Session Two (July 6th)

Advance to the rear

The group, wounded and exhausted from their battle at the waterfall, retreat back to Winterhaven to recover and recruit assistance. The mocking, metallic laughter of Ironteeth reverberated in their minds as they came within sight of the village gates. Strangely, the gate guards barely seemed to remember them, let alone challenge their entry. The group hurried to Wrafton's Inn to report their progress, or lack thereof, to Eilian.

Eilian was discouraged to hear that the group had not yet attempted to locate the Third Sinister Rib. He encouraged them to hurry back to the dig site and complete their mission. Shade promised to complete the mission, but vowed that Ironteeth would fall first. Eilian was able to point the group in the right direction for help. He indicated that Valthrun had a new apprentice, who may be able to help. He also indicated that a small troupe of halflings had recently arrived in the village and were camped just outside the walls. Such a troupe may have some assistance to offer. After a brief discussion, the group agreed to have Zar'za approach Valthrun to ask for the assistance of his apprentice, while Shade would seek to hire someone from the Halfling camp.

Zar'za found Valthrun to be in his usual foul mood, but was able to ascertain that his apprentice was somewhere in the village, probably rewashing his laundry, which was n0t previously done to his satisfaction. Valthrun promised Zar'za that he had, indeed, found some useful information and was eager to share it should they complete Ninaran's quest and prove themselves trustworthy to the village. Zar'za promised to return for the information once the quest was complete. As she was leaving the tower, she spotted an young, skinny mage struggling to carry two pails of laundry. The boy introduced himself as Lars and readily agreed to assist the party. To show his readiness, he tossed the clean laundry into the street and washed his hands of Valthrun's petty tasks. Zar'za and Lars hurried back to the Inn to rejoin the party.

Meanwhile, Shade approached the halfling camp and was met by an affable halfling by the name of Elder Tonberry. Tonberry agreed to allow one of his young warriors to join the party, but insisted that an "insurance" fee be paid. Shade, ever tongue-tied and ill at ease in conversation, promised to think the offer over and return. Upon rejoining the party at Wrafton's, Shade met the newly hired Lars, who agreed to use his silken tongue to persuade Tonberry to let him speak and deal directly with the young warrior. Sadly, Lars underestimated Tonberry's persuasiveness and left, unable to come to terms. The group agreed to return to the halfling camp en masse and attempt one last negotiation. They really needed an additional warrior/scout and the halflings presented the only option available to them. This time, Shade and Krova dealt with Elder Tonberry. They attempted to persuade him to prove the mettle of his young warrior with a contest of skill before they agreed to meet his exorbitant price. Reluctantly, Tonberry agreed and an archery contest between the Elf, Shade, and the halfling Ranger, Lodi commenced. Each was to hit a small target at long range. The best two out of three shots would be the victor. The first shot went to Shade, who sent his shaft true to the target. Lodi hit the target as well, but a few inches outside of Shade's. The first round went to Shade. On his second shot, Shade put his shaft perfectly into the center of the bullseye. Lodi, clearly intimidated by Shade's shot, failed to even hit the target. Shade easily won the contest. Elder Tonberry, promising only opossum for Lodi for a month, reluctantly agreed to meet the party's demands. The final terms were 20 gold up front, with a second payment of 10 gold once Lodi had completed his task. Should he perish, the party would pay the halflings another 20 gold. Satisfied with their arrangement and the two additions to their party, the group returned to Wrafton's to rest the night.

Once more into the breach, dear friends...

The next morning, the group left Winterhaven to return to the kobold lair. As they drew near, Shade and Lodi agreed to scout ahead. As they drew closer to the waterfall, Shade easily discovered and disarmed a crudely constructed spike trap. As they moved closer, Shade and Lodi failed to spot a pit trap on the path. Lodi tumbled within and impaled himself on some feces-smeared spikes. Shade pulled him from the shallow pit and they hastened back to the party, satisfied that they have "discovered" all the traps. Zar'za inspected Lodi's wounds and cleaned them out as well as she can. She was fairly confident that she has prevented Lodi from contracting some foul disease. The group traveled together to the waterfall where they crouched in concealment and observed. They spotted no movement from within, nor did they hear anything. Sensing a trap, Lodi and Shade moved forward into the clearing to get a look inside the cavemouth. Luckily, several party members spotted discolored patches of earth strewn about the clearing and correctly surmised that kobolds are hidden within shallow pits, ready to spring up and attack. Shade moved forward silently, but Zar'za's clumsy bumblings alerted the kobold ambushers. One peeked out from his pit covering, only to have Shade's shortsword shoved into his face, severely wounding him. The kobolds sprang from their pits and the battle was on! The battle was short and easily won, but the party was impressed by the contributions of their two newest members. Lodi's arrows were precise and deadly, while Lars' magic missiles seared and destroyed with abandon.

