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A few days after the PCs arrived at Bramblevale Keep, they all met up in the local tavern, The Rusty Barnacle, to discuss rumors they'd been hearing. Marcus was the first to arrive, followed by Argon, Balken, and Alaric, while Andrea cased out the Jeweler's house trying to see how easy it would be to score some easy money. After deciding a daylight break-in would be too risky, she joined the rest of the PCs in the tavern.

Marcus heard from McGraw the Gate Guard that a trade caravan was late coming to the keep, and there were stories being told of humanoids in a valley to the east that were cooperating with each other in an unnatural way. Further, McGraw told him the Castellan would likely reward anyone who could investigate those humanoids and secure the road leading from the keep back to civilization.

While at the Rusty Barnacle, Markus the barkeep (not to be confused with Marcus the fighter) mentioned that he'd heard a merchant was being held captive in the caves in that valley, and was rich enough to handsomely reward anyone who'd rescue him.

That was all the incentive anyone needed. They gathered up their gear and headed out of the keep to seek out the valley. On their way out, Andrea thanked McGraw for all of his helped and lifted 17 GP from his money purse as he gave them some parting advice, "You young'uns be careful out there in the wild. I know you've heard stories about how great danger is accompanied by great treasure, but most people who go looking for it just find death."

The road leading northwest away from the keep was easy enough to follow. It wound between a forest to the north and a river to the south, eventually plunging into the trees. After an hour or so of walking, they saw some charred wreckage up ahead and moved to investigate. The forest floor to their left (north) fell away, and they surmised they'd reached the valley.

The wreckage was the charred remains of a wagon. Andrea went off into the woods by herself while the others searched the blackened wood. Alaric determined that the wagon was drawn by two horses, but whatever burned the wagon took the horses and their tack. Argon took an intact wheel from the wagon's wreckage while Andrea returned to report that she discovered a human head on a pike just off the road at the entrance to the valley and there there were three-clawed tracks leading from the road, past the head and down into the valley.

After the entire group checked out the head on the pike, they decended into the valley. While there were still trees, the foliage thinned enough for them to see the valley was littered with caves. Following the tracks, they entered on of the caves nearest the road.

The cave passage only penetrated a short distance before turning left and right. At the center of the intersection was a cleverly hidden pit, which Marcus discovered by falling in. A commotion to the left drew the party's attention while Marcus tried to climb out of the pit.

Several kobold set up a guard room behind some of the crates stolen from the trade wagon. As the party (sans Marcus) moved to investigate, they threw spears at the large dragon-man approaching them. The battle was joined! The group pushed forward into the room, engaging the diminutive beasts in hand-to-hand combat. Marcus eventually climbed out of the pit and joined the fray. One-by-one the kobolds fell to the blades, hammers, and eldritch blasts of the heroes. They spared one kobold for questioning. After regaining consciousness, he spit in the face of the dragonborn, Argon, but cowered when confronted by the angry, bloody halfing woman. He whined there were no more traps in their home and agreed to lead them deeper into the caves.

A quick search of the room turned out just a few coins and two crates of assorted linens, but not other exits. The group decided to search the other direction over the pit, encountering a kobold patrol returning from outside just as they were passing the pit again. Another brief combat ensued, the kobolds slinging gluepots at the halfling to immobilize her, though it only drew her wrath from a far. Those kobolds, too died, but not before four of their number fled back outside.

The party discussed their next move: pursue the fleeing kobolds, or investigate the right-hand passageway....

After ducking outside to see if they could spot the fleeing kobolds, the group retreated back to the guard room to rest for a while. Andrea supervised the repair of the pit trap, in the hopes that it would catch any one following after them as they continued to explore the kobold caves. Satisfied that her work was at least as good as the kobolds', she and the group headed down the right-hand passageway towards a cacophanous squeaking.

The squeaking was caused by a room full of giant rats. They were swarming over a pile of refuse. The captured kobold, Debo, said they were pets and that they fed them invaders and such. The party debated whether or not to try to destroy the rats, but decided against it for now. They continued deeper into the kobold caves. Ahead, an intersection lay; going right meant having to crawl through a tunnel that was too short for all but the most diminutive member of the party, going left meant everyone could walk upright.

The intrepid heroes decided to walk right. After navigating a winding passageway, they heard the sounds of someone or something rummaging around. Cautiously, they approached the room to find a storage room with a human dressing himself. Hearing them approach, he introduced himself as Eldred, a wizard. He explained he was recently captured by the kobolds while traveling with a merchant, Travok Ebonshield. Escaping his bonds after the kobolds left him alone, he was looking for his possessions when the party happened upon him. As he finished pulling on the rest of his equipment, the rest of the group started rummaging through the supplies, finding mostly foodstuffs. Marcus heard someone approaching from the corridor; more kobolds!

