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Dunmari Frontier - Session 10

Infiltration: in which the party breaches Raven’s Hold and rescues a prisoner

Featuring: Kenzo, Wellby, Delwath, Seeker, Riswynn
Companions: Vola
In Taelgar: Apr 12, 1748 DR
On Earth: Friday Oct 02, 2020
Raven’s Hold

The Dunmar Fellowship breaks into Raven’s Hold, scouts the surroundings, and rescues a prisoner named Vola from an orc and jackalweres.

Session Info

Summary

  • The party bypasses a locked gate and navigates through underground tunnels to a storeroom within Raven’s Hold.
  • After reconnaissance, the group ambushes and destroys two undead hobgoblins in a disused prison.
  • Scouting reveals gnolls guarding the outpost’s entrance and a noisy menagerie of wild animals.
  • Kenzo, invisible, scouts two towers, discovering a Chardonian prisoner guarded by an orc and two jackalweres
  • The party defeats the guards and rescues the prisoner Vola, who is revealed to be a member of the Society of the Open Scroll seeking artifacts. She shares information about the fey Agata Dustmother.

Timeline

  • Apr 12, 1748 DR, late afternoon: Cross through tunnels underground to Raven’s Hold.
  • Apr 12, 1748 DR, evening: Kill undead hobgoblins. Kill orc and jackalwere guarding a prisoner. Free Vola, the prisoner.

Narrative

We begin with the party contemplating the locked iron gate. While Wellby sneaks off to make sure Inakara is really departing, and see if there is anything else useful to find, the rest of the party tries to get past the gate, eventually resorting to Riswynn smashing it to pieces with her warhammer. Beyond the gate, a long tunnel leads east, albeit not one of Dwarven construction, according to Seeker. The tunnel continues at least 1500’, sloping down and then up slightly, before spiraling up in a corkscrew twist and emerging into a small chamber with a hole in the ceiling, leading up. While some iron spikes still in the walls hint that perhaps a ladder of some kind used to hang here, it is long gone. 

Riswynn climbs to the top, and drops a rope down for everyone else. As Wellby arrives, the party gathers in an old, disused cavern, seemingly once a storeroom, to discuss. After much talk, including the report from Wellby of signs of Hobgoblins in the dwarven outpost and his sighting of a large animated iron statue of Dwarven make apparently guarding something, conversation halts as Wellby hears something scrabbling around down the corridor. Exploring invisibly, Delwath spots two undead Hobgoblins rooting through some old skeletons, snapping bones in half. Exploring north and south, he also finds two exits from these caverns: one to the north blocked by a cave in, and one of the south leading to an iron gate, a small bridge, and a tower. Realizing it probably isn’t safe to explore while these creatures are roaming around, the party sets and ambush and makes quick work of the creatures. The room they were in seems to be an old, disused prison, probably hobgoblin: decapitated skeletons point towards an execution block, and iron manacles attached to the walls suggest prisoners were kept or tortured here.

Having dealt with the undead threat quickly and efficiently, the party splits up to explore. Riswynn, Delwath, and Seeker head north, where they watch from between the cracks in the rubble. Outside, a small plaza at the entrance to Raven’s Hold is guarded by some gnolls: three at first, who then leave and are replaced by another four. Also nearby, although not in sight, are a large number of wild animals, making a huge ruckus. Dogs, hyenas, jackals, and at least one lion can be heard, and at one point the gnolls go to feed these creatures, it seems. Kenzo and Wellby head south, and watch from the iron gate. From here, they can see two towers and a gate house protecting the inner courtyard of the stronghold, as well as the inner keep, from which firelight seems to occasionally flicker. Nothing seems to be moving in the inner courtyard, however, or coming in or out of the keep.

After coming back to discuss some more, Delwath casts invisibility on Kenzo, who heads to scout the tower. The first tower is devoid of life, at least on the three top floors. The second floor, where the bridge enters, contains little of note, except a barred door that seems to lead across the top of the gate house towards the second tower. The third floor contains small apartments and servant’s quarters, also with little of note. The fourth floor seems to have been used as the quarters of a hobgoblin commander, with a small desk, a bed, and the mark of the Blackened Claw carefully painted on one wall.

Crossing to the second tower, Kenzo finds the second floor of this tower to be largely the same as the first tower, lacking anything of note but some guard chambers and stairs up and down. Heading up, Kenzo comes face to face (invisibly) with an orc, who has set up chambers of sorts on this floor (the third floor). Sneaking past, and heading up to the top (fourth floor), Kenzo finds a prisoner, guarded by two seeming-humans. Whispering to her to hold tight and cutting her bonds, he heads back to fetch the rest of the party and try to rescue this person.

Together, the party moves quietly to the top of the stairs on the second tower. One of the guards is now blocking the stairs up, and the orc and the other guard seem to be in the orc’s chambers. Seeker puts one guard to sleep; while the thump alerts the orc and the other guard, the party is able to defeat them, despite some surprises, including the fact that non-magical weapons do not seem to hurt the guards at all, who shifted into part-human, part-jackal hybrids at the start of combat. 

After defeating these creatures, Vola Forena, the prisoner, is freed. As the sun is setting, the party and Vola head to the first tower, bar the door, and talk briefly. Vola is Chardonian, a member of the Society of the Open Scroll, a group that is hunting for old artifacts of Drankor across the plains; Arcus was also a member of this group, she reveals. Vola came towards Raven’s Hold almost two weeks ago, thinking it a likely place to find old relics, but was captured by the orc and his guards, and kept prisoner for the last 10 days. She has learned from her captors that an evil Fey creature, Agata Dustmother, is also seeking to find old artifacts in the Blasted Plains and across Dunmar, as the orc kept pressing her for information on what the Society had found and where, letting slip that he needed information to report to Agata. Needing some food and drink before continuing, we leave Kenzo, Delwath, Wellby, Seeker, Riswynn, and Vola, as they prepare their evening meal as the sun begins to set on Raven’s Hold.