Sunday, August 28, 2011

Pool of Radiance - Kovel Mansion, Nomads, and Kobolds!

Sorry about the length of time between posts.  Work has been really bad this last week.  Even though hurricane Irene did skirt north and end up missing the Florida coast for the most part, when it first formed over Puerto Rico it was projected to be a direct hit.  This of course sent us at work into panic mode to get everything secured before it did reach us.  We have erected the spacecraft on top of the rocket now, and were going through some testing when this happened.  The schedules were moved around and putting the rocket fairing on became the highest priority. 

Everything is safe now.  The hurricane just made for some interesting surf and a little bit of rain here.  Now since the work has been done a little ahead of schedule the rest of our time before launch should be pretty easy. 

Anyway, this last week or so I've played a little Pool of Radiance.  My next stop in this adventure was to clear the thieves out of Kovel Mansion in the wealthy area of Phlan.  I wasn't harassed on my trip at all, even when walking around the outside of the mansion itself.  I entered and started searching around. 

As I wandered around the entry, a thief jumped out and tried to ambush me, but we were able to spot and stop him before he could do any damage.  He didn't escape us and we put him down quickly.

We wandered into a room filled with racks of weapons.  Most looked like fine quality weapons and we decided to search them to see if any were worth taking.  As we did, gas started to fill the room.  This gas wasn't deadly or meant to do any damage it seemed.  It just masked the entry of a large group of the thieves hanging out here.  The whole band of thieves was quickly dispatched though, not too much of a challenge. 


After the ambush, we checked the weapons again, but nothing was of any real value.  We continued our search through the building.  When we passed into a hallway, two thieves jumped out to ambush us, but failed miserably.  They looked at us and then each other before they both bolted for the nearest door.  We took chase through few more rooms.  When they passed through a door, they split up.  One heading east, another headed south.  We decided to follow the one to the south.  As we continued the chase we barged through the door he just passed through to meet up with a large group of the thieves.

This group was waiting for us.  We had fallen into their trap.  The group consisted of about 20 thieves and their leaders.  Still, with a few well placed sleep spells, we made short work of the group.  We searched around in the room we ended up in, and found a couple files.  These files are a collection of rumors and facts about certain people around the area.  These two were about Werner von Urslingen and Bishop Braccio.  I don't recognise the first name, but apparently he worked for 'The Boss' early in the campaign.  I'll have to keep an eye out.  The file about the bishop was nothing new.  Having dealt with the man a little earlier I confident that he is on my side.  These were recorded in journals 38 and 51.
A trap I didn't see coming.
At this point I had cleared most of the thieves from the building.  The random attacks had stopped completely.  I took this time to search through the rest of the building.  I was hoping I could find more information and maybe some of the treasure that thieves should invariably collect.

I found a partial map of what looked like a maze.  This was labeled as a map of the northwest castle grounds.  I'll keep this handy, as it should eventually become useful.  Its recorded under journal entry 41.  Also I found some magic scrolls in a locked cabinet.  Naemissa, our own thief, helped immensely in detecting traps and unlocking all the containers we found. 

We found some more of the files in another locked cabinet.  These two were on the council of Phlan.  Ulrich Eberhard and Porphyrys Cadorna.  The info about Cadorna is a little disturbing.  He definitely is not what he seems to be.  He should be one to keep watch on if any of these rumors written here about him are true.  It sounds as though he wants to find this pool badly, and has been hiring people to find out any info they can about it.  The entries are under 14 and 23.

When I entered another room here, I ran across a couple of thugs beating on an old man.  They saw me and took off.  I went to help the old man but I couldn't save him from his end.  He pointed me to some papers he had with him before he died though.  This was the last of the files I found here in the mansion.  This one was on 'The Boss' himself.  Very interesting to see.  The Boss is rumored to be a dragon, and a metallic one at that!  Metallic dragons are typically creatures of good though.  I'll have to see this for myself.  This is recorded in journal 48.

