Droaam Strikes Back

Chronicle

The Flaming Rat soared slowly across the lush jungles of Southern Breland, making its way to temperate grasslands and finally over the northern tip of the lush Graywall mountains. The crew made for the Graywall Gap, which sat between the ranges of the Graywall mountains and the Byesk mountains.

Things had calmed down a bit in the city of towers. The Daask had been severely crippled, and Merrin had been set free. The group had not been attacked by random monstrosities in the street for several days. The Shadowguard was growing faster than anyone could have imagined, and was already starting to enforce order in the lower city.

With things looking positive on the home front they had turned their thoughts toward Droaam, and Cora’s father.

The plan was to swing by Graywall on the way to Great Crag in order to check up on things. If everything was in order they would press on to rescue The Shadow from the dungeons of The Daughters of Sora Kell.

Unfortunately, when they arrived at the city of Graywall, something was not right. All about the city walls armaments were being readied. Troops were fortifying and readying for battle. On the western horizon a large black cloud was rising.

Suddenly an overloud voice boomed “Are you friend or foe!? Identify yourself or be shot down!”

"We are a friend," shouted Sadie from the prow of the ship, "and we would like to speak with General ir'Camyra."

"Land please" the voice replied tonelessly.

The airship touched down in an open square. The crew remained on board while Sadie, Cora, Garen, and Thaspar disembarked under heavy guard. They were met by a soldier who led them to the general.

As they walked he spoke.

"General ir’Camyra wants to speak with you. It appears that the hags have mustered a colossal army to retake Graywall. We didn’t think that they cared so much about the city. I’m not sure what the general intends. I think that he believes that we cannot win. Unfortunately we don’t have access to Argonth – it is up north, and can’t get here for two days – but the enemy will be here in one. So that means that if we want to evacuate using Argonth we need to hold them for at least a day. What’s more we want to diminish the size of the army as much as possible. We don’t need an army like that sitting on our border."

"Anyways, the general thought you might have some insight, or be helpful. He asked to see you."

The man led them up to a stone building in the upper city. It was well furnished an appeared to be the city hall.

“We have set up one of the conference rooms as a war room,” the man explained, “General ir’Camyra is inside.”

The guard at the door gave them a node, and allowed their guide to open the door.

Inside was a long room with a large oval table. The table was spread with maps, documents and battle plans. Sitting around the table were General Tukid ir’Camyra, and three of his advisors. They were all dead: slumped over the table.

Immediately the party was on edge, and they began combing the room. The guards informed them that no-one had been in or out in over an hour. Cora was just looking under the table, when out of the corner of her vision, she saw a cloud of reddish mist slowly floating up from behind the open door.

"Close the doors," she shouted as she began casting a spell. Using stolen magical energy she shot a gust of wind from her fingertips, which slammed the cohesive mist against the far wall. "Don't let it escape."

Sadie moved forward to attack the gas, but here swings simply cut right through it, doing no discernible damage. The mist began floating slowly upwards and toward the center of room room.

"It can only be harmed energy," Garen asserted.

Cora and Thaspar retrieved their alchemists fire, while Garen blasted the vapor with a wand of magic missiles. Unfortunately without a target the alchemist's fire would just fly right through the mist and smash somewhere else. As Sadie was immersed in the stuff, she provided the unhappy target.

As magical flames burst on the Shifter, Garen noticed the mist moving ever-so-slowly towards the center of the room's ceiling. He looked up to see if there was any target it might be making for. It was just an ordinary stone ceiling, nothing particularly special. But then he saw it. I small circular hole was cut into the very center of the ceiling, as if bored there. The mist was definitely making for it.

Thinking quickly Garen began casting an infusion. Using a combination of mundane and magical talent, he quickly transformed a small chunk of the table into a "cork" of the exact dimensions of the hole. Jumping up on the table, which creaked under his considerable weight, he grabbed the new sculpture and thrust it into the escape port.

