Luke's Crimson Throne Campaign

Game Master GM Crimson

By Kayleigh's memory, the grotto was a large chamber. The chasm that it bridged extended beyond sight both up and down. The chamber was larger on this side of the bridge than on the other. And there was a statue along the right-hand wall, not far into the room. And a pillar of natural flow somewhere ahead as well.

Hahaha. Crap yeah, that was made during a crippling hangover. I do not have a second attack (treated readied action like an AoO) so second post is null and void.

That does mean that I rolled three 1s in a row though. Epic. 1 in 8000 odds.

That does mean that I rolled three 1s in a row though. Epic. 1 in 8000 odds.

A few folks win the lottery; the rest of us roll 3 (or more) natural 1s in a row.

Emi waits, then asks again for direction from anyone willing to give it.

Gotta say I've no real idea what to do. Without some direct contact from an enemy, Emi has no basis for knowing what might be a legitimate target or friendly fire. She'd essentially be swinging randomly.

<darkest dungeon voice>Discretion is sometimes the better part of valor!</darkest dungeon voice>

Unsure how to proceed, most of the party stands at guard and tries to make sense of the sounds in front of them. Nebbin takes another wild swing at one of his attackers but fails to connect. Regeris stabs out at the cutting dark but also fails to find a target.

With whispers and grunts the unseen assailants renew their attacks. A slicing blade catches Regeris on the armpit, spreading firey tendrils of pain into his chest. 8 hp damage, and another save v poison is due.

Nebbin is again assaulted from both sides, keeping the big warrior off-balance. One of the attacks lands as a blade is jabbed into Nebbin's forearm. 5 hp of damage and another fortitude save v poison from Nebbin as well.

Everyone gets to act. Nebbin and Regeris have perceived enemies.

Angry Darkness 18+
Regeris 18
Tassira 18
Emileva 15
Nebbin 14
Kayleigh 10

Poison: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 5 + 2 = 25

Regeris takes another hit but thankfully manages to fight off more of the poison. "Tactical retreat! This is not our fight!"

Since Regeris is in melee he'll wait for the others to pull back before full withdrawl. Switching judgement to protection. +2 AC.

Fort save: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (4) + 7 = 11

Nebbin swings again and tries to back up the way he came as Regeris calls for the retreat. Which will likely provoke.

Mwk greatsword, power attack: 1d20 + 11 - 2 + 1 - 1 ⇒ (9) + 11 - 2 + 1 - 1 = 18
Damage: 2d6 + 12 - 1 ⇒ (4, 5) + 12 - 1 = 20
Miss chance?: 1d100 ⇒ 92

Again, just utterly crap rolls.

Kayleigh turns and heads back up the stairs when Regeris sounds the retreat.

Tassira starts to back out at Regeris' order.

Right--going to need some way to see in the dark before coming back down here. Should be a spell I can get my hands on--does Helvara have something like that?

"...they centered it on themselves." Tassira's eyes widen. "Clever."

How narrow is the stairway, again? We might be able to more effectively take them on if they can't flank.

Regeris and Nebbin would be in the front since they held the line before stepping back so I think it's Kayleigh in the back as the first to retreat?

Regeris and Nebbin would be in the front since they held the line before stepping back so I think it's Kayleigh in the back as the first to retreat?

I think 'front' is the new 'back,' and the DM is asking whether you or Nebbin want to eat all the forthcoming attacks while guarding the others' retreat.

I think that's the plan! The action I had in mind is Kayleigh, Tassira, and Emi pull back and Regeris uses his action to do a full withdrawl although try not to entirely abandon Nebbin.

Kayleigh rushes back up the steps as the darkness chases her.

She'll warn Helvara & Co. of the threat if she gets that far.

Emi picks up her pace when she notices the darkness is advancing. She also calls back to let those still inside it know what's happening.

"The magical darkness is moving also. Be quick to get outside it! Be aware the source of the magic is still moving toward you!"

I assume Nebbin was the farthest back.

Nebbin's expression is lost to the darkness, but he does his best to retreat with the others. If everyone's pulled back, he'll full withdrawal too, but making sure to stay further back than all the girls.

The darkness follows the ladies almost to the top of the winding stairs. Kayleigh finds the refuse room at the top as it was left just minutes ago. The door to the basement hall is held ajar by a rock doorstop.

Emi pauses for a moment with the wavering edge of the darkness effect just steps away, trying to make sense of shouts and stumbles echoing up to her from below. She catches bloody Regeris and then bloodier Nebbin as they stumble into the magical light and regain their own senses of sight.

The line of the darkness settles down, wavering nearer and then farther by small degrees. Finally, it recedes beyond the limit of Tassira's light and is lost.

Nebbin tries to inspect himself to see how badly he's hurt, but it's not too much.

"Now what?" he asks. "Maybe we should stand guard here and then come back tomorrow with better lights?"

The wounds are cuts made by blades. That much is evident.

A hand pushes the basement door open. Lefty's frightened face peeks into the crack.

"Is that you guys?" he asks. "D-Did you kill 'em? The bees?"

Twitching from the poison, Regeris tersely shakes his head. "No, need to re-evaluate how we approach that. What are those things? We couldn't see anything in the darkness."

Emi takes a look at the location of the wounds on Nebbin and Regeris, especially the height. She thinks making some inferences about their physical dimensions might help narrow down just exactly what they've tangled with. She asks about the strength of the blows "How forceful were the attacks? Heavy blows? Quick jabs?"

