Session Report--May 16, 2015: Two Dragons, One Conspiracy, and a Near-Death Experience

This is my first entry in nearly four months. Four freaking months. That's a long time. Unlike in my previous posts, I will not offer some lame excuse for this long interruption. Now, I was busy over the summer. That's true. The family did go on vacation for a week and a half, and work is picking up. But, I've also sat on my butt a lot too. There are always books to read, and my new HDTV won't watch itself.  I have no real excuse. So, instead of trying to justify myself to the handful of people who actually read this blog, I'm just going to plow ahead with the May 16, 2015 session report.  The session reports for July 31 and August 29 will follow shortly. (I promise!)

The May 16, 2015 session began with the PCs deciding to head southwest toward Cormyr after their "long-distance call" with Amalric the night before. After traveling a couple of days, they noticed an old man following them at a distance of a few hundred yards. The PCs soon stopped and just talked to him. The old man said his name was Hassan, that he too was headed south, and that he was a refugee from Neustria. He also suggested that they could travel together. A little suspicious, Peyton, the cleric, surreptitiously cast a Know Alignment spell and determined that Hassan was Lawful Neutral, tending toward Good. Zhuo Xuan, the monk, then used his recently acquired Empathy ability. This revealed that while Hassan wasn't telling them the whole truth about himself, he didn't mean them any harm. The party decided that Hassan--despite his secrets and "Old Ben" Kenobi-style vibe--could join them.

Hassan and the PCs traveled together for another couple of days. On the evening of the third day, an unholy keening startled the second watch around midnight. Luckily, the moon was full, and the stars were bright. The two PCs on watch immediately saw six indistinct patches of vaguely human-shaped darkness flying towards them at breakneck speed. Wraiths!! The watchmen roused Hassan and the others and engaged the undead in hand-to-hand combat. One of the wraiths struck Zhao (I think) right off the bat and drained him of 4 hit points, including 1 permanently. Two rounds passed with neither side gaining a significant advantage. Then a couple of the wraiths bunched together. Sensing an opportunity, Hassan cast a Fireball that took them out in one shot. That proved he wasn't just an old hermit after all. He was a spellcaster. The PCs began to wonder if that was all he was hiding.

Hassan answered that question in the next round. One of the remaining wraiths struck the old man on a natural 20. The hit caused both 12 hit points of damage--six of which were permanent--and disrupted the Polymorph Self spell that had kept Hassan in his human guise. He instantly changed back into his actual form--that of a Huge, Very Old blue dragon. His cover blown, Hassan used his breath weapon to eliminate two more wraiths, and the PCs quickly finished off the rest.

The next morning, Hassan explained that, unlike most blue dragons, he had turned away from his Evil nature many years ago. He had lived for centuries in the extinct volcano about 100 miles from Neustria. After the last session's earthquake, he had investigated the ruins, learned about the PCs and their success against Jacob, and decided to follow them. In turn, the PCs told Hassan about Amalric and his plans for Faerun. Hassan agreed that Amalric had to be stopped.

Having found a new ally, the PCs decided to consult the Orb once again. A vision swirled into view after a few moments. It was a royal funeral. Toran, the Ranger and a native of Cormyr, recognized the castle and its grounds as the royal palace in Suzail, Cormyr's capitol. Two corpses wearing crowns lay on the pyre--presumably the bodies of Azoun IV, the king of Cormyr, and his queen. Standing next to the pyre was a sinister-looking man holding the hand of a weeping girl. Courtiers and soldiers stood in grim and silent rows. And, in the background, smoke was rising from the palace grounds. Suzail was burning.

The PCs barely had time to digest this somber scene before it dissolved away. A new vision appeared. The Orb now revealed a mighty host of lizard men and savage humans riding dinosaurs and other fantastical creatures. A vicious fighter--a member of Gawain's old party--was at the head, riding a dragon. Worst of all, enormous mountains hovered above these armies, suspended by some unknown magic. These crawled with even more soldiers and bristled with siege weaponry. By focusing more intently on the Orb, Peyton soon realized that this army was laying siege to Calimport, the capitol of the ancient country of Calimshan far to the southwest of Cormyr. Eventually, the Orb went dark.

