Hunaydah's Tavern (an AP-spanning Feast of Dust) [Major Spoilers]


Campaign Journals


Prologue: Castle Andachi

Akara-Jetzii was tired of other serpentfolk, even those who weren't obsessing over bringing back Ydersius, and was spending some time up north. She was hanging out in Tamrivena with a particularly stupid orc named Goonug when she met her old acquaintance, Arlyxannah. The two knew each other from when they lived in Kaer Maga, and kept each other's secrets; Arlyx knew that "Kadara" was really a serpentfolk, and Akara-Jetzii knew that Arlyxannah was a werewolf-kin skinwalker. It was as close to friendship as a serpentfolk was likely to experience with a humanoid.

Arlyx was accompanied by her friends, Miri and Ka'kutah. They were heading west to find out why the Belkzen orcs were riled up and hassling the Canterwall Foreguard. Miri had heard a rumour that the orcs had raided an orphanage and stolen candy from the children, and was determined that this would not stand.

After fortifying themselves with drinks at Hilda's, they secured a sponsorship. In exchange for Hilda naming drinks after them, they would remove the orc problem in her name and publicize her business far and wide. This being an acceptable exchange all around, they set out for Castle Andachi.

As they approached they had Goonug blow an orc horn Miri had been carrying around. They were tied in slip knots so that they could pretend to be prisoners. They horn worked, and two orcs riding gortheks charged toward them. Goonug recognized them as members of the Screamhunter tribe, and knew that he had fought them many times before. Realizing that this wasn't a peaceful encounter, the heroes began attempting to escape from what they'd intended as slipknots.

As they fight against the gorthek riders progressed, it became apparent that the green stuff on the backs and heads of the orcs wasn't mere decoration but instead some sort of active fungus. After Arlyxannah recognized it as mindslaver mold the combat took on a new sense of urgency. Once they dispatched the two orcs they considered just leaving the whole business behind them, but the memory of Hilda's sponsorship made them reconsider.

Content with their strategy, they approached Castle Andachi's main gate and blew the horn multiple times. Before long the fungus-riden orcs began to pour forth, accompanied by a drummer who tried to keep up their spirits. The fight was long and drawn out, but in the end Hilda's Glowing Carrots (as their company was now known) was victorious.

Before returning to Tamrivena they poked around the interior of the castle a little, and discovered that the lower levels were entirely covered in fungus. They briefly considered burning it out, but thought better of it upon realizing that this was probably the main reason that more orcs didn't use the abandoned castle as a staging base against Ustalav. The only survivors they found were two uninfected orcs cowering from the mindslaver mold. They revealed that the reason that the Screamhunters were so far east was that some human woman had enslaved a bunch of orcs and taken Valorfoe, a castle not far to the southwest. She was only seen at night, but her control over her orcs was rock solid. Hilda's Glowing Carrots tentatively decided that this would be their next target.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 4)
Arlyxannah Thanh (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 7)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 8)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 2)

NPC:

Goonug (orc warpriest 5 of Gorum, played by Ka'kutah's player)

(n.b. This game involves a PC from my Serpent's Skull campaign and three from my Carrion Crown campaign, and will soon be adding a character from my Skull & Shackles campaign.)


Prologue: Valorfoe

Once again deeming it the safest course to leave Goonug outside of city limits, Hilda's Glowing Carrots spent a couple days in Tamrivena. Following their break, they journeyed through sleet and snow, leaving Ustalav. They made sure that they had a travel pass for Belkzen (admittedly counterfeit) and made their way to the abandoned Ustalavic fortress formerly known as Valorforge.

As they approached they began to call out to the sentries, and Goonug challenged one to single combat. This fight cascaded, and the non-orcs were accused of cheating as they interfered in the fight. Once this started happening any sense of fun left the orcs and the fight became a free-form killing spree.

