Category Archives: D&D

Temple Crusaders

Session 1 – The Moat House

The town of Homlett is bustling with adventurers looking for opportunity. Most have heard that a few years ago a great evil had risen up nearby, and it was conquered, but things have gotten more dangerous again lately.

Dardenne (Jon) and Darius (Steve) are strangers at the Welcome Wench, one of the inns in the town of Homlett. Dardenne is looking for work and tries to get in on conversations. He sees that there are some others here who seem to be well equipped and look dangerous, and sits at the next table and tries to listen in. He asks the barmaid if she knows them, but she says no. He sees one of them walking by with a sword and shield, and asks him why he’s loaded for battle. The man asks him if he’d like to find out and they exchange hostile words. The man ends up walking away as Dard calls after him. Frustrated, he calls for another ale. The barmaid expresses her pleasure that people wouldn’t be killed in the inn. Dard says that he can handle himself.

Two men, Hadrian (Bill) and Brother Gregory (Brad) enter the inn. Hadrian is a large man in chain mail carrying a shield, and Gregory looks like a cleric. They are clearly of the order of St. Cuthbert based on the color of their clothing and religious symbols they carry. They order food and sit nearby Dard and Darius, offering to buy them a round. Hadrian says that he needs to tell us about St. Cuthbert in order to get the mean, to which Dard rolls his eyes, but then Hadrian says that he’s kidding.

Another couple of men come in — Filarion (John) is a half-elf bard that seems familiar with the locals, and his friend Mord (Jeff), another elf who appears to be a druid. The Cuthberts strike up a conversation with them. Filarion says that he is from a far-off country, the Grand Duchy of Geoff. He regales us with talk of his father, who was a hero there.

A man named Zert approaches the group and introduces himself, and says that there are opportunities here. He is grizzled and his clothes are worn. Hadrian looks him over and determines that he has an evil aura about himself, but remarks quietly that St. Cuthbert is patient.

Hadrian offers to get everyone a drink, and on his way to the bar, Darius tries to pick his pocket. Hadrian catches him and asks him to apologize. Hadrian buys a round. Afterward he asks if we are all interested in adventuring together, and we all agree. He asks for us to all promise that we won’t go against the others in the group. We agree to this as well, and we decide to meet up in the morning to travel out. Dard tells Darius that he will help protect him as he is quite young.

In the morning, Dard learns his spell and does his maneuvers. Everyone meets up and we head out on foot. The way is not far but it is difficult due to the fallen branches. After a mile, things thin out. After 2 hours, we reach our destination. The road turns to the north and it becomes boggy. Here we see the Moat House.

The bog here stinks and there is a foul wind.  Suddenly we are jumped by a group of huge frogs. They attack with long tongues and Dard is entangled. Darius strikes the tongue and it retracts. One jumps up and swallows Hadrian whole. Mord is also swallowed. We are slightly damaged but manage to kill all of them and free those who were swallowed, however Hadrian noticed that Zert did not attack right away. He asks Zert about it, and Zert says that he was surprised by the attack, however it’s clear that he was not pulling his weight in the fight.  A few of us are injured, so Hadrian and Brother Gregory say prayers over us to restore our strength. They mention that they can offer no more prayers today for healing, however.  We search the bodies of the frogs and Dard finds an amethyst in one of their stomachs. There is nothing else of interest.

We continue on to the Moat House. We see a rotting drawbridge with two broken gates behind it. Darius is the lightest of us and decides to cross. We head into the courtyard and Hadrian sees some boot prints going to the building across the way. He also senses evil inside the nearby tower. We decide to go to the tower first, so the archers may have the high ground if anyone comes out of the building across the yard. We see that the tower’s  doors are broken open. We go inside and see that the inside is a ruin, and there are holes everywhere. However, something is glinting on the floor nearby . We move in to check it out and suddenly a huge spider drops on top of us. We attack, but everyone misses except for Hadrian, who cuts it in half with his sword. We find the treasure we’d been seeking, including some gold and other items, and afterward decide to rest for a bit.

