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The Black Falcons
Overview
This is, by far, the most expansive adventure I've written for the campaign. Playing this one spanned the last 2-3 years and is most probably the best one I've ever written. I had a lot of fun writing this one.
Introduction
After emerging from the Lost Level of Undermountain, the Ashaba Heroes take their first real vacation in a long while. During close to 6 months, they stay in luxury in a country home in North Ward lent to them by Regnet Amcathra, the young nobleman they escorted from Shadowdale to Waterdeep. One day, they receive the visit of the archmage of Waterdeep, Khelben "Blackstaff" Arunsun. He offers a mission to Kiril Threndor (the Harper) : to escort a caravan heading out from Waterdeep to the city of Berdusk. However, this caravan is no ordinary caravan. In fact, among the goods is a magical bag of holding containing many potent magical items that need to be brought to Berdusk at all costs. The bag does have a powerful spell cast upon it by the archmage, making it appear as empty unless the correct magical word is spoken before opening the bag (a word that only Khelben and Drake know).
Another group of adventurers joins the Ashaba Heroes for the expedition : The Black Falcons. The leader of the group is a man named Drake, a ranger, like Kiril, who is also a member of the Harpers. The other members of the Black Falcons include Aragorn (yes, I took the name from the Lord of the Rings ), an ex-pirate that wields a nasty looking trident; Boris, a little halfling thief; and Valeria, a mysterious young woman who seems to be very interested in Drake...
After having prepared for the long expedition, Khelben gives the Heroes a magical gold piece with which they will be able to communicate with the archmage in case of an emergency. Their first destination is the village of Daggerford.
Chapter 1 - En route to Daggerford
This relatively short chapter details their voyage from Waterdeep to Daggerford. The only encounter of importance is with a group of genetically-advanced lizardmen.
Chapter 2 - Trolls and Elves
In this chapter, the Ashaba Heroes and the Black Falcons arrive on the site of a ferocious battle between trolls and elves. The majority of the elves are slain during the fight but thanks to the intervention of the Heroes and the Falcons, the leader of the elves, Elkar, and a half-elven priest of Sylvanus, Tharn, survive the battle. Elkar asks for the adventurers help in bringing back the bodies of his comrades to his village located in the Misty Forest.
Chapter 3 - Misty Forest - The Way Inn Brigands
The adventurers decide to separate into 2 separate groups : one group will accompany Elkar to the village in Misty Forest while the other will continue escorting the caravan to their next stop, The Way Inn village. Kiril, Drake, Elkar and Jimmy are part of the first group heading to the elven village. The second group is comprised of Balrog, Aragorn, Valeria and Tharn.
The first group escorting Elkar through the Misty Forest encounter many trolls and their two-headed mutations that roam the woods. They nevertheless manage to arrive safe and sound to the secret village. Elkar gratefully thanks the adventurers and gives them a magnificent suit of magical elven chain mail (which Kiril wears) and a magical sword called Trollbane.
The second group, en route to the Way Inn, are ambushed by a group of brigands coincidentally called The Way Inn Brigands. During the fight, one of the brigands, using his ring of invisibility, finds his way to one of the wagons of the caravan and steals many of the goods and gems. He stuffs some goods and gems inside the bag of holding, without realizing what the bag contains. Worse, Balrog and the others have no clue that the bag was stolen by the brigand...
Chapter 4 - Painful Reunion - Zhentarim Campsite
When the two groups meet up at the Way Inn, Drake realizes that the bag of holding has disappeared. After a few minutes of thinking, the Heroes assume that the bag was probably stolen during the brigands ambush. After asking for advice to Khelben using the magical gold piece, they decide to go and try to find the brigands hideout. They once again separate themselves in two groups, to spread out the searches. While they are searching, one of the groups discover a peaceful-looking pond. They decide to rest there for a while. However, the water of the pond has been tainted with a soporific poison put there by a group of Zhentarim spies...
The group of adventurers awaken inside a campsite, prisonners and Boris is missing. The adventurers, with the help of Tharn and some creatures of the forest, manage to escape their bonds and slay the Zhentarim spies. However, they realize that some of their gear is missing. The two groups meet up and finally manage to find the Way Inn Brigands' Hideout, an old abandonned castle.
The whole purpose of this side-chapter was to remove some very powerful magical items that some of the players had found during their adventures in Undermountain, which I felt greatly unbalanced gameplay.