Suddenly denied its exit, the mist coalesced almost immediately into a gnoll! But not just any gnoll. They immediately recognized their foe as Piercer, the famed gnoll asassin and saboteur.

Piercer was already badly wounded by this stage, and now that he could be harmed by mundane weapons, a few blows brought his career to an end.

Alas, not before the entire command of the Brelish army in Droaam has been eliminated.

A quick strategy session was held between the four and the remaining army leaders. It was decided that Sadie, Thaspar, Garen, and Cora would head up the command during the seige, and that the destruction of General ir'Camyra and his heads would not be announced. The heroes of Sharn stepping in would explain why ir'Camyra was not being seen.

Now in charge of the proceedings the four began to plan their strategy for the coming onslaught. The main body of the troops were coming from the west, from Great Crag, but there was a possibility of troops coming from both Chazaak Draal (lead by the Queen of Stone) and a contingent of harpies from the Byeshk Mountains.

The main troops from Great Crag would be at Graywall within 24 hours, but it was at least 48 hours until Argonth could arrive to evacuate the civillians. The troops from Chazaak Draal and the Byeshk Mountains were expect sometime in the middle.

The first order of business was to evacuate all civilians to the upper city behind the second fortifications. All in one place, they could be loaded onto Argonth faster, and also they would be safe if the outer walls fell.

The next point was scouting. They wanted some better information on the enemy to the north. While the others strategized, Cora went up in the airship to see what she could discover. To her (and later the party's) dismay, she found that legions were coming from both Chazaak Draal and the mountains. The harpies had large flying creatures with them, but from a distance it was hard to discern any more.

With this new information things looked grim indeed. They had to hold out against a force of over 10,000 monstrous soldiers with a garrison of only 1000 Brelish troops.

Several hours of fierce strategy followed. They weren't expert military strategists, but they had a few tricks up their sleeves. As various plans were proposed and discussed, no-one noticed Cora slip silently out of the room.

As evening wore on the planning was coming to an end, it was time to put things into practice. They had already begun gathering all of the civilians into the upper city. In addition building near the gates were being pulled down. As it looked like they were going to abandon Graywall, there was no reason not to render at least the western gate unusable.

Everything was just wrapping up and there were about to leave when something truly unexpected occurred.

Suddenly, toward the northern end of the war room two goblins materialized suddenly. One was clad in fierce looking plate mail and held a wicked axe. The other was quite attractive (as goblins go) and very buxom (a fact which she took no pains to conceal). The armored goblin looked very bewildered indeed at his new surroundings. The female, however, was quite confident, and to the surprise of everyone present shouted, "Its me, Cora! This is the enemy general."

*****

While the others had been pouring over boring strategy, Cora had other things in mind. They way to kill a beast is to cut off its head, she mused to herself as she strode purposefully through the streets of Graywall.

Cora sat on the prow of the Flaming Rat as it glided slowly toward the advancing army. She couldn't get too close, but time was of the essence. The crew brought the ship as close as Cora felt they could risk, and then she was lowered on a rope. Leaving the halfling than an hour ahead of the advancing army the airship made its way back to Graywall.

Cora soon found a suitable clump of trees on the scarred plains, and waited. She had something very clever in mind, but it was risky. She waited anxiously as the sound of marching boots grew closer. Waiting until the last possible second, she kept herself hidden as the first ranks of gnoll and goblin soldiers passed her - oblivious. Now is the time, she told herself. As quickly and quietly as she could, Cora cast her newest spell. In a few seconds she had take on the appearance of a very buxom goblin lass. Glad in the minimum accouterments required for a soldier she would be irresistible to any goblin male. At least, that is what she hoped.

It didn't take long to find her way to the general. General Hesky Tripwalk was a famous fighter, known for his great skill in combat. He marched with his army boldly. Cora waited hesitantly. As evening wore on, General Tripwalk declared a short marching break for a quick supper. Now is my chance, though Cora.

