D&D Encounters Lost Crown of Neverwinter Week 8 – Sewer Rats and Crocs

Another week of D&D Encounters sees our doughty group of heroic swimmer, the Bellyfloppers, looking to make their next splash. This time is the district of Black Lake, where the Sewer Rats make their hideout. They were attacked by members of the Dead Rats gang last week who also claimed to be good friends with the Lost Heir of Neverwinter. After the fight, the tavern owner congratulated them on clearing out the trash and offered them free room and board. He also told them where tofind the Dead rat hideout. “Follow the street out front until you can’t follow it no more.”

So bright and early the party makes their way down the ruined avenue towards Black Lake. Once a small pond in Black Lake Park, thought to be bottomless, the lake expanded to be over a mile across, flooding the neighborhood around it. Now forlorn ruins, steeples, chimneys and walls stuck out of the water at precarious angles as they neared the end of the street, which continued on right into the waters of black lake.

Next to the water’s edge, a small wooden boathouse sat, with an empty dock jutting into the black water. The ranger Belgos determined that many feet went in and out of the boathouse, and under a mildewed rug they found a big green sewer pipe with ladder rungs descending into darkness. Soon they discovered they were under the lake itself, and fould water dripped from th stones of the sewer pipes. The twisting and turnings were difficult to follow and each character took a turn leading the party.

They had a horrible time, getting stuck in one way tunnels, finding themselves in noxious fumes, and going in circles for hours. Eventually they came to an area that was recently traveled, and knew they were close. But turning a corner they saw a humungous fat crocodile, lazing half in the putrescent water Quinaro wasted no time but launched an arrow that glanced of the horny crocodile hide.

The rest of the party moved into the long narrow hall to attack, but no sooner had they done that, then two huge dire rats spilled out of a pipe behind them. Caught between rats and crocs, the heroes were hard pressed. At one point, the wizard Suldin was down to 1 hp, and his familiar owl was knocked out of the air by a dire rat. He risked all to get to his owl, and rescued it.

Not so fortunate was Jarvix the mentalist, who was grabbed by the crocodile and pulled to the back of the hall. Jarvix miraculously recoverd and pulled himself out of the crocs mouth, only to be bit again. This time, his legs and arms fell into the water as the crocodile swallowed what was left of the unconscious Jarvix. Played by my son, I showed no mercy describing the awful death of Jarvix. His half orc barbarian may have avoided the death blow for two years and 14 levels of play, but when I found the chance to slaughter Jarvix, I could not say no to the coup d’etat.

Nearly everyone else died in this battle, and I am sure they would have if I had not started pulling punched. When one of my favorite players Trent got quiet and ashen faced upon hearing the news that his owl was struck down by a rat, I knew that this was not the night for a lesson in hard core. The new player in the group, Belgos, was still standing and had a few hit points left.

One thing that was different from the way the encounter was written was that I used a large and a huge crocodile instead of 2 medium ones. The reason for this is that I have large and huge croc miniatures, but I would have had to use frogs if I went with the recommended medium, and that would be lame. Also, for whatever reason, any time I bring a croc into a fight, whether it be at Encounters or my home game, the battle always becomes intense, so I brought them for the drama. I kept all their stats as written.

About this encounter, the most I can say, is WOW was it deadly. Those rats hit for some major damage, and this ould easily have been a wipe if I had not let a replacement for Jarvix show up mdway throught he fight. Edith the fight came screaming down the stairs to help slaughter the implacable beasts and finally, luckily, the heroes vanquished their foes. Good battle, too hard, but fun. For once no one went swimming, must have been because of my 5 minute soliloquy on how disgusting, vile, and noxious the thick soup of human waste was.

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Valley of the Dwarf Lords

First Valley of the Dwarf Lords

Far north in the lands of constant ice, deep in the mountains known as the Spurs of Creation, cleaves the Valley of the Dwarf Lords. Cutting the mountain range in two, the Valley spans the last habitable land before giving way to the cold north. To the north are the jagged upthrusts of the Snowy Peaks – half mountain, half glacier, and south of the valley, the Spurs of Creation continue as the Stony Peaks.

It is said that in days of old the first dwarves held back the approaching ice, and turned it aside into the Bay of the Grinding Ice. The bays distinguishing feature are the volcanic isles forever battling the encroaching ice bergs. To the east the the land ends in another long Bay, Neverwinter, so named for the volcanic reactions of Mount Hotenow, an extinct but still warm volcano. To this warm water bay a great city also named Neverwinter grew under the shadow of Hotenow, and the city became enriched by the Dwarvish Lords and traded often.

