Introduction
This session was driven by logistics, encumbrance, and random encounters. The party had hauled out a vast amount of treasure during downtime, but plenty still remained in Lord Inferno's lair — the classic "dragon lair" problem I'd envisioned: glorious loot, and not nearly enough hands or pack animals to shift it all at once.
Timekeeping
This session began on March 19th 2026 AD, with the player characters adventuring until the 22nd. Downtime for these characters begins on the 23rd of March.
Player Characters Present
Sever the Wrathful (Level 10 Pegasus Corps Ranger Lord of Machodor, wielder of Were'shbane and the Rod of Lordly Might, wearer of the Girdle of Cloud Giant Strength, rider of Mustang) with henchman Rabbit (FMT556)Fluid the Druid (Level 9 Druid, "Scourge of Trollopulous", former wearer of the Ring of Kings, current wearer of the Cloak of Druidish Awesomeness)Giuseppe (Level 8 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of Sanctus Draconis Interfector and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchman Rhoikos (M6)Sheamus (Level 8 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade) and henchman McScales (Lizardman F5)Snorri (Level 3 Dwarf Fighter)
Sheamus (Level 8 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, rider of the Rocket Cycle and wielder of the Drewblade) and henchman McScales (Lizardman F5)
Downtime
Getting a prison train going out with the loot and freed human prisoners from Cthugarak was no hand-waving exercise. The details are here for completeness, but can be skipped.
At the end of last session, the party purchased a bunch of pack lizards and occupied a warehouse in the Outcast Quarter. Sever, in the guise of "Lance the Slaver," was the face of the party, while the others — especially the paladin Giuseppe — kept their heads down and planned to destroy the entire city of evil when they could, later.
On the 14th, Silus of House Emberdrake meets the rest of the party in the Foreigner's Quarter with the paperwork. He brings a scribe from the Scholar's Quarter to officiate. It all looks above board. You take possession of the warehouse in the Outcast Quarter, after handing over 250gp. It is ready as promised. The warehouse is 50' wide, 100' long, and 25' high. Despite appearances, it does not abut the city walls — there is a narrow alley separating them. There is no sign that the interior was recently used for anything. The place must be situated over the sewers, for there is a rank smell that is periodically flushed out by a lava flow that passes under the city to vent into the great lake of lava beyond its walls.
They wizard locked the sewer grate and then grilled Rabbit about the possibility of using it to travel undetected via the sewers. The half-elf said he had seen no firenewts down there in his previous flight from them: "But doc, the place is lousy with firesnakes and firetoads. Different bits go off at different times, see. And the snakes get all excited when it's about to happen. Phew, glad I was invisible."
On the 15th, a firenewt patrol came to ensure everything was above board in the warehouse (i.e. to make themselves sufficiently annoying to get a bribe to go away — which is exactly what happened).
The warehouse on Ash Lane has no windows, only a set of large double doors, with a smaller access door set within them. You watch the patrol leave and take in the local ambience: the Scorchviper Outcast Quarter is well awake.
 |
| The perfect hide out? |
Ash Lane is narrow here, barely eight feet between the warped obsidian walls, and it runs thick with the usual morning traffic of the desperate and the dispossessed. A line of branded lava folk hauls a cart of slag toward the Chattel Quarter. Three glassy-eyed beggars work the lane. You notice the chalky lesions on the skin of at least one of them, best given a wide berth, unless you want to catch the 'Drooping Member' disease, or worse.
 |
| Giuseppe could smell Evil |
Expecting a delivery of slave collars and heat cloaks, they kept the door open and well watched, but it was unpleasant work.
From the direction of Scorch Avenue you hear something approaching. The heavy, rhythmic knock of clawed feet on basalt. Pack lizards moving at a working pace. A moment later they appear at the alley mouth: four of the beasts, each the size of a draught horse, their hides scarred from harness work, hauling a flatbed cart stacked with crates. A single Emberdrake factor's agent walks beside them — a lean firenewt in a merchant's brooch and light armour, moving with the clipped efficiency of someone who wants to be somewhere else as soon as possible. He produces a chit from his belt pouch and holds it up without looking at you. "Eighty collarsh. Eighty cloaksh. Mark ish on the manifest for one Lanshe. Shign, provide payment, and I am gone."
