Rescue at Rivenroar - Night 1

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Adventurers:

Beana - Elf Ranger
Blake - Deva Cleric
Bullroarer - Threequarterling Warden
Gigantor - Goliath Barbarian
Lucas - Goliath Barbarian
Rocknrolla - Dwarf Fighter

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The adventure kicked off in the Antlers and Thistle tavern, in the town of Brindol. It was an unusually boring afternoon at the tavern in which the tavern's patrons did absolutely no talking to each other. >:P

Before the PCs were able to muster anything resembling roleplaying, the main door flew off its hinges and hobgoblins began to pour in; 3 local patrons were immediately killed. Springing to action, our heroes saved a few of the surviving patrons and most of the building (there was that odd hobgoblin shaped hole in the east wall that showed up sometime after Bullroarer disappeared; paper mache should make for a quick fix).

Possibly answering the call of battle, but more likely the call of cheap booze and wenches, Blake arrived on the scene mid-brawl. His healer instincts raging, he charged into battle with the cry "Who has the lowest HP?!?!?!".

Rock (Rocknrolla) thought it wise to put his weapon in the barbecue pit in the center of the tavern; what dwarfs do is just hard to understand sometimes.

Edit: About the same time that Bullroarer disappeared in a puff of magic, some freaky mutated goat arrived at the scene. Fortunately for the local tavern patrons, the goat appears to have been trained in some unusual martial arts. The goat was unavailable for comment afterward.

Following the bar brawl, for reasons unknown to the others, Gigantor engaged in hostilities with the barkeep of the Antler and Thistle. The quick thinking and long-winded speaking of Beana convinced Gigantor to reconsider (or reschedule?) his hostilities against the humble barkeep.

After a short respite (here that means "rest" for those of you who were dropped on your heads as kids), a man who appeared to be a regular in the town watch (you might think this will become important later, but it won't) arrived at the scene. The town was under attack! The corpses of the slain hobgoblins bore an insignia resembling that of The Red Hand (you might think won't become important later, but it will).

Moments later, shouts of scared serfs sounded from up the street. As the peasants ran past, our heroes rushed outside just in time to see an ogre, yoked to a cart carrying casks of pitch and two armed hobgoblins. As he rounded the corner he threw a single lit cask at the heroes. Naturally the ogre's projectile neither hit its target or followed its intended course (Obidiah Johnson's Dry Goods store will never be the same).

Perhaps driven by fantasies of a life as a firefighter, Lucas sprung to action at the first sight of the fire. Being the only one of our heroes to identify the real threat to the town, he hurriedly extinguished as much fire as his strong, water-soaked body could manage.

Rushing to action, Bullroarer immediately closed to melee range with the ogre. Frustrated, the ogre began to take mighty swings with his (insert crude, large, and intimidating weapon here). During the fight that ensued, Bullroarer managed to knock one of the hobgoblins onto a pile of pitch casks. The hobgoblin (and Bullroarer) didn't know it, but somebody set up him the pitch cask.

Gigantor, after a brief session of people watching, saw it prudent to lob his lantern into the corner of the tavern (the corner closest to the cart carrying the pitch casks). In this he succeeded, and the fire from his improvised lantern grenade quickly spread through the building and towards the cart.

In a move which could only be called "dwarfy", Rock leaped up onto the pitch cart (this Dwarf got game) and took a swing at an unlit pitch cask. Normally the cask would merely spill harmlessly into the cart, but Rock's axe was still burning hot from the tavern's barbecue pit. The cask exploded almost instantly causing massive damage to all nearby.

After a chain explosion of the entire load of pitch casks, the cart was no more, Bullroarer was incapacitated, and nearly everyone else nearby was bloodied. The hobgoblin that was atop the pile of pitch casks was shot high into the sky by a cask explosion; he was a little confused but nonetheless enjoying a rare bird's eye view of Brindol. The moment was short lived, however, as gravity passed its strength check (DC: 15) and the hobgoblin promptly returned back to the scene of the encounter.

Freed of the burden of the cask cart, and seeing that his allies had been slain (more specifically, compacted into a fine paste), the ogre attempted to flee down a nearby alley. Moving to intercept, Lucas and Gigantor succeeded at cutting off his escape; the ogre was slain and the heroes once again had triumphed.

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Who or what is attacking fair Brindol?
Can our heroes save the day?
Why is Gigantor making that face at me?
Do the pictures help or do they annoy?

All these answered and more next time; stay tuned for our next adventure.