Reign of Winter — Game Session — 021

Game summary for March 28, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Kenwrec Battleglaive (Dwarf Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Ten-Penny Tacey (Half-Orc Rogue played by Shane Bradley), and Tiswichtt (Orc Witch played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team had the brilliant idea of slipping the kids out the window instead of out into the courtyard, so they let them all go free.  The group went up the stairs, and Magnus encountered an attic whisperer, a strange type of child-like undead.  They conversed for a while, with Magnus kind of making friends with it.  It warned them of the Gobbler in the kitchen.

The group swept into the kitchen and found the stove animated and roared to life!  Revealed, the Gobbler attacked.  The team swarmed around it and found their weapons bouncing off its iron sides.  It snatched up Tiswichtt and swallowed her whole into its burning gullet!  Magnus unleashed a spiritual weapon as the team continued to nick and scratch the thing.  Greta landed a few blows until luck failed her.  Magnus and Kenwrec scuffed it before it bit down on Magnus and started to swallow him as well!  Realizing the stove was animated by the spirits of the slain children, Magnus channeled positive energy in a destructive blast.  Inside the stove, Tiswichtt used alchemical liquid ice vials to damage and weaken the monstrosity until she finally destroyed it from within!

Next, the team encountered Granny Nan, a horrible old witch, talking to the attic whisperer.  Both attacked the party.  Ten-Penny slipped in for some flanking while the front line advanced.  Ten-Penny was able to slay the attic whisperer and advance on Granny Nan.  Magnus and Greta closed in but were frustrated by Granny Nan’s blink spell, which caused numerous attacks to miss her outright.  She cast hold person at Ten-Penny without effect.  Kenwrec moved to flank, and Granny Nan slapped him up and down with her cane but was so weak it didn’t harm him.  Finally, Ten-Penny landed a sneak attack to bring down the witch!

The group continued exploring and found the water closet.  They rescued another young girl and let her out the same window as the other children.  At last, they looted Granny Nan’s room and stole her half knit mittens.  The team then gathered at the stairs to advance to another level.

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 020

Game summary for March 23, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Belda), Svala Alehorn (Dwarf Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), Ten-Penny Tacey (Half-Orc Rogue played by Shane Bradley), and Tulvur Xandersen (Dwarf Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team discovered two trolls in another room, and they tried to throw a bear trap in at them, but the trolls won initiative and started pounding on the team.  Deska cast flame blade as Tulvur and Ten-Penny get into melee.  Svala and Greta fell back to engage a third troll and trollhound coming up from another room.  The team fought on two fronts, but their fire was able to overwhelm the trolls after suffering only a few hits themselves.

Deska heard a voice on the other side of a door.  The team burst in to find a larger female troll speaking to a mirror.  She spun about and swung her mighty axe as the party flooded into her room.  She resisted their onslaught for a bit, but alone she was no match for the might of the team.

The team discovered a room full of cages housing six young children guarded by an albino wikkawak!  The creature tried to attack, but it was quickly surrounded, blinded, and knocked to the floor by a bag of marbles emptied by one of the children.  The team rescued the children from the cells and learned of a wicked “Granny Nan” who comes and eats the children.  One girl, Inga, said she had been taken upstairs to the kitchen once before.  She warned the group of a black dragon in the kitchen and a ghost that looks like garbage.

The party decided they needed to get the children to safety.  They went to the front door and found the animated statues still out there!

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 019

Game summary for March 14, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Alfbern Winterbloom (Half-Elf Inquisitor played by Preston Harmon), All Might (Human Warpriest played by Andrew Renfrow), Argun Longtusk (Wereboar-Kin Druid played by Parker Harmon), Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Belda), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Dwarf Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Dwarf Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), Ten-Penny Tacey (Half-Orc Rogue played by Shane Bradley), and Tiswichtt (Orc Witch played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Ringeirr introduced the party to Solveig Ayrdahl, high priestess of Milani in Whitethrone and head of the Heralds of Summer’s Return.  He explained their mission, and she informed them she could help.  She is in contact with the remnants of the Iron Guard, the ousted military of Baba Yaga.  They are willing to rise up against the Winter Guard, but they are afraid of a white dragon named Logrivich.  The dragon has taken residence in the city clock tower.  If the team can defeat the dragon and fire off fireworks off the tower, that will signal the Iron Guard to attack the Winter Guard surrounding the Dancing Hut.  Solveig also asked them to see if they could rescue a singer named Bella who was kidnapped by Logrivich.  The party agreed and set out to fight their way through the ice trolls stationed in the tower so they could engage the dragon.

