Slightly upset about leaving the town meeting right as it was getting interesting, but very excited at the prospect of breaking and entering, the group headed east through town to the wealthiest neighborhood, where Granar’s house stood.  It was a two-story stone home surrounded by a stone wall with an iron gate.  Sneaking around back, the wall was quickly scaled by Qara, and Urz assisted Yu’Walla and Dunkirk in getting over before hauling his own significant mass up and over.

The back yard was relatively spacious, with a well close to the house and a shelter for firewood built against the stone wall.  Yu’Walla began using her investigative talents to determine what she could about the house.  Looking in the windows showed a comfortable, well-furnished home.  A detect magic spell showed that the windows were giving off some sort of magical energy, and a subsequent arcane check revealed the magic to be illusory in nature.  Dunkirk got it into his head that jumping into the well would be a good idea, but Urz grabbed him by the collar and hauled him safely away from the well (which our DM would later tell us contained a gelatinous cube).  Rounding the house to the front side, the party saw the main door was large and made of heavy, dark wood, with an iron knocker.  Yu’Walla took a close look at the lock, and informed the party that it was of very high quality, and that we would be hard-pressed to pick it.

Qara stepped up, and pulled her out her thieves tools.  She studied the lock, examined her tools, asked for space.  Dunkirk used his Guidance spell to aid her in both her stealth (they were all on the front-side of a house in the upscale part of town, after all) and her lock picking attempt.  Standing straight, shaking out her arms, she narrowed her eyes, flexed her fingers, and pulled a key out of her pocket that unlocked the door on the first try.

She spun around, a giant shit-eating grin on her face.  Everyone was stunned.

Yu’Walla was the first to speak up.  “Where… where did you get a key to Granar’s house?”

“I picked his pocket back when we first met him!”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Yu’Walla asked, incredulous.

“It’s more dramatic this way,” she replied, and turned on her heel to march straight into the house.  Urz hurried after her, and Dunkirk and Yu’Walla followed.

The door closed behind them, and the room they stood in did not at all match the exterior of the house.  The chamber was huge, with a towering ceiling, stone walls, and the door they came in through was made of iron, not wood.  On one side of the room, a roaring fire place cast an orange glow.  On the other was a heavy iron door.  The entry hall was completely devoid of any other features.

Approaching the door, the four adventurers saw two keyholes set in a square lock in the center of the door.  To the right of the door, mounted on the wall was a large plaque covered in hooks, labeled one through ninety-nine.  Each hook had two keys hanging from it.  Above the door, the numbers 1089 were carved into the stone and inlaid with gold.

Scratching their heads, Yu’Walla was the first to suggest they try using a key for ten and eighty-nine, and see what happens.  She and Dunkirk stepped forward, each with one of the keys, and inserted them at the same time.  At the second of contact, a blast of electricity hurled them both back several feet.  The damage they suffered was not crippling, but the message was clear: they could not endlessly experiment with random key combinations until they found the one that worked.

Dunkirk decided that the fire must have something to do with it, and took the same two keys over and placed them in the flames until they were blackened and smoking.  Yu’Walla expressed her reservations about his theory, but Dunkirk was unperturbed and used a pair of calipers to retrieve the keys from the fire.  He excitedly asked Urz to help him turn the keys.  Urz ignored him, and stared hard at the lock, as he had been doing since they first made their way over to it.  Dunkirk tried to insert the keys himself, and was again rewarded with an electric shock.  This time it took him longer to get up from the floor.  Yu’Walla was beginning to think Dunkirk might be insane.

Stepping forward, Urz took a length of string and measured the sides of the locking mechanism, finding them to be equal.  “A perfect square,” he said.

Grabbing a piece of charcoal from the fireplace, he began scribbling on the wall.  After a few moments, he spun around, saying “thirty-three”.

“Are you sure?” asked Yu’Walla.  Urz ignored her, took the keys himself, inserted them into the locks, and turned them both.  The heavy, satisfying clanks of an advanced locking mechanism validated his decision.

(It was decided that the +1 intelligence modifier that Urz had would be applied strictly to math, as he had no proficiency in intelligence-based skills and I had been role-playing him as someone who could barely read.)

Walking through the newly-opened doorway, they were greeted with a much larger chamber.  Tall stone columns supported the ceiling, some of which were cracked and broken.  In one corner was a desk, cluttered with papers.  Close to the desk was a bedroll and small chest.  In another corner was a large iron cage.  Along the walls were scattered tables, on top of which were random items and curiosities.  A mummified finger, a blue leathery egg, a tattered book, a goblet of what appeared to be blood, a skull with three eye sockets, and other strange objects spoke much about Granar’s past.  In the center of the room, a raised plinth was topped with a twelve-foot stone statue of a crude humanoid figure.  Dirty, tattered rugs were scattered all over the hard stone floor.

As the adventurers stepped further into the room, the door slammed shut behind them, and they heard a dry, grinding sound as the statue began to move.  It stepped off the platform, and began stomping its way toward the party.

Hoping to confuse the golem, the party split up, and the casters began hitting it with spells from a distance as Urz stole its attention, hacking at its knees while Qara attempted to dart in and stab it.  Unfortunately, her rapier didn’t do more than scratch the stones, and Urz’s axe, though magical, was having trouble biting deep.  Dunkirk and Yu’Walla kept busy hammering it with sacred flame and eldritch blasts, and the golem recognized their threat and began stomping toward Dunkirk, with Urz running after it angrily.