She sidled up to the general. "Hey Hesky," she cooed, "I have an idea of what we could do for our break."

At first the general seemed confused, but when his eyes fell on her voluptuousness, his face cracked into a lusty smile.

"There is a little copse of trees over there," the halfling, in goblin form, continued.

Covertly, as to not upset the troops, the general and the object of his desire made their way to a sheltered bit of scrub. They were now safely out of view from the other soldiers.

As the general began unclasping Cora's top, she moaned, "Oh general. We can be seen here. Why don't we go somewhere more hidden."

Blinded utterly by lust, "he said where."

Here is goes though Cora. For this to work he has to be willing...

"I can teleport us to somewhere else. Then we can do whatever you want."

"Uh, sure." said the general.

Cora smiled. Yep. This was going to work. As the general busied his hands, she reached for her scroll of teleport.

*****

At first the others had been utterly shocked when Cora (in goblin form) and the enemy general had appeared in their midst. Weapons were drawn, but even the great General Tripwalk was no match for all four heros of Sharn. They quickly knocked out their foe, and tied him securely for later interrogation.

When it was all over, everyone was so astonished at Cora's actions that she received a round of applause from her comrades. Though small, there was much to admire in the tenacious halfling.

The general was not willing to talk, but his disappearance would surely sow fear and discord in the approaching troops.

*****

As the sun finally dipped fully behind the distant hills, four figures stole silently across the plain. They stood immediately in front of the approaching enemy lines. Cloaked in invisibility they could not be seen - but the spell would not last forever. Their eyes were turned skyward.

When Cora has been amidst the enemy ranks she had discovered one additional piece of information. They had airships. 10 of them, to be precise, and they were going to be used to bomb the city mercilessly. The group had decided that if nothing else - they would take out those ships.

One of those ships was about to loom overhead. Calculating the trajectory, Garen gave the go signal, and the four rose into the air. Their scrolls of fly were well spent, as they reached the deck of the ship less than a minute later.

Silently they crept over the railing, and took a few seconds to observe their surroundings. They stole into a corner, behind so crates and sacks. Cora and Thaspar helped to hide Garen. They hid in the darkness. Cora watched purposefully as the captain navigated the ship.

While her companions hid in wait, Sadie was busy. She wasted no time. She had only XXX minutes of invisibility - and she would need them all. Clinging to the hull of the airship, she readied the special contraption she had rigged up. She had connected her belt of infinite rope to a grapple, which she now fitted into her bow. With a soft twang the grapple whizzed into the night and attached to the nearest ship.

Jumping, Sadie careened through the air, swinging wildly on the rope. It wasn't long before she was in the hold of the nearby ship. It was easy to gain access, as the hulls of the ships were pocked with holes for dropping bombs. Inside she found what she expected. Hundreds of pounds of explosives for a deadly bombing run on Droaam.

Hunkering down in a hiding place behind some crates, Sadie silently drew a cask from her pack of holding. It was one of the 10 special packages that Garen had made up. As quickly and as quietly as she had come, the shifter was gone.

And so it went. In the sky above the armies of Droaam an invisible shifter made her way to seven of the ten airships. Of the three remaining, one had her companions on board - ready to stage a coup at the appropriate time. One was simply too far from the main pack - her rope swing would land her on the ground, before she saw the other ship. The final ship, was her next destination.

Like the other ship, it was far away, perhaps too far away to swing without the arc bringing her to earth. She didn't have much time to consider it. She decided to go for it. Kicking off from the hull of the current ship, she began to climb the rope, even as it fell. Her hands were a blur and she ascended, while the rope descended. A few seconds later she went whooshing over the heads of the Droaamish army, as the slack end of her rope trailed the ground. This caused some confusion, but it was too late. The invisible Sadie was quickly inside the final ship. This time she had outclimbed gravity.