Argen joined Marcus in a defensive position as the kobolds rounded the bend and stopped short. A robed kobold was accompanied by a spear-wielding kobold. The robed one pointed and shouted at Marcus and Argen in Common: Get out of our home! Argen replied, "Time to die!" and Marcus hastily added, "...or tell us where the merchant is!" Just then, Eldred summond a cloud of dagger to envelope the robed kobold and the battle was joined!

Despite having been breathed on by the robed kobold (later identified as a Wyrmpriest Kobold; the priest of this particular kobold tribe), the heroes made short work of the two and demanded to know where the chieftain was from their prisoner. He led them back to the low-ceiling corridor. Andrea scouted ahead and returned to report a room full of kobolds and their families, three dozen at least.

There was much debating about what to do. The heroes were not totally confident they could defeat that many kobolds at once. A suggestion was made to perhaps lure the giant rats into the common area as a diversion, but after some testing with their kobold prisoner (involving throwing him into the rats to see if they'd eat him--which they didn't), they decided it would be too much like herding cats. After more debate, they decide to just risk the confrontation.

The entire group returned to the common area, arriving to find out they weren't as stealthy as they'd hoped. Every able-bodied kobold was ready and waiting for them. Before the standoff became too tense, Marcus shouted "Take me to your leader!"

A kobold stepped forward and asked what their business was. After explaining their purpose, the group was told to wait while the kobold headed down a passage in the back of the room. Shortly, he returned with who only could be described as the kobold chieftain leading his pet drake.

The party parleyed with the kobold chieftain learning the kobolds were a small part of the problem in the valley; and an unwilling part at that. While they did attack the caravan, they were forced to do so by the pig-faces and dog-men (orcs and gnolls, the party assumed). They also learned the kobolds used to inhabit more of the valley, but had been forced from their ancestral caves by the orcs. The kobold chieftain agreed to stop attacking travelers and caravans on the road if the heroes would take care of the orcs. Additionally, the kobolds would hide in the trees and deal with any orcs that tried to escape.

Our heroes agreed to bring the proposal to the Castellan of Bramblevale Keep as well as deal with the orcs. They asked the kobolds if there was a small cave they could set up base in; one that was fairly isolated from the rest. Across the valley, the kobolds explained was a big, stupid giant ugly thing. If the group killed him, they could set up a base camp in his cave. The kobolds also agreed to let the heroes rest in the guard room at the entrance to their caves to prepare to attack the giant.

The next morning, Andrea slipped out of the kobold cave and stealthily made her way across the bottom of the valley. As she approached the giant's cave, she heard the sounds of snoring from with in and got close enough to see there were actually two of the brutish beasts; one of whom was awake. She reported her findings to the rest of the group and they set about creating a trap for the two giants (later identified by Alaric as ogres). Alaric climbed the hill and hid just above the ogres' cave entrance while Andrea strung a trip wire across the entrance to the cave. The rest of the group took flanking positions to the sides of the cave entrance. Unfortunately, the sounds of their prepartions alerted one of the ogres, who charged out after waking his companion. Fortunately, he didn't notice the trip wire and did a face-plant into the dirt at the cave entrance. Alaric immediately dumped several vials of oil onto the ogre, followed by a flaming brand. The ogre struggled to stand while on fire and being stabbed, slashed and blasted from both sides. The party surround him in such a way that the ogre blocked the entrance to his own cave and his companion was unable to push past all of them to aid in the battle.

Marcus experience first-hand the strength of an ogre savage and his angry smash. Despite the brute's strength, he soon fell under their assault. The other ogre cursed and retreated back into the cave. Cautiously, the group followed and engage the savage beast in battle. While it wasn't as easy as the first, that ogre, too fell to their assault, but not before nearly killing Marcus with mighty blows from his spiked tree-trunk-club. After tending to Marcus's wounds and seeing him return to consciousness, they searched the ogres cave, finding a stash of gold and silver coins and a blood-crusted suit of cloth armor, which Eldred was able to identify as Skybound Cloth Armor (+1).

After dragging the ogre corpses to an ante-chamber, the party discussed their next move and realized they never found out exactly in which cave the orcs resided. Instead of immediately assault the orcs, they headed back to the keep, taking the ogres' heads with them.

