The hunted and the hunters

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Hammer 1

The party barely rested from a tough fight with the Umber Hulks and Mind Flayers push forward into the ancient shrine of Silvanus, now being corrupted by the Squat man and his followers. The next room holds little to surprise the group, some brutes and lurkers. They fight their enemies with precision and take them down with little effort. A long passage is discovered and the party marches down it. Riddick is in front and rounds the corner to see a large room about 30 feet away. He spies some Driders and other creatures. About this time Leif perceives a tremor, very slight, but it feels like a large creature or many small creatures moving underneath him or around him somehow.
They make their into the hall and combat starts! Inside the room at the opposite end is a large portal that leads to what appears to be the Underdark. Also in the room is the Squat man himself! After a few rounds of fighting the group seems at a disadvantage, but Hannibal's rally has them reposition themselves to better take advantage of their numbers. Just a mere moment later all lights in the room go out for an instant and them come back very, very dim. In the portal an image of Loth appears, both beautiful and terrible. The Squat man yells "Mistress! See me here to triumph over thy enemies!" "Yes, my slave", she answers, "but you are both wrong and right. Right that Riddick's blood will be delivered to me, but not by you. Your sloppy work in Waterdeep has jeopardized my emissaries there and now they are in peril. I hear by charge you to escape back to the city and warn my people there. Have everyone rendezvous at the meeting place. Slay these pathetic creatures, they are vermin! Until you do my bidding you will never enter my realms again." The squat man responds "But if I do not carry the day against these enemies who will?" Lolth laughs and says "Fool! My true servants will return carrying my prize, but I will grant you this boon". She points and a fell light leaps from her finger into the Squat man. His head drops for a moment and then he renews the fight with vigor!
They party seems to take the upper hand after several more rounds. With a gasp the bloodied Squat man invokes Lolth's blessing. His skin seems to crack and fall off, he grows to a 12 foot high demon! Using some kind of evil power he draws a web of power surrounding himself and Hannibal, encasing them in a deadly dome! As the rest of the party battles the dwindling forces, a life and death struggle between Hannibal and demon can be seem through the smokey force cage. Back and forth the demon and Hannibal swing their weapons each dealing wounds. Hannibal is bloodied several times only to inspire himself to continue the fight. Finally, Hannibal delivers what must be a mortal wound. The sword pierces the demons heart. The demon not done, grabs Hannibal's wrists which are shoving the weapon into the demon. The fire from the demon's contact burns Hannibal but he continues to hold the blade. What was the Squat man pulls Hannibal closer, even though that means the sword is driven further into it. Once the sword hilt touches the demon's chest Hannibal finds him so close he is almost face to face with the creature. The demon whispers "Oh Mistress, I have failed you. Take my soul and destroy this Dragonborn so he may join me in the Abyss." With that the demon explodes, killing Hannibal in the process.
The group wearied by their fight with the Driders are struck dumb by the fall of their captain and leader. With renewed effort they slay the rest of the enemy and take in their situation. Not much later they realize that the tremors they heard were many footsteps coming down into the temple. Soon the room is flooded with a Drow army! Riddick knowing the odds are very poor invokes the Rod of the Sentinel to send a distress message to Brolgar. The party weakened by many fights and no rest puts up a gallant fight before they are beaten down and captured. They are tied up and tortured by the Drow. A few minutes later when the room is secured, none other than Emerate Qushae enters the room! "Ah you have done well General" he says to a warrior near him. "Take Riddick and be careful he comes to no harm. Slay the rest." With that Riddick is taken and put on a wagon, bound hand and foot, eyes covered as well. The Drow General moves down the line of captives and slits their throats one by one....

Prologue:

Brolgar and Diovanni have entered Waterdeep and are debriefing his father Ellanzo when the distress call comes in. With little time wasted, Ellanzo gathers a force such as he can and has a wizard create a temporary portal to the rod's location. They come upon a rear guard of Drow most of which are looting the dead bodies of our group. Ellanzo has his forces unleash on the Drow in which most are slain. The rest are driven back into the portal where the Drow try to close it on the other side. Ellanzo orders his wizards to hold it open for as long as they can while he brings the bodies back to Waterdeep. Helping him are Brolgar and Diovanni, who are saddened by their friends' death.
Ellanzo has each party member brought back to life in a very fast manner. He explains that he has also been in communication with Elladon, head of the church of the Seldarine in Faerun. Lolth and the Emerate cannot be allowed to complete the ritual. The group is to go back now and chase the Drow and to either hinder them or regain Riddick anyway they can. He will be in contact with them to explain further. As a boon to aid them on this very important mission, he will supply them with either a +3 weapon or armor of the type of their choosing from the armory of the Lords of Waterdeep; each bound and woven with magical spells to aid those that serve this city. Since you are down one member, he will also send a member of his household with you, Lucius Daybreaker. He is known to Leif and Jax. Lucius was an orphan and was brought into Ellanzo's household and raised as a step brother to Diovanni.
Time is running short as Ellanzo leads you back through the portal to the broken temple. As you enter the room where you died, his wizards are working hard to keep the portal open while you were recovered. Breaking a rod of day light Hannibal yells and jumps through the portal followed by the rest of the party. On the other side are a small group of Drow wizards and their Drider guards. The party makes short work of them, and clears out the room. It looks as if the hunted are now the hunters!