Chapter 5 - The Way Inn Brigands' Hideout
Thanks to certain documents discovered inside the abandonned castle, the Heroes discover that the castle is the old stronghold of a warrior named Marlek. A decade ago, Marlek built his stronghold here. However, he had to abandon the castle due to repeated attacks by trolls and lizardmen.
After having explored the castle thoroughly, they discover the brigands' hideout in the castle's basement. After slaying the brigands, they recover the bag of holding and return to the Way Inn village to continue their trip.
Chapter 6 - The Labyrinth of Soran the Mad
The most developped chapter of the adventure. I wrote an extensive back story concerning the Labyrinth the Heroes explore and there are many subquests included in this chapter.
After retrieving the bag of holding, the Heroes and the Falcons (minus Boris who has gone missing and Aragorn, who was killed and eaten by some trolls) return to the Way Inn and meet up with two mercenaries : Mat, a fighter and Casey, a thief (played by two new players that joined our group). The mercenaries join the group. The next step of their expedition is to reach Boareskyr Bridge by passing by the ruins of Dragonspear Castle.
Arrived near the ruins of the old castle, the group encounter a group of dwarves fighting a group of undead led by a mummy. The adventurers manage to help the dwarves win the fight but only two dwarves survive the battle : Hendel, the chief of the Platinum Axe clan and his friend Ralnor, a priest of Moradin, god of the dwarves. Hendel says that many groups of undead monsters have been attacking his clan's complex these last few months and that many of his clansfolk have gone missing. He asks the Heroes if they wish to accompany him to his complex to help find his missing clansfolk. After a few minutes of discussion, the Ashaba Heroes accept and they head towards Hendel's clan's underground complex.
Arrived at the complex, the adventurers stumble upon another fight between the dwarves and a group of undead creatures lead by a death knight wielding a huge black two-handed sword. After defeating the undead creatures, Hendel and Ralnor lead the adventurers to the Temple of Moradin inside the complex where their wounds are healed. After a meeting, it is decided that Drake, Tharn and Valeria shall remain in the complex to help the dwarves defend against any other attacks by undead while the rest of the adventurers, along with Hendel, will go off to find the missing clansfolk. Before leaving, Drake offers the bag of holding to Kiril, for safe-keeping.
Eventually, the adventurers discover the entrance to an underground labyrinth not too far away from the dwarves underground complex. They encounter various undead creatures inside, many of them drain the life force from a few of the adventurers. They decide to head back to the dwarves complex to get healed. Ralnor, the priest, decides to accompany the Heroes back to this labyrinth they discovered, offering his help in dispelling the evil undead creatures.
Back in the labyrinth, the adventurers meet many more undead creatures and other magical beasts. They manage to discover a few dwarves that were being held captive in various cells in the labyrinth. They manage to free all of Hendel's missing clansfolk. However, they eventually encounter the master of the labyrinth, an insane lich that calls himself Soran the Mad. Soran unleashes the rest of his undead horde on the Ashaba Heroes but the adventurers manage to prevail, slaying the lich and his minions. They also encounter a recently freed balor tanar'ri called Gyrax near the exit of the labyrinth. With the help of a new powerful two-handed sword, the Heroes banish the demon back to the Nine Hells for another century. The Heroes, Hendel, and the rest of the dwarves, head back to the surface and go back to the Platinum Axe underground complex.
Chapter 7 - Korolius' Revenge
Note: Last chapter of the adventure and very long.
After exiting Soran's Labyrinth, the Ashaba Heroes returned to the Platinum Axe dwarven underground complex. After some healing and some well deserved rest, Hendel gave the Heroes some rewards for helping him rescue his clansfolk from the insane lich's clutches. After some warm farewells, the Heroes depart the complex and head back to the Trade Way to continue their trip towards Berdusk.
One evening, they arrive at an inn that is on the side of the road. The proprietor of the inn comes outside to greet them. Drake goes to shake the man's hand and suddenly gets struck down by an arrow, directly in his throat. He falls down, clutching the arrow. The 'proprietor' reveals his true identity... Korolius, the Ashaba Heroes' old nemesis! He had planned this ambush very carefully. Archers are posted in the top floors, firing down on the adventurers with poison arrows. Zhentarim mages and priests of Cyric come out of the stable, raining deadly spells on them as well. Let's just say that this was supposed to be a hard fight and then... all hell broke loose...
