Sunday, July 31, 2022

Company of the White Oak Campaign - Sessions 51 & 52

 Session 51

Reed Underbough’s prospects had only improved since coming back to the City of Greyhawk. Blodgett, head of the New Thieves Guild, had only seen his approval of Reed rise as Reed ambitiously continued to oversee construction of his tower-based inn. “You really remind me of myself,” Blodgett said one day. “We may be the little guys, but we’re tough, and we can grab this city by the horns and throw it to the ground and…well, let’s not belabor a poor metaphor, shall we? What I’m trying to say is…I want you to be my right hand man. The public face of the guild, as it were. We’ll have to upgrade your income, though…what say the guild moves you up a social class?” To which Reed immediately agreed. The new role seemed to come with no new responsibilities…so far.


Reed did approach Haruspex Niv about trying to find out where his errant henchman Peter had gotten off to, and what mischief he might be causing. While Haruspex agreed that sounded important, he was not prepared to leave his studies to explore it himself, but gave Reed his blessings to kill Peter. 


Percy has easily adjusted from the comforts of his inn to the comforts of the church-provided bishop’s house. Although he shares it with another bishop, the design of the building is like a duplex, so Percy has as much privacy as he wishes. But the new digs have done little to keep him safe - less than a month after that attempted break-in at the inn, Percy survived an assassination attempt, where someone shot him with a crossbow bolt, from a concealed location at long range, while he was out for a stroll. It was a light wound, and so far an annoying inconvenience. 


Six weeks ago, Niall Brightflame was attacked by brazen thieves on a city street in broad daylight, lightly injured, but they got away with all the money he was carrying -- 10% of his accumulated wealth. Niall gave chase, but they lost him in the nearby market. Since then, Niall was lying low, hoping to catch the thieves who did this to him, but when that failed he approached the Company of the White Oak about working with them again.


The three of them met up at Reed’s place to discuss what to do about these issues. Of everything on their plate, attempting to assassinate a bishop -- and the Company’s only still-active cleric -- seemed the most serious pressing issue. Percy was even prepared to make use of Reed’s questionable contacts to find more information, and put up 150 gold to fund an investigation.


Days later, Reed returned with 30 gold unspent and a satisfying lead -- the Iron Workers Guild - their old enemies -- were behind the attacks on Percy, but on commission from someone else. That someone else owned a small manorhouse in the High Quarter of the city, one which, when Reed spied on it, had fighting men routinely coming and going from it. The owner, though, remained unknown.


Wealsun 15, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk


The issue before the three Companions was, should they now do something about this? Their numbers were low for any major challenge. And where was the profit in taking out these men after Percy? The lost city, on the other hand…there was still the promise of 1,000 gold in return for a finished map. How hard could that be, as long as they avoided that huge bear…?


They decided to go, but needed more help, as too many Companions were occupied elsewhere. Luckily, Old Man Herv had a recommendation. He had recently run into a dwarf named Sprig Thunderbeard who was a veteran figher, looking to become an adventurer. Sprig bragged about his strength and there was precedent for the Company extending full membership to people who displayed great physical strength. Niall also possessed prodigious strength, so the elf agreed to meet this dwarf and throw down with him. The two grappled for a long time and, in the end, Niall had to concede that Sprig was even stronger than he. Full membership was his!


Lastly, Niall used some free time, and his contact with Haruspex Niv, to access the Grand Library of Greyhawk. Here he did some reading up on the lost city. This city, known as the Lost City of the Elders, had once been located at the southern edge of the Domain of Greyhawk, but had vanished -- all of it -- about 60 years ago. It was not the first time the city had vanished; it had a tendency to disappear and reappear in different locations. The Elders were the Ur-Flan, the first humans to live in this region. 