After scouring every inch of the mansion, I returned to the civilized section of town to collect my reward.  I took some time to rest up and heal.  I also took some time to train those in my party who needed to.  Now that the city is cleared, I'll start working on some of the tasks given me outside in the wilderness.  My next stop will be to find the nomad camp and see what I can do about keeping them from joining the enemy.

hippogriffs, lizardmen, kobolds, and even phase spiders so far.  The wilds beats are much tougher than anything I've come across so far in town. 

After wandering around a bit in the north I managed to come across the nomad's camp.  I entered the camp and was immediately confronted by guards and taken to the tribes chief.  I was welcomed into the camp and asked to stay for the night.  The chief went into details about the dangers of the are and about the kobolds attacking the camp and that they would like my help in stopping them.  his speech is under journal entry 55.  They told me to stay and think about it overnight.  In the evening there was a feast and dancing held in my honor.  That went pretty far in convincing me to stay. 

The Nomad's Camp.
The chief of the tribe.
In the morning, I agreed to stay and fight the kobolds with them.  They thanked me and gave me a hut to stay in.  I went back to the hut and sat down to enjoy a little down time and memorize spells.  A couple days went by without incident.  On the morning of the third day though, I awoke to the sounds of battle outside the hut.  I gathered my party and charged outside to see what was happening. 

I was set upon by hordes of kobolds.  The short creatures seemed to be everywhere.  We fought one large group right outside the hut.  After its eventual defeat, we moved to the western side of the camp and was attacked by another group, this one larger than the first.  There seemed to be no end to the kobolds swarming the camp. 

After fighting through this second wave, we moved further west towards the edge of the camp.  We saw another group of kobolds.  This group however was very wary and afraid.  if not for their leaders behind pushing them forward, they would have scattered.  The chief walked up behind us, and asked that we finish this together.  I agreed and charged the remaining kobolds with the chief and his men. 
This last group fell quickly before the combined might of my party and the chief.


After the battle, the chief thanked me for my help.  He also gave his word that he would not be joining forces with the evil in the city.  I took my reward and started back to town. 

I reported to the council what had happened with the nomads.  They were pleased to hear about the nomads and I was rewarded again for my hand in keeping the nomads from joining the forces against us.  I went about my routine, healing, training, selling my goods.  Next stop was to find these kobolds that the council hinted at and the nomads seemed to be having so much trouble with. 

The kobolds came from the east, out of the swamps according to the nomad chief, so I started search east of their camp.  I came across 2 caves in the side of a hill.  One was fairly large, the other much smaller, only about 4 feet.  I entered the smaller of the two, even though it was a tight fit for most of us. 

I entered and almost immediately Keygan fell into a pit filled with water.  There was not much room to maneuver in these cramped caves, and in the process of fishing him out, we lost a couple items.  I didn't immediately see which, though I suspect it was some of my cash.  We continued on, shortly thereafter finding a drawing left in the muck.  This drawing detailed a little bit of the kobolds plan.  It is under journal 42.  The drawing shows the smaller cave, which I am in now, and a larger cave close by.  The plan to dig through to the larger cave where a large beast lairs and steal its treasure. 

I left the small cavern and went into the larger one.  I knew that I would most likely meet this beast that the kobold were trying to steal from, but I figured I'd have to see it eventually.  As I entered the large cave, I was confronted by a wyvern.  Dragonlike, but not quite as powerful.  I killed the creature and looked around the cave.  I found the wyverns treasure horde and picked out what I wanted to keep for myself. 

I searched around a little more and found a kobold that had wedged itself into a small crack in the cavern wall.  It asked me for water, and seeing that this kobold was little threat, I gave it to him.  He pulled himself from the crack and described to me how he ended up in his predicament.  He was sent down here by his king to steal the treasure since he had injured his leg.  Apparently not too much the fool, he decided to hide.  He told me that he'd like to see the king get what he deserves and left.  His story is under journal entry 20.