Miri Vishki invisibly flew up to peer over the wall, and saw the reinforcements about to storm out. Hilda's Glowing Carrots decided to be first, and opened the gates to start the next stage of the fight. One of the orcs turned out to be a vampire, and engaged Miri in aerial combat. They fought and used magic, and eventually the vampire killed Miri. Her death turned out to be short-lived, and then Miri dispatched the vampire.

Meanwhile everyone else was battling on the ground. The orcs had greataxes, some of which were even engulfed in flames. Arlyxannah stepped up and tried to engage as many as she could. There were also fireballs and other spells exchanged. A lone shirtless human stood back, seemingly watching. Collateral damage soon felled him.

After enough noise had been generated to attract attention, Evgenya Zunaida appeared, furious that her cousin (Arlyxannah) was causing her trouble yet again. The fight between them took on a personal edge, and this only intensified after Evgenya saw the human fall. She berated Arlyxannah for taking out Mug, whom she actually liked.

This caused quite a commotion among Hilda's Glowing Carrots. They tried to explain to Akara-Jetzii who Mug was and what their history with him had been, but it came out a jumble. "So you all just like him?" "No, actually none of us like him, but, uh, it's complicated."

In the end, Mug was the lone survivor. When he revived he announced that he was on the side of the victors.

When they began to explore to lower reaches of Valorfoe they discovered a lot of dark folk ready for a fight. The Glowing Carrots backed away, finished off the vampires in the coffins they eventually found, and began the trip back to Tamrivena (Mug in tow).

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 4)
Arlyxannah Thanh (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 7)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 8)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 2)

NPC:

Goonug (orc warpriest 6 of Gorum, played by Ka'kutah's player)


Prologue: Tower Valballus

While Mug was being disciplined for being AWOL from the Wallguard, Hilda's Glowing Carrots slipped out of town. They collected Goonug and headed south toward Tower Valballus. The journey was cold, wet, and miserable.

While en route they discussed the fact that walking up to orcish front doors and demanding a fight had worked well for them in the past, and decided to make the attempt again. Goonug in particular was hopeful that this could be the culmination of his quest to die at orcish hands. He bellowed out a challenge to any orcs inside Tower Valballus as they approached, and two sentries responded immediately. One of them approached for single combat, and the other (after calling out a status report to the interior of the tower) approached Arlyxannah.

The fight was complicated by the fact that these orcs were also werewolves. As their reinforcements arrived the cause of this quickly became apparent: Mathus Mordrinacht was trying to track down Arlyxannah and the heart of the packlord (which she was preserving with gentle repose). As the reinforcements kept arriving (and Goonug and Ka’kutah has already fallen) she called out that she was there to accept a deal he had previously offered her. He called of his people, completed the transaction, and they packed up and left.

They had indicated that there was a small magical cube in the basement, but none of them could get it. This was enough to entice our heroes to heal up (though Goonug was beyond help) and head downward. They quickly discovered that there was a carnivorous blob down there, and made a rapid retreat to plan. Eventually they decided that Miri would stat at a distance and hit it with cold attacks while Arlyxannah snuck in and nabbed the cube. After a lot of preparation they enacted the plan to great success.

They returned to Tamrivena to celebrate their successes and the turning of the year. While there, Ka’kutah received a sending from his brother, Folongko. They hadn’t seen each other since their village was raided by mercenaries, and Ka’kutah was delighted to hear that he was doing well. Folongko said that he and his new girlfriend (Hunaydah Milakesh) would soon be arriving in Sedeq and heading to her home town (Dimayen) to investigate some sort of problem. Once everything was cleared up the brothers could settle down there, if they wanted to. Ka’kutah was thrilled, and invited his friends to accompany him to the Padishah Empire of Kelesh.