The Bronze Dogs

Session 1 – The Bellsover Breaks

Deep within the Spur Mountains there lies a narrow pass that leads from the stone fields of the Scar to the civilized realms of mankind. This mountain pass, called the “Chasm of Gorgamela” has forever been a migratory route for Giants, Orcs, Ogres and Trolls to travel along in search of bloodshed and plunder. Just over two hundred years ago the Dwarves of the Forgekingdoms and the men of the Krown Empire formed an alliance to prevent the humanoid tribes from raiding the south. Together they built a massive wall to block the chasm cut from nearby basalt stone. The Dwarves cast a massive bell of brass to be hung from the fortress that guarded the wall as a way to summon aid should the defenses fail. The bell was so well tuned it was said you could hear it ring over 300 miles away. Named “Bellsover Break” this fortress was so mighty it was deemed impregnable. Less than a year after its construction it was tested when a tribe of Hill Giants attempted to use the Chasm of Gorgamela to raid the southern lands. The Giants assaulted Bellsover Break for fourteen days and nights before retreating.

Bellsover Break was attacked almost yearly for a decade before the humanoids of the barren lands of the Scar realized the Chasm of Gorgamela was now impassable. This forced these blood thirsty creatures to use other ravines and passes through the Spur Mountains in search of plunder. Many of these routes are prone to rock slides and avalanches. Others are terribly narrow and treacherous. All of these alternative passages limit the movement of large groups. The Krown Empire and the Dwarven Forgekingdoms could finally enjoy peace and prosperity.

In the Common Year 2751, 36 years after the construction of Bellsover Break the fortress was placed under control of the mercenary armies of the newly formed Shieldhood. The Shieldhood is a collection of independent free-companies who dwell together in a city-state located in the eastern edge of the Spur Mountains. The Shieldhood boasts a population of roughly 13,000 inhabitants. Not all who dwell within the fortified city-state are sell swords; the Shieldhood has many who act as support staff for the mercenaries including scribes, carpenters, surveyors, cooks, smiths, whores, merchants and barber surgeons. Leading the city-state is the “War Captain”; all mercenary companies pay allegiance and swear a blood oath to the War Captain but are independently established and governed. Not only is the defense of the Shieldhood itself considering part of the duties the free- companies share but also the maintenance of several forts and guard posts. Bellsover Break is one of these locations.

You are members of the Bronze Dogs a small to mid-sized mercenary free-company established two decades ago by Exarch (equal to a Colonel) Lubomir Gizela. Lubomir was born the son of common farmer in village of Bulnik during the conquest of the Eastern Kingdom of the Krown Empire by the Sons of Samalin. When Bulnik was conquered Lubomir became a member of the resistance and fought in the city of Pelshuh during the occupation. After the Eastern Kingdom was liberated from the Sons of Samalin Lubomir became a soldier and later served in the army as an officer. When Lubomir left the service he gathered together a small but elite force of combatants for special assignments. He named them the Bronze Dogs.

Lubomir Gizela is in his late forties with a head of dark hair, dark eyes and a full beard. He walks with a noticeable limp having been injured during the liberation of the city of Pelshuh.

After the war to free the Eastern Kingdom a large number of professional soldier were left unemployed. Lubomir’s goal was to create a small specialized free-company. First he looked for men and women with experience. He hand-picked those who he believed would follow orders and perform their duties with a high degree of professionalism. Lubomir wanted no contention to his rules. No looting unless instructed, no rapine and no chance of mutiny. Next Lubomir looked for highly trained specialists, those skilled in living off the land, talented masters of stealth, urban combatants and those skilled in the mystical arts. During his time as a soldier Lubomir had first hand witnessed the failure of many armies and it was his desire to avoid these pit falls. He wanted a company of talented specialists who could avoid such disasters by the merit of their individual skill sets. Lastly he wanted to make his policies clear to both his mercenaries and those patrons they would serve. Lubomir Gizela wrote up a series of articles of the free-company to be signed by all members from support staff to mercenaries. Failure or breeches in the articles carried the sentence of death by execution.

Lubomir’s first member of the Bronze Dogs was a longtime friend. Sir Audwine Sterz was the bastard of a count from the Northern Kingdom of the Krown Empire. Raised as a knight but unable to inherit any lands Sterz was forced to seek riches elsewhere. Serving as the second in command of a free-company was Audwine Sterz’s path to a life of leisure. A master of tactics Sterz was an excellent addition to the company and serves as the Archon of the Bronze Dogs. Of average height and thickly built Sterz is well known as a talented fighter in hand to hand combat as well as skillful rider. At 60 years of age the silver haired Archon (equal to a Major) maybe be considered past his prime although none would say it to his face.

