Game summary for October 26, 2021, Classic Quest campaign, Dungeons & Dragons BECMI / RC Edition, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Arminious Ironkeep (Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Garadal Davster (Halfling played by Parker Harmon), Katarina Magdanov (Magic-User played by Casey Scruggs), Koehan Rumisar (Elf played by Peyton Harmon), Levi Ackerman (Thief played by Andrew Renfrow), and Valor Eagleclaw (Fighter played by Preston Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
The team found a cave to hide in through the night and nurse their wounds. The next morning they set out trying to find a way out of the mountains and pack into the valley while avoiding the gnolls. Not long into their trip, a helmet fell down through the canopy and bounced along the ground. They looked up just in time to see a manticore fly by clutching a gnoll! They moved quickly to try and put some distance between them and came across something scurrying in the bushes.
After a cautious approach, they found a trail of blood leading into the thicket. Koehan called out in gnoll and discovered an injured gnoll with three manticore spikes lodged in his chest. Arminious healed him, and they began a conversation. The gnoll, Snarque, eventually agreed to take them to the gnoll shaman, Krasgat, to negotiate safe passage through gnoll territory. They traveled to the site of the revered dead.
The team found themselves back at the place that had been obscured in fog when they first encountered the ghouls. The revered dead, they discovered, were ever-widening concentric rings of pikes holding up the decaying gnoll corpses. Buzzards and ravens circled overhead and some picked away at the bodies. Snarque called out for Krasgat, and she emerged from her hut and several gnoll warriors followed close behind her. She approached and cried out calling the party the “defilers!” Koehan translated between them for a while before she revealed she could speak Common! She claimed the party had killed her baby, which was quite a shocking announcement to the team, especially when she held up a sack! She reached in and pulled out a severed human head dripping with maggots. A long tongue lolled out of the mouth and they could see sharp teeth. They realized it was one of the ghouls! After some time, they were able to negotiate with her after offering her two handfuls of gems.
They talked to her a bit more and it came out they wanted to get to the north end of the valley as quickly as possible at any cost. This piqued her interest. She said again, “At any cost?” They debated a minute and decided wealth would do them no good at the moment so yeah. She told them someone owed her a favor…
First, she mixed a concoction of reeking ingredients into which she urinated and then smeared it as markings all over the party. They then traveled a day’s journey across the value to the other mountains. Once there they found a platform with two posts adorned with skulls, feathers, and markings. Chained manacles hung from the posts, and disembodied decaying arms hung loosely in them. Krasgat informed them they needed a sacrifice… they looked around and were debating… Krasgat told them a goat would do just fine. Somewhat relieved (embarrassed) they found a goat and chained it to the posts. The shaman then began crying out and then sat down to wait.
After a while, the sun was eclipsed, and an enormous red dragon landed! It ate the goat! Krasgat told the dragon the party was willing to pay for its assistance. So, she introduced them to mighty Mythranthraxus, terror of the north! It leaned down and told them it was listening.
