Trollopulous Adjusted Session 19 (Machodor #7); A walk in the Black Forest

    

A few surprises in store

Introduction

This session saw the party go back to the "dungeon" of the crashed Sky City, once again trying to find the lost treasure of Ron Ragnar. This will sound familiar to those who read the previous session report. Faced with the stark choice of confronting the huge and ancient red dragon Lord Inferno, or continuing to gather the power required to take him on in the future, the party chose the latter option.

Timekeeping (Aus)

This session took place on 19/May/2023,  and the PCs adventured for 4 days.

Player Characters Present

Giuseppe (Level 4 Paladin from Rome, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 4 Pegasus Corps Ranger of Machodor, E)

Sheamus (Level 3 Irish Fighter from Dublin, Brovenloft, E)

Slippery Pete  (Level 3 Thief, E)

Downtime Summary

The two Hawkman helmets the party captured last session proved to be troublesome, it turned out that that they enabled telepathic communication and opened up the unwary user to having his mind read... 

a rude shock for Sever

At least one character was able to train, and another was kept busy with his subdued Firedrake. There was also some scheming about ambushing Lord Inferno with ballistae, but it came to naught. 

One piece of news was that a new patrol between Schloss Ragnar and Castle Irish(ish) had been established, Leopold (fighter level 3) was now working the route during his downtime. This should make the trip for the PCs easier; but, shockingly, already one patrol has disappeared without a trace.

Session Report

As before, the players confidently set out to return to the crashed Sky City and explore further in than last time. This time they had the goal of meeting with the Hawkman, Luro, who was supposed to be on the third level. The spring weather was cloudy, but good, and they decided to break their journey from Schloss Ragnar and check in at Castle Irish. Things were much as they had left them. Bumblebore had been here for the last week or so training his Firedrake, O'Malfoy, under the watchful eye of his new friend, the Magic User Sarumin the Beast Master. What he discovered, lizardman footprints in a passage under the castle, was a mystery that the PCs would later solve in session.

The Volcano 

The players returned via their previously travelled route to the western most extent of the base of the volcano. Once there they left their riding horses, holy war horse, and Sever's Pegasus (now fully grown), and started the long climb to the top. 

"You appear to have come up in the centre of the city, a circular gap that passes through the interior. The cathedral like cavity is very large, about 600 feet wide, above is a huge amount of rock displaced by the city's travel through the volcano wall. The way up is completely blocked by this debris; but, the arrangement appears to be relatively stable, although the sound of the occasional rock falling into the ice around you can be heard."

They finally got one

Passing the still frozen body parts of the strange creatures they had discovered in an earlier session, they remembered they had agreed that the parts could be worth something and if they brought them back to civilisation.

Last time they had been too encumbered so now a discussion broke out as to whether it was worth the effort to bring some of these back right away, or wait until they were returning without make a special trip. Shaemus spent a minute activating his Drew Sword, but only got a boost of 1 to his strenght.

Finally it was decided to do the former, and so they gathered up enough frozen parts to constitute one of the creatures, and made the trek back down the stairs and loaded the reluctant horses.

Getting back to Castle Irish at dusk, their load aroused the attention of the Eddy the Ettin and his pack of dogs, the latter barked loudly but would not approach them. The gate guard however was obviously used to the smells of travelling adventurers and was happy to let them stay in the courtyard. The night passed uneventfully, and by early afternoon the following day they were back at Schloss Ragnar and had transferred the remains to the Sage, Professor Dorol, who rewarded them with 100gp and the promise of more, if, when he got them back to his facilities in St Raul, the remains proved to be as interesting as they looked. Content that there could be no disastrous repercussions from all this, the party immediately returned to Castle Irish and were able to again spend the night there.

Getting a nice early start, they were able to make good time and made the climb up into the Sky City; they were heading for level 3 and full of wonder at what they might find there. Shaemus thought the whole side trip had been worthwhile as he flexed the Drew Sword and this time added 8 to his strength (now 18:30 ). Heading east into the city proper they retraced their steps along the first 240 feet long corridor. Everything was much the same as before as they reached the room in which they had first encountered kenku hatchlings.

As before, all three exits to the room had been filled with pieces of metal and somehow melted together to form a barrier that restricted the space to a narrow 3' diameter tunnel for a distance of 10'. They guessed this had been done to give the hatchlings an advantage against intruders.

Sever disliked manoeuvring through this area without Dusty the dwarf, or a similarly small character, to go first; so he flexed his powerful muscles to try and pull the metal out away from the walls. His first effort was quite successful, leaving just a few feet still attached; but, from here on followed a series of failures as the PCs each gave it a try, but could not get that last bit to budge. They did, however, make a lot of noise and finally this was enough to attract something's attention.

From the south they heard the approach of many kenku feet, and they moved to surround the southern entrance to the room, two on each side. It was big a bunch of hatchlings accompanied by two fully grown kenku. The party won initiative and Slippery Peter leaned forward and shot a full powered bolt from his Hawkman hand crossbow. These work like a scaled down javelin of lightening, and, though the bolt itself only wounded the first hatchling, the follow up electrical blast - 3' wide and 15' long - mopped up all 18 hatchlings, the eggs they were carrying, and the two kenku that had neatly lined themselves up to go through the barrier they themselves had created. Bad luck for them.

With a new respect for the Hawkman weapons, and Slippery Pete, the party stepped through the remains of the barrier to the north and into the corridor beyond; only to find that around the next corner, which lead to the access tube, there was another such barrier. Fortunately, this one they managed to dismantle in short order and with no further interference from monsters.

The end of the passage terminated in a circular room that was an access 'tube' to the next level up. 

A section of Level 2 of the Sky City

The new level was clearly built with the same technology as the rest of the place, but here there was no sign of the mess made by hatchlings as on the first level. The ceilings were also much higher, twenty feet compared to ten feet. Having been tipped off by Luro the Hawkman of the location of a secret door, the party easily found and opened it, then followed the corridor beyond south into another access tube. This tube was much the same as the others, but with one difference; the ceiling appeared to consist of strange swirling patterns of clouds and must have been hundreds of feet up above them. 

"swirling patterns of liquid like clouds of many colours"

Slippery Pete climbed up and found that he had to pass through some sort of tingling energy field to do so. It had no apparent ill effect and he forgot about it as he saw the soring trees that surrounded the hole. It looked like they had emerged into a forest.

This was unexpected and so, unsure what to do, Sever prepared his mind and donned the Hawkman helmet. "Luro!" he thought. Soon the other's voice was in his mind and assured him that there were other hawkmen there ready to carry the party to his stronghold.