They agreed, and so they took their (forged) travel permit to Urgir and hired a wizard to teleport them to Absalom. From there they paid someone else to teleport them to Sedeq. They were initially overwhelmed by the sights (and smells), but soon came to appreciate the beautiful city for what it was.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 5)
Arlyxannah Thanh (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 8)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 9)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 2)

NPC:

Goonug (orc warpriest 6 of Gorum, played by Ka'kutah's player)


We sail into port, the storm-ravaged Damned Jewel limping in, but still serving her crew well. We pull into the slip, and there are people waiting for the ship. I have them tie up the ship and I have the gangplank run out. Apparently those on the pier know some of my crew, so we make our introductions, and head off to drink while the ship begins undergoing repairs under the eye of Gary.

After some time in the pub, my bosun Winston stops by with the crew pay, and in response (I presume) pulls out a voodoo doll, plucks out its eye, and crams in a strange glass eye. No, I'm not sure how the one lead to the other, but I dismiss Winston. The manikin springs to life, and sprints for the door! most of my companions pile onto the manikin to prevent its escape, and I continue sitting, sipping my beer. As I find out afterwards, the gem was a soul shard with a soul in it. We decide to leash it, dress it, and make it a mascot. Named Carrot Cake.We try to communicate to very little effect.

The plan is to quest to visit Arlyxana's family in the desert, so we begin provisioning, including lots of booze, and set out on a river barge as far as we can.We reach the end of the river uneventfully, and set out on foot. On the second night of our trek across the desert, a 6-legged, blue-horned reptile thing bellows and attacks us during the night! I engage, and a second one appears! I stab the first to death right in its gunshot wound (thanks to Kakutah), and he murders the second.

The third night, a tentacle thing emerges from the sand and makes its way towards our mule. Kakutah drives it off with his gun. Kakutah looks disappointed, so I grab his collar, sprout my wings, and we set off to aerially murder it. He high-five, and head back!

When we approach town, there is a kerfuffle between a mercenary captain and his troops. We subdue the captain and find out about a curse in the area. Hooray, adventure! The captain is turning into a ghoul, and is apparently spread by jackals bringing bones, or by not eating enough. We do hear rumours about a local bookseller who is apparently involved. We arrive at the store, and the clerk there says the owner isn't in. And then promptly opens her mouth inhumanly wide and attacks us. So, I promptly murder her. An invisible thing then attacks Miri, Kakutah shoots it repeatedly, and we examine its corpse. It's some weird, doughy thing... a golem, perhaps. We gird ourselves and prepare to head deeper into the bookstore.


Before we explore, we loot the bodies, and go through the ledger. Apparently there is an important secret blade of some sort we must find! Ooooh! We check the doors leading from the bookstore sales floor, and get ready to explore the rear rooms. I open the loading bay doors, and there are two... bear things waiting for us! We engage, and rapidly cut one down before it really has a chance to do anything! The other disappears, presumably via some sort of teleport. We continue to search. We find a printing press. And a nice-looking book with flowers pressed inside. We don't know what kind of flowers, because our party member that knows such things has been stricken with dysentery, and is laying uselessly in a puddle of their own making. We also find a note, torched book, and a strongbox. The note invites the bearer to the Whitewater compound, and is written by the Whitewater matriarch. It is delicately perfumed. We know not when it was sent. The strongbox holds some gold and some IOUs. There is a note on the bed. The note contains some saccharine b+!+*@$@ from a fellow named Igbris Akbal.

We decide to check out the Whitewater compound, however it's been sealed due to the plague. We do find out that they happen to control the main spring. Thus, we go to the pub to gather information. We find out that Igbris is hated around here, because he's a bit of a con man and that the bookstore owner's son left town with Igbris recently. We wind up buying Carrotcake a small greataxe, and we continue gathering information to try to find a way into the Whitewater compound. The next morning, there's a perfumed letter waiting for us, identical to the one we found! We pretty ourselves up!

