by Michael Eckenfels, 16 July 2023
Champions of Krynn AAR: Part 13, Gargath Prices Are Insane – Let’s Walk to Work!
With our business in this Outpost settled for the time being, and new marching orders of sorts given to us to go investigate Gargath and this Myrtani fellow whom apparently may know something of the bad guys trying to figure out how to successfully create more evil Draconians from good Dragon eggs. We have a map of a Keep which is probably in the center of town. As such, Gargath is definitely not going to be a friendly place.
The wilderness, or land areas, outside of the locations are rather random. You can run into enemy creatures, or you can run into friendly types too. In this case I’m not in the mood for random encounters so I save often as we move east towards Gargath. Before long, we are within sight, and there is indeed a large tower keep sticking up from within its walls.
There’s nothing to do except go to the front gate and enter the place.
So the guards are not terribly friendly, with demands and insane questions like “who are you” and “where are you from,” not to mention “why are you here?”
Ugh. Some NPCs just don’t know when to quit.
So, they become more XP notches in our collective party experience belt.
I’d have shown screenshots of the encounter, as it was not an easy one – a few Ogres and a couple of spellcasters, as well as Evil Fighters. The “Evil” nomenclature is enough to convince me that the Attack option was the right one, rather than trying to bluff our way in.
Once the floor is wiped with the guards, the murder holes above take umbrage to our intrusion. Fortunately, they don’t damage us, so we move quickly into the city itself.
So much for sneaking in. We’ll probably be expecting encounters, now.
Journal Entry 48:
“Finally, you’re here. I got word that Sir Karl was going to send someone to check this place out. I’ve been waiting for you for days. Come with me.”
I don’t know. Do we?
The last guy that tried to get us to follow him ended up being a bad guy that wanted to lure us into an ambush, in the middle of a monster-infested city. Now, in the middle of an evil-infested city, some rando dude mentions Sir Karl and then expects us to chase after him.
This time, I’ll have the party follow the rando. May as well. It might mean getting to the heart of the matter around here, should there be an ambush.
So, we choose Yes.
Journal Entry 26:
“Qargath was overrun about a week ago. There were only a few of us here at that time trying to rebuild after the War of the Lance. Draconians and evil forces snuck in at night and captured the Keep. Since then they have been bringing in prisoners and putting them to work. They make us wear these hoods to keep track of us.”
This doesn’t sound like something an ambusher would share with us. And it also doesn’t sound good at all. The entire city is apparently overrun by the forces of evil and, as usual, we’re right smack dab in the middle of it all.
Hmm. Don the hoods he wears to blend in? Seems smart. We take the offered hoods.
Journal Entry 43:
“They have built up a large, wooden structure in front of the main gates of the Keep. I don’t know what it looks like inside. I can tell you that the main gates are in the upper-northwest comer of the city. In the middle of the city you will find a secret door into the wooden structure. It is currently being guarded by draconians because it’s location has been discovered recently.” He licks his lips in consternation and suddenly speaks in hushed intensity. “Listen, there’s a dragonlance in the Keep. I know, all of them were supposed to be sent South but the Castellan was injured during the War and his lance was brought with him when he returned. You must find it!”
There’s confirmation right there that the Dragonlance is here. And all the reason we need to infiltrate and/or assault this Keep and take it for ourselves. Because, heroes!
With not much else to do, we begin our explorations of the city. Maybe we can turn up something before we go head off to the Keep.
This essentially means “wandering at random” and exclaiming, “oooh, where does THIS door go?” and barging in without invitations.
Oops?
Well, ever the heroes, we’ll attempt to Parlay. I assume this means we’ll try to pass ourselves off as recently-recruited soldiers for the…well, whatever it is they’re doing in evil’s name here.
And ladies and gentlemen, what we got here is a failure to communicate. Some people, you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here just a page or two ago. Well, he gets it. And I like it just as much as the last time!
In other words, no. No, you cannot have our coin. MINE!
I choose Attack.
This starts a bit of a disagreement. Lots of spellcasters but nothing we cannot handle at this point. The Elven Rogues (pictured in the front rank) are pains in the hindquarters, but our melee characters manage to make mincemeat out of them, fortunately.
With that out of the way, I think we might check out the local Inn so as to hopefully rest without interruption, and re-memorize spells.
A bit more wandering about and we find an oasis in the middle of the insanity.
We go in.
OF COURSE WE WANT A DRINK. Why would we have come in here otherwise?
Tavern Tale 56:
“Who are these guys that have taken over? I see soldiers with the number 101 tattooed on their arms. What gives?”
The number 101, eh? Sounds like some kind of gang or maybe even a mercenary unit or something similar. That might be important to remember, later. Or maybe not.
We’ve explored enough. I start moving the party to the north, off to the west. The Keep takes up much of the northern portion of the city. We face east, and…
Looks like some activity outside the Keep.
Yep, this is definitely the place.
Sir Fsup ~ “’What are we doing?’”
Drac ~ “Tha’s wha’ I says, yeah?”
Sir Fsup ~ “We are here to deliver a message.”
Drac ~ “A…messassge?”
Sir Fsup ~ “To one Mr. Mongo, residing within yon Keep.”
Drac ~ “Wha – there ain’ no Misser Mongos ‘ere. Ya better just move alongs, innit?”
Izzie ~ “Can we just kill them now? These diatribes bore me.”
Drac ~ “Wait, wha?”
Our inquisitiveness once again gets us in trouble with the local monsterbulary. Constabulary. Whatever. We face a handful of Draconians. The Baaz, the one without the black wings, will of course turn to stone when they die and therefore, can ‘steal’ the weapon wielded that killed them (presumably, the weapon is ‘frozen’ in the now statue-like Baaz). The black-winged ones, though, can paralyze with one hit, so they’re a bit more of a concern. Oh, and they also turn to puddles of acid when they die.
Whatever the bad guys are doing to create Draconians, they’re making them definitive crimes against nature.
It’s not long before the Baaz are all stone cold (ahahahaha) and the Kapek or whatever they are, are just sitting their puddlin’ around.
A not-so-secret door appears to the north.
We proceed into the keep, trying to be ready for whatever surprises are within.
End of Chapter 13
CHAMPIONS OF KRYNN AAR
PART ONE ~ PART TWO ~ PART THREE ~ PART FOUR ~ PART FIVE ~ PART SIX ~ PART SEVEN ~ PART EIGHT ~ PART NINE ~ PART TEN
PART ELEVEN ~ PART TWELVE ~ PART THIRTEEN ~ PART FOURTEEN ~ PART FIFTEEN ~ PART SIXTEEN ~ PART SEVENTEEN ~ PART EIGHTEEN ~ PART NINETEEN ~ PART TWENTY
PART 21 ~ PART 22 ~ PART 23 ~ PART 24 ~ PART 25 ~ PART 26 ~ PART 27 ~ PART 28 ~ PART 29 ~ PART 30
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There once was a game called Krynn,
With warriors, mages, and dragons within,
In Champions of might,
They battled all night,
For glory, for honor, to win.
The heroes were brave and true,
Fighting foes, both old and new,
With spells and with swords,
They faced their rewards,
To vanquish the dark and break through.
From the streets of Solace they roamed,
To the lairs where dragons called home,
With quests to fulfill,
And battles to thrill,
Champions of Krynn, on they’d roam.
