Beyond the Tentacled Eye - A Pathfinder Greyhawk Tharizdun Campaign

Game Master GM Darkblade

It is relatively easy to get directions both to Elmo's parents farm, it is near to the woodcutter's home, or to Black Jay's, his hovel and sheep field is across the way from the Temple of Saint Cuthbert.

Is there anything in particular you need or want from Hommlet before you leave? And don't forget to reset your counters, Terjon and company have restored any ability wounds received from the spider's poisons and fungal spores. Or at least so he seemed fairly certain.

I wouldn't mind something that does extra damage vs evil, but I am guessing if the temple had those resources then they would not have them anymore. Maybe a permanent Protection from Evil :) Seriously, we have what we have. Are there any healing resources available? Potions etc?We have been kinda keeping them low I think.

Zokama is interested in finding more out about Elmo or exploring the swamp, and solving other problems like tent town, which it seems is corrupting the young people (she wonders if there is an idol behind that as well), but there are choices to be made, and clearing out, and hopefully destroying, the source of so much evil had to be at the top of their list. Plus, she wasn't about to go haring off when the rest of her party had so kindly helped her with her individual quest.

There are several potions on the loot sheet (linked in my tagline). Grab all you want.

Kaaro is wholly unversed in the intricacies of architecture or the undoing of same. Mostly the Suel is concerned and dismayed that the small village is so beset, and rumors of lycanthropes, dopplegangers, ancient elemental evils and lurking factions beneath murky moathouses have her tense, but also slightly excited.

"I will join you Zokama, Musami, Braggi! I have some magicks to aid you in battle...but am not exactly well placed to destroy mosthouses!"

Unless new supplies have arrived town that allows Braggi to acquire new equipment, he puts his muscle to use standing ready to clear another wing of the Moat House.

"We're already late on that."

Given that Kaaro offers to go with them, he tries to get a bit used to the newcomer. "So, what can we expect of you, more or less? What are these magicks you talk about?"

With only two days of time the only "new" items which could become available are alchemical items from the trader or limited potions/scrolls of 1st thru 3rd levels. Are there any requests?

Mmmh... There's a magic Breastplate listed in the loot sheet. If it's still there and no one wants it, Braggi will be glad to use it.

Take it.

Speaking of the loot list... there is a "Religious icon shaped like a black triangle set with a purple gemstone shaped like a reptilian eye, on a barbed iron chain." It isn't listed in the magical items, so I am guessing it didn't ping as magical at the time... but does it seem similar to the icon we found at the spider lair?

The icon is a pendant shaped like a triangle with the gem forming the shaped reptilian looking eye. The gem is similar to the glowing stones, but more a replica than actually one of the same kind of stones. It is not magical and does not glow like the real stones you have found thus far.

Last call for ordering potions, etc. before we move forward and head back to the moat house. If Zokama is interested she can find either Elmo's home or Black Jays before leaving town.

Braggi would be gad to have a way to recover quickly from some special affections aka Restoration but, since they lack a priest, it seems he would need to order a beverage. How much would that be?

Potions of Lesser Restoration would cost 300 gp per vial. Restoration cannot be made into a potion, normally, as it is a 4th level spell. Scrolls would cost 150 gp per Divine scroll. If you wished them to be stronger than the base caster that would increase the cost. The temple has limited resources to create these, but a few can be had of each, depending upon what else might be required/requested. The temple does not currently have anyone on staff capable of crafting wands, not since Spugnoir fell victim to the undead of Emridy Meadows.

I really don't want to delay the moathouse any further. I already feel bad getting the party to come with me on a personal quest. However, if I can do it on the way, and we can just resolve it in spoilers, maybe I will stop by Black Jay's and see if Elmo is there, or if Black Jay has any further information about Elmo and the swamp. ... If getting the information is going to take longer than that though, or it will delay us moving forward, I should probably just wait till after the moathouse.

Everyone--Here are the healing/protection items on the loot list... grab some, and take them along:

Cure Light Wounds wand (20)
Cure Moderate Wounds wand (8 charges)
2 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
Scroll of Cure Light Wounds (Divine, CL1)
Potion of Cure Light Wounds
Wand of Shield, with 18 charges remaining. The command word rune is kusela.
Silver Amulet of Natural Armor +1
Wand of Cure Light Wounds (32 charges)

Also some other stuff on there. Feel free to look, and put your name next to whatever you are using. We won't be able to sell a lot of stuff till we get to a bigger town anyway, so might as well use it.