We get to the Whitewater compound. It is recently fortified and guarded. We are escorted inside and through the foyer. There is a shirtless falchion-wielding gentleman sparring with several guards. The Shirtless One is Kardag Whitewater. He orders refreshments fetched for us and presents a proposition for us! It's a sparring match between the four of us and Carrotcake versus Kardag and his kittens. Well, let me just say that sounds like a good spot of fun! We accept wholeheartedly! He takes us to his fighting grotto (not the kind of grotto I expected this one to have, to be honest) where two large predatory cats await our pleasure. He puts on a nipply breastplate, then declares the battle joined!

Carrotcake and I immediately start flying, and I stab one of the cats! Kardag whines about us glitterdusting and blinding the cats and so charges Akara. Kakutah shoots him in the head, and he collapses, a vegetable (though not dead!). We win! The guards cart him off, and we go to meet a Tianka Whitewater, who signed the note. She mentions Grotto Boy gets his ass kicked all the time. She offers us a job provide we can also withstand a magical fight. One which we're... not allowed to fight back.... Clever girl....

Tianka casts Black tentacles. And Glitterdust. And Lightning Bolt. Largely at me, it would appear. This all sucks. But apparently we pass her test. They confiscate our weapons until later and we are given quarters. After a few hours, we're taken to see an "expert" with floppy moustache and floppier hat. Arokor Shonar who has been hosted by Lady Whitewater for a few weeks. We have found the missing cleric of Sarinrae! He supposes he's probably the expert she talks of. She is apparently afflicted by the plague, and Arokor is being kept here to keep the symptoms at bay. We plunk all our evidence in front of Arokor, and this largely confirms that it's likely this Feast of Dust we've heard so much about. We also find out about the secret door in the bookstore's pantry (DAMN IT!). Great. Apparently the Feast of Dust comes from the Heralds of Dust, led by the Jackal Prince. All of the plague, jackals, etc. mean that this prince fellow is apparently back. We get offered membership into the Sentinels of Mraz, apparently tasked with keeping the Jackal Prince imprisoned. This membership involves tattooing and relocation, so I defer for the time being.

We send a request to be released. Ezrisha Whitewater, daughter of Tianka, introduces herself to us. Apparently *she* wants to test us. I guess it runs in the family. Okay, a game of hide and seek. She has a clockwork beetle and we have to find it. We track it down in mere seconds, and easily pass the test. We are permitted to leave the compound, whereupon our weapons will be returned. We head to the church of Sarinrae, and let them know that Arokor has been kept against his will in the Whitewater compound. In turn, we find out that people have been bringing jackal bones covered in writing to the temple. The bones are basically a prayer to the Jackal Prince.

We head to the bookstore, kick in the secret door in the pantry, and head on down to the secret basement, and stumble on an undead! I storm her! But somehow hit a Hold trap. Great. I spend some time... holding... and so Kakutah shoots her to death. We move on but I get hit by a creature's Horrid Wilting, and am forced to pull back. We trade ranged blows for a bit with the horrid wilting wielder, before we are forced to pull back out.


The next morning, Arlyxannah, Baby Carrot Cake, Hunaydah, Ka'kutah, Kadara, and Miri all returned to the basement of the Fabled & Forgotten. They were extremely careful to be stealthy, not wanting to walk into another ambush. Once they reached the basement where they expected to find opposition they used an old magic item they'd been carrying around to cause a colossal spider to appear.

The spider fought against some unseen opponents, and also tore Baby Carrot Cake to shreds. A horrid wilting from an unknown source caused the spider to curl up and die, and then the fight was on in earnest. They tried to use the layout of the basement to prevent too many antagonists from attacking them at once, but things got dicey when a daemon teleported in behind Ka'kutah. Eventually the heroes were victorious, altough one daemon teleported away before they could finish him off.

Investigation revealed a secret passage, down which they found all sort of magic items (which they immediately claimed as their own). They also found what appeared to be the ravenous blade, all safe and secure in its proper spot, but it turned out that this was just a permanent image and that the blade itself was missing.