As it neared Dunkirk, it breathed out a cloud of noxious fumes, causing Dunkirk’s head to swim.  He was able to remain conscious, and barely dodged the golem’s swinging fist.  Urz was caught by the next fist, which clutched him fast as the golem began walking toward the iron cage.  Urz was able to wrench his axe free and deliver a blow to the golem’s wrist hard enough to cause it to drop him.  By now, the continued punishment was beginning to show on the golem, with cracks forming in the stone and chunks missing here and there.  Still it continued its relentless advance.  Yu’Walla was the next one to suffer the gas cloud attack, and she was unable to remain conscious.  The golem scooped up her limp form, carried it across the room, and hurled her into the iron cage.  The door slammed shut behind her.  Dunkirk was next, and this time his hardy Dwarf constitution did not save him from the debilitating gas.  Urz followed shortly after, and though the gas attack failed to render him unconscious, the force of the impact of him being thrown into the cage did.  Qara was left alone, and instead of being thrown into the cage by the golem, she tried running into the cage willingly.  The golem did not follow her, and after the door slammed shut behind her, she used her thieves tools to pick the lock, but left the door shut.

The golem returned to its plinth and became statue-still again, although it looked as if it could fall apart at any moment.  Dunkirk was able to shake off the effects of the gas and awoke, quickly casting a healing spell on Urz and Yu’Walla to bring them back to consciousness.  As he did, the party heard a slow clap and laugh as Granar appeared at the doorway.

“Bravo, bravo you pesky fools.  That was quite the display of…”

His would-be-monologue was cut short as Urz burst through the door Qara had unlocked and tackled the old man to the ground, almost flattening Granar’s frail body under his own 400+ pound bulk.  Urz delivered a quick punch to Granar’s ribs for good measure, and heard something crack.

“YOU START EXPLAINING THINGS RIGHT NOW WHILE YOU STILL HAVE A FUNCTIONING JAW,” bellowed Urz, in typical fashion.

Granar was barely able to wheeze out his reply.  “I… can’t explain… everything, but… if you let me… breathe, I can… do my best.”

Urz stood up and dragged Granar up with him, pinning him by his shoulders to the wall.  The rest of the party left the cage, nervously watching the golem, which remained still.

“My journal is… on my desk, it should… tell you more than I can,” Granar was able to choke out between gasping breaths.

Yu’Walla retrieved his journal from his desk, and helped herself to a few magic scrolls and potions she found in the drawers as well.  If Granar saw, he did not protest.  Urz still had him up against the wall, and he was fairly certain his ribs were broken.

Yu’Walla began reading the journal.  Granar had once been a member of the Zhentarim, an evil organization of mercenaries and wizards bent on accumulating power and influence.  At some point in his service to the Zhentarim, Granar was involved in an internal power struggle, and found himself on the losing side.  For his punishment, he was kicked out of the organization, and his memories of his time in the Zhentarim were wiped.  This was referred to as the Instance of Nullification, and is considered a punishment worse than death.  Though he knew he was once a member, he could not recall what he did as a member, or the names of any of his colleagues.

“So now you know.  Whatever you hoped to find here, I can assure you is not here.  My memories are blocked and all I have to my name is the wealth and power I have accumulated in this town, and it seems you would deny me even that.”

Urz let go of Granar, and he fell to the ground, yelping in pain as his broken ribs ground against each other upon impact.

Over the next hour, the group questioned Granar about his influences in the town.  Granar was candid about his resentment of his place in Tribor; he craved power and felt he was owed the position of Lord Regent.  Further questioning revealed that he remembered when La’Farraq became obsessed with his dead wife, and feared for the deal he made with the robed wizard, who Granar identified as Kyrus.  This was the first time the party was able to put a name to the wizard, and Granar explained that he was afraid of the Zhentarim, confirming that Kyrus was a member.

Hoping to shed more light on the subject, Dunkirk attempted to cast a restoration spell on Granar, with the hope of restoring his missing memories.  Unfortunately, whatever magics had erased them was more powerful than the restoration spell.  Deciding they’d squeezed every drop out of the unlikable old man, they left him to clean up the mess they had made, warning him to keep a low profile, or they would inform the town watch that a member of the Zhentarim lived among them.

As they exited his house, the unmistakable sound of an angry mob could be heard in the distance.  Wasting no time, the group ran in the direction of the yelling and shouting, which was coming from the town square.

Next: Oh, NOW What?

Returning to the Six Windows, the group was greeted at the bar by a female in white robes.  She introduced herself as Sinet, and claimed to represent the Harpers.  The Harpers, as Urz and Yu’Walla understood it, were a group dedicated to preserving balance between civilization and nature, with a firm stance against villainy and wickedness.  Sinet explained to the adventurers that she was operating in Tribor in an attempt to stabilize the local government, which had become corrupt and callous towards the people it was meant to protect.  The adventurers did their absolute best to maintain straight faces during this exchange, not letting on just how much they knew.

Sinet explained that she was working at the temple in town, and that night was holding an open forum meeting to discuss what actions should be taken to bring Tribor back under the protection of benevolent government.  She requested the adventurers join, as they had established themselves as heroes in the town.  They agreed to join her at the meeting, and she thanked them as she left.

The group drank and gambled the rest of the afternoon away, feeling it was best to keep a low profile after setting the Lord Regent’s house on fire.  Urz got carried away at one point after an arm wrestling contest got out of hand; fortunately the Six Windows was in a part of town that was rarely patrolled by the town watch.

As night fell, the group made their way to the temple.  When they arrived, the hall was already filled with locals.  They spotted Sinet, and also saw Granar and O’Gen’Um.  Sinet began the meeting soon after their arrival.

“You are all here because you feel that the leadership of La’Farraq and the behavior of his Silver Boards is insufficient to the peace and prosperity of Tribor.  La’Farraq serves at the behest of the Waterbaron of Yartar, but with enough popular support, public elections could be held to replace him.  Who would be willing and qualified to step forth and replace him?”

Granar was the first to speak up.

“I own a sizable amount of land here in Tribor, and my shops employ many of you.  Money is the lifeblood of politics, and we need someone experienced with how best to manage it to be the one who leads the town to ever greater prosperity.  I am skilled with negotiating, and I can break the Waterbaron’s economic hold on us.  When it comes to economic experience, you will find no one in town more qualified than I.”

