Session 78 - Low in Highport
2 Kaldmont 1010
General Summary
The party tries to figure out what is in the pile of refuse. Leo pokes at the middle with his retractable 10' pole, and at one point struggles to keep control of the rod as something latches on and tries to pull it from him. Meanwhile, Tork wades right in and is promptly attacked, a pale blob of some sort briefly becoming visible. As the party starts to deal with the large, grub-like creatures through patience and accurate strikes, they are damaged periodically by the acidic water the refuse sits in. None of it is too dangerous to the party, however.
Eventually the grubs are all killed off and the party explores up the shaft that the attackers came from, finding a room with egg-shaped pods along the back of the room and several more of the insectoid guards. Naturally, another fight breaks out, which goes poorly for the insectoids. The party decides these creatures are probably not great for the future restoration of the town and break all the eggs.
The party moves back and skirts around the acid pool to continue exploring the sewers and, after a couple zigs and zags through the tunnels, they see a more heavily trafficked area with a ladder up to a trap door. The party decides this seems worth checking out - Stavos climbs the ladder to investigate. The trap door opens easily enough and, as he climbs out, he finds himself surrounded by surprised Orcs in plate mail lead in a ritual by a Human also in plate mail. There are also five miserable looking prisoners chained together in the corner. The Orcs move to attack Stavos and the party finds itself in a situation, with everyone else crowded at the bottom of the ladder! Leo, with the least movement of the bunch, gets to act right after Stavos, who stabs at the human. Leo decides that if he climbs up the ladder, it will create a traffic jam and may cause Stavos to be in dire danger. Instead, he casts Scatter, hoping for the best. Unfortunately, he can not see much of the room above, so the rest of the party suddenly finds themselves falling from the air just above the ladder. Fortunately, just about everyone reacts smoothly, and manage to land just around the trapdoor, enabling them to help Stavos fight off the Orcs and what appears to be a Cleric. Leo, unfortunately, did not manage to get footing on the way by, and tumbles straight back down the hole, past the ladder.
Luckily for him, Seraphina casts Feather Fall as a reaction to the situation, and that means Leo's fall is less catastrophic. He softly lands on his feet at the bottom and is able to start his climb up the ladder.
Meanwhile, the party quickly gains the upperhand. One orc goes down fairly quickly, smote by Seraphina, and the Cleric backs away from the combat, after taking some big hits, trying to find a way out of the situation. She casts Command on several members of the party, but Elincia resists the effects - she then dispells it from Stavos. Tork finds himself prone, praising the Cleric, and gets stomped a bit by the remaining Orcs while he is down. Stavos charges the Cleric, landing a few more big blows, and she panics, shouting a triggering word, which seems to cause a Troll to materialize from the alms-box on the wall! While the Troll has the party's attention, she tries to flee down the hall, dodging Stavos' attempt to prevent her flight. Leo flashes his new spell Force Cage, targeting her down the hall, leaving her in a 10 ft solid-walled box, just before the door she planned to escape through.
With her removed from the combat, the remaining enemies are reasonably quickly dealt with, with Leo remembering to deal a bit of fire damage to the troll after the party downs it.
The party searches the room, finding a magic shrinking pill inside the alms box, explaining the Troll trick, and some minor loot on the Orcs. Stavos finds the key to the chains allowing him to free the prisoners. They are all unaware of the fall of the Black Eagle Barony, and give the party some useful information about other slaves held by the slavers here. The party takes a short rest as they wait for the Force Cage to disappear, and as the time gets closer they begin talking through the barrier to the Cleric. They negotiate her being allowed to go free in exchange for information on senior members of the Iron Ring. Seraphina puts down a Zone of Truth, so that the party knows they can rely on the information given. The Cleric, known as Portia, reveals some contacts (verifying some information they suspected) about Saltmarsh, as well as connecting the Torenescu family in Mirros. She also confirms there wasn't any cell activity to speak of in Riverfork Keep or Luln, which is reassuring. Finally, they get more information (again confirming what they suspected) about the nature of the tattoos as well as the narrow knowledge between the Iron Ring cells. She also gives them some additional intel on what they should expect to find throughout the remainder of the compound. She agrees to leave Karameikos for good, and they warn her that if they should run into her again, the result would probably not be the best for her.
They decide she has done what she promised and agree to let her leave. They allow her to lead them out into the next area where there are there is a large group of Orcs guarding the main entrance, which has a double gate. She expects them to try to sneak out with her, but the party plans to ambush the guards instead. She walks through explaining that they are prospective customers, let in through a back way, and they open the interior gate. She enters the kill area between the two gates, and Stavos stops following her just this side of the gate, and the party attacks!
Leo opens with a blast of synaptic static, hitting four of the Orcs near a strange cart with a nozzle and mantlets. Stavos takes down the Orc nearest him, and Seraphina lays into one of the surviving Orcs near the cart, taking him out. Tork goes after the group near the table to the right, and the nature of the strange cart with a nozzle is revealed when the three remaining orcs by the cart turn it to point at Leo and Elincia, and it belches out a great blast of fire! Both Leo and Elincia are able to dodge the worst of the fire. Elincia summons forth two Brown Bears that take their rage out on the crew of the cart, and the cart too for that matter. After Stavos clears out the table by the gate, he opens the door to a winch-room, and engages the Orc that guards a slave manning the inner gate's winch. He takes this Orc down pretty easily, lets the slave know that he will be back to free him shortly, and fights his way to the other door opposite the entrance (housing the controls for the outer gate), where he repeats this. By now, the battle is over and the party has some time to check out the flame-shooting cart and free the slaves, as well as finishing the release of the Cleric. Portia departs the stronghold, reaffirming her promise to leave Karameikos.
Report Date
23 Sep 2023
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