Arlyxannah remembered that the shopkeep's son had left town recently with a wastrel of ill reputation, and the heroes determined to pursue them. They set out the next day for Blood Rise Rock.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 6)
Arlyxannah (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 8)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 10)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 3)


As they approached the Zho mountains a lone figure walked toward them, heading south at the start of her long trip to Dimayen. She identified herself as Jahdrak, but a quick telepathic exchange revealed her true identity as Tassrith, an old friend of Akara-Jetzii. They caught up with each other and Tassrith briefed Akara-Jetzii on the situation at Blood Rise Rock.

It turned out that there were two tribes competing access for the so-called "new god" at Blood Rise Rock. One tribe was a group of scorpion centaurs and the other consisted of humans whose genetics had activated recessive genie traits. Every member of each tribe was female. Akara-Jetzii was able to use her mind powers to convince the leader of the scorpion centaurs to let them pass, and she and Miri double-teamed the humankin to do the same.

The group climbed a steep, narrow trail up the face of the rock to a carved shelf, where there were two guards who insisted that they leave. The group quickly dispatched the guards and discovered a hidden entrance into the rock face. They entered, and things quickly got crazy.

Inside the rock were more guards, a half-orc, and a daemon. The half-orc vanished, but it wasn't long before he returned with the new god, who was trailed by two gnolls and Ibhris Akpahl (the wastrel who had accompanied Dehlvat Aaban out of Dimayen.

This turned out to be an extremely difficult fight, and for a while things looked bad for the heroes. Arlyxannah and Miri both died. Ultimately, however, the group pulled out a win.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 6)
Arlyxannah (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 9)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 10)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 3)


The remaining rooms behind the secret door in Blood Rise Rock held little of interest other than loot, though the group made sure to avoid the seemingly tainted waters they ran across. They spent the night there, then the next day they invisibly flew past both tribes and began their journey toward the ruins of Shadun.

Part way there they were alarmed to discover that the subdermal mana fungus infecting Ka'kutah was no longer completely subdermal. With the fungus now covering a significant part of his body people were starting to see spores travel away from him on occasion.

As they approached the ruins of Shadun they were challenged by some gnolls who demanded to know their business. No one among the travellers spoke gnoll, so Akara-Jetzii tried to coerce them telepathically. This quickly turned into a fight, which the heroes won handily.

Heading into the city, they soon found themselves in front of a gnoll calling herself Queen Julkar. She had a jackal-headed daemon working as a translator for her, and Hilda's Glowing Carrots determined that he was deliberately mistranslating things. After the meeting (during which they presented themselves as wandering minstrels and pormised to put on a show for the queen) they found the daemon off by himself, cast dimensional anchor on him, and killed him.

Tired from all this, they found an out-of-the-way corner and spent the night in their magical fortress.

They next day they headed down into some sort of excavation. There were a bunch of ghouls they ignored, then ran into an undead gnoll. She not only fought them, but she also called all the ghouls to help her out. The group managed to dispatch all of their opponents, but not without an enormous amount of noise.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 7)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 10)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 4)
Zarrnok (hobgoblin fighter 11)


We spend some time figuring out how to get across the pit. Our most promising idea is a rope swing with me as the airborne anchor point. Well... that idea doesn't seem to work at all, and Kakutah gets dropped in the pit. While he clambers out, we stack corpses log-cabin-style and make a corpse bridge to cross the chasm, which proves to be a much more successful idea. Ahh, the life of adventure we lead! On the other side, we dig out and use a magic centipede thing to turn a severed gnoll head into a severed head centipede steed for Baby Carrotcake. There's a sentence I didn't think I would be writing in my journal today....

We find a hallway. Down one side is a barracks and off in the distance, some miner ghouls. In the barracks,there are bedrolls, a couple of sickly, sleeping gnolls and a couple of guards. Kakutah murders some ghouls, Miri fireballs all the gnolls. Net result is that we murder most of the gnolls, and the last one surrenders to me.

