Shawnacy's 4E D&D Game!
I wish I was a better writer so I could make these more interesting for you guys, but oh well.
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Session 4
When we last left our heroes, they were preparing a surprise attack on the goblin camp by luring them into the trees, where the adventurers lie in wait, ready to strike.
The goblins, taking the bait, crept towards the trees, drawing their weapons. Her job finished, Serin, still disguised as a bugbear, made her way along the edge of the goblin camp to gain a better vantage point for attack.
The battle started out badly. Our heroes’ blows consistently failed to hit their marks, while the goblins’ weapons struck true.
The battle took a turn for the better, however, and the adventurers managed to fell the goblins. The party had left two goblins alive to use for questioning. Kratash, however, decided that you only need one goblin to get answers.
After a short rest, the party decided it was time to enter the cave and stop the goblin threat once and for all. Again deciding to use Serin as a scout, she stepped into the darkness first.
Her eyes taking a moment to adjust to the darkness, she peered about inside. The cave was empty, devoid of the goblin community the group had expected to see. All that was inside was a sinister effigy constructed next to the wall. It consisted of a pillar of human skulls, stacked several feet high. Alarmed, but relieved to find no goblins, Serin called the rest of the party in.
After a brief inspection by Saryon, the elven cleric indicated that this dark structure was a shrine to the dark god Demogorgon, the two-headed demon prince of darkness. Now beginning to question just what they were dealing with, the party sent their disguised bugbear friend to explore the rest of the cave.
Serin scampered quickly through the cave’s passageways, coming to a sudden stop at the entrance of the first room. She was startled to see a pair of cockatrices in some cages along with a duo of feline-like hyena creatures she recognized as Crenshaws. But most surprising of all was a small, ten-year-old boy dressed in dark gothic armor sitting atop a throne of skulls. He looked bored, but raises his head to speak to the bugbear that had just stepped into his lair. “What have you to report?” he queried.
“We- We were attacked. But we took care of it!” Serin managed to stammer before scampering off, frightened. Upon returning to her party, Serin revealed what she had seen. Realizing they were now dealing with something much bigger than merely a band of goblins, the group decided to check out the rest of the cave to make sure there would be no surprises upon confronting the boy king.
The group discovered a room of four hobgoblins training with their morning stars. The beasts were burly and menacing, but the party was undeterred. Shouting out a barrage of insult to grab the creatures’ attentions, the party armed themselves in the narrowest part of the passage to bottleneck their enemies on one side.
Their plan worked perfectly, though the beasts did not seem to have much intelligence in the first place. The nearest one to the party trained a beastly eye upon the party. With a hearty bellow, he shouted, “PLAY-THIIIIIIIIINGS!” and charged the party.
Errik opened up with a Grasping Shadows, slowing the creatures to a mere crawl. This provided the edge the party needed to destroy this threat in a matter of minutes.
Content that there would be no more surprises for them, the party returned to confront the small boy king.
Upon their entrance, the boy perked up immediately, his Crenshaws growling ferociously. Adia stepped forward to make first contact, kneeling and addressing the boy formally.
Kratash, disgusted by Adia’s polite treatment to this boy who clearly had something wrong with him, shoved the ranger aside and shouted at the boy, “Who are you and what are you doing here!?”
The boy identified himself as Grawl, and revealed that his sole purpose was to wreak as much havoc and destruction as possible, and would employ any who sought to aid him in this conquest.
Kratash was enraged by this and charged the boy, but was immediately struck down by the boy’s hyenas.
Laughing heartily, the boy raised his oversized club and pointed it at the fallen Kratash, blasting the Dragonborn with powerful force, sending him sliding across the floor to one of the cockatrice cages, where the beast savagely attacked him.
Adia took this opportunity to attempt to engage the boy king in conversation to gain more answers. Seeing that boy knew little more than destruction, the party decided to attack. The fight raged on, Grawl landing many painful blows. But in the end they managed to get the boy under control and restrained him. Questioning him further, the group realized that the boy would not be able to be set free without him continuing his actions.
Acknowledging this and losing his patience, Saryon dragged Grawl by his legs to the cockatrice cage. The boy showed no remorse for his actions. With a final grunt of anger, Saryon hurled the boy into the cockatrice cage.
The party looked on as the boy was inevitably turned to stone. Thinking he might serve as an adequate trophy and perhaps more proof, the group lugged the petrified boy back to town, along with a severed goblin head.
Uninterested in the statue, and in fact perplexed by it, Gibs happily accepted the goblin head, however. The party was paid their 200 gold and were allowed another free stay at the inn.
While sitting and reminiscing upon their various stories, there came a sudden knock on the door. Opening the door warily, Gibs was confronted by none other than his father! This was made far more surprising due to the fact that his father has been dead for years. He’d returned from the dead!
He asked for our adventurers specifically, and revealed unto them the story of the Devourer, the dark threat that the skeleton form before, now learned to be the famed adventurer Marcus, one of the only six to ever escape the tomb of the powerful Asarack.
He revealed that the tapestries the party had taken now represented the Devourer’s power. The closer the figure on the tapestry gets, the closer the Devourer is to returning. The adventurers were directed to the town of Bridgeport, where they were heading anyway, to find a man by the name of Sir Sirius Oathbearer with a connection to the Church of Palor for more answers. And with that, the man disappeared from the inn, to finally obtain an eternal rest.
The party now has a lot to think about. They have been charged as the sole saviors of this world. What lies ahead of them? What perils will they face? What is this Devourer? Find out next time in Session 5 – Welcome to Bridgeport!