The crates are heavy. It takes effort to shift them through the warehouse door. The agent is already turning away before the second one clears the threshold. The pack lizards follow him back up the lane without a backward glance. You crack them open to check the merchandise.
THE HEAT-CLOAK — A Closer Look
You have worn these cloaks since the guards at the Basalt Gate Tower pressed them into your hands — heavy, leathery things that stink faintly of sulphur and old char. You have been grateful for them without thinking much about how they worked.
Now, in a quiet moment, you examine yours properly.
The outer hide is thick and rough, cracked in places like old volcanic rock, stitched with coarse thread that seems almost too fine for the hands that must have made it. But it is what lies beneath the surface that arrests you. Dozens upon dozens of small, rounded cylinders, each the size of a fat finger, sewn into channels of leather so that they lie flush against the body when worn. They are made of glass, seamless and smooth, rounded at both ends, and inside each one sloshes a thick liquid — a deep, saturated orange that seems to glow faintly from within. You hold one up. The goop inside moves sluggishly, like something between honey and hot tar, and tiny bubbles crawl slowly upward through it. You notice a marking etched into the glass: a fat toad wreathed in green flame. House Pyrotoad's mark. You wonder exactly what is in that liquid — and what would happen if one of the cylinders broke.
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| Orrathis the Rake |
Not long after this, the heroes had a visitor: a half-human, half-firenewt hybrid named Orrathis. He told them that a number of the cloaks they had just received — made cheaply for slaves — would fail within a week of use.
He introduced himself as a member of the "Rakes," a faction distinct from the thieves, but equally despised by the nobles. The party were immensely suspicious of him, but after he submitted himself to every detection spell at their disposal, the heroes — particularly Giuseppe — were disposed to trust him a little; he was unlike any denizen of Cthugarak they had yet seen. He left them with much to think about.
Now there was a lot of tense scheming as to exactly how to get the human prisoners and loot from the lair into the warehouse. Ultimately, they made use of the sewer connection, along with levitate and invisibility 10' radius, to get the job done. From there, they allocated collars and heat-cloaks to the "slaves" and marched out of the city as though going about their business like anyone else.
From there, they made it back via the lava tube to the hidden cave west of the volcano, stashed the pack lizards, and flew the prisoners back to Fort Wrath. By the 17th of March, prisoners and loot had been transferred to Minas Mandalf. On the way, they picked up dwarf fighter hopeful Snorri from Schloss Ragnar, where he had been staying the last few months. All of this back and forth was done over Discord, leaving everything ready for a return to grab more loot in session time on the 19th.
After all this, several henchmen were ready to level, so the party had less support than normal this week.
Session Report
They party flew back to their hidden cave west of the lava tube that led to Cthugarak, finding their 12 pack lizards as they had left them, happily munching on fungus in the area. Given the beasts' carrying capacity, they decided to ride them back to the city of firenewts. Not intending to start any trouble, they set off invisible down the primary lava passaged, hoping to make a quick turnaround with the treasure.
Combat#1: 2 Purple Worms
Result: Party win
Rounds: Surprised for 1 segment, 2 rounds
Highlights: Having detected the vibrations of the pack lizards as they walked along the lava tube passage, the worms achieved surprise, attacking both the front and rear of the column. This resulted in them swallowing one lizard whole and nearly doing the same to another. Fortunately, neither lizard victim had a rider. After a minute of panic over whether to fight on lizard-back or on foot, the heroes swung into action and dispatched the worms in two rounds of combat.
The pack lizard train lumbered forward again, their riders now visible after the short fight against the worms. As the party approached the last stretch of the lava tube before the city, ahead they saw a group of horrible undead feasting on the remains of a firenewt merchant train. So intent on their feasting were the monsters that they did not see the heroes approach — leaving them both surprised and aghast.
Combat#2: 8 Ghasts
Result: Party win
Rounds: 2 surprise segments, 1 round
Highlights: Rhoikos softened up the enemy with a fireball, while Sever and Sheamus charged in and wiped out the survivors before they could form any effective defence.
After this second incident the way was quieter, they made it to the city, registered their stay, and exchanged pendants for heat-cloaks at the Basalt Gate Tower, then entered Cthugarak and rested at their usual inn in the Foreigner's Quarter, the Drake's Ember Rest, stabling the pack lizards nearby.