Sadie placed the last two casks in the hold of the final ship. Her invisibility was going to wear off any second - which also meant that she had only moments to act until the plans of the others went into motion. Clambering quickly up the side of the ship, she found what she was looking for. The airship was equipped with an emergency soarsled. Not caring if she was detected anymore she grabbed the glowing disk and made her way as far from the ship as possible. She heard shouts from behind her, but all she cared about was putting distance between herself and that ship.

*****

It was time. Cora and Thaspar burst from their hiding place, and quickly subdued the navigator. Using Cora's spyglass Thaspar quickly spotted Sadie on the soarsled, and Cora steered the ship towards it. Thaspar and Garen held off the remaining crew.

Sadie was safely away. It was time to execute the plan. It had been mostly of Garen's doing. He had prepared 10 casks filled with alchemists fire. Perfect for detonating large caches of explosives. The problem was that once the first ship was detonated the others would be on guard. That is where his infusions came in.

Taking 10 ordinary flasks of alchemist's fire, he infused them with a special spell that allowed him to detonate them on command. Each flask was carefully sealed inside a larger casks. Then, all 10 were loaded into the pack of holding, and Sadie was given the task of planting them. Garen hoped that she had made it to most of the ships. He also hoped that this whole plan would work - the infusion was primarily intended for potions - not necessarily alchemist's fire.

In any case, now was the moment. Surveying the air, he willed the alchemists fires to activate.

Nothing happened. The other airships were still flying. Everything seemed completely normal. Garen's heart fell.

Suddenly, with a mighty roar of fire which echoed across the entire plain, the nearest airship exploded in a huge ochre conflaguration. As the cloud of smoke, fire, and flaming timber fell slowly from sight, Garen could see other ships meeting the same fate. Some ships had been utterly obliterated, while others had their sides of bottoms blown out. He could see loosed fire and wind elementals wreaking havock on the flaming ships as they (along with tons of debris) fell onto the enemy army below. The night was filled with monstrous screams. To Garen it was a glorious sight to behold.

A few moments later Sadie, atop a soarsled appeared from the carnage was quickly taken on board. Of the ten airships, eight had been destroyed, and one was currently in their possession. That left only one Droaamish ship, and that ship was closing on them quickly.

As the enemy ship approached someone bellowed, "Whats going on?"

Cora, thinking quickly said, "The explosives! They are about to go off! Drop your load!"

As she said this she ordered the crew of their ship to drop their own load (or face the consequences). A few moments later the two remaining ships were dumping their explosive payload onto the bewildered toops below.

When Cora steered their commandeered craft toward Graywall, however, the opposing captain realized that he had been duped - and he was very angry.

Firing ballista and mangonel, the Droaamish craft pursued. Cora made for the city - taking a very precise angle. She hoped that the final enemy vessel might run afoul of the other little surprise they had cooked up.

With access to a team of magewright and artificiers during the day, Garen had worked up an idea to stop approaching airships. Under his instruction they had created a permanent wall of force, 1 foot tall, but 100 feet wide, a little ways above the city walls, and outside the city.

Cora's steering was true. The opposing craft came at them from an angle to cut them off, but as it turns out, Cora had just nearly avoided the invisible wall of force, but the enemy trajectory took them straight into it.

The Droaamish crew was still shouting wildly when the hull first made contact with the immovable wall. Suddenly the front of the hull burst open in a shower of shattered timber. Then, like a knife cutting butter, the wall ripped through the rest of the ship. A line of shattering wood tore across the side of the ship, and finally out the rear side. The entire ship was rent in two.

Out of control the top half flipped, smashing into the lower. The fire elemental was released, and soon the entire thing was a mass of burning timber. The spell holding it up broken, the entire thing crashed into the plains below - now nothing more than a flaming mass.

Thus, was the entire air fleet of Droaam destroyed.