It is during this battle that my brother and another player (Étienne) got into a fight and all hell broke loose. The other player ended up comitting suicide and left the others to fend for themselves. At the end of the battle, only Jimmy remained and he fought valiantly to the end. I had of course planned in advance that the fight would have been lost but they didn't know that. To them, all of their characters had been killed and the campaign was over. Of course, the fight they had didn't help matters any. After the battle, Mathieu ripped Jimmy's character sheet to shreds... and we stopped playing for many months... They reconciled eventually and Mathieu created a new character called Enzo.
We resumed play on Sunday, April 1st 2001. At the end of the last session, the Ashaba Heroes had been all killed by the forces of Korolius during an ambush outside of a road side inn. The Heroes wake up, disoriented, and eventually discover that they have been brought back to life by another adventuring group that passed by. The leader of the group, a man named Thalas, explained that they arrived at the inn a few hours ago and saw some brigands dragging bodies inside the inn and they were preparing to set fire to the building. The adventurers killed the brigands before they could set fire to the inn and Thalas, a priest of Tymora brought back the Heroes to life. However, Jimmy's body was nowhere to be found...
After discussing the recent events, Thalas announces that his group are Harpers and that their contact for this region, the owner of this inn, was supposed to give them their next assignement. The Harpers were located at Boareskyr Bridge and after not receiving any news from the proprietor of the inn after over a week of silence, they decided to come here to investigate. During the fight against the brigands, a stranger by the name of Enzo appeared out of nowhere to help the Harpers out. Thalas presents Enzo to the Ashaba Heroes and Enzo decides to join the Heroes for some strange reason...
After recovering his wits, Drake discovers that the bag of holding has once again disappeared, probably taken by Korolius and his forces. Thankfully, the Heroes arms and equipment are still intact. Kiril asks Thalas and the other Harpers if they know of any fortification or town in the area where the Zhentarim might of established a headquarters. Thalas informs them that the only place he can think of is an old abandonned fortress built about 3 centuries ago by a bugbear tribe led by a necromancer. According to the rumors, the fortress is located about 20 kilometers northeast of the inn, in the High Moor. Thalas suggests that it might be a good place to start looking.
The Harpers take leave of the Ashaba Heroes, heading towards Waterdeep. The Heroes recover their horses and start their trip towards the High Moor and to try and locate this abandonned fortress. They are attacked on the way by some hill giants and some ettins and they even encouter a Zhentarim patrol, which they dispatch quite easily. Eventually, they locate the fortress decide that Enzo will wait until night arrives and go off alone for a mission of reconnaissance of the fortress while the rest of the Ashaba Heroes rest.
After neutralizing a guard that was patrolling one of the ramparts by using his thieving skills, Enzo enters the fortress by climbing the side of one of the walls. Once inside, he uses a scroll of invisibility to render himself invisible and starts to explore the fortress. He discovers that the place is heavily guarded by soldiers, mages and priests. He eventually enters a room, discovers a chest, which he tries to open by picklocking the lock. He manages to open the lock but sadly, he forgot to search for a trap beforehand. He gets pricked by a poisonned needle and all becomes black...
The next morning, the rest of the Ashaba Heroes, still at their campsite, noticed that Enzo had not returned. They decided to investigate the fortress for themselves. Kiril, under the influence of a potion of invisibility, explored the sides of the fortress during dawn to eventually discovered a rusted metal grating on the western side of the fortress, underwater, in the moat. After informing the rest of his friends, they decided to create a diversion by setting fire to the fortress' drawbridge by dousing it in oil and firing a flame arrow at it. That caused enough distraction for the rest of the adventurers to slip by to the western side of the fortress, dive in the water of the moat and enter the rusted metal grating.
Emerging from the grating, the Heroes find themselves inside some old catacombs that are seemingly located under the fortress. Inside the dusty halls and rooms, they encounter various undead creatures including bugbear ju-ju zombies and some wights. They eventually manage to find a room with another metal grating in the ceiling this time. They climb up through the grating and find themselves inside a prison cell. After looking inside the other cells, they discover Enzo, beaten into unconsciousness and also an old comrade of theirs, Boris, the halfling thief and member of the Black Falcons that got captured in the Zhentarim campment in Chapter 4. After rescuing their two friends, the Ashaba Heroes head back to the catacombs to explore them some more. They eventually discover a secret passage leading to an old laboratory where a drow mage is keeping residence. They quickly dispatch the drow mage, loot his laboratory and find yet another trap door in the ceiling. They climb up through the trap door to find themselves inside a storage room.
