Grizzly Hills session one: The sickness of the Grizzly Hills

The first session of the Grizzly Hills!

We began with some organizational stuff - because one of the players, Rosalia, the Sylvari pack lord druid, class changed to one I recently made, a geomancer! It's a terrain-based class - gaining passive bonuses and active abilities if they're currently on their favoured terrains, along with an elemental eidolon. I was very excited that he chose that one!

When the session began, Soren, our drakken death knight, chose to leave for Dragonblight along with Magnus, the Frozelia Dervish. Magnus received some important backstory information on the person he seeks in Northrend from the Pillar of Lore - which takes him in that direction as well.

Also, Solessa left before they did, leaving them a note telling a little more of why she was in Northrend - connecting her backstory a bit with Soren's, surprisingly.

But! The team was going to the Grizzly Hills, and the players who were Soren and Magnus made new characters!

Magnus became a name I'll add later - he was Gron, then Rock-something, then another name, but in the end he chose his final one - but I'll call him Gron for now. He became a Vrykul Grounded Dragon. A grounded dragon is an archetype of dragoons - where they trade their armor training ability for damage reduction, high reflex save for a high fortitude save, and the jump ability and jump powers are replaced with melee powers. He wanted to 'use the biggest weapon possible' and do ridiculous damage in single-hit turns.

Soren's new character doesn't appear til later. (He had to wait a bit)

Gron was from the strength city of Ragefall, and is the bastard son of King Ymiron! Coincidentally, without the player knowing, Ymiron is both the same class and uses the same dragon aspect. He's a great craftsman, and wished to go with the group to beat up the Lich King. He definitely was a member of Ragefall. Strength, big weapons, big personality!

Off they went! I gave them an option of going through the mountain pass or the main border to the west. They would have seen some different things going one way or another, and interacted with different characters. They visited the Vrykul settlement at the entrance to the hills, and went on their way. 

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The Grizzly Hills

---Narrative time!---

(I played the Grizzly Hills theme from the World of Warcraft soundtrack!)

Moving through the border of between the Howling fjord, you see much of the plains-like land turn thick and forested, and in the distance, you see the outline of a massive structure miles and miles in the distance through the clouds. At the edge of a treeline that lay between two mountains, you see a massive, but shattered wooden gate between two gargantuan trees with trunks 10 feet wide. Coming closer, you see the scattered bones of skeletons and undead, all broken into pieces, skulls broken in half, and other zombies torn apart. Along the gate you see claw marks and scratches embedded in the broken pieces of the gate as well as the nearby trees, but there is no life within sight. 

Following the roads north, you see remnants of various abandoned settlements near the road, as well as some that are even recently abandoned, with small pillars of smoke emerging from the canopy from simple campfires. 

---temp break---

At this point, the player who is Rosalia, wanted to perform a bit of RP for changing her animal companion as a druid, to an elemental eidolon. I honestly thought it was going to be a simple reforming, but it was much more dramatic.

Rosalia dug a large, deep hole in the forest, and took Killer Queen down with her. After a quiet conversation they had, Rosalia took a sharp knife, and cut into her companions back, and carved out her heart. Now, the a couple of players were like 'oh my god, why?' and the new guy, Gron, just kept to his business trying to ignore the gore and make a weapon or something.

Then rosalia consumed the heart, eating it, and performed a brief ritual, and then buried the body of Killer Queen within the hole after she passed. After three days of meditation, an earthen form of Killer Queen emerged from the ground, made of rock, vine, and bramble, alive and well. 

In a way, kinda looks like this, but with more brambles and more badassness.

It was a very cool bit of RP - an interesting way to play out summoning her earth elemental eidolon - her old animal companion. After the ritual was complete, I continued the narrative!

---narrative tiiiiiiime---

Following the directions in the sending you find your way north, and to the far east growing on the horizon, you see a tree the size some of you've never witnessed: judging from what you’ve been told, it’s the dead and failed world tree, Vordrassil. A city built from its remains, Grizzlemaw, now stands within, however the leader of the team sent to the hills stated it is under a great conflict between the two Furbolg tribes: the bloodmaws and frostpaws.

The frost coats your skin, and you (most likely) put on your winter clothing, lest you get frosbite. As you travel the roads, you feel something digging at your mind - it’s subtle, but noticeable - but you are still able to sleep.

North west of Grizzlemaw, you see a massive column of black smoke emerging from the horizon, days away,.but still visible. Finally, after following the final fine details written by the leader (around the orc-shaped rock, past the lake as big as my tribe’s lake - luckily it was the only lake around) you find a thin column of smoke emerging above the trees, but you also hear a number of bestial roars and sounds of combat coming from that direction.

As you hear it, a crow flies straight toward you, flying around your heads and then ladning on a branch above, cawing wildly, then flying toward the sound of battle, cawing as if attempting to get you to come with in a panic. The sound of agony writhes from the same bear-like sounds, as well, you hear crashes of thunder when there isn’t a cloud in the sky."

---narrative end---

They followed the crow, finding two individuals, a cloaked, masked individual, and a Tauren with an earth breaker (aka a spiked greathammer) surrounded, clearly ambushed, by a number of furbolgs (some who were already dead) and dire bears. They assisted the two, especially after noticing the tauren matched the description of the team leader that sent sendings to Tirion from the Grizzly Hills.