The PCs and Hassan now faced a terrible choice. Should they travel to Cormyr to learn more about King Azoun's death, or should they go farther south to face that invading army? They decided to do both. Since Hassan could fly, he would investigate the situation in Calimshan (which was much farther away) while the PCs would continue on to Cormyr. That way, they could tackle both crises at once. Hassan did give the PCs a lift, though. He flew them several hundred miles to a clearing less than a day's walk from Tilverton, a medium-sized town in the Dalelands. There, they could take the well-traveled road south to Cormyr while Hassan flew to Calimshan.

Upon reaching their destination, Hassan gave the PCs a magic stone. If they ever needed him, they should concentrate on the stone, and it would summon him. Likewise, if Hassan ever found himself in more trouble than he could handle, he could summon the PCs to him. Hassan and the PCs then said their farewells, and he flew away. The PCs walked the last few miles into Tilverton.

They stayed in Tilverton a couple of days. The PCs picked up news and rumors in the usual D&D way--by visiting taverns and chatting up the locals. They learned that, yes, Azoun IV and his queen, Filfaeril Selzair, had been assassinated. A band of elves led by the elven emissary to Azoun's court, Luvon Greencloak, was supposedly responsible. The assassins had somehow entered the king's throne room, viciously assaulted him and the Royal Guard with unknown spells and magic weapons, and killed Azoun and his queen in the ensuing chaos. The murderers were eventually hunted down and eliminated--but not before making a last stand on the palace grounds and fighting the Royal Guard and the City Watch to (supposedly) the last man.

The PCs also learned that, even before the smoke from these battles had cleared, the king's old adviser and court magician, Vangerdahast, had installed himself as the Lord Regent of Cormyr. The only surviving member of the royal family was Azoun's 11-year-old daughter, Alusair Nacacia. With the crown princess too young to rule in her own right, Vangerdahast was (apparently) the only choice to be Lord Regent.

This was all enough for the PCs to surmise that skullduggery was afoot in Cormyr and that their assistance was desperately needed there. After three days--it was now late October and turning colder--they set off down the main road to Arabel, the closest city in northern Cormyr and the home of their original patron, the merchant Thond.  The first couple of days were uneventful. On Day 3 or 4 (I can't remember which), they encountered a party of 10 humans traveling north on the road. This party had horses and a couple of wagons and were led by a swarthy, unfriendly looking fighter. He began to question the PCs about a variety of topics, including where they were going, why they were headed south, and so on. After a few minutes of this interrogation, the PCs became suspicious. Sensing that the jig was up, the fellow announced that his name was Xerithraxis. He helpfully explained that Amalric himself had dispatched him to eliminate them once and for all. Xerithraxis then appeared to fold in on himself before exploding into the form of a Great Red Wyrm--the oldest and most powerful of all red dragons in Faerun. The PCs were in for the fight of their lives!

Despite this admittedly unexpected development, the dice favored the players, and the PCs were not surprised. Neither was Xerithraxis. The players subsequently won initiative--another lucky break. Toran and Erik, the two fighters, drew first blood, striking Xerithraxis with their swords for several hit points of damage. Peyton then hit the dragon with his mace while Theodric (the magic-user) prepared a spell. Fearing that they were done for, Endenowen (the druid) used Hassan's stone to summon him to aid them. Zhuo Xuan's strike failed. Bloodied but not severely injured, Xerithraxis responded by doing what dragons do: he used his breath weapon. He breathed a cone of fire worth a whopping 110 hit points of damage. Fortunately for the party as a whole, only one PC was standing in the way when Xerithraxis did this. Unfortunately for that one party member--Peyton--even making his saving throw was not enough. He was just a few feet away from the dragon's maw when it breathed. Peyton took 55 hit points of damage and died instantly.  The scene probably looked something like this:



















Interestingly enough, though, the fight didn't last much longer. In the very next round, both Toran and Eirik rolled natural 20s, causing double damage to the dragon. Theodric's spell--a Lightning Bolt--also went off, and even the monk scored a hit.  At the end of the round,  Xerithraxis, one of Amalric's mightiest minions, lay dead. The PCs had slain a Great Red Wyrm in a mere two rounds!! It was an astounding victory.

