Session 10; June 05, 2007 

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Welcome back to Mike D who managed to join us after a long abscence!

Session 10:  "Darktown”

9^th – 10th of Ches; 1308 CE

Ereyn Bane (human Rogue); Mike D.

Celceor The Wise (Elven Mage) Dave M.

Wryan O’Mallary (Human fighter) Kevin S.
Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood (Human Cleric) NPC

Werkle of Dinnsmere (Dwarf Fighter) NPC / Al G.

Nick (Human Rogue) Dave P.

And introducing Skwortch; (Goblin retainer) NPC

The session had ended last time with the players standing at the entrance of an enormous vaulted cavern. The roof, hundreds of feet overhead, was studded with red stars that appeared to move; these were apparently the red glowing beetles so often harvested as a source of light in the Underdark. A rough stone ramp at their feet led down into a fungus forest, also studded with the beetles, and onwards to a walled town that stood on the edge of an underground sea. Various luminous molds and fungi streaked the walls of the cavern, the ground and the mushroom forest, shedding an eerie light. They could smell the salt air and see the lights and hear the sounds on the town. At the shore they could just see the outline of ships and docks. A tall stone lighthouse stood on the shore with a bright light shining across the water.

Their goblin guide, Skwortch, assured them that if they wanted to find out what happened to the children they should go to the town. As they pressed him, Skwortch confessed that the ‘password’ for the gates was paying 5 gps per person, 5 sps per slave. Skwotch said it was a ‘free town’ providing they were not openly hostile to the ‘bad people’ that might be found there; the PCs decided to pretend to be slave buyers in order to track down the children and/or Kazmojen. They briefly debated burying the corpse of the elf, Kletus, in the forest but Wryan decided that she would carry the corpse on her back and tell people that it was a trophy. After questioning, the often obtuse and fawning Skwortch revealed that humans, elves, dwarves and other races, in addition to goblins and hobgoblins, could be found in the town. He promised to serve as a good guide and help the party out.

The gate was like a large stone face, with the doors located in the mouth, teeth upon the sill, eyes and nostrils, etc. They could see goblins with spears patrolling the walls and a group of bugbears, led by a large bugbear with protruding teeth. They paid up and the bugbears pushed open the doors, showing the town beyond.

They emerged upon a wide avenue that ran straight down to the docks, water and lighthouse. Ramshackle buildings with signs painted with glowing letters in goblin lined the street. Six large staues of clawed demons lines the streets and peddlers, goblins and merchants were everywhere, selling weapons, ingots of metal, hides, meat, etc. Goblins were leading large bipedal lizards, large enough to use as mounts, and bugbears were herding some large and hairy bison-like creatures that stank horribly into an alley that led to some animal pens. Everything was grimy and goblins were everywhere, although humans, some dwarves, a large number of hobgoblins, gnomes, orcs and other creatures could be seen. To the left and right of the gate were barracks with goblin guards leaning on spears and spitting on the sidewalk. A tall elf with white skin and red eyes walked past, wearing black armor. A building marked “The Drunken Dragon” stood nearby; the door was open and shouts of laughter could be heard from inside. Further down the street they could see a shop labeled “Grottwold’s Emporium” and a temple made of black stone, with a large eyeball carved on it’s architrave and it’s roof lined with spikes that held severed heads, could be seen nearby. Several goblins expressed interest in buying the ‘freshly dead’ elf the party carried with them.

Skwortch indicated that if he were shopping for slaves he would visit Rowgli’s Slave Sales Inc., located down by the temple, so Ereyn Bane and Nick sauntered down there while Celceor looked into The Drunken Dragon Inn. The Dwarf, Werkle of Dinnsmere, mentioned to the other character’s extreme disinterest that he had been without female companionship for some time. Since the idea of Werkle naked didn’t really appeal, they turned their attention to the missing kids.

Inside the Drunken Dragon, Celceor found a large mob of orcs, goblins, hobgoblins as well as a few scattered humans drinking and betting on a wrestling match between an ogre and a very drunk troll. Despite the troll’s high level of inebriation, the ogre was getting his clock cleaned. A burly, one eyed orc was tending bar and greeted him with, “What you want, elf.” Celceor ordered an ale and chatted up the barkeep. When asked where to buy slaves, the orc suggested Rowgli’s but suggested that sales might affected due to ‘some trouble up in Cauldron.’ The orc said that Kazmojen the slaver had been in the day before and had been very angry about having his operation in Cauldron shut down. Celceor tossed the orc a silver and left.

