Session 03

Saving the Sanctuary
The session began with the party in the middle of combat outside the town’s temple. After the party just finished slaying a group of raiders at the back entrance, Marcus came running down the western side yelling “Coming in hot!”. Following him was a mass of fourteen kobolds, four human raiders, and two ambush drakes. Marcus was quickly knocked out by a flurry of rocks from the kobold’s slings as the rest of the party moved to intercept. The combat was fast and vicious, with some highlights including Lachlan the wizard using his Lightning Lure, Cadmus using his Healing Word on Marcus, and Selwyn taking out most of the kobolds with his Thunderwave spell. Finally, instead of killing the final human raider, Rachen instead knocked him unconscious and they took him prisoner.

The party cleared away the burning debris in front of the temples rear doorway and were given access inside by the head priest and thankful townsfolk. The inhabitants of the temple quickly fled with the party guiding them stealthily the way they came along the brush covered riverbank back toward the keep’s secret tunnel. Once safely back in the keep the party was thanked by the governor for rescuing townsfolk, and they decided to take a short rest and spend some time with the priests bandaging up their wounds. Afterwards as the group was assembling in the open courtyard talking about what they were going to do next, yelling and the clash of steel began to be heard as what guards remained flocked down the walls and into the various doors of the keep. Asking one of guards as he ran by what was going on, the guard replied the keep was under attack!

The Sally Port Invasion
Just then the wounded dwarven Castellan Escobert approached the party as quickly as he could from within the keep. He looked severely wounded, his right arm was in a sling and one leg was bandaged heavily, as the last time the group saw him he was falling from the walls among crumbling debris. Escobert asked the party if they could secure the sally port from within the keep. A large group of raiders breached the port a few minutes ago, and all available guards were dealing with the threat. He believed they could handle it, but he didn’t have enough healthy guards left to secure the breach against further invaders, let alone man the walls. The party quickly agreed and set off into the keep heading for the small ready room connected to the tunnel through the outer wall that made up the sally port.

When the party reached the outside of the ready room, it was clear there was already a group of raiders within, keeping the breach secure. Undeterred, the group charged into the room with Rachen in the fore, and to their surprise the room was packed with kobolds and raiders. Quickly, Cadmus and Rachen retreated back into the keep proper, luring the group forward as Selwyn stepped to the front. Once again he unleashed his powerful Thunderwave which instantly killed all the kobolds and also shook the walls of the keep. The group was easily able to mop up the remaining cultists and they took their second prisoner alive. The walls of the room continued to shake, and then the entire ceiling of the sally port and ready room seemed to collapse, ensuring no further raiders entered. Clearly the walls of the keep had suffered much throughout the night, between multiple lightning blasts from the blue dragon to the Thunderwave of Selwyn.

The party returned to the courtyard as some semblance of order returned to the keep. Cadmus went atop the walls to survey the town as Thia and Rachen went into the holding room and dropped their second prisoner. The first prisoner was already awake and would not answer any of their initial questions, so they left the room. Thia waited outside the door until she heard the second prisoner wake, while Rachen returned to the courtyard with the rest of the party. During this time Cadmus was walking the walls with the few guards that remained and saw how there were fewer active fires and fewer groups of raiders now, but they were still scouring the streets.

Save the Mill
Then, one of the guards pointed out smoke from the wooden flour mill on the southwest side of town, across the small river. Escobert already being up there looked to Cadmus, and asked if his group could once again do the town a great service by saving their means of grinding grain and producing food, which if burned would take months to rebuild. The half orc cleric agreed at once, for this night his god had shown him many ways to strike off items from his ledger, and he was not about to let another go. As Cadmus was returning to the courtyard to convince his tired and beaten new friends to help, Thia had entered the prisoners chamber after hearing whispering between them. Even before the second prisoner could finish saying “I'm not going to say anything” Thia quickly stuck her dagger through the neck of the first silent prisoner and pulled it back out.

As blood sprayed from its neck the body collapsed next to the second prisoner, who was now hysterically begging for his life and saying he would tell her anything. As cool and collected as she could be she just turned around and walked out, shutting the door behind her. She could easily come back now after things were secure in the town and likely the extra time would help loosen his lips even more fearing what was to come. Regrouped in the courtyard the party agreed to go with Cadmus and save the town’s mill. They left through their now familiar secret tunnel and snuck along the forested river bank until they reached the ford crossing and then approached slowly along the road to the mill. Along the way they encountered two kobolds eating the remains of a small child, and quickly dispatched them.

As they within sight of the mill they saw a group of kobolds stacking burning debris against the door of the mill, similar to what they did at the temple. A few human raiders were overseeing them, and one was waving his torch back and forth into the air. The group launched a surprise attack with ranged weapons and the melee combatants charged to break the distance. In that first volley they took out three of the human cultists, and the session stopped there before combat engaged in earnest.

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