Chapter 4

The Battle for Grey Hawk

The fate of the small town of Grey Hawk is decided in a series of confrontations within the town and by invaders. Another assassin tries to claim Cock's life and weapon. The party tries to collect the reward for the return of the children but it has gone missing, so the party decides to overthrow Reeve Fona Goldcrest's limited aristocracy in the town. They recruit the help of Goop, who asks that they plan a daring heist into the Reeve's Manor to steal her ledger in return. In the process of escaping the manor they accidentally capture a powerful Djinni in the Bag of Colding, get Nora Gremble blamed for the breakin, and start an open revolt against the Reeve by the townsfolk. Clarence has been wounded again, and after investigating the party finds that Grund Razorclaw's orcs have likely entered the Beastlands through the tree portal. Back in town there is chaos as the guard's quarters is burned down by a disgruntled 'Greasy' Greg Gremble, allowing the shapeshifter to escape. They finally track down the Astral Orb, but just as the Serax-Dral's alien ships arrive along with reinforcements and gargantuan flying worm monsters. A huge battle ensues and the party is brought aboard an alien flying vessel where they fight off the crew and are forced to crash-land to protect Nira's flock. After saving as many villagers as possible the party takes the Astral Orb and flees to the Beastlands with alien ships hot in pursuit.

Session 18

Seedtime 4

Started out in the aftermath of the fight to capture the shapeshifter
Negotiated for half the reward with Ogdin The Anvil and got 1500GP early from Alduin Silversmite
Alduin and Gabriella Starsyx took the shifter away and imprisoned it for questioning, Gabriella seemed to have a bit of a crush on Feannag MacDamhan
The party went back to Ogdin and split the reward money with him
Went to the Reeve's Manor to collect the reward that Bailey Fanteaser lost for returning Bitts Goldcrest
A guard met them and informed them that they wouldn't be able to pay out the reward in gold right now, so the party could pick 5 items from Reeve Fona Goldcrest's jewelry collection or one of her horses as compensation
He went to a wall safe and took out a lockbox that contained a ruby-encrusted tiara, an opal ring, a pearl necklace, and various precious metal bracelets, the party looked them over and then tried to haggle unsuccessfully with the guard
They went across the street to the Crescent's Rest where the Reeve was finishing up a meal, she was cordial at first but after Feannag started pointing out the limits of her power in the town and haggling poorly over the reward money she tossed 15GP at their feet and told them that's all the reward they would get
The party went to a town guard on bridge duty named Bartholomew, whom they asked about the guards' salaries and toll collection duties and probed their loyalties to the Reeve
They also talked to the other guard on duty, Phillip, who seemed open to taking bribes to let them free Bailey from the stocks
Feannag was somewhat successful in getting both bridge guards to abandon their loyalties to the Reeve and join some sort of union or uprising in the town
As they were talking to the guards the more perceptive members of the party heard a shout of surprise and looked up to see two humanoid figures flying in the sky above the town as they were zapped by the anti-flight wards Gabriella had put up and went hurtling down into the edge of The High Forest
Entering the forest to investigate they found two craters, one with the broken body of a Drow Wizard still in it
They collected his spellbook, dagger, magical armor, and papers which seemed to bear the mark of Cock's gun Pi'za along with a picture of his face and map to Grey Hawk
Cock, wanting to power up his weapon tried to shoot the corpse, but though Pi'za seemed amused by the grizzly gesture nothing happened
At that moment a gigantic lightning-fueled golem appeared and began ruthlessly attacking Cock (and when he hid it targeted Rip) with its dual arm cannons
The party managed to defeat the Fluxcharger with a few key critical hits and weathered its lightning-storm death throes, then collected its Lightning Core and Primordial Dust, which Pi'za seemed eager to consume
Short Rest