I got to test out a few shaman things here - the furbolgs were all shamans, either elemental or enhancement. I used the flame shock -> lava burst combo, but I didn't roll a crit. Good for Fish, who was the target!

Also, my players got a bit lucky with not getting grabbed by the bears. Gron, the new Vrykul, cut down one of the furbolgs in one insane hit - he used power attack, vital strike, and the heavy slash ability, which is one of the physical powers (using resource) of a grounded dragon. It makes the non-extra dice damage deal 50% additional damage. And then he rolled almost max damage using a huge bastard sword. So that hit......................hard. Very.

Got to see Rosalia's new eidolon and geomancy abilities in the flesh, which is good, as well. Fish shot them up with some sneak attacks taking down two, and our strange masked individual threw a fireball that did some serious damage, as well!

Soon, combat was over! Easy peasy.

---tiny bit of narrative and introduction!---

As the battle fades, you find two individuals alive, a large, bull-like humanoid wielding a spiked greathammer with wind and fire whirling around it. The other, is much stranger - a hooded figure with a long, white-beaked mask. The goggles and bird like mask completely obscure the figures face and thick black gloves and black traveling outfit obscure the rest of the figure. A backpack is placed on their back and they are carrying a cane with a silver crow head on it in one hand and a mithral buckler strapped to the other. The crow from before flies over and onto the figure’s shoulder, cawing at you once more, but more this time as a warning, rather than a request for aid.

Decent depictions of Dr. Torval, left, and Zigg, right.

As the two look you over, the bull-like humanoid smiles as he eyes you over, and rebinds his hammer across his back. “Ah! This is the rag-tag pair I’ve heard about. Been waitin’ days since the last message. If it weren’t for the doctor, I might’ve been dead. Ha! Of course that's wrong, but having a doctor near does help. My name is Champion Ziggurat Windstriker, but you can just call me Zigg. This here, is Dr. Torval."

---end---

They conversed and introduced themselves, discovering that there is a sickness plaguing the Furbolg tribes, they believe - and it is not curable by remove disease or remove curse. This attracted Dr. Torval to the area, as his studies focus on the sicknesses of the mind and body. He wears a mask almost always if not always, so they're uncertain of his race. He is, however, a warlock! I class I made based on the world of warcraft warlock. As you can probably assume, he's an affliction warlock.

Zigg informed the group that his team had been led toward the Den of Ursoc which could help them deal with the Furbolg tribes, to calm them or negotiate. This was due to the guidance of another Sylvari - Ashe - Rosalia's sister. However, they never returned. 

Rosalia bestowed Zigg with the ability to speak with the trees around the camp - a smart idea, as he was able to discover that his allies were led into the Den of Ursoc. 

However, black and red thorned roots and vines covered the entrance after, and all communication with the plantlife inside was cut off from the others - as the area has been poisoned by the emerald nightmare. This is the twisting of the emerald dream, the plane of nature, which corrupts and twists the minds of mortals and gods alike - due to the influence of the old gods. 

One thing Zigg discovered before the players arrived, was that Ursol, the son of Ursoc, and the other bear spirits had been missing from the area near Ursoc's den. The trees were able to inform him that they had retreated to the ruins of Thor Modan, an ancient, ruined dwarf city underground. 

###

While this was going on, Dr. Torval, Zigg, and Fish were investigating the bodies of the Furbolgs that died during the fight. Dr. Torval's heal check discovered very faint black vessels around the red ones of the furbolg's eyes, as well as their necks. Cutting the body open, the blood had a peculiar hint of something burning, of smoke, somewhat. At this point, I had Dr. Torval and Gron make a will save, because they were close. Gron rolled an 11, and the doctor rolled a 26. Who knows what that did?

The blood was darker than usual, and the heart had black veins across it, along with a blackness slowly crawling over it. Touching it, he had to make a fortitude save, and passed. 

Next, he moved to open the skull - and the brain was pulsing. Pulsing. With a heal check, he thought it wasn't quite dead, despite removing all the organs. An argument ensued, with Fish saying he should shoot the brain right now, Rosalia saying he should stop, and the Doctor simply wanting to continue his work. They settled on removing the brain, and when he did, tendrils on the bottom latched onto him! 

With a fortitude save, he got 2 wisdom drain, and he failed at removing it! Gron successfully ripped it off his face, and then every member of the party frantically attacked it. Rosalia's new and improved Killer Queen dealt the killing blow, causing the brain to flop lifelessly to the ground. 

###

Shocking end to the session. Not only did they learn about the sickness as a whole - they discovered its incurable by magic, and possibly affects the brain to form it into an aberration. They were able to claim another one of the brains as it wasn't affected by the tendrils yet - and the third brain, was, well, shot through by Fish during the battle (he got a critical hit, and a kill)

They then took the guidance from the trees, and moved to Thor Modan, crafting on the way! Between Dr. Torval's craft wondrous item, and Zigg+Gron's ability to craft magical arms and armor, they had plenty of time (two weeks travel) to get to Thor Modan. 

That's it for this week! Sorry that it was a little late - the next session is on monday! I'll be posting some of our new classes being used in the next few days.

Thanks for reading!