The team went and bought several flasks of alchemist’s fire and traveled to the tower.  They went through the bone gate and discovered the statues outside animated and damaged weapons when struck.  Greta cast obscuring mist to help cover their dash into the tower.  The group moved in as Deska tried to slow the statues with entangle.  Inside a troll opened a door and found the party pouring in through the front entrance!  He and his companion yelled in rage and attacked.  Deska knocked the troll down using thunderstomp as Magnus came back and chopped the creature viciously.  Greta cartwheeled into the room and brutally struck the troll as well.  Alfbern cloaked Argun with invisibility, and Ten-Penny used her great stealth to sneak into the room.  All Might tried to leap the troll as well, but it slammed its axe into his chest!  Meanwhile, Svala cartwheeled in as well, and she ignited some of her alcohol in a makeshift Molotov cocktail to burn the troll to death.

Kenwrec and Ringeirr struggled to get away from the statues, and finally Tiswichtt had to pull Ringeirr to safety.  The team shut the statues outside and barred the door.  Meanwhile, Ten-Penny snuck up and dealt a sneak attack to the remaining troll.  The team swarmed in and burned it to death as well.

Ruins of Undermountain — Game Session — 015

Game summary for March 11, 2017, Ruins of Undermountain campaign, for Harm Incorporated. Session included: Boran Gibbs (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Kalil Bakran (Human Sorcerer played by Parker Harmon), Paddy Brandywine (Halfling Bard played by Preston Harmon), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (Dwarf Ranger played by Peyton Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team entered a very tall chamber flanked on either side by massive stone statues of black armored men.  Before them was an altar with a black glowing hand hover over it.  Bound to the altar was a blonde woman bleeding slightly from a head wound.  Rumbald approached and triggered a trap!  A harpoon shot from the ceiling to impale him.  Then, the chain began to retract and drag him up into the air!  The rest of the team began to approach more cautiously as Kalil used dimension door to get behind the altar.  Paddy and Kalil began pouring healing potions down the throat of the woman, but she would not wake up.  Rumbald extracted himself from the harpoon and fell twenty feet to the ground!  The harpoon whipped back into the ceiling and reset only to be triggered again by Boran!  He was hoisted into the air, impaled by the spear.  He was able to extract himself and lay bleeding on the ground where he fell.  Rumbald had gotten to the altar and was trying to help the woman when he triggered the trap again!  It hit the altar near him but did not hit him.  Kalil and Boran began using detect magic to try and better understand what was going on.  Meanwhile, Rumbald triggered the trap yet another time and was impaled!  This time, Paddy jumped off the altar, grabbed the chain, and swung Rumbald like an agony-pendulum as he scampered up.  He jammed stuff into the mechanism and disabled the trap!  Rumbald was able to rip himself free again and lower himself down with a grappling hook and rope.  The group then discovered the woman was merely a permanent image illusion!  The had been pouring healing potions onto the altar and wasting them.  Searching, they discovered a secret compartment and claimed a mace of darkness as their own.

In the next chamber, the team found a greater earth elemental engaged in mortal combat with an umber hulk.  The titans clashed it out, and Paddy threw in a water elemental gem to summon his own elemental into the fight!  Chaos ensured, with the elemental killing the umber hulk and pulverizing the party.  It destroyed the water elemental as a second umber hulk burst through the wall!  The tunneling creatures caused instability in several rooms resulting in falling rocks.  The team finally defeated both creatures and fled down a hallway.

The group entered a feeding frenzy involving quaggoths and hook horrors and the slain body of a drake.  The beasts charged at the party.  Paddy was hooked by a horror and grappled!  The quaggoths entered blood rages and attacked Rumbald because he was a favored enemy.  Boran took a beating and had to fall back as fireball and flame snake spells worked over the creatures.  Once defeated, the group could then search a trapped chest to extract several valuables.