Session 19

Seedtime 4-5

Aired Helelar helped Dutch 'The Boozer King' Ottenbrau out at The Bursting Barrel, but it was starting to run out of beer and food without Gerthwin Bartelby looking after the books
After Rip collected the dead wizard's spellbook, the party went back to town and met up with Aired and went to the fishing village
The guards at the docks pointed them to the customs house where Greta Goldcrest was able to help Aired sort out Gerthwin's shipping orders to get food and ale back into the tavern
She was sympathetic to the party and apologized for her sister's outburst, her daughter Bitts Goldcrest was interested in apprenticing with Nira
Talked to Yarr Xibloes who also was sympathetic to Feannag MacDamhan's call for town unity without the limits imposed by the Reeve, gave them a fish to serve at the tavern tonight
Back at The Bursting Barrel they tried to decipher Gerthwin's ledgers but they were too cryptic and disorganized, they then followed up with Nora Gremble who said she would be re-shoeing the Reeve's horse tonight
Out behind the tavern they summoned Goop with some shiny trinkets, which it traded for an interesting bell that rings 10 seconds after it was rung
Goop was happy to hear that Bailey Fanteaser was in trouble and that Reeve Fona Goldcrest was upset, but didn't seem too sure about the hag being truly gone, and wanted nothing to do with her magic items
It seemed to be interested in the Reeve's "shiny book treasure" which it couldn't steal because its magic didn't work on the upper floors of the Reeve's Manor
The party agreed to steal this book for Goop if it would plant the stolen 500GP where Greta might find it
Before carrying out the heist on the manor they cased the joint and regrouped
Long Rest
In the morning Rip went to deliver the mail and spoke to Ginia, the Reeve's haughty servant, but wasn't able to get a read on their schedule
Aired went stealthing around the guard's quarters and overheard Alduin Silversmite questioning the shapeshifter
The Reeve left her house to go have a meeting with Alduin, and the party kicked off their heist plans

Session 20

Seedtime 5

The party snuck up to the Reeve's Manor while Reeve Fona Goldcrest was out meeting with Alduin Silversmite
Inside they saw the Reeve's reclusive husband, Lambert Portier drinking heavily
Nira used Alter Self to take on the appearance of the Reeve, Wrenn Lingenhall used Disguise Self to look like Bitts Goldcrest, an after Feannag MacDamhan picked the lock they walked right in the front door
Nira was able to fool the servants with her disguise, sending them on errands to get them out of the way while Wrenn got the window open to let the rest of the party sneak in and get upstairs
While digging around in other rooms Wrenn came across another servant as well as a glyph protecting the room of the Reeve's son
In the Reeve's bedroom the party investigated for clues, Rip used Detect Magic to find some potions of sleep, some enchanted prayer beads, and eventually came across a key to the study where the book was waiting
The party used the key to get into the study, but found that all magic was suppressed in the room, their spells, disguises, and magic items ceased to function
In the study Cock suddenly was overwhelmed with memories as the fog in his mind cleared, seeing visions of his past and recalling his real name
Lambert drunkenly stumbled up the stairs and right into the bedroom where Nira was waiting disguised as the Reeve
She tried to put him to sleep but he was suspicious and a bit belligerent, he then tried to get her to dance, which he was very skilled at though Nira had never done royal ballroom dances before
He pulled her downstairs and had the servants start playing music as they attempted to dance
The rest of the party used the opportunity to search the study, finding the drawer and ledger within, which Cock swapped with a book of similar weight to avoid setting off a trap mechanism
When he took the book an opal ring fell to the ground, and when he touched it a Djinni appeared
When the group couldn't produce evidence that they were members of the Reeve's family it attacked, saying that it was bound to protect the home of its master
Seeing the fight break out and with the knowledge that the book was in hand Wrenn cast Silence to cover the noise while Feannag began to escape, using a ladder he had stashed along the balcony last night to make a getaway
The Djinni was attacking viscously, but Cock managed to get the ring into the Bag of Colding, though it didn't function inside the antimagic field and he was caught in a whirlwind it had summoned
Together Cock, Rip, Aired, and Wrenn managed to get the bag out of the room, which sucked the Djinni into the pocket dimension once the enchantment functioned again, but not before it downed Cock
Meanwhile Nira used Prestidigitation to escape the advances of Lambert, walking out the front door alone in disguise
Feannag had made it to the street by this point and saw the real Reeve returning, so he made a scene of calling her out for stiffing them on their reward in front of the whole town, unjustly locking Bailey Fanteaser up, and for acting rude and like she was better than the rest of the town
He, with Rip's help, managed to whip up a small mob and force her to retreat with her guards back to the manor
Back in the study Cock and Wrenn cleaned up the evidence and made a complete mess of the room before fleeing
Each party member found their own way out of the heist, Nira through disguise as Nora Gremble, Aired through drunken tomfoolery with the real Nora's aid, Cock through Invisibility, Feannag through stealth, Wrenn through disguise as Bitts, and Rip by pretending to be delivering the mail
Out on the street the mob had begun to rouse, and Simon Sais broke his brother-in-law Bailey out of the stocks as the party regrouped and Aired dropped the stolen key in the river

