Session 1 - Escape

Date: Mo 11-5-2009
Players: Thijs (Dyggvi), Ties (Jan-Laucian), Mark (Haldrin), Roy (Danion), Djarvi (Fasmund)

Preceding the events of the first session, our 'heroes' (this remains to be seen, of course) have all been tricked or ambushed and taken captive by an strange, tall man. This man first lured Dyggvi to a stone circle on top of a hill in Duarloch forest, then ambushed at that same hill a search party from Cen Heddan, consisting of Jan-Laucian Magros, Haldrin Halhirsson, Seárne léi Moige, Hama Storwegen and Llud Wynn, that came looking for Dyggvi. Fasmund was drugged and sold to "the Tall Man" by his brother when the former visited the city of Feórlund in search of his parents. Danion met the Tall Man in Maryeddon, and was also taken.
When the PCs come to, they each find themselves in a small cell. Every day or so (this is hard to know for certain, due to the complete lack of sunlight) the guards take them out of their cells and strap them to an operating table. They are then brought to a room where two men, the Tall Man and a handsome blond-haired Elf, perform experiments on them.
At first, these experiments are relatively harmless, but they gradually become ever more sadistic and gruesome. They are cut open, sewed shut again, injected with all kinds of fluids, burnt with fire or acid. During these sessions, they are always quite awake and are never given any kind of anaesthetic.
After some time, they notice the prison guards are actually becoming afraid of them. They have absolutely no idea why, but it is obviously true. At that point, the guards always keep them drugged when they're not being experimented on. Only when they are safely tied to the operating table, do they allowed them to wake up again. This seems to go on forever and the PCs lose every sense of time.

Session 1
The PCs slowly regain consciousness. They expect the guards to give them a new dose of tranquillizer any minute, but no-one comes. Instead of the sound of guards they hear the far-off clamour of battle: shouts and screams, metal clashing, explosions. After some time these sounds also die down. The prisoners are then fully awake.
After a while Fasmund hears someone approaching his cell. He gets up and positions himself behind the door. When it opens, he sees a wounded but well-armed hobgoblin who is quite surprised to see a man standing behind the door. The hobgoblin attacks but his wounds are too severe to put up much of a fight against even an unarmed Fasmund. Fasmund then takes the now dead hobgoblin's keys, leaves his cell and enters the corridor outside it.
There are several other cells on the corridor. Fasmund opens them and discovers the other prisoners: Dyggvi (cowering in a corner and mumbling to himself), Danion (more composed), Haldrin (seriously pissed and demanding to be released) and Jan-Laucian (trying to dissolve the door with his own acidic bodily fluids and confusing Fasmund with a illusory second door behind the first one).
The gang exchange pleasantries, but are cut short when Danion hears more hobgoblins talking outside. Haldrin demands that Danion give the hobgoblin's weapons he just picked up to someone more capable of using them. Danion gives them to Fasmund. (the DM hides his face behind his screen so Mark (Haldrin) doesn't see him chuckle).
The hoblins do not sound like they're paying much attention, so the PCs quietly open the door to see what's behind it (area 2).




They see a large hall, with a bunker-like elevated area in the middle (area 15), which is where the hobgoblins' voices appear to come from. This area is protected by a metal fence, so no-one from area 2 can climb up. They remember that this also is where the experiments took place. In short: the guards took them through the door opposite the one they just opened. The operating table is in area 3, which would be drawn up to area 15 by means of chains and pulleys. There are also stairs between area 3 and 15. They can't see this, obviously, but they have at least some idea of what is there.

The PCs then quietly leave area 1 and turn left. The corridor around the bunker is lined with small cages and cells, many of which contain corpses of hideously disfigured creatures. The smaller cages contain rats, dogs and other small animals. The larger ones have human-like creatures. They are naked, grey-skinned, scarred, have greatly exaggerated jaws, teeth and claws. They are pierced by many arrows and are quite dead.
In the corridor itself lie the corpses of hobgoblins and prison guards. Most of them stripped of their equipment, but the pc's still find a bow and arrows.