Meanwhile, Ereyn and Nick were casing the slave shop. A sign that said, “Rowgli Slave Sales Inc.” hung over the door with a pair of manacles to let the illiterate know what was sold there. Inside slaves from Cauldron, including two human girls and a young dwarf, were chained to the walls as two orc guards looked on. A proprietor wearing a lot of jewelry argued about prices with a black bearded man who left in a huff. In the back of the store they could see a gnome chained to a workbench wearing what looked to be a bird cage on his head who was working with some files on some metal. A cage with a small creature in it hung above his head. Nick cased the building from all sides and noted a backdoor to the outside in a yard on one side that was occupied by two of the riding lizards, a barred window on the back of the store and open windows on the front and back of the store on the second floor. Behind the building he found a narrow alley and some warehouses. A few goblins and hobgoblins seemed to be storing some barrels in one of the warehouses.

Wryan O’Malley and Eryn Bane went in and began discussing prices with the proprietor who refused to consider discounts. The slaver pointed out that supply had been interrupted and let it be known that he felt confident that he could get the price he wanted for the stock he had on hand until new suppliers could be arranged. The gnome prisoner in back appeared to be servicing locks and manacles. Wryan kept asking for a ‘boy human slave,’ attempting to glean some info about one of the slaves named Terrem who had been taken from the orphanage. The slaver said he had sold his last human boy to a Captain Jack Mortimer. Captain Jack, he said, normally stayed at the Drunken Dragon when in town but seldom stayed long.

In the meantime, an alarm bell sounded and goblins began firing burning arrows off the wall at some unseen target in the fungus forest beyond. When asked what this could be, a passing goblin replied that the ghouls attempted an assault on the town every once in a while. Apparently, the goblin said, something had “stirred the ghouls up. Plus,” the goblin added, “the ghouls get hungry once in a while…”

Since Rowgli the slaver wouldn’t budge and they did not have enough cash on hand to buy the slaves, the party decided to depart and return later to steal the children. They went off to the Drunken Dragon and looked around the market. They wandered down by the docks and asked about Captain Jack. A half-orc stevedore said that Jack’s ship had purple sails… but the pirate captain had sailed earlier that day. They saw several shallow draft galleys, some with and without sails. One black ship had banks of skeleton rowers and several of the albino elves on board. Another, smaller craft had several hobgoblins unloading barrels under the watchful eye of a supervisor. Skwortch said he knew a way out of the cavern, a secret exit, but said it was ‘difficult.’

They returned to the back of the slave shop, which was now closed, and Eryn Bane scampered up the wall to the second floor window where he hung a rope down. They heard snoring inside so he and Nick climbed over the roof and tried to peek in the front second floor window. They could see that the room was lit, but, due to the angle, they couldn’t see anything else. Wryan, Celceor and Werkle went down to the docks to ‘liberate’ a boat while the rest waited at the front door of the slave shop. The two rogues snuck into the back room, which was apparently a bedroom for the guards, and managed to kill the two orc guards in their sleep. They snuck out into an upstairs hall and found doors that led to the privy, a small kitchen and stairwell and a locked door underneath which they could see light. Nick crept downstairs and found himself in a small office. A locked cage held a gnome who was bundled in chains and even had cloth bags over his head and hands. Nick picked the lock on the cage and finally managed to liberate the gnome --- who was still wearing the birdgcage with some sort of gag on his head. It was, of course, their old friend Keygan Ghelve from Cauldron who had first let them know about the slave network and had provided the slavers with passkeys. The gnome was delighted to see them and promised to help however he could.

Meanwhile, down at the docks, Wryan, Celceor and Werkle charged forward to attack the hobgoblins unloading the boat, hoping to liberate it in order to spirit the children away. The human merchant who was directing the hobgoblins attempted to smack Wryan with his bag of coins and drew his sword. Orcs, goblins, an albino elf and a dwarf from the next slip over began to take notice. It was on!

The goblins on the walls, meanwhile, were shooting flaming arrows and ringing alarm bells again. Apparently the ghouls had chosen that moment to launch another attack. Damn! What got them so riled up?