Session 21

Seedtime 5

Outside the Reeve's Manor a mob was starting to form, whipped up by Feannag MacDamhan's comments to Reeve Fona Goldcrest
Feannag tried to calm things down before they got too out of hand but failed to persuade them
Meanwhile Aired Helelar went with Nora Gremble to the stables where they found a bloody injured Clarence
Aired ran to get the rest of the group and on the way back they ran into Goop, who asked for the book they stole, they were able to skim it to see business ledgers and bank accounts but Goop began destroying it before they could extract useful information
In return Goop gave them a magic hat and disappeared to plant the 500GP it stole in the Crescent's Rest
Meanwhile they heard an angry shriek from the Reeve's Manor, likely indicating the Reeve had found the evidence of the robbery
Wrenn Lingenhall healed Clarence and calmed Nora down, and they investigated the wounds and saw claw and tooth marks and a bloody trail leading back into The High Forest
Short Rest
In The Bursting Barrel they talked to Gudbrand the Elder who was mad at Ogdin The Anvil for pushing him aside in favor of Harie, who turned out to be the shapeshifter in disguise
Nora got arrested by the guards for being present at the Reeve's manor at the time of the heist and the party let the guards take her away as they headed off into the forest to find out what happened to Clarence
Along the way found a wolf fang with a silver filling in the blood trail, remembered that Grund Razorclaw's crew of orc druids had some silver teeth between them
They tracked the blood to the Beastlands portal and staked it out for a few hours before giving up and going back to town, finding some invisiberries on the way
Near town they could smell smoke and hear alarm bells and ran in to see the guard's quarter's ablaze, townsfolk were rushing to the river to bring buckets to douse the flames
They noticed the only one walking nonchalantly away from the fire was 'Greasy' Greg Gremble, and when they confronted him he seemed to indicate that he was mad that his sister had been arrested
Aired and Feannag coated themselves in flame retardant and ran into the burning building, inside they saw no sign of the shapeshifter other than empty chains and the body of one of the paladin guards, which Feannag recovered
Aired stumbled across Void who was wracked with visions and was crying out "They are coming" as they crawled through the flames, Aired was able to drag them out the front of the building
Alduin Silversmite burst through a wall with the final survivors on his back, causing the burning wing of the building to finally collapse
Outside they could see that Void's black clothing was in tatters and his mask was gone, revealing jet black skin, pointy elven ears, black eyes with pupils like stars, and silvery hair that seemed untouched by the flames
They left Alduin to heal the survivors, but confirmed that the shapeshifter was missing along with the body of one of Alduin's paladin captains
They headed over to the anti-flight wards and Feannag put on the charm to get some information and help from Gabriella Starsyx
They then went back to the Bursting Barrel and helped Gudbrand and Ogdin reconcile, though Ogdin couldn't remember large chunks of the last few days
Gudbrand mentioned something about Ogdin burying something and they raced off to the Graveyard to investigate
With Ogdin's help they dug up a grave and found the orb sitting there in a busted open casket
Swirling star patterns danced across the surface and the party were able to resist its pull, though Ogdin was entranced by it and seemed bewitched before collapsing
Nira teleported him away from the orb but it didn't seem to help so Feannag and Aired dashed off to get help from Gabriella and Alduin
Gabriella started tending to Ogdin with a complex ritual spell while Alduin set to collecting the orb in some sort of special bag
Suddenly gravity shifted again, waves emanating out from the wards by the falls that made everyone briefly float in the air before slamming back down to the ground
The party ran over to check the wards and there they saw the missing paladin captain with his sword jammed through the carved runes, looking satisfied with a smug smile on his face
He introduced himself as Serax-Dral, and thanked the party for making the last few weeks fun for him as he killed and infiltrated his way through Grey Hawk, Ogdin's Horde, and finally Alduin's Paladins
He said that they were too late and as much as he would love to taste each of their flesh individually, he had a ship to catch, gesturing upward as three massive flying ships came into view, alongside three gargantuan worms undulating through the air
Serax-Dral said he would even give them all a free shot to show them how insignificant they truly were, and the party leapt into action
The party dealt several heavy hits and soon he was coughing up blood, cursing the weakness of his human form before reversing gravity to send all of them up onto the ship hovering overhead
Onboard they saw two more wormlike aliens like the shifter's true form along with a host of armed insectoid aliens, and a fight broke out
Meanwhile the worms descended upon the town, crushing buildings and attacking the largest population centers: The Bursting Barrel, The Fishing Village, and Nira's Ranch
Alduin appeared flying on a winged steed and asked them which to save first, and the party sent him off to the fishing village while Ogdin, cured from his stupor and using it to fuel his rage took on the worm that attacked the Bursting Barrel
The party began fighting through the alien ranks until Cock blasted one of the aliens off the ship, leaving the helm unpiloted and sending most of the party overboard while the ship began an uncontrolled descent
Rip used Feather Fall to stop the plummeting party and Serax-Dral summoned a worm to catch him midair
Cock and Aired managed to stay onboard and dispatched the remaining aliens and tried to physically control the falling ship by pulling on the wings, sending it towards the worm attacking Nira's sheep
Wrenn and Nira managed to get the helm working and steered the ship into the worm, closing the jaws to take a huge chunk out of the gigantic worm's side
Feannag took a parting shot at Serax-Dral, knocking him off the worm and watching him plummet down to the ground
The ship careened into the worm and the whole party tumbled off the vessel and scattered onto the ground amidst the terrified herd of sheep
Looking upward they saw the other two ships beginning to close in on Grey Hawk

