Storm in the Hills
About the Saga
The Blackrazors battle giant-kin and bandits as they explore the first of the Star Cairns.
Note: This adventure is based in part on the TSR Module Star Cairns Part 1: The Lost Tombs by Sean Reynolds. Many thanks to Sean for this very excellent adventure. And now...
Timeframe
- Greyhawk Date: 10/12/1998
- Real World Date: Ready'reat 28, CY 587
- Read other Blackrazor Guild Sagas
Cast of Characters
- Gaiseric, mundane rogue
- Kalib Ironfist, cleric of Trithereon
- Tanevir Calywyn, master of the Blackrazor Guild
- D'klar Ironforge, dwarven cleric/warrior
Notable Quotes
- "He-who-sits-on-Hills is not hurt." -- D'Klar Ironforge
What Has Come Before
After two weeks of disappointing exploration, the Blackrazors returned from the depths of Castle Greyhawk to rest and train in the castle's namesake -- the Free City of Greyhawk.. As they learned and conducted their business, the guild's senior members heard of a number of rumors of strange events in the nearby Cairn Hills. Intrigued, they set out for Hardy on a barge ... which was attacked by a hydra. Once arriving in the small city, they headed toward the hills. Along the way, they encountered a band of cyclops, which they have just defeated.
The Saga
Ready'reat 28 CY 587
Storm in the Hills
"He-who-sits-on-Hills is not hurt," D’klar scoffed as he looked up at the hill to his back. The thief "Scrappy" – who’s given name was Gaiseric – rose from his perch atop the hill.
The others had charged into battle against the Cyclopes as Scrappy had stayed back and watched. The fight had started in the afternoon of the 28th of Ready’reat, CY 587 and he'd known the others could handle it and he’d been right: all of the creatures were dead. D’klar didn’t quite respect his decision … but who cared? He was alive -- that was what counted. He walked down the hill and rejoined the others. They sat, cast their healing magic, mocked him and eventually continued their trip to Storm Keep.
At the Keep
Storm Keep’s solid walls rose from the surrounding hills like justice in a prison. Scattered around the keep were tents and as they drew closer they saw that they belonged to refuges. As soon as they were within sighting distance of the keep a company of guards rode out to intercept them. Once the priest of Trithereon Kalib Ironfist introduced himself, the guards recognized him .. and his guilds. Inspite of this, the guards escorted them into the keep to meet Lord Caseth, the keep’s second in command.
"Hmmm, so you plan to explore the cairns do you? Well I can confirm that the golem stories you’ve heard are true. An iron golem destroyed the village of Ironcrest, which is three days to the southeast. The refuges from that village have decided to regroup here before trying to return to their homes."
"As for the bandits, yes, they have been a problem. Unfortunately, I can’t send my warriors to put them down once and for all. They are too powerful, and while I don’t fear for myself, I do fear for the lives of my men."
After talking with Caseth, Kalib and the others headed out into the countryside intent on conquering the bandits. As they walked the hills to the south east,. they talked strategy.
"I say we go in with the full frontal and attack the bandits head on."
"The full frontal?" Scrappy asked.
"The full frontal." Kalib replied. "D'klar?"
The dwarf put aside his normal scowl and smiled broadly. "Is there any other way?"
Assault from the Skies
One day after leaving Storm Keep, reptilian creatures struck from the skies. As the creatures – which Kalib instantly recognized as wyvrens – dove toward the Blackrazors, D’klar loosed two hand axes. Both of them missed. "Come on Kalib," he growled as the things swept past them and circled overhead, "force these things down with some of that flashy magic of your's."
Grunting in reply, Kalib unleashed a magical barrage from his gloves of snaring. The attack drove one of the creatures to the ground, where he and D’klar were able to slay it. Meanwhile, the second creature made its own pass, snatched Scrappy and rose into air. The beast stabbed him with its toxic stinger, instantly killing him.
The wyvren dropped the thief and then landed, pinning D’klar to the ground. Kalib fought back a flashback of another wyvren – one who had killed the Blackrazor neophyte Simon a year ago in the Obsidian Maze – and then roasted his current opponent with a lance of disruption from his glove.
