20171215 Recap Against the Slave Lords - The Tunnels of Drachensgrab Level 10

Against the Slave Lords – Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords – The Tunnels of Drachensgrab


After playing a key role in upending the activity at the Stockade of the Slave Lords, our heroes use the intelligence gained from Markessa’s chambers to trace the path to the secluded and secret city of the Slave Lords. Leaving the stockade, the party breaks up into smaller groups and makes their way to the village of Drachensgrab near the foot of Mt Drachensgrab. Using the village as a base, the party makes several efforts searching for the tunnel that leads toward the Slave Lord city of Suderham.

So, Raistlin (Elf Wizard – Arthur), Bannor the Bloodguard (Human Fighter – Brendon), Souldun (Human Warlord – Vic), Grid (Human Monk – Art), Mantis (TriKreen Barbarian – Ross) and Walster (Mul Warden – Jeff), come across what they think is finally the tunnel they are looking for! Down a chiseled hall, the group sees a wooden door. They cautiously approach the door, and suddenly Bannor and Gird fall down a salt slide. Souldun barely avoids falling in, even though Rastlin bumps into him in his attempt to stop a fall. Souldun, Raistlin, Mantis and Walster hear Bannor and Gird yelling for help that there are gnoll warriors attacking. Starting with Raistlin, everyone else jumps down the slide. It’s a rough tumble down the magical chute and the party finds themselves faced with nine gnoll warriors. As each party member slides into the room, the deadly gnoll archers unleash a hail of arrows. With the party in a heap at the end of the salt slide, two of the archers rapid fire into the area causing badly bleeding wounds. Two heavily armored gnoll swordsmen attempt to pin Gird down and a bellowing demon gnoll berserker pins down Bannor. Rastlin is delayed while he tries to pick up his broken potions while Mantis jumps up and charges an archer. Walster engages with the berserker, along with Bannor. Mantis howls and downs an archer and then another. An archer attacks Walster from the back and Souldun counter attacks and yells for Walster to do the same and they both strike true, downing another archer. Walster continues to battle the demon gnoll while Souldun heals Rastlin and then tells Mantis to strike down the gnoll swordsman that Gird is fighting. With the demon gnoll on one side and the remaining soldier on the other, Bannor hews and chops and downs the second soldier. Mantis continues to charge around the room and downs his third archer. The last two archers attempt to retreat and Mantis runs them down. Gird trips the demon gnoll and Soldun orders Bannor to finish him off, end the fight. The group finds to ivory rods which the party learns later that the gnoll soldiers use to ward off their undead allies.

After a short rest the group enters a long cavern and a horde of undead emerge from the walls. The Ghastly wights grab and claw at the party, weakening them with their stench. The group attempts to hold a line near the entrance but the line is loose at best. Walster is a blur of motion as he chops down three of the undead after Raistlin has blasted them. Bannor downs one and seriously wounds another. Gird blocks the claws and breaks the grabs with ease. In an astounding move, Gird throws one across the cavern, knocking the wight into two others as they collapse in a heap. Bannor downs his second ghast but is grabbed by another and clawed by a third. Raistlin and Walster team up to down two more, as Raistlin wounds them and Walster finishes them off. Raistlin downs one on his own as Bannor downs a third ghast. Mantis downs one on the other side of the cavern and wounds another that Gird finishes off with a “wight” spinning hook kick. Walster battles an especially large wight and with help from Soldun, finally down it to end the fight.

The group then comes across a large room with steps leading down into a pool of white goo and there are steps leading out on the other side. There is also a one foot wide bridge leading across the goo. In the middle of the room, wall to wall and ceiling to the surface of the goo, is a white blue force field of electricity, blocking passage through the room, bisecting the bridge. After a time the party coats itself in the goo (which is rubbery and non-conductive) and takes minimal damage from the lightning bolts.