Session 22

Seedtime 5

Nira came to consciousness with her dog licking her face as she and the rest of the party lay amidst the rubble of the barn and ship
The party could see Ogdin's Horde volleying javelins at one worm while Ogdin The Anvil himself flew through the air to strike it with his warhammer
Over Grey Hawk Falls Alduin Silversmite atop his pegasus steed and Void battled the other worm midair
Suddenly everyone felt the slimy tendrils of an alien mind touch their consciousnesses, which began to relay orders to get the Astral Orb and bring in reinforcements
Cock used Skywrite to warn their allies of the descending ships before the party took off to the fishing village to look for survivors
They managed to gather 18 townsfolk and took them in a mad dash across the open field to try to get to the cover of the caves under Ogdin's Overlook
A worm broke away from the fighting, enticed by the easy prey of the villagers, but the party managed to slow it down; Nira using her staff as it was technically domesticated, Rip casting spells, and Aired Helelar+Cock ran a distraction
Wrenn Lingenhall and Feannag MacDamhan led the survivors to the caves and grabbed some of Ogdin's barbarians to look after them while the party rushed into town to help
Most of the villagers had been taken into the basement of the Reeve's Manor and Perce wasn't receptive to the party's attempt to get them to a safer location
Orbital Strike met in the town square after driving off the worms, then decided they would have to fight off the ships but wanted the Astral Orb safely away from Grey Hawk
Asked the party to take it to where the ships couldn't follow, but warned them not to look directly into it
Clarence and Gudbrand the Elder appeared and the party considered whether to flee to the Beastlands or the Underdark
They decided to flee with Clarence into the The High Forest with the help of Gabriella Starsyx's hastening magic as the rest of the defenders regrouped before the ships arrived
They were halfway to the portal when an entire tree was uprooted in front of them by an alien ship hovering overhead
Dodging beams and ballista bolts the party fled through the forest and across the field where Clarence led them through the portal into the Beastlands where they were greeted by blinding sunlight of midday
Clarence finally spoke, introducing himself as a petitioner and a native of the Beastlands, then admonished the party for leading Grund Razorclaw and his orcs into this land
Across the savannah littered with animal corpses at the edge of a dense rainforest the party could see smoke rising from a ramshakle fort covered in sharpened stakes with animal skulls atop
Clarence offered them a chance to amend their wrongs by clearing out the orcs, but warned that with the wild power of the Beastlands the orcs were much more powerful than when they were in the Material Plane
He warned them that there was only one civilized settlement to the south, but it was full of evil people, but a ranger in the forest named Trisfina might be able to help
Exhausted, the party trudged through the dense underbrush and came across a small cluster of ground nests around a climbable tree
Up in the tree they finally rested
Long Rest
Level Up (4->5)