Giuseppe detected no evil in them, so the party were happy to let the hawkmen carry them through the air, it required two for each PC, and from above the tree line they could see that the entire 1-mile diameter level was one big forest, filled with 100' tall trees! To the west they could see a huge stone shaft had filled the cavity in the centre of the level, and around this stone was flying the biggest eagle they had ever seen (it was actually a Roc). Luro's base was on a small hill four hundred yards to east, and in only a few minutes and they were arriving at the metal tower. Obviously constructed from materials scavenged from other levels of the city, the tower was big enough to accommodate hundreds of hawkmen and their lizardman slaves who could be seen working around the base of the structure.

Once seated on the strange perches favoured by the hawkmen, Luro and the PCs exchanged information. In short:

The hawkmen had broken into factions since King Vultan, who yet lives, was wounded by Lord Inferno and the Sky City crashed. There is the Pro Kenku faction - who the party had fought already and who control the city's west Quadrant (visible from Castle Irish) - and the Anti Kenku faction, lead by Luro, who control the east Quadrant. There is also the Royal Guard: much smaller in number but better armed, and they have custody of King Vultan in the north quadrant of this level. 

Luro knew that the PCs wanted the treasure of Ron Ragnar that King Vultan had with him, and he wanted to get control of the King and thereby win over the hawkmen in the pro kenku faction. However, their forces were evenly balanced, any attempt to reach the hunting lodge castle on this level - where the king was being held - was easily pushed back by the combined force of the other two factions. The PCs were a wild card, one Luro intended to use.

The castle, visible from Luro's tower, was one that King Vultan had commanded his lizardman slaves to recreate based on one that really existed outside in the bandit mountains; one look from the PCs confirmed it was a dead ringer for Castle Irish. They were by now familiar with its layout, and Luro confirmed there was rumoured to be an underground tunnel leading into the basements of the castle, the entrance to which was somewhere in the forest; neither place would a hawkman willingly go, but the "grounders" could. 

Additionally, although Luro accepted that the party had won their hawkmen equipment by combat and recognised their ownership, he explained that the gems were required to relaunch at least one quadrant of the city, and offered to pay them double if the party returned them to him. They considered this seriously but put off the decision to later.

One last thing, in addition to the Royal Guard, the King was also protected by an enigmatic being known only as THE KENKURIAN. Luro didn't know much about him, only that it was from him that the race of the Kenku had sprung.

Luro then suggested that the "wingless apes" start at first light, as the ground was even more dangerous at "night" on this level. If they were to find themselves running out of daylight, they should look for a way back down to level 2, or return to the tower. There were lift platforms and access tubes scattered across the whole floor; though he only knew the locations of a few in the quadrant his faction controlled.

He also offered to teach the PCs the basics of Hawkman technology; weapons, helmets, and - in Sheamus's case - rocket cycles. This allowed them to spend the rest of the afternoon in a useful pursuit. 

Now, at this point, I guess I had not quite conveyed the danger of the forest adequately, since Sever decided to make an initial exploration of the area. He even removed his field plate armour.

Sever only made it a short distance before falling into a 'pit trap' (I was using appendix A (with modifications) to work out the route).

Nasty!

Alone and unarmoured, Sever was in big trouble. He could reach his spear, and his Hawkman helmet. He placed the latter on his head and stabbed out with the former, all the while thinking "LURO!!!". He took more damage and then the creature started to descend into the ground, with the ranger along with him. Two more rounds passed before Luro arrived at top speed and shot the monster with his zapper hand crossbow. Immediately the thing convulsed and ejected the badly bleeding ranger, before descending out of reach into the ground.

Now suitably impressed with the danger at ground level, Sever returned to the tower with Luro and two body guards who had belatedly arrived. With no cleric in the party he was only able to heal up with a combination of Giuseppe's Lay on Hands and an application of Keogh's Ointment. His story convinced the other three players of the danger, and they got up before dawn to prepare. But they weren't they only ones who had gotten up early.

hundreds of 'em

Klaxons sounded, the tower was under attack! Hundreds of kenku, with sixty pro kenku hawkmen, were approaching from the north west; and Luro lead hundreds of his anti kenku hawkmen out to attack them. At this point it was on the table for the party to participate in aerial mass combat; but they (wisely?) chose to stick with their mission on the ground instead. 

As they were passing down past the level of the canopy, they saw that their hawkmen were in trouble, a second force of kenku was approaching from the south west and they were screening a giant Roc carrying what was obviously some kind of bomb.

They stayed on mission and once at ground level the sounds of combat were muffled by the trees, and covered by the constant hooting and screeching and cawing of the many birds, natural and unnatural, that lived in the forest. At one point they may have heard an explosion, but they could not be sure. They intended to push through to their objective, but that was going to be harder to achieve than they thought.

This level was created in imitation of the lands one of King Vultan's enemies; Arboria. He had collected bird species from all over the galaxy and, in happier times, had hunted them here. Now they were out of control and posed a significant threat to any who ventured near.

I had created a Monster Manual 2 style random encounter table and filled it with bird creatures, lots of them from the Fiend Folio. Now with a customised DMG appendix A and standard encounter rules, the party tried to run the gauntlet to get to the Castle. It was a tough slog and they had many close encounters and evasions. They also ran into another clawed bladder creature, this one caught Sever and Giuseppe together in the front rank. Both the doughty warriors survived the initial damage from the disgusting creature, and Slippery Pete saved the day again with his hand crossbow; causing it to retreat into the ground. 

avoided, avoided, avoided, avoided, & evaded

I actually cackled out loud when I rolled up the details of the Griff encounter (Fiend Folio page 48, check it out), very unlike my usual mild DMing manner; but, sadly, the party avoided them. They also came across a harmless seeming group of female kenku, laying eggs. Yes, they were "Henku". After a time, the henku eggs could be seen being sucked down into the ground (perhaps to be transported to the incubator racks on level 1?)

Night, or what passes for it in this strange place, was approaching; and the PCs calculated that they had not yet reached the halfway point in the 900 or so yards of forest between the tower and the castle. There was no avoiding the conclusion that they would have to find a way out or head back to the tower. They chose to retrace their steps, and even this required quite some time and many encounter checks (all negative, lucky for them), but they made it back and were happy to find the tower still intact and a get warm welcome from Luro. While the PCs were disappointed, the Hawkman could scarcely believe how far they had managed to travel without getting killed.

At this point it was getting late, but then Sever had a flash(!) of inspiration: since the hawkmen had defeated the kenku-controlled Roc in their battle, there might be treasure to find in the Roc's nest, which they had seen earlier. Not only was this correct, in the dying light they could see a possible alternative exit to this place where the massive shard of rock meet the ceiling. They returned to Luro's tower and schemed adventurous schemes.

Treasure and XP

Cash

Roc nest Jewelry: 2000 gp Coffer, 2000 gp Buckle, 2000 gp Fob. Total Value: 6000 gp.

