WEEKLY UPDATE

 

#33 – May 8 – 2017

 

The group heard back from Maxim and Zygy, who sent an agent to help gain control of the facility at the portal site as well as to meet and negotiate with Floki. Floki agreed to meet at Naerytar to negotiate with Zygy in person - hopefully drawing Floki into the fight against the dragons. An offer was also made to exchange magic items and gain more power for the group if they were willing to give up Ix's evil sword. They jumped at the chance and all were justly rewarded.

 

From here on the heroes will journey to Waterdeep to meet in council with their benefactors. This is where we decided to stop and jump off into the Curse of Strahd adventure, which was started this week.

 

#32 – Apr 17 – 2017

 

The trapped rug of smothering on the floor was defeated and Ix's room was searched - but the Mask was not found. While searching it was noticed that Floki's stone guardians were walking across the courtyard to the lower castle entrance. They were watched carefully by Mia and the team as their intentions were unknown. The stone automatons broke through the doors of the Red Wizards chamber and began battling those within. The team fired at enemies through the statues, and eventually were able to enter the room and join the fight. The fight was over quickly as the statues were a devestating force upon the cultists. Soon the battle was over, but the Red Wizard had turned invisible and escaped.

 

Mia heard noises coming from the tunnels below and summoned the rest of the group. Exploring the tunnels down to the dragon hoard room, they found the slain body of Glazel and talked briefly with Floki there before ascending again. They discussed their successes with Floki and talked about the sharing of some of the magical treasure as well as the possibility that Floki might want to join the fight against the Cult of the Dragon with the PC's powerful associates. Floki was willing to make their aquaintance.

 

The PC's earned some magic items and dispersed them throughout the group, and then sent a sending to Maxim Onthar - Lord Paladin of the Order of Argus. That is where we left off. 

 

- Diggly Doggly Duggly

 

#31 – Apr 10 – 2017

 

The PCs made quick work of the cultists and any other stragglers who wandered into the barracks. They then sought to lure some of the Dragon Fangs and Draconians to the barracks under the pretext of needing them to sort out some dispute and another hard won battle was had.  Their last ploy was to try and get the other half of the Dragon Fangs to come to their killing chamber, but instead Ix was warned and seemed intent on sieging the barracks to get to the bottom of things.

 

Rather than wait for Ix and his troops to set themselves behind their cover, the PCs rushed out to the attack in a rush.This was their toughest battle yet, battling Ix, a golem, the remaining Dragon Fangs, and several Draconians and 2 frost drakes. Attacks were concentrated on Ix first to successfully defeat him while enduring breath attacks from the draconians. An exhausted group of PCs emerged from this monumental battle having defeated all of the opponants opposing them. But that was not the end...

 

They needed to capture Ix's strange mask from his trapped and locked chambers, and then sweep away the remaining cultists (The Red wizards and his guards, another golem, and 2 Dragon Fangs). As the group was clearing the castle, Glazel the White Dragon returned in a fury, ripping into the front of the castle, digging through the ruined main entrance doors to get at those inside. Some of the PCs took cover in the Dragon fang room, others ran down the hall and around the corner by Ix's chambers, while Mara ducked around the corner, bracing her shield, and taunted the Dragon. :)

 

Just as the PCs were wishing they wore their brown pants, Floki returned on his gigantic Roc and began battled the great dragon. Both were seen decending beyond the walls and their view, battling ferociously. Currently the remaining cultists are barricaded in the Red Wizard's chambers. Ix's door is being opened by Xed and Mia.

 

#30 – Mar 27 – 2017

 

Communicating with Floki brought about an accord. He had no love for the cultists and their dragons and said that when the castle finished it's return journey and the dragons left to hunt, he would work with them to overthrow the cultists. To be precise - He would take care of the dragons IF the heroes would take out the cultists. He is hedging his bets for sure.

 

The group communicated with both Zygy and Maxim on their purpose and began their assault in earnest. They chose to eliminate the newly arrived cultists in the barracks first, before moving on to Ix and the rest of the compound. This is where we left off.

