Xul-Jarak

Lura leads the party the party to an abandoned mine, which may or may not be quite as abandoned as it looks. The party reach the mine about lunch-time; that is lunch-time for the local cave worm, who is partial to dwarf. Annoyed by being hacked by the party it coughs up Roc and spews acid vapour over all in range. Much to Roc’s relief (he left his axe in the worm) the serpent dies after a brief and dangerous combat.

The party now have a logistical problem. The passage is blocked by 200 feet of dead worm. While the party work out how to remove it a few nagging doubts begin to surface. What did the serpent eat when it couldn’t get dwarf? The local orcs confirm that the mine is not very big – how come it had such a huge inhabitant?

Such questions are unanswered as the party chop up and remove the front 100 ft of the worm and recover Roc’s axe in a little over half a day. Dindle changes into a sprite and squeezes past the rear of the dead worm. What will he find?

The answer is a dead end. But the party swiftly find a secret door and a slope spiralling down. Although the slope continues down (as does the cave-worm’s trail) the party find a very broad (wide enough for any army?) passage heading north. By this time Midge has revealed a dream he had, regarding an orcish citadel in the mountains called Xul Jarak, that seems to be tied up with the legends concerning the dragon-god of the Dragon Tooth tribe, Boshzanak. After about three miles the party enter a large cave and come across a piece of rope (or is it?). On further inspection it appears to be a device for warning a very very large spider that it’s dinner time. Lura and Ralph get caught in a web. The spider drops in for lunch. The party adopt a maximum hack strategy but the spider has a nasty poisonous bite. After a brief melee the spider decides it will retire with Ralph as a snack. A fly spell enables Brand to pursue the monster as it scrambles back up the wall. Unfortunately it is killed by missile fire and as the great bloated mass hits the floor a spider lands on top of him. A few minor items are found in the web and the party continue up the broad passage.

The party have been noting regular minor side passages as they proceed but come to a long stretch where there are none. Then they hear the sound of approaching machinery, a large object with many whirling appendages appears, and the party thank their lucky boots that they can outrun it. The party split for scouting purposes (where did it go? where has it come from?). Both sections are attacked by hell hounds and brief skirmishes follow.

In the end Midge and Dindle decide on an invisible/pretend to be orcs scouting mission. Aided by a convenient fog the pair enter the citadel by its second storey undetected. Passing a guard chamber whose guards conveniently start fighting among themselves our heroes continue past an evil smell which conveniently disguises their presence. Descending to the lower levels of Xul-Jarak they find a central shaft which they can fly up and down and which takes them to the bottom level. On the way they note a secret passage which the current inhabitants appear to have not discovered.

The lower levels are crawling with a variation of orcs that seem more thickset and intelligent than the standard Northern Plains variety. They discover a temple on the lowest level but its doors are shut. By careful eavesdropping they also discover that the remaining prisoners are to be sacrificed to a dragon tomorrow and by pulling the old ‘firewater to orcs trick’ they discover the prisoners themselves. They also discover that the route to the citadel’s underground exit is guarded by some well-camouflaged dragonny creatures and up to a 1000 of these new fangled orcs in barracks. They communicate all this to the rest of the party via Erin then retire to the secret passage.

They are somewhat disconcerted when Vaarth Shadowspawn, diplomat at the court of King Draco ‘One Tusk’ 27th, leader of the Dragon-tooth tribe, introduces himself, explaining he has been watching them for some time and they may have common interests. He is currently engaged in the ‘information gathering’ part of diplomacy and has discovered that an evil entity is behind this current situation and will be arriving shortly before the dragon. His concern is to make sure the evil being and the dragon are exposed before anyone acts.

King Draco has been informed that something is up and has put his troops on standby. Vaarth is fairly sure that Krug Bloodaxe also knows the situation but his troops are several days away. His plan (in which he would like the party to participate) is that he and three volunteers from the party will substitute themselves for the prisoners, get chained in the courtyard ready to be eaten by the dragon from where they will have the best possible vantage point to identify the enemies of King Draco. He volunteers to arrange ‘the cavalry’ and while he does this would like the party to find out as much as possible about the evil being when he arrives. He also says he will supply as much low level magic in the form of potions and scrolls as the party require for the operation. Since he is very persuasive, and he says King Draco will be grateful, and there are enough hare-brained members of the party to volunteer, the plan is put into action.