They then open the first door to their left and enter another corridor with cells (area 4). These cells also contain dead creatures like the humanoids outside, except for the cell on the far side of the hallway. Through the peep-hole in the door, they can see an enormous monster lying on the floor. It is wounded and breathing heavily. Jan-Laucian casts a spell inside the cell (dancing lights?). The creature wakes up and tries to attack the lights, which obviously doesn't work. The others conclude there's nothing useful to be found here and go back to area 2. Jan-Laucian isn't quite done annoying the huge hulking monster and continues to provoke it. He gets what he wants.

Apparently, there's been a huge misunderstanding here. I thought Ties was just trying to piss off a creature for no other reason than it being behind bars and thus harmless (and justifying it with a chaotic alignment). Ties was actually trying to find out how smart it was, which didn't quite come across the way he'd liked. I guess we both botched our wisdom checks. Anyways, I apologise for my snarky comment (which I deleted, o'course ;) I didn't mean to be quite as rude as it seemed. I guess I'm getting too used to having good-humoured bitching contests with my brother ;)
Mea culpa.

-Brian

The monster gets violent and throws himself against the cell door, roaring with anger. This alerts the hobgoblins in area 15, who notice the other PCs in area 2 and attack.

There turn out to be 6 hobgoblins. Three are armed with bows and attack the PCs from above. The other three rush down the stairs and try to flank the PCs. The PCs make excellent use of what little weapons and spells they have available. A few well-placed grease spells knock down archers and one hobgoblin running out the door opposite the monsters' cells. Thus the flank attempt fails. Haldrin and Fasmund stop the other two hobgoblins at the south door. One turns back and enters area 2 through the west door. Fasmund dispatches the remaining hobgoblin and runs up the stairs to area 15 to confront the archers. Haldrin fights the remaining hobgoblin. Mark rolls poorly, but at least he keeps his opponent busy, allowing Jan-Laucian and Danion to harry the archers. Dyggvi makes his presence felt by being annoying and clinging to his friends' legs while they're trying to fight the baddies.

Okay, this is really my fault and not Thijs'. I knew an unarmed wizard would be almost useless and should have left at least a second ranged weapon for him to use. I placed some scrolls in area 15 for him to use later on, but didn't realize he needs to take time deciphering them before he can use them. The party wanted to get out as quickly as possible and did not want to waste time reading magic scrolls on the spot with god knows what kind of enemies lurking about the place. Can't say I blame them. My only excuse is not having been in the DM's chair for years.

-Brian

The PCs ultimately win the fight. They capture one of the hobgoblins alive and question him. He tells them he's a member of a hobgoblin mercenary company from Dé Marak and that they were hired to attack the laboratory and kill all the guards and prisoners. He doesn't know why they were told to do so and that only his commander knows who their contractor is.
The PCs ask him where the exit is. The hobgoblin says they came in through the door in area 15.

I forgot what the PCs did with the prisoner after they'd finished with him.
Note to self: write summaries sooner.

The PCs do a quick search of area 15. They find a number of scrolls, healing potions and the broken remains of something that can best be anachronistically described as something resembling a "laser cannon" suspended above the operating table. It's broken. They also loot their opponents' corpses for equipment, then they leave by the door the surviving hobgoblin mentioned. When donning armour, they discover that they've each got a small tattoo in their necks. Dyggvi says they look like magic sigils, but their meaning is impossible to tell. The only exception is Haldrin, who doesn't have a sigil tattooed in his neck, but some kind of number or code: YK - 0128.

I will post drawings later - B.

They enter a long rising corridor, which makes a right turn about halfway through. At the end there's wooden door. They listen at the door and hear nothing so they open it. Beyond lies another hallway that leads off to their left. To their right are three wooden doors. The one opposite the hallway is slightly ajar. They hear a soft scratching sound behind it, so they decide to not find out what dangers lie there and turn left.

--session ends--