 

#29 – Mar 9 – 2017

 

Very sorry for the lack of updates to this page as I seem to have fallen into a funk and haven't been performing my Webmasterly duties. I will try to sum up as succinctly as I can (There have been missed sessions, snow days, etc.), so please correct me if I have left anything out.

 

The group and their new Lizardfolk clan returned to Naerytar and cleared out any remaining opposition, looted and took full control of the castle. The heroes used the discovery of the strange teleporting “pad” and paired with the password, decided to send Blixx in to scout the new location. This new place was where Davion and several other prisoners were being held in a mountain fortification. The decision was made to leap into danger once again to rescue their comrade in their snowy prison.

 

Upon arriving through the magic of the portal they were forced to confront several dragonborn cultists as they were coming up from the encampment to the portal, riding on sleds pulled by their monstrous snow drakes. Dispatching them, the heroes quickly made their way down to the unique building - built right into the side of the mountain.

 

Sneaking in they made their way through a few rooms before they were surrounded by several dragonborn guards and were cordially introduced to the owner of this outpost – Blahdeeblah. She seemed interested in coming to some sort of accord with the party. Some discussion of common interests let to the parties coming to an agreement. She would free the captives into their hands so long as the heroes promised to interfere with Ix and the delivery of the treasure. She wanted to step up the ladder by making her comrades look bad.

 

The heroes proceeded to pass themselves off as cultist mercenaries and soon found themselves upon a massive floating ice castle. The castle turned out to be the property of a massive giant named Floki, who has hired out his services to the cult of the dragon to help them transport people, goods, and massive amounts of treasure. There was a veritable army of nasty beings on this flying castle (Hill Giants, Stone Golems, Drakes, A giant white dragons, 2 smaller dragons, Immeasurable kobolds, cultists, Red Wizards and their guards, etc.). Attacking was not an option.

 

Ix put them through a fight with a group of ogres to test their might and was suitably impressed and seemed to welcome them to the fold. A strange sort of tenuous friendship was developed between Mia and the giant Floki (She would play him music and ask him questions). Slowly Zath, as nominated leader of our band, was working into Ix’s confidence a little. Ziggy was contacted through sending spells and informed of their situation.

 

The heroes eventually came to the end destination for the ice castle at a place named The Well of Dragons. Ix invited Zath and Zed to look out upon the magnificence of the Well of Dragons. A massive area filled with bones with several dragons flying around while cultists and their slaves worked digging deep into the ground. This was thought to be the final summoning place of Tiamat. The treasure was dropped off and the flying castle prepared to depart.

 

The PCs were given a choice to go down to the Well or to stay on the castle for the return trip. They decided to stay on the castle while the gnome NPC Gemna left to investigate the Well further. More elite cultists boarded the castle and moved into the barracks with the PCs and immediately began throwing their weight around. They challenged the heroes to a non-lethal battle to test their mettle against the heroes. They were soundly defeated.

 

Having heard (Through sendings) from Jiggy and Maxim, it was suggested that they not go to the well of Dragons and instead work on getting out of there. They also indicated that it would be beneficial If they could explore a way to have Floki turn against the Cult, Find material components so that their benefactors could more easily scry and track Ix, and to investigate the strange mask that Ix sometimes wears.

 

When last we left off, Mia had gone to see Floki and let him know how the PCs all felt about the Cult as Floki had previously given subtle hints that he was not the cults biggest fan.

 

- Doug

 

#28 – Dec 19 – 2016

 

Much discussion and planning was had between the PCs, the lizardmen and Ziggy regarding how they would approach the problem at hand. None of the PCs wanted a repeat of their previous attempt. The Lizardmen were keen to get into the action and felt that the underwater tunnel would be the best approach. The heroes were unsure whether they could hold their breaths for that long. 

 

Ziggy informed them all that she would be the one taking credit for the killing of the Shaman. She had some plan to manipulate the politics in the area for the good of all, or at least to her own ends. The two izardmen (Skarzz and Night Brother) were reluctant and wary about this, but in the end ultimately decided that the strange shapeshifter was powerful enough to back up her plans.