Brand the Brewer is the volunteer who bravely agrees to risk being a dragon-snack in order to save the prisoners. The plan is to switch himself, Midge, Dindle and Vaarth for the prisoners at the last moment in order to minimise the risk of being discovered. Meanwhile Midge and Dindle, disguised as orc cleaning ladies, witness the arrival of a black-robed figure who positively reeks of evil. Midge is persuaded at the last moment not to stand as close as he can to the figure which is just as well as the figure seems to sense their presence. However, since the last episode of Lost has just started in the temple he merely hurries past ordering that everyone within the citadel must be accounted for. With so many orcs in the complex Midge and Dindle are not immediately recognised as imposters and make a hurried exit (with not much to tell Vaarth except ‘he was scary’).

The switch is duly made with the aid of the Vaarth’s supply of Dimension Door spells, polymorph potions and a little jiggery-pokery from Dindle. At this point a catch is evident as Vaarth finds that, such is the magic of the restraining manacles, he cannot polymorph himself out of them again. The ‘prisoners’ are taken to the courtyard and tied to stakes, rather unfortunately by the same manacles. The orcs cheer, then there is a roll of drums and a hushed silence as the black robed figure appears. Vaarth is murmuring to himself as he mentally flicks through his complete collection of Indiana Jones DVDs looking for ideas, The orc leader, Thrull starts reading from a scroll which seems to be about a new god and the end of the world. The robed figure calls down a dragon and Dindle cheerfully supplies a draconic-translation for his fellow prisoners. A positively huge white dragon appears, circles and lands in the courtyard, licking it lips on seeing the prisoners, completely unaware that the polymorphed gnome and halfling are not going to provide as big a meal as he hoped.

Strangely at this point the weather deteriorates sharply and provokes a row between the dragon and the black-robed figure who believes the hail is the dragon’s fault. Meanwhile back at the stakes, Midge is murmuring ‘it is a far, far better thing that I do this day….’ while earnestly praying to Yondella, Dindle is amiably translating the argument, Brand is doing his best impression of Houdini, and Vaarth is gone. This creates a further rumpus and an orc has to be found to replace him. The weather gets worse still with lightning strikes on the parapets taking out the odd orc which creates considerable shuffling in the ranks. Brand gets another limb out of the manacles and does a quick mental – ‘how many to go?’ sum. The row between the robed figure and the dragon erupts again and Dindle catches the phrase ‘it must be your friends in the mountains doing this’. Brand gets another limb out. Five? Time to stop? Brand becomes a bat.

Then the world seems to stop. The fury of the weather abates. Silence. A dark black cloud hangs over the courtyard. Brand is gone but hardly anyone notices. From inside the cloud comes a whirring sound – the slow beat of giant wings maybe? Then pandemonium; fire sweeps the black-robed figure and his entourage; then dropping like a stone an even bigger dragon lands on the first one, claws extended. Chaos - a black-robed Brand bluffs the keys to the manacles out of the sergeant who had them. Everyone is released (including the surprised orc) but not before Dindle is sent flying by the struggling dragons. The party reassesses its priorities – loot obviously being the highest. Midge, however, needs the prophecy and finds Thrull praying in the temple. Midge considers it a bad idea to stab a man (orc) while he is praying so he bungles a pick-pocketing attempt, Thrull stops praying and Brand stabs him. Thrull is big but is distracted into hammering Brand while Midge seeks out his vital organs. A quick tour of nearby rooms nets 15 clerical potions and 1000gp.

Meanwhile after hanging around in a clammy but convenient fog the prisoners fall into the hands of the rest of the party who now know a way over the mountains by a single file path. They also know that an orc patrol lies ahead in the fog which pleases Lura and Roc no end as they were getting tired of all this being friendly to orcs. They usher the prisoners to safety and are not too distraught when they hear that another orc patrol is only ten minutes behind them. But where is Vaarth and what will the party learn when they shakedown/ have an audience with King Draco?

The party greet the pursuing orcs with a dwarf standing on a (non-existent) cliff path. The leading orcs quickly see through the ruse (unfortunately because they are 1500ft down a 3000ft drop). The rest of the patrol is no match for the party. A wyvern arrives and attempts to hurl Midge to his doom. The dwarf decides to go wyvern riding and having no reins sticks an axe through its head to hold on. The rest of the journey is uneventful apart from having to pass King Draco’s troops on the cliff-path.

At King Draco’s court the King shows his gratitude to the tune of 5000gp each. Vaarth has also provided some compensation for the ‘dragon-bait’ in the form of +2 items. The rescued Prince promises a castle in the Eastern Marches (min value 60,000gp). The party are moving up the social scale (or are about to ruin the Eastern March neighbourhood as others would see it).