Moving past a number of empty passages, the group comes across a simple, empty room with a rope hanging in the middle. Mantis moves the rope to the doorway and then pulls it, and the floor vanishes and reveals a very shallow pool of water in a ten foot deep pit. At the same instance, two panels open and a pair of very large black, demonic looking, stony bats appear. Mantis runs along the walls and hits one of them, Gird does a twisting jump, running across the water and hits the same one. Bannor lunges out over the pit and misses and then throws his returning axe a few times. Walster runs and jumps into the water, which turns out to be acid! The bats fly by and attack him and as he swings at them they vanish just for a moment. Souldun was about to jump into the water but saw what happened to Walster so Souldun reverts to giving orders from the ledge. Gird and Bannor wound one of the bats and Mantis finishes it off. Several hits by Walster wounds the other bat, along with encouragement from Souldun but in the end it is Raistlin’s magic that finally downs the second bat. After a short rest and rinsing the acid off of Walster, the group moves on.

Next the group comes across another long cavern and suddenly, the group is attacked by a stone roper, a vile creature of the underdark that poses as stone and then “ropes” victims with it’s very long tentacles. The roper grabs one victim after another, but Gird twists away and Bannon just breaks away. Raistin frees several of his allies by aiming his magic directly at the tentacles. Bannor hews away at the rock hard shell of the roper and makes several deep hits. Mantis and Gird add their strikes. Souldun and Walster get tied up fighting a second roper. After a few tense minutes, Bannor downs the first monster and Souldun downs the other.

Making their way deeper down the tunnels, the group comes across a knotted door. Bannor and Mantis break it down and are impaled by spikes poking through the knots. Bannor’s armor and shield protect him somewhat. After healing them, the group moves on.

The group come to a large room with pillars and boxes of supplies. There are more gnoll warriors and some more undead. There is a large reptilian creature with a club like tail and in the back, there is a ten foot tall, emaciated demon gnoll with a seven foot long flair with three very ornate looking heads. With a shattering howl, the battle begins! The gnoll archer fires a deadly hail of arrows to great effect. The gnoll soldiers also ply their bows to lesser effect. The ghasts charge head long toward the party. Raistlin blasts nearly the entire room with force magic, drawing the enemies to the center of the room and follows up with a fireball. Walster charges forward and downs a ghast that Raistlin had wounded. Walster then engages the gnoll berserker. Mantis charges the gnoll archer and seriously wounds it, attracting the ire of the gnoll berserker who hits Mantis with thunderous howl and throws Mantis into a heap in the corner of the room. The gnoll leader then flies across the room and hits Raistlin for a serious wound, almost killing him. After blasting a huge area with cold, dowing the gnoll archer and a gnoll soldier, but seriously wounding Souldun, Raistlin then runs forward and is downed by a ghast. Bannor is in the corner fighting a horde of undead. One grabs him and he strikes at it, wounding it and breaking the grab. On the back swing, he downs one behind him. Walster turns and strikes down a wounded ghast, allowing the berserk gnoll an opening for a deep slashing wound. Mantis gets up and downs a ghast, Bannor downs his second ghast but there are still two more clawing at him. Souldun fights one of the soldiers and gives wounds it, driving it back. Gird charges the reptile and hits it repeatedly but the creature doesn’t seem interested in Gird and attempts to strike the warlord instead. Walster and Souldun both double team the reptile and find both their weapons are RUSTING! Gird continues to kick and punch the reptile, finally downing it, nearly single handedly! As he does the final reverse jumping back kick to finish it off, it falls and the illusion fades and it turns into a rust monster, a creature of the underdark that feeds on metal. Bannor downs his third ghast and moves to strike the gnoll berserker. Walster downs a gnoll soldier and then another. The gnoll leader charms Mantis for a moment and then swings on Souldun and Walster. Souldun heals Raistlin but because the healers hands have ice crystals all over them, the healing isn’t quite as good as it normally is. Walster then downs the gnoll berserker and the gnoll leader curses at the party and vanishes.

The passage must have run far underground for the group emerges on the rocky slope of an extinct volcano, Mot Flamenblut. Lying before you is a lake within the crater of the volcano and in the middle of the lake, a large island with the city of the slave lords! It is now clear why no military force could ever make a successful attack, the one pass through the mountain is very narrow and even a small force could guard it. Even if an army could force its way through the pass, it would have no way to cross the crater lake.

Next adventure, within the hidden City of Suderham!

It was in the first fight that Gird threw someone. Gird threw 1 Gnoll archer in to 2 others leaving the thrown one prone and one of the other two prone as well.