Strange Coins on the Kenku: 10 gp

Monetary XP total = 6010gp

Monsters

Kenku Hatchlings: 18

Kenku Eggs: 11

2HD Kenku: 2

Monsters XP Total: 303   

Monetary XP Total:  6010

Total: 6313

Total of 6313 XP Weighted by Level 

Giuseppe (Level 4 )  1803 XP & 1717 GP

Sever (Level 4 )  1803 XP &  1717 GP

Sheamus (Level 3)  1352 XP &  1287 GP

Slippery Peter (Level 3) Stuck at level 3 XP & 1287 GP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 17 (Machodor #6); A Fistful of Gems

   

Introduction

This session saw the party go back to the "dungeon" of the crashed Sky City, once again trying to find the lost treasure of Ron Ragnar.

Timekeeping (Aus)

This session took place on 05/May/2023,  and the PCs adventured for 2 days.

Player Characters Present

Godleve (Level 5 Cleric of Machodor,E)

Giuseppe (Level 4 Paladin from Rome, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 4 Ranger of Machodor, E)

Sheamus (Level 3 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, E)

Slippery Pete  Fluid the Druid (Level 7 Druid, E)

Dusty (Level 1 Dwarf Thief of Schloss Ragnar, E)

Downtime Summary

With only a week between Machodor sessions there were only a few downtime days available. Bumblebore used the time to train the captured & subdued Firedrake. 

Professor Dorol

Professor Dorol of the St Raul Botanical Society arrived in Schloss Ragnar, having persuaded the Pegasus Corps to give him a lift over from St Raul. 

He thanked Giuseppe, Sever, Godleve, Slippery Pete, and Sheamus again for their work in bringing him the mutant giant skunk (in Machodor session #1). He had with him 5 flasks of potion made from the blood of the creature;

Potion of Mutant Giant Skunk Strength: When a Mutant Giant Skunk Strength potion is consumed the individual gains great strength and bonuses to damage when he or she scores a hit with any hand-held or thrown weapon.

Weight Allow. +6000

Damage Bonus +9

Bend Bars/Lift Gates 70%

In addition to fantastic strength the potion has another, not altogether desirable, effect on those who imbibe it; they begin to excrete a vile musky sweat. Although not directly harmful to the user, other creatures will shun them for the duration the potion is in effect. Enough sweat accumulates on the extremities that a single attack can be made that; if it hits a vital region such as the head or face, and the opponent fails to save versus poison, it will be blinded for 1 hour, and, in any event, the musk will cause the creature to retreat a full move and lose 50% of both strength and dexterity due to nausea for 1 turn. Creatures such as undead, as well as others as decided by your DM, are not effected by this aspect of the potion.

Session Report

The return of the prodigal Druid

Slippery Pete, a mere 30gp short of his training funds, managed to come up with just the required amount from Professor Dorol in trade for the Kenku eggs he had pilfered last session. This meant he was now busy training and his player would need to player a different character; which in a fit of madness I suggested should be the (in)famous Fluid the Druid.

The players confidently set out to return to the crashed Sky City and explore further in than last time. The spring weather was good, and they decided to break their journey and check in at Castle "Partially Irish". They found that Connor McGregor and Sir Troland had come to an arrangement to share facilities, but negotiations for a more permanent deal were still ongoing. Here Bumblebore took his leave to train his Firedrake, O'Malfoy, under the watchful eye of his new friend, the Magic User Sarumin the Beast Master.

The Volcano (again)

The players returned via their previously travelled route to the western most extent of the base of the volcano. Once there they hobbled their horses and started the long climb to the top. 

"You appear to have come up in the centre of the city, a circular gap that passes through the interior. The cathedral like cavity is very large, about 600 feet wide, above is a huge amount of rock displaced by the city's travel through the volcano wall. The way up is completely blocked by this debris; but, the arrangement appears to be relatively stable, although the sound of the occasional rock falling into the ice around you can be heard."

They'll bring it back next time

Passing the still largely frozen body parts of the strange creatures they had discovered last session, it was universally agreed that they could be worth something if they brought them back on the way home.

They went east into the city and found the long corridor, made entirely of metal and with flickering lighting, stretched away from the entrance for 240 feet. Everything was much the same as before. Finally a door broke up the monotony. Beyond the door, which was still open was the room in which they had first encountered kenku hatchlings.

This time the room was different to how they had left it, all of the bodies were gone, and the lights were out. The latter did not bother them since they had a plethora of Continual Light gems that Godleve had prepared during downtime. They soon found that all three exits to the room, formerly simple archways into corridors, had been filled with pieces of metal stripped from elsewhere and somehow melted together to form a barrier that restricted the space to about a 3' diameter tunnel.

As the smallest member of the party, Dusty the dwarf thief volunteered to go first. He got through with no issues and signalled the party to join him. Whatever its purpose the obstacle only served to slow them down a little, and they made for the access tube they had discovered last week; which, they knew, went up one level.

However, rounding a corner, they ran into a bunch of hatchlings accompanied by two fully grown kenku. Both sides were within striking distance and neither were surprised. The battle went much the same way as last week, with the hatchlings being mowed down while raining eggs on the party. The difference this time was a barrage of Magic Missiles from the Kenku. They concentrated their fire on Giuseppe, a pattern that would reoccur throughout the day.

In the aftermath some of the hatchlings manages to flee into exposed ductwork, they left behind the eggs they were carrying and Dusty snagged one of these (which was important later!).

The end of the passage terminated in a circular room that was an access 'tube' to the next level up. There were barely discernible rungs imbedded in the walls that the party could use, they believed that the native inhabitants used wings instead; except for emergencies. There was a short delay as Fluid sorted out a means of lifting his pet, Petunia, via rope, and then they were set to explore.

The new level was clearly built with the same technology as the rest of the place, but here there was no sign of the mess made by hatchlings as on the first level. The ceilings were also much higher, twenty feet compared to ten feet. Corridors lead from the circular room at the top of the access tub to the north, east, and south; and the party investigated the east first. Here they soon found a similar 'access tube' room, but it went down, back the to level they had come from; and, as they could clearly see without having to go down there, the room's three exits had been completely blocked in a manner similar to how the corridors on the first level had been narrowed.

Back to the circular room and then north, they found several corridors that had also been blocked off. Sever was unable to make an impression with his bend bars/lift gates attempt, so they continued on and found a large room with some sort of life support water treatment plant. The thing radiated a faint and indefinable magic, and Dusty collected some pure water from a spigot. 

They returned again to the circular room and went south. They ignored a corridor heading west and continued south, here finding that the corridor terminated in a shut door (the doors on the first level were all open enough to get a finger hold and open them manually). Dusty went to examine the door; but, as soon as he got close, it slid open with a "woosh" sound; revealing a very large hexagonal room beyond. Dusty scampered back and the door soon slid closed again with another "woosh".

