We see a familiar shape…

• We’re back at Haven Fara.  Lord Malacoda is here with the refugees, and asks us for our plan.

 

• Geoffrey the Pale is supposedly warping people through to Sharn, but he’s about an hour’s walk away.

 

• We tell Lord Malacoda about the gate, and about Geoffrey the Pale.  It’s about 12:30 pm right now.  The gate should be working in 4 – 5 hours.  There’s a ship with a magic wheel that will open a portal to wherever Geoffrey the Pale wants us to know.  Captain Galen was apparently using this to evade being punished for piracy.  You can only open a portal to places we’ve been, and GtP is opening up a portal to a field outside of Sharn that he knows well.  Lord Malacoda wants to know what happens to the device after we go through.  We have a sending stone.

 

• We talk to Jess, and he says that we can leave some people there in case of attack, but he usually sends a runner back to Haven Fara for help, but that isn’t fast enough. 

 

• Our speaking stone buzzes – Geofrrey asks if we’re coming back, and if the battle is over.  We say: “Battle over, red hand retreats, portal open?  Trust the drou.  On way.”

 

• Lord Malacoda calls together the rest of his lieutenants, and we start heading into town.  The townspeople are planning on leaving with us.  We decide to not leave anyone there.  We head towards town.

 

• Rafad finds 10 gold pieces worth of gold coins when he loots, and slits the throats of anyone still alive.

 

• Stone:  GtP says ‘portal will be open soon.  Surprised by the number of refugees, they just keep coming.’  This brings up the question of what will happen when we arrive in Sharn.  Should we send an envoy?  Should all 3000 of us just show up?  Who owns the field we’re moving onto?  Will the people of Sharn think that we’re an invading force?

 

• It’s pandemonium the closer we get to Haven Fara.  Nobody knows what the plan is.  Lord Malacoda tries to spreak the portal plan, but we don’t have enough details.  We go with him to meet with GtP.  Lodar Oarknocker comes up to Dymphna, and wants to talk to her about GtP.  Lodar has been watching him, and GtP and Rene have been butting heads. Lodar was watching over GtP’s shoulder, and GtP is a divination specialist.  But the wheel is putting off a lot of conjuration aura – Lodar doesn’t think GtP knows what he’s doing.  He seems to be doing his best, and Rene isn’t helping.  Rene has stormed off.  Lodar thinks he can get the portal open if he can get some time to work on it.  Dymphna: if we can get GtP away, then Lodar will only need 20 or 30 minutes to get it working.  Lodar is an artificer.  He can’t do the part where he has to know the location of the portal, but he thinks he can get it to the point where we can activate it, and GtP can set it to where we want to be.  GtP wants to be the one who’s hands-on, and isn’t really letting Lodar help.  Lord Malacoda comes back:  he wants to come up with a plan for our arrival in Sharn.  Do we send an ambassador?  LM says he’ll pull GtP aside to discuss these issues.  LM will pretend to be ill, so that GtP will go to him.

 

• Other questions:  Will we leave this end of the portal open for our enemies to follow us?  Who owns the field we’re going to?  How big is it?  Can the portal be opened multiple times?  How long does it stay open?  Should we send an envoy; if so, who?  Should we warn the people of Sharn that goblins are on the way?

 

• Jess decides to go back and get proof of the red hand goblins.

 

• Dymphna goes to talk to GtP.

 

• Goodies:
  • Hark comes and talks to Tombor.  He was a councilman in Haven Fara.  Hark thanks us for uncovering Cap Galen’s corruption, and for getting rid of the spider.  He gives me a pair of boots with wings painted on them.  Continuous +2 bonus to jump.  At each dawn, they’ll have five charges.  1 charge:  +20 to round/move.  3 charges:  +40 to move/round.  5 charges: +60 to move.

 

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  • Dr. Gryll comes up to Rafad, and offers him some potions: 5 cure lt wounds, 3 cure mild wounds.

 

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  • Weston comes up to Rafad, and is carrying a bow.  He says: there were a few things left in the treasure bunker, but use this with caution.  One of the Dark Six was The Shadow.  This bow is called The Shadow’s Touch.  Weston thinks that Rafad has the strength to resist any temptation this bow may send his way.  +1 short bow.   +1d6 cold damage.  Critical: slows someone for 3 rounds.  When Rafad touches it, it sends a cold tingle down his arm.

 

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  • Sam and Marge Wilson approach Coriell.  Coriell pulled Marge out of one of the spider nests.  Sam gives him chain armour, which was blessed by the goddess Aroway.  +1 chain, +5 to armor class.  Once per day:  heals 2d8 + 5.

 

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  • Keel, the heavily scarred gnome councilman from Haven Fara, comes up to Daenyris.  He gives her a ring.  Ring allows you to cast a spell into the ring that other can use later, without magical training.  You can put up to 5 spell levels into the ring.  Then anyone can cast them out of the ring.  You have to be wearing the ring to cast.

