A long-lost relative of Kiris Alkirk, Hoyt has been hiding out in Kiris Dahn since the goblins attacked it and took it over. Cursed as a wererat, he has stayed at the shrine to the Moon Goddess, praying that he will have the cursed lifted and he can return to normal life. He assumed that all other members of his family were killed during the goblin attack.
Session 5 – September 27, 2010
Posted: September 28, 2010 by tehbagder in Game SessionsTags: concordance campaign
The party, without Shadak, made their way sneakily from the Library of Kiris Dahn, or what was left of it after being ransacked by Rort, to the Temple area. While outside, Swiftpaw detected something moving around, but it eluded him before he could find it. In a worship area under the main temple area, the group encountered Kiris Hoyt, a relative of Kiris Alkirk who had hired them to find the final Slaying Stone. Although heavily intimidated by Istivahn, Hoyt opened up to Malhatari and told them that he had been staying within the town for years and couldn’t leave. He had heard rumors of the stone being in the library, but he had never been able to find it. He was aware of the Severed Eyes orcs being in town, and seemed to hate Hu-Jat, the Hobgoblin who was in charge of the town.
As Malhatari pressed him for more information, goblins attacked, led by Triflik. Kontaro had been guarding the closed door that led into the lower worship area and was surprised in the dark by several goblins who busted the close doors open and who severely wounded him before he could retaliate. Triflik commanded his men to “KILL ALL THE RAT MEN”. As he did, Hoyt transformed into a Wererat, and was attacked by the goblins that arrived with Triflik. The goblins also started opening the grating/portcullis that cut them off from Hoyt.
The party reacted swiftly, with Kontaro blinding the goblins who ambushed him with a hidden and pre-activated sunrod, while Swiftpaw took them out with a burst power. Istivahn moved quickly and stealthily to block the goblin leader, who found himself trapped between Hoyt and Istivahn. Larelin moved quickly and used his mental attacks to take care of the remaining goblins. Istivahn delivered the killing blow using a sneak attack to Triflik, who died a completely inglorious death trapped in a corridor between a wererat and a killing machine. When Hoyt reverted and changed back to his human form, the group gathered the spoils of war, which included a silvered dagger dropped by Triflik. Triflik had obviously been hunting Hoyt, but hadn’t figured on the intervention of the party. Poor Triflik. He never had a chance.
After making their way into the slum area of the goblin city, the party quickly hides in an nearby building to avoid detection by any patrols. Rorik stays behind to watch the front gate and provide an exit strategy for the party. There are three locations where they have been advised to look for the Slaying Stone by Treona: the library, the temples/shrines and the mansion. The library is closest, so they decide to investigate it first. Stealthily, they sneak through town until they make it to the library. From inside the library comes the sounds of mayhem, and the party enters to find a single goblin searching all of the books on the shelves, surrounded by a number of other goblins who seem to be enjoying tearing the library up. A fight breaks out. Several of the goblins are cut down immediately by the party, and the goblin searching the bookshelves summons a gray ooze as he tries to flee. He almost makes it out the back of the library when a Wilden leaps through a window of the library and joins the fray. The fight with the goblins is over quickly, with only two goblins left alive. The party and the Wilden exchange information and gather some further information from Rort, the goblin who was searching the bookshelves, and his only remaining guard. It seems that there are some orcs in town, looking for the same item that the party is.
After the fight with the wolves that I slaughter effortlessly we went into the tower owned by sold old crone. She offered us some mead which I must admit was rather good. Inside we met some strange characters, some guy who later to find out can turn into a wolf. And some old man who claims to be some lost noble or some such nonsense.
Well after hearing their boring stories they manage to convince this ragtag group I lead to go into some goblin infested town and recover some thing called a Slaying stone .
The next day we walk to this town after finding a wagon laying in the middle of the road obviously it had been attack by a group of viscous bandits whom left there calling card, burning out a persons eye’s.
So we get to the town and this wolf guy turns into a wolf and scouts around for us finding a easy way into the town. I would have preferred to walk in the front door and Intimidate the puny little Goobo’s that call this town home but noooo the group decided to use stealth and sneak in, so thats what we did, we sneaked across the river like little girlies.
