Session 29: A Gravewalker Hive Mining We Will Go (Kevin S., DM)

(4-15-2009)

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Also: Check out the musical version: “Celceor’s Fire” by Jon C!

Cast of Characters:

Celceor The Wise; Elf Mage (Dave M.)

Nick; Human Rogue (Dave P.)

Fafnir; Human Barbarian (Jon C.)

Werkle of Dinnsmere; Dwarf Fighter (Al/NPC)

Ereyn Bane; Half-Elf Rogue (Mike D)

Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood; Human Cleric (NPC)

Bent, Dwarf Bard/Wizard (Brook)

Kinda weird only having five people : )

The morning was set with these words before the session started:

The Company of the Summoned Monkey traveled long and hard to Della Minera for a quick night sleep before off to Fol Thron, Capital of the South. The party is woken up by a lot of noises: mass of people yelling, sounds of combat, and general noise. Upon getting ready and coming down for breakfast as well as to find out about the racket, the party sees the one leg man Beck talked to last time the party was here. He recognizes you and being a fellow that enjoys hearing himself talk, informs you that there be riots within the miner slaves.  Apparently every shift of miners have been coming back more short than normal.  It's gotten so bad that the slaves refuse to leave Della Minera for the mines, they rather chance death at the hands of the guards than die in the mines. No one knows what's happening, one third of all slaves that go into the mine, do not come out. The guards are in a quandary since the Queen has ordered that the mines need to run at all times, she has two wars to fund. He cackles about how happy he is that he lost his leg, got him out of miner duty.

We began the session at the point, when the one-leg man finishes explaining what is going on. Food is served by the barmaid.

The party asked some more questions of the one leg man and eventually decided to find the guard in charge of the mining operation.  Captain Antonio presented himself and a stellar conversation started between him and the party. 

"Why don't you go in to the mines and figure out the problem Captain?" 

"I got an injury and we never go in the mines"

"Can you help us if we go into the mines?"

"Sure!!!  Here is a 55 gallon drum of oil and 150 feet of rope.  Does that help?"

The party was less than impressed with the Captain's intelligence, it was obvious he was middle management and if he amounted to anything, he wouldn't be guarding near starving to death slaves.  The party didn't want the slaves to die at the hands of the guards.  The guards were thinking of skinning four slaves alive for all to see as a motivation tactic to get back to mining.  The company of the Summoned Monkey informed the Captain to give them a day to see if they can fix this problem he had.

Marching up to the mines took a couple hours over difficult terrain.  Typical mining equipment was found and they made their way to the entrance of the mines.  There seemed to be a lot of mining entrances, so the players took the middle one.  This was the one the Captain said had recent activity of breakage (lost slaves).  Eggo and Celceor had feelings of evil when they approached the mines….Fafnir's sword glowed a faint blue.  Undeterred, they marched in with Fafnir…no….Bent in the lead.

            Some side passages were explored and eventually they used Fafnir's sword as a homing device and found some undead.  GRAVEWALKERS IN THE MINES!!!!! Nick let out a huge sigh.  There were about seven of the creatures and while the party took some wounds, all were put down to rest…again.  Fafnir's sword still had a faint glow to it, so they continued exploring.  The main mining artery lead to an eight way passage.  Rails were leading down each path and the middle had a rotating circle with rails on it.  Obviously for the mining carts.  Some carts were in this room, couple on the tracks and some off the tracks.  The party was just getting to decide what to do when the room was a glow with bright light coming from Fafnir's sword.  A swarm of undead came out of each of the seven passages and assaulted the party.  Gravewalker hive!!!!

            The party showed excellent tactics, must be from all the cohesion they built up, and ran back down the shaft they came from, leaving a three person front.  The undead slammed into Bane, Fafnir, and Werkle with seemingly unless numbers.  Celceor had numerous fireballs up his sleeves and many burned.  Two more sets of swarms came out (Total number of Gravewalkers = 37'ish) and assaulted the party.  Eggo was nearly killed in his robe of non-armor (-9 hp) but Celceor quickly healed him as Fafnir dragged him away from the front lines.  Celceor scolded Eggo about not wearing proper armor for front line duty.  Eggo did turn a couple of them twice.  The battle lasted around 13 rounds, but finally the threat to the mines was eliminated.  Fafnir was at zero HP at one point, Eggo, Bent, and Celceor was out of healing, Nick and Eggo were very low on health.  Hard fought battle.

            The party made their way back to Della Minera, informed the Captain that the mines were clear, and watched as five shifts of slaves (60) moved out to begin extracting wealth to fuel the war effort.  A feast was planned for the night, but was postponed until the next night so the party could rest.  They were the guests of honor.

We ended the session there.  I think I wore out some people's dice since they rolled them so many times. :)

XP:

Combat XP: 4,025
Story XP: 210
RP XP: Case by case
Bonus Awards: Case by case

Celceor The Wise; Elf Mage (Dave M.) XP Start: 19,256xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
RP: 50xp
XP for Session: 655xp
XP Total: 19,991xp

Nick; Human rogue (Dave P.) XP Start: 15,268xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
RP: 50xp
XP for Session: 655xp
Total: 15,923

Fafnir; Human Barbarian (Jon C) XP Start: 13,329xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
RP: 50xp
For Session: 655xp
Total: 13,984xp

Werkle of Dinnsmere; Dwarf Fighter (Al) XP Start: 14,840xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
For Session: 605xp
Total: 15,445xp

Eggo of the Holy Brotherhood; Human Cleric (NPC) XP Start: 12,603xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
For Session: 605xp
Total: 13,208xp

Ereyn Bane; Human Rogue (Mike D.) XP Start: 13,237xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
RP: 50xp
For Session: 605xp
Total: 13,892xp

Bent, Dwarf Wizard/Bard XP Start: 9,125xp
Combat: 575xp
Story: 30xp
RP: 50xp
For Session: 605xp
Total: 9,780xp