Thunderspire Session 4 Part 1

This session was played on 11/12.

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

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

"I know where the gnolls are!" Rendil Halfmoon cried out, “come on!”

The adventurers battered and bruised opted to rest first. Rendil seemed upset about this, but agreed to take them to the gnoll’s lair in the morning.

Following the little exuberant halfling the party descended deep into the labyrinth. Reaching a great chasm spanned by another fortress with it’s drawbridges down. The area leading upto the drawbridge was littered with siege equipment, and the fortress seemed to be in a partly ruined state. Who was the winner was anyone's guess. “We have to cross that to get to the Well of Demons. The keep’s pretty busted up, but the bridges seemed pretty stable.” Rendil said as he started across.

As the party neared the keep’s gate on the far side of the drawbridge a rumbling noise caught their attention. Turning around they saw a large force of gnolls emerging from a side passage, with some running hyena’s leading the army. This was followed almost immediately by a roar from the chasm below. At the same moment Rendil’s face began to melt and his body began to stretch. In Rendil’s place stood a lanky greyskinned creature that smiled evilly before dashing toward the onrushing hyenas and gnolls.

The adventurers rushed into the keep’s courtyard and began to draw up the bridge using the winch just inside the gate. A mere breath after getting the bridge raised, something slammed into it - Hard! A great black claw squeezed between the bridge and the gate, and started pulling. The adventurers struggled but the bridge inexorably began to drop. Facing a losing battle the adventurers looked around. A large and stout keep door blocked the way out of the court yard, but a bell tower, next to the keep, offered a way out of the courtyard at least. A couple of hyenas made the leap when the bridge was low enough, forcing the adventurers to release the winch and make a run for the nearby bell tower.

Rushing up the stairs, the adventurers reached the top just ahead of the hyenas. As the rest of the party leapt from the tower to the keep’s roof, the tower rumbled, and stones pressed inward as whatever had opened the gate had started to climb the tower. Dietrich cut the rope that suspended the large iron bell, causing it to crash down not only onto the stairs, but also onto the hyenas and gnolls that were following them.

Leaping onto the roof of the keep the adventures viewed the creature that had forced open the drawbridge and swayed the tower - the shadow dragon. It took not even a round for the entire party to jump down through hole in the roof. From the sound if it, the dragon was right behind them! Rushing down the stairs, and onto the main level of the keep the adventurers tossed everything they could between them and their pursuers, even going so far as to set a fire in the store room. The gnolls were smashing through the main doors, while the dragon was coming through the ceiling. Running through the keep the adventurers stumbled on the keeps kitchen, and noticed the cook book on the floor under the large oven. Dietrich grabbed it, just as the dragon started reaching from the great hall into the kitchen. Luckily, he couldn’t fit through the door! Back tracking, the adventurers arrived at the rear courtyard, and sprinted across the drawbridge.

From the far end of the chasm the adventurers could see a fire burning within the keep, and some gnolls in the courtyard organizing themselves (or at least making sure that there were enough of them to take the adventurers). The sound of the dragon smashing through stonework to escape the confines of the castle were also clearly audible from the distant ledge. Dietrich, in a moment of desperation flipped open the cookbook, and found a note about the explosives stashed by the cook around the keep. Conveniently the trigger was hidden just under the drawbridge on the adventurers side of the chasm. In a mad dash all 4 began searching for the trigger. Ander found it, and without a thought set it off.

The explosion was intense, knocking the adventurers back and the keep down into the chasm - gnolls and all!