I truly have no idea what comes over me, but I see red. When the mist clears, there is a dead gnoll and I have gnoll spatter on me. My party members look at me, slightly shocked. I mumble something about "tactics", and we carry on.

This area proves to be a dead end, so we head back the way we came. Down the other hall, we encounter a room that opens up into a larger, round room with a central area (a bit like that human delicacy known as a donut). A dapper undead fellow in a red leather jacket and jaunty metal cap appears and attacks me! Miri tags him with a scorching ray in return. He escalates and exudes a fear aura, then lays into Kakutah. Having had enough of this, I step in and chop his head off.

Well... it turns out he's immune to *that*, and all I manage is to damage the collar on his swanky red jacket. This is why I hate undead.

Several more undead become visible, step up, and attack me. Kakutah and Miri respond with gunfire and a fireball. The dapper one goes down, and I murder an undead gnoll, and stab a second. Amara then electrocutes it to death. Kakutah then literally shoots a gnoll out of existence (as it fades away from our plane, I *think* I faintly hear a voice say something about cuddling, but I could be wrong). I then murder the last one.

The donut of death has various faded creepy mosaics with animals sucking the colour out of the landscape. There are figures in bronze sealing these creatures in a sword, bracelet, cloak, and bottle. The décor in here is really neat, I have to say.

The center of the donut has two doors, so I pick one and check it out. It's a circular room with three doors. One door has three locks with symbols of a sword, a bow, and an eye. We totally have an eye key! And the Knock spell. Which is, like, a better key! Which doesn't work the first time. One minor infernal pact later, and the second Knock spell definitely works! We get through the door... and there are massive undead on the other side. They are larger than what we've been fighting thus far, and have other undead imprisoned in their rib-cages. Greeeeat.... Kakutah pops off, does his thing, and injures one. The ribcage undead shrieks and withers its big friend points at Kakutah. A green explosion goes off. The second set of undead buddies does the same thing, except that the big one says that Kakutah's fingers are withered and swollen. Kakutah shrugs it off. Miri blinds the green explosion guy as I charge in and stab hand guy. And Kakutah shoots some more!

Green explosion guy's hands glow purple,and the caged undead pops out of existence. The second guys does the same and then touches me. It hurts. A lot. And yet, despite the pain, I feel really glad to see the slight look of disappointment on its face. In return, I stab him to death and move towards green explosion guy. Miri continues to blind him, and I run in and stab him, with Kakutah administering the finishing touch.

The room with the undead has two passages, one of which is collapsed. The other has a pedestal down it with something glittery and magical on it. Kakutah checks it out. Glowing red wisps appear, and coalesce into the image of a hulking vulture guy. He complains a bit about some guy we already killed. We gather the item in cloth, and stow it. Apparently it is the Handflower of Genocide, and it was being modeled by a golden hand.

We head back to the donut, and explore the rest of it. There is a small camp set up in an old smithy.

Having cleared the area, we head back up to put on our show! It's magnificent, with lots of singing and a stirring dance routine put on by yours truly. In reward (and recognition of my supple, sensual movements) we get double handfuls of copper coins, and are soon on our way.


Queen Julkar was very pleased with the respect shown to her by the group of minstrels, and she sent them on their way. Arlyxannah's study of the papers the group found in the ruins has suggested to her that they need to go to the Lethe hot springs. They set out.

After several days of travel they saw the steamy pools ahead of them. They entered the steam and fought fiendish humans, yrthak, and a goezspall in short succession. The fights became progressively more difficult as they had fewer resources remaining, but they prevailed. Kadara retrieved the Calabash of Last Draughts with a mighty yank, then the group pondered options.