The woman that owns this tower seems to be quite batty, but she informed us that there was a magical artifact in a town that has been overrun by goblins that is quite dangerous, evil even. The story was corroborated by an older gentleman who claims his family used to be the rulers of the town. He also asked us to attempt to drive the goblins out so that his town could be reclaimed, but that will be a secondary goal at best. I would like to find this evil artifact and recover it without bloodshed, though the viciousness of goblins may work against me. They likely will not allow us to simply walk in and take what we wish. After much discussion I convinced my compatriots to rest up and dry off before heading out again, and in the morning we had a strange breakfast made of various fungi. The old bat suggested that another person join us, he gave us a brief introduction but I couldn’t quite wrap my head around it. I think his name was Swiftpaw, whatever that means. Hopefully he doesn’t cause us any trouble.
We left shortly after breakfast, and our trip to the town was fairly uneventful. When we were close to the town, we came across an overturned cart, which was curious. When we got to the cart, we discovered a disfigured corpse, it had been torn apart and one eye had been burned out. It was a gruesome sight. I noticed some small carrion eaters off to the side and went to inspect the area. They were apparently feasting on the remains of a horse, presumably the one that had been associated with the cart and its now dead owner. We also discovered a small campfire, though no trace of its owners. Istivahn and Swiftpaw recognized the disfigurement of the cart driver as being associated with a certain orc tribe. This does not bode well, we are already looking at a town full of goblins, and now there are orcs involved as well.
Swiftpaw said something about going to scout around, and then suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a wolf. I’ve found myself a strange one indeed. He came back a while later and we learned of his abject failure to lure the goblins away from their defenses, however he almost made up for it by discovering another way into the town. Of course it involved swimming across a river, so now my clothes are soaking wet again. Why must this always happen to me? Assuming we survive, which seems less likely the more I learn of this awful place, I hope we manage to find a better way out of the town. Swimming that river again will not be fun, and far less so if we are being chased by angry goblins. The trials and hardships of the road will all be worth it though, if they end up helping me on my mission. Only time will tell.
Last of the Kiris line from the town of Kiris Dahn. He is middle aged and haughty.
Map is provided by Logan Bonner, the author of The Slaying Stone on his personal website at http://loganbonner.blogspot.com/2010/07/slaying-stone-kiris-dahn-map.html
After making it safely into the tower and out of the rain, the party met with Treona. She was not alone in the tower, though. There was another adventurer there, intent upon helping Treona with her “goblin problem”, and someone else. While the party dried off with the heat of the hearth, Treona introduced Kiris Alkirk, last of the line of the town of Kiris Dahn and the party was told of the job to be performed: Kiris Dahn used to hold special slaying stones made of Tiefling magic, stones that would kill anything that they came into contact with. There had historically been eight stones, and all were used up. Treona has discovered in some books that there is a ninth stone, still somewhere within Kiris Dahn. The problem is that Kiris Dahn was overrun by goblins some time previously, driving Kiris Alkirk and the rest of the townspeople out. The town is now known as Gorizbadd, and is under the control of goblins led by a Hobgoblin of the Sundered Gate. Treona provided the party three scrolls to help find the ninth stone once they are in the town, but it is up to the group to find a way to get into the town. Alkirk and Treona provided them with a map, drawn from memory, and provided as much information about the town as they could.The party rested up for the night, to start fresh and dry.
In the morning, after spending time discussing the best way to enter the town, the party (along with new member Swiftpaw, and without Zeke who had another path to follow) made their way along the road towards Kiris Dahn. As they travelled they came across an upturned cart in the middle of the road, the dead body of the owner lying to one side, his belly opened and one eye burned out. Off to the side of the road in the shallow treeline were the small remains of a large draft animal and a small fire pit. The party recognized the branding as belonging to a group of orcs called The Severed Eye. They left the cart behind and continued onto the town.
Swiftpaw used abilities to change into a wolf to scout around the town. The front of the town was heavily guarded by goblins. The rear mobile town bridge they had been told about was still operational, but under goblin guard. Attempting to coax the guards to lower the bridge led to it becoming more fortified. Towards the south of the town, however, the river had shifted slightly and there was a way across and into the slum areas of the town. The party successfully forded the river and snuck into the down, ready to find the missing slaying stone and avoid detection by the many goblin inhabitants of Gorizbadd/Kiris Dahn.
Today the group and myself attempted to do a little bit of detective work and figure out what was behind the insidious goblin attack. We visited Captain Harrowleaf and attempted unsuccessfully to get some useful information from him about the Goblins . Basically all he was willing to tell us was that there have been bandit attacks along the roads but none have ever attack the town proper. He also hinted that we were under suspicion of somehow being involved or inciting the indecent. If the fool only knew my real intentions in this town he would either throw me out or lock me up. He also appeared to possibly be hiding information from us, possibly something I might be able to remedy in the near future.
