The King Is Broke

So the king is dead, lets go find his stuff.  And in the king's chambers there is nothing of value and everything smells like wet dog and rancid meat.  The king without a copper.

And in the next area, the party meets the king's harem.  The gnoll wives are not particularly pretty, even for gnolls, and viciously attack the party.  The fight is over quickly, and the party loots a haversack and some hookahs.

The next area is the carrion guard barracks, and catching them off-guard did not bode well.   After quickly defeating the guards, the initiates next door came out to see what all the fuss was about.  For priests, these guys were tougher, especially with those battle axes.  But the party prevailed.

The next room full of empty slave pens, except for old Amwyr Yuseifah.  Nasty, infected, and a vile slave trader, the party frees him and he promises a thousand gold and a slave if he is returned to Katapesh.  The party drags him along, but not too closely.

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Session Characters:  Lars, Luce, Billy, Kushii
Session XP:  1750 XP each
Session Loot:  handy haversack (2000 GP), book of erotic poetry (135 GP), small fancy box (carved alabaster inset with crystals-50 GP), rock crystal urn (265 GP), six gallons of bitter wine (5 GP each), five hookahs (50 GP each), four potions of cure light wounds (50 GP each), four +1 studded leather armor (1175 GP each), four masterwork scimitars (315 GP each), four masterwork composite +4STR longbows (800 GP each), eighty arrows poisoned with large scorpion venom (200 GP each), six wands of cure light wounds [10 charges each] (125 GP each), six splint mail armor (200 GP), six masterwork great axes (320 GP each)

The King Is Dead

An enormous howl draws the party over to look through the columns.  There on the throne sits the Carrion King with his Troglodyte priest beside him.  The party wastes no time and strikes out. Billy shoots, Lars summons an air elemental, Luce races around, and Kushii vanishes to an acrobatic launch onto the pillar where the throne resides.  The priest runs off to the side, and disappears, leaving the Carrion King the sole target.  After taking his share of lumps, the Carrion King brutalizes the air elemental.  Luce closes and finally lands a blow on the oversized gnoll.  As the battle goes on, at the moment the Carrion King seems to weaken, his troglodyte priest attacks him, appearing in midair beside the throne.

Lars thinks for a brief second, and tells Billy to take out the priest.  Billy shrugs, and fires away.  The priest looks surprised and after the second bullet strikes him, charges Billy.  Trading lumps with the Carrion King, Luce and Kushii finally bring down the lumbering oaf.  After dancing with the priest, Billy and Lars drop the disguised Janni.

Exploring the pit, the party finds a passageway.  Lars says there is magic thataway, and the party finds a huge monstrosity of a centipede.  Fighting with everything they got, the centipede falls.  Luce rips into the centipede's belly and finds a mummified hand of an elf on a golden neck chain.  Back in the cavern there is also a magical whip.

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Session Characters:  Kushii, Lars, Luce, Billy
Session XP:  2133.3 each
Session Loot:  +1 large breastplate, Goreshred (medium +1 human bane greataxe), belt of constitution +2, ring of protection +1, +1 chain shirt, +1 fire outsider bane frost scimitar, 4 daggers, hat disguise, ring of protection +1, a hand of the mage, +1 vicious whip.

Gnolls, Gnomes, and Gnowledge

Deeper into the House of the Beast, the party returns to the lower dome section.  Two Carrion Guards meet untimely ends and the party get the drop on them quickly.  Exploring west, Kushii assassinates another Carrion Guard at his post.  The party rummages through several rooms, eventually surprising a few gnolls in their bunks.  Using a handy wand, Lars excavates a filled passageway to reveal a blocked room.  This room appears to be the study of the impostor priest of which the Troglodytes warned.

There is a book of The Birth of Light and Truth, annotated in such a way to suggest that the impostor has also impersonated a priest of Sarenrae.  There are even garments to confirm this idea.  A notebook is full of prayers transcribed from another source.  The focus of the analysis appears to be a search for a place called "The Pit of Screaming Ghosts" located under the House of the Beast.  The last page mentions a great, priceless treasure called "The Scroll of Kakishon" that was buried with a gnoll named Shirak a long time ago.

Finally, heading down deeper the party descends into the Hall of Whispers.  There are six gnoll guards, 2 Carrion Guards, and 2 Initiates on watch.  The party sneaks down and opens combat with a vicious assault.  The regular gnoll guards offer little resistance, as the party moves off the stairway.  The Carrion Guards are brought down before they can bring their enchanted bows to much effect.  And the Initiates fight violently to the end.

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Session Characters:  Kushii, Lars, Luce, Billy, Karabella, Karabunga, Itarildë Lúinwë
Session XP: 1,833.3 XP each
Session Loot: masterwork abacus (350 GP), box of 150 GP, seven tiny garnets (35 GP each), block of incense of meditation, ring of minor fire resistance, air elemental gem, 2 wands of cure light wounds (10 charges each), 2 splint mail, 2 masterwork greataxes, 2 masterwork scimitars, 2 masterwork composite longbows (+4), 2 +1 studded leather armor, 2 sting chuck, 54 arrows-poisoned with large scorpion venom, 2 potion of cure light wounds, 75 GP.