Back at the slavers, Nick and Eryn snuck into the slaver’s Rowgli’s room, who was sucking on a hookah, and killed him before the slaver knew what was going on. Nick went downstairs to free the children as Eryn took a deep lungful from the hookah and looted the room. The children and slaves were delighted to see them and Keygan made short work of the manacles --- he is an expert locksmith. Eryn grabbed the slaver’s jewery box and searched the pockets of the slaver’s pimp-style silk robe and found some keys which opened the safe where he found a spellbook and a big bag of coins; both of which he snagged. Downstairs, Keygan opened the front door, to let the rest of the group in, and Nick coached the children and slaves on carrying their manacles to make it appear to the casual inspector that they were still chained together.

The ghoul situation was growing worse. They could hear shrieks and howls and goblins began abandoning their posts on the walls. Apparently some of the ghouls had managed to scale the walls and were now in the town. Goblins, hobgoblins and orcs began running pell-mell down to the docks. The temple shut it’s iron gates.

At the docks, Werkle and Wryan killed hobgoblins as Celceor fired off a color spray spell and took down the rest. Some orcs and hobgoblins advanced on the group but Werkle and Wryan killed half of them and the other half thought better of it and ran off to look for easier pickings. Orcs and goblins were fighting over boats and other ships were setting off

At the slaver’s shop, just 50 feet away, they could see the ghouls coming over the walls and the people of the town running around in fear. One of the nearby houses caught on fire and they could see ghouls paralyzing people with their grave touch and ripping chunks of flesh from their still warm bodies. Suddenly, the corpse of their former friend, Kletus the elf, which had been deposited near the doorway, stood up and advanced upon them, grinning and slashing at Eggo with his claws. Since Kletus had been killed by ghouls he was subject to the ‘undead spawn’ effect. Eggo was paralyzed before he knew what was happening. Eryn, not sure if he was hallucinating from what he had been smoking upstairs, jumped forward to fight the new ghoul. Skwortch the goblin, who was the only one not blocked from the doorway by the ghoul-Kletus, ran down the street to the docks, screaming for help.

Werkle and Wyran secured the boat, rolling the unconscious guards into the dark water. Skwortch arrived and gasped out his tale, jumped into the boat and refused to move. Celceor ran back up the street to the slaver’s shop. By this time, Eryn and Eggo had been paralyzed, the slaves were all cowering in fear and goblins and humans, chased by ghouls, were running down the street. Nick was firing sling bullets at the ghoul who seemed delighted at the large number of victims cowering before him. Celceor fired first one acid orb (which missed), and then another, scoring precisely the amount of damage needed to take down the ghoul after Nick and Eryn had whittled away at it.

They grabbed their paralyzed companions and beat it down the street, jumped into the boat and began rowing away from the docks. Back in town they could see ghouls devoring those unlucky enough to have been left behind and armed groups fighting with ghouls in the streets. On the water, many ships were rowing around in confusion. Some apparently had ghouls which had managed to jump or swim on board and were fighting for control of the vessels.

The group had rescued 2 human girls, a dwarf boy and eight other various slaves not including Keygan the locksmith. They had a bag of money Wryan had grabbed from the hobgoblin overseer as well as whatever other treasure they had managed to loot.

Nick also had several interesting parchments he managed to loot from Rowgli’s desk in the slave shop. Wryan tossed a bag containing 47gps and 32 sps into the boat that had been taken from the human overseer. Celceor is carrying a spellbook that belongs to Keygan Ghelve, the gnome locksmith. The group has freed 8 adults and 3 children from the slavers.

We ended the session at this point.

Slain/defeated by the PCs:

Character / Player:	Race / Class & Level:	XP at start:	XP for session:	XP total:	Notes:
Eryn Bane; Mike D.	(half-elf / Thief 2)	1450	772	2222
Celceor The Wise; Dave M.	(Elf / Mage 3)	4799	772	5571
Nick; Dave P.	(Human / Rogue 3)	3555	772	4327
Wryan O’Malley; Kevin S.	(Human / Ftr 2)	1807	772	2579
Werkle of Dinnsmere; NPC / Al G.	(Dwarf / Fighter 3)	3742	772	4515
Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood / NPC	(Human / Cleric 2)	2041	386	2427
Skwortch / NPC	(Goblin )	50	50	100

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