The Acts of the Lords of Rannick, I

If I had wanted to keep a decent adventure journal, recapping the party’s escapades, I should have started when Dagfinn, Lonny and Kerplak first strolled into Sandpoint looking for a good time at the Swallowtail festival.

I didn’t though, which is too bad because now the players have to rely on their memory for names to recall who everyone is and I’ve forgotten who did what and when so that I can hold them accountable for it one day. I wanted to. Plus, you know how I hate it when people ask me to spell names for them during play? Because seriously, how would you know? Now’s your chance… Still, here we go:

Dagfinn Cleng; Bard and bon-vivant
Baaz; Half-orc monk and man of few words
Lonny Dun; Dwarven cleric of Torag and Lord of Rannick
Kerplak Dropwad; Gnome rogue and gadget enthusiast
Tersplink Dropwad; Gnome sorceror, a bit Fey
Arradin Tyrlyith; Elvish fighter and scythe-wielder
Corwin; Half-elf, half-fighter, half-rogue
Torgor; Ranger and newest recruit

Part I – Turtleback Ferry to Skull Crossing; Don’t despair me, bro.

The first act of the Lords of Rannick was to save the town from the flooding and the dangers it brought. It was a thrilling tale, full of unknowable aquatic horrors, bravery, derring-do and primal forces of nature, but we’ll skip that. They set out to investigate the cause of the flood that partially destroyed Turtleback Ferry. The river gorge having vomited a vast wall of water and debris onto the village and surrounding area, the party set out to investigate the ancient dam that held back the waters of the Storval Deep. The town was left in the capable hands of Father Ivan. Mayor Shaelin Shreed set off for Magnimar to secure funding for some rebuilding; former-Black Arrow; avid apiarist Vale Temros set off for Whartle to spread the news among the nearby communities and
former-Black Arrow and mild depressive Jakardros Sovark set off for Fort Rannick with his step-daughter Shalelu Andosana to get on with the grim business of burying the last two sets of occupiers of Fort Rannick.

Trivia: The Black Arrows occupied Fort Rannick for about 50 years and the Kreeg Clan for about a week, meaning that the average length of occupation is about 25 years. However, 100% of previous occupants have been brutally murdered in a surprise attack.

The party arrived at the ancient stone dam to find a marvel of engineering from an age long dead. Also, skulls. Apparently constructed be the same crew who rigged the skull trap under the Dwimorberg for the Dead Men of Dunharrow because every foot of stone on the gorge-spanning, 200′ tall Thassilonian dam was covered in skull shapes carved into the stone. Starting to show signs of strain and the damage that caused the Turtleback flood, the dam looked to have sustained damage recently, but held back the weight of the rain-swollen lake. The path to the top of the dam was a narrow staircase with 4′ high stairs, which was made even more treacherous by the resumption of the torrential rain which had been pummeling the region for a week.

Lonny slipped as he climbed, his dwarven legs not quite up to such giant stone steps and began the night’s theme of falling from great heights. The gnome cousins flew to the top of the stairs, Tersplink depositing Kerplak at the mouth of a cave, the end point of the stairway. Tersplink flew up to the level of the dam and found a work crew of Ogres labouring hard to cause another fault in the
dam. The Ogres were distracted by the flying gnome and while they hurled javelins at one cousin, the other tried to sneak along the cliff face to get to the dam. Sadly, with no-one else around to witness, Kerplak slipped and fell off the edge of the cliff, bouncing down the side of the dam and landing broken-boned and out cold in the pool at the foot of the dam.

Upon arrival at the stairhead, Baaz, Arradin and Torgor followed Kerplak’s plan, with almost comical similarity. Only the ranger Torgor managed to catch himself before plummeting off the treacherous cliff at which point he joined the rest of the group outside the cave mouth. Tersplink, flying away from the Ogres, set about rescuing the three gravity victims from drowning and bleeding out, ably assisted by Kerplak and Corwin’s dogs, who – it must be said – were having a great time.

Corwin led the way into the cave, supported by Dagfinn, Lonny and Torgor. Not knowing what might be stomping around the cave, Corwin advanced and made contact with the cave’s inhabitant, a brutish Ettin. The two headed giant was moderately surprised to see Corwin, but probably not as surprised as he was when the half-elf activated The Impaler of Thorns, a crowd-control device as old as the creaking dam outside. A solid strike with the ancient polearm unleashed a wave of despair and sorrow that made the Ettin so profoundly sad that it couldn’t concentrate on anything, much less mashing the party to pieces. The giant was dispatched and as one half of the party sifted through his belongings, the other was just getting itself back on its feet. Lonny reclaimed a phylactery, once used by clerics to heal the injured and banish the dead.

When all had gathered, Arradin shared her near-death experience with her fellows. As she had been approaching death’s door not too long ago, she felt her soul start to leave her body, only for it to be drawn towards the old medallion she had taken from Nualia, the deranged Aasimar who once threatened Sandpoint. The Sihedron Medallion was another artifact from long dead Thassilon. Lonny laid
down some professional opinion; that anything that messed with your soul was a bad deal and advocated removing the various Sihedron Medallions the party had accumulated. Corwin evidently has big plans for the afterlife because he relinquished his, but Arradin remains attached to hers for the boost of vitality it gives her.

Reassembled, both skeletally and socially, the party left the cave to face the Ogres on the Dam. The Ogres, cruelly overworked, put up no great fight but their overseer managed to slap a few party members around before he too fell.

And that’s where we left them, standing in three inches of rainwater on a walkway on top of a skull-festooned dam, in the middle of a raging storm.