Demon Queen’s Enclave – Session 2

DM: Merric

Players:
Greg – Shava, dragonborn cleric 14
Josh – Orthos, goliath fighter 13
Nathaniel – Lienatan, half-elf warlock 15
Adam – Underscore, eladrin wizard 14
NPC – Splug, goblin rogue 14

The Story so far...
Warned by the sage Valthrun the Prescient that an Exarch of Orcus was to rise beneath the Cairngorm peaks, the heroes have travelled to the Miser's Pit, into which they have descended. The last session involved them travelling through the Underdark towards the location the Exarch would arise.

Descent Into the Depths
The heroes stumbled into a confrontation between a drider and his drow aides and a number of undead drow. With the drider making aggressive moves towards them, the group moved to attack the living, only to find the unliving attempting to eat them as well! With both sides now attacking them, Lienatan and Underscore used their magic to sow confusion and otherwise protect the group as Orthos, Splug and Shava fought off wights and drow.

This week, we used miniatures

As the lesser drow and wights began to fall, the drider caught the leader of the undead, an Abyssal Ghoul, in a web and fled along with its two surviving aides. The group slew the last of the wights and intimidated the abyssal ghoul into talking with them, where it revealed it was the servant of Zirithian, some major undead creature beloved of Orcus who had recently attacked a drow outpost.

Choosing not to leave a potential foe behind, they beheaded the ghoul and went, not in the way the drider had fled, but instead towards the drow outpost of Phaervorul.

The Abyssal Ghoul really didn't get much of a chance to affect the outcome of the combat - it spent a couple of rounds attacking the drider, but the moment it moved away, Adam and Nate just locked it down with Immobilize effects, especially Ice Rays from the wizard. The group is extremely effective at negating some of the opponents for a time, which makes most combats a lot easier than they'd appear on paper.

To reach the outpost, which still showed signs of the attack, the group had to cross a long bridge over a great chasm. We all knew we weren't in the Star Wars universe because it had a banister! Soon enough, the group was attacked from behind and in front, by spider beasts that had been lairing on the bottom of the bridge! Once again, the magic of Lienatan and Underscore protected the group from the huge demonspider that threatened them from in front, instead leaving them to fight the three spiderleg horrors undisturbed. Splug, Orthus and Shava found their armour more than a match for the spiderlegs' attacks - only a couple of minor attacks even did damage to them, most missing by large amounts. The heroes, meanwhile, weren't missing with their attacks and soon only the demonspider remained, and it blooded and weakened. It was not long before the path ahead was clear.

The outpost was divided by natural features into various districts on top of plateaus. Seeing movement from the rightmost, the group investigated to find a barracks manned with goblin slaves and, to their surprise, a war troll and his minotaur henchmen! They charged out to engage the group and soon a very tough battle was underway.

Miniature proxying at its best - the minotaur skeletons are living minotaurs! The human-sized minis parading around the walls are goblins!

The troll engaged the fighters, but the minotaurs ran around charging opponents and reaching Lienatan and Underscore as they teleported and otherwise tried to evade them. After a while, the wizard and warlock got the picture and concentrated their magic on locking down the minotaurs. A lone mindflayer appeared from the barracks, but it never found itself in a position where it could properly attack. Once the war troll died, it decided that discretion was the better part of valour and fled, but not fast enough to escape Lienatan's magic. The last of the minotaurs fell, and the remaining goblins scurried away.

Looking at their accouterments, the heroes concluded that their attackers had been gladiators enslaved by the drow - although exactly what the mind flayer had been doing was a little unclear. Some treasure and a potion of vitality were the reward for the valour. The group discussed the potential of the barracks as a place they could rest as we ended the session.

A couple of long combats this session - both the first and last were particularly involved, with many combatants and terrain making a difference in the strategy, especially for the last, where Adam and Nate took as much defensive advantage as they could from the chasms and walls. We've barely touched this adventure so far, and next session should see them roleplaying through encounters with the drow and delving further into the outpost. This is an enjoyable scenario!