Once back at the keep, the group was able to speak to a representative of the Castellen, Lt. Hassock, who tasked them with clearing out the valley of all hostile humanoids and offered them access to the Keep's armory to equip themselves. They also saw a bounty posted on orcs from the Etrunian dragonborn government. The local Thieves' Guild contacted Andrea and told her that they didn't mind her petty larceny, but wanted a percentage. Meanwhile, a dragonborn named Khotan Ironscale enlisted Argen to spy on the keep for the Etrunian government (he explained that the Keep was too remote for them to have a permanent presence in the Borderlands, but they wanted to keep an eye on the inferior human Castellen, as the Borderlands would likely be in the way of an invasion of Etrunia by the Witch Queen and her ever-growing army of the undead). Finally, the party encountered Lady Alene Kasody, who was upset that she was unable to find an escort to the Lost Shepard Inn; she was separated from her husband and child when they all fled the capital of Hyrn, Koryn ahead of the armies of the Witch Queen.

After resting for a few days, the party prepared to return to the Valley of Chaos, where they would meet again with the kobolds to find out exactly where the orcs lived...

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Suggestions for an Adventuring Company name: The Slayers, The Motley Crew, The Motley Slayers.
Unfortunately named NPC: Khotan Ironscale the dragonborn, who was immediately dubbed "Kotex." (Lt. Hassock gets an honorable mention because they immediately started joking how lazy he was)

A new player joined this session (playing Eldred). That brings my group up to 5 regular players, 2 part-timers, and 1 guest player. Everyone is becoming more familiar with the 4E rules and I'm finding it to be not such a huge transition after all; in fact, the "dumbed down" rules are easier for me to run and keep track of. No one PC is clearly superior to another over the course of a game session; the only real grumblings to be heard were due to poor-rolling, rather than a failure of the character's abilities to do what they needed them to do. I will freely admit, though I have been a staunch 3.X grognard for the last year and a half, 4E is much easier for me to prep for and run (and I think that's mostly due to my particular style of game prep, YMMV).

They meta-gamed a bit when deciding to negotiate with the kobolds; they reasoned they couldn't tell how many minions were in that common chamber, and to that point, most of the groups of kobolds I threw at them didn't have any minions.

So basically, I'd already instilled the fear of the Kobold into them.

Either way, I preferred the negotiation to the combat. I'm trying hard not to give the impression that hack-n-slash is the only way to deal with monsters in my game. Nearly 2 years of "World's Largest Dungeon" created some hard-to-break habits in my players.

A quick search of the orc chieftain's room revealed nothing of value, except for those who find lice-ridden bedding valuable. The Leather Dominators made their way back across the pit and investigated the chamber beyond the pit on the right side (the chieftain's room was to the left). They found a large cavern the orcs used for storage. Most of the crates were broken and/or rotten, but they did see the gleam of white bone in a shallow pit choked with fungus. Not wanting it to be said that he was afraid of fungus, Argen jumped in the pit. His landing crushed many of the fungi, causing spores to cloud the area. He dug through the 'shrooms to find an orc skeleton. Curiously, it was wearing a pair of pair of couters. The couters were still in fine condition, despite having been covered by fungus for who-knows-how-long. He claimed the couters and climbed back out of the pit.

Collecting all the orcs' ears for the bounty, the Leather Dominators headed back out of the caves and returned to Bramblevale Keep. While our heroes turned in the orc ears for bounties, Travok went to meet with the Castellen.

The next day, Alaric was no where to be found and Travok was grumbling about how the Castellen refused to do business with him since we was late arriving to the keep with the item ordered by the Castellen. He threw a warhammer on the table the Leather Dominators were sitting around at the Rusty Barnacle and offered it to them as a reward for rescuing him. Travok explained it was a magical warhammer made expressly for the ungrateful Castellen, a Relentless Warhammer (+1). There was also another dwarf, Kildrak drinking heavily. After a short discussion, they decided to head back to the caves, but still could not locate Alaric. Overhearing the discussion about their missing cleric, Kildrak mentioned that he was a priest of Moradin and might be able to assist them.

With a new, barely sober cleric in tow, the group headed back to the caves. Their first stop was the kobolds. The Leather Dominators informed the sentries there the orcs had been dealt with and they were free to move back into their caves. Both caves full of orcs?

After learning where the other orcs lived, the Leather Dominators headed up the hill to see what they could do with the second tribe of ill-mannered brutes. The second orc lair was set up similarly to the first, except it was almost all worked stone; clearly, something more sophisticated than orcs once dwelled in the valley. After two fairly even fights, they managed to kill all the orcs in the two common areas. Deciding to rest for a moment, they wondered if the orc chieftain they found in this lair would be as much of a challenge as the last....

The Leather Dominators settled down for a well-deserved rest, but it was not to be. Their sleep was interrupted by calls from Bramblevale Keep's guards, "Ring the alarum bell! The keep is under attack! Enemies at the gates!" Hastily donning their gear, the Leather Dominators headed downstairs and went out on the streets. A guard ran up to them, telling them gnolls were attacking and someone needed to help get the women and children to the Inner Bailey.