The party, breathing heavily from the battle, turned their attention to the cavemouth. Now they can hear the sounds of kobolds shrieking to each other in their draconic language, readying for the party's inevitable assault. The party did not disappoint the kobolds and they charged into the cave, using a smaller, hidden side passage. The kobolds, expecting entrance from the cavemouth behind the waterfall, find themselves disorganized and unable to blunt the parties attack. The kobolds swarmed to reorganize and push back the assault, but are felled quickly by Krova's electrified breath attack. The party's tactics were brilliant as they forced the kobold force to attack them from a single direction. Krova and Zar'za held the line while Lodi, Shade, and Lars slaughtered the kobold horde with their deadly ranged attacks.

Finally, Ironteeth himself charged forward to attack. The party was shocked to be confronted by such a monstrosity. Ironteeth appeared to be two goblins, smashed and melted together to form a horrendous, two-mouthed creature, two huge axes gripped in its twisted limbs. Krova instantly recognized the foul beast as a Dolgaunt and called out to his comrades to destroy the abomination immediately. The party was able to hold their line against the furious assault of Ironteeth's double axe attack. Zar'za, caught out of position, dropped, one axe blow from death. Krova valiantly fought to her side and used the power of Dol Dorn to heal her wounds. His healing touch was enough to return her to consciousness, but a second brutal attack from Ironteeth kept her pinned to the ground. Meanwhile, Shade and Lodi concentrated their attacks on the foul beast and severely wounded him, Shade even temporarily blinding him for a time with a furious hail of shurikens. Eventually, Ironteeth succumbed to his wounds and collapsed in death. In his death-throws, he called out to Doresain to prepare his way to the master. Ironteeth dealt with, the party was able to easily mop up the remaining kobolds, whose eagerness for the fight was suddenly drained from them at the sight of their dead leader.

The kobolds finally dealt with, the party turned their attention to the contents of the cave. They mostly found the foul leavings of dozens of kobolds, but in a small cavern to the rear of the complex, they found a pile of gold and a small, locked chest. Easily disabling the trap and springing the lock, Shade opened the chest to reveal a finely crafted suit of dwarven chainmail. Lars identified the mail as magical in nature and the group agreed to give it to Zar'za, as she has proven herself to be most vulnerable in battle. On the person of Ironteeth, whose teeth had been forcibly removed by Zar'za to return to Ninaran, the group found a small scroll tube. Within was a message written in common in a fine, spidery hand. The message read....

My spy in Winterhaven suggests we keep an eye out for visitors to the area. It probably does not matter; in just a few more days, I'll completely open the rift. Then Winterhaven's people will serve as food for all those Lord Orcus sends to do my bidding.
- K

The party is naturally troubled by the message and is eager to discover the identity of this mysterious "K". They gathered up the spoils of their victory and hurried from the caves. With the sun still high in the sky they set out to investigate the dragon burial site.

I've got a bone to pick with you...

From a distance, perched atop a hill overlooking the dig site, the party was able to see movement inside the crater. While still too far away to accurately identify anything, they were able to tell that they were most likely watching humans as they worked in the pit. Again, Shade and Lodi were sent forward the scout the pit as the other, louder and clumsier members stayed well back. The scouts were able to approach close enough to spot two, large dog-sized lizards patrolling the lip of the crater. They were able to hear voices from within the crater. The most dominant voice high pitched and foul mouthed as it shrieked and bullied the humans at work within the pit. As the lizard creatures moved off, the pair decided to try to cross some open ground to a rock outcropping on the lip of the pit, where they could find cover and look within. Unfortunately, Shade misjudged the stability of the rocks and caused them to avalanche down into the pit, alerting the inhabitants. The foul-mouthed pit boss, a gnome, called his minions to action and the humans charged from the pit, armed with clubs. The lizard creatures and the human laborers chased the pair from the pit and, eventually, lost them in the woods. Shade and Lodi made their way back to the group, who had been hurrying to their aid.

With the day getting long, the party watched and waited until the gnome had gotten his crew back to work. They were able to sneak up to the pit and set into motion their plan of attack. Setting their position so that any attacking enemy would have to cross broken and rocky terrain, the party launched their attacks upon the lizard creatures. They hoped to draw the gnome out of the pit into their field of fire. Their plan worked, but they were attacked by a very effective halfling slinger, who had been crouched behind a small rock outcropping. His hail of deadly sling stones pummelled the party, hurting several of them severely. The party's plan, however, was a good one and the gnome found himself pinned with the halfling behind his meager cover. The first lizard beast fell and the party concentrated fire on the gnome, who peppered them with caustic insults and deadly accurate crossbow fire. The battle was going poorly as the halfling continued his ferocious sling assault and the gnome peppered the party with crossbow bolts, until Zar'za used the power of the Silver Flame to cast terror into the heart of the halfling, overcoming his natural resistance to fear. He fled, leaving his gnomish overseer to face the renewed assault of the party, determined to see him fall. Fall he did, finally, pierced through the skull by Lodi's pinpoint arrow shot. The human laborers either fled or surrendered, while the halfling, finally overcoming the spell's affect, returned to the battle. He was finally downed by a barrage of magical darts cast from the fingertips of Lars.