Later that morning or possibly the next day i’m not sure as days seem to drag on in these little backwater towns. While eating our morning meal we spotted a man who was somewhat familiar, I might of perhaps read a story about him being a forgotten king and possibly some towers were involved in some way or perhaps I saw him in a play about a bunch of halfling and a ring or some nonsense. Well it doesn’t really matter the man who’s name is Taliesin worked for the town guard captain and told us a little bit of info on bandit attacks and that we may find some work a little east out town on the road to Llorkh. So following his advice we traveled east to the meeting we were to have at a tower with our hopefully soon to be employer. Well before making our destination we we set upon by a pack of Ravenous wolves and although we were slightly injured I once again singlehandedly saved our group. we then heard cries from the tower for us to hurry and enter so we ran with all the speed we could muster and entered the tower ending our encounter with the wolves and the days excitement.
Oh, I nearly forgot while having a evening meal one night which was great by the way, the little halfling Marsh Laval can definitely cook, we found out we are the Heroes of the town and we are being treated like conquering Heroes with free room and all the food we can eat. We were also treated with a visit by the beautiful town mayor Lady Moonfire who took a liking to me right away. Who can blame her I am a rather stunning individual who basically singlehandedly saved the town, oh and travelling with a group of homely ruffians and scallywags doesn’t hurt the fact that she could’t take her eyes off of me. She invited us to a part at her house and I think it could lead to a very prosperous time, in more ways than one.
A stranger who has ties to Captain Harrowleaf as a “freelancer”. He seems to know about jobs that are available in the Loudwater area.
It has only been a few days since I arrived in Loudwater, but much has happened already. On my way to town I came upon a mysterious child, or at least what appeared to be a child. She spoke only once, calling me by name, though how she would have known that I cannot say, as I have never seen her, or been in this region prior to now. She handed me a strange wooden coin, and then disappeared. How curious. More curious was the revelation that there were several others in Loudwater who had also received coins from children. Nobody seems to know what significance, if any, the coins hold, but the mysterious origins seem to indicate something quite peculiar is going on here. We visited the shop of a seemingly knowledgeable dwarf, and the only thing he could tell us about them was that they were not magical. He seemed friendly enough, and I do not believe he was misleading us.
As we were leaving his shop, goblins blasted a hole in the town wall and poured in, attacking townsfolk at random. It was an awful sight to behold, so many innocent people dead. I slew one of the goblins myself, as terrible as it is, but I just had to do something to help those poor people. I am not meant for the world of violence that accompanies adventurers wherever they go, but I must become stronger if I am going to carry out my Divine mission. My fellow coin-bearers do not seem to share my aversion however, or at least are better able to push it from their minds. The wizard was particularly destructive, but I must admit that his actions likely saved many townsfolk. I do hope he learns to be more cautious, however, for I have not yet been granted sufficient power to constantly rescue him from the trouble he finds himself in. Just today he was almost killed when a pack of hungry wolves attacked us, despite my best efforts and those of my companions.
The guard captain commended our efforts in repelling the goblin attack, but voiced some suspicion over the timing of the attack. Apparently, it is quite rare for the goblins to be so bold, and as the six of us that stopped the goblins only just arrived here recently, he found it quite interesting. I cannot speak for my companions, but I have never had dealings with goblins, so if the attack is somehow connected, it may have to do with the children and these coins. I convinced them not to reveal anything about the coins to the guard captain at this time, as he is already suspicious of us, and I felt it was unwise to add additional curiosities to the situation. Perhaps once we know more about the significance of the coins, or know more about the captain, we will be better able to have that discussion.
This morning there was a strange man in the common area of the tavern, sitting off by himself as we prepared to break fast. The meal provided us was extravagant, and as I had far more than I could possibly eat, I offered some to him. It seems he is an acquaintance of the guard captain, and often does work for him. He told me that if we wished to get into the captains good graces, the best way would be to do something to prove ourselves worthy. While he was somewhat evasive with regards to detail, he did provide us directions to a tower where he said the owner was having a goblin problem that we may be well suited to deal with. We gathered our belongings and headed out, but the trip took quite a while, and we were hindered by rainy weather. Just as the tower was coming into view, wolves attacked. They did not seem to be malicious, but they did appear quite hungry. I wonder what has happened to their food source that they are resorting to attacking travelers. We were able to drive one of them off, but sadly we had to kill most of them. A woman called to us from the tower and we rushed in before any more wolves arrived. Perhaps she can shed some light on the situation.