Eventually they decided that they needed to resupply. They'd heard that Khoka was relatively nearby, so they set out in that direction.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 7)
Arlyxannah (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 9)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 11)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 4)


Ka'kutah left his faithful mule in Khoka and the group bought supplies for the long and arduous desert journey. They distributed the Oblivion Keys and set out. A couple of days into the journey that had been estimated as taking two or three weeks they were eating breakfast and Ka'kutah was fooling around with his magical brass lamp. All of a sudden he had a brief window in which he could make a wish.

"I wish we were where we're supposed to be!"

Suddenly the entire group was on a bone platform several hundred feet above the desert with a large portal to Abaddon looming in front of them. They dropped their half-eaten breakfasts as several daemons noticed their sudden appearance and attacked. One kept trying to get to some sort of orb, but the teleportated PCs made that difficult and the daemon was killed before reaching it.

After that fight Arlyxannah spent some time figuring out the portal and the orb, and ultimately they closed the portal and destroyed its control device. After that they flew to the ground and entered the building's front door.

Inside the building was even hotter and stuffier than outdoors, and they took time to give themselves protection from heat exhaustion and the like. They then found some doors heading down. When opened, they revealed that the subterranean section was extremely cold. The heroes sighed, and proceeded downward.

They were greeted by a fellow with a flaming hat and a holy symbol of Sarenrae. Hunaydah was happy to see a fellow worshipper, and her interactions with him gave Arlyxannah a chance to convince him that she was on his side. Delighted to have someone else interested in ending the world for his goddess, he instructed his minions to kill everyone except her.

The battle raged on...

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 8)
Arlyxannah (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 10)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 11)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 4)


From the notes of Arlyxannah Thanh:

A slight failure in calculations resulted in a tenuous situation during our battle. While the flamboyant worshipper of Sarenrae ignored me for my more threatening companions, I was surrounded by some cultists(1) and canines(1). Statistical data supports that the cultist would be my prime target and his wounds were near fatal but my rate of success in damaging him further was almost so improbable it deserves further study. Added to my inability to hit and the canine’s ability to disrupt my natural capacity to stand upright, I became intimately familiar with the ground. That is to say, I fell down. A lot.

One by one my companions killed the remaining worshippers and canines. I continued to take notes from my prone position.

It would not be incorrect to say the battle was a humbling experience. With depleted resources the group went back outside to regain our energy and confidence. Tomorrow we start again.


Rested up and determined to save the world, the heroes set out once again for the Sunbleached Tower. They were delighted to discover that some things (such as the creepy tooth haunt) were no longer active due to the fact that the portal to Abaddon was currently closed.

They pressed through the extremely hot area into the extremely cold area, and descended into combat. They were expecting ambush, and they were not disappointed. Between the undead and the daemon there was no shortage of assailants, but the heroes persevered. Spurred on by their divination magic, they pressed forward through a secret door.

Emerging into a large room with four big statues they encountered a half dozen women. Miri V's fire snake took out five of them before they could even react, but the sixth woman was a surprisingly challenging opponent. Nonetheless, the heroes defeated her and pressed on.

Once again relying on the divination magic emenating from a major artifact they were carrying, they spoke a pass phrase and gained entrance into the ancient chamber of the Tree of Desolation. The Jackal Prince of Famine was waiting for them. He was a brutally difficult opponent, but the heroes were nothing if not brave and self-sacrificial. In the end, this proved to be sufficient. They drove the Jackal Prince of Famine from the body of Dehlvat Aaban and prepared the body to be transported back to Dimayen to his father.

The Feast of Dust had ended.

PCs:

Akara-Jetzii (serpentfolk sorcerer 8)
Arlyxannah (werewolf-kin skinwalker rogue 1/investigator 10)
Ka'kutah Manneh (halfling gunslinger 12)
Miri Vishki (human fighter 1/sorcerer 6/eldritch knight 5)

Community / Forums / Gamer Life / Gaming / Campaign Journals / Hunaydah's Tavern (an AP-spanning Feast of Dust) [Major Spoilers] All Messageboards

Want to post a reply? Sign in.
Recent threads in Campaign Journals