Trolling the Troll

Heading back to Kelmarane, the hearty adventurers encounter a troll on the mountain pass.  Billy fires a warning shot into the troll.  Forming up quickly, the party deals a good bit of damage before Lars dumps the troll into a pit.  Most of the party, takes Lars suggestion to run ahead and leave the troll in the pit.  Billy secretly lobbed a few vials of lamp oil with an alchemists fire primer.  Only Luce noticed Billy's not-so-innocent smirk and the persistent smoldering of troll in the mountain air.

The party returns to Kelmarane for a bit of rest and relaxation.  Selling of the loot becomes a bit more problematic, but Uncle Tolo says he has a contact that can move the items.  Even 100 poisoned arrows can be gobbled up by the markets in Katapesh.

Returning to the House of the Beast, the party takes out the two carrion guards back on patrol in the courtyard.  Heading for the main dome, the party enters the structure and bushwhacks the gnoll guards with an elaborate door/pit/illusion tactic.  As a result the gnolls tumble down into the pit, one and all.

On the other side of the hall, behind the double doors, the biggest scorpion that the party has ever seen.  The pit provides some cover for the party, but Luce eventually get snatch up.  Steady fire from Billy and stabbings from Kushii, weaken the scorpion.  Luce gets a couple of blows in before the beasts collapses.

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Session Characters:  Kushii, Lars, Luce, Billy
Session XP: 2800 each
Session Loot:  2 masterwork scimitars, 2 masterwork composite longbows (+4), 2 +1 studded leather armor, 2 sting chuck, 58 arrows-poisoned with large scorpion venom, 2 potion of cure light wounds, 100 GP

Processing the Loot Sheet

Lars:   potion of sanctuary,  small masterwork adamantine heavy mace, wand of enlarge person (10), wand of expeditious excavation (18),

Luce:  scroll of shield of faith, scroll of restoration, scroll of bless, scroll of delay poison, scroll shield of faith, potion of remove fear.

Kushii:  wand of cure light wounds (50), wand of know direction (50),  wand of mending (24), book "journey of the dead in ancient osirion", scroll of obscuring mist, masterwork composite longbow (+1 str),  potion of cure moderate wounds

Billy:  potion of hide from animals,  small masterwork cold iron heavy mace, oil of grease, potion of sanctuary,

Miracle Max:  wand of inflict light wounds (50),

Scarlett:  scroll of cure light wounds,  potion of remove fear, scroll summon nature's ally, scroll of inflict moderate wounds

Sold:  scroll of detect magic, scroll of magic weapon, masterwork spear, scroll of slipstream, wand of prestidigitation, masterwork longbow, 2 small masterwork mithral chain shirts, 2 small masterwork heavy wooden shields, wand of mud ball (23), potion of resistance, scroll of identify, cold iron masterwork longsword, scroll of protection from evil, wand of shocking grasp (50).

Game Update: Character Advancement

Zhadora and Miracle Max are now 6th level.

Who Let The Dogs Out

Returning to the house of the beast, the party cautiously approaches the troglodytes and parleys with their leader, Grundmoch.  The troggies want the Carrion King and his traitorous impostor ally dead, so they agree to hide the party between trips into the House of the Beast.

Time for killing.  The party kills a snake, some gargoyles, another carrion guard and his doggie, then heads up into the minarets for a peek.  The party goes up into one and kills the resident spider, and finds their way into the lower level.

Sneaking in the back way, the party manages to surprise a big ogreish dude, that Luce drops with a single blow.  The party races through the dungeon looking for another fight before the buff spells wear off.  They find an alchemically disfigured larger than normal gnoll, kill it, and roll on to another area where they face off with a couple of carrion guards and their slaves.  The slaves don't really want to fight and the gnoll guards drop quickly.

The party searches around and finds another area 300' down near a geothermal fissure.  But they decide to go back and look for more gnolls, which they find in a giant domed room.  There are several hyenadon pens here, and three mounted carrion guards.  The party strikes quickly and dispatches the first guard.  One of the remaining guards runs toward the down stairs, presumably to raise the alarm.  Lars bags him with a pit, and the last remaining guard falls shortly after.

In the next area, Billy finds a crazy goblin cleric of Lamashtu.  The cleric rambles on all sorts of the comings and goings of the House of the Beast.  But most importantly, the party must kill the Carrion King so the temple can return to the worship of Lamashtu instead of the bug in the ground.

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Session Characters:  Luce, Lars, Kushii, Billy

Session XP: 4900 XP each

Session Loot:  2 rings of minor fire resistance (12000 GP each), 820 SP, 450 GP, amethyst (90 GP), turquoise (11 GP), scroll of obscuring mist (25 GP), silver tube (40 GP), wand of bear's endurance [37 charges] (3330 GP), 6 masterwork scimitars (315 GP each), 6 masterwork composite longbows (+4) (800 GP each), 7 +1 studded leather armors (1175 GP each), 2 sting chucks (0 GP each), 120 arrows [poisoned with large scorpion venom] (200.05 GP each), +1 chain shirt (1250 GP), +2 belt of mighty constitution (4000 GP), large great club (10 GP), ceramic brazier (500 GP), injection spear (100 GP), 2 copper arm bands (150 GP)