With some confusion, the group discovers the Veil is magical, though, the magical casters in the group can not seem to identify it fully, it's power too great for them to understand at the time. Emmerick gets out of it the powerful magical item, the "Barbed Pentacle of Asmodeus" a truly wicked holy symbol of the Lord of Nessus, leaving no doubt to the dark nature of their new "benefactor".
Once they discovered the images in the Veil correspond to items they could remove, they quickly got the thieves tools out & the adept Elf Rogue Quel frees the group from their chains. A quite conversation ensues about what is next. The wizard, Galen, insists his magical ring & arcane bond must be recovered. And Yvaine too says her special holy symbol to the god of death must be found. Both had their items hidden on them at the time of their arrest but they were found & confiscated at the arrival to the prison. Quel is against it, but eventually concedes when he discovers he's in the minority. The rest of the group likes the idea of a powerful wizard & cleric. The group manages to make their conversation both short & quite, keeping disagreements low so as to not alert the guards.
Freeing themselves from the cell, they encounter their cell neighbor, a massive Ogre named "Grumblejack". With some healing ministrations by Yvaine, Grumblejack decides these "little 'uns" aren't bad & he'll help them kill their way out of the prison.
What ensues is a brutal and efficient escape by some of the worst criminals in Talengarde.
Aside from Brother Summit, the Monk, stubbing a toe on a cell bar on the way to the first guard room (which the guards discounted as probably a "mouse") the group, lead by skilled Quel, proceed through a systematic slaughter of all the guards they can find. By getting the surprise & acting swiftly in combat, they manage to obliterate the defenders. Not a single warning is sounded. Grumblejack proves his worth more than once. Even the guards in the barrack, who stumble upon the group, have little chance to react before they are felled. And the group finds plenty of male cloths in the barrack do wear, instead of the prison rags they'd been forced to walk around in.
The kitchen staff found and interrogated, while Yvaine relieves one of the woman of her commoner cloths (the group failing to realize their benefactor provided them all nice fitted cloths in the Veil). Both woman are led into the prison basement & left there, bound & gagged, but allowed to live. An odd sign of mercy shown by the Death Priestess, over the objections of some others in the group.
The Sergeant is their last target within the main Prison building & though putting up more of a fight, his calls for help only echo off the hollow walls of the old keep turned Prison. For the other guards lay dead & the serving staff are the only restrained "prisoners" left. In the end the Sergeant dies as well, though, not before telling all he knows to our would be group & receiving a fatal branding himself, for his "crimes" against the Prison, including embezzling funds & apparently quite lax security.
Some very close calls on bluffing by a couple former prisoners now turned "new" guards, with papers bearing the forged signature of the (now deceased) Sergeant, leads the outside guard patrol into an ambush in the Kitchens & the end of their lives. Still no horn has been sounded. The near perfect streak of the group continues.
The first session ends with the group silently being lead up the stairs of the Warden's tower. The pull of Galen's arcane bonded ring ever weighing on his mind. He can sense it getting closer...
Once they discovered the images in the Veil correspond to items they could remove, they quickly got the thieves tools out & the adept Elf Rogue Quel frees the group from their chains. A quite conversation ensues about what is next. The wizard, Galen, insists his magical ring & arcane bond must be recovered. And Yvaine too says her special holy symbol to the god of death must be found. Both had their items hidden on them at the time of their arrest but they were found & confiscated at the arrival to the prison. Quel is against it, but eventually concedes when he discovers he's in the minority. The rest of the group likes the idea of a powerful wizard & cleric. The group manages to make their conversation both short & quite, keeping disagreements low so as to not alert the guards.
Freeing themselves from the cell, they encounter their cell neighbor, a massive Ogre named "Grumblejack". With some healing ministrations by Yvaine, Grumblejack decides these "little 'uns" aren't bad & he'll help them kill their way out of the prison.
What ensues is a brutal and efficient escape by some of the worst criminals in Talengarde.
Aside from Brother Summit, the Monk, stubbing a toe on a cell bar on the way to the first guard room (which the guards discounted as probably a "mouse") the group, lead by skilled Quel, proceed through a systematic slaughter of all the guards they can find. By getting the surprise & acting swiftly in combat, they manage to obliterate the defenders. Not a single warning is sounded. Grumblejack proves his worth more than once. Even the guards in the barrack, who stumble upon the group, have little chance to react before they are felled. And the group finds plenty of male cloths in the barrack do wear, instead of the prison rags they'd been forced to walk around in.
The kitchen staff found and interrogated, while Yvaine relieves one of the woman of her commoner cloths (the group failing to realize their benefactor provided them all nice fitted cloths in the Veil). Both woman are led into the prison basement & left there, bound & gagged, but allowed to live. An odd sign of mercy shown by the Death Priestess, over the objections of some others in the group.
The Sergeant is their last target within the main Prison building & though putting up more of a fight, his calls for help only echo off the hollow walls of the old keep turned Prison. For the other guards lay dead & the serving staff are the only restrained "prisoners" left. In the end the Sergeant dies as well, though, not before telling all he knows to our would be group & receiving a fatal branding himself, for his "crimes" against the Prison, including embezzling funds & apparently quite lax security.
Some very close calls on bluffing by a couple former prisoners now turned "new" guards, with papers bearing the forged signature of the (now deceased) Sergeant, leads the outside guard patrol into an ambush in the Kitchens & the end of their lives. Still no horn has been sounded. The near perfect streak of the group continues.
The first session ends with the group silently being lead up the stairs of the Warden's tower. The pull of Galen's arcane bonded ring ever weighing on his mind. He can sense it getting closer...
We shouldn't have left those cooks alive
ReplyDeleteNah, that will NEVER come back to haunt you... ;)
ReplyDeleteHey guys, I'm really enjoying reading this! I've been running the Way of the Wicked campaign for my group for the last month, and we've had a blast. It seems your PC's are faring much better than mine so far!
ReplyDeleteAs soon as the PCs escaped their cell, they killed the first two guards. While two of the PCs were stripping the corpses down and disguising themselves with the guard's uniforms, the party rogue was on the other side of the room bargaining with Grumblejack for his freedom. The rogue opened the door, happily proclaiming "We're killing ALL the guards!" to finalize his agreement with the Ogre, who was seeking revenge himself after the harsh treatment; Grumble was happy to comply, starting with the two guards he saw standing right in front of him. So the PC's had to kill him. We got a good laugh out of it though!
Ha! That's outstanding. Clearly their bluff checks to be guards was too good for ol' Grumblejack. Too bad the Ogre had to die, later books have other kinda cool stuff for him. But he's certainly replaceable, so no worries.
ReplyDeleteAnd glad to hear you're enjoying the game so far. We've been having a blast ourselves. As you read, you'll notice a few places where I deviate from the main plot, either because I didn't like how something was written, or because of PC actions.
I need to add my reviews of the books, but my biggest suggestion, IF you're going to run the full 1-20 game. Get ALL the books. The last book as a very useful pc timeline, that gives dates & also it lets you add some foreshadowing, etc...