*****

The most powerful weapons in the enemy arsenal had been destroyed, but nothing could stop the inexorable march of the troops toward the gates of Greywall. The fortifications were in place. The gates were blocked. All they could do now was wait.

Garen, Sadie, and Thaspar stood amidst the nervous Brelish troops atop the outer walls. Everyone shifted expectantly in the dull grey mists of the early morning. The western plain was a mass of monstrous forms. Rank upon rank of gnolls, dolgaunts, goblins, and dolgrims, with the odd troll, ogre or minotaur standing above his companions.

It was clear, however, that the force lacked organization. The loss of their leader had taken their toll. Instead of any sort of planned maneuver, the squads simply charged the gates as soon as they were within reach - making it much easier for the archers to pick them off. Yet, by sheer numbers they were soon at the gates - hurling grappling and lifting ladders, as the troops fired furiously into them.

The second battle of Graywall had begun.

*****

Sadie's bow twanged in her ear as she fired down on the monstrous mass below her. The Graywall defenders had been slaughtering the Droaamish hordes by the dozen for the past couple of hours - but the attacking numbers were so great. One by one the defenders were falling.

With a thwap her arrow ended the charge of another goblin, and she turned to survey the plain. To here right there were a large cluster of monsters making their way toward the gate. They had blocked the gate up with rubble, but it still made her nervous. She fired into the group.

*****

Thaspar surveyed the battle from atop the walls. He was really much better with a set of fists than a bow, but for the time being he was stuck inside the city. He fired into the chaos below as an enemy arrow whistled past his ear.

Then he noticed it.

A large cluster of monsters parted to reveal something, hidden underneath a wooden covering. Suddenly the object burst out. It was a huge rectangular construct. The front was carved into a gruesome face, and its sides were flanked by six, large, blocky fists. Its bottom was equipped with a set of huge rollers. The contrivance rolled slowly up to the gates, and began ramming it. All six fists began pounding the stone. Within seconds the gate was ready to fall.

Sadie, Thaspar and Garen rushed to the site where the massive juggernaut was smashing its way in, but by the time they arrived a ragged hole had been punched in the wall and monsters were already filtering through the gap - being met with the blades of the Brelish soldiers.

The enemy soldiers were the least of their worries, however. As they watched in shock two large metal constructs pushed their way past the juggernaut and entered the city. They resembled large metal insects with blades for hands.

Garen thoughts drifted. He had immediately recognized them as Slaughterstone Evicerators. They were manufactured by House Cannith toward the end of the last war - invented by an artificier only known as Slaughterstone. He had been lost in the Cyran cataclysm. He had also invented a more powerful creature called a Slaughterstone Behemoth. Garen thought he recalled that House Kundarak had purchased such a construct for its bank vault recently...

A blade whirling past his head brought Garen out of his reverie. Garen now had more than a simple academic interest in such constructs. He raised his axe and charged.

****

"Bank left, and everyone concentrate your fire on the purplish one!"

Cora shouted orders from the deck of the Flaming Rat. With the Droaamish air support gone, her and her troops rained death on the enemy below. They concentrated on taking out the heavy artillery from a safe distance. In particular: beholders.

She watched with satifaction as another one of the gazers (as she called them) crashed to the ground, taking several nearby goblins with it.

That makes 21 she thought.

****

Garen was shocked at the power that he and his friends now possessed. In the days of the last war he had seen Slaughterstone Evicerators take down entire batallians with ease. Now, he, Sadie, and Thaspar stood amidst the scattered remnants of two of the creatures and a seige juggernaut! Sure, they had not escaped untouched - in fact Sadie and Thaspar were badly injured - but it was an amazing feat nonetheless.

"Hold the gap while we repair it." It was the captain of the squad of artificiers assigned to Greywall. He explained that they needed at least a minute to complete a ritual to shore up the gate - and that at least 6 of the 12 artificiers needs to survive. The prospect would normally be grim, but with Thaspar, Sadie, and Garen it was possible.