A murmur of approval rolled through the room as Granar smiled at the crowd.  His smile quickly melted away as O’Gen’Um cleared his throat and spoke in his gruff voice.

“Members of my family have been mining in this town for generations.  The mines are what have always supported Tribor, and we need to put our focus on the expansion of our mining and increase our trade with our neighbors, and that means opening relations with Yartar even further.  They are the trade hub for the region, and if we attempt to stand alone from them, we will be without the means to distribute our ore and keep the town prosperous.  Whoever steps forward should put the prosperity of the mines first; the prosperity of the town will follow suit.”

Another wave of muttered chatter.

Someone from the back shouted “La’Farraq should be hanged!”

More than a few people cheered at this.  People began shouting back and forth at each other.  Sinet attempted to maintain order, but it was clear she was quickly losing control.  Dunkirk attempted to calm things down.

“Friends!  I’m sure we can all agree on a course of action here, but arguing is not going to help us get there!  If we could all just calm down and be sensible about this-” was all he managed to get out before the yelling became so loud that even he could not hear what he was saying.

Urz and Qara stood against the wall, each admiring the chaos.  As they were starting to make bets on how long it was going to take to devolve into physical violence, Yu’Walla grabbed both of them and motioned toward the door.

Outside of the temple, they were surprised at how much noise the temple walls drowned out.  A passing guard may not realize that it was packed full of farmers and miners screaming at the top of their lungs.

“It was just getting good,” Urz said, mildly disappointed.

“We have something more important to do,” Qara responded.

The other three leaned in, their interest peaked.

“We need to case Granar’s house.”

Next: Home Invasion, AGAIN!

Okay that last post was getting very long, and there was still a ways to go before I got to the arson bit.  It’s coming.

Also, I’m beginning to notice glaring plot holes.  I can’t tell if this is due to my DM not filling things in, or my own notes and memory being sketchy at best of the early sessions (probably the latter).  I will do my best to make shit up in an attempt to make it all work.

As Dunkirk slumped to the ground, an arrow protruding from his sternum, La’Farraq darted from the doorway, fleeing back the way the party had come.  Yu’Walla quickly used Spare the Dying on Dunkirk to stabilize him, and the three conscious adventurers took after him, with Urz stopping to grab Dunkirk’s limb body, and the mummy’s axe to replace his own shattered weapon.

It was Yu’Walla, trying the diplomatic approach, that stopped La’Farraq from fleeing.

“La’Farraq, we’re friendly!  We are not trying to hurt you!  We found our way down here and were defending ourselves from the undead!”

He stopped running, and turned to them, white-faced and panting.  He apologized for shooting Dunkirk, saying that he didn’t recognize anyone in the fighting, and was scared for his life.  Urz demanded to know how he was able to walk around unharmed and unmolested in a tomb full of undead.  La’Farraq claimed that he had been down here many times to visit his wife’s tomb, and that using stealth had always allowed him to easily slip by the undead.  As a sign of good will (and likely to placate Urz and Qara who were both seriously considering killing him) La’Farraq poured a healing potion down the throat of Dunkirk, bringing him back to consciousness.

La’Farraq claimed that he always accessed the tombs via the hidden entrance in the graveyard.  Yu’Walla, looking to conceal the fact that they had broken into his house and discovered an entrance in his basement, quickly jumped on this claiming that they too had entered via the graveyard.  La’Farraq, too stunned by the violence to put two and two together, didn’t pick up on the lie.  Capitalizing on his confusion, Yu’Walla began to press him with questions, intending to keep him from putting together how they had found the crypts in the first place.

La’Farraq, she learned, had been coming down to the crypts to visit his wife’s tomb ever since her funeral.  She had died of a fever when he was away on campaign, and he felt guilty for being an absent husband during the later years of their marriage.  He begged the adventurers not to tell the townsfolk what he was doing down there, and they agreed, on the condition that he tell them about the red gold and the hooded figure from the previous night.

La’Farraq claimed he had first found the red gold in some ruins near the Sunset Mountains.  He had soon after discovered that when a person died in close proximity to one of the coins, a portal would open, allowing the hooded figure and his minions to come forth and collect the corpse.  He claimed he had struck a deal with the figure, that he would allow it to collect corpses in exchange for protecting Tribor from supernatural threats.  Urz could see he was lying, but let him continue.  When pressed about the monster in the mine, La’Farraq claimed ignorance, and promised the party he would help them in any way he could to get to the bottom of it.  The glaring connection between the monster and the hooded figure went uncommented on by the party; they intended to let him dig a deep hole for himself.

Finally, after letting La’Farraq stammer out explanation after explanation for long enough, they let him leave on his own, and continued their exploration of the crypts.

Back through the main tomb, they entered the passage La’Farraq had first emerged from.  Quickly encountering a sturdy, locked door, Qara made quick work of it with her thieves tools (Urz, eager to swing his new axe at something solid, was disappointed).  Beyond the door was a personal family crypt.  In it were the caskets of the La’Farraq family.  One casket, marked as belonging to the late wife of La’Farraq, was empty.

(It occurred to me as I write this that we never got a name for his wife, or if La’Farraq was his first name, or a family name, or perhaps his only name.  Whatever.  Gloss over it all.)

Investigating the room, Yu’Walla found a false wall leading to a narrow passage that Urz could barely fit through.  Beyond it was a small room, empty but for an iron cage containing the corpse of a woman in a burial gown.  The corpse was standing, and as the heroes entered the room, it attempted to grab and swipe at them, unaware of the cage around it.

A lot of things started to make sense.  Yu’Walla hypothesized that La’Farraq, riddled with guilt over being away while his wife wasted away and died, used shoddy necromancy to attempt to bring her back to life.  While her corpse was reanimated, her soul was still detached, and he had made a pact with the hooded figure to fully restore her.  The big questions that remained were what La’Farraq had really promised the hooded figure, and how they could stop him.