The situation gave the party pause, and Fluid went up to examine the door. This time it did not open at his approach, but it did open when he touched it. Taking no chances, they stuck a metal spike into the gap between the open door and the floor and also braced it with Dusty's 10' pole (where the dwarf was keeping this I did not enquire, but will in future!)

Now the party filed in and examined the well lit, 100' wide and 30' high room. A single machine dominated the area, made up of tubes and funnels, it was clearly of a different function to the water treatment machine, and they could hear some sort of arrhythmic clanking from somewhere above and out of sight.

They circumnavigated the room, which was more than enough time for the the kenku on top of the machine to notice, go invisible, and investigate. The PCs set up back at the door way opposite an area of the machinery that appeared to lead to an area containing rungs and steps for climbing up. That's when the kenku struck.

One cast Magic Missle, the other, a 5HD Kenku, cast Web. This latter spell was devastating, catching 5 out of the 6 PCs within a silky, gooey, mess. Fluid alone made his saving through and began to turn into a giant eagle.

A sticky situation (can't help myself)

Several of the players had Strength between 13 and 17, this meant they were effectively out of the fight for 10 turns! Sever was also stuck, but with his 18+ Strength could rip through 1' of webs per round. I rolled a d6 for each stuck player to determine how deep within the webs they were. Everyone got a 5 or 6 except for Sever who got a 1. This meant he could break out in 1 round (lucky!)

Now the rest of the kenku, and two Hawkmen, who were also up on top of the machinery, stopped what ever they were doing up there and attacked as well.

Winning initiative (the party got some crucial initiative wins today) Sever raced into the machinery, found his way up through the interior, and surfaced at the top of a platform to see a bunch of kenku and two Hawkmen flying his way. I ruled he had a chance to surprise the nearest kenku as he popped out in front of them, and he ended up with one segment. This was enough for the ranger to slice through first one opponent and then the other, which was pretty impressive to the captive audience of the rest of the party stuck in the web.

A spell casting kenku hit Fluid, now in giant eagle form, with Magic Missiles while he returned the favour with a claw/claw/bite routine on another. One of the Hawkmen zeroed in on Sever while the other flew out over the trapped party aimed a sort of hand crossbow at them and fired. The shot turned into a bolt of lightening which actually missed his intended target (Giuseppe) but did hit the web itself and I was suddenly faced with the question; does lightning set fire to a web? I decided to give it an item saving throw, which it failed, and the whole web went up doing 2d4 of damage to everyone; but the resulting 4hp was universally agreed to be a good trade off for otherwise being stuck.

I shook my head and rationalised that this was exceptional role playing of the fact the Hawkmen and kenku were not actually accustomed to fighting in combination, and so such a mistake was not out of character for them.

Wing Damage rules DMG pg 53

The next few rounds offered plenty of practical applications of the "Wing Damage" rules. Since both sides had fliers with feathered wings, they had more HP for the purpose of hitting the threshold at which they could continue flying, and this came into play. Sever sliced a Hawkman and forced him down before he could fly past. The newly free Giuseppe returned fire with his shortbow (and Machodorian leaf arrows, don't leave home without them!) and knocked the Hawkman flying above him past 75% damage, causing him to fall 20' down and taking another 2d6 falling damage which finished him off with a splash.

The other kenku now dived onto the 4 party members on the ground and I rolled for which kind of attack they would use; since the FF states they can use Claw/Claw/Bite, Staff, or Samurai sword. They all got staves or swords; which really is a lot weaker than their body weaponry, and this allowed Dusty to barely survive an attack. The thief backed away and held the egg he had picked up earlier out in front of him; which resulted in the kenku picking another target. Since the hatchlings showed no empathy with the eggs at all, this was quite unexpected.

Fluid was being a Magic Missile sponge, and so was Giuseppe, but the druid was also fighting two high HD kenku. He clawed the wings of the first, then started on a second, tougher, one. Both sides took damage until neither could keep flying, but each stayed just on the right side of the damage limit to maintain control as they fell. As this was the first time I have used these typically Gygaxian hyper specific rules I was very happy to see so much turn on a few hit points of damage.

Meanwhile, up on top of the machinery, the Hawkman had drawn a longsword to swing at Sever, and, though his sword did not penetrate the other's armour, somehow a zap of electrical damage went through the field plate armour and damaged the ranger. The Hawkman himself was too damaged to withstand Sever's return blows and he soon fell.

Now that all combatants were dead or grounded, the next few rounds saw the party grind down their opponents and score what initially seemed an unlikely victory.

They looted the bodies of a few coins, strange weapons, and helmets with odd attachments that proved to be some sort of scopes for aiding missile fire. 

The Hawkmen also wore badges on their leather armour and the players collected these as well.

However, the real prize was on top of the thruster machinery; row after row of glass "gems" similar to what they had found last session in a hatchling nest; but these were clearly more valuable, and within them contained some sort of glowing power. It was clear that their defeated enemies had been systematically removing the gems with special clamps and storing them in large backpacks. Already they had collected about half of what was available. Some trial and error showed the party that it would take about 10 hours to collect the remainder, and this proved too much for them to risk. They grabbed what was available; which at 100 pounds each was nearly as much as they could carry, and, confirming there were no other exits from the room, they headed back to the tube room. They made a quick detour into what proved to be an armoury that earlier was the scene of a battle between Hawkmen and kenku. The place had been cleared out, but they did find another hand crossbow, apparently without power; and a dead Hawkman, who they noticed was not wearing a kenku badge.

From here they made an orderly retreat, regretfully leaving the frozen creatures where they were since they did not have spare carrying capacity; and they did not notice any other encounters on the way out (but did one notice them?)

Treasure and XP

Cash

Gems: The weird glass-like faceted gems filled with a strange energy were worth 5000gp in Schloss Ragnar (this means the party left 5000gp worth behind!)

Strange Coins on the Hawkmen: 15 gp

Monetary XP total = 5015gp

Monsters

Kenku Hatchlings: 10

Kenku Eggs: 10

Kenku:

• 2HD * 4
• 3HD * 4
• 4HD * 1 
• 5HD * 1

Total 1,792 XP

Hawkmen * 2 =  220XP

Items

3 Hawkman "Zapper Hand Crossbows"  900XP

Considered equal to a +2 magic weapon, although it has neither “to hit” nor damage bonuses. When fully charged it fires a "bolt of lightening" having a range of 9” and whenever it strikes, the bolt then becomes the head of a 3' wide, 15' long stroke of lightning. Any creature hit suffers 1-6 hit points of damage, plus 10 hit points of electrical damage. Any other creatures in the path of the back stroke take either 10 or 5 hit points of damage. 

The hand crossbow needs a full turn to recharge, otherwise it will deliver only a d4 bolt of electrical damage and no lightning bolt, and the the recharge time is reset. Unlike normal hand crossbows, this Weapon has no adjustments vs AC.

