The boys want to change their guild name for Dragon Brothers. They already have their Dragon Ranch, will there be a Dragon Kingdom someday? Quite possibly.

2 hours session.

Featuring Path of Glory’s main dungeon: The Gates of Power.

Player Characters (PCs) – The Battle Brothers The Dragon Brothers– roster:

Adventuring:

• Aracyne, Elf Hunter, fearless Guild Leader, (Isaac)
• Jedri, Ratman Thief, rather likes his curse (Isaac)
• Grimoire, Goblin Mage, frail but smart (Isaac)
• Torch, Goblin Knight, fanatically loyal to Forka, (Edmond)
• Trimbo, Human Arcanist, wields both crossbow and lightning (Edmond)
• Brondrack, Hatchling Dragon, rescued from the dungeon (Edmond)

Not adventuring at the moment:

• Bumwild, Gnome Mage, wants to become a summoner (Isaac)
• Letraquan, Human Necromancer, has a talking, evil sword (Edmond)
• Forka, Dogman Knight, fierce warrior (Edmond)

What the other adventuring guilds are doing:

• Green Imps: adventuring in Gunderholfen
• The Protectors: leisure in Longfelt
• Widowmakers: adventuring, not in Gunderholfen
• The Musers: adventuring in Gunderholfen
• The Ravens: adventuring in Gunderholfen

Main Goal for this session: Kill the Manticores and finish exploring this section.

We start at the Dragon Ranch. The Dragon Brothers receive news from gnome alchemist Fryniwid, he’s coming to the ranch in a few days.

They pack their stuff and leave for the dungeon.

It’s mosquito season in the swamp, irritating (angry condition), but nothing too dangerous happens.

Gunderholfen

• They enter Gunderholfen and quickly go through level 1 to reach the dwarven elevator.
• They go down to the city of the smiths, cross the Halls of Council and get at the stairway to the City. Aracyne cast Enchant Weapon on his bow and the party descends.
• Downstair, they go south, get close to some statues and rubbles. Jedri and Brondrack spot a Manticore to the east perched on top of the library. Aracyne shoots at it with his bow, wounding the manticore with two good arrows.The monster sends a volley of spikes at them. Torch blocks many with his shield. The young dragon is hit by a few spikes and the poison makes it sleepy. Trimbo does a Lightning Bolt, further wounding the manticore on the library. Another volley of spikes, this time from the south, Trimbo is hit but mostly resists the poison (exhausted). The wounded Manticore charges at Aracyne but the latter deftly evades. Jedri attacks the monster in melee with his two weapons and Grimoire finishes the job with a powerful (crit) Mental Strike spell. The other Manticore loses interest in the fight and flees in the darkness. The PCs take all the Manticore spikes they can find.
• The adventurers examines the statues nearby and find a few coins and a good shield.
• Further south they find public baths and Jedri, the first to enter the area, is targeted by an Undine who wounds him severely with a water jet. Grimoire eliminate the Undine with well-placed Fireballs.
• East from the public baths they find a dwarven monument with 4 colums and a colossal statue (of a dwarf). And treasure. The statue warns them of behaving properly though.
• They hesitate a bit but then decide to go north into a large corridor that they saw earlier. They enter a large chapel, someone is praying on their knees. It’s a dwarf in full armor. They speak with him. His name is Kaldur, he’s an undead. He kept his mind somehow. He tells them of the civil war of dwarves against dwarves, with the losing faction stooping so low as to ally with elves in order to reverse the situation. And they won those vile betrayers, now called the Gray Dwarves and inhabiting Level 7.
• Saying goodbye to Kaldur, the adventurers finish exploring the City, they find out that the eastern part has totally collapsed but there’s an opening that reaches into the canyon.
• They go down to the Forge to speak with the hobgoblins but find out instead that a massacre occured, they’re all dead. Some crushed to a pulp, some killed by weapons. They meet the new owner of the area, Jand the hill giant. Jand isn’t too hostile and explain that he made some friends and together with them he killed the hobgoblins. Were his friends led by a dwarf? asks Aracyne. Yes, they were. A giant in friendly terms with the Ravens, that doesn’t sits well with the Dragon Brothers.
• They attack Jand. Ligthfooted Aracyne starts the onslaught with two quick-shot arrows. Grimoire hurls Fireballs at him. The giant picks up an anvil throws it at Grimoire, who would have been smashed if not for heroic Torch that got in front of him and absorbed the damage (his magic shield mitigating it). But now the giant is swarmed from all side and is taken down.
• He doesn’t have much, except for bid bags of weird meat.

Closing comments:

• The undead Kaldur could be a great ally but won’t take well to the plundering of dwarven treasure.
• Kaldur is from the Path of Glory mmodule but I’ve adapted his lore dump to Gunderholfen.
• The Ravens tried to protect their rear in placing the giant in the Forge but the Dragon Brothers quickly spoiled the plan. There was a possibility of encountering the Ravens as they’re also in Gunderholfen at the moment (along with 2 other guilds!), maybe at the same time as the giant but the dice decided otherwise.
• I wouldn’t have been so sure 10 sessions ago but the adventurers are strong enough to explore deeper levels.