Revenge of the Giants: The Cave of Vestapalk and Physantos

Friday night saw the band of Heroes go in search of the lost torrians, that race of lion-headed men, such as Rowthar and his deceased father Obanar, who are the servanrts and companions to the champions of Argent. It is the torrians who keep the city running, and the city has been abandoned for nigh on a century since they left. When the original champions of Argent never returned after the Undead War, eventually the torrrians left to forge their own destiny.

Through research, Rowthar discovered that they were led by a certain Seneschal, and he found a note describing the day they left. So using a potion that allows people to view the past, he sent the heores back in time to that day a century ago when the seneschal of the Torrians took his people to the Forgotten Vale to start a new future.

The heroes found them and learned they were possessed by a demon. They drove the demon out of the torrians, and watched as a dark cloud fled across the hills to the east. Rather than being regaled with cheers of gratitude, the party was surprised to see looks of stark terror on the torrians faces. One of them wailed “He is going to wake the dragon! We are doomed!”

The party chose to follow the cloud to the lair, and eventually made it to a large cave entrance with wisps of green smoke rising from it. They entered and walked past piles of fur and bone that looked like they were once torrins but were now more like road kill. Then they saw the dragon rise, stretch, and yawn. “I am Vestapalk!” it roared. “Come honor me as my breakfast!” with that it attacked with its breath weapon, a cloud of poisonous gas.

Vestapalk loved nothing more than to vault into the air and lash at someone with his fly-by attack, but he was soon surrounded by the party and in the close confines of the cave, his attack was too dangerous to pull off, so he was forced to go toe to toe with the party. When the dragon became bloodied, the demon Physantos was hurled from the dragon and was forced to fight in the battle. He was able to cause the piles of bones and fur to come to un-life and attack the party.

Even with two soloes, the four heroes were able to totally overwhelm Vestapalk and Physantos without too much trouble. I was rolling terribly that night, and rarely got anything above a 6, while the four players did everything right, locking down the enemies, and bringing the pain.

At level 14, the characters have a power, skill, ability, or magic item for almost any circumstance, and the enemies have a hard time standing up to the unified might of an experienced party working together. Two at-level soloes, including Vestapalk, the newest dragon from the newest monster vault, went down with little more than whimpers, and a party of four without even a healer, managed to mop the floor with the enemy. It was a great fun battle, and I felt proud of the players for their accomplishment, however, I have nothing but scorn for Physantos and Vestapalk. They deserved what they got.

The dragonslayers returned to the torrians as heroes and returned to D Argent with a few Torrians, while the rest prepared for the overland journey to Argent, expected to take a fortnight before they arrived.