Session 4 Adventure Notes

Our dubious characters ended the last session having defeated a group of humans at the encampment NW of Palancia.  They knew more guards were on the way.  I certainly did not disappoint them.   Three more guards appear from each opposing side of the map, each with an animal in toe (2 had hyenas, 1 had a guard drake).  After ending the lives of the animals and every human who might have some information, they searched the battlefields and picked up some useful contingent weapons such as a cross bow and a halberd (with reach).  They also found a crudely drawn and deteriorating map of the lands between Palancia and Hilliana.  They had to transcribe the map to their own work to preserver the information.  Basically, they can now tell that from the encampment NW of Palancia, to a cross road is a day's ride.  The can see that the path west at the crossroads leads to a cave in the side of a mountain range that seems to fit the description of where Faelwyn lost his sword and captured the hatchling frost dragon.  They also see that Hilliana is a days ride North of the crossroads, and seems to be surrounded by 3 other encampments. 

After their discoveries they headed back to grab their horses and wagons to bring them to the encampment they just cleared.  When they got there, a roving wolf pack encircled them.  A murmur of TPK occurred (from Varis's player as usual) but they again were successful, despite being knocked prone a few times.  They gathered their horses and wagons and headed back to the encampment. 

End of Day 4: Our adventurers arrive back at the encampment and start a long rest, which is promptly interrupted in the first hour by howling.  Varis is on first watch, and what is his solution?  Arouse all the adventurers, and yell, "Climb up the trees!"  So, of 7 characters, Shava fails to climb the tree and lands prone on his butt.  Abraxus (A large dragonborn) runs around going "what do I do, what do i do? as he is too heavy to climb a tree.  He ultimately darts into the covered wagon right before a large dire wolf mounted by a guard, and 2 gray wolves appear from the trail.  Our heroes target the rider first, mostly from the trees, and eventually drop him.  Abraxus blows his cover to run out and attack, but quickly finds him self surrounded, knocked prone, and then unconscious.  Shava, having stood up off his butt, at this point, uses his Healing Word, to revive Abraxus, but Abraxus is still surrounded and weak.  She cleverly uses her Bluff skill to play dead, and the wolves move on to another target.   The Dire Wolf is the last left, and begins to run away when the party sees fit to dispatch their foe like so much fertilizer.

Our heroes, finally get a chance for much needed rest and get spend a good bit of the night sleeping and recharging their powers and health.

Morning Day 5: Feeling well rested, and having reviewed their crudely drawn map, our heroes decide to at least go as far as the crossroads and decide what do from there.  Shockingly, they reach the crossroads without incident, and with a little daylight to spare.  They decide to east toward their quest for Faelwyn's sword despite trepidations as a how a party of their experience level will handle a dragon that must surely live there, and entrusting their lives to fate (just call me fate). 

Evening Day 5: They don't want to kill themselves traveling toward danger, so they rest along side the road again for the night.  The rest is uneventful, and they head out in the morning while it is still dark.

Late Day 6:  They see the mountains rise on their approach, and eventually an area that must be the cave on the map, and the start of their quest for Faelywn's sword.  They dismount and proceed cautiously on foot toward the opening.  They approach the final few feet cautiously, but then Shava runs out and trashes through the bushes discovered a goblin corpse.  He screams out to the party, "Guys, look at this."  At his symphony of noise induction, dozens of foot falls are heard coming from the cave.  Lines of Kobolds start pouring out of the caves from multiple entrances, some that were obscured by bushes as well.  Most surround Shava and few head toward the flank.  Jadis remains in the rear casting spells from across the small creek.  Yelsha can't see over a rock protrution so gracefully climb  onto the shoulders of the tall Abraxus and loses and arrow from that position.   Abraxus then abruptly drops Yelsha on her butt, and runs into battle to try and help Shava.  Keira also runs to Shava's aid, and Varis approaches but from a small distance and picks them off of Shava from relative safety.  Glyth works on the contingent coming from the flank with help from Jadis in the rear.  Shava takes a beating, but eventually the horde thins out and the Kobold's lose their nerve and begin to head back into the cave toward an opening on right rear of the cave.  Our heroes give chase and drop the last two kobolds, just before they disappear into the darkness of the entrance in the right side of the cave.  As the party is cleaning up, they hear disturbing noises from the cave the Kobold's were trying to escape through.  They decide to have Yelsha summon her wolf companion to guard that entrance while they explore the quieter path to the left of the cave.

And here is where we paused until Saturday, December 17th, at 4pm.  Our players will have to hold their breath to find out what might come from the right side cave, or to see if the quite path of the left cave leads to adventure...or misadventure.

Experience Points:
     Encounter 6.1 - NW Encampment Wave 2 - 825 XP
     Encounter 7 - Roving Wolf Pack - 750 XP
     Encounter 8 - Roving Wolf Pack 2 - 850 XP
     Encounter 9 - Cave Entrance - 600 XP

Total XP - 3025 divided by 7 characters (1 NPC, 6 PC) = 432 XP each

As always, I am looking for comments from players and non-player alike.  Players, help me fine tune the story that you played through, this is all from memory.  Non-Players, any where you think the story should go?  Is there a particular plot point that was lame or admirable?