2 Hawkman "Zapper Swords"  200XP

These function like a normal longsword unless a button on the hilt is pushed during an attack round. This function causes the recipient to take 1-10 hit points of damage, with no saving throw, when struck in melee combat. Any “to hit” score discounts metallic armour and shield (giving opponents armour class 10) but not plain leather or wood. Magic bonuses on metallic armour do not affect armour class, but such items as a ring of protection do. The sword requires 1 turn to recharge before using this ability again.

2 Hawkman "Scope Helmets"  200XP

These helmets have a scope which telepathically interfaces with the wearer and reduces the range penalty for ranged attacks by one step for any missile weapon (i.e. medium becomes short, long becomes medium) and also removes the penalty for firing at or from a flying creature. For Hawkman hand crossbows, these scopes remove any ranged penalty for the entire 9" range of a full bolt or the 6" range of a normal bolt.

Monsters XP Total: 2012   

Monetary XP Total: 5015 

XP Item XP Total: 1300

Total of 8,327 XP Weighted by Level & Bonus/Penalty

Godleve (Level 5 ) 2081XP  & 1253 GP

Sever (Level 4 )  1665XP &  1003 GP

Giuseppe (Level 4 )  1665XP &  1003GP

Sheamus (Level 3)  1249 XP &  752 GP

Fluid the Druid (Level 7 but scoring as 3) 1249 XP & 752GP

Dusty (Level 1)  416 XP & 250 GP (and one Kenku egg)

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 16 (Machodor #5); Slaughter of the Kenku younglings

  

A kenku hatchling in happier times

Introduction

This session saw the party, reduced in numbers and without their army, go find a dungeon.

Timekeeping 

This session took place on 27/April/2023,  and the PCs adventured for 3 days.

Player Characters Present

Godleve (Level 5 Cleric of Machodor,S)

Sever (Level 4 Ranger of Machodor, E)

Sheamus (Level 3 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, E)

Slippery Pete (Level 2 Thief of unknown provenance, E)

Bumblebore (Level 1 Magic User, E)

Firedrake O'Malfoy

Downtime Summary

After winning a big battle last session downtime was a little quiet, with a number of characters levelling up and training. For Leopold, Sever, and Bumblebore however, downtime was a bit more of a headache (shall we say). All three awoke one morning with a strange vibration in their foreheads. As it was this same three that had spent the night in the castle of the mysterious Master of Winter; they began to become very concerned. They eventually discovered that he was: part demon, a level 13 monk, and he had used a variation of  the fabled Quivering Palm to wipe their memories of their visit to his castle. The one memory they could recover heavily implied that if they did not deliver a payment in gold, their heads might explode!

As well as this Bumblebore was keeping an eye on the captured Firedrake. The creature was constantly melting through the bars of its cage and nearly escaping its dwarf feeders. Finally Bumblebore decided to try and subdue the creature using the dragon subdual rules, which seemed reasonable to me. After hitting the little creature with a Sleep spell, it never stood a chance and is now much subdued.

There was also lots of scheming regarding the possibility of ambushing the red dragon Lord Inferno. We'll hopefully see something come of that in the future.

Also of note, Connor McGregor (Patron Fighter ?) and his army had travelled into the mountains and found that what was expected to be an abandoned castle was anything but. 

Message from Connor McGregor

Session Report

Treefingers (NPC Pegasus Scout Ranger) was amenable to deliver the gold to the location of the Master of Winter's Castle. He did run into a Wind Walker but otherwise the trip went without a hitch, and in time the three head case PCs were feeling much better.

With that out of the way, the players felt confident in setting out to explore the crashed Sky City; located in the side of the volcano. The spring weather was rather good, and they decided to heed the Irish light cavalry and travel with them back to their camp to check on the castle business. As it happened the location was very much on the way; and from there half of the Sky City could be seen sticking out of the western side of the volcano, two thirds of the way up.

After speaking with McGregor, my Irish accent aside, the party weren't convinced that the situation warranted an attack on the Castle, so they carried on to there main objective.

Return to the Volcano

The players returned via their previously travelled route to the southern most extent of the base of the volcano, and I had the fun of getting to make sense of and reread my "boxed text" from that session in the new context. This worked out pretty well since some of the players had missed the description the first time around.

After they passed through the huge carving of Mel Gibson's head, finding the Sky City was easy enough; they avoided the cyclopean and eldritch city in the centre of the glacier and moved west. When it had crashed, the city had landed on the ice and its momentum drove it halfway through the wall of the volcano, covering the huge structure in rocky debris. The PCs found that some of the destruction was a large stone carving, and they set about collecting pieces and putting them together, until, what they had made was somehow obvious; it was the remains of Joe Pesci's head. What could it mean? 

After much searching and examining of the crash site they found no obvious way in, and saw that they would need a lot more rope to scale the 300' tall remains of the city. All this as the sun was dropping behind the wall of the volcano, and the temperature was dropping too. They decided to leave empty handed and return to the Irish camp to spend the night. They hurried back to get there before night had fully arrived.

Sir Troland

The PCs reached the Irish camp and found things just as they had left it. They revisited the subject of the Castle, and Godleve offered to mediate between McGregor and the Castle occupants; if Connor could supply them with the additional rope they needed to scale the outside of the Sky City.

After last session's shenanigans with the Master of Winter, some players could not help but draw a comparison when they found they were welcomed at the gate and allowed an audience with the lord of the castle. The presence of an Ettin, reportedly seen by the Irish patrolling the grounds, was the main sticking point; but they chose to ignore the rumour and give the castle occupants the benefit of the doubt.

It turned out that the lord of the castle was a Sir Troland, Paladin, and brother of the lord of St. Raul, Sir Lansabit. Once the party explained that they knew his brother, both sides realised their common cause suspicions died down. The paladin brothers had set out to make their mark on the world, and Troland was repairing the castle for the purpose of taming the wilds of the Bandit Mountains. During the conversation it became clear that he could help them find the western entrance to the volcano.

The crashed Sky City

After returning to the Irish camp and explaining the situation, the party awoke to a fine, windy day. Sir Troland had come to discuss matters with Connor McGregor, and he had brought scouts with him that knew the way to the western most entrance to the Volcano; the one that should lead directly under the crashed city. Everyone was happy to let the NPCs sort out their issues themselves and left straight away (thankfully no more Irish accent was required).

Once there they found the long stairwell was a mirror image of the one they had climbed in the south most portion of the volcano, and they swiftly began their climb to the top. Before they reached the top, however, the way forward was blocked by glacial ice, first in small fist sized amounts scattered about on the stairs, then larger blocks, before ending at an entire flight of stairs blocked by solid ice. The translucent ice was only a few feet thick, and it was clear enough to see that there was a cavity beyond it. The party carefully broke their way through without incident and soon they had access beyond.

