FOE Log 17

Federation of Explorers (FOE) 
Homebrew Campaign

Session 17: Introducing Thunderforge
After the party was wiped out last time (TPK), our gracious DM offered to let people play their characters as captured drow slaves with no equipment or to make new characters (who would also be captured drow slaves with no equipment). Our other 2 players wanted to continue on as their characters, but I felt it fitting that my character Thok had met his end since I had already rolled 1 death fail when we had stopped (and he had already achieved his story goal of having his child Thokson).

For my new character, I created the mountain dwarf storm cleric Thunderforge who had been a healer in the dwarf army. Since we were in a "Naked Challenge" situation, I did not have a holy symbol and could not cast my cleric spells yet. But it was refreshing to play a fun, combat-loving joke-cracking dwarf. Onto the adventure...

[I created the image below with HeroForge.com]

Thunderforge

The 2 survivors of the Federation of Explorers (Regnar the human ranger and Zen the half-elf monk) woke up naked in a drow dungeon cell with 3 naked dwarves around them (Thunderforge and 2 of his soldier buddies). They worked together to bend the bars and break out. Zen KO'd the nearby drow guard and the group took his gear. Thunderforge broke off the table legs to use as clubs.

The group continued on, into the halls and nearby rooms, killing: 4 more drow guards and the drow prison warden. This allowed the group to pick up more gear; the location was actually a drow-captured former dwarf manor so there was a shrine to Moradin with a holy symbol Thunderforge could use. Much fun was had in the kitchen, where the group improvised by: turning the stove doors into shields for the dwarf fighters, using the knives as throwing daggers for the monk, and having the ranger collect flour into a pouch (that was later used to help see where the invisible mage was standing).

One room contained a draco-drow possessed by the black dragon in Regnar's acid sword. After the group killed him, they returned to the warden's office and rested for an hour. They found a secret passage that went up to the main manor, where they killed the drow mage that had led the TPK against the group in the previous session.

The final battle in the main halls featured a chain devil and his 3 imp minions, but the group ultimately overcame the enemies and took a long rest before looking out over the underground drow-infested former dwarf city. One of the NPC fighters said he thought he knew of a sewer tunnel that could get the group into the main keep.