 

Skarz and Night Brother went ahead and stealthily scouted out the water-filled tunnel leading to the subterranean caverns beneath the castle and determined that the humans might actually be able to make it through with some help. The group chose 4:00 am as their attack hour and snuck past the Bullywug huts and into the pool that led to the tunnel. 

 

Having a good sense of the layout thanks to Blixx's investigation of the area, they avoided contact with the creatures of the dungeon and made their way directly to the bullywug shaman's chamber and awaited a couple of hours in ambush. The attack attack went off perfectly with the shaman falling dead at their feet in a few short seconds and Ziggy turned into a dragon-man and blasted acid breath into the outer chamber where the shamans followers were.

 

Grabbing proof of the shaman's death, they fled the tunnels and back through the brackish swamp. That is where we left off. 

 

- Merry Dougy Christmas one and all

 

#27 – Dec 5 – 2016

 

Ziggy the dragon showed up in disguise and met with the group. The Lizardmen around the boats were scared away and the team took their boats and journeyed back to Carnath's Roadhouse in disguise. They resupplied, and used the secret tunnel to do some plundering of the Storage room. The decision was made that perhaps they could try and meet with the Lizardman they had met with before and see if they could make the political situation work to their advantage.

 

They did meet up with him and learned that the best possible solution for both the PCs and the Lizardman was for them to work together to defeat the Bullysug leader/shaman, thus tipping the scales in the favor of the Lizardmen, who could then stand up and regain control from the Bullywugs, and in the process rescue the PCs fallen comrades.

 

We left off with the PCs and their 2 new Lizardfolk companions preparing to jounrey back to Naerytar and execute some plan which will bring all of their combined hopes to fruition.

 

Dougy "I Died but now I'm a Lizardman" Doug

 

#26 – Nov 28 – 2016

 

Jarek was quickly healed by Davion and was back on his feet, slamming the door and barring it. The remaining opponants inside the tower were defeated while outside near the curtain wall Mara was battling against many opponants. Davion cast a Spirit Guardians spell which was devestating the enemy within and without the tower. Things were looking desperate as more and more cultists, lizardmen and bullywugs were swarming into the courtyard. Mara took advantage of Davion's spell and climbed up the wall - taking some hits from javelins.

 

Rather than fortify their position within the tower, Davion came up with a plan, backed by Xedred, to charge out into the courtyard and make for the wall. The devestation of his spell would hold the enemies at bay while they made their escape. Zath had already fled up to the top of the tower and out with his fly spell and he was harrying the enemy from above. It worked better than Jarek expected as it did allow Xedred to make it up the wall. Mia decided to run up the tower and out through the top of the tower instead of Davion's plan. Both Davion and Jarek were defeated in the courtyard while the rest escaped into the swamp. Zath helped Mia escape the tower and flew off with her, escaping the clutches of the gargoyles.

 

The team made it back to their boats and found them guarded by lizardmen and have taken a short rest in the swamp while deciding their options. Davion and Jarek's fate is uncertain. This is where we left off.

 

- Le Doug fantastique

 

#25 – Nov 22 – 2016

 

Xedred was quickly healed by Davion and was back in the fight in an instant. Jarek climbed down the rope to the inside courtyard and was followed shortly thereafter by Davion and then Mara after she loosed more deadly arrows. Zath, inside the ground floor of the tower, soon found himself battling against 2 Lizardmen. The last of the drakes were killed outside just as an immense response is underway from the sleeping keep. The Red Wizard might still be in the tower after having cast an impenetrable fog spell blinding most of the castle (Or at least this side of it) Around 30 seconds after the initial silenced combat began, a dozen or more lizardmen respond from the inner courtyard through the mighty fog and at least as many cultists come from the south building, bringing with them the Mage of the keep just as the fog lifts. The castle troops proved to be very organized and professional. 

 

Having defeated the 2 Lizardmen, Zath unbarred the door to let his comrades in (They had been silently pounding the door in an attempt to break it down). Mara was a few moments behind, but got completely cut off from the rest of the group by the attacking cultists. Jarek was overrun with enemies as he tried to hold the door with ranged help from his comrades within. Mia was successfully released from her cell and given bow and arrows, which she quickly put to deadly use. Under Jarek's advice, Zath used the message potion to send out an S.O.S to our friend dragon - Ziggy.

