| Session Date | August 26, 2023 |
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| Base XP Gained |
4778 Bonus: 30000 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
It was nearing sunrise and the party waited for Ravenna to arrive if she could. Hans used the time to scry the Citadel tower and environs, noting a number of Bugbears atop it, all alert. He also noted Hellhounds near the gate and patrols moving in and out quite often. The square before the tower was largely empty except transiting patrols. All the enemy seemed very watchful, by land, lake, and air.
Around noon time, a light appeared from the hidden entrance/exit to Moon Square. The party saw a lone Hobgoblin climbing down the ladder. They backed up a bit to watch and, when the Hobgoblin arrived at their level, a brief shimmer revealed Ravenna. She seemed somewhat agitated, exclaiming that the Giant King was arriving at that very time and the were at their maximum watchfulness. She’d had to slip through all that to get here. In fact, she’d spent the last two weeks infiltrating the citadel and had reluctantly thrown all that work away to answer the party’s summons.
The party now questioned her extensively on what she knew in order to develop a plan of action. She told them that the enemy knew their numbers and type with great detail, and that they “were agents of the Dwarven King.” They had spread the word that the party operated invisibly, usually from the air, and were actively searching for them with those assumptions, though not ignoring other possible approaches. The party was said to be very close, already inside or very near the city. She downplayed any possible help from the people of Manston in a staged revolt. The Giant King had massed huge forces here to prevent such a thing. The enemy was taking no chances and had deployed their defenses to maximize protection of the Giant King, the presumed target of the party.
When asked about the new enemy that had come in recently, she only knew that something with a “palpable sense of evil” was in the town hall. Whoever or whatever had come in the ball of shadows was keeping well hid in the town hall, though they were clearly now in charge of the city. A few new humans had come, as well, including spellcasters who were now flying around invisibly searching for the party with magical means. Meanwhile, Hellhounds, wolves, and werewolves were everywhere sniffing for invisible foes, while a number of clerics of the god Magnus (god of the underworld, ambition, etc) were running around aiding the enemy.
As for action, she said her attempts to learn more had failed, so she had settled on the idea of shooting the Giant King with poisoned arrows in the hopes she might kill him. She expected it to fail and for her to be killed in the process, but she had grown desperate. When asked, she said she was not sure killing him would make any real difference given that he apparently had handlers or advisors with great power in themselves. Regardless, his speech would commence after sunset tonight. Numerous possible ideas for actions were discussed, from fireships enhanced by elementals to simply abandoning Manston to its fate.
To help, Hans employed a scroll of contact other plane to gather information. Its successful use indicated that simply disrupting the speech would have no appreciable effect, though hearing it might give some useful information. Killing the Giant King by itself would not save Manston, but there was a target that could significantly disrupt the enemy’s plans if slain, a power that resided in the city hall. Sirius thought that, given the focus of security on the Giant King, the entity(entities?) in the town hall might be a safer and more lucrative target. After additional talk, the party decided to conduct the city hall raid, approaching from the lake side to avoid the defense around the Giant King. Ravenna requested to accompany the raid and was accepted.
With everyone made invisible, the party and NPCs took to the air and headed out over the lake via a circuitous route. They approached under a minor globe of invulnerability (to protect mainly against detect invisibility spells). By good fortune, they were able to reach the roof of the town hall without incident despite Sirius noting several invisible fliers about, periodically casting spells. On the roof, Sirius used ESP to scan the upper levels, noting multiple entities and powerful visions/thoughts of evil. The party cast a number of preparatory spells an consumed a number of potions.
Hans breached the walls with passwall once again while Sirius used stone shape to hide the entrance (leaving it thin enough to crash through if needed). They breached into darkness, soon dispelled by a continual light. Lightning bolts fired into the room seemed to be ineffective. Inside the party found an immense demonic creature before them with a smaller humanoid figure behind it. Helga laid into the demon with her rod of smiting to great effect, while Burt and others rushed the humanoid, who proved to be a Drow witch! The latter pulled out a bottle and poured spiders out into the room, adding to the chaos. Soon, a second, different type of demon entered from the adjacent room. A pell-mell melee ensued. The demons and Drow proved to be resilient against magical attack, less so against weapons, though they were immensely powerful! However, when the larger demon was finally destroyed (and vanished), the somewhat smaller one shouted in glee, “I’m free!” and vanished. The Drow was cut down by ZZ, as well.
The party quickly gathered the potential loot they found while Sirius used ESP on any threats from below, noting none. Nonetheless, he dropped a cloudkill down the nearby stairs as the party resumed invisibility and fled by air out over the lake, noting additional (invisible) Drow flying about, as well as human spellcasters, all fortunately focused around the Giant King. The party flew on to Far Andor without further incident.
The party considered their next actions. The Drow were the ancient enemy of both the Elven and Dwarven kingdoms. ZZ knew that knowledge of their active participation in these events would force both kingdoms to act – they could not allow an ally of the Drow to rise up on their northern border (the Drow are to the south). The party would now split to warn both Kingdoms of their danger, suing the captured Drow gear as proof of what they’d found. Later, the party would learn secondhand the gist of the Giant King’s speech, largely that he had forged an alliance with the young Kingdom of Wellidar to the west and a somewhat mysterious kingdom to the east. He intended to establish “posts” along the north bank of the Blueflood to cement a new trade route among these three powers. Because the party had attacked him, the Dwarves were declared enemies and their mountain kingdom to be besieged (somewhat moot with the revelation of the Drow). All Dwarves in his realm were to be slain or enslaved. In sum, for better or worse, war between the Giant King and both Dwarves and Elves was now inevitable.