The party left the zombie, locked the door so as not to arise suspicion, and continued on through the tombs.  The final hallway hit a dead end at a large door, covered with runes of locking and symbols of warning.  Qara’s thieves tools did nothing to open it, and swings from Urz’s new axe failed to leave a mark.  The group turned around and traced their steps back through the crypt.  They encountered one last room, with a spiral staircase leading up.  Qara poked her head through the trap door at the top, and discovered that it exited behind a shed in the town graveyard.  This was the entrance La’Farraq had been speaking of.

Deciding that they were not done spying on La’Farraq, the party took the tomb passages back to the entrance to La’Farraq’s basement.  Qara went first again, and found the house to be empty.  They could see nothing out of place, and despite a more thorough search of the house, could only turn up a single red gold piece.  As they were leaving through the back door, they heard the sound of voices and the clang of armor approaching.  Fearing they had been found out by the Silver Boars, Qara came up with the brilliant idea to mask their intrusion with a fire.  For some reason, everyone thought this was a good idea, and Qara used Faerie Fire to light the drapes.  The group ran in the opposite direction of the approaching guards, and made their way back to the Six Windows tavern, as La’Farraq’s house burned.

Then next morning, the group had their breakfast in the Six Windows, and decided what the best course of action should be.  Having little to go on thus far, it was decided to snoop around his house a bit.  The walk to the house was fairly uneventful, and full of Dunkirk going on at length about the dietary restrictions of the religion he seemed to be making up on the spot.

The group stopped a block from La’Farraq’s house, and Qara darted ahead to scout the place.  Finding it empty, she returned and the group proceeded as one to the house.  The found that the main entrance was on the street, and exposed to the public.  The back yard, however, was contained by a stone wall.  Waiting until the street was bare of people, they went around to the back and scaled the wall.  Qara unlocked the back door, and they entered.

The house was empty, and although it was fully-furnished, it looked as if it was rarely used.  Many of the rooms had cobwebs in them and were dusty.  One bedroom had obviously been slept in the night before, but the others had clearly been unused for quite some time.

Continuing their search of the house, they discovered a trap door in the basement.  Opening it revealed a ladder leading to a stone tunnel.

Oh boy!  Dungeon crawl time!

As the party descended the ladder and made their way down the passageway, the air smelled rank, and vermin scuttled between their feet.  Ahead, down a ramp, was the first junction in the hallway, and a massive fungal growth sat in the intersection.  Shaped like a ten-foot-tall morel mushroom, but with four tentacle-like protrusions growing from the trunk, it was at the hallway junction ahead.  The tentacles waved lazily in the air, as if they were drifting in a gentle current.  Having no idea what it was, the party wisely decided to kill it.  Dunkirk loaded his crossbow and loosed a shot.  Seconds before the bolt struck home, the tentacles started waving around frantically.  The bolt tore a chunk from the fungus.  His second bolt achieved the same result: the tentacles whipped around wildly, and a fist-sized piece was knocked out of the mushroom.

Urz announced he didn’t want to wait to shoot the thing to death and made a running leap.  Using Dunkirk’s back as a springboard (Dunkirk passed his constitution save and did not take damage from the half-orc stepping on him), Urz flew down the hallway with his axe held behind him.  As he approached, the tentacles sensed his presence and whipped out at him, but all four glanced harmlessly off his shield.  With one swing, he clove the mushroom in half, and tried very hard not to look overly proud of himself (Urz failed his charisma check and ended up looking like a total asshole).

Beyond the mushroom was a portcullis to a large, round room.  It was full of spikes and the bones of people who had died impaled upon them.  The group could not discern a way into the room, as the gate was stuck fast, so they continued.

The next room had been a chapel at some point.  Rotted wood benches and a lectern were the only furnitu

The next room had once been a chapel.  The bones of long-dead worshipers rose to greet the group, attacking with rusted weapons.  Yu’Walla dropped one with an eldritch blast before they had a chance to get close to the party.  Urz and Qara set in, Urz running into the middle of them and swinging wildly, while Qara would dart in, attack, and quickly dance away again.  The old, rotted furniture of the chapel made for good enough cover, and as the skeletons attempted to follow her, they tripped and fell, allowing Urz to pounce on them and stomp their skulls to pieces.  Dunkirk, improvising his religion on the spot, rattled off a prayer in a strange language (Ben actually said something in Yiddish every time he cast a spell), and the skeletons began fleeing from him in terror as the holy light of his weird burning-bush god surrounded him.  As they fled, Yu’Walla peppered them with eldritch blasts, and the few that Urz and Qara had not carved up were reduced to splinters.

The next room was, of course, full of zombies.  What’s a dungeon without a theme?

Thankfully, there were noticeably less of them than there were skeletons, although they were harder to put down.  Qara proved to be the rock star of the group, skewering two of them at the same time through the heads with her rapier and short sword.  Urz did a wonderful job scoring giant, gaping wounds on the zombies that did absolutely nothing to slow them down.  At least he kept them away from the casters, who burned the last zombie to ash with eldritch blasts and sacred flame.

A hallway led to a round room, with three towering statues.  The language on them was too difficult to comprehend, but they were of figures dressed as generals and rulers.

Further down, the hallway took a sharp right turn.  At the corner, the wall was caved in, giving way to a massive, black chasm.  Cautiously, Urz leaned over and peered down, seeing nothing but blackness.  He lit a torch, and let it fall.  It fell and fell, bouncing off the side of the yawning abyss once, and continued to fall until it was a speck of light, and then, nothing at all.  While that didn’t reveal a bottom of the pit to the party, it did briefly illuminate the hairy form of three large, gorilla-like creatures that were climbing the wall of the chasm.  All three pulled themselves up and into the hallway with shocking speed.

They were big, bigger than Urz, and covered in blue-gray fur.  Their faces were like predatory cats, and their fingers ended in long claws.  Qara recognized them as Quaggoths.

