The party had captured the presumed bandit leader, but had not been able to locate the invisible spellcaster. With the bandit leader under a “suggestion” spell the party managed to convince him to reveal the location of the trap door entrance to the underground bandit lair. His key to the trapdoor was taken. After the revelation of the door’s location, the suggestion spell was satisfied and the bandit leader returned to his normal self, although his hands were still tied.
As the party considered what to do next, in the air above the clearing a quiet voice was suddenly heard casting a spell. Halmod and Malph both recognized the spell as “Invisibility” but it was too late. The bandit leader vanished and in the same instant his bonds fell to the ground. The party cast about (literally, you guys cast spells all over the place) but the spells did not reveal the bandit leader’s location. His getaway was clean.
After grumbling about their ill luck the party decided to use the key and enter the underground lair. They did so, encountering several poison dart traps in the process. Eventually they all entered the lair, went down a short hallway where they managed to open a door into a large underground cavern. They quickly discovered a cache of supplies next to the door and realized the cavern contained an underground river which cut it in half. Their half was lighted with torches, but the other half was dark. Upon examining the supplies Talon received a wound from a dart trap.
After a short period of ransacking the supplies the party was surprised by the sudden appearance of a huge dire crocodile which clambered out of the river and, along with a few normal sized crocodiles, rushed to attack them. Gregor rushed forward to absorb the attack while Lt. Rovell bravely volunteered to defend their rear. As the battle progressed Gregor became more and more suspicious of the great reptile’s behavior, eventually concluding that the dire crocodile was not real. It took a while but he managed to convince the rest of the party and after dispatching the regular sized crocodiles the illusionary dire crocodile climbed back in the river and disappeared.
Then the party was nailed by an unusually intense fireball spell which rocked them on their heels. As they were attempting to recover from that, Lt. Rovell’s rear guard action proved to be wise as he announced an attack from the hallway. Soon the party was beset on both sides as the bandit leader and a caster companion attacked from one side while another caster hurled more spells from the front. Then two large trolls charged across a small bridge over the river and engaged the party in direct melee. At the same time a voice from behind a row of stalagmites and stalactites called out for help.
Again the party was hard-pressed, and at one point Gregor had to rush to save Violet from near certain death. But the ice troll proved to be too vulnerable to fire attacks, the bandit lord and his caster companion became arrow pincushions and finally the rock troll was unable to defeat the party single-handedly. As the rock troll fell the remaining caster vanished again. But the party was quick to close the only door to the outside and eventually the caster’s invisibility wore off and he surrendered with no more fight. The party then rescued the maiden (and Gregor, who had fallen into a pit trap while rushing to aid the hostage).
The hostage turned out to be none other than Orchid Caston herself. Orchid had originally been attempting to convince the bandits to join the Castons against the Rovells but had been captured and imprisoned by Dain (the bandit leader) and Bethany (his magic-wielding sidekick). According to Orchid they were intending to sell her to the highest bidder and in the meantime Dain had been engaging in a little unwanted extra-curricular activity with her.
Upon realizing that Lt. Karel Rovell was one of her rescuers, Orchid at first appeared distraught, but as things developed it was clear that Karel and Orchid had a deep, if somewhat complicated, relationship between them. Eventually each expressed their love for the other and soon they appeared to be inseparable.
That’s where we stopped. You still have a live female Battlemage to deal with and if you haven’t yet dealt with the loot, here it is again:
The dead battle mage had the following:
– Potion of invisibility
– Ring of protection +1
– Scroll of “restoration”
– Elixir of Hiding
The live battle mage had the following:
– Amulet of natural armor +2
– Wand of “cat’s grace” (11 charges left)
– Feather token “bird”
– First level “Pearl of Power”
– Second level “Pearl of Power”
The treasure chest in the room you rescued Orchid Caston from was trapped, but Talon expertly detected and disarmed the trap, gaining another poison dart.
Within the chest were the following items:
– 6 diamonds, each worth 5,000g
– 9 rubies, each worth 2,000g
– 4 sapphires, each worth 1,500g
– 1,353 gold pieces
– 355 silver pieces
– 3 Elixirs of Vision
– Efficient Quiver
– Ring of Sustenance
– Ioun stone: Incandescent blue sphere (+2 to wisdom)
– Gray Bag of Tricks
The following items were also in the chest but Orchid claims they are hers:
– +1 dagger
– Small walking stick, does not radiate magic
– Hat of disguise
– Horseshoes of Speed
– Handy Haversack
She also claims some of the gold and silver is hers but doesn’t remember exactly how much. She thinks she had about 500g worth when the bandits turned on her.
Also in the chest is a small leather case which contains the following items:
– A small spyglass
– A leather journal with writing inside that is not in any recognized language. It also contains diagrams of some sort.
– A very, very ancient looking fragment of parchment, also in some unrecognized language.Handwritten notes around the edge appear to be in elvish.
As I said, you all leveled up, so send me your changes to your character.
I hope you all enjoyed the session.
If you interrogate the living battle mage, she will eventually tell you her name is Bethany, she was the sister of the black hat bandit and she believes that with her brother dead, the bandits would no longer be a threat to the area. She will swear to change her ways and asks you to let her go.
rpgobsessed 