The next morning, they saddled up and moved out. On their way across town, the party encountered a slave column heading towards them. The downtrodden slaves were marched right past the column of adventurers intent on loading up with more treasure. The heroes chose to do nothing, promising vengeance later.
They reached the Outcast Quarter and turned off into the side street that held their warehouse. But marching towards them as if it owned the place was a powerful and demonic-looking creature. It would not yield right of way to them. Perhaps to release the frustration generated in the previous encounter, Sever decided not to let this slide, and the others backed his play.
I took one look at the Fiend Folio entry for this monster (p66) and declared a "five-minute recess," like I was in a courtroom drama. It's not that I was completely unfamiliar with the monster, but it was just so complicated that I did not want to launch into the combat without really understanding what I was dealing with. I've since done similar timeouts a few times, and I think it really helps with the execution.
The magic resistance alone was a head-scratcher: 95% resistance to first-level spells, 90% to second-level, etc. I saw that they like to wield magic swords and shields, and so selected something that I innocently thought was appropriate without being overpowered: a Longsword of Wounding. I described it to the players as a "wicked blade."
What followed was a titanic battle that drew on the reserves of the whole party.
Combat#3: Merx the Mezzodaemon
Result: Hard-fought Party win
Rounds: 19
Highlights:The party won the first round's initiative, and Sever, Sheamus, McScales, and Giuseppe all attacked together. The casters let off magic missiles to no effect, while Snorri kept a watchful eye on their surroundings in case the fight drew in a patrol, or worse. As is usual with this melee-heavy group, they had practically killed the thing in the first round.
Round 2, Merx won initiative and disappeared. The heroes had no idea where he had gone, but he had dimension doored up onto the roof of their warehouse. The party sensed their foe was still nearby, and as they cast about using detect evil and the like, I kept ticking off the rounds. Finally, they retreated into the warehouse. Meanwhile, Merx had been busy: using polymorph self to heal up, ESP to read the minds of his opponents, and even unsuccessfully trying to magic jar Sheamus. The party were discovering that their wounds from the wicked blade would not heal — neither lay on hands nor cure light wounds worked.
Time ticked on. There was a knock at the door, a firenewt patrol had responded to the commotion: "Allo allo allo, what's all thish then?"
Sever bribed and threatened them into leaving, and they did.
Now, like a horror movie, it dawned on them: their enemy was above them, on the roof of the warehouse. In response, Sheamus and some others climbed a ladder to an access hatch, while Sever activated his Wings of Flying and went outside. Fluid changed into a bat and joined the ranger. Merx prevented Sheamus from getting out by standing on the hatch, but was drawn away by Fluid. This small advantage was soon outweighed by a downside: an obscurement spell, which I think the druid thought would help in some way to stop any firenewt authorities from observing the fight atop the warehouse, but in practice made the rest of the fight more difficult.
The squishy casters stayed inside while the fighters got onto the roof. Merx played cat and mouse with them, as though his vision could cut through the obscurement, while only Snorri among the party could do the same — though to a more limited degree. Giuseppe used detect evil to get a bead on the monster, and finally it was trapped between them; they all charged.
But Merx pulled a trick, changing into a rat just as the party closed in and swung at a spot they could not see clearly. I ruled that they still made attacks as normal, but could hit each other. Which they did. Sever dived from above to join the attack, nearly killing Sheamus.
