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Chronicles of the War Against Grumella

With the recovery of all four of the Elemental Scrolls of Airion, the party enjoyed the status and wealth that comes from success and a growing reputation. Unfortunately, along the way, they made enemies, most notably Grumella, an orc warlord with an eye to conquest. Faced with an ultimatum to surrender or be destroyed, the party turned their eyes to the defense of Voltara, recruiting allies far and wide. This endeavor culminated in the Battle of Voltara, during which Grumella was defeated. The party was celebrated as heroes of the city in victory.

Adventure 12: Prepare for War!

Session 30

With the Quest for the Elemental Scrolls complete, the group takes some time to enjoy the fruits of their labor in Voltara. Aglath and Adrick head to the pit fighting rings: outside the walled city, they dominate, but inside it, they face the fiercest competition they’ve seen. Aelar goes to find poisons for his ever growing collection, buying serpent poison and crawler mucus on the Black Market, and acquiring wyvern venom from the local alchemist.  Samso goes to the lizardfolk village for lilypad cakes and clues. He then returns to study in the library and concludes that his family’s disappearance and the shadow lizards are connected to the Shadowfell. Brelith scribes spell scrolls and receives a kind letter from his proud noble parents. As they meet up again at their new lodgings in The Wandering Toad, the Proconsul of Voltara, Anton Lavernia reveals that Grumella is threatening to destroy Voltara if they don’t turn in the adventurers. After much beard stroking and wise ribbits, they refuse and prepare for siege. Brelith sends messages to his mom, who agrees to send a small dwarven military force, Mehrangeesa the Djinn, who refuses to fight but agrees to send help in another way when they call on him, and the roc who agrees to help if they do him a favor, and they decide to help him soon. They then leave to recruit the centaurs, and begin to march across the Erbalta Plains.

Session 31

At night, the party is attacked by some kind of shadow creature while Samso is on watch. Although it is a tough battle, they win, and the shadow creature fades, but not before threatening Samso, saying, “stop asking questions, you fool!” The rest of the trip to the centaurs passes uneventfully, and at the centaur camp they speak with Herasto, the leader. After some convincing Herasto agrees to fight, but needs safe hunting grounds for his herd, and food for the winter, if the warriors are going to fight. He suggests that if the party were to kill the manticores that are lairing in a nearby river valley, that would be a perfect place for his herd to spend the winter in safety. That evening, the party speaks with Theopheia, Herasto’s wife, who promises that should they succeed she may be able to help them reach their next destination with great speed. Setting out in the morning for the manticore valley, the party encounters a patrol of manticores that shower them with spikes. Despite a tough battle, they eventually prevail and prevent the manticores from reaching the lair with news of an attack. 

Session 32

After resting in the mountains, they follow an orc trail to the manticore hideout. Using the immovable rod, the party climbed down and surprised a manticore, hellhound, and several two-headed death dogs, and defeated them, with Adrik blocking their chance to raise the alarm. Unfortunately, Brelith’s thunderwave had alerted the others, and so they hid in the water and among the corpses to set an ambush. After dealing with the scout, they headed deeper, finding the manticore leader and his henchman. Brelith conjured a thunderstorm, Samso summoned a flock of giant birds, Aglath fought against them with magic and javelins, while the others balanced on the leader’s back while striking him in a risky but deadly position. After a hard fight, the manticore succumbed to the heroes attacks, and even wounded, they quickly slew the others. With the manticores dead, the cave was silent- save for a distant cry of help.

Session 33

The party followed the sound and found two ragged villagers caged and being attacked by ravenous young manticores. Despite Samso’s intervention, Adrik and Aelar easily disposed of the small beasts, and they freed the imprisoned shepherds. With the rescues in tow, they went deeper into the caves, finding several druidic spell scrolls, a magic snake circlet (which fit awkwardly on Samso), a mysterious potion, and lots of coins. With the new treasure they left the caves, but ran into an orc patrol, bringing prisoners to the (now-dead) manticores. They fight them off, with Aglath swinging through orcs like jelly, Brelith striking down attackers and saving the prisoners, Aelar chasing down war wolves with supernatural speed, Adrik going one on one with a orcish mage-warrior, and Samso finally used heat metal, with less than spectacular results, before transforming and dueling down a dire wolf. They freed the prisoners, and returned to the centaurs with the good news. The session ended as they set off to fulfill their deal with the roc and return his egg in exchange for his help.

Events

  • Sep 15, 1747 DR: Aglath, Adrik, Samso, Brelith, and Aelar are summoned by Anton Lavernia, the proconsul of Voltara, who informs them Grumella has demanded their surrender or the city will be attacked. The party agrees to organize a defense.
  • Sep 16, 1747 DR: The party contacts allies, and leaves for the centaur camp to the south. They defeat a shadow hunter who threatens Samso that night.
  • Sep 17, 1747 DR: Arrive at centaur camp. Meet Herasto, the leader, and his wife Theopheia. Learn about manticore troubles. Rest.
  • Sep 18, 1747 DR: Travel to manticore lair. Fight manticores on the plains, then find and defeat lair. Free prisoners.
  • Sep 19, 1747 DR: Return to centaur camp. Rest and prepare for next journey.

