The Battle of Stoneskull

I'd better write it up before I forget what happened...

Grim left Graywall, taking Merred Nastor and his goblin bowsmith prisoner with him. Verschoyle stayed in Graywall for three more days in order to use the resources of Tharrad Katarn's magical laboratory to craft himself a headband of intellect +2. While there, Verschoyle met Burr, a bugbear scout from Darguun, and reluctantly agreed to let him join the party. When Verschoyle had finished making his headband, Tharrad Katarn teleported him and Burr to the army's camp, where Grim, travelling for three days overland, had just arrived. Tharrad gave Verschoyle a magic scroll that might help him out in a moment of need, and told him that he might be able to get him into a circle of wizards of which he was a part.

After some discussion, the party opted for a full-frontal attack on Stoneskull. Verschoyle opened the battle by casting fireball into the middle of the village, and continued to rain magic onto the army as it approached. While the two armies entered melee against each other, Jalahand himself personally took on the party, but they killed him.

As soon as Jalahand was dead, the mind flayer that the party had defeated the previous week used the opportunity to strike while they were weakened. He appeared, along with a shadowy version of an otyugh (the shadow plane counterpart of one of his otyugh minions). The party dispatched them fairly easily, with the help of Tharrad Katarn's scroll, which turned out to summon some hell-hounds. Verschoyle commented that he now knows Tharrad Katarn's alignment: hell-hounds are Lawful Evil, so Tharrad Katarn is presumably (although not necessarily) the same.

With Jalahand and his lieutants defeated, some of his army fled but the majority surrendered. The battle was over quickly enough that there were only a dozen or so goblin casualties on each side, although all of Jalahand's ogres had been killed by Verschoyle's fireballs. No major NPCs on the party's side were killed (although Kardash has a few more battle-scars than before).

The party spotted a mysterious figure observing the battle through a spyglass.

The victors went into Jalahand's throne room, where Burr attempted to use his thief-like abilities to open the ogre mage's magically trapped treasure chests and fell victim to a phantasmal killer trap. Zurga opened the other chest by summoning a fiendish monkey (which got killed by a lightning trap). The chests contained lots of money. Grim also acquired a cloak of charisma +2 which Jalahand had been wearing, and Verschoyle took the periapt of health that had belonged to the mind flayer.

The party and their army spent the night in Stoneskull, with Grim keeping the peace between the two goblin armies. In the morning, they found a note left in Jalahand's cave next to where Verschoyle had been sleeping. The note was from an agent of the Daughters of Sora Kell (the rulers of Droaam) endorsing Grim as the new warlord but specifying that the party might have to serve for a time in the Droaam army to prove their loyalty. (DM railroading and an excuse to use Heroes of Battle? Not at all...)

The next day, Grim embarked on a tour of his new kingdom, while Verschoyle began work on constructing a flesh golem out of the corpses of the fallen goblins. (I'm not sure what Zumm was doing during this time; I'm assuming he either went with Grim on the tour or spent the time in quiet meditation.) Grim told his new subjects that the taxation would be reduced and that they could count on his protection in exchange for their loyalty.

When we eventually resume the campaign, it will be a month or so later. Grim's rule of the region will be stable and Verschoyle's flesh golem will be finished.