Exhausted and completely spent, the party searched the pit and found what they were looking for. The third sinister rib was found, wrapped in silk, hidden within the gnome's meager tent. On the gnome the party also found what appeared to be a magical locket. Inside the locket was a picture of a middle-aged human woman. The picture had been defaced by the gnome in a most crude and unforgivable way. The magical locket was given to Krova as the party found that it boosted the overall health and protection of the wearer. Sadly, the party found a shallow grave with a dismembered corpse within. Shade identified the body as that of Douven Stahl, the Karnathi spy who Shade had been hired to find. Collecting their loot, the party returned to Winterhaven.

Revelations

The party hurried back to Wrafton's Inn to meet with Eilian. Eilian was sad to hear of the death of Douven Stahl, but was very pleased at the recovery of the rib. Unfortunately, he had no further orders pertaining to the rib, and so decided to return to his contacts for further instruction. The party, he advised, was to remain in Winterhaven and continue their investigation. They were further tasked to keep the rib safe. He recommended that the party consult Valthrun about the rib and about all that they had found. He then left to prepare for his long journey, promising to return with aid.

The party had hoped to meet with Ninaran to give her the news that the kobold threat had been ended, but she was nowhere to be found. Instead, the group headed to Valthrun's tower to consult the sage. On their way, they ran into a beautiful young elf, Delphina Moongem, the flower seller. The party found it suspicious that she is out after midnight, but she assured them that she was merely taking a late night walk to clear her head. As she left, Lodi attempted to follow her, but seemed to be easily detected. He stumbled an apology and rejoined his party.

Valthrun answered the tower door in his nightshirt and, at first was quite annoyed, but the party assured him they were there to share vital information, so he invited them into the tower and served them tea. The party presented the rib and shared with him all the information they had collected. Valthrun was most distressed, as the information shared with him verified his own research. He told the party that he had determined that a group of unknown origin was, perhaps, attempting to open a rift to the Shadowfell, that plane of shadow that was in close proximity to our own plane during this time of Winterhaunt. It was clear from the information that the party recovered that this group was attempting to free Doresain, an exarch of the demon prince Orcus, who had been imprisoned in the Shadowfell by a group of Dol Dorn paladins during the reign of Galifar the First. Doresain had been attempting to bring forth a horde of undead from the Shadowfell to prepare the world for the return of his lord, Orcus. The current attempt to pierce the veil to the Shadowfell most likely is occuring in or under the ruins of an ancient keep several days to the north of Winterhaven. Valthrun knows from his research that the keep was constructed during the reign of Karrn the Conqueror, founder of Karrnath. It was built over a rift to Mabar, also called the Shadowfell, to guard against incursions from that realm. It was there that Doresain attacked and attempted to breach the rift and it was there that the Paladins of Dol Dorn flung him into the rift and sealed him within. If Doresain is released, great evil and destruction will scour the land! Valthrun thinks the third sinister rib may be one of the keys to opening the rift. He vows to keep it safe and continue his research on it. The party leaves the rib in his care and returns to the Inn to ready themselves to investigate the ruins of the keep the next morning. Before they go, Valthrun gives them a copy of an ancient poem which he has discovered in his research. He is not sure, but claims it may have something to do with the ancient battle at the keep. The poem reads as follows:

In shadowed keep of tumbled stone,
A peril hides, for years unknown,
The Kinslayer's spirit guards it yet,
'Gainst the very child he did beget.

The thing of evil sent dark dreams,
Nightmares wrought of tortured screams,
The vowed defender's sword did rend,
Murder to fate's hand forfend.

Awakened to the awful truth,
Shattered bones of men and youth,
His wife and children, pride and joy,
Seen as demons, he destroyed.

The Kinslayer met his death alone,
For wicked deeds he would atone,
So awaits he for the fated time,
Forgiveness grant for hated crime.

Visions echo through the halls,
Ghostly blood runs 'long the walls,
None can face those cursed remains
Fear like water in their veins.

If seek ye treasure, fame or greed,
Kinslayer's words be wise to heed,
Be ye born of purest light,
None can withstand the endless night.

Thus ends session two....