(Art shamelessly lifted from the Monsters Guide)

Urz, beginning to suspect he may be a linear character, charged in yelling and screaming, and managed to form enough of a meat shield that the Quaggoths could not get by him to the softer targets behind him.  Urz paid for this extremely wise strategic choice by suffering a barrage of hits from the big hairy jerks, dropping down to a single hit point in one round of combat.  Thoroughly pissed off at this, he used his Relentless Endurance ability to regain a handful of hit points, and held his ground as yet another torrent of attacks brought him to zero hit points.  Fortunately, half-orcs are extremely hard to kill, and his racial ability allowed him to stand back up with a single hit point.

Meanwhile, the other party members were being VERY effective.  Qara was flipping in and out of melee range, stinging with her blades before tumbling away into the shadows again.  Dunkirk was using his spiritual weapon (a floating sword with a menorah-shaped crossguard) to carve chunks out of the Quaggoths while doing his absolute best to keep Urz alive with healing, and Yu’Walla was perfectly content hanging back and tossing Eldritch Blasts around.

Finally, the last of the Quaggoths fell dead, speared through the skull by Dunkirk’s goofy-looking ghost blade.  The party took a short rest, regaining some hit points, and pressed on.

Further down the hallway, a doorway revealed a round room with a throne in the center.  Urz marched straight in and sat in the throne, which immediately caused a magical barrier to form over the doorway, trapping him inside and everyone else outside.  This would have been alarming to him, but his attention was grabbed by elaborate frescoes that decorated the walls (in this moment I decided that Urz was an admirer of fine art, despite having little talent for creating it).  In the frescoes, scenes of great battles were depicted, and an axe-wielding warrior-king led his armies against an elven conqueror, who wore a three-pointed crown with three elven generals.  As Urz was entranced by the scenes, the rest of the group pushed ahead, trying to find a side entrance to the room.  They entered a large hall, with high ceilings supported by pillars, and sarcophagi pressed against the walls.  A set of stone steps led to a raised dais, where a more expensive sarcophagus was placed.  As they approached it, the led flew off, and a mummified warrior pulled himself out.

Hearing his friends yelling, Urz snapped out of his admiration of the frescoes and searched the walls for a way out.  He detected a false wall panel, and kicked it open, discovering that it led to the inside of a sarcophagus.  As he dove into it and burst out on the other side of the wall, scattering the remains of the previous inhabitant of the sarcophagus, he saw that he was in the same burial chamber as his companions just as the room began to come to life. Several other sarcophagi brought forth mummified warriors, holding spears and shields.  Two ghostly swords summoned atop pedestals flanking the raised dais.  And the mummified warrior-king from that grand sarcophagus held an axe and wore armor that Urz immediately recognized from the frescoes.

Disclaimer: I drew this before the DM told me he was carrying an axe.

The fight began right away.  Qara darted straight for the warrior-king, skewering him through the neck with her blades, only to see that her weapons had little effect.  Urz, being somewhat removed from the main party, laid in to one of the guardian mummies, while Dunkirk and Yu’Walla found their spells were having much better effect on the undead.  The specter-blades, in particular, were both tied up by Dunkirk’s spiritual weapon, and a bizarre sword fight between phantom blades played out over the physical battle.

After dispatching two of the guardian mummies, Urz charged at the warrior-king, only to receive a vicious wound to his leg.  His own axe, in response, did little to harm the undead king, despite scoring two solid hits.  Witnessing Qara’s blades have minimal effect on the king, Urz decided to simply tackle the mummy and hope for the best.  Shouldering the king around the waist, Urz hurled it above him and slammed it to the ground, pinning its axe hand in the process.  The mummy roared and swung at Urz with its free hand, which struck his axe, causing it to shatter.  Fortunately, Yu’Walla and Dunkirk seized on the opportunity and poured offensive spells into the mummy, reducing it to ash.

Dunkirk, who had taken a fair bit of punishment from the guardian mummies during the fight, staggered against the wall, panting.

“I think we’re safe now,” he said.

Then an arrow flew from a doorway on the other side of the room and struck him square in the chest, and he fell to the floor, unconscious and bleeding out.

Returning to town, giving La’Farraq a good lead, Qara broke off from Urz and Yu’Walla and trailed him to his home.  Watching the house for a time, she saw nothing suspicious (relative to what had just happened), and returned to the Six Windows tavern to rejoin her companions, who were enjoying food and drink on the house.  “The Heroes of the Mine”, they were being called already.  During a lull in the excitement, an old man in expensive clothes approached the three of them and asked if he could speak to them in private concerning La’Farraq.

The trio followed the old man out of the tavern’s back door into an alleyway.  As they did so, a dark-haired dwarf, who had been watching them with interest all night, made to follow them quietly.

Out Of Character: This was how we introduced Ben and his character Dunkirk.  JC, recognizing our party needed a healer, had convinced him to play with us and roll a life cleric.  Ben, wanting to listen in on the conversation, announced he would be stealthily following us.  Grinning as he made his first dice roll in D&D, he promptly rolled a 1.

As the three adventurers and the stranger attempted to keep a low profile in the alley, they were interrupted as a dwarf in chainmail came tumbling through the door, accompanied by a clattering avalanche of pots, pans and several tankards of ale.  Several crows began cawing obnoxiously at the noise, and from inside the tavern, the preforming band was thrown off by the commotion and there was an ugly few moments as they all lost their tempo and the music abruptly stopped.  As the dwarf attempted to pull himself to his feet, his belt came unbuckled and his pants fell to his ankles.  Sheepishly, he attempted to pull them up with one hand, while patting a small patch of his beard that had somehow caught fire.

It was the greatest entrance anyone had ever seen.

Thinking quickly, and not wanting to lose the confidence of the stranger, Urz began yelling at the dwarf.