What the Bronze Dogs do that makes them unique is that they fulfill the roles few free-companies do. While the Bronze Dogs have engaged in open conflict it is not the free-companies forte. The Bronze Dogs often guard supply lines and baggage trains. They act as an unofficial police force in conquered areas preventing pillaging by rival mercenaries and displaced members of local populace. The Bronze Dogs breaks up riots and rebellions for local rulers. They actively hunt down roving groups of bandits raiding the villages or farmsteads. The Bronze Dogs excel in scouting territories and in forging the countryside for supplies. As Lubomir has proudly stated to his employers the Bronze Dogs free-company can do more with less.

The Bronze Dogs number under two hundred members including support staff. To date you have never been defeated!

In between contracts the Bronze Dogs reside in the fortified city-state of the Shieldhood. They dwell in what is commonly referred to as a “Soul”; a compound that includes barracks, stables, and a small training field. Life in the Shieldhood is easy, most mercenaries spend their time training, drinking, gambling and whoring in what is considered a soldiers paradise. In the spring many free-companies leave the city-state to fulfil contracts of service in various foreign nations. Most return to the Shieldhood in the winter before the snow makes the roads impassable and wait for spring and their next contract.

The early spring assignment

The Bronze Dogs have been selected by the War Captain of the Shieldhood to defend Bellsover Break for a period of 4 months before being relieved by another free company known as the Sorrowful Companions. This is a common assignment and the Bronze Dogs have done this task before. Archon Audwine Sterz is the acting leader of this force. Each member of the Bronze Dogs is asked to blindly select a stone from a bag. Those who draw forth a black stone are given duty at Bellsover Break. You have drawn forth a black stone. You and your fellows leave the Shieldhood and travel three days to the famous fortress.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 20 – Final Rest

We see some elderly people and others, probably the orphans, in the tall grass. It seems like they have gotten out of the city and are leaving.

We are bringing the necromancer’s body into the down to take it to its final resting place, near the moat. We hear the cries of a young girl. The houses crumble to dust and there are now no building features here. The curse has been broken.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 19 – Skeleton Dojo

We climb down the wall into the graveyard and see that the skull woman is meditating, probably working on a spell as she is lying on the corpse of a dragon. There is a small cauldron in front of her that contains a brain. She seems to be pulling it apart with her magic. There are skeletons roaming the graveyard.

It is decided that the best tactic is to rush her. We go full speed for all out attack. However there are just too many skeletons and zombies roaming around, and whenever we attack them they explode. Zanne strikes a zombie with his spear and he detonates, nearly spraying goo on those nearby.

Fianna charges through the fray and savagely attacks the necromancer, striking her with a life-ending blow. She manages to knock her mask off to reveal a beautiful face and flowing red hair.

Suddenly a pool of blood rises up from the ground and creates a menacing form, then moves to attack us, spraying crystallized blood.

The dragon, seemingly dead until now, rises up and coughs a huge amount of black phlegm onto Zanne. He falls and seems nearly dead, as the phlegm is flowing into his mouth.

Fianna strikes the dragon and it seems to be causing the necromancer pain. She tells the rest of the party to attack the dragon.

Lennon uses healing magic on Zanne, but it doesn’t seem to help much.

Miri uses his bear familiar to dump over the cauldron with the brain in it.

The necromancer climbs up onto the wing of the dragon and it takes flight.

The pool of blood suddenly forms into flying pools of blood that looks like birds.

A lone skeleton continues to try to attack us, but is unsuccessful and no one seems to pay attention to him. It is suggested that we do not kill him and let him wander after us for eternity.

Zanne finally succumbs to his wounds and dies.

Miri’s bear spirit manages to push the necromancer off of her dragon and she falls to the ground. She finally seems to be slowing down from our strikes.

The gate coming from the city into the cemetery opens and a legion of fighters pour into the yard, led by a heavily armored woman on a horse. They are coming closer, but dozens of undead are in between us.

The group finally fells the necromancer. We find a telepathic ring that can allow one to converse with dragons. It also can create an illusory dragon and notify evil dragons within a certain range of its existence. Obviously she used the ring to call the dragon in the first place.

We also find a chunk of gold in the bottom of the cauldron. It is the missing piece of the crown!

The woman, Thia, quickly introduces herself and says that she hails from Mirabar. She has heard of the legend of the sacrifice, which this woman clearly is, and offers to help return her body to the fishing village.

