Adventures in Milmar #28 - The Spear of Arvildar the Golden Part 2

Welcome to the next part of the continuing tale of an adventure I ran in Dungeons & Dragons a while ago.

In the last post, Adventures in Milmar #27 - The Spear of Arvildar the Golden Part 1 I outlined the details of a key encounter for the players as they crossed the Warmark.

The Warmark is a blasted, blackened and dangerous no-man's-land between the Grand Duchy of Enrieme and the Sidhiaran elves. This encounter is the first one where the players meet actual Sidhiarans, at an ancient monument exactly halfway across the wasteland.

Image generated by AI in Nightcafe Studio. I'm still learning how to make the prompts give me something close to what I expect. This wasn't what I expected, but it's awfully nice, so here it is !

When the party first approached the Spear of Arvildar the Golden, all they see is the monument itself. It's a gigantic gold and bronze spear suspended in the air as if about to strike the centre of an obsidian glass circle 750 feet in diameter surrounded by a ring of broken and bleached bones.

The only other visible feature is a row of four arrows planted into the ground at 3 foot intervals a short way their side of the spear.

But when the first party member steps over the bones and their foot touches the obsidian, the first of the Sidhiaran guardians drops their invisibility, one hundred feet in front of the line of arrows.

It is Sir Rubard Nieke of the Knights of the Blasted Land, a 6th level high elf warrior but with the additional power to become invisible at will three times a day. He also has two scrolls of Teleport.

Image generated by AI in Nightcafe Studio. Still not exactly what I asked for, but closer...

Vack's Moment of Madness

This is the point where the party's paladin, Vack, got a bit over-excited. He had it in his backstory that he didn't like elves, and had just been very much "most valued player" in the battle against the cursed Treants.

Unfortunately this led to an outbreak of enthusiasm. Without giving Sir Rubard the opportunity to speak, he charged directly at him, waving his sword in a thoroughly unfriendly manner.

This is the point where the arrows were revealed to be a Cordon of Arrows - a 2nd level Ranger spell, found on page 228 of the Player's Handbook, but modified to have a far longer range than standard. Avoiding them requires a dexterity save, which as anyone who has played a tanky tin-can wearing Paladin knows is not usually a strong point of the build.

Vack took three of the four arrows straight to the chest. Not a critical amount of damage, but definitely a dent. It was enough to make the rest of the party hesitate before charging in after him, which turned out to be a wise move.

Next up in the initiative order were two of the three other Sidhiarans; Lady Neluthel the ranger, and Baron Luroden Svya the warrior. Both were armed with longbows and had been waiting invisibly, spaced some way to each side of Sir Rubard. With advantage on their side as they emerged from invisibility, their arrows slammed into Vack from both sides.

Lady Neluthel had two additional things going for her. At her level, she gets Extra Attack, so fired two arrows. More importantly, her arrows were all coated with Oil of Taggit, a poison which will render someone failing their saving throw unconscious.

The three arrows hitting Vack did some very serious damage, reducing him to single digit hit points. It made him realise that he might have been a bit dumb to launch such a single-handed attack against foes of unknown number and ability. But as a good Paladin, he was committed and roared out a challenge that made it clear he intended to finish his charge. And finish he did, as I asked him to make two saving throws against the poison. He passed the first with flying colours. The second roll was a natural one. Failure !

Crashing to the ground in a graceless metallic slide, Vack's charge came to an abrupt halt. It probably saved his life; charging for another round into such withering fire could easily have reduced him to zero hit points and having to roll death saves in a place where his companions would have to fight hard to get to him.

Sense Prevails

The rest of the players, seeing what had just happened to Vack, readied themselves for battle, although they were deeply concerned that there could be more powerful elves still lurking around invisibly. They were right; the elf-mage Elelung Satask was moving invisibly around to their flank ready to drop an Ice Storm on their heads if they made a hostile move.

Luckily, one of them (I forget which one) thought to ask if he could roll a Perception check to see if he'd spotted that the arrows had been poisoned. He rolled well, so I informed him that the snores emanating from Vack indicated sleep rather than death-rattles.

Realising that the Sidhiarans could so easily have chosen to kill Vack outright and hadn't, the party chose to try to open negotiations. Which of course is what Sir Rubard had been trying to do right from the start.

The beginning was a little frosty, as the party had to try to explain away Vack's impulsive actions, but soon enough the two sides were able to make some headway.

What helped them was the presence of their guide, a damaged Seedling Warrior called Leafblight who they had picked up as they entered the Warmark.

The Sidhiarans were intrigued by him. Seedling Warriors are their creation, but they regard them as disposable automata. To find one who hadn't withered and died at the end of a battle, who could talk and had a purpose beyond just obeying orders was completely new to them.

Leafblight explained that he wanted to go to Sidhiara to meet his creator and have his damage fixed by him. This fascinated the Sidhiarans enough that they agreed to let the party pass, although they warned that they couldn't provide a free pass or make any agreement on behalf of other elves the players might meet along the way.

A Note About Leafblight

It's fair to say that I should give 100% of the credit for these negotiations to the players.

I didn't create Leafblight to be a "DM-PC", he was just there to provide information if needed to help the party if they got in deeper than they could handle.

But the players took him to their hearts, and it was they who pushed him forward and spoke for him based on the basic backstory I'd told them.

This was an encounter where I didn't plan any specific solution, I just set it up with the intention of allowing events to flow as they will. It was a really nice surprise when it didn't just turn into a big punch-up !

Next time.... Onward to Blackstone Bridge