 

The battle continued on for another 12 - 15 seconds, when the outside mage cast a fireball into the tower, severely wounding those within. Davion healed his comrades as best he could. The next instant found Jarek defeated at the door and the tower quickly filling with enemies as Mara was being severely pressed outside the tower by the growing numbers of castle respondants.

 

This is where we left off.

 

- Sir Doug - The Monday Knight

 

#24 – Nov 14 – 2016

 

The intrepid heroes reluctantly settled upon a plan which involved stealth and subterfuge to try to sneak in and talk their way past the Lizardman guards. Zath and Xedred slipped over the wall and down through the South West tower barracks disguised first as lizardmen, then as cultists (Zath as a dragonborn). The plan was doomed from the start as the lizardmen could not be persuaded or intimidated to let them pass. Communication with the creatures was strained as Zath and Xedred had to communicate with them through their telepathy and a comprehend languages spell was needed. The elven wizard had commanded them that no one shall pass, not even Zath disguised as Ixx the Dragonborn. This gave them some indication of the command structure of the castle.

 

The rest of the group were on the exterior walls to come to their aid when needed. This was pretty much right away, as Xedred gave the command for the silence spell to be cast, and their Plan B attack began in earnest. Zath opened the door and dashed into the tower as Xedred began striking about himself, felling the Lizardmen closest at hand (With some help from ranged attacks from the wall.) The drakes rushed in at Xedred and began to tear him to pieces faster than the rest of the group had anticipated. This is where we left off.

 

- Dugly

 

#23 – Nov 07 – 2016

 

The PC's spent the rest of that night, the following day and into the night again working on a plan to get into the castle and rescue Miathrana. As we left off, the group had still not settled on a plan.

 

- D

 

#22 – Oct 24 – 2016

 

Our night started off in the swamp with a small skirmish that ended up with some of us retreating into the trees while our canoe was capsized by the lizard men.  We were eventually allowed to carry on after the lizard men had fully departed.  

Further downstream, we encountered more lizard men.  We tried to converse with them, and were lucky enough to manage to find some who did not attack outright and additionally who knew where the cult was currently hiding out; a castle with the recognizable name of "Naerytar"!  They made sure that we were not allies with the cult, and said they would direct us to the castle if we were going with the intention of killing the Bullywugs who have taken over the minds of some of the lizard men in the area.

They brought us to a castle which was heavily manned, if not heavily patrolled. Blix was sent in to investigate and we found signs of swampland creatures as well as cultists.  Bullywugs, Lizardmen, crocs and giant frogs were in half the building and drakes were in the other half.  Some investigations brought us down to subterranean tunnels, but we decided that it would be better to try to focus our search on Mia.  We all moved our encampment up closer and used a location spell to get an estimate of her location, and it was determined that she appeared to be in the lower level of the central tower.  We entered the central tower and determined that it contained an artifact known as the "Farseer of Illusk".  In the bottom level, we managed to find a cell that contained our long-lost cohort!  Time to plan a daring and dramatic rescue...

 

- Stupendous Steve Steverton from Steveville Stevabama

 

#21 – Oct 17 – 2016

 

Well, Zath and Blixx managed to get out of the storeroom through magic; Davion ran his drunken diversion in the courtyard; Mia was kidnapped; and the rest of the PC’s were discovered by the guards and taken into custody – Manacled and put under house arrest in their room. The better part of honesty was chosen as their method of getting out of this situation, and for the most part it worked. They described that they were responding to activity within the storeroom, and decided to handle it themselves rather than bring the other guards into it.

 

Soon the PCs were given back their gear and set free, the camp boss deciding that nothing was missing and no major crime had been committed, but they were warned not to try to enter the storeroom again. The PCs searched high and low throughout the compound and the countryside around it for their missing comrade, Mia. She was nowhere to be found. The only interesting tidbit was from the cook, who mentioned most nights hearing noises coming from the storeroom below the mess hall.