As Miri looks at Thia, he sees the flag of Allegondor in front of her face. He lets the other group members know about it.

Since there is clearly danger still present here, we try to beat a hasty retreat.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 18 – Three of Nine

We speak with the barbarians and formulate a plan to attack the Wolf Clan from behind. However, they must cross the river to do so. They begin building a bridge across the river while we tend to other business.

We sneak inside the city. Approaching the place where we hid the shard of the crown, we do a perimeter search to find tracks of the invisible assailants that attached us last time we were here. We do find some tracks, but they are strange — as if someone had rolled a large ball in a circle around the outhouse pit. The magic users try and find out what this is, but initially aren’t able to find anything out.

After some thought, we think that this may be a ritual that someone is performing to pinpoint the shard, and we should study it further to figure out what it is. A couple of hours go by, and eventually they see that three ghosts are circling. Miri uses himself as a vessel and allows them to speak through him to the other magic users. They tell us that they are “three of the nine.” To us this means that they are probably three of the Neverwinter Nine, a group of wraiths.

Speaking to the ghosts, they say that they are guarding the pieces of the crown. We ask them where the others are, and they say that some are in the graveyard, and some are in the city. We take this to mean that the lost shard of the crown is with the witch, so we think we should confront her.

Belgha asks them if they know where the true heir to the crown is, and they say that the bloodline has not been broken and the heir still lives. He asks where they are, and before answering the vision fades away. As it does, a magical metal circlet emerges from Miri’s head, an apparent parting gift from the three ghosts.

Belgha takes the shard of the crown, and we head toward the city. As we get closer we hear combat, but no dragon. The frozen river has allowed the armies to reach each other so they are going at it pretty hard.

We come to the barbarian clan and advise them to attack. We sneak in alongside them to try and get by and get to the graveyard, but end up in the full battle to get through.

Making our way past the battle, we go stealthy and sneak past all of the combatants and arrive at the gate. Climbing over the wall, we get into the courtyard and see the remains of a white dragon, its dead flesh dropping off of it. Curled inside is the witch, beckoning us to come and face her.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 17 – Suicide Squad

We have cleared some of the towers of loot in the castle, and have found some magical arrows and a magical quiver.

After taking some time to figure out what to do, we decide to kill two birds with one stone — we will incite the orcs to attack the tower, and when they come in, trap them with the dragon.

Gadai goes up to a perch on the tower and starts firing arrows into the crowd of orcs to the north of us, but they don’t seem to be able to tell where the arrow came from. Belgha starts a fire on the wall to make it easier to see where we are, and Gadai starts using flaming arrows to shoot the orcs.

Zanne and Fianna descend from the tower, but the orcs are still quite a ways away so we lie in wait until they get closer. They do seem to be interested in what is going on at the tower, but are moving toward it slowly.

We wait until they get closer and start heading back toward the tower, making a lot of noise as we go so they are sure to follow us. They shoot arrows and Zanne takes a hit in his side but continues running.

As the orcs approach, they unlock a box that they were carrying and two blind ogres emerge. They lure the ogres inside and though they stumble around for a while, they eventually go to the bottom of the staircase where the dragon awaits. The orcs wait and see what happens.

Now that the orcs are inside the courtyard, Gadai sneaks over the wall towards the controls for the portcullis. After a while, the ogres emerge half-frozen from the steps, pursued by several drakes. Gadai slams the portcullis closed, and mass chaos ensues. The larger orc smashes the skull of one of the drakes with his two-handed maul. He then tells the other orcs to charge down the stairs toward the dragon and charges down himself, bellowing a mighty war cry.

Zanne and Fianna come down from their perch to the main courtyard and begin their attack. Fianna runs toward the unconscious ogre and quickly dispatches him, and Zanne hurls his spear which pins one of the drakes to the ground. We then dispatch the rest of the remaining drakes and ogres.

Suddenly the dragon emerges from the keep and, flying right past us, starts laying waste to the city. She doesn’t seem to be particular about who or where she is attacking.

While she is occupied, we slide down the icy stairs into the keep and into the lair where her hoard was. The huge orc who we saw, now missing an arm, is still down here and attacks us, missing Lennon only because he misjudged his size. We regroup and take him down.

We see before us piles of gold, the orc’s maul and a horn that was sliced off of the dragon. The rest of the loot is frozen solid in the ice, so we decide to simply have Lennon thaw a bit of it with his magical fire and take a sack of gold with us. We hurry back up the stairwell to the tower.