"You appear to have come up in the centre of the city, a circular gap hat passes through the interior. The cathedral like cavity is very large, about 600 feet wide, above is a huge amount of rock displaced by the city's travel through the volcano wall. The way up is completely blocked by this debris; but, the arrangement appears to be relatively stable, although the sound of the occasional rock falling into the ice around you can be heard."

What the creature might look like with all
 the various pieces placed together

However before they could move on, they made a curious discovery; mixed in with the fragmented ice about them were the body parts of a number of strange creatures; long dead, clearly, that had been trapped within the ice for years uncounted.

"Six feet end to end, three and five-tenths feet central diameter, tapering to one foot at each end. Like a barrel with five bulging ridges in place of staves. Lateral breakages, as of thinnish stalks, are at equator in middle of these ridges. In furrows between ridges are curious growths—combs or wings that fold up and spread out like fans - which gives almost seven-foot wing spread."

Some shared knowing glances, but they decided to leave the mystery alone and get on with their task.

At the level of the ice there were 4 exits (i.e. entrances) into the the city itself. The party chose the east exit/entrance, figuring this would put them in the section they had seen the day before from within the volcano.

The found a long corridor, made entirely of metal and with flickering lighting, stretched away from the entrance for 240 feet. Finally a door broke up the monotony. Beyond the door, which slid open from right to left, was were the true terror of this level began.

Sheamus carefully slid the door panel open, without making too much sound, then flatted himself to the side and let Sever stride through. What he saw there gave him pause; about a dozen small creatures, around 2 feet tall, that looked like baby kenku. With them they had a number of eggs, nearly as tall as they were. They were happily munching into the eggs and were unaware of the ranger's eyes upon them.

At this point the players thought they faced a bit of a moral dilemma, they could not help comparing the creatures to human children. Godleve, however, declared that they were the spawn of evil creatures and deserved swift destruction at the hands of the forces of good (or something similarly convincing) and the party moved in; fighter, ranger, and Godleve himself, to the front. 

The room was large enough that two segments of surprise was not sufficient for the heavily armoured types to close the distance, even with a charge, so they opted to close and attack in the next round. As they bore in on their targets, the hatchlings finally noticed them and gave out an ear splitting screech. This was followed by a volley of eggs; yes the disgusting creatures had no qualms about using their fellows as mere ammunition. The eggs raining down on the front line of the party and one cracked against the upper torso of Sever's field plate he had acquired from Castle von Necro. From within, a not yet fully formed kenku hatchling struck at the ranger's neck and gave him a nasty nip.

The the front line came to blows and the sub 1 hit die creatures melted against the multiple attacks brought to bear by the 3rd fighter and 4th level ranger. Godleve himself killed his share as well. In the aftermath they found some strange glassy gems among the creatures sorry nest. 

The party explored further, and, having to dispatched more and larger groups of kenku hatchlings, they seemed to have the run of the place, quickly deduced that they needed to find and access the means to go up a level. Godleve explained that he expected that such creatures would not rely on stairs and such but would use their wings to fly between levels (he was so accurate with this it was like he was reading my mind, spooky!)

One room, which contained a portrait of King Vultan, nearly claimed Slippery Pete's life via a pit trap with spikes at the bottom. Pete's lucky number came up though, and he was also able to prevent the frame itself from being damaged.

a strictly limited edition

Finally they found an access tube at the end of a long corridor. Pete scaled the inside of the 30' wide tube and confirmed it lead to an upper level, but at that point it was time to make an orderly retreat back to Castle Irish, and then back to Schloss Ragnar. Although the pickings had been slim, they now knew exactly where they wanted to pick up next time.

Treasure and XP

Cash

Gems: The weird glass-like faceted gems were worth 300gp

Gold framed painting of King Vultan: 1125gp (for the frame, the buyer left the painting itself with the party)

Monetary XP total = 1425gp

Monsters

Kenku hatchlings: 30 = 320XP

Kenku Eggs: 65 = 195XP

Monsters XP Total:  515+ Monetary XP of 1425= 1940 XP

Items

200' of Irish Rope (just normal rope, but from Ireland)

Total of 1940 XP Weighted by Level & Bonus

Godlevel (Level 5 )  606XP  & 445 GP

Sever (Level 4 )    485XP & 356 GP

Sheamus (Level 3)   363XP & 267 GP

Slippery Pete (Level 2 )  XP Capped at Level 3,  178GP

Bumblebore (Level 1 + 1 bonus for downtime activity)  242XP & 178GP

Trollopulous Adjusted Session 14 (Machodor #4); Raiders of the Orc Baggage Train

 

Intro

In a way this session was about tying up a loose end, one that could have been ignored; but, really, it is a story about elite players spotting a potentially big pay off and choosing to pursue it in downtime so that, come session time, the necessary pieces were in place. Yet, adventuring in the Bandit Mountains of Machodor seems to generate new loose ends for every one that is tied up. This session was no different. 

Timekeeping 

This session took place on 13/April/2023, incorporated 3 days of downtime movement, and the PCs adventured for 5 days.

Player Characters Present

Giuseppe (Level 4 Paladin from Rome, Brovenloft, E)

Sever (Level 3 Ranger of Machodor, E)

Sheamus (Level 2 Irish Fighter from Brovenloft, E)

Leopold (Level 2 Fighter, formerly a slave in Castle Von Necro, E)

Slippery Pete (Level 2 Thief of unknown provenance, E)

Bumblebore (Level 1 Magic User, E)

Dusty Angus (Level 1 Dwarf Thief, E)

Downtime Summary

After winning their battles last session, on the way back to Schloss Ragnar it occurred to some PCs that the loot recovered from the Orc band was only pocket change; and, as these orcs had been raiding and pillaging in the area, they must have more treasure stashed somewhere. It seemed likely that, in the same way the players had been forced to leave their Irish support units below when they climbed the stairs leading up into the volcano, so must have the orcs. Sever and Treefingers (Ranger level 4 Pegasus Scout (N)PC) hatched a plan to fly back to the volcano and search for the orc baggage train.

Meanwhile, Shaemus and Leopold were recruiting a combined force of Irish and Dwarf units in Schloss Ragnar, and Giuseppe had travelled south to Guarda to try and raise a force from there. Though they could make an educated guess, none knew how many orcs might be left, and they did not want to take any chances.