I found the small breakthrough in the cavern wall, and climbed inside.  I was met by a drunken kobold, whom I had almost stumbled over.  This must be the kobold the old kobold had described, the king's son.  He woke and mistook me for some envoys, spokespeople for 'The Boss' no doubt.  He disabled a couple traps along the passage and led me into the king's throne room.

I approached the king in his throne.  There were two men standing beside him, probably the real envoys.  My cover blown, the attacked.  How these kobolds managed to keep trolls in their employ was beyond me, but they were among the attackers.  A few stinking clouds to try and keep the trolls at bay and a few fireballs cast from scrolls I had broke this first group quickly.
 

As the last kobold fell, the king shouted and ran deeper into the caverns.  From all sides of the room, ballista fired on my group.  There were a couple injuries, but nothing severe.  In the confusion another group of kobolds, this time with wild boars in their ranks, attacked.  This time a few sleeps spells helped cull the group of kobolds, along with their boar allies.  My groups spells were starting to run thin, and already had suffered a couple casualties.

The next group attacked immediately.  This one with the envoys, and a mix of trolls and boars.  Thankfully I had a few stinking cloud spells left.  The clerics cast hold person on the envoys when they could, and managed to hold one immediately.  The other envoy though cast magic missiles and ended up knocking my cleric/mage Minelrie unconscious.  With the kobolds, trolls, and boars attacking, a few front line fighters had fallen, including the hero we had hired so long ago for Sokal Keep. 

With a few lucky shots with spells, we managed to come out on top.  With the party beaten pretty badly, we left the throne room to memorize spells before giving the king pursuit.  It is lucky we did since when we did pick up the chase, we were attacked by more of the kings guards.  More trolls, kobolds, and boars.  After defeating the guards, we crept deeper into the cave. 

When we passed into the next cavern, we found the king.  He had been trying to escape us and in his haste had fallen into one of his own traps.  He fell into a spiked pit and killed himself.  I guess that will prevent him from making any deals with Tyranthraxus' hordes. 

Not fair!  I wanted to kill him.
In the cavern behind the king's trap turned grave, we found the kobolds treasure.  Most of it useless.  These creatures are like rodents.  Anything shiny is valuable.  Most of the pile was garbage, old boots, moldy rugs.  The only thing of use was a couple of scrolls which we kept.  Hidden in a crack in the wall was a bronze bottle.  When I reached in to grab it, an efreet poured out and challenged me!  He asked if we were vampires.  When we told him no, he told us not to disturb him again until we were in the presence of a vampire and disappeared back into his bottle.  This will come in handy for the graveyard I think if the rumors are true.
Glad I'm not a vampire.
I explored what was left of the caves and ran across a woman in the midst of killing a kobold.  When she saw us, she announced to us that she was Princess Fatima from the nomad camp to the west.  She described to us that she was set to marry someone she didn't want to, and decided to seek out the kobolds so she would have a little more bargaining power with which to get what she wanted.  She offered to join us, and we let her, though her task was already complete.  The king was dead and all we had to do was lead her out of the cave.  Her story is in journal entry 16.


Close by we discovered  makeshift barracks room.  Empty, most likely because all the bodies were piled in the throne room.  We found a crude map.  From what I could decipher, its a map to the current location of the nomad camp.  It is copied in journal number 28.

With nothing left to do here, we left the caves.  Princess Fatima bid us farewell and left to return to her camp.  We returned to the city to report on our success with the kobolds.  After the usual stay at the inn, visit to the shopkeepers to unload and identify equipment, and a quick check to see if anyone needed training we reported to the council clerk.  She rewarded us for dealing with the threat of the kobolds.

So now there are a few things to do.  I need to clear Valhingen Graveyard, I have to find the source of the river's pollution and see what I can do about it, find some lizardmen and keep them from joining against us, and an heir to the House of Bivant has been kidnapped and I need to find them and rescue them.  I'm starting to feel like we are the only six people in all the area that are actually doing anything.  For once I'd like to hear how someone else rescued the heir, or killed legions of kobolds...  Ah well, the life of adventure! 

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