“What have I told you about watching where you’re going!  Pull up your pants and apologize to the waitress before you come over here!”  He paused for a moment and turned to the old man, saying “don’t worry, he’s with us”.  Urz then glared at the dwarf and mouthed the words “DO NOT FUCK THIS UP.”

The dwarf collected himself, brought the cookware back into the tavern, apologized to the waitress who was still unsure how he managed to trip so spectacularly, re-fastened his belt and returned to the alley, walking with as much dignity as he could possibly muster.  Approaching the old man, he confidently said “Greetings sir, I am Dunkirk, cleric and healer.”  Everyone stood and stared at him for a moment, not sure what to make of him.  It was Yu’Walla who broke the silence.

“You wanted to speak to us about La’Farraq?”

“Ah, yes.  I’ll cut straight to the point with you.  I don’t trust him.  He isn’t the same man he once was.  He’s distracted and aloof now, and doesn’t have the time to properly govern Triboar.  You lot seem capable enough; I want you to get to the bottom of why La’Farraq has changed so much.”

Qara, always with her priorities straight, agreed on our behalf, on the condition that he give us an advance.  He reluctantly agreed, giving us a sack of ten coins of red gold.  Qara hugged him for his generosity, picking his pocket and stealing the key to his house in the process.  Yu’Walla pressed him on the red gold, where it had come from and what was special about it, but Granar claimed it simply started showing up at some point a few months prior.  Urz sensed he knew more than he let on, but let it be for now.

Granar said his goodbyes and left the group, heading to what they presumed was his home.  Urz took the opportunity to question Dunkirk about what he thought he was doing, and in return got an earful about a bizarre new faith, of which Dunkirk was the first and only member.  Listening for as long as he could (not long), Urz eventually cut him off, offering to allow him to accompany them.  Dunkirk enthusiastically agreed.

Walking through the streets of Triboar, Dunkirk detected someone following them, and quietly informed Qara.  Qara, in turn, ducked behind a group of bushes, and ambushed the figure as it got closer.  It was a middle aged woman; thin, unkempt, missing teeth and stinking of booze.  A quick interrogation revealed her name to be Altorah, a local drunk who knew much about the goings on of the town (even if she had trouble articulating herself).  She seemed mesmerized by the red gold, and the party decided to hire her as a spy.  They tasked her with learning more about Granar, and anything she could about why La’Farraq had been so derelict in his leadership as of late.  She was paid a single red gold piece as a retainer, with the promise of five more when she had something concrete.  Qara promptly stole the coin back from her as soon as it was in her pocket.

Returning to the Six Windows, the group retired to their rented rooms, thoroughly unable to process what was going on thus far.

Next post: Logical Arson

Note: this first session was just Katie, JC and I playing. Ben did not join us until the second session.

Arriving in Triboar, Urz, Qara and Yu’Walla collected their pay from the merchant and took some time to take in their surroundings. Finding Tribor to be a depressingly podunk mining town, they made their way to the Six Windows, a tavern in a low-income neighborhood. As the three slid up to the bar, Qara began speaking with some of the local drunks about the goings-on in town, while Yu’Walla listened in on conversations between patrons. Urz attempted to start a dice game, but his large, armored frame made the locals uneasy and none were willing to bet coin with him.

Between Qara and Yu’Walla, it was learned that the townsfolk were unhappy with their appointed reeve, a mercenary captain named La’Farraq who led his company of Silver Boars. Many didn’t trust him, felt that he was too preoccupied by personal matters to properly govern the town, and the economy had been suffering because of it. Further prodding by Yu’Walla revealed that La’Farraq had lost his wife to a fever some time ago when he was away on duties. Since this loss, La’Farraq had been distant and uninterested in proactively leading Triboar. Some time ago, red gold coins had begun to circulate in the town currency, although none could explain their origin. They were accepted as any other gold, but still held with some superstitious caution and wonder.

Urz, bored out of his mind, ordered dinner. The barmaid suggested he “try the boar”, which all of the bar flies seemed to think was hilarious. It was served momentarily, and just as he was about to dig in, a bell sounded from the center of town, and people began shouting in the street.

Rushing to discover the source of the commotion, the three adventurers asked confused and panicked locals what was going on. After plenty of wide-eyed stares, a young man clambered up on a crate and began yelling that the mine was under attack.

Itching for something to swing an axe at, Urz ran in the direction of the mine, with Qara and Yu’Walla at his heels. Arriving at the entrance of the mine, the trio found it to be blocked off by armored men whose shields were marked with the crest of a silver-headed boar. They were holding the crowd back with weapons drawn, despite cries that loved ones were still inside. The corpses of several men, huge wounds across their bodies, had been drug out and were laid on the ground. As the trio approached, the guards eyed them nervously and explained that the mine was under quarantine while a plan of attack was being formulated. Urz, having no time for their amateur-hour bullshit, showed them his Flaming Fists symbol of rank, and demanded they let him and his friends pass. Yu’Walla, in a somewhat more subtle approach, used her Mask of Many Faces ability to incorporate the Silver Boar crest into her disguise. The Silver Boars parted for Urz, and informed Yu’Walla that some sort of monster, possibly an owlbear, was loose in the mine. Asking the guards to keep the entrance sealed and the people safe, Yu’Walla, Urz and Qara entered the mine.

A few steps in, Yu’Walla found a black feather on the mine floor. It looked like it could have belonged to an owlbear, but it was black, wet with a thin slime, and stank of decay. Advancing carefully, the trio saw signs of violence as they ventured deeper into the mine. Here, a support beam had deep claw marks in it. There, blood was splattered over a wall. Overturned tables, scattered tools, and other hallmarks of struggle were everywhere. Working their way through the mine, the adventurers found rooms that the miners had dug out to serve as lodgings and a mess hall. The lodgings had been thoroughly destroyed, and blood was everywhere. Following the trail of blood, they encountered a small door, which they opened to discover a young girl, perhaps fifteen, huddling in fear. Yu’Walla did her best to comfort the young one, wrapping her in a blanket. Questions as to what happened went unanswered, and all the girl could do was plead for the trio to get her outside. They quickly escorted her back to the entrance of the mine, and saw that she was safe in the protection of the Silver Boars before returning to the mine to continue their hunt.