The trio hacked their way through the monsters who had trickled in through the gap, and out onto the battlefield. Everything was in chaos. Monsters charged towards the walls from all directions. Many had noticed the gap and were making for it. Behind them a dozen unarmored men and women closed their eyes and began chanting.

The initial onslaught was the worst. Two artificiers fell within seconds of beggining the ritual. The three defenders tried to move to close the most gaps, but it was nearly impossible. Thaspar battled a minotaur, while Sadie cut the legs out from under a goblin who ran past her toward the defenseless mages. Garen's axe thundered with the power of a storm, slaughtering a troll in a single hit.

30 seconds had passed, and 4 of the artificiers were dead. It was too difficult to cover the entire gap. At this rate there would not be enough left to complete the ritual. Sadie's heart fell as she cut down one goblin, but saw a gnoll pass on the other side.

The hyena-like creature brandished a crude axe, but it whirled with deadly accuracy all the same. The stone blade swung hard at a blue robed young woman, who was oblivous to her attacker.

Suddenly the axe clattered to the ground, and the gnoll was left spread eagled - pinned by a ballista bolt. "Need some help," Cora called from the airship.

The harrowing moments couldn't pass quickly enough, as foe after foe threw away their lives at the feet of the heroes of Sharn, but eventually there was a roar of arcane power, and the three found themselves standing outside the completed wall.

The soldiers atop the new wall lowered a rope to the heroes, but something else was afoot. Suddenly the troops parted, and uncovered wooden panels from... a second juggernaut. All hearts sank as they realized that their efforts to fix the wall had been in vain. In mere seconds the second juggernaut would be through the new wall.

Thaspar, and Sadie charged, but Garen hung back. He had an idea.

Though Sadie and Thaspar did their best to hinder and damage the seige juggernaut, it continued to move inexorably forward. Soon the bodies of their fallen foes were being crushed under it. In mere moments Greywall would be breached again - this time for good. In desperation Sadie climbed atop the behemoth, but it was no use. She was good at finding weak spots and exploting them - a creature of pure stone had no such spot.

Then it happened.

The was a flash of brilliant arcane light, and Garen steped back. A human would have worn a satified smile, but the face of the warforged was as immobile as ever - only his eyes revealed his satisfaction.

Sadie looked down at the juggernaut she stood up. It had turned into a creature of flesh and blood. She had no idea what could have given a construct the essence of life, but what she did know what that living things had weak spots. Charging forward to the creature's head (which had previously been only decorative) she plunged her twin daggers into the beast's brain. The juggernaut roared with fury and a writhed violently upon the battlefield. Atop the tumult Sadie could be heard screaming "Yahooo! I'm riding the meat juggernaut!"

By the time the trio had reached the top of the walls the juggernaut's corpse had returned to its natural stone shape - but it was just as immobile.

*****

As the day wore into dusk, the numbers of the defenders dwindled. One by one the soldiers fell. Garen travelled the ranks healing as many as he could with magic, but he could simply not keep up. By evening they could see the dust of another army approaching to the north. With their numbers falling to less than 150 they simply could not hold two fronts. The hard decision was made to abandon the outer walls, and fall back to the upper city for a last stand.

Timeline

• Far 6 Therendor - Arrive at Greywall
• Far 7 Therendor - Assault on Greywall begins
  

Heroic Quotes

• "I'm riding the meat juggernaut" - Sadie
  

Adventure Names

• Robyn - General Hesky's Bad Day
  
• Bryan - Meeting the Juggernaut
• Lorraine - Garen Discovers His Dest
  

Statistics

Date Played: January 6, 2006
Session Length: 12 hours
Experience Gained: ???/character
Foes Vanquished: Pierce, 2 Juggernuaghts, 2 Slaughterstone Evicerators, 1 Troll, 1 Minotaur, Countless Enemy Soldiers