As we come up, the dragon breathes ice toward us and we narrowly dive out of the way. We head up to the wall and onto the parapet and look out on the city, which is almost completely frozen. The river is completely covered with ice, and there is mass chaos as people are trying to avoid the frost. We also see dozens of skeletons, zombie hulks and other undead laying waste to the wall from our vantage point, as well.

We hurry down from the tower and rush toward the forest and the barbarian clan.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 14 – Gathering Forces

The barbarians, Fianna’s people, are itching for a fight with the insurgent wolf clan members who have invaded part of Neverwinter, but we have convinced them to wait until we figure out a plan. Some of our group members are working on a bridge over the river as an escape or supply route for the spellscarred refugees that we’ve been taking care of. We note that the group of orphans we ran across previously are nowhere to be found (we never did discover their true base of operations).

During this time some others from the group see orks coming from the north. Belgha comes in and warns the rest of us. We decide to flee out of the front of the city to avoid the oncoming army. We take the spellscarred people with us and lead them to the barbarian tribe. The barbarians are wary about the spellscarred but Fianna vouches for them.

Gadai is scouting and comes across a group of orks, but they are suddenly and brutally cut down by a team of Harper’s Agents that seem to come from nowhere. Gadais does not know them, but Belgha recognizes their symbol.

We try and track the agents, and find some spots of ork blood from the corpses they are carrying. We find the corpses neatly tucked away under a log.

Suddenly a rope net grabs onto us (Zanne, Miri and Lennon). A woman introduces herself as Cimril, one of the agents. She says that their goal is to disrupt the ork’s supply line. They are moving on the city now and we should stay here so we remain safe. Also she casually mentions that we should fill our waterskins now; we figure that they might try and contaminate the river with corpses. We decide to rest for the night and set up camp and a watch.

The next morning we sneak back into the castle. As we come in, it looks like Jarlaxle has packed up and left. We look out from our vantage point on the tall tower and see that all the bridges in the city are on fire.

We begin to formulate a plan — we will kill some orks and plant wolf clan articles on them to incite fighting between the two groups, and perhaps our problem with both of these hostile forces will resolve itself.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 13 – Maze of the Illusionist

We have just gotten through the maze of the illusionist and are bathing in his healing spring. The Illusionist tells us that there is one more piece of the crown unaccounted for. Our group has one piece and Neverember has the rest.

Lennon has had a lobster claw grafted to his arm. We have found a book that is all about the art of grafting; this may help us remedy his situation.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 11 – Into the Scar

We discuss what to do next, and it seems like our only option is to descend into the scar and see what we can find down there. We’re thinking that the other pieces of the crown must be there.

We visit Jarlaxle and let him know that we cleared out the necromancer’s house, and also about the refugees that we saved and set up nearby. He tells us that far north of here there is a caravan of people who are on their way to settle in Neverwinter. They will likely take over some of the wealthier homes and try to fix them up. They are northmen who are farmers and hunters.

We set off, heading across the river in one of the boats and moving toward the scar. We find an opening and descend through a tunnel that has been dug through. We run into a dead end and have to find our way down. It is descending slightly.

Eventually we start descending quite quickly, more than 500 feet down, and it appears that we are directly underneath the river. We see a bit of a glow ahead and hear some sounds like a snake or insect.

Now we are far to the other side of the river, and we see what was making the glow and sound — there are piles of dead insects here and three crescent shaped spirits feeding on them. Lennon says that the Moon Wraiths are the spirits of dead werewolves, and they are strongest under the full moon but may not be as strong here.

We defeat them but are heavily damaged. We rest here for a bit and then look around, seeing that we’ve reached a dead end. We will continue looking through the other caverns.

Heroes of Neverwinter

Session 10 – The Wolves

We have the folks who we saved build some boats out of scrap metal. They tell us that they have been pursued by monsters.

At dusk we search the area around our new haunts. There are large mansions here. Most have been picked over, but in one we find a painting that will not come off the walls. The mages in the group determine that it is mystical — a “safe” of sorts. Belgha changes shape to match the person in the painting and is able to get in. There are 3 sacks of gold and silver in here.

We search the other houses and find clothes for the people we saved.

In a bureau we find a pair of gloves that are magical.

We head back and dump everything off, then go to sleep.

At our lair we are attacked by a pack of dire wolves and a sorcerer and his minions.