Mefighter beta team twenty second session notes

Rumblings

• After a couple of days of travel through the Scar, the group feels the ground trembling and shaking
• The shaking is localized, though, so it is not an Earthquake. Forewarned, the group is ready for something to emerge from the earth.
• A Bull Ankheg erupts from the ground, near to Benus and Drem. It attacks Benus and injuries the badger severely.
• Drem is able to score a critical hit on the Ankheg while Benus is enraged and also attacks. Thurmin heals the badger while Torekk and Brunner attack and Uhanimara casts Burning Hands.
• The Ankheg unleashes an acid spray on the fighters, while Torekk engages it with Mad Monkeys.
• Under the assault of the fighters, the monkeys, the badger, and Uhanimara's spells, the Ankheg goes down.

Kobold Fortress I: The Outsidening

• The group finds the Kobold Fortress; it is an ancient Dwarven Fortress, abandoned millennia ago after the cataclysm that caused the Scar.
• There is only one apparent entrance. The Kobolds have placed wooden doors in the entrance, where the original stone doors likely hung.
• Not wanting to try a frontal assault, the group scouts and observes. Most of the traffic either heads South East (towards the secret stronghold of the Infernalists) or South West (towards the logging camps).
• After a couple of days, a group of kobolds leave the fortress and begin heading South East. Thinking this might be an opportunity to gain some intelligence, the group follows and then ambushes the Kobolds.
• The group springs its ambush, an anti-climatic fight as the kobolds are completely unaware of them until Torekk's Spike Growth spell ensnares and kills them all.
• Wanting prisoners, the group uses some light healing magic to revive three of the kobolds for questioning.

Comes the Inquisitor

• Thurmin, using Tongues and Intimidation, gets the Kobold Sgt. in charge to co-operate.
• The Sgt. reveals that he was commanded to bring his levy to the Masters to join with levies from other races and likely to go raiding.
• The Kobolds, Orcs, and Goblins all have training grounds where they train their units individually. Then, they send levies to the Masters, where they are taught to work together in a second training period.
• During questioning, the Sgt. shows some of the same inability to discuss or a painful reaction to certain topics regarding the Masters as the Bugbear Infernalist also displayed under questioning.
• The Kobold fortress is governed by the Lash of the Masters, who the Kobold describes as being human looking but also with wings. The Lash also is served by an Attendant, a kobold, who conveys the orders.
• An Ambassador from the Masters travels between the Fortresses to provide messages. The Ambassador has a special room set aside for his use.
• The Masters appear to be based at the same location as the secret stronghold of the Infernalists. The Sgt. describes them as being in a hidden dwarven fortress, with monsters to guard them, but has never been there.
• The Sgt. is only aware of Goblins, Orcs, and Kobolds being part of the effort.
• The Sgt. also mentions that there are prisoners at the Kobold Fortress: "Friendly Dwarves" who are making their weapons, "Prisoner Dwarf" who is a prisoner, and another Prisoner who is "like the Masters, but not as hairy."
• The Prisoner Dwarf and the Non-Hairy Master Prisoner are in a room with lead lined sheets on the walls.
• The Ambassador is not currently at the Fortress.
• While Thurmin had at first convinced the Sgt that they would free him in return for leading the group to the Masters, the information about the prisoners convinces the group to return to the Fortress.
• The Sgt. believes they can gain entry if they provide Blood or Treasure for the Lash, via the Attendant. Blood being something for the Lash to torture.
• The Sgt. also provides information about the interior layout of the Fortress.

Kobold Fortress Pt II: The Insidening

• The group returns to the front door of the Kobold Fortress, where the Sgt. is able to gain entry for the group.
• The fortress is ancient, and in disrepair. Several portcullises dropped in the cataclysm or in the centuries afterwards, and forced openings created through them.
• The party is brought in front of the Attendant in the Temple (which is a Temple from the Time of the Eight), who demands an offering of Blood or Treasure and an oath of fealty.
• The party offers the Wands of Shrink Item taken from the kobold raiders at the logging camp, thinking this will provoke the kobolds.
• However, the Attendant does not recognize the Wands. Thurmin attempts to engage the Attendant in conversation about the goals and purposes of the Masters, claiming the party wants to establish relations.
• The Attendant is confused by this, but does reveal that the Servitor races are uniting to deal with the Usurper Races (Humans, Dwarves, Gnomes, Halfings, etc)
• The Attendant believes that the Usurper Races appeared after the Servitor Races and displaced them, but now that the Servitor races are learning to work together and not fight each other, the Usurper Races will have to deal with them either through war or other means.
• When Thurmin explains that perhaps the party should deal with the Masters directly about that question, the Attendant refuses to let them leave without swearing fealty to the Lash. Thurmin refuses.

XP & Treasure

• +640 XP for Bull Ankheg
• +400 XP for the kobold scouting party ambush
• +100 XP to Thurmin for the questioning of the Sgt.
• +25 XP to Thurmin for remembering the similarities between the Kobold Sgt.'s inability to answer and the Bugbear Infernalist
• +100 XP for the fishing expedition of questions that lead to the reveal of the prisoners
• +125 XP for getting a map of the fortress from the Sgt.
• +100 XP for infiltrating the fortress