Exp. Gained: 3425

No Rest for the Weary

1489
Year of the Warrior Princess
Nightal 30

Our brave band of adventurers are called into Ellanzo's office at Castle Waterdeep sometime after midnight. Still tired from the fight with the demon and the disposal, they are briefed by Sgt. York. York tells them that their intel has the Squat man and his syndicate ready to make a big move tonight on several locations. Our group is given on uptown bar to stake out. The bar is located in the Noble's District and is a very fine establishment. Inside Leif and Hannibal stake out the place, it is filled mostly with college kids throwing around a lot of gold buying drinks and gambling. Outside, Solomon Kong tries to hide behind the beer cart but fails and moves down the block a bit. Also out of the way are Jax, Riddick, and Brother Krux. Krux still appears out of place with his new armor. It is very fancy and has many sigils embedded into it.
Around 2:00 am a party of kidnappers detonate a bomb from inside the bar killing most of the people! They knock out and hog tie two of the wealthy college kids and try to make off with them. Of course our group tries to stop them and does even after a few of the kidnappers appear to be unaffected by immobilization effects. They spare the leader of the bandits (at least most of him that Solomon did not crush), and he tells them that the Squat man has sent out all teams to do a massive score and to cause some instability to Ellanzo's new rule of Waterdeep. They are told some generic details where the camp is, it is at an old temple dedicated to the god of nature, Silvanus. Sgt. York gets some phantom steeps summoned for the party and they are off! Luckily between Jax and Leif they know enough about the surrounding area and especially with Leif making some good nature checks they find the ruined temple with little effort.
At the ruined temple, they see many low level thugs and in the back a leader and his wizard companion. The party attempts to stealth as far into the woods as possible to get close to the temple before the fight starts. About half way there they are finally spotted and the combat starts. Everyone seems to be fairly adapt at killing off the weaker thugs and then they concentrate on the leaders. The enemy wizard makes the fatal mistake of force moving Solomon dropping him down a deep well. Solomon reaches out and lashes onto the wizard dragging him down with him! Needless to say that is the worse day the wizard has ever had. After the combat they search and find that the pool still has a small amount of magic left in it. In the old days, followers of Sivanus would stand in the pool and utter a word of prayer to Silvanus, a traveler's chant. This chant would wash off some of the weariness of the road and leave the pilgrims refreshed. Not only does Leif recall the prayer, but does so well with the chant as the last energies of the pool leave, Silvanus' aspect is summoned by Leif's prayer! At that moment Leif converts to the worship of Silvanus and the aspect presents Leif with a power weapon from his new god. A magical totem woven with spells of protection and nature.
After searching around Riddick discovers a hidden door that leads to a circular stone staircase that does down about 60 feet. At the bottom of this landing is a set of double doors. On the way down Riddick was able to diffuse several nasty traps to the relief of the party.
Peeking through the doors they see a large Umberhulk in an odd shaped chamber. In one end of the chamber an odd well is in the floor and is uncovered. The group rushes in to fight the umberhulk. A few moments later another umberhulk craws out of the old well, and a mindflayer comes out from around the corner! The umberhulk were brutes, and they were able to scare Riddick a bit for part of the fight, but the fight was not in doubt once Jax was able to blow the mindflayer down the old well with a nicely placed Thunder Wave spell. The party is sensing the Squat man is close! They catch their breaths for a few minutes and heal up a bit. At this point they have been up for almost 24 hours, and have been non-stop for the last 12 or so. Onward!


Exp Awarded: 2325


- P.S. ~~ Hannibal ~~

The Invulnerable Coat of Arn is capable of communicating with you with emotions. It feels that is should leave very soon, but is pressuring you to complete this one last task with it. The Coat gives you the sensation that many valiant deeds are in front of you and they you are one of the best wearers to come along in many a lifetimes. Still there are warriors in the multi-verse that need to coat now more than you do, so it must leave you very soon.