The Mythic World of Urd: The Owlbear's Den

** The Mythic World of Urd Campaign Page **

The following is from the Arcane Alienist's Dungeon Master session notes for the ongoing campaign in his homebrew setting!  This summary was posted in our private social media.  You can listen to the Alienist himself give an after-action report right here on the Arcane Alienist Podcast!

The party finds itself with three cave entrances to chose form, one that has been fashioned with a crude door.  They choose the closest one (sans door) and discovers the odor of rotting meat emanates from within. Just past the entrance, the cave splits to the left and right.

Hagle the kobold is sent to scout ahead down the right passageway. He finds a chamber with a pool of water in the center. He calls for the others to follow but is immediately attacked by a gray ooze that drops from the ceiling above. Fortunately, it missed and lands on the ground beside him.

Jessup, Celestina, and Dominique scout the other passsge way and encounter a nest of giant rats. The rats are not hostile and one steps forward to sniff the air but does nothing else.

The rest of the party catches up to Hagle in time to help him get away from the ooze, but another emerges from the water and attacks him as well, while a third is spotted on the ceiling above. Roderick hits it with a spear, which lodges in its mass and begins to dissolve. The ooze then drops on to Hedemar.

Harald's Secrets of the Ooze, Lesson #1: Do NOT walk under ooze.  It is just waiting for you...

Hedemar and Hagle are dropped, dying as the oozes dissolved their armor and then their flesh. With a combination of arrows, bombs, and gunfire, the rest of the group are able to kill the oozes and save their fallen allies.

At the sound of gunpowder being set off, the rats scurry back from Jessup and Celestina and into their nest, but a loud roar echoes from further down  the corridor. They head back towards the entrance to rejoin the others as some something large comes barreling towards them. 

As the rejoin the party, an owlbear emerges from the dark of the cave. Jessup hurls a flask of burning oil at it but it’s not enough to stop it and the owlbear falls on him and mortally wounds him. The rest of the party turns to fight the owlbear and after a couple wounds, it flees back where it came from. The clerics are able to heal Jessup’s wounds as the others pursue the owlbear.

Celestina uses her wand of paralyzation to stop the monster, but catches Roderick and Harald in the beam. The others finish off the owlbear and search the rest of the cave while they wait on the magic effects to wear off of their friends.

They recover a valuable owlbear egg, a heap of coins, a magical mace, and a protection scroll from the owlbear’s nest. They also find a jewel encrusted goblet in the shallow pool. Battered and with two party members left without armor, they decide to head back to the trade keep and regroup.

The Mythic World of Urd: No Kobolds Here

** The Mythic World's Campaign Page **

The following is taken from the Arcane Alienist's very own notes, posted in our private social media.  You can also check out his podcast here and listen to a recap of this very incident!

The party are joined by a new recruit, a fighter named Doncha, and set out to find the entrance to the kobolds’ underworld lair and rescue their hostage queen.

Roderick’s kobold retainer, Hegle, cannot recall the exact location and suggests they confer with his tribe, who has temporarily taken up residence in the caves one occupied by the goblins and hobgoblins.

The conversation takes a more serious tone when the bugbears aren't interested in answering Dolly's polite questions.

The party arrives to find the caves abandoned with numerous kobold tracks leading north towards the dwarven mine. Bieber there ar larger (larger than human) footprints leading into the caves. The party investigated and at ambushed by three bugbears. They kill two and the last surrenders.

When you don't speak the local jargon.

In exchange for its freedom, the bugbear agrees to answer their questions. He tells them that all the goblinkind in the forest were sent by the Troll King as mercenaries. Neither they nor their patron have any vested interest here. Someone (presumably the cult that holds the kobold queen) made a deal for their services. The bugbears are the only ones left and the Troll King has sent a special envoy to make sure they compete their end of the mission. 

The bugbear also tells them the location where it’s kind are hold up and where they took all the gunpowder the hobgoblins manufactured. The party then heads to that location to confront the bugbears and hopefully secure the gunpowder.

The Mythic World of Urd: Ghouls, Ghouls, Ghouls!

The following is none other than the Arcane Alienists' post-session summary from our private social media group.  This esotericist has lots of great ideas about roleplaying games in general, and has been hard at work turning out episodes of his podcast, titled (aptly) The Arcane Alienist!! Check out the podcast here on Anchor.FM!

** Mythic World of Urd Campaign Page **

The party returns to the castle after executing the necromancer Viktora Ash. They bring the stone head of the orc chieftain to the wizard Olivere who informs them that if they had the rest of the petrified body he might be able to restore the orc to life. 

Harald suggests that this might go a long way towards keeping peace with the local orcs and getting information about what the necromancer has been up to. Roderick and Harald also suspect that the gunpowder was being manufactured for an assault on the keep, perhaps even to blow it up from within or below.

Moved to the OSE engine on Fantasy Grounds!  Love that graph-paper chic!

The party decided to return to the necromancer’s lair to retrieve the rest of the “statue” and also clear out the ghouls that remain there. Hagle is sent into the cave to scout and reports that after a short tunnel it opens into a wide chamber. There is a green glow coming from somewhere at the back.

The party cautiously makes its way into the cave. Suddenly they hear growling and movement in the darkness around them. Three ghouls come at the front different directions along with a pair of zombies (all are orc corpses). From the side chamber emitting the green glow, a ghast also emerges and sets upon Hedemar’s retainer, Volker. Volker falls dying.

Hedemar is able to turn the two zombies and the rest of the party slays the ghouls, but the ghast proves to be a bigger challenge. It is able to resist all attempts at turning by both Hedemar and Roderick. Fortunately everyone it attacks also manages to resist its paralyzing effects. It is finally slain by Dolly and Dominique.

The turned zombies had fled towards the green glow. The party catches up to them and kills them. The glow is coming from a crude alter marked with Chaos runes and set with a large jade gemstone. The party destroys the altar. Copper and electrum coins are scattered about the room along with a sword that turns out to be magical. Dolly claims the sword as a new weapon.

Filthy Harald patiently awaits a clear line-of-sight...

The party then obtains the headless statue and takes it back to Olivere, who tells them they can expect an audience with the Castellan to be forthcoming.

The next day, they are invited to a luncheon at the Castellan’s manor within the inner walls of the castle. The room is decorated in the maroon and gold colors of the Castellan’s banners and her family crest bearing a chestnut tree. They are first greeted by the elf, Maravek, who is the Castellan chief advisor. Maravek then introduced them to the Castellan herself, Lady Diomira Kastenienbraun. 

Lady Diomira asks them to recount their exploits thus far. They do so and also share their concerns about an attack on the castle itself. She tells them that her soldiers will be rescuring the tradeway and that she’ll look into any places where gunpowder could be smiled into or below the castle.

She would like to retain them for the time being to track down the final destination of all the gunpowder the goblins had manufactured. She also wants them to help the kobolds find their queen so they can return back to the underworld. 

Roderick suggests that they might make good trading partners and prompts Hagle to tell them what his tribe can trade with. He reports that the only other thing they had been doing besides mining sulfur was collecting guano from a cave in the forest. He also admits that he is not sure he can find the exact location of the passage back to the kobold’s home. They had never come to the service before and were herded out into the forest under duress and marched to the sulfur mine. Others of his tribe might remember more details.

The party departs the luncheon on the Castellan’s payroll and with two objectives. It seems they will be once again heading into the forest/ and caves to the north.