To the Silver Palace

11/11/09 Play Session
Rough notes
Players: Quint - DM, Lleuvonia; Emily - Emeline, Marcus; Channing - Troy, Aman Ra; Scott - Brandon

Day 1: Start in Kingsholm. Have good breakfast at inn that invigorates party. Go to armorer to ask about a bodyguard for Emeline. He says to go to the tavern. Finds Marcus and negotiates for new equipment and 2 gp a day. Leave town heading West and travel 24 miles with no incident through rolling, barren hills. Set up camp and have nothing happen during the night.

Day 2: Uneventful 16 miles of travel through similar terrain. No signs of food along the way. Camp that night with no incidents.

Day 3: During the morning, Brandon sees a very large group of small humanoids approaching while scouting ahead. Runs back to group to tell them and they prepare for battle. Brandon is able to take a few down with his bow as they rush toward the party, but it doesn't even seem to make a dent in their numbers. Lleuvonia prepares for the battle by casting Bless on the party and Protection from Evil on Brandon and Troy. Emeline and Aman Ra prepare an ambush for the creatures by throwing flasks of unlit oil on the ground in front of the party. As they rush across it, Emeline throws another flask of lit oil onto the patch of unlit oil just as the creatures, that can now be identified as kobolds, reach it. 18-20 of them go up in flames dying an agonizing death, but the majority of them surround the party and begin to attack in hand-to-hand combat. There are so many of them, that most of the party members have to resort to sweeping attacks targeting more than one kobold at a time to have any chance of surviving the encounter. They take out nine kobolds in the first round, but Aman Ra is taken down. The next round more creatures are dispatched, but Troy succumbs to being attacked by 12 of the creatures at once. Emeline, brandishing a torch, swings wildly at 3 creatures doing minor damage to them. Lleuvoina and Marcus dispatch several more of them, but Brandon misses. During the next round, Lleuvonia finally goes down right after giving Brandon a healing boost to his hit points that saved him from going down. Emeline uses a magic missile to send a kobold to the underworld while Brandon and Marcus take mighty swings dispatching several creatures with each blow. The battle is finally over. The party bandages and heals their wounded and spend the rest of the day recovering from the battle. After the battle, the party loots the bodies and counts 60 kobolds that were faced and dispatched. They find 660 silver pieces and 840 copper pieces among the dead creatures. They leave a huge pile of copper pieces lying on the side of the road because they are too heavy to take with them.

Day 4: Had to look for water for 6 hours. Travelled 16 miles.

Day 5: Lots of water from stream along road. A group of about 20 small gnomes hail party and want to parlay. Troy talks to them. Bobo is their leader. They describe Haven. They give each party member 1 days worth of food. Travel 16 miles. Heard strange mysterious noise during 1st watch. Troy and Aman Ra tell the 2nd watch what they heard, but the 2nd watch doesn't hear anything. They tell the 3rd watch and they hear the sound again. Brandon wakes party up during 3rd watch so they can all hear it. It goes for about 15 minutes and ends abruptly. It isn't heard again for the rest of the night.

Day 6: Did not find any food and supplies are running low. No incidents. Travel 16 more miles.

Day 7: Still no food to be found. Travel 16 miles. During the 1st and 2nd watch, the same noise heard two nights ago is heard again but nothing is seen. The party wakes in the morning after having troubled dreams that no one can seem to remember details of.

Day 8: Saw a lone deer, but it got away before it could be killed for food in the morning. As the party approaches the Silver Palace, their is a strange glow that surrounds much of the land including the castle. A large creature attacks the party. Lleuvonia recognizes it as a vile troll which can only be hurt by poison or fire. Brandon throws an unlit vial of oil at the troll which covers him in the flammable liquid. He then runs from the party to distract the troll. The troll follows him and hits him for 12 points of damage. Emeline lights a torch and passes it to Marcus who uses it to light the troll on fire. Splash damage from the troll igniting does enough damage to Brandon to knock him out. Troy attacks the thrashing troll doing enough damage to put it down. It continues to burn long after it is dead. The party travels on to the Silver Palace. As they approach, the Protectors meet them and tell them they can let them in through the red barrier around the castle and then let them out, but not much else. The party asks if they can help with any food and they agree to give 2 days worth of rations. They also point out the ruins of a farm house that the party can use to spend the night.

Day 9: The party awakes to notice that more of the land is glowing red as they get closer to the palace. They avoid touching anything glowing red after noticing a rat die when it touched something glowing red. As they search near the portcullis which leads into the palace, they notice a trip wire. They use their pole to make sure it is safe to step over the wire and do so. As soon as they get inside, the portcullis crashes down behind the party. As they search, they fight a giant rat and two skeletons in different rooms. They also find two switches. They use the poll to move one of the switches which releases a dart. When they pull the other switch, two portcullises open into the palace proper. Fight 5 kobolds in ransacked library. Find big, white ape chained to wall that appears to be guarding a passage. After trying to figure out how to subdue the beast without killing it for a little while, it gets so agitated that it breaks its chains and attacks the party. The party is forced to kill it.