The creature spasmed and died, collapsing on top of D’klar. Knowing that the dwarf might get mad but wouldn’t die under the weight of the wyvren, Kalib ran over to Gaiseric. The thief wasn’t quite as dead as the cleric had thought – he was able to bring him back by neutralizing the poison in his blood stream and then casting a healing spell. The two then turned their attention to their flattened companion.
The wvyren was too large for Kalib and Gaiseric to move by themselves.Kalib looked around and eyed the horses. "What do you think Scrappy," he said, and smiled. Minutes later the two of them had jury-rigged a setup using some rope and their horses to pull the reptilian corpse off of D’klar.
As Kalib helped the dwarf to his feet, he said "Thanks for getting it to land -- you’re right they’re much easier to kill on the ground."
D’klar merely grumbled something about having to hold his breath while being crushed under the bulk of the creature.
The Wyvren Lair
It didn’t take them long to find the wyvrens’ spoiled back trail and follow it to their lair – a large cave in the side of a 50-foot-high cliff. Once there they were surprised to see Tanevir, the Blackrazors’ current guildmaster along with his new familiar, an owl named Mithlometir. The elf had set out on his own looking for the bandits’ lair. He hadn’t found it, but he had found the party.
After a brief chat, the Blackrazors decided to send Gaiseric scrambling up the side of the cliff to investigate the wyvrens’ home. At the top, a rock slipped sending Gaiseric scrambing for a handhold and alerting the wyvrens inside the lair. One immediately leapt from the cave’s innards, but was roasted by a lightning bolt thrown by Tanevir. As the creature struggled to stay aloft, it was knocked unconscious by a color spray from Kalib’s gloves of spell snaring. Before the rest of the creatures could act, Tanevir threw a web spell across the entrance to the cave. Kalib slapped the elf. "What are you doing!" he shouted.
"Webbing the entrance," Taniver said matter-of-factly.
"You caulked the entrance!" Kalib said. "How the hell are we supposed to get in there now? The entire cave is filled with your webs!"
"Oh," the elf said.
Sighing, Kalib pulled began climbing the steep hill to the webbed over cave entrance. As he drew Justiceseeker, the magical blade berated him for wasting his time on distractions like wyvrens when they could be out hunting down and slaying murderers.
Scrappy looked at the cleric -- and the webbing in front of him -- in disbelief. Kalib, catching his breath and ignoring his sword’s verbal barrage looked at the thief and said "See Scrappy, hang around with the blackrazors for a while and you’ll be able to do really stupid things too."
Into the Lair
The Blackrazors fought their way through the webbing and defeated the wyvrens inside. Once the beasts were dead, the Blackrazors were able to loot the lair. Piled in the back of it they found the bodies of a dwarf, a human and a half-elf. The dwarf had an iron scroll with two scrolls in it – hold person and protection from water – as well as a hand axe with a minor magical enhancement cast on it.
On the human they found a silver-plated long sword that shed a blue-light when drawn from its sword, and the half-elf’s belongings included a magical dagger. Their greatest find though, was two wyvren eggs. Kaib could barely contain his enthusiasm. "We’ve been looking for something that would make our guild stand out back home," he said to the others. "Something like the griffins of the Griffins Guild. This," he said, placing a hand on one of the eggs, "could be that something."
The others smiled in agreement as they gingerly began loading the eggs into a war chest. They wrapped them with Kalib’s winter cloak and D’klar’s blankets, and then heated some iron spikes and stones to keep the eggs warm. They prepared to rest for the night … but they didn’t get the chance.
Giant Negotiations
They heard the giants approaching before they saw them. The hunting party of hill giants rounded the bend of one of the small hills surrounding the wyvren’s lair and suddenly found themselves facing an exceptionally well-armed band of adventuring types. The giants reacted without thinking as they picked up their rocks and began throwing them.
Taniver summon the lethal black tentacles of the mage Evard, which ended the battle. As one of the giants was killed by one of the three tentacles that had grabbed him, their leader cried out and asked for a truce. With spells and weapons at the ready, the Blackrazors cautiously agreed.
