SCOTT CASPER'S ULTIMATE GREYHAWK

SOUTH PROVINCE CAMPAIGN

 

Cast:

Alexander Petrok, Lawful Neutral male Oerdian human templar of Zilchus (1st level paladin variant).

Perpegilliam Brown, Neutral male Hairfoot hobniz rogue (1st level Thief).

Hristo, Neutral Good male Wesevud ("Central") noniz ex-town watchman and rogue (1st level fighter/1^st level thief)

Vladamir Kostitov, Lawful Good male Oerdian human prestidigitator for the governor's guardsmen (1^st level Illusionist).

Abraham the Radiant, Neutral Good male Oeridian human acolyte of Pelor (1st level Cleric).

Barada, Neutral male Flannish human mercenary (1st level Fighter) (NPC today).

Ragnrr, Neutral male hobgoblin mercenary (1st level Fighter) (NPC today).

 

Setting:  Prymp, free town on the Ahlissan Coast of the South Province; Skull Keep, west of Prymp along the coast; and the beach between these points.

 

Readying 13th

 

Hristo awoke at Hogan's Hostel, to the sound of knocking on his chamber door.  He rose and unlocked it only to find Gianni Long, an annoying human and fellow rogue, walking away.  Hristo ignored the disturbance, but decided to get up and prepare for the new day. 

 

Readying 12th

 

Later that night, the Band of the Grinning Gargoyle finished looting the goblin lair they had last cleared out, and decided to make the privy they found earlier their treasure-stashing place.  They then went back to exploring the main hallway they had mapped earlier, and still had three unexplored doors down the left side. 

 

Alexander through his body into the first door, but found the door offered too much resistance even when Ragnrr added his shoulder to the effort.  As Alex and Ragnrr continued to hammer at the door, Perry tried unsuccessfully to listen at the next door down, and Abraham came down the hall to try to open that door for Perry.  Vlad, again, stood back and watched. 

 

It was then that the first door flew open and four goblins stood ready for battle.  Alex and Ragnrr used their now-familiar tactic of fighting side-by-side in the doorway.  The thrusts of their long swords had brought down enough goblins already, and this battle quickly appeared to be heading towards the same conclusion.  However, while Perry and Abraham watched the battle from their doorway, this door too was opened by goblins on the other side.  Perry reached for his caltrops and sprinkled a handful in the doorway, but Abe sprang over them into the room to face four more goblins.  Abe appeared, however, of being in danger of being skewered on goblin spears, and Perry leapt into the room to aid him.  Vlad watched and yawned a little as he saw that even at two-to-one odds the goblins were decimated with no more than light injuries to Abraham.  The rooms were sacked for what silver Nobles the goblins had possessed, and then the band moved on.

 

At the third door, they actually decided to use strategy.  Sure enough, the door was barred from the inside.  This time, Ragnarr asked them to open the door in their own tongue.  One the door was opened, they rushed in and caught three goblin guards with their weapons down and a hobgoblin leader literally napping.  But this time Ragnrr had had enough with killing his old comrades-in-arms.  He stood up to his new friends and told them that he wanted to let these captives go.  This hobgoblin, whose name was Grugenor, was one Ragnrr thought they could trust.  He wanted to offer Grugenor safe passage out of the dungeon if he took as many goblins as were loyal to him and left Skull Keep never to return.  Vlad fiercely opposed this, arguing again that freed prisoners only meant a later threat.  But by now, the battle lust had been sated in Alex -- and even in Perry -- and the decision was made to allow Ragnrr his plan.  The hobgoblins talked things out, and then the goblins packed up everything in the room.  Stopping at a room they had cleared out earlier, they found five more goblins, and Grugenor convinced them to leave with him.

 

Now, Alex had another plan of which he had not informed Ragnrr.  The twenty green-furred dog men still stood guard over the surface entrance to Skull Keep.  Alex hoped that these beasts would attack the goblins.  The survivors of such a battle would be weakened enough that the Band of the Grinning Gargoyle could dispatch them.  The band followed the goblins to the surface, but Perry had slunk off somewhere unseen along the way.  Perry had a plan as well he had not told the others.  He returned to the privy they had made their treasure room, and suited up in goblin-sized studded leather.  Covering his face in a helmet and dirt, he scampered off to catch up to the party progressing up the stairs to the surface.  The others were surprised to see a tiny, disheveled goblin run up the stairs past them, but it did not take them long to guess its identity.  Perry alone hid in the ruined tower, and observed that there were now only seven of the green beastmen outside, and that they let the goblins pass after talking to Grugenor for just a minute.  Perry returned to the others, but fearing that Alex would demand an attack on the beastmen with their reduced numbers, he lied and told them all twenty were still there.