At this point Merx could have made his escape — I made a reaction roll, and he decided to keep going. Several more rounds passed with damage inflicted on both sides, but by now Snorri knew what to look for: the polymorph-into-rat trick failed, and Merx met his end at the point of Fluid's spear.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 74 Miles
Downtime begins on: 03/23/26
Combats: 3
Rooms mapped: 0
Combat rounds: 23
Losses: two pack lizards
Combats: 3
Rooms mapped: 0
Combat rounds: 23
Losses: two pack lizards
Treasure & Items
100,000ep
50,000gp
10,000pp
Gems: 2,300gp from lair
3,795gp from purple worm guts
Jewellery: 11,500gp
Evil sword of wounding 5000gp (exchanged for reward in Minas Mandalf)
Shield +2 500xp (Snorri)
Total: 172,595gp eq. for xp purposes
(currency exchange fee of 15,000gp, forgot this last time so catching up this time)
Monsters
2 Purple Worms 13,400xp
8 Ghasts 2,190xp
Merx the Mezzodaemon 4,100 xp
Rating (E,S,F,P), 192,285 XP & 157,595 GP Assignment
Sever (E) 29,582 xp & 24,301 gp
and Rabbit (E) 14,791 xp & 12,150 gp
Fluid (E) 29,582 xp & 24,301 gp
Sheamus (E) 29,582 xp & 24,301 gp
and McScales (E) 14,791 xp & 12,150 gp
Giuseppe (S^) 29,582 xp & 24,301 gp
and Rhoikos (E) 14,791 xp & 12,150 gp
Snorri (E) 29,582 xp & 24,301 gp
^made no effort to help when confronted the slave column in Cthugarak
Graveyard
Gurt the Green (Paladin Level 7), drew the Void card from the Deck of Many Things in downtime after session #147
Rhoikos (Henchman Magic-User Level 6), caught in the explosion of the dying gem coin golem in session #147 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Marco Valtieri (Fighter Level 4), immolated and burnt to a crisp by Vyrathax in Lord Inferno's Lair in session #146
Oblate (Illusionist Level 3), killed and eaten by the Nathruk in the Skalrath in session #140
Eniac (Magic-User level 1), killed by a poisoned Grothak spear in session #137
Rhoikos (Henchman Magic-User level 4), smashed by a Mummy fist in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Thomas (Henchman Cleric level 6), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Josef Ironbeard (Dwarf Fighter level 1), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126.
Matthias Steelvein (Henchman Fighter level 4), Killed by a Symbol of Death in session #126. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Sever the Wrathful (Ranger level 9), Killed by two pains in the Annis in session #122. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Anri (Henchman Magic-User level 4), found dead with a ghastly chest wound in the Ice Castle, with her heart missing she was unable to be revived, in downtime after session #122
Symeon (Henchman Cleric level 2), Only strong enough to wear studded leather, he was torn to shreds by Troglodytes in session #121
Paul (Henchman Paladin level 3) Effected by the Imprisonment spell touch attack from a Styx Devil in session #117. Might not be dead, but is definitely at least six feet under for all intents and purposes.
Gurt the Green (Paladin level 6) killed by a poison needle trap in session #114 RAISED FROM THE DEAD (with a roll of 94!)
Solaire the Fallen (Henchman Fighter (paladin) level 3) killed by Stone Giants acting as catapults in session #114
Paul (Henchman Paladin level 1), reduced to 0 hit points by white dragon breath when climbing down a rope ladder in session #108. Killed not by the fall; but by the sudden stop at the bottom. RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Ignatius the Smiter (Cleric level 1), horrifically mutilated and killed by double hit from a Shoggoth in session #106
Domby (Henchman with Dex 5), double surprised and turned into a pin cushion in session #87
Luke (Half elf Fighter/Cleric level 1), tragically killed by a normal hydra while trying to cauterise one of its neck stumps in session #86
Gurt the Green (Paladin level 3), killed by a hydra bite in session #86 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Pleasance (Footman level 0), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Siegward (Henchman Fighter level 1), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81
Tawadros (Henchman Fighter level 4), killed by a phase spider bite in session #81 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Patria (Footman level 0), killed by a two headed snake bite in session #81
Deltacron (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 1/1), threw his last flask of oil at, and was level drained to death by, a Vampire in session #76
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), wrong place, wrong time; killed by Sever the Ranger in session #72 RAISED FROM THE DEAD
Petrov the Prestidigitator (Magic-user level 1), killed again by the toxic gas of an Achaierai in session #72
Red (Paladin Level 1), always popular with the ladies, he was eaten up by a female Roc in the Pizza Slice of Doom during session #67
Jacques Ocular (Magic User level 1), a fat green worm burrowed into his head and turned him into a Son Of Kyuss in Brovenloft in Session #43
Pino (Dwarf Footman level 0), Killed by a Frost Giant axe to the head in session #39
Paro (Dwarf Fighter/Thief level 2/2) Killed by Winter Wolves and frozen in session #39
Zabib (1/2 Elf Fighter/Magic User level 1/1), Killed by Frost Giant rocks in downtime prior to session #39
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