Berghawk Play Report: 16/09/2026 (A Greyhawk campaign set in Berghof)

11th of Planting (560)

The Stone Smashers started the session at the entrance to the Croc Tail Kobold’s lair - a site of a historical battle between man and giant. The kobolds used the large pit traps as the foundation for their own lair. From the tower Right Hans could see one large open pit trap containing giant bones, and another outline of a similarly large pit trap which was now overgrown. He coordinated with the others to go down to the overgrown pit trap and mark it out so that the party didn’t accidentally step on it. In testing the overgrown pit trap though he found that it was solid enough to stand on. At this point some eagle-like birds began swooping at Hans - marking their territory. The party decided to proceed for now.

Duskven used “charm animal” on one of the circling birds, and began to perform his ritual (which takes one hour) to recruit the bird to his side. He noted that it did not look like an ordinary eagle. It had much sharper talons and claws. The other three birds also continued to threateningly swoop at him. 

Meanwhile, Just Hans, Right Hans and Konrad found three spikes attached to chains at the edge of the open pit. The dwarf asked Mads to secure him with a rope and began to climb down the chain, while the two Hanses braved it without a rope.

Both Just Hans’ and Konrad’s ropes failed. Mads was able to catch Konrad before he hit the ground. But Just Hans plummeted to the bottom and was out cold. Mads evoked Norebo to turn Just Hans’ luck - making sure he survived the fall (in game terms, he re-rolled one of the falling damage dice with his class ability “Turn Luck” which replaces the usual “Turn Undead”). The circling birds took this moment as their queue to escalate and outright attacked Dustven. Although the others tried to take the birds out with projectiles, they were not able to stop one bird from breaking through and savaging Dustven. If there was any doubt before that these were no ordinary birds, what happened next confirmed it. The bird tore into Dustven’s neck with razor sharp claws and beak bleeding him out on the spot. The druid could only scream “no!” before dropping dead. This broke the spell on the fourth bird which immediately started attacking Dustven’s corpse.

Combat broke out between the party and the birds. At this point the bard retainer was able to identify that these were in fact Blood Hawks. The party took no further casualties in the fight and managed to kill 3 of the 4 birds, with the fourth fleeing. Searching the Blood Hawk’s nest, the party found 2 warm eggs. They packed these carefully on the mule with the goal of later hatching them.

The party proceeded into the open pitt down the secure chain. Now they saw that the stake securing this chain was polished with use, while the other two stakes were rusty and unused by the lair’s inhabitants - decoy traps. Typical kobold stuff (and something the DM would have pointed out the party had asked ;)  ). Just Hans woke up at this point and regain vigour by healing himself and being healed by the cleric of Norebo, Mads.

In the pitt, the party found the skeletal remains of what they ascertained must be a Hill Giant - its skull covered in red wax, forming a scaly pattern. They also saw a second giant skull just ahead of a small, kobold-sized entrance. Two gnoll legs were protruding comically from the skull which seemed to have crushed the gnoll in some sort of trap. Max Dash, the halfling thief inspected the trap and concluded that the skull was propped up on shaky pillars which collapsed when a trip wire was triggered. The party proceeded into the tunnel. A very tight squeeze which slowed their movement and made it difficult to wield anything but small weapons and spears. Konrad was at the front of the column, with Right Hans behind him wielding a spear. Behind him, Max dash brandished a bow. Magnus and Mads followed behind, unable to attack from the fourth row, along with the party’s torch bearer. The retainers and Just Hans stayed above ground, protecting the mules.

In the tunnels the party encountered a number of wily hyenas who attempted to kettle them in by using encircling tactics and hidden doors. But the Stone Smashers prevailed. Just when they had slayen the hyenas, a massive hyenadon broke through a door and attacked. The party’s fighters were far away, leaving the fight to Magnus, Max, and Mads. Triple M managed to take down the Hyenadon thanks to Mads’ staff of striking. 

The party came to a choke point: a large tar pitt that had “stepping stones” made of giant ribs. Max took some rope and went ahead to secure the path for the less skilled party members. But he found that one of the ribs was greased, when he slipped and fell into the pit. Around about this time, a kobold also came screaming into the room pursued by a Blood Hawk. The party maintained discipline and retrieved the drowning hobbit while the hawk killed the kobold. The hawk then attacked the party but was easily dispatched. Right Hans cleaned up Max by scraping the flammable tar off him with his sword while Magnus used a “clean” cantrip to remove the grease from the giant rib. Max then secured passage and the party opened the door into the next room: a large dining hall full of kobold and gnoll corpses. They saw a large, slithering thing wrapped around a totem at the centre of the dining hall - part slug, part centipede. 

And that’s where we ended the session!