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--- paldegora:session_24_taking_the_gate [2023/07/12 23:21] – davidm
+++ paldegora:session_24_taking_the_gate [2023/07/14 00:50] (current) – davidm
@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 ==== Summary ====
+There was some discussion about how to get around the gate. There seemed to be no way around it. Symon originally suggested that they go back down the hill and find a path around the gate. It was well armed with 8 bugbears, 6 gnolls, and a hobgoblin, that they could see. Without going back down the hill, the next idea was to create a distraction and try to get through the gate or over the gate while they were distracted. That seemed like a bad idea. So they opted for the plan as outlined below. Surprisingly enough, it went pretty well except for a few surprise guests.
+There was a lower wall with ramparts on the north and south ends, about 20 feet off the ground. Between them was a raised area above the actual gate, like a bridge. On the back of each rampart rose a covered tower, about another 10 feet tall. There were doors on them but they were closed.
+Symon made Eryn invisible. She moved to the north side of the south rampart. It took two tries but she climbed it and made it onto the bridge between the ramparts. She took her cloak out of her bag to use as a signal that she had arrived and was ready to begin. She flagged them by holding the cloak over the side below the enemies line of sight and then letting it unroll before dropping it. As she let go of it, the cloak became visible and floated down.
+Seeing this, Cal-El readied a shot while Angelique cast the spell “Hold Person”, targeting the hobgoblin. When she was finished casting, Cal-El fired an arrow onto the roof of the south tower. He was a little off and the arrow glanced off the roof to the side but Eryn saw and heard it. That was her signal that the spell had been cast. She looked at the hobgoblin and the others around him to see if the spell had the desired effect. It did! The hobgoblin leader and the bugbear nearby him were no longer moving.
+Eryn moved on to the next part of the plan and took out one of the kobald bottles of exploding oil. She threw the bottle at a torch hanging off the north side of the south tower. She missed. Maybe Naa was smiling down on her but the bottle hit the wall around the other torch on west side of the tower and exploded as it was entended to do. The bugbear and gnoll nearby were caught in it. Xor, Cal-El, and Cassandra used the distraction to move closer to the northern rampart. With the first explosion, all attention on the gate was focused on the southern rampart. Maybe, had the hobgoblin not been paralyzed, he might have kept people at their post and maintained better control but since there was no one to issue orders, all chaos broke out.
+Eryn added to the display by lobbing another bottle onto the table between all of the occupants of the rampart. It exploded and now all four of them where on fire. The loud screaming kept everyone’s attention that way. The gnoll and a bugbear on the middle section moved to fill a bucket with water and run it down to help their comrades. Xor, Cal-El, and Cassandra all made it to the base of the rampart. Xor prepared to throw the grappling hook but Cal-El stopped him to give the activity above a moment longer to really keep their enemy’s attention. Eryn tried to hamper the fire brigade by lobbing another flask at the torch near the two trying to fill the bucket but it missed and just broke on the ground. After she tossed that, she darted through the crowd to the northern rampart and planted herself prepare to repel anyone attacking her friends as the crested the wall.
+Xor threw the grappling hook and climbed the wall. He made it up and onto the rampart. Cassandra came up behind him And also made it onto the rampart beside Xor. Two of the bugbears saw them and moved to engage. A gnoll also moved back onto the rampart but was a little timid and scared. He didn’t approach them. Cal-El made it up to the other side of Xor. Xor and Cassandra engaged the bugbears while Cal-El took on the gnoll.
+Seeing the fire begin to die down on the other rampart and wishing to keep people distracted, Eryn move toward it and threw another bottle on the fire. Another explosion erupted and the gnoll and two bugbears died. Eryn ran back to a bugbear that was yelling at the hobgoblin and getting no answer. She backstabbed the bugbear and killed him instantly. After that, she became visible and said, “Hello boys!”.
+The fight was simple art first, just attack and defend yourself. The gnolls on the ground behind the gate saw what was happening and ran into a door on the backside of the gate. The Company seemed to have the upper hand when a door opened in the south tower and out walked 5 hooded figures in brown robes and another larger figure in blood red robes. The five moved the the stairs that led up to the the main section above the gate. The brown robed creatures removed their robes, spread their wings, and leapt into the air gliding into the battle. Three engaged Eryn while two engaged Cal-El. Xor and Cassandra finished there opponents off about that time and moved down to help.
+The four gnolls from the ground climbed out of the door in the middle of the section over the gate, directly behind the bulk of the action. As the fight continued, the draconians started to die. As they did, they turned to stone. If your weapon had not cleared their body, your weapon would become stuck and useless the rest of the battle. That only happened to Xor.
+Symon, upon seeing the robed creatures walk out onto the rampart, moved to the middle of the road to get a better vantage point from which to view them. At first the robed figures did nothing but standby and watch. Once  they dropped their robes and attacked though, he began planning the spells to help his comrades. That’s when the red robed mage attacked him. He hit him with a burning hands spell. It almost did him in but Symon was still standing. Before he could get a spell off of his own, he was hit again by magic missiles. That knocked him unconscious.
+During the whole fight, Angelique was pickling off people with bow shots. She focused on the hobgoblin until the burning hands spell went off and then she turned her attention to the red robed mage. As the rest were making headway, Xor lost his sword to the draconian he had been fighting when it died and his weapon was caught in it. He moved down to the four gnolls to take them on using his old battle ax and he was really really angry.
+When Symon fell, the red robed mage turned his attention to the main battle scene. He cast a spell that produced some sort of cloud of noxious gas over the main group. Many succumbed to it and were forced to stop fighting and try to leave the cloud. Eryn did not seem to be effected by it so she made a dash along the wall and down to the red robed mage that Angelique had already severely beaten down. She delivered the death blow as the casting of spells had to be stopped. She moved back up the to bridge over the gate and pulled out her bow. She and Cassandra fired on the remaining enemy as they were weakened and puking. Angelique finished off the hobgoblin leader. She then moved to Symon and gave him a full potion of extra healing getting him back up and ready to go.
+They finally finished off the remaining creatures and won the day. They divided out the gold, silver, and copper. They searched everyone and found a single note to the hobgoblin from Death Crusher. It read, “Take command of gate! Cooperate with draconian brethren. Grish-ta-nak commands this!”.
+As they stood on the gate structure, they could look down into the valley on the other side. They spied a large city, mostly desolate and destroyed. The buildings were mostly burned out. There was a large spire that had fallen over. There was a little village to the west of it that had some activity. It had been damaged but seemed to have undergone some repairs. There were woods north of that and north of the woods was a plateau with a holdfast on it. There was a road leading up to it and behind it stood a tower. The hold was damaged and scorched some but mostly was still in decent shape. On the other side to the river east of the hold was an area, scorched and blackened, burnt to a crisp in some areas. There was a little mountain range north east of that and beyond that were some moors, sparse and rocky. There were few trees in that area.
+Angelique and Symon went through the gate and into the door on the back side.
+That is where the game ended.
+Started the recorder!
 ==== Detail ====