The party found themselves next face-to-face with a death kiss beholderkin!  The bloodthirsty monster lashed the party with biting mouths.  Fortunately, the team knew a lot about these creatures, and Boran used communal protection from energy to defend all of them against electricity.  This absorbed several blasts from its electric aura.  It settled on draining blood from Kalil and Paddy to heal its wounds, but it was insufficient.  Finally, it exploded in a blast of electricity, which was negated by Boran’s magic.  The group did recover a Netherese blast scepter from a group of slain adventurers the creature had killed.

Finally, the group entered a room swarming with spider creatures.  Two cildabrin and a drider assaulted the party!  The cildabrin used spike stones and stinging tails to separate the team and then grappled several of the party with pincers.  Meanwhile, Paddy slipped through and put pressure on the drider.  She used levitate to get out of his reach.  Much to her continued frustration, she discovered the entire team resistant to electricity by casting numerous useless lightning bolt spells.  She used web on Paddy who accidentally scorched himself when he fired a flaming arrow through it.  Rumbald and Boran found the spiked floor painful and obstructing.  Cut off from his allies and grappled by a cildabrin, Kalil found himself overwhelmed and killed.  Rumbald’s critical hit with his axe killed a cildabrin as Boran accidentally hit him with a holy smite.  After a bit, the team dropped their foes and were able to raise Kalil from the dead.

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 018

Game summary for March 7, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Belda), and Tulvur Xandersen (Dwarf Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team piled into a hovel with Greta and answered some of her questions.  She agreed to help them deliver the fish and led them down a back alley to avoid more mirror men.  Along the way, they ran into a fleeing human named Jorhan scrambling to escape a pursing winter wolf.  The team learned the man was owned by the wolf who had decided to kill him.  Deska and Tulvur talked the winter wolf into selling them the man for 75 gp, and they put him to work pushing the fish cart.  They quickly dropped off the fish and then headed toward the forger’s house.

The group went by a rowdy bar, and two winter wolves, in human form, came out punching and kicking each other.  When they say the party, the hurled some vague threats to which the party responded arrogantly.  The wolves decided to have some sport and try and eat the team.  They shifted into wolf form and attacked!  Armed with only daggers and light armor, the team was sorely pressed.  Fortunately, Greta was fully armed and charged in alongside.  Ten-Penny setup a flank and began harming one winter wolf while Deska blinded another with spit venom.  Tulvur raged and slashed madly with his dagger.  Meanwhile, a wolf tripped Greta and menaced her, forcing her to fight with her axe from the ground quite ineffectively.  Tulvur demoralized the wolves and pressed his advantage, allowing Deska to square off with one using flame blade.  She avoided a nasty hit using windy escape.  The group defeated the wolves, and Greta revealed some magical talent unleashing healing divine magic upon herself and several of the team.

Just outside the home of Mortin the forger, the group came upon two ice trolls arguing with a pair of winter wolves in human form.  The trolls noticed the team but was too busy with the wolves.  As the team got to Mortin’s door, the trolls and wolves went their separate ways with the trolls looking for the party.  No one would answer the door, and Ten-Penny fumbled with the lock.  Deska rolled a bag of marbles into the street as Tulvur hurled a rock to distract the trolls.  Ten-Penny finally got the door open, and the team began fumbling through.  The distracted troll stepped on the marbles and fell flat on his back, which caused the other troll to roar with laughter.  This devolved into a fight between the two right in the street.  The team was able to get behind the door and close it, mostly forgotten.

A furious Ringeirr berated Mortin for not opening the door and risking their lives.  He ended up browbeating the man into forging papers for the team for free and also making papers for Jorhan to go free.  The team stayed overnight as he completed their documents.

Finally, the team headed for the gateway into Whitethrone proper.  They were stopped by a pair of mirror men who looked over their papers and found nothing amiss.  The creatures spoke to the team telepathically and warned them that public dancing remains strictly prohibited.