They find themselves eventually inside the inner manor of the fortress. Evading the various guards and patrols by various means of subterfuge, they eventually enter a room where a guard is sleeping. Enzo quietly moves to the guard's bed and murders him in cold blood (first step toward an alignment change, I think). Two other guards eventually enter the room as the Heroes are searching the room. They both get dispatched as well. The session ends as the Heroes wonder if they've been discovered by the fortress' forces yet...
After killing the soldiers that had discovered them, the Heroes decided to go check out if they had been discovered. Indeed, they had been discovered. They got attacked by a group of 8 soldiers, 3 priests of Cyric and 3 Zhentarim mages. The fight did not turn out well for the Ashaba Heroes. The priests of Cyric employed hold person spells to neutralize them. Enzo was the only one who escaped unharmed, by using his scroll of teleportation to go back to Waterdeep.
Back in Waterdeep, Enzo headed back to his inn and was reunited with his followers. He enlisted their aid in going back to help the Ashaba Heroes and also to go and loot the fortress' treasures. Enzo enlisted the aid of three of his followers : Bud, Wise and Erre, 3 "multi-talented" individuals (Yes, together, their names spell Budweiser and yes, my friends are morons ^_^). After purchasing several poisonned arrows and other supplies, Enzo also hired two powerful mercenaries, a fighter and a mage to help them out, Thentar and Belgar. After planning out the fees and such, Enzo and his band teleported back to the Bloody Boar Inn, where the Ashaba Heroes had been ambushed (since it was the closest location to the fortress that Belgar the mage knew about).
By using fly and invisibility spells, Enzo and his band manage to infiltrate once more the fortress and explore it a bit more, searching for the missing Ashaba Heroes. They eventually find their way into the priest's living quarters and manage to kill 3 of them in their sleep while Erre charms the last one. By consulting the charmed priest, Enzo's band discovers that the Ashaba Heroes are being held in the prison block and that they are guarded (a contingent of 5 sergeants and 1 priest of Cyric). Enzo's band decides to first neutralize the priests of Cyric that are remaining by surprising them while they are praying inside the temple. After slaying the priests, they head towards the weapons room (with advice from the charmed priest once more to know its location) and they discover the confiscated equipment of the Ashaba Heroes. Stealthly evading the various patrols of soldiers by using invisibility spells, Enzo's band eventually manage to make their way back to the cell block and manage to rescue the Ashaba Heroes, 2 of which are unconscious and the others, very weak and having been tortured for information.
The Ashaba Heroes, with new allies, decide on what to plan next...
After rescuing the Ashaba Heroes, Enzo's followers, Bud, Wise and Erre were teleported back to Waterdeep by Belgar. Both Thentar and Belgar stayed with the group. After reviving and healing everyone, the Ashaba Heroes start to plan out strategies to find the bag of holding. While they are discussing strategies in the cell block, a contingent of soldiers arrives and attack them. After dispatching the soldiers, the group heads towards the central courtyard. After a bit of scouting on Enzo's part, they discover that most of the fortress' forces have mobilized in the courtyard and are waiting to plan an ambush on the invaders. Knowing their plan, the Ashaba Heroes attack the forces amassed in the central courtyard. With efficient strategy and planning, the Heroes manage to neutralize most of Korolius' mages. A very rough and tough battle ensues. Kiril is killed in melee combat with Korolius. In turn, Korolius is also killed by a cone of cold spell cast by Belgar. Valeria, the traitor, is killed by a fireball cast by Belgar at the beginning of the battle. The Heroes eventually manage to kill the rest of the leaders of Korolius' forces, the rest of the soldiers flee to various other parts of the fortress. As the Heroes gather their wits and resurrect Kiril, they think about where the bag of holding could be kept...
After defeating Korolius' forces in the courtyard, the rest of his forces routed from the fortress, taking with them as much loot as they could carry. The Heroes searched every nook and cranny of the fortress in search of leftover loot and treasures. They found many magical items and some gold and platinum pieces. After searching Korolius' quarters, they finally find the bag of holding. They exit the fortress with their new loot and head towards Boareskyr's Bridge, where they rent pegasi to fly the remainder of the trip to Berdusk. Arrived in Berdusk, they meet Belhuar Tantarth, the Harper to whom they are delivering the bag of holding. After a few hours of debriefing and resting, the Ashaba Heroes contemplate what to do next...
(Several of the NPC depart at this time, including Tharn the priest of Sylvanus and the two mercenaries hired by Enzo, Thentar the fighter and Belgar the mage. Remaining group is composed of Kiril, Balrog, Mat, Enzo and Drake (NPC)).
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