Retracing their steps back into the mine, the party discovered that the layout of the mine was circular, and that they had covered the perimeter without encountering whatever monster had caused such destruction. Deciding to move inward through some of the secondary passageways, they made their way through the mess hall, finding more evidence of carnage, but still no beast. A second room with bunks was discovered, with small locked chests at the foot of each bed. Urz began smashing the locks off the boxes, finding several coins, including a red gold piece. While Yu’Walla and Qara were urging him to keep the noise down, they in turn were silenced by the sound of a large, bulky creature bounding their way from behind one of the shut doors. His back to his two companions, neither of them saw him grin before turning around and hurling himself at the door, as it exploded into splinters and a beast from a nightmare tore into the room.

The beast defied categorization. It was a bulky quadruped, rippling with pulsing muscle. Its black skin was dripping with thin mucous, and covered in patches of tumorous growth. Random patches of feathers, fur, scales, warts and chitin were clustered around its grotesque form. Its massive head had multiple black, orb-like eyes and a compound mouth with mandibles, and a thick black tentacle grew from its back. As it looked at the party, it gave off empathetic flashes of pain, fear and rage, confusing and disorienting the adventurers.

As they met, the tentacle swatted Urz aside, although his armor saved him from the swiping claws. Qara darted in and stabbed the beast in the side with her rapier, causing foul-smelling ichor to pour from the wound. Yu’Walla attempted to reach out to the mind of the creature, but was overwhelmed with feelings of agony and terror. Urz picked himself up from the rubble of the table the beast had slammed him through, and charged the beast again, this time slapping the tentacle away with his shield and dealing a deep wound to the beast’s neck. Again, the beast roared and struck back at the fighter, who took a claw swipe to the chest, but remained on his feet.

The battle went on, and every time it struck out, the trio were wracked with the empathetic flashes of pain and misery. Qara scored several more wounds to the beast, darting away and out of its range each time before it could strike back Yu’Walla blasted it with eldritch energy, and finally, Urz jumped to avoid a low claw strike, and cleaved down hard with his axe, slicing clean through the tentacle and embedding the blade deep into the cranium of the foul abomination. It fell to the floor, finally dead, stinking blood pouring from its body.

Shocked, exhausted, bleeding, and feeling a collective sense of “what the fuck was that?”, the trio did their best to determine what the creature was, without having to actually touch the gross thing too much. Despite her best efforts, Yu’Walla could not identify the thing, although it did seem as if it had been magically constructed from various other animals.

Wary of the possible undead nature of the beast, and still shaken from the empathetic flashes it was giving off, the group decided to burn the corpse inside the mine. After doing so, they emerged to find a middle-aged man with a mustache and thick build, in Silver Boars heraldry, barking orders for the townsfolk gathered at the entrance to disperse and return to their homes. Upon noticing the trio, the man introduced himself as La’Farraq, and demanded to know what had happened. Not much liking his tone, the trio told him they found a single survivor, and described the beast they had killed. La’Farraq seemed upset that they had burned the body, claiming he wanted to see it for himself.

By this point, the townsfolk had all been herded away from the mine, and were headed back to the walls of Triboar as the trio continued to talk with an increasingly irritable La’Farraq. He became thoroughly sick of their questions when Qara mentioned the red gold, and Yu’Walla asked why the corpses had not been removed from the scene. It was at this moment that the trio saw figured approaching from the trees. Several small, hunched figures in studded leather guided an ox-drawn wagon. They seemed to be goblins, but walked with a more purposeful and confident stride than the usually jittery creatures. Their faces were mostly hidden by crude masks, but their anatomy was unmistakable as being goblinoid.

At one point, picking up on their studded leather armor, I referred to them as “Fetish Gobbos”, a theme that our DM picked up and ran with.

Following them, a tall, thin figure in hooded robes that completely concealed his visage emerged from the trees. As the goblins began loading the corpses into their wagon, the hooded figure produced a bag of coins and handed it to La’Farraq.

“Your payment,” he whispered in a raspy voice.

The bizarre group then returned to the woods from where they came, and La’Farraq hurriedly left the scene to return to Triboar.

Out of character, I watched all this happen, waiting for reactions from Katie and JC. This was my first time playing D&D, and I didn’t want to launch us all into a fight yet as we were all pretty battered from fighting the beast. JC remarked that it was getting late, and we should head back to town. I couldn’t tell if he said this in character or out, as I wasn’t aware Tieflings had bedtimes, and it was only 9:15 or so in real life.

“So, we’re just OKAY with this??” I exclaimed.

The two of them reasoned that they felt it would be better to act cool, and tackle things from a more subtle investigative angle. Later, Mark would tell me that the adventure was originally meant to be a one-shot, and that we had been on track to finish it in a single session until it was decided to let the hooded figure go. This adventure would end up going on for several months, will all manner of wild shit happening.

Next session: Things Get Weird

I’ve been putting this off for WAY too long.  I originally was going to start my write-up of our campaign after the first leg ended.  Our DM got married back in June, at a beautiful ceremony in Trinidad (I highly suggest everyone visit if you ever get the chance, and definitely hit up the street food festivals at the Grand Savannah).  A few months before his wedding, he asked that we bring the campaign to the end of “Season One”, and one of us take up DMing duties for a bit so he could have more free time to plan the wedding.  Well, we finished Season One, played through the Interlude Season, and are now three sessions into Season Two.  So, it’s about high time I start writing this thing up before I lose my notes and completely forget everything that happened.

I’ll begin by introducing the player characters.  Obviously, my own character has a more flushed-out backstory here.  Not that the other characters don’t have their own stories, I just don’t know as much about them as I do my own character.