The war changed all that. The dwarf lords and their hosts were slain in battle with orcs and the noblest dwarf houses were wiped out with all thei vassals. Even then, the north was beset upon by evil erupting from the ice as monsters and fiendish humanoinds swept down on the undefended north. Each house fell in epic fashion, one by one, until only Thobost Gar, the Death Girder, remained standing. Here a great battle was waged as the Civil Malitia of besieged Neverwinter allied themselves with the First Dwarves, and would have won the day against the combined horde of orcs and goblins, if only the deceptive kobolds had not managed to slip past the the Death Girder, and cause havoc and mayhem in the dwarvish rear.

Even then, the knights of Neverwinter still might have carried the day and saved the dwarves in turn, if old Mt. Hotenow had not chosen that moment to tear the city on its banks asunder in a volcanic eruption. The war ended 100 years ago, and the city is slowly being rebuilt. The Dwarvish Halls however are not. Rather, the Dwarves of Second Home are collecting what they can of their cousins remains. One last time the Valley of the Dwarf Lords has begun to enrich a new Neverwinter, an outpost in a cold land of darkness and dread.

Seven Great mansions the Dwarf Lords built in the First Valley. It was said that Moradin with his own hand chopped the valley and planted the dwarves as seeds deep in the mountains, and each family could trace its days into utter antiquity.

The First Mansion is Thobost Gar. This Great Dwarven Fortress is known as the Death Girder and it spans and cliffs between the Stony and Snowy Mountain ranges at the mouth of the valley. The great wall between mountains is many hundreds of feet tall and just as wide. It is said that an entire army can be shaded at one time whilst passing through the yawning entrance. Their are no doors and no need, the walls themselves were the defense and were full of arrow slits, even the arching stone butresses 100 feet overhead. It was taken by kobolds who still infest the northern section.

Megadru the Hammered Pillar is the second great dwarf fortress, mightiest in wealth and oldest of the seven as well. It is a great pyramid rising out of the central highland plains of the valley, built of white marble. Under the pyramid is a second, inverted pyramid of open air descending deep into the earth, the terraces of Megadru were lit by green glass blocks set into the pyramid above. The Hammered Pillar was second to fall, after the Red Tower was overwhelmed by evil humanoids streaming out of the icy north.

Stasisgem is the third of the Great Houses. Though it claims to be the oldest, and traces its heritage back to a single mushroom seed, it is also the humblest. Nestled at the foot of a mountain of granite on a verdant plot of earth, Stasisgem boasts the greatest wealth of natural resources, both above the soil and under. Its mines are not expansive, but are said to run deep. Stasisgem fell by the plundering hordes, attacked from above and below.

Fourth is Minesport. It was once an elegant fortress built into a sheer cliff wall, and grew to become the fairest of all the fortresses to look upon. The entire cliff was carved and filigreed but it cold not save them from the tide of evil that slew them all. Giants tore down many of the richest balconies of Minesport, which now gape like howling maws into the biting winds.

The Red Tower, fifth, brightest, and youngest of the Great Houses once stood like a beacon of hope, rising from a flatened summit amongst the diamond glistening peaks of the Snowy Mountains. The fortress was also called Diamondvise in Dwarvish, and a silver bridge connected it to the nearest neighbor, and from their a narrow winding way led to the valley floor. The Red Tower fell too, though it fought tooth and nail. Betrayed from below, its silver bridge was averted, and rumors tell of pacts made with demonic forces are what led to its underworld breach.

The sixth house was ignobly named Tradescum, and it was a shallow digging into the soft sands on the shore of the Bay of Grinding Ice. Shallow coal was its claim to fame, that and what it could trade from the wild coastal peoples. Tradescum had no defense to speak of and was swept aside almost as soon as the valley was breached. Though ignoble and sand-scrabbling, it was Tradescum who gave rise to the greatest achievements of dwarfdom.

Coalminer’s Daughter was the name of the seventh colony built into one of the volcano-islands in the Bay of Greinding Ice. It was a rich environment of ore and surface magma, and the forges of Coalminer’s Daughter were accounted the greatest of all Dwarf Forges. It was not only the dwarves who laid claim to the magma of Coalminer’s Daughter, however, and Demons of the Abyss came bubbling out of the pools of liquid fire to slay the Coalminer’s daughter from within.

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