Wealsun 16, 622 CY
Cairn Hills


Reed, Percy, Niall, and Sprig started out, with their henchmen Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Arlin Fandagoria, and the hirelings Bella and Everard. Niall was decked out on a brand new warhorse and rode ahead frequently to scout. Although he hills were alive with wild animal fauna, none of it proved dangerous to the Company. And so…


Wealsun 17, 622 CY
The Waterfall


It was late when they found the waterfall. Did they want to explore the lost city at night? The answer was a resounding no. Watches were set up for the night…


Wealsun 18, 622 CY
The Lost City of the Elders


This time, before heading into the city, the Company checked out the rows of buildings on the south side of the courtyard. There was little to explore, but at the far end of the rows was a cluster of buildings within the remnants of its own privacy wall - an inn? Sprig deemed the building to look unsafe, so they decided not to investigate it.


Nearby was the eastern gate to the city. The towers here showed battle damage and the gates between them had been long ago wrecked down. But beyond that point…the road just inside was in immaculate condition, as if just laid down! 


Muellara cast ESP and they moved from building to building so she could try to sense thoughts from inside. They did not get far - not even to the plaza at the end of the street - when she sensed the thoughts of a sentient mind that was watching them.


Reed leaped up to the roof with his magic boots, but not before a small creature also hobbit-sized started racing across the rooftop away from him. The creature had red eyes, but otherwise appeared to be made of stone, though still wearing regular leather armor over that stone-like skin. It leapt to a second rooftop, then jumped over the back of the building. Reed pursued across the slanted tile roofs, producing rope, and intended to lasso the creature. But he was not fast enough before the creature vanished from view. Approaching the back of the second building, Reed was able to see the sentry was now joining a crowd of similar creatures, all armed, gathered around a collection of tents. 


Reed returned to the rest of the Company and told them what he saw. They walked around the small buildings, found the campsite of these small, weird creatures, and approached openly. The Company wanted allies here in this strange city, and thought these small creatures might want allies as well. They did not seem to; they swarmed around and encircled the Company, threatening them with spears. After a short standoff in which the Companions tried every language they knew to communicate with them, Niall had enough and drawing his weapon initiated combat. It did not go well for the little monsters, who were weak enough that both Niall and Arlin could sweep through with their attacks. Soon, two dozen of these monsters were dead.


Looting the tents, there was little in the way of treasure - except for, incongruously, a traveling spellbook. The Company was quick to snatch up this rare prize!


Shortly thereafter, they heard a booming voice coming from the south. Moving around a building and outdoor statue, they spotted an amphitheater surrounded by trees. On the stage of the outdoor auditorium was a giant - literally, a bigger humanoid than the tallest ogre they had ever seen by two full feet. It had black skin and a red beard and it was clearly calling out to them in a booming voice, though they did not understand the language. 


The Companions shrugged and left, which was apparently not the reaction the giant was hoping for. Angered, the giant came after them. The Companions moved quickly around a building and then tried to duck into its entrance. Muelara’s ESP detected angry thoughts approaching them, from above. The giant was coming over the roof towards them! Sure enough, the giant appeared at the edge of the roof, but the last of the Companions were inside the building by now. It proved an uninteresting building, gutted and long-since looted, but the giant was either unwilling or unable to follow them in. 


Searching the building, they found nothing of interest except for a stone coffer. Everyone was cautious about traps and the coffer was opened at a distance after tying rope around the lid and pulling it from around a corner. It was found to contain…1,000 silver pieces. Being treasure-poor, the Companions decided to take the silver, and maybe the coffer itself would be worth something too. As they were transporting it to the cart, they found out how right they were, for a beautifully intricate mosaic incorporating ornamental stones was hidden on the bottom of the coffer. 


After securing the coffer on the cart, and sensing no thoughts outside, the Companions trepidatiously reemerged into the light of day. Indeed, it appeared the giant had given up on them and gone away. 