Urz Gro-Dagoth, Player: Dexter (Me!)

Urz is a massive, brutish half-orc.  The product of a Flaming Fists breeding program designed to produce half-orcs for use as vanguard troops, he was raised in the mercenary-military culture of Baldur’s Gate.  Much of his early career was hunting down roaming bands of orcs in the plains and woods surrounding the city.  Several months prior to the beginning of our campaign, Urz was placed into a unit contracted to hunt down a dangerous tribe of ogres that had been threatening villages near the Sword Mountains.  Things went awry, however, and the unit commanders were killed in an ambush.  The survivors were forced to retreat to the nearby city of Yartar.

Unable to agree on the next course of action, the remaining soldiers in the unit went their own ways.  Some abandoned their duties as members of the Flaming Fists, some attempted the long journey back to Baldur’s Gate.  Urz, left leaderless and penniless, accepted a contract to escort a trade caravan to the neighboring city of Tribor.

Yu’Walla, Player: JC

A talented investigator, Yu’Walla made a career for herself working as a private eye for discerning clients.  Her work took her all over the Sword Coast, and she was all too aware of how many people treated Tieflings.  Her pact with one of the Old Ones, however, allowed her to perpetually disguise herself using Mask of Many Faces.  What she promised or gave up to gain the favor of her patron is unknown, as Yu’Walla is loathe to speak of the origins of her warlock powers.  Her work led her to Yartar, where she was asked to help supervise the security of a trade caravan traveling to Tribor.

Qara, Player: Katie

Brazen, charismatic and unpredictable, Qara had swashbuckled her way up and down the Sword Coast.  The dark elf enjoyed a life of danger, adventure, and long nights of drinking.  Occasionally, she would take to land for a time to explore new cities, meet new people, and steal new treasures.  It was on one of these land-bound excursions that she found herself in Yartar, attempting to rob a jewelry merchant blind whilst simultaneously trying to beat a dwarf local in a drinking competition.  Losing the competition (but successfully robbing the merchant), Qara awoke needing to leave town in a hurry.  She jumped at the chance to escort a trade caravan to Tribor.

Dunkirk, Player: Ben

A truly odd dwarf, Dunkirk awoke one day in his quiet home in the hills with a vivid dream seared in his mind.  Images of a burning bush, commandments etched into stone tablets, waters parting to let a slave caste escape their cruel masters, and a promised land possessed him.

Yes, Ben wanted to play a dwarven rabbi.  We needed a healer though.

Dunkirk traveled from town to town, preaching the word of his new faith.  Most thought he was insane and ignored him.  Sadly, he was unable to recruit any followers to his religion, and he found himself in Tribor, at a low-income tavern, discussing the merits of his home-brewed Manischewitz with the barkeep.

Next post: “And Away We Go!”

Just a quickie for now.

I started posting on Instagram.  It will probably be my main dumping ground for content, as it’s much faster to post pics up there than it is here.  Updates here will still happen, probably at the same very slow pace that they currently do.  I am going to start putting out my D&D campaign write-up soon, as well as pics of the character models I built and painted for my group.  The last session of our adventure will take place this weekend, and I’ll start writing it up after that.  Also I lost my notebook so I need to find that before I start the write-up because I’ve forgotten a shocking amount of important details, I’m sure.

Anyway, pop over here when you have time to check out my models.  There are several that haven’t been posted here yet:

https://www.instagram.com/dexamongus/

So, my non-hobby life has been… turbulent lately, and that has effected my already slow updates on this blog.  I HAVE been producing some stuff, I just haven’t been taking photos.  I’m becoming less interested in posting WIP stuff lately, but since I’m working on a TON of projects at the same time, I don’t have anything finished to share.  I did complete a commission for a squad of Night Lords and space pirates recently, and I will photograph those in the next few days (for real).  I am also working on a few more commissions, and I’m going to start putting those up here instead of just finishing them and shipping them off without making any record of them.

So, just for perspective, here are some things I am working on for myself:

• Imperial Knight
• Dreadknight-based battle armor conversion
• Rogue Trader
• Inquisitor Lord
• Retinue for Inquisitor Falx
• House Goliath gang (almost finished!)
• House Lamtron Tech Priest
• A LOT of terrain

Some are being painted, others converted, but all are cluttering my desk up and making it very difficult to focus on one thing and just bang it out.  I gotta work on that.

Anyway.  A WHILE ago I said I would be expanding my focus of this blog to encompass more than just 40k.  I never got around to posing any Malifaux battle reports, but they will be coming soon.  Also, a few months ago I joined a Dungeons & Dragons campaign being run by a very good friend of mine.  I had never played the game before but took to it like a moth to a flame.  I’ve decided to chronicle the adventures and campaigns, both to share with everyone, and to serve as a resource for my group (it can be a lot to keep track of everything).  So, that’s coming.  In all likelihood, I’ll write a post with character descriptions in the coming few days and start writing a post for each session.  We’re about six deep now so they may come quickly as I catch up.  So far they’ve all been a blast, and I can’t believe I’ve gone this long in life without playing this game.  Seriously, what was I thinking?

A looooong time ago, I wanted to create a suit of power armor that was distinctly non-Astartes, but rather crafted for a non-augmented human soldier.  Taking the concept further, and influenced by my over-exposure to the Fallout-verse, I wanted my power armored soldier to look like he would be at home in rad-wastes.  An Inquisitorial operative specializing in extended deployments in hazardous environments.

Pretty happy with how he came out.  At first I was worried that his legs were going to be too heavy and bulky and read as overly Astartes, but I think I pulled it off really well!  I’ve also had that gun sitting around for a LONG time, waiting for me to build a proper model to hold it.  I think I nailed it this time.  All that’s left is a bit of cleaning up here and there, namely some gap-filling and sorting out the right side of his neck, which is a little sloppy.  Then, on to painting, and I think I have a good idea for his color scheme.

Until next time!