Russell III Update 3
Journal, so much has happened, I just now had a chance to write some things down. We did finally make it to the surface of the Nashkel Mines. We thought we heard something near the edge of it and investigated - it was the artist Prism - he feared for his life for some reason, so we agreed to protect him. Only a few seconds later, a lone bounty hunter approaches named Greywolf and demands we let him have Prism. We do not agree - and rather foolishly the bounty hunter attacked 6 heavily armored and armed paladins. He was slain quickly, wasn't even close. Greywolf's sword was a powerful magical long sword, so Misty will use it.
We then talk to Emerson and he agrees to let us investigate the mines. Paja says whatever is causing the problems is probably on a deep level, maybe even the deepest level. Sounds reasonable to us, so we proceed straight there. There are no thieves in our group. While we were in this dank hold Joshua exclaimed, "Traps be damned!" and charged ahead. The rest of us followed. We did indeed take some pain now and then from the traps, but we had enough blue potions to keep everyone afloat.
Eventually get to a small island with kobold commando archers firing fire arrows - our longbowmen (Forrest, Joshua) approach alone and have an archer duel. While they did hit Joshua, they only took one arrow each so the duel ended quickly. Inside we found this half-orc Mulahey, who summoned a lot of help for himself. Misty and Hanna swung their swords at these minions, while the ranged paladins concentrated all fire on Mulahey. Mulahey could not even cast a spell with the concentrated fire and fell. While there were a lot of minions, paladins using large shields and plate mail aren't as easy to take out as hapless miners and poorly equipped guards.
In the letters we find some information, namely the half-orc was behind the trouble in the mine - should no longer be a problem now that he is dead. However, from this location, there's no way he could be behind the bandit raids, must be other bosses so to speak. Our only clue is a contact at Feldeposte's Inn, we will visit there when we can.
We found our way out via a shortcut of some kind and almost were on our way to Nashkel when we got attacked by two fearsome ankhegs - ugly things. Misty nearly died, but powerful, accurate hits of the bowmen helped to kill these powerful green creatures quickly and no one died. I am thankful that not a single party member has fallen to date.
After selling at the Carnival we reported our success to the Mayor of Nashkel - he was well pleased. We got attacked by some bard assassin named Nimbul - he wasn't able to do much mirror image then was killed shortly after that.
Joshua wanted to return to the 3 tomb area and explore it, so we did. This area made the entire party tougher and more accurate (level 4). Russell III noticed a cave that might have been a tomb - he sent the Undead Hunters in alone - good call, there was a ghoul, who was no match for 2 undead hunters.
We then encountered this scared man who gave us a dagger. He said a powerful undead was nearby. Hmm, better bring everyone for this one and do protection from evil. We then charged in - yep a powerful undead indeed. In fact, only three of us had weapons that could even hurt him. Fortunately, the ones who could hurt him didnt take too long to slay this beast, so all's well that ends well.
A few more minor enemies slain (wardogs), then I did something strange in my party's eyes- I ordered the 3 people with magical melee weapons (Misty, Hanna, Forrest) to gulp invulnerability potion, heroism potion and strength potion. This all very odd, since we had very few potions to begin with, but my warrior instinct was in over-drive - something powerful is nearby, and our people with magic weapons will have to deal with them, so they might as well be as prepared as we can. Well my instinct was right - some crazy mage Narcillus summoned two mustard jellies too! First the entire party concentrated their ranged weapons on Narcillus - he fell instantly. The people who couldn't hurt the mustard jellies fled to a safe distance, and then Misty, Hanna, and Forrest got to work. Hanna got hurt bad, but she gulped all her blue potions but one to stay alive - the threesome succeeded! Good.
One more tomb left - I told the undead hunters to a look first - 3 ghasts! Yikes! Dangerous to most of the party but not the undead hunters - Hanna and Joshua bring their wrath on the ghasts, and the world is a little bit safer place. While we left the remains alone, there was a lot of items that made no sense to be there - perhaps some mage set these ghasts to protect his loot? Regardless, if he wasn't to respect these tombs, their wishes do not concern us - we took the mages (or whoever they are) loot. These ghasts probably killed innocents in such tight spaces - since we don't know who put the ghasts here, we will just have to exact their penance this way.
We returned to Nashkel, Beregost and High Hedge to identify, bank and sell, respectively. We also encountered the contact in Feldeposte's Inn - yet another mage! He foolishly provoked us, and then almost immediately surrendered. We can't let him warn his bandit friends, and he didn't sound repentant, only that he got caught - that's not enough and we ended his evil for good.
Doing all these things, we encountered numerous ambushes, but my team handles them very well - I'm proud of them.
I had a massive compulsion to return to the 3 tombs area. I returned close to the where we had exited the Nashkel Mines then did protection from evil and changed formation to be more spread out. We advance then encounter some amazon assassins! Looks like two thieves and two clerics, well armed and armored as well. We all have antidotes, so the entire party concencetrates ranged fire on a single cleric - the cleric's resistance was impressive. However, they can't get any spells off with all our fire and they fall nevertheless. Joshua getting poisoned and hurt bad but he potions to cure poison and I heal Joshua with my new-found healing I received in a dream. Then resume fire on the last cleric, they fall. Just the thieves now, and the thieves fall much quicker than their cleric friends and fall as well - no deaths.
Nearby, I see 3 unmarked graves, with just simple stones to denote them. No doubt these evil amazons slew that hapless party - it feels good that justice prevailed this encounter. This area is pretty safe now, I call for camp, and all of us sleep well, getting well deserved rest...
EDIT: The experience in the Valley of the Tombs has taught us that absolutely everyone needs a magical melee weapon, and ideally one capable of hurting mustard jellies. I just get the feeling those jellies won't be the last that will have to encounter. In addition, for powerful enemies that can only be hurt by magical weapons and ammo, the ranged guys need to have some magical ammo for just a situation, so we will make a stop by the Beregost Smithy soon to fix that.
I noted that magical melee weapons were pretty expensive and asked Paja if she had any ideas. She said there's some mad cleric named Bassilus that has an undead army that hasn't been killed by anyone yet - perhaps that's because he has a magical weapon? Seems as promising start as any and we go to the area that he was last seen. He did indeed have an undead army, but Hanna's talking managed to make the undead army disappear - other than protection from evil the party didn't do anything particularly special - just have all 6 paladins concentrate their ranged weapons on Bassilus. He lasted a little while, but he got zero spells off and just died. We wonder why the local militia never thought of doing something so simple...Yes, there was indeed a magical warhammer. Paja can use that, now just myself and Forrest need a magical melee weapon. We clear the area - lots of undead, some bandits, and some various wolves - no problem.
We reported our success to the mayor of Beregost, sold our junk and considered our next move - or more accurately, Paja considered our next move while the rest of us waited expecantly. We all fight great, but our lack of book knowledge really shows on this adventure - if Paja is permanently slain, we need to replace her if we can, ideally a paladin. Rest for now though....
Modifié par corey_russell, 14 août 2013 - 02:42 .
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