The Companions headed southwest and then west, following this main road as it seemed to wind clockwise through the city. Niall, in particular, cautioned everyone from doing too much exploring and concentrating on just getting the map done. Percy, though, was curious about a statue of a weasel perched atop a box. When he investigated it, the top of the box sprang open, tossing the weasel statue into the air, and it landed hard on Arlin. 


But that was not the worst of it, as a hideous, tentacled monster, its body resembling a gigantic centipede, crawled out of the box. As fearsome as it looked, though, it was easily felled by a Sleep spell, and soon its head fell off as well, after some deliberate chopping. Searching the pit concealed under the statue’s base, where the monster had crawled out of, they found a dead body covered in slime. Feeling around the body at a safe distance with 10’ poles, they uncovered a silver ring. Niall used his magic sickle to retrieve the ring without touching the slime. Although the ring looked valuable, the Companions vowed to examine no further statues. 


Much further down the road, indeed, in the southwest part of the city now, Muelara detected sentient thoughts again, coming from inside one of the buildings. It seemed like a sizable force was marshaling to come out, and the Companions did not particularly want to deal with more sizable forces. They decided to detour back and go north, up a side road that ran past what looked like a chapel. 


As they passed the chapel, they heard what sounded like children crying from inside. This seemed like a trap and everyone was very leery, but they ultimately investigated anyway. All signs of religious iconography had been scraped away from the building long ago and only the shape of the structure suggested what it might have once been. By now Muelara’s ESP spell had expired, so they would have no clues before entering what was waiting for them. 


They strode through the front doors anyway. What they found was horrific - human women and children chained to the walls, and eight orcs terrorizing them with cat-o-nine-tails. 


Those orcs did not live very long. Luckily they had keys on them! 


The women and children were unshackled, but attempts to communicate with them were meeting with failure; the women spoke some strange dialect. Niall tried the Elven Tongue, which had undergone much fewer permutations over the centuries. Success! Two of the women spoke Elven, and now they could relate their story. The City of Gaxmoor had been a peaceful one until, months ago, an army of monsters laid siege to it. The outer city fell quickly, but as far as they knew humanity still held the inner city. 


Plans to double back and lead the women and children safely out of the city were kiboshed when they returned to the main road and spotted a sizable force of orcs and ogres assembling in the street to the west. The Company’s spellcasters were low on spells, and the goal was to keep the women and children out of combat. Fleeing east and outrunning the orcs seemed too chancy, so they doubled back again, this time heading north towards the gates to the inner city. 


The gates of the inner city had been breached some time ago and were no longer manned by anyone. The inner city seemed deserted. The Company quickly discerned that, if there were any humans left here, they must be barricaded in somewhere. An office building nearby showed evidence of having withstood a siege. The Company approached it and urged the women to call inside. 


Men responded! Barriers were cleared and fighting men in familiar armor (the Company had seen men like these in the hills outside the city after their last expedition here) let everyone in. There were some reunions between the men, women, and children, but everyone was happy to see each other even if they were not family. Here, a few of the men also spoke Elven and were able to continue the story.  When the gates of the inner city were breached, the imperial soldiers fell back towards the palace, but were cut off and had to hole up here, where they had been holding out for weeks. It was a spacious building, with room to accommodate all of them, as well as the Company’s cart and animals.


Percy had his traveling prayerbook; he could prepare some of his spells again. If they could get through the night and rest, maybe they could push their way out of the city. 


The monsters were not ready to let them have that restful night. Six ogres, the same ones they had seen marshaling in the outer city, it seemed, had decided to end the stalemate at this office building that night. What they had not counted on was the Company emerging on an upper balcony and pelting them with blistering missile fire, while distracting the ogres on their flank with a remaining Phantasmal Forces spell of elven archers. It took some time to wear down the ogres, but they did eventually retreat. 


Everyone braced for the ogres to come back with reinforcements, but to everyone’s surprise that never happened. The sun rose to a new day.


Wealsun 19, 622 CY
The Lost City of the Elders
The Inner City


The imperial soldiers were not interested in leaving. They even paid the Companions to lead the women and children to safety. But Niall gave an impassioned speech about how their home was their people, not their city. He convinced all but two to come with them. 


The plan today was no different -- push through the city as fast as possible and try to get out. But the inner city was not empty this morning -- nearly four dozen gibbering gnolls stood between them and freedom on the open streets, as the monsters patrolled. The Company had never had trouble defeating gnolls before, but had never met them in such numbers. The soldiers and the Companions were able to push through, but at great loss. Niall was pulled down off his new warhorse and his horse was slain. Bella, everyone’s favorite carter, was slain. The cart and mules were lost, including the stone coffer secured to the cart. Five imperial soldiers, five of the women, and - worse - seven of the children were pulled down by the gnolls’ superior numbers before everyone else was able to pull through to freedom.  

Session 52

Wealsun 26, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk

It had just been one week since fleeing the Lost City of Gaxmoor; those members had been back to the city for just days, but already they was discussion about going back.

The conversation was between Reed Underbough, Runeflinger, Eirenden, and the newest member, Sprig Thunderbeard - the first time an entirely non-human contingent of the Company had decided to take action together. To Reed, the task seemed simple: Elysande had hired them to produce a map of the city. The imperial soldiers (of who’s empire? The Companions had never bothered to ask) had said that a complete map of the city could likely be found in the palace. If they went in fast, and found the map fast, they could be in and out of the palace before the giant’s forces could be mustered against them.

The elves had alternatives. 

Eirenden had been saving this, but he finally told the Company of what he had run from on his first foray to Castle Greyhawk - a black dragon, in a hidden cave around the side of the hill on which the castle stood. Surely his new companions were powerful enough to take a dragon?

Runeflinger had news of yet another job offer - this time from the wizard Prospero. Prospero had contacted Runeflinger to remind him that he was increasingly concerned about the whereabouts of Peter. The whereabouts of Haruspex Niv’s former henchman could not be detected by any divination spell or scrying. Prospero was offering a 250 gp reward for Peter alive -- 500 gold for him dead. 

Reed was initially enthused about this offer of quicker cash, but as the four Companions went back and forth over this, the idea of returning to Gaxmoor won out.

Wealsun 28, 622 CY
Gaxmoor

Reed, Runeflinger, Eirenden, and Sprig had returned, along with some familiar retainers - Muelara Wynna, Ambrosio, Eirenden’s new henchmen Lautre, and Brother Vincent was rehired to come with, so they would have a cleric. A team of eight was one of their smallest in a long time. Would it be enough? 

This time, they decided to take a look over the hills at the city before entering, but they found something very strange when they ascended to the top of the hills -- ahead, where they should have seen the city sprawling out below them, they saw only more, taller hills. This was less surprising to the elves; Runeflinger explained how fairy realms were well known to the elves, and it seemed likely this city existed in one.
Having learned that their only way in was behind the waterfall, they went through again, finding the city unchanged from last time. Again, there were no guards or sentries at the far eastern courtyard -- but this time they did spy armored figures moving from the city’s west gate into the outer ruins, indeed, towards the ruined inn. From here, they could not tell if these were monstrous humanoids or humans - so rather than take chances they avoided them.

They almost did not, but before going into the city they did decide to stop at the bushes above the canal and collect more of the magic berries there. After that, they entered the city through the gap in the eastern outer wall. They avoided the fireballed manor. They found unguarded stables, occupied by horses. Here, they paused and debated if they should take the horses. The question was, whose horses were they, and if they belonged to the monster or the humans? If they were the humans’ horses, they did not want to lose the humans as allies. It was decided, not only to leave the horses alone, but to avoid the humans as well. 

Which worked for only the next few minutes, when they came to another building within sight of the northeast gate into the inner city. There were human archers up on the roof, and these humans were not wearing the livery of the imperial soldiers. Unfortunately, these humans did not speak Elven, or simply chose not to reveal they did. The building they guarded smelled like a brewery, and likely was a brewery. The archers even gestured for the Companions to come in and drink. Though the archers were not hostile, they did begin trying to warn the Companions away as they began to move away towards the gate to the inner city. After more attempts to communicate with the archers, the Companions believed the warnings were because the gate was guarded. 

Luckily, there was another way in, for they could see a ruined gap in the east wall of the inner wall, as there had been with the outer wall -- only this time the inner wall was mounted on a 10’ tall steep mound. The Companions began climbing up, but before they reached the top of the mound - they saw eight gnolls staring down at them from above. The fight was initially tricky, while the Companions were climbing, but when they reached the gnolls the fight was soon over. The gnolls had even, conveniently, been playing a game of pitching coins into a pile and there was ready treasure to collect, though it did not come to much. Their chainmail seemed in good shape, so they started stripping the armor off the gnolls. 

They were halfway done when another gnoll patrol came around a building within sight, this one led by a bugbear. One Sleep spell later, there were not many gnolls left, but two of them did manage to get away, fleeing towards one of the palaces. 

As the Companions looked around, they realized there were actually two buildings in the inner city that were palaces -- the governor’s palace and the royal guest palace (both had been mentioned by the imperial soldiers). Which one would have the map? Unsure, they opted not to follow the gnolls, as they would surely be raising an alert in there, and they settled on the other palace. First they killed the sleeping monsters and looted the bodies for coins, having learned their lesson not to spend too long stripping corpses in case another patrol turned up first.

The main entrance to the Governor’s Palace had a towering, ornate portico lined with caryatid columns and topped with gargoyles. This entrance looked dangerous, so they circled around and found a portico back entrance almost as grand, but missing the statuary. When Muelara attempted to detect thoughts inside, she sensed sentient thoughts - thoughts that had already been alerted to the Companions’ presence. As she “listened” longer, it became clear they were planning an ambush inside the back entrance.

The Companions conferred. There was, as Reed pointed out, no evidence from the thoughts if they were human or monster, as the spell could not discern the difference. Was the palace held by humans, who would not attack when they saw who the Companions were? Or was it held by monsters, who would attempt the ambush, already foiled by this spell? The double doors at the rear of the building, inside the portico, were wide open, inviting them into the ambush. The Companions decided to risk it. They went in, three abreast, ready for melee.

And found five ogres waiting for them. Again, the combat was swift and brutal - but this time in the monsters’ favor. Lautre went down in the fighting early, dying slowly. Reed went into the shadows. Runeflinger went to his go-to for survival, invisibility. Two ogres doubled up on Sprig, one knocking him down, and the other bashing his head in with a morningstar. Of the remaining Companions, Eirenden was seriously injured. Their morale broken, the Companions went into full retreat, leaving the dead and dying behind to the victorious ogres. 

Not in their finest hour, the remaining Companions ran to hide behind the rubble around the gap in the inner curtain wall. They watched to see if the ogres would pursue, which they did, albeit slowly, still celebrating their victory with wicked gleefulness. Rather than push their chances further, the Companions abandoned the inner city. 

In the shade of the stables, Brother Vincent healed Eirenden. Should they stay in the city to rest? No, that seemed too dangerous; it was time to abandon the city altogether. If Sprig and Lautre were to be avenged, plus all the people slain last time, it would need to come another day.

Richfest 3, 622 CY
City of Greyhawk    

The city was in the full swing of Richfest festivities, but the Companions who returned from Gaxmoor were not feeling it. Many were licking their wounds, but Reed, looking to find something that would give them an easier victory and restore the Company’s morale, spent some money on trying to locate Peter, putting out there Peter’s description and a bounty on information of his whereabouts. And he got a response pretty quickly.

Peter was staying with the fighters in the manor house, the ones who had hired the Iron Workers Guild to kill Percy.