You're the only one who can use the cure wands, Zokama. Divine scrolls are out of question, and Braggi will purchase a potion of lesser restoration since he's a bit fed up with having his abilities constantly damaged/penalised :P

Okay... well, grab some potions anyway. :)

Zokama secures all the healing wands to her bandolier so that they are easily accessible.

Kaaro eyes Braggi with boggled orbs as he presses her for exactitude.

”Err. Well. Spells of...mystic nature. I also can summon an otherworldly entity to fight with us. His name is Naghbakhakora. A fearsome creature, and a valuable ally...” she finishes, finally warming to the task.

Huh. No UMD for Kaaro. I guess it makes sense for her...If no-one else wants the Natural Armor amulet, Kaaro will use it, and she’d be wuite interested in the demonic dog whistle too...even if she can’t actually use it...

Musami has all he wants from the loot list.

Once Zokama is all geared up, she asks

Ready to head out?

Marked you down for the amulet and the whistle, Kaaro.

The day dawns warmer and brighter than it has in weeks, the air moist and thick. You quickly find yourselves sweating as you reach the crossroads near the moat house, one familiar track leading to the moat house, one overgrown path leading onward to the unknown.

The swamp is unusually quiet, the normal buzzing of insects, stray calls of water fowl, and infrequent splashes of unseen wetland beasts are absent, their absence sitting heavily upon you. It feels as though something dark, sinister, oppressive is breathing down your back, the hot dampness giving you shivers, leaving hairs standing on end. Something or someone is watching you.

Here on the doorstep of the moat house the realization that what is waiting below is waking, the darkness senses your coming, and if you don't end it now it will rise up, lash out, and all of Hommlet will bear the price of what must come.

Where do you go now?

We go to do what we must because we can. It is our duty to protect the town. Let's get this done with. and Musami moves inside.

Braggi groans at Musami's words, nodding and following him inside.

”How many times have you been to this place?” asks Kaaro, looking the structure up and down as they enter.

Zokama replies to Kaaro as they enter.

Me? Only once before.

Twice, three time. I have lost count.

As you approach the courtyard of the moat house you notice it has changed somewhat in the last few days. The area is thickly covered in a low carpet of pale white mushrooms, the dome like caps alternating in perpendicular fan blades or elongated tubular puffins.

The area is still and quite. The walls are also covered in shelf like brown lichens or fungal growths. It is devouring the stonework beneath it, causing bits and pieces sloughing downwards towards the ground.

The open and canted doors seem covered by a thick film of putrid green slime shot through with purple or blackened veins.

Something is amiss in the moat house, and it appears to be spreading.

Musami looks at the stonework walls. This looks to be unstable. Perhaps we should be a little cautious.

Anything I can notice with stone cunning or something?

The stonework is being eroded, but should be stable for several days at the current rate of consumption. Thinner stonework will collapse quicker than thicker, but floors, columns, and outer walls should be relatively safe yet.

Zokama enters, taking a look around to see if there are new dangers, even in areas that had been clear previously.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26 (+2 for traps)

Zokama sees nothing untowardly dangerous in the entry hall of the moat house, though several of the remaining rats are listlessly crawling about, their fur and bodies showing signs of moldy and fungal infections vaguely reminiscent of the changes which had affected the spiders in the grove. It is unclear how or why this sudden uncontrolled blossoming of molds, fungi, and other intrusive organisms has erupted over the moat house. It is almost as if something which had been barring their growth had suddenly failed, causing a hasty spread of the decay which had previously been slowly subsuming the structure.

The way down remains accessible, but the air is spotted here and there with clouds of spores and dusty webs now clogged with fungal puffballs.

Sword in hand, the hardened sailor enters the moat house, He looks everywhere, trying to discern whether the place has been used or transited since they cleared it several days ago.

Perception: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13

Perhaps if we leave it it will just sink into the ground and our problem will be solved? We wont be that lucky though, will we?

I think we consider too much the good luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm. FDR

Filnefillan stops in the entryway and casts Detect Magic, slowly scanning the large room beyond. The fungal growths all give off an extremely faint aura, not even enough glimmer to power a cantrip, but still enough to suggest that something is charging the masses, spurring on it's development. The stonework blocks any clear indication of what or where the source is, but it is most definitely somewhere "below".

Do you wish to head to...

A) The safe room you have previously camped within
B) The large chambers at either end of the ground floor to confirm how widespread the fungus has become
C) The jail cells below to check for any new prisoners
D) The lower level where you defeated the priestess
E) The crypt where you met the ghouls
F) The unexplored gnoll chambers the ghouls told you about
G) The hallway which the ghouls said leads to the evil priest Lareth and his score of minions
H) The excavation level which the ghouls had urged you to explore, even going so far as to offer help in your fight with the priest in charge of it

My preference is C, B, A, D, E (basically checking everything we checked before to make sure we aren't leaving something bad behind), and then F, G, H (unless Lareth was more dangerous than the excavation levels... I kind of want to do easy first, leading up to hard). What does everyone else think?