Adventure 13: Roc and Roll

Session 34

Aided by a spell scroll given to them by Theopheia, the party sets off for the mountains in  the north, where the roc Silver Feathers of the Storm Cloud, Thunder and Lightning, is waiting anxiously. The party learns that a band of Kobolds may know the location of the stolen egg, and go speak with them. After some negotiation, they give the Kobolds 500 gp in exchange for information, and are led to a cave entrance. The Kobolds guides flee while the party fights off an earth elemental solider and two gargoyles. Entering the cave, they proceed to a chamber filled with purple crystals and a pulsing, oozing stone of some kind. Emerging from the ground to attack is a dao, an earth genie, who wants to petrify the roc egg, as petrified roc eggs are prized by the dao. After a tough fight, the party drives him back to his native plane, the Elemental Plane of Earth.

Session 35

Exploring the crystal chamber, the party destroys the pulsing stone, collapsing the portal to the Elemental Plane of Earth. They then search for the roc egg, finding it in a chamber north of the purple stone chamber. Turning to leave, they encounter mephits and earth elementals in the passageway to the surface who attempt to steal the egg and flee. Despite a few close moments they are killed and driven off without damage to the egg itself. As the party emerges from the caves, the rocs fly down to reclaim the egg, and leave the party with a feather of thanks, allowing them to summon the roc at need, once only.

Events

  • Sep 20, 1747 DR: Use scroll of wind walking from centaurs to travel north to the roc’s territory. Spend the evening and learn they need to rescue a roc egg to get the roc’s aid in battle. The rocs direct them to a nearby kobold lair for clues.
  • Sep 21, 1747 DR: Party speaks with Kobolds and bribes them for information.
  • Sep 22, 1747 DR: Kobolds lead party to an earth elemental lair, and flee. Party fights guards, then explores lair, defeats dao, and emerges at dawn with the egg, which is gathered by the rocs. Party then spends the day making a boat to return to Voltara quickly, having been promised the roc’s aid in battle.

Adventure 14: Death to Grumella!

Session 36

The party spends a day constructing a wooden raft, the “S.S. Kill Grumella”, in order to speed their journey back to Voltara. After a week’s raft trip, they return to the city to find preparations for war are well underway. A war council, with Marcus Tuso, the human commander of the Voltara legion; Galius Filuso, priest of The Night Queen and representative of the priests of the Eight Divines in the city; Orin Strongaxe, Brelith’s cousin and war leader of the dwarf army that has arrived; and Aris, a centaur, leader of the centaur war band, is underway. The party joins in, and decides that more information is needed. A scouting expedition heads towards the orc camp, where Aelar is with every spell and trick the party can muster, letting him move over 15 miles per hour, with massive stealth boosts and resistance to all sorts of things. Aelar scouts the camp, finding 3000 orcs, three hill giants, and many ogres, before being caught in a crossbow trap the hill giants had set up. With a mad dash, he flees and makes it back to camp alive. Returning to town, the party prepares for battle.

Session 37

The morning the orc armies arrive, the plan is launched. Mehrangeesa, the djinni, summons a wind of epic proportions that keeps arrows from reaching the walls, and keeps the manticores grounded. The roc arrives, and the dwarves and centaurs prepare to drive off ogre support so the party can kill the hill giants. The hill giants, it turns out, have split into three groups, with one hill giant in each group, and so the party divides as well: Adrik and Aris take one, Aglath and Samso another, and Brelith and Aelar the last. Everyone succeeds, and the hill giants are defeated. While the party is healing and taking a short rest, the orc army starts launching diseased orcs into the city, bringing pestilence and poison. Worried that flying to clear the catapults would leave the roc and the party exposed, they decide instead to take the fight to Grumella herself, seeking a decisive end to the conflict. 

The roc takes the party to Grumella’s command center, where they attack her and her guards and lieutenants. Although many guards die quickly, Grumella herself seems resistance to death and each time she falls, she rises again, until in the end a lightning strike from Samso’s storm, miraculously maintained through many hits during the battle, and boosted by the djinn’s winds and thunder, brings her down permanently. 

After the battle, the party celebrates in Voltara, and is promised rewards and fame. As the dwarves and centaurs return to home, they learn that Brelith’s homeland has been suffering from dangers on its southern border, and they decide to go investigate next.

Events

  • Sep 28, 1747 DR: Arrive in Voltara after sailing downriver in the SS Kill Grumella, a makeshift boat. War council. Leave to scout.
  • Sep 30, 1747 DR: Party buffs Aelar to scout the orc war camp.
  • Oct 01, 1747 DR: Party returns to Voltara with information and prepares for war.
  • Oct 03, 1747 DR: Dwarven and centaur troops arrive in Voltara. The reinforcements from the imperial legions are still weeks away.
  • Oct 06, 1747 DR: The Battle of Voltara, also know as the Battle of Lightning’s Wrath. Adrik, Aelar, Aglath, Samso, and Brelith gather allies, defend the city from hill giants trying to breach the gates, and finally kill Grumella.