Using a combination of persausion, bluffing, and outright threats, the Leather Dominators managed to round up several women and their brood and began escorting them to the Inner Bailey. Unfortunately, their attempts at stealth were not entirely successful and they attracted the attention of a pack of gnolls. Argen, Alaraic, Andrea and Killdrak dealth with the gnolls while Marcus and Balken took the women and children to the Inner Bailey.

As they were fighting the gnolls, they noticed some of the buildings were on fire, particularly the Smithy and the Stables. The Smithy collapsed from the conflagration, injuring Argen. After dealing with the gnolls, Argen and Andrea headed for the Guild House to see if there were any valuables that needed rescuing while Marcus, Balken, Alaric, and Killdrak went to the Inner Bailey to see how else they could help. They were asked to try to free the horses from the burning stables. Alaric, Balken and even Killdrak had great success coaxing the panicked equines from their stalls, while Marcus seemed to have no clue how to coax the animals. About this time, they noticed the gnolls, who up until now seemed to have the keep on the defensive were beginning an orderly retreat. The cause soon became apparent: cries of "Undead! Seal the Keep! Seal the Keep!" betrayed the nature of the gnolls' retreat.

While checking out the jeweler's wares in the Guild House, Argen and Andrea came upon five children who were cowering in the building; residents of the upstairs apartments whose parents were guards currently defending the keep and had been unable to make it to the Inner Bailey. They noticed something trying to get into the Guild House; ghouls! After grabbing the jeweler's strongbox, they led the children to the upper level of the building. Making sure the coast was clear, they helped the children down to the street from a window on the second floor out of sight of the ghouls. They made their way to the Inner Bailey.

As the guards repelled undead scaling the walls, the Leather Dominators headed for the main gate in attempt to close it off, making the way in more difficult for the relentless undead. Marcus stood behind the portcullis while Balken and Andrea went up into the guard tower to lower the portcullis and raise the drawbridge, then jam the mechanisms, making a brute force bypass more difficult. Marcus noticed some robed figured in the shadows of the gatehouse; gnolls disguised as humans. They reveled themselves to him and offered to help, explaining "You. Us. Enemies, but alive. Undead kill all. Living stick together over them." Apparently the gnolls disguised themselves to get into the keep, then killed the gatehouse guards so their brethren could attack, but now that the undead were attacking, all the living joined forces agains the army of the undead.

After the gates were barred, the group made their way back to the Inner Bailey. Swarms of undead were fighting the guards on the Bailey walls, while someone, The Castellan they assumed, fought off three ghouls on the balcony of the Keep Fortress. The Leather Dominators joined the fray, but it soon became apparent the undead numbers were insurmountable. Two of the remaining guards informed them the civilians had already escaped via a secret tunnel under the Castellan's audience chamber. After dealing with the ghouls fighting the Castellan, the Leather Dominators, two guards and the Castellans followed the secret tunnel, sealing it off from below and hoping their efforts to hide the entrance were successful.

Earth tremors made navigating the tunnel difficult, and when they were faced with a fork, it was difficult to determine which way the people had gone. The Castellan admitted to not being familiar with the tunnels; he knew it was there but had never used it before. They chose the right-hand fork and were dismayed after walking a bit to find it ending in a vertical shaft, the bottom of which they could not see, even after dropping a torch in it.

Another tremor shook the tunnel, the Castellan shoved the group towards the gaping hole as the ceiling collapsed on top of him. With barely five feet of tunnel left for the six of them, they tried to dig the Castellan out, but he was dead, crushed under several tons of rock; the guards behind him suffering the same fate. Marcus tied a rope to the Castellan's arm, hoping the weight of the rocks would serve as a decent anchor as he investigated the shaft, hoping to find a ledge or another tunnel. Another tremor shook the tunnel, collapsing the rest of the ceiling, forcing the group to jump into the bottomless shaft or be crushed under tons of rock....

The fights when the party was split (not an ideal situation, I try to avoid it, but the two players who wanted to go looting in the chaos were not to be deterred), weren't that bad. It was mostly minions. I threw a lot of minions at the group this time to try to capture the feeling of a bunch of expendable troops (particularly the undead) being wasted trying to overrun a fortification.

Thinking back, there were only two real combats: the fight with the gnolls in the street before the armory collapsed and the fight in the Inner Bailey with the ghouls attacking the Castellan. After my previous session was one, 4-hour+ combat, I didn't want the entirety of the next session to be all combat, even though it was going to be a war-like situation.