Forces at the party's disposal at 1 to 10 scale

Session Report

The weather was good, and the players decided to bring their Irish and Dwarven troops, along with the orcish armour and weapons they had previously captured, and rendezvous with Giuseppe in Guarda. The troops there were very happy to receive the armour (the orc smell was hardly noticeable any more). As they readied to move out, Countess Echellet, who had been so helpful in persuading her people to join up with Giuseppe, rode up in armour and with 20 heavy cavalry from the merchant company presently staying in the town. She had made some promise to the head merchant to get him to make them available.

a pretty handy addition to the party's forces

The combined army, now numbering over 300, set off east from Guarda in the direction they suspected the orcs would be going; the Tunnels of Despair. Pegasus Corps Scouts had discovered that, in the middle of the area covered by the southern section of the map, there was an entry to a system of natural cavities carved out over aeons by the waters of retreating glaciers. Consisting of overlapping stone tunnels partially open to the sky, this area was difficult to effectively patrol from the air, and the Scouts had found indications that a number of the Orc bands, splinters from the original force which had threatened Minas Mandalf, had passed this way in recent weeks. The party did not want the Leprous Moon (the remnants of the Leprous Hand and Blood Moon clans) to likewise escape via this route.

Passing through a passage under the nearby mountains, the entrance to which had been unearthed after recent heavy rains, they passed into a valley that then went directly east for some 6 or 7 miles. The march was uneventful, and, late in the afternoon, they reached the spot where this valley was crossed with another, heading North/South, only 2 miles from the Tunnels of Despair.

Riding point out in front of the Irish light cavalry, Sever (Ranger Level 3), spotted some creatures noisily feeding on an unrecognisable animal carcass. He won surprise, and, after assessing them, backed away before they could spot him. The monsters were some kind of 4' tall mini red dragon. By the way they played with their food, he judged them to be stupid but aggressive.

He rode back to warn the army, and together they formed a plan of attack and moved up.

As soon as they got in range I rolled based on the creatures' 50% likelihood to attack on sight, and got a 49.  It was on! Given their power and numbers vs the army, I decided to run this a mini-mass-combat; the upside for the players was that the archers got a passthrough shot when the monsters won initiative, but the big down side was 3 rolls for the archers vs 30. All three missed during the pass through fire phase as the Firedrakes closed in. 

This was threatening to get completely out of hand for the PCs and their army, these little Firedrakes were no joke; they each had a breath weapon that covered a 60' cone with a 10' base and did 2-16 damage (half for save). I decided that they would breath according to same rule as proper dragons; which is a 50% chance. The dice favoured the party and only two Firedrakes spewed their blood at them (yuck).

Firedrake

I ruled that the monsters would attack the nearest units, and the players helpfully pointed out that the light cavalry was in the front, and the archers were shooting for a distance. This meant there were fewer figures within the breath weapon's area of effect (since the cavalry were more spread out). Those that were effected, and their mounts, made their saves and battled on against the biting creatures. PCs and the light cavalry then returned attacks and in the end seven were killed while the remaining one succumbed to a Sleep spell, cast by Bumblbore (Level 1 Magic User), and was then captured. Noting the inflammatory nature of the creature's blood, Shaemus ordered the Irish to collect some in their whiskey bottles, and I'm sure more shenanigans will occur later thanks to this random encounter. A few players were convinced these creatures were somehow associated with Lord Inferno, and you know they might be on to something there.

Having successfully brought their forces to the crossroads, they began to explore and look for a place to ambush their quarry should they pass this way as hoped.  Finding such a place one mile to the south, they made camp there and began setting up fortifications. The next morning Sever scouted around and found tracks leading away from the camp; giant wolves. Were they associated with the Orcs? Did this mean their enemy knew where they were? The party decided to explore the region while they tried to discover the answers.

Master of Winter

Treefingers (NPC Ranger) was dispatched to search from the air, while others more or less set out randomly to explore the various valleys that lead away from their position. Under the watchful eye of Slippery Pete who had climbed to a nearby peak, Shaemus discovered that there was a large open valley to the north east, and in it was a substantial fortification on a central pillar of rock (a common feature in this area), and a city built into the shear eastern wall. 

The players returned to camp to report their findings and pass the night. Morning broke with no further progress, and no sign of the orcs. Having lost patience with waiting, the party decided to leave a squad of light cavalry behind and move out after their prey; hoping, I guess, that they would blunder into them. They chose to go back through the mountains to the valley Shaemus had discovered. Leaving the bulk of their force hidden in the adjoining canyon, Sever, Leopold, & Bumblebore rode out to explore as night was approaching. They saw a sudden light from the base of the plateau in the centre of the valley, as though a large door had been opened and then closed beneath the heavy fortifications. Soon a patrol could be seen crossing towards them, and they chose to parley.

The patrol captain was polite, but strange; he made references that made little sense to them, regarding the valley being "The World" and wishing for no interference from parties "Beyond the World". He referred to his lord as the "Master of Winter", and claimed that he would welcome peaceful visitors for dinner, if the PCs were such. Whether born of frustration at their so far fruitless search, or shear perversity, all three opted to visit the Master of Winter (despite clear foreshadowing, I might add). To add to the comedy, before riding out into the valley, Leopold has used the Cap of Disguise to appear as Macho Mandalf.

The rest of the party saw their three companions ride off with the patrol and disappear into the door at the base of the castle, just as the sun set behind the suddenly ominous mountains.

AND THEY WERE NEVER HEARD FROM AGAIN.

When the sudden dead air on the chat had gone on long enough, I added that though this was a real possibility; it was one that had not occurred at this time. Instead, the next morning, the three PCs rode back to the party with absolutely no memory of what had gone on the night before. At the same time there was a commotion at the rear of their army formation; the light cavalry, who had been left at their previous camp to keep watch, had just arrived and announced that the orcs had come and moved on into the...

Tunnels of Despair!

Forewarned about the difficult nature of these tunnels, the party, and their army, still opted to pursue their enemy; knowing that they were limited in both speed and direction by the heavy wheeled wagons they had with them. Night was close when they reached the tunnels, but they pushed on.

After another two hours the scouts spotted something up ahead. That something looked like this:

a dozen of these strung out in a line

Could the orcs have abandoned their wagons in order to evade the pursuing army? The party chose to ride up to investigate, leaving the army in position to back them up. As they got within medium range for a heavy crossbow; the orcs hidden in the wagons failed a discipline check and could no longer resist the hapless targets. Twenty bolts shot out and caused havoc, but the damage was restricted to the party's horses, who then fled away in a barely controlled flight. Having bravely established that the wagons were indeed defended, the party wasted no time in deploying their army. Somewhere I think it was realised that heavy crossbows would take a round to reload and there was no time to waste.

Even so, approach maneuverers had to be considered in a swift council of war. Crucially, the heavy cavalry under Echellet would be held in reserve, while the archers advanced in the wake of the infantry.

The foot marched forward with two units of human light infantry flanking the dwarf heavy infantry. The Irish light cavalry, singing their battle songs, trotted forward on the left flank; the heavy cavalry held the right flank, that left the longbowmen in the centre, behind the infantry, and most of the PCs embedded various units.