 

Zath sent his minion invisibly into the storeroom to watch. That night, Blixx witnessed Lizardmen coming up through the floor of the storeroom from a passage below. They were taking goods from the storeroom. Blixx followed the tunnel to its exit and flew back to inform his master. The PCs were beginning to think that the activity in the storeroom might have something to do with Mia’s disappearance. They followed Blixx’s directions back to the tunnel entrance and then deeper into the swamp.

 

The PCs fought off Crocodiles and will-o-the-wisps before eventually coming across a small camp in the swamp that had two canoes and a couple of small rudimentary structures. Mara fashioned paddles out of available materials and the group rested for an hour or so. The only way to follow their prey was to use the canoes to traverse the swamp from here on.

 

Rowing through the swamp they eventually encountered a small group of Lizardmen ferrying a shipment of stolen goods. The Lizardmen noticed the PCs following them and moved to attack. The PCs tied up their canoes to trees and waited for the attack. We left off just as Davion’s canoe was being attacked.

 

- The Webmaster-inater-inater

 

#20 – Oct 10 – 2016

 

The PC’s were assigned a bunk room and decided that they would hang around long enough to find out what the Cultists were up to. The first night was interesting as one of the cultists reached out to Xedred for a clandestine meeting. Xedred met with him and it turned out that he recognized Xedred from the cultists camp in the south, and assumed that he was a cultist. Xedred did nothing to dissuade him from thinking that and played along. The PCs are hoping this could lead somewhere helpful.

 

That night, after the camp settled in for the night, Mia went to investigate the storage building to see what she could find out. Using stealth, she snuck in and examined the crates and goods within. None of the cultist goods were in this room and soon she found a locked door leading into a more secure storage area. Here she found those crates but soon realized she was not alone in this room. It was soon determined that Lizard men were taking the cultists crates down through the floor into an underground passageway.

 

Zath’s demonic pet soon gave warning that something was amiss in the storage room and the rest of the PCs were roused and headed stealthily to the storage area. Davion ended up acting as a diversion for the guards so that Jarek, Xedred, Zath and Mara could sneak into the storage building. They searched for clues, assuming that Mia was in there, but now she was missing. As the group were investigating the storage room, they heard the guards reacting to the unlatched outer door. They doused their lights and hunkered down in silence. This is where we left off.

 

-Doug’s sexy and he knows it

 

#19 - Oct 03 – 2016

 

The Group Went to make contact with the copper dragon, Ziggy, at an ornate palace (Dragon Palace) where we were told we could make contact. We left word with the castle and were given items to help us contact her personally. Thanks to Mara’s persistence they met with the Sage (????) and asked many questions of the knowledgeable elderly man. He gave them information about the Neverember family and their intentions to rebuild and rule Neverwinter, but nothing that directly linked them to the Cult of the Dragon. The PC’s informed him of all that has been transpiring and the possibility of the Cult trying to bring Tiamat back into the world.

 

They learned that the wagons would be heading north again in the morning and that they could hire on as guardsmen again. The wagons would be heading north to the work camp near the Mere of Dead Men, where they are working on clearing the roadway to Neverwinter. The PC’s did so and were chosen to escort the wagons north. The Trip took 10 days through some rough terrain and the only real problem they ran into was fighting off an ogre attack, which they handled very well with no injuries. Soon they arrived at their destination and the wagons were unloaded.

 

-Fugly Dug

 

 

#18 - Sep 26 - 2016

 

The entire group were suspicious that the Cultists would try something now that they had reached Daggerford, so they were watched and eavesdropped upon, but they did nothing. They continued north with the Caravan. The PCs rejoined the caravan as travelers and headed north.

 

Day 40:  The caravan began heading north once again. A male human joined the cultists, riding on one of their wagons and a female gnome joined the caravan as well. It quickly became apparent that the gnome was carefully watching the new passenger of the Cultist's. The gnome's name was Jamna and she was being very nice and talkative with everyone in the caravan, including the PCs. Jarek thought she was delightful and talked to her quite a bit. 

 

DAY 41: The caravan encountered a large 100 man patrol from Waterdeep, which was quite impressive. They were now officially within the protective range of the great city.

 

DAY 42: Nothing eventful. Continued on the last leg of their trip.

