Durvik's Pass is a small mining community nestled in the upper reaches of the Serpentcoil mountains. Many people pass through this town as they travel through the mountains.
To see a map of the Serpentcoil mountains and other related information, go to the Web site run by Ben, our DM. Durvik's Pass is located at the narrowest section of the Serpentcoil mountain range.
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Click each link below to view notes for each gaming session. These
links point to sections further down the page. In general, these notes are
written from Selwyn the monk's perspective. If you wish to know more about
the other characters, you can contact the player.
To the players: If you see any errors or omission of information,
please contact me.
This was the kickoff session. The DM gave the players an overview of the new 3rd Edition rules and helped the players create their characters.
Following are a smattering of notes that will be organized later.
The Serpentcoil Mountains are inhabited mostly by humanoids. There are a couple Dwarven settlements and a few Human settlements in the mountains. There is a pass through the mountains called Durvik's Pass. This is a small mining town where travelers often stop on their way through the mountains.
Selwyn is a young female monk from the monastery in the foothills of
the Serpentcoil mountains. This monastery has a good relationship
with the people of Durvik's Pass. They often send donations to the
monastery and people from Durvik's Pass have been known to spend some
time at the monastery.
The people of Durvik's Pass have contacted the monastery
to ask for their help in combating the Evil that has recently befallen
their humble community. Selwyn has been asked to scout Dervik's Pass
and report back to the monastery.
Met a villager upon arriving in the town. Asked some questions about what's going on. Aethelmir is the Elven mining lord in the area. This is a village of several hundred people and something is wrong in the town. The people of the village are complaining about the Burning Plague that is killing everyone.
Met Tarrin, a female who has blunt, cropped, straight hair that is a reddish purple color. Her eyes are silver and she has silver blue skin. Also met two elves by the names of Maedhros (seemingly subdued personality) and Mestopholes Dorchester Caspian XI (goes by Caspian, very outspoken personality, must come from one of the great noble Elven houses). The two elves met each of the female humans on the way to the mayor's house, apparently everyone had some sort of agenda with the mayor.
The mayor said that the source of the Burning Plague has been traced to the mines. All of the miners have been dying. He suggests that we see Samron the town armorer for more information about the mines. The mayor asked the party if they could go into the mines to investigate and possibly find the cause of the Burning Plague. During the conversation, it came to light that Bill, the town innkeeper, had also died of the plague. Upon hearing this, the mayor said that the party could stay as guests in the mayor's dwelling. The mayor, Darren, offered a reward of 75gp to each member of the party if we could discover the secrets deep in the mines. [Back to TOP]
Another smattering of notes to be organized later, after I compile notes from the other players.
Picking up where we left off, we ask Darren the mayor for more information about the mines and the Burning Plague. Then we head over to Samron the armorer to get detailed information about the mines. @@Know that the plague is contagious; people get it, but can recover. @@The elves are trying to find Evin (not sure if the other characters should know this. @@Samron is a big man with a mustache, typical of armorer/blacksmith types. @@Demons appeared 2 wks ago, killed everybody who didn't escape from the mines. @@Kalem is a miner who escaped and who knows the mines. @@See him and get a map from him and any other detailed information about the mines. Little horned demons with small glowing red eyes, there were also bursts of flame. This was a silver mine that is about 10 yrs. old and has had much growth in the past 2-3 years.
The 2-hour hike to the mines is uneventful. Though the party notices that the woods are very quiet. There are no sounds of the creatures of the wood scurrying about. This is peculiar, and is possibly a foreboding sign of what the party may encounter in the mines. Thinking ahead, Tarrin finds some berries and creates Goodberries to help heal us, assuming that we may soon be in battle.