Of course, it wasn't without cost. Peyton was still dead, and his player seemed resigned to having lost him for good. Yet, it was not the end. Hassan appeared two rounds later, just as he had promised. The PCs immediately climbed onto his back, and in mere hours he flew them to within a few miles of Arabel, their destination. (Hassan then left again for the south with only the briefest of farewells.) The PCs immediately located the temple of Tyr and convinced its high priest to raise Peyton from the dead. Peyton's player made the all-important Resurrection Survival roll, and Peyton was back in the land of the living. Though weak and terribly scarred, he was alive. That was all that mattered.

While Peyton convalesced, the other PCs beat the bushes in Arabel for more information about the state of play in Cormyr and Azoun IV's assassination. They learned that things were even worse than they had thought. The lords of Cormyr's northern cities, Arabel, Eveningstar, Turluk and Espar, had all come to believe that the story of the elves' assassinating Azoun IV was a lie and that Vangerdahast himself might have had a role in the deed. Rumors abounded that the "elves" were not elves at all, but disloyal members of the Royal Guard. Suspicious of Vangerdahast's subsequent move to seize power, the northern lords mistrusted his intentions and publicly rejected him when he demanded that they pay him fealty as Lord Regent. In response to this open defiance, Vangerdahast and the lords of Cormyr's other cities declared war against the northern rebels. In other words, Cormyr was not just in the midst of a succession crisis. One of Faerun's most peaceful kingdoms--a bulwark of the forces of Good--was at war with itself. Amalric's fingerprints were all over this.

After speaking to the lord of Arabel, Cassius Letholdas, the PCs decided that they needed to reach Suzail, Cormyr's capitol, as soon as possible. Although the war had just started, it wasn't going especially well for the rebels. The "loyalist" forces controlled more territory and had more troops. Although the rebels were holding the line in Cormyr's central forest region, time was not on their side. Sadly, the PCs also learned that Thond, their patron, had died in a suspicious fire at his home mere days before they had arrived. Cassius suspected foul play, but the PCs didn't have time to investigate. They had to leave while the front lines were still far enough away for them to get out of Arabel in one piece.

The PCs left Arabel a few days later--after Peyton (and everyone else) was fully healed and rested. They initially headed off west toward the citadel of High Horn. They (understandably) wanted to avoid going straight south through the front lines. After one day's ride, they reached the foothills of the mountains that border the western edge of Cormyr. Around noon on that day, they blundered into an ambush. The road the PCs were traveling on at that time ran through a narrow gorge. Steep mountains stood along either side. It was a perfect place for an ambush, and that's exactly what happened. Eight stone giants were lined up on either side of the road. They gained surprise and started chucking rocks at the PCs. Although the giants enjoyed one surprise segment to attack, they rolled poorly. (I can't remember if they even struck one PC.) In the next round, the PCs gained the initiative and fired arrows and other missiles at the giants. The battle was joined. It took a few rounds of fighting for the PCs to finish the job, but finish it they did. They eventually killed all the stone giants. Although the fighters were a little banged up by the end, no one was severely injured.

With that encounter concluded, the players and I called it a night. It was an exciting session to say the least. Until the fight with Xerithraxis, no one had died since the very first session (when everyone was still first- and second-level cannon fodder). That had changed. Had it not been for Hassan, the PCs might not have reached Arabel in time to raise Peyton from the dead. In fact, were it not for the PCs' lucky rolls, Xerithraxis could have easily killed them all. As Lord Wellington said about the Battle of Waterloo, it was a close-run thing. Worse yet, the PCs realized that Amalric was now targeting them personally. The hunters had become the hunted. It was all pretty sobering. Still, everyone--even Peyton--had come through it all. And, the PCs had defeated one of Amalric's deadliest henchmen. That was worth celebrating. In the end, it was a session full of ups and downs. It also made a great segue into the next session where the PCs would learn even more about the dark conspiracy that has plunged Cormyr, Faerun's last, best hope for peace, into chaos and civil war.