 

DAY 43: During breakfast, Jamna approached the group and suggested that the cultists had poisoned their breakfast, and proceeded to pull forth a small object from Mara's bowl of Porridge which she claimed to be a strange bone device that would uncoil within the host's body and kill them from inside. Needless to say no one ate the rest of their breakfast that day. She wanted to meet with the group later that evening to discuss the cultists and their new "Red WIzard" companion.

 

It turned out she needed to get a look inside their wagon to see what they are carrying. She claimed to be an agent of an organization with similar interests as our own, but refused to divulge who she reported to. She wanted our help but as the PCs pressed her for details she began to backpeddle and decide that maybe she didn't need our help. We told her we would discuss it and get back to her.  In the end, the PCs did not trust her and decided not to work with her and use the Imp to see what was in the wagon themselves. It turned out to be exactly as they suspected - loot from ravaging Greenest and other towns.

 

DAY 44: Nothing eventful. Continued on the last leg of their trip.

 

DAY 45: During the last watch of the night, a commotion erupted from the direction of the cultists. Their guard on duty was found murdered with a sword wound in the back. The PCs investigated the area and saw evidence that someone had covered up their tracks in the dirt. The Cultists were even more wary now. The murderer was never found, but some in the group felt it may have been Jamna.

 

DAY 46: Nothing eventful. Continued on the last leg of their trip.

 

DAY 47: They finally have arrived at Waterdeep; City of Splenders; Jewel of the North. The PCs were suitably impressed, none more so than Jarek. After passing through the gates (Zath was pulled aside for special interrogation due to his race) they prepared to follow their prey. Xedred and Blixx followed after Fish-beard and the rest of the group followed the wagon, hanging back and letting Mia and Zath do the stealth work.

 

The wagon finally wound its way to the North Ward and entered the Neverember warehouse compound. The PCs set up at a nearby Inn with a view of the compound. Mia somehow got lost and Jarek went along their backtrail and eventually found her. Xedred followed Fishbeard and his companions, who eventually wound up at the Neverember compound as well. The imp snooped around the compound and did not gain any real information. That's where we left off.

 

-Duggy Wuggy

 

#17 - Sep 19 - 2016

 

The Trolls slammed into the first wagon, damaging it and carrying off one of the horses. The group battled one of the trolls and defeated it, but the other two got away. No person was killed in this encounter, but time was lost transferring goods from that wagon to another. Everyone was anxious to get out of the area of the Trolls

 

Days 28 - 29:  These days proved to be happily uneventful.

 

DAY 30: In the early evening on this day, a golden stag was spotted upon a rise. Xedred went forth to investigate, but could only get so close without spooking it. It was a strange and wonderful encounter - just south of the Misty Forest, between the Way Inn and Dragonspear Castle.

 

DAY 31-32: These days proved to be happily uneventful as well.

 

DAY 33: The caravan camps at the ruins of The Way Inn, once a waystop for merchants and travelers, now  a ruined husk, destroyed by the Devils of Dragonspear Castle years ago. The group was excited to explore the ruins and in their investigations they found a dead body buried beneath an out building. Investigating the cellar showed evidence of the hellish attack and a collapse of most of the cellar. On a crushed body they found a beltbuckle with the emblem of the Daggerford family on it.

 

DAY 34-38: The weather improved a bit on these days and it was actually a pleasant few days, anticipating our arrival at Daggerford.

 

DAY 39: The caravan arrived at Daggerford. The caravan merchants settled up with the PCs and they re-supplied. Jarek and Xedred spoke with Duke Hazza, ruler of Daggerford, about the artifact they had found beneath the Inn. He was quite grateful to have it returned and to receive the word of where his fallen older brother's body could be found. Ziggy said that if needed they could ask for her in Waterdeep. Xedred said that no reward was necessary and the Duke said he would find some way to pay us back. This meeting also introduced them to the Copper Dragon - Ziggy. This is the same dragon that attacked their wagon and Dragon Eggs earlier on. The dragon was under the effacts of the Dragon Rage and appologised. It seems that Ziggy and Hazza are fairly well informed of what the PCs are up to, but they informed him off all they could.

 

-Me