 

Readying 13th

 

Hristo waited in the Grinning Gargoyle Tavern for the remainder of the afternoon and into the early evening, waiting for Barada to arrive.  The bard, Heironymous Nodd, arrived and began performing some roudy drinking songs to liven the crowd.  Jerwon Charik, the Baliff of the Watch, arrived and spoke with Nodd about old times, but didn't seem to notice Hristo in the crowded tavern.  The little gnome kept to himself and listened to all around him.  Nodd told news about how a pack of death dogs which had long terrorized the the Great Kingdom had moved through the Thelwood and only recently been scattered by the Governor's guardsmen.  Finally, Barada did show and apologized for being late.  He did not volunteer what personal business kept him late, but Hristo did not press him for details.  Instead, they both quickly agreed to set out and return to Skull Keep the next morning and see how their friends had fared in their absence.  With the matter settled, the two ate their dinners quietly, paid, and left.  On the way out, it occurred to Hristo that they had not informed anyone else of the bandits in Skull Keep, as the cleric of Zilchus had told them to do.  Barada confessed that he had not done so either, and so the two set out for Prymp Keep to inform the Town Watch.  They were detained at the gates, and while they explained their purpose to the sentries, Jerwon Charik caught up to them.  He asked them why they had come, and upon hearing of bandit activity so close to town, he immediately set off to go warn the Garrison.  Hristo and Barada, feeling that their duty was now discharged, retired for the night so they would rise early the next morning for their trip.

 

Readying 12th

 

The Band of the Grinning Gargoyle had returned to exploring the dungeon, they set out to see what the northwest corner of the dungeon held for them.  The very next room they came across had four human guards standing between them and Demonkos -- the leader who had escaped from them the day before!  Demonkos ordered his guards to attack, and Alex, Ragnrr, and Abe raced into the room to meet their charge.  Demonkos turned to flee through a door at the far side of the room.  Perry tumbled around the brigands, and when he came out of his roll he had a dagger in his hand and flung it at Demonkos, but the dagger hit the door just before Demonkos could close it behind him.  The others were making short work of the room's remaining defenders, but Perry held back from chasing Demonkos alone.  This was fortuitous, as reinforcements began to pour into the room from the door Demonkos had just fled through.  Perry threw marbles onto the floor to trip up the two in the lead, which gave Ragnrr time to break through the ranks and come rushing to the aid of his diminuitive friend.  The two of them managed to hold their own against the reinforcements, though Ragnrr's shield had by now taken such a beating that a powerful sword thrust managed to crack it in half.

 

Vlad, of course, held back.  Alex and Abe were mopping up the last of the room's first guardians, when four crossbowmen burst in from a side door and fired at the party.  Vlad acted by stunning them all unconscious with his Color Spray spell.  Now that Abe and Alex were free to help, the other reinforcements were quickly defeated.  The room they came from was searched, but there was no sign of Demonkos.  There was only another exit which the crossbowmen had used to come down the main hallway and attack them from the side.  Demonkos might have used that same hallway to reach the spiral stairs, at which point he either fled deeper into the dungeon, or upstairs to rally the green-furred dog men.  This second possibility worried Alex, and he led the party back to the stairs to check on the situation.  At the last minute he backed down and allowed Perry to go investigate alone again.  As Perry hid in the ruined tower, he was frightened to see two of the creatures move towards the tower.  He scampered back to inform the others, and everyone braced themselves in the hallway below to ambush these creatures -- but they never came down.  It was decided that their time would be better spent finishing out the dungeon level, and there was only one unexplored doorway on the whole level in the northwest corner of the dungeon.

 

The stuck door yielded, and the band found themselves at the head of some stairs going down.  They followed them a short ways down to a landing, and then stopped.  It seemed that they had a choice of three stairwells to reach the lower level.  They felt uncomfortable with so many choices, and retreated back upstairs to give it some thought.  Anyways, they were at least convinced that the first dungeon level was now fully explored.

 

Readying 14th

 

Hristo and Barada met at the west gate of the New City's palisade and headed west along the beach facing Relmor Bay.  All was quiet, except for when they passed three brigands tied to a rock that the Guard had not picked up yet.  Hristo felt merciful for a moment, but the moment passed and they were on their way again.  Though they remained silent for most of the walk, they were lost in private thoughts and time passed quickly.

 

Readying 15th

 

Hristo and Barada reached the lone tower of Skull Keep, and could see seven tall, green-furred dog-like humanoids brandishing pole arms charging towards them.  With weapons drawn, they stood their ground, and within two minutes Barada was unconscious and Hristo was dying...

 

TO BE CONTINUED