 

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  • Dymphna gets Armor.   Armor of the Beast.  +1 armor class.  When Dymphna changes into animal form, she still gets armor in her animal form.  The total for this armor is +4.

 

• Dymphna talks to GtP.  He’s pretty frantic.  She tells him that the goblins are the Red Fang Marauders, and they are part of the Red Hand.  GtP goes to see Lord Malacoda.  Lodar starts ‘monkeying with the thing’. 

 

• Daneyris sees GtP, and leads him to LM.  They cover some important information.

 

• Rafad finds his brother and sister.  He throws them money.  His brother says: mother’s dead.  He asks if Rafad has seen their other brother – yes, but he was a horror tainted beast.  He tells his brother ‘he didn’t make it’.  Rafad feels awkward, then leaves.

 

• The field in Sharn belongs to the king.  GtP feels that he has enough contacts through the university to arrange an audience with the king, or one of his people.  There’s enough room for all of us.  The portal can stay open for a number of hours.  How big is the portal?  We can put a good number of people through – it’s forty to sixty feet wide.  We’ll need to arrange our men to march through together.  They can enter the portal at both sides.  (We can march people through twenty-four at a time, 150 deep.)  LM and GtP work out whom to send through first.  Clergy first, then they can keep everyone in order, and heal those that come through.  On the question of what to do with the portal, any wizard can activate the portal.  We can’t take it with us, so is there a way for us to disable it?  If we can destroy the wheel, then eventually that will destroy the portal.  The portal would probably stay open a few minutes after the destruction of the wheel. Later:  Maybe we can save the portal by wheeling the boat on logs or something similar. 

 

• Rafad looks for Weston and Theodorous.  Weston’s in the middle of a trial. 

 

• Lodar fiddles with the wheel, and it starts to glow in a way it hadn’t done before.  How will we explain this to GtP?  GtP shows up back at the wheel, and tells GtP that it had started to glow on its own after he left.  He believes the bluff.  Once we get the portal open, it will take less than an hour to get everyone through.  It will take longer to get everyone lined up.  LM is working on getting everyone in place.  Theodorous will be the envoy, and he will go through with a letter from GtP.

 

• Tombor finds his father – he’s an emotional wreck.  Mother’s lost – he doesn’t think she’s dead.  They got separated in the first round of attacks.  He asks Tombor to help look for her.

 

•  GtP fills Dymphna in on the plan to destroy the gate.  Cover the deck of the ship in gunpowder, then roll a fireball through once we get through.  GtP doesn’t want to destroy it, but it’s too big a risk that it might fall into the wrong hands.

 

• Danerys goes to get Lodar.  Weston comes out of the ship flanked by Keel and Hark.  The trial is over – Arden Galen will pay for his crimes – Mick odkin: fifty lashes.  Fint: fifty lashes.  Blackcourt: fifty lashes.  Twins: fifty lashes.  Galen:  will hand from the neck until dead.  The prisoners who will be lashed are going to go through the portal with everyone else.  They are in barrels.

 

• Rafad asks Weston if the other spider people will go through the portal.  No, Weston and his kind will ‘get lost in the shuffle’, and strike out on their own.  They have no interest in going to Sharn. 

 

•  Rafad and Denerys bring their idea to carry the ship through the portal to Lord Malacoda.  No go.  We stack gunpowder around the ship.  The townspeople say goodbye to their ship, but don’t want it to fall into enemy hands.

 

• Geoffrey the Pale has some success.  It’s 4pm, and the sun is going down.  The portal opens 100 feet in front of the Good Fortune.  We see sunbathed fields through the portal.  Captain Pardesh tells us that in case of an attack, we should defend the field south of Haven Fara, where the refugees are moving through the portal.  Our job is to hold the line.  Theodorous and the clergy are organizing the refugees as they go through the portal.  Dymphna and Coriell will be the last through to destroy the ship.

 

• People begin going through the portals.  Rafad rides out to scout and see if there are any goblins coming.  He hears the sound of drums, and sees twenty or thirty goblins through us.  He doesn’t see the guy who rides a MONSTER DOG! and seems to be in command.  The goblins are about half and hour out, and have banners of a red hand on a yellow field.

 

• Tombor has three potions of cure light wounds in his bandolier.  We prepare for battle.  People have been going through the portal for about an hour.

 

•  We see goblins, wargs and hellhounds coming towards us.  Dympna prepares to entangle.

 

•  After an epic battle, with many critical fails, we defeat the goblins.  We take Urthok the Unconscious with us – right before he went down, he said something about his ‘mistress not being happy’.  After defeating the goblins, we see a familiar shape overhead – the black dragon.  After communicating with Lord Malacoda with the speaking stone, we hear that Haven Fara is surrounded by goblins and there are multiple dragons.  It’s time to blow this pop stand.  We’ll run through the portal, then destroy the wheel (and ship)!