Borderland of Adventure #77: Fire, Acid & Death

At the end of last session, we left our heroes in the midst of a life or death struggle with the pirate king, Yorn, and his personal bodyguards.

As the battle continued, three more bodyguards surged into the room as the first three to arrive on the scene stirred them from their lethargy and charged. One got caught by Tzaran’s snake, but the others made it into the room relatively unscathed. Seeing this, in desperation, Ulmo hurled a fireball into the corridor, hoping to burn the intruders to death. He succeeded in injuring all the attackers, but unfortunately also caught Skink in the blast radius. Already unconscious or dead, the unfortunate rogue could not dodge the attack. Seeing the attackers still standing, Gorinar panicked and also hurled a ball of fire. Unfortunately, his aim was a bit off and while he managed to catch most of the intruders he also caught Skink and the unconscious Tzaran. Both suffered the full effects of the blast.

Not all was lost, however, his fireball slew several of the bodyguards. By now, Yorn was badly injured. He retreated from the room, leaving his bodyguards to hold off the severely depleted party. Things were still desperate. The surviving bodyguards quickly realised they needed to get as close to the attackers as possible to escape a fiery death. As they did so, Tzaran’s snake companion tried to give chase to Yorn, but a bodyguard blocked the doorway. The snake quickly grappled the bodyguard, but before be could kill it, Yorn escaped to the roof. Worse was to come. The bodyguard was near death, but a healing surge of magical energy from Gorinar healed the party – and the bodyguard which gave Yorn a precious few seconds to escape.

As the party fought on against the bodyguards, several ogres stomped up the stairs to aid their lord. One gave chase to the gigantic snake now slithering up the stairs to the roof, but the other engaged the party.

By now Krorz was able to fight and Gerald had reached the battle. Between them, Ulmo’s powerful battle magic (including a fireball modified to deal acid damage)  and Gorinar’s healing magic the party prevailed.

With their foes defeated, the party checked the slashed, blackened, melted and burnt bodies of their friends to discover they were both indeed dead. Keen to catch Yorn, the survivors dashed up to the roof to discover Tzaran’s snake snacking on a slain ogre. Seeing no sign of their quarry they quickly decided he had escaped via the nearby town wall. With daring do the party leaped onto the wall and gave chase. The quickly encountered a few groups of alert sentries and slew them (but not without more grievous injuries – particularly to Krorz). With healing magic now running low, and the clanging of alarm bells ringing through the town, the party decided that without any sign of Yorn retreat was the best option, and they returned to the Dragon Temple via the secret entrance they had discovered weeks ago.

Within, they decided to rest before deciding on their next move. Some favoured returning to Ratik while others – Gerald in particular – want to stay and finish the job.

The next morning, as the party ate a cold breakfast strange sounds filtered through the temple’s stout stone walls. Looking through the windows, the party saw the town in uproar. Buildings burnt, corpses lay in the streets and the sounds of battle rose into the air from all around the temple. Guessing, the pirates were now fighting among themselves, the party decided to stay and hunt Yorn down – if he still lived.

Emerging cautiously onto the streets, the party quickly caught a skulking goblin, who told them the news. Yorn was indeed dead, slain by Dural who now battled her only surviving rival, Olmi, for leadership of the pirates. The party were elated – victory lay within their grasp; now all they had to do was find Yorn’s body and take his head their draconic patron to learn who was behind the attacks on Ratik!

But first, they decided to rescue the adventurers incarcerated in the nearby prison reserved for important or valuable prisoners. This they quickly did, slaying the ogre gaoler in the process. Along with a gaggle or merchants who all promised reward for their freedom, the party rescued four adventurers:

• Ghorm: A dwarven warrior follower of Clangeddin Silverbeard.
• Rayne: An elven archer of great skill who had previous adventured with Krorz.
• Murar: A well known human fighter.
• Cintor: A human follower of Procan.

All had served on merchant vessels and had been captured by pirates. Both Ghorm’s and Rayne’s equipment were still in the prison tower and the two outfitted themselves for battle…