Once again (a similar problem faced the orcs last session), closing the distance was a choice of least worst options; beginning at a range of 300 yards, it is too far to charge in one round, so a round of approaching and eating the enemy's missile fire had to be endured. Thanks to their earlier efforts, two-thirds of the heavy crossbows were being reloaded at this point, their infantry ranks took minor damage from the remaining mix of light and heavy crossbows.

The Irish archers marched into medium range (180 yards) and let fly, but the enemy's cover prevented any damage from reaching them; would the wagon tactic blunt the super effectiveness the longbowmen were known for?

Advancing along a wide front, the infantry charged up to the wagons; but, suddenly, out from their sides came long pikes thrust by jeering orcs. The 14' long pikes were well beyond the length the humans and dwarfs carried. This meant that, even though they had lost initiative and were facing a charge, the orc attacks would go first! Humans and dwarf infantry went down to the pikes, but, in an advantage for the PCs, using 1 to 10 scale (as compared with 1 to 20 from last session) meant there were many more infantry figures than PCs, and as they were removed it turned out that none contained PCs.

The round ended with the orcs taking their licks from the infantry and PCs; a charge from Giuseppe on his holy warhorse, Bonecrusher, leading the way and bringing the total party damage to almost a complete enemy unit (45 hit points).

Slippery Pete rode his horse around the flank of the enemy line, and, now that I think of it, tried to backstab the army! Full points for effort, but his sling was not up to the task. As his bullet ricocheted off a wagon, another, much larger rock, exploded into the stony floor just far enough away to be accounted a miss. Pete turned in his saddle and saw, to his horror, a jeering face atop a huge body staring back at him. There was a Fire Giant up in an adjoining passage in the ceiling, about 30' above the tunnel floor. Pete sank his spurs into his horse's flesh and took off towards a side passage and (presumed) safety.

At the same time, a new force emerged from a side tunnel on the right flank of the player's army; 20 Worgs with goblin riders!

Rather than panic, the players coolly passed orders to their reserve forces; the heavy cavalry would turn to engage the newcomers, Giuseppe would rally the light cavalry from the left flank and bring them around to join in. There was discussion of whether the archers could use fire arrows, which they could not; however, I did mess up here, the fact that they would be useless against the Fire Giant should not have prevented me from realising, and pointing out, that, actually, their collection of whiskey bottles with Firedrake blood was made for such a thing as fire arrows (consider this a tip to any any PCs reading).

Sever signalled for Treefingers to pick him up with his Pegasus (planning to fly up to engage the Fire Giant). However, this latter maneuverer proved unnecessary as - winning initiative - the Irish Longbowmen opened up on the Fire Giant from the edge of long range. This was the mirror image of the 3 shots against the Firedrakes; when, even with a cover bonus to AC, two out of the three longbow figures hit, meaning the giant was pin cushioned with 20 arrows, and ceased to be a threat almost as fast as he had arrived. 

Now the combined cavalry charged into the worgs, just as a sleep spell from Bumblebore brought down 8 of their goblin riders. The result was carnage, heavy and light lances destroyed the enemy unit before they could do any damage.

Two more rounds of bloody hand to hand combat in the packed wagons brought casualties on both sides; then the morale of these orcs, which was never high, broke; but, fleeing the wagons only made it easier for the cavalry to swing around and mow them down like dry grass. It was total victory!

Slippery Pete found that the tunnel he had fled into contained the bound and gagged slaves of the orcs; numbering 60. Having not seen the battle, they credited him as their saviour when he freed their bonds.

From another tunnel the party recovered the huge surly mounts the orcs used to drag their wagons around, within the day they had got them out of the tunnels and back into the mountains, another day and they were back in Guarda being feted as heroes, then back to Schloss Ragnar to cash in their loot.

Treasure and XP

This is a bit experimental; for sessions with mass battles, I'm using the HD calculation comparison from Pgs 84 & 85 in the DMG, then applying the unit ratio to get a total; then separately add in magical items. 

Coins

18,000cp

11,000sp

2,800ep

4,000gp

Gems (29): 10 gp Malachite, 10 gp Obsidian, 100 gp Bloodstone, 100 gp Bloodstone, 100 gp Carnelian, 100 gp Rhodochrosite, 100 gp Sardonyx, 100 gp Star Rose Quartz, 100 gp Turquoise, 100 gp Turquoise, 1000 gp Amethyst, 1000 gp Jacinth, 200 gp Carnelian, 300 gp Peridot, 5 gp Lapis Lazuli, 50 gp Turquoise, 500 gp Chrysoberyl, 500 gp Chrysoprase, 500 gp Jade, 500 gp Jet, 500 gp Spinel, 5000 gp Chrysoberyl, 6 gp Eye Agate, 6 gp Lapis Lazuli, 6000 gp Jacinth, 70 gp Tiger Eye Agate, 700 gp Garnet, 8 gp Malachite, 80 gp Moonstone. Total Value: 17745 gp.

Of these gems the 5000gp Chrysoberyl, 6000gp Jacinth, and 1000gp Amethyst were in a container plainly marked with the seal of the House of Echellet. However, the countess wished the party to keep these gems in recognition of their efforts in freeing her from Castle Von Necro, rescuing the prisoners from the orcs, and ably leading the men of Guarda to victory. She presented them at a festival held in their honour at the Guarda Garrison. The PCs had the curtesy to wait until they reached Schloss Ragnar before selling them.

Monetary XP total = 23,645

Monsters

Firedrakes: 1379

Orcs: 4,350

Worgs: 4,000

Goblins: 270

Fire Giant: 3,628

Monsters XP Total: 13,627 + Monetary XP of 23,645 = 37,272

Modifying the above by the Hit Die Ratio of 340HD PCs vs 420HD Monsters (which rounds off to 100%) and the army unit scale of 1/10 makes the total: 3,727 XP

Potions

Potion of Treasure Finding 600XP, 

Philtre of Love 200XP,  

Oil of Slipperiness 400XP,

Potion of Gaseous Form 300XP, 

Potion of Levitation 250XP,

Potion of Clairvoyance 300XP, 

Potion of Invisibility 250XP, 

Potion of Healing 200XP, 

Potion of Super-Heroism 450XP

Potion XP Total 2,950

PHB Pg. 122

Total of 6,677 XP Weighted by Level & Bonus (plus gold shares after expenses)

Giuseppe (Level 4 + 1 bonus for downtime activity) 1965 XP & 6600GP

Sever (Level 3 + 1 bonus for downtime activity)  1572 XP & 5328GP

Sheamus (Level 2) 786XP & 2664GP

Leopold (Level 2 ) 786XP & 2664GP

Slippery Pete (Level 2 ) 786XP & 2664GP

Bumblebore (Level 1) 393XP & 1332 GP

Dusty Angus (Level 1) 393XP & 1332 GP