The leader, Drath, asked for the freedom of his band in exchange for information. They had been hunting the wvyrens, he explained, and hadn’t expected to encounter such powerful humans and demi-humans. To sweeten the deal, he threw in a sack of 300 gold pieces and a potion in a crystal vial (which was later determined to be a potion of giant strength).
The Blackrazors agreed, and Tenavir dispelled the tentacles. As the giants withdrew, Drath told the adventurers that they had fought a group of human bandits to the south east, and that one of the bandits had been using a dark sword that shot a black wall from it. These bandits managed to kill one of his giants, and they had fled to the east. They had heard the big sword ruled the bandits.
At the mention of this, Tanevir said to Kalib "Usually the leader has the big sword."
The hill giant shook his head violently at this. "No, no, no. Big sword rules them."
And with that, the conversation ended.
Sunsebb 2, CY 587
Confronting the Bandits
After two more days of riding -- which brought them to the 2nd of Sunsebb, CY 587 – and drawing closer to the location of one of the Star Cairns – the Blackrazors encountered three individuals in desert garb. "You two choices. Stop your banditry now and leave, or die."
The three men absorbed the message and rode off. Two hours later they reappeared and the leader of the two said "Here is your answer" and twenty men appear on the hills. Then the leader – who identified himself as Arnoth – said that his forces wanted a crystal rod recovered from the lower level for use in their war against Rary in the bright desert. They had been forced out when the mage created his so-called Empire of the Bright Lands, and they intended to take back what was theirs. If the party recovered the rod, the bandits would stop their attacks and withdraw back to the desert.
Kalib weighed the offer. It was an attractive one – turning two evils against each other always was. D’klar, however, rejected it. "I believe we should destroy the forces of evil where ever we may find them," D’klar grunted.
Scrappy disagreed. "But if one evil fights another evil then two wrongs really can make a right."
Hearing this, Arnoth said "I promise you, if you recover the rod, we will leave this area and not return for many years."
"Sounds good to me" Kalib said. The Blackrazors – with D’klar reluctantly agreeing the deal, advanced and were led – blindfolded – to the entrance of the cairn’s third level.
Into the Star Cairn
The not-so-secret door on the south side of the room of the lowest level of the cairn could not be opened. So said Arnoth, and Kalib scoffed at the suggestion. Of course it could be opened. It just took some, well, some muscle. Several sore shoulders later, they realized that they really needed some good magic.
Tenavir provided that magic as he sent a barrage of spells against the door. Finally, one of his protective spells worked and the door opened, revealing a checkered floored room. The Blackrazors cautiously spread out around the room, avoiding the black-and-white squares. Kalib then carefully set his foot on one of the squares … and was surprised when nothing happened. A quick search of the room turned up two doors – one to the east and another to the south.
They launched another barrage of spells as the southern door. Again a protective spell opened it. Once inside they found three magical swords – the Mighty Blade of Renho (engraved in ancient Oerdian), Unholy Vengeance (in magical lettering on hilt) Eye of the Basilisk (reptilian eye hilt). But before they could do more than read the ancient lettering on them, the door slammed shut and a gas began to fill the room, knocking several Blackrazors unconscious. D’klar managed to cast another protective spell, which raised the door and allowed Scrappy to run in and grab the bodies of their fallen friends. H was just in time – as he picked up Tanevir, a toxic, acidic fog began to fill the room.
Not one to be discouraged by near-disaster, the Blackrazors turned their attention to the southern door and opened it with yet another of Tanevir’s spells. In this room they found what they were looking for: a simple rod with a diamond mounted on one end. Kalib, Scrappy and D’klar ran into the room. Kaib reached the rod first and lifted it from its resting place. That act instantly triggered a trap which send curtains of burning oil cascading down on their heads. They cast protective spell after protective spell against the door as the flames rose around them, but the spells didn’t work.
Suddenly, Tanevir realized that it was alteration, not protective spells, that were opening the doors. Acting quickly he cast his last alteration spell and the door slid open. His tree friends, singed but not mortally so, stumbled into the room, slid to the floor and began to think about what they were going to do next.
Experience & Loot
- No experience and/or loot is available for this saga.
