Thunderspire Session 2 part 1

This session was played on 7/23.

Cory ran:
Human Knight (formerly the Dragonborn Paladin)
Ander the Halfling Rogue

Alex ran:
Barakas the Tiefling Warlord
Chan Lee the Human Monk

Some hours after the adventurers had left the Chamber of Eyes to return to the Seven Pillared Hall, a Bloodreaver slaver party returned to discovered their lair raided, their comrades dead. Revenge was plotted, and the trail followed. They weren’t hard to follow either. The warcaster sent word ahead to Brugg, the ogre enforcer of the hall, and he made himself scarce. Loading up the goblins with torches they ran for the inn, intending on burning it, and everyone in it, to the ground. Unfortunately the adventurers who had raided their camp reacted quickly.

Realizing the danger, the adventurers quickly focused their attention on the goblins, trying to take them down before they could set the inn ablaze. Unfortunately one of the little runts managed to lob his torch into the bar, smashing the bottles, and quickly spreading flames. The inn patrons were no help, and two were killed in the chaos, felled by hobgoblin blades. Other goblins tossed their torches indiscriminately setting fire to tables and stools, but amazingly not any of the patrons!

When the last of the Bloodreavers was killed the adventurers and remaining patrons rushed out of the burning inn to safety. Barakas organized everyone in sight to create a bucket brigade. It was a close call, but while the inn itself was saved, the common room was a total loss.

Rather than hang around and assist with the clean up they decided they’d figure out where the “Horned Hold” is. First they stopped by the Dugeur shop, and in a shocking display of restraint they managed to not start a fight or burn the building down. They were worried about Brugg, and what he was going to do to them since they were involved in a “fuss”. As they still didn’t know where the Horned Hold was they visited the overly friendly drow. For a small fee, he’d be happy to provide them with directions. 400gp later they had a crude map.

A couple of hours later they came upon a deep chasm, and in the distance they spotted a couple of bridges spanning it. Creeping closer they came to the Horned Hold’s gate, and spotted the orc guards before the guards saw them. They decided to bind the Monk’s hands and lead him to the gate.

“Who that?” the orc called out.

“We’ve got a slave for your masters.” the knight replied.

“We’ve already got slaves. Go away.”

“Fetch your master. We’ll deal with him.”

“He’ll be mad... You!” the orc says to one of his companions “go get Urwol.”

A few minutes pass before the orc returns with a leather apron clad duergar.

“What!?” the grey skinned creature asks, his beard flaring like fanned embers.

“We have a slave for you.”

“We’re not buying, stop wasting my time.” he starts to turn.

“We’re not selling. He’s yours. The Bloodreavers tasked us to deliver him.”

“Oh... well, in that case, tie him to the gate then begone.”

The knight tied the end of the rope wrapped around the monk to the gate, and the party retreated back around the curve of the path. Once out of sight, the orcs unlocked and opened the gate, untied the monk from it, pulling him into the gatehouse. Before the orc could finish closing the gate the monk tugged the rope end in his hand. Luckily for him, the trick knot worked, and the rope fell to the floor. With a spin the monk connected with the guard at the gate, and the orc next to him.”Come on!” He yelled out the gate, and his friends came running.

The fight was brutal and cramped. The small room prevented much maneuvering, and made things difficult for both sides. Urwol the smith managed to get one good use out of his powers and set the monk, knight, and rogue on fire before being pounded down along with his orc guards.

After catching their breath, they then scouted ahead, discovering the smithy that Urwol had come from. Within they could see several more duergar working on items with orc assistants. The adventurers launched into it, catching them by surprise. The adventurers had some trouble with the duergar turning invisible on them, and the knight was just having rotten luck. He managed to miss with 4 attacks in a row, by 1, with combat advantage!

At the end of the fight the adventurers all paused for a second, and everyone turned and looked at the far end of the room. A lone orc was fiddling with a door handle. He stopped, and looked over his shoulder at the 4 adventurers who had just wiped the floor with his friends. He flashed a big worried grin at them, threw the door open, and bolted. The monk followed, chasing the orc out onto a long skinny bridge, one of the 2 they’d seen before. He quickly caught the greenskin, grabbed his shoulder, spinning him around. The monks knee slammed into the orcs groin, knocking the breath out of him and doubling him over. The monk then grabbed him by the back of the shirt and tossed him over the edge of the bridge. It took barely a moment for the orc to disappear into the darkness. It took at least 4 before the monk heard him hit bottom.

To be continued...