Filnefillan adjusts a scarf around his face and pulls his hood up over his long locks, despite the humid mugginess of the swampy air. He then pulls on a thin pair of mostly finger-less archery gloves and tests his grip upon his bow.

Any choice is fine with me, so long as we proceed with caution. I will follow up in the rear, listening for anything creeping along behind our progress.

I will follow where you lead Zokama. You are smarter than me. Musami then tears a strip of cloth from his shirt. He ties it over his nose and mouth before moving through the spore clouds.

"Checking what we cleared the other day seems smart, in case there are any changes" Braggi nods. "After that, we'll see."

Man, too many choices. I can't even decide which brand of cocoa at the shop... xD

Kaaro looks in wonder at the blooms of fungus, wide-eyed she follows her new companions, careful not to touch anything. She follows the elf in covering her mouth and nose with an impromptu bandana.

”I too follow, having never been here before...” comes a muffled voice from the monster hunter...

You check the safe room and the larger chambers on this level before proceeding down to the jailer cells. The fungal infestation seems to have spread throughout the area, the safe room with it's jumble of mismatched furnishings and bedding prompting a larger response. It seems the room provided a richer bounty of a sorts and more molds and toadstools propagate there than the other areas. It is no longer safe, and the air there is thicker with spores and growing puffballs.

Moving down to the jail area you find the slime patch at the base of the stairs is growing back, Filnefillan clutching at his chest momentarily as he seems it, the puddle on the ground quivering slightly as he approaches. The goo seems almost to remember him, and thickens to one side in his direction but is not otherwise motive.

The cells are empty of new occupants, aside from a growth of fungi, nearly as thick on this level as above. A clattering of sound, metal scrapping across wood then falling to the ground can be heard from the torture room, then falls silent.

Seeing all her companions wearing bandanas, Zokama raises her own scarf as well, trying to avoid breathing in the mold, wondering if she now looks like a bandit.

____

After hearing something in the torture room, Zokama gets her new bow ready and moves to a point where she can see inside the room.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (7) + 12 = 19

Due to a slight miss-read by me I now picture Zokama wearing a curved yellow fruit on her face.

Looking into the torture chamber Zokama sees one of the ghouls from the chambers below, half crawled out of a hidden passage within one of the room's columns. The thing is struggling to claw it's way fully out, a rusty dagger clattering against the stonework as it feebly moves. It's body is riddled with pustules of mold, stalks of fungi, and strange branching roots protruding at odd angles.

It appears the undead monstrosity is heavily infected by the same plague devouring the stones and structures of the moat house, though at a strangely advanced rate of progression.

Braggi shows some concern. "Eh... I guess we should do what we're supposed to do with much haste."

Nice. A plague that destroys undead. Strange though.

After hearing Braggi's comment, Zokama nods.

She shoots the ghoul anyway, both to prevent it from infecting or killing the party, and also, strangely, to put it out of its misery.

Want us to roll to kill it, or is it more of a story thing?

After it is dead, Zokama uses mage hand to examine the hidden passage.

Does it go somewhere? Can we use spark or something to clear away some of the mold? What roll would it take to know that? I'll try knowledge: nature, but this isn't exactly natural, so let me know if it is arcana or something else instead.

Knowledge Nature: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21

While normally a coup de grace would not risk immediate "death" for an undead, considering it's weakened condition I will allow the attack, roll a basic to hit against AC 10 and if successful roll the crit damage.

The secret chamber is actually a long downward shaft, rusty iron rungs and wooden support posts leading to somewhere below.

Attack: 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 8 + 1 = 21
Damage x3: 3d8 + 6 + 3 ⇒ (1, 5, 2) + 6 + 3 = 17

Okay, yeah, trying to clear away the mold with fire isn't going to work if the support posts are wooden. How about plain old Prestidigitation to clean it up enough that we don't have to touch it as we climb down?

Prestidigitation would work, but it would be slow going as it would not clean as large a surface area as might say Burning Hands et al. As long as you are not in a hurry and move with patience it could clear the passage.

The ghoul looks up at Zokama, it's glassy black eyes almost thankful as she ends it's existence. It seemed to gesture to her as her arrow struck, a move similar to the praying and subservient manner of the ghouls you encountered previously.

Zokama wants to go down the secret passage... what say the rest of you?

"We're here to unveil secrets, actually, so..."