At the entrance, see knick marks on the wooden supports and what looks like blood sprayed and splashed all over. Using the map as a guide, we go down the main shaft. See two carts with what looks like a human body pinned underneath. Mestopholes Dorchester Caspian XI and Maedhros lift the carts while Tarrin and Selwyn stand guard at the entrances. Upon lifting the carts, a trap goes off that drops a rock/bomb that explodes with a loud thunderclap. Maedhros misses his save and is temporarily deafened. Now we think we're in deep sh!t, as anyone in the mines is sure to have heard that. Maedhros listens at the door and hears little high-pitched voices saying that they're just outsdie the door. Whoever it is, they're talking about us. We devise a plan to break into the room and fight whatever's in there. We push the mining carts into the hallway for cover and ready some flaming oil flasks. Maedhros opens the door and...
It looks like a bunch of kobolds are hidden behind overturned tables and they are firing crossbow bolts at us. The next few rounds are a stand-off, with both sides using their ranged attacks. To gain purchase into the room, Caspian and Selwyn lob flaming flasks of oil over the tables. In the meantime, Maedhros has managed to down the closest kobold with his arrows. Some of the kobolds are on fire now and the party decides to storm the room. We make quick work of the remaining kobolds. A couple of the tables are on fire now and smoke is filling the room. There is a door leading to another room and again the party hears similar voices in it. We storm the room again; it looks to be a long narrow room used to store foodstuffs. The kobolds are at the opposite end of the room hiding behind barrels for cover.
Caspian, Maedhros, and Tarrin run forward into the room. Selwyn has again rolled low on her initiative, but this time it is a blessing. As the other three charge forward, yet another trap is sprung. A wire leading up to the ceiling release several bags of what looks to be flour (not anthrax) down onto the party. Tarryn was thinking of using her obscuring mist spell, but now she doesn't need to, as everything is covered in white powder, making it difficult to see and move. As the three charged into the room, they saw something big and furry hiding in the corner behind the door. Caspian and Maedhros fight the kobolds that are hidden behind the barrels. Tarrin and Selwyn fight what they now recognize to be a dire weasel. Tarrin calls on the help of her badger companion to fight this nasty monster. The badger does damage, but the weasel strikes and clamps its jaws down on the badger. Left with no choice, Selwyn attempts a stunning attack on the weasel. She strikes and succeeds. The weasel drops the now RAGING badger and the three work together to defeat it.
Meanwhile, the elves are battling the kobolds and are slowing getting rid of them one by one. Selwyn steps in to help flank and smite the nasty creatures. During battle, one of the barrels cracks open and rats come out trying to bite the ankles of our party members. After all of the kobolds are defeated, we open the barrels and Maedhros (or someone else?) finds a hidden compartment in one of them that contains a bottle of liquid. Tarryn uses a Detect Magic spell to determine that it is indeed a magical potion.
After checking the corpses for treasure and cleaning ourselves off, we plan on what to do next. After discussing our first battle victory, Maedhros and Selwyn realize that the party has made a grave error. Given that the first trap probably alerted anyone in the mines to our presence, we should have subdued one or two of the kobolds to try and get more information about what lays deeper in the mines. Now we will have to proceed very cautiously and with maximum stealth. However, this first battle gave us insight on what tactics were useful, the fighting style that works best for each character, and what we need to do to improve our chances of surviving.
Off the bodies of the kobolds, we found: @@
The DM awarded each character 420 XP. (Woohoo! It's magic time! ;-}) The characters are well on their way to reaching 2nd level, and should start thinking about the direction in which they want their skills to grow. [Back to TOP]
We're close to solving the mystery of the Burning Plague.
After the battle with the kobolds in the first two rooms, the party decides to head back to town. It is late morning, and we need to find someone to help heal us before attempting to explore deeper into the mines. Selwyn knows of a shrine in town, it is a shrine to the God Pelor. In a wooden building, we meet a young maiden named Lena. We tell her of our quest and she is more than happy to heal us. We also buy a healing potion from her for 50gp. We spend the night and Lena cooks us breakfast in the morning and then we head back to the mines. Before we leave, we give her some of the gems that we retrieved from the kobolds.
We head back to the mines on the same day. Everything seems undisturbed. We drag a bag of flour into the first main room thinking that we might need it at some point. Maedhros scouts down into the passage. He comes running back after searching for traps and peeking into the large cavern. It seems that a number of kobolds fired crossbow bolts at him (he taunted and insulted them with the intent of drawing the kobolds out into the other room).
We decide to storm the cavern and use the many stalagmites as cover as we lay siege to another troop of kobolds undercover. So we're running down the tunnel, then CLICK...a trap door opens and everyone except for Maedhros falls into a pit and takes damage. We climb out with the help of ropes and Selwyn has to drink the healing potion since she will be at the front lines of this battle.
Each character in turn runs into the cavern amidst a
rain of crossbow bolts. The ledge has a number of ropes going up to it
and we plan on climbing them. Tarrin gets as close as she can to the
ledge and casts an Obscuring Mist spell. Now each
character heads quietly over to the ropes and begins ascending towards
the ledge. The kobolds cannot see us in the mist and have no luck
hitting us with crossbow bolts. They soon become aware of our plan and
try to cut the ropes that we're ascending. Selwyn successfully jumps
from one rope to the another as it's being cut. Maedhros isn't as
lucky and drops back down to the ground. We finally jump onto the
ledge and melee begins. There are at least 6 kobolds fighting us and
there seems to be a kobold in the back that can cast spells. The
kobold mage shoots a blue ray from its hands and directs it towards
Tarrin. Tarrin luckily dodges out of the way. As Tarrin gets closer,
the mage attacks with a Burning Hands spell. Tarrin, as well as
another kobold, gets caught in the flames. The kobold dies instantly.
Tarrin is seriously injured and falls to the ground, barely conscious.
Realizing the danger we're now in, the rest of the party starts to
fell the kobolds. Selwyn dodges yet another blue ray shot from the
kobold sorcerer's hands. She then makes a charging attack and knocks the
kobold wizard unconscious with a charging fist strike. Maedhros and
Caspian dispose of the rest of the kobolds. We subdue one more
remaining kobold. These prisoners are then tied up as we tend to Tarrin's
wounds.
Note: It took about 14 hit points to knock M'dok
unconscious.
Found a violet garnet and a potion on M'dok. We ask him what it is and he says that "It makes you big and strong." Caspian takes a sip of the potion and he momentarily looks a bit dim and indistinct. As we lower M'dok and the other kobold down off the ledge, M'dok looks back and seems anxious about something on the ledge. Maedhros finds a secret door in this ledge area. In it are two young kobolds and some sacks of ore. Among the sacks, we find a cloak. It looks like it might possibly be a magic cloak. We go through various iterations of M'dok pleading with us to let him and his children free, but he does not seem completely honest about his motives.
Since Tarrin is seriously injured, we must go back to Durvik's Pass to visit Lena. We go back to town escorting the kobolds. We will turn them over to the mayor or authorities. We ask the people of the town not to kill the kobolds because we might need them for more information.
After returning from the mines a second time, the party starts to feel sick. Selwyn's Constitution score has dropped from 11 to 7 and she temporarily (hopefully!) loses 2 hp.
The second time we returned to town, Caspian purchases a bow and arrows from Samron. We tell him about the kobolds in the mines and he doesn't seem to think that the little creatures are what the miners thought were the "demons".
After more rest and healing with Lena, we return to the mines. To be on the safe side, we check the first two rooms to see if anything new is in there. It looks like all of the kobolds bodies are gone. There is a trail of flour that leads out of the rooms and down into the main passage. We go back down to the large cavern and check to make sure nothing is in the upper ledge. Maedhros first scouts ahead down what we think is the final passage. The tunnel gets steeper and now the air is thick and the heat is sweltering. In a large room, we see an enormous pile of corpses--humans, kobolds, and other carcasses--with rats crawling everywhere. We can hear the sounds of rushing water. It seems that this festering pile of death is a probable cause of the Burning Plague. But we do not yet know who or what is doing this, and why...
Off the bodies of the kobolds, we found: @@ In addition, we search the kobold wizard, M'dok, and found a potion. In the secret alcove that Maedhros found, we found what seems to be a magical cloak.
The DM awarded the characters 270 XP each. We're close to leveling up and hope to do so after the next session. Level 2, here we come! [Back to TOP]
The next scheduled session is for Thursday, 11/08/01