotted a large ambush gathered ahead. A dozen goblin archers stood atop one cliff, with four on another cliff, and a dozen more on an outcropping behind. Four sword-wielding hobgoblins stood in the valley between, with a human wiggling on the ground at their feet. Nathaniel handed Jakob and Lotus some antitoxins to help protect against poisoned arrows. Flynn hasted the party and then blew his horn, inspiring everyone for the upcoming battle. Nate used an illusion to block sight for the small group of archers to the south, and Lotus' vortex of teeth began to chew up the archers to the north. Ike's arrows injured some of the goblins in the vortex. The hobgoblins backed up to an area with more cover and formed up.

Jakob charged into the pack of hobgoblins and clobbered one with a stone bones strike, allowing him to shrug off some punishment. The archers behind Nate's illusion fired ineffectively, while those in the vortex tried to flee. The group in the back focused their attacks on Jakob, but did no damage. Ike's arrows, Nate's phantasmal killer, and Lotus' murderous mist combined with the vortex to drop most of the northern archer pack. Baern and the paladins moved into formation with Jakob. The hobgoblins approached, and Jakob tripped three while Baern and the final hobgoblin exchanged blows. A pack of goblins riding wargs approached Baern. Jakob moved into a small cave where goblin spellcasters had been hiding, and he killed one with a swift kick to the head. The "human" dismissed his alternate form and tried to cast a spell on Jakob, while the others tried to flee and were tripped. The remaining archers continued fleeing as Ike, Lotus, and Nathaniel picked them off. Bearn and the paladins kept attacking the remaining hobgoblins.

Suddenly, a huge flying dog approached. On its back rode a woman wearing red armor. Lotus noticed her face was shriveled and her eyes glowed green. She shouted at the hobgoblin leader "why do you always get in over your head?" and turned Baern into a pillar of salt. The wargs charged up and attacked the paladins while Jakob killed the remaining spellcasters. Ike fired four shots from his bow, including one perfectly aimed between the dog's eyes, and killed the flying dog. ("I can't believe you killed her dog!") The woman, a dry lich named Kelzun, floated gently to the ground and prepared to cast another spell.

Tara and the paladins continued fighting the wargs while Lotus prepared a flamestrike to interrupt Kelzun's next spell. Kelzun resisted the flamestrike and punched the ground, killing all vegetation within a quarter-mile radius and weakening everyone in the area. Jakob, Tara, and the paladins took out the last few casters and kept working on the wargs, while Nate's phantasmal killer and Lotus' dehydrate failed to overcome Kelzun's resistance. A pair of arrows from Ike caught her attention, though, so she cast greater visage of the deity to take on a massive demonic form. Flynn cast glitterdust to try to blind her, and Nathaniel created an illusion of several Ike lookalikes, but neither were effective. Ike kept shooting until Kelzun turned him to salt. Kelzun's summoned vrocks brought Flynn and Lotus down, and she cast insanity on Jakob and then allowed the archers to paralyze him. Nathaniel sent a message to Mary describing what had just happened, and tried to sneak away disguised as a goblin. When the vrocks surrounded him, he allowed himself to be captured, since he had no recourse. Kelzun removed Jakob's insanity, and he awoke to overhear her speaking to others. She found the quasit she'd had following Nathaniel and sent it on to other tasks. She also angrily cursed Ike for killing her dog, and refused to accept a ride from a strange hybrid blue dragon friend.

The rest of the party awoke to find themselves inside of cells in a stone dungeon, along with Baern, Aaron, and Rogar. A group of goblin guards sorted through the party's equipment. Soon, a yuan-ti stepped into the room and sent the goblins away, leaving only a golem guarding the door. Nathaniel tried to kill him with a phantasm, but it failed and the yuan-ti responded by silencing Nate. The strange snake-like creature then cast a spell on Ike and telepathically asked if there was any amount of money they could pay him to work for them. The same question was asked of each other party member, except for Flynn, who was infected with a disease that would slowly turn him into a yuan-ti. Rogar was already a couple days ahead in this process.

After the yuan-ti guard left, another came in and suddenly changed forms, revealing herself as a doppelganger. She began unlocking the cells and asked the party to wait a few minutes before they broke out so that her position wouldn't be compromised. Nathaniel froze the golem with one of his scrolls, allowing the party to move freely. Lotus tried to cure Rogar's disease but was not powerful enough. After a few minutes of waiting and re-equiping, the party headed out of the room, discovering they were in the basement of an ancient castle. Up the stairs, a group of goblins had their card game interrupted as Baern trampled them. Baern kicked open the next door, revealing a huge chamber full of goblins. Lotus dropped a flaming sphere at the far end of the room while Ike started shooting and Jakob and Tara charged into the fray. Nate and Bearn moved around an outer hallway to try to stop any fleeing goblins, and Flynn sang an inspirational song about Garlen the Goblin-slayer. Within seconds, all but two of the goblins were dead, and Jakob knocked the remaining two unconscious as they cowered and cried for mercy.

Baern led the way up to one of the castle's two towers. He smashed the door leading into the top room, and Jakob and Ike each landed a solid attack on the yuan-ti inside. Creeping cold from Lotus, a bite from Tara, and a powerful blow from Baern were enough to bring him to his end. Baern broke open a safe and pulled out some papers, specifically orders from a "Tem Hep'na" about capturing kingsmen and from "Ish Ni'seth" about meeting at a place called Death Rock. Baern led the way into the second tower, but this time he and Jakob pulled their punches in order to capture the yuan-ti who had been inside.