Castles and Crusades Campaign Continues

We will all mourn for the passing of a great and noble warrior. Nords the Dwarf has passed to stone, in the fashion of the Dwarf people. He was slain while fighting Great Goblins in the Grotto of the Ice Hunter Goblins - hot on the trail of the goblin chieftain that the heroes are pursuing to retrieve the Kreftring. In the bottom of the multi-layered Grotto (a mountain dungeon system built in the Southern tailbone of the Rakers, at the edge of a glacier) is a gateway that leads to mysterious dungeons beneath the Fortress of the Shadow Rose (a castle in Keoland! halfway around the world, but it is where the Goblin chieftain is hiding out).

The players were sorely tested, even though Viney Badeloch took a co-role in performing "rogue" abilities with Clematis, the halfling.

The evening of adventure started out pretty good. The party had been holed up in a room where they had slain some ogres and giant spiders. The group was in uncharted territory, so they had bolted shut the doors and spiked them closed. Then they took turns watching while all got some rest (about 8 hours) and while Annalise (the female cleric of Ehlonna) got enough rest to concentrate and meditate on getting her spells back.

Finally they were rested up and proceeded out from their room into the wider dungeon. The group faced down a number of undead (ghouls, zombies, and skeletons) until coming to a room tha was heavily guarded by Great Goblins and Ice Hunter cats. A fight broke out and the heroes were victorious. Along the way, however, Nords passed along. He was facing down two great goblins, having interposed his body in front of Annalise so that she could pull back from the front line of fighting. The maneuver was successful, but it left Nords (exposed in the room) facing off against two Great Goblins and being shot at by a couple of Goblin archers.

The two Great Goblins were too much. Especially when one got a critical hit. Nords was down to 4hp left, and he didn't bother to tell ANYONE (how infuriating - he might still be alive if he had but asked Annalise for a single healing spell. But he did not. One of the great goblins (as mentioned) got a Critical hit, and Nords took an additional 24 points of damage (which made him go approx 20 points negative, certainly dead and not coming back).

Tags: Castles & Crusades