"Did anyone hear any sounds from them at all? We also know they use poisons and at least some use magic. They are intelligent..."

K Dungeoneering: "What are those things?"1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19

"I was thinking it might be more derro," Kayleigh comments uncertainly. "The ones we fought in the Shoanti tunnels had little crossbows, though."

At Nebbin's comment about having better lights for a potential rematch, the cleric's shoulders slump. "I can prepare such a spell, but it'll mean one less remove disease spell for the sick and dying...or one less lesser restoration spell do deal with the blood veil's aftermath...and this latest round of poisoning."

One thing the weary priestess can do, however, is treat the wounds of Nebbin and Regeris, so she quietly channels positive energy.

Channel Positive Energy #1 of 7: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 2) = 10

The attacks did seem to come from down low. It seems plausible they could be derro, though these attackers maintained silence during their ambush. Nebbin couldn't say if the susurrations he heard in the dark were words. If they were, they were in a language he's never heard before. The blows came as quick, slashing attacks.

"I think that's OK," Nebbin says. "We don't have enough magic to help everyone in the city, so we need to do something else to make things better. Otherwise, it's just going to get worse, right? Helping one more sick person probably won't be enough..."

Kayleigh turns toward Nebbin when he speaks, and her countenance is angry! A moment later, though, it softens to frustration and finally to a sad resignation.

"I guess you're right," she mutters. "Let's just pray we don't lose a loved one or friend because I chose not to concentrate on fighting the blood veil."

"There might still be a way to work around the darkness." Tassira ponders. "Maybe there's a scroll of darkvision lying around somewhere... assuming you've all got some time to kill."

"Can you do that?" Nebbin asks, thinking the powerful sorceress might be able to produce just such a spell, which would mean Kayleigh could keep helping people and not be angry at him.

I guess we have time to run out and try to find one...

"I should be able to. It'll take me a couple of hours to learn the spell once we find a scroll, but I can pull it off."

"...or, we could just find a few scrolls and I could use them on you, Regeris and Emi."

"...or some potions."

Emi agrees with Kayleigh. "Derro is my guess too. They're short enough to match up with Nebbin and Regeris being wounded lower on the body. Some of them use magic. I've no better ideas."

Now they're out of immediate danger, Emi feels the frustration of the last few days returning again. Once again no end, just more complications and delays.

"If it will work to let us see in the magical darkness, and not just regular darkness, let's go see if we can find a way to get the spell, and if we can afford it."

"I can memorize a daylight spell tomorrow morning," Cheapskate Kayleigh chimes in, always trying to save a copper piece. "Or, if Tassira can find a scroll, I suppose we could go to her parents' manor afterwards. She can try to learn the spell there while I take a look at her mom...and maybe ask her why she had a crystal ball in her bed the last time we saw her. She might know more about these shiver dreams than she let on previously."

Nebbin grinds his teeth. Though he doesn't realize Emi's feeling the same thing, he wants to be able to accomplish something. It seems like no matter what they try, they never get anywhere. They're so close, but it feels like they're still so far away.

Sounds like we're stuck waiting until tomorrow.

Lefty looks at the door uneasily as it closes behind the last of you.

"Do you think whatever you guys just fought down there might come out?"

He stands there with his worried expression and then blurts out another question.

"You don't think whatever is down there could be connected to Darien's death, do you?"

It occurs to you that Lefty's the one who found Darien this morning.

"Yes to your first question; keep this door locked and guarded if possible!" Kayleigh tells the man. "As to the second question...I'm not certain but I don't think so. I believe you may have bad neighbors below but I'm not convinced they ventured up into the building to work any mischief or murder."

But I've been wrong before....

Tassira pauses as Lefty asks the question.

She then takes a closer look at him, trying to read him.

Sense Motive?: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (18) + 9 = 27

...did he have something to do with this?

Lefty seems rattled. Scared and possibly suffering the lingering effects of the emotional shock he got this morning. If he's false, he's selling it well.

"Bad neighbors below..." he repeats to himself, shaking his head.

"Anpugit's right! This place probably is cursed. The attic and the basement are haunted. The rooms infected with plague and drug-fueled madness!"

Hearing Lefty, Helvara comes back down the steps.

"Hey! What's happening here?" She manages a weak smile for the party but then quickly senses from the stress in the room that things did not go as planned beyond the basement door.

"Well, we could wait ten minutes or so for the darkness spell to expire and try again," Kayleigh comments, "but if whatever's down there can cast it multiple times, we'll likely just get the same result. If we can find Tassira a daylight or darkvision spell on a scroll and she can add it to her repertoire, I'm fine with that. But we should likely do the prep work at her parents' manor so I can check on her mom, while we're sort of in the neighborhood."

"We ran into some darkness, and something attacked us down there," Nebbin explains to Helvara. "Maybe let's wait 10 minutes and try to go back down. I don't think it's haunted, but maybe they won't be able to do that again? It's easier to wait 10 minutes while we're here than go somewhere else and then come back."

I think that's worth a try.

Knowledge Local: 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (20) + 9 = 29

Regeris has remained uncharacteristically silent on the matter before speaking up. "Derro is a good thought. This may not be as unrelated as we thought - Rolth's lair had derro in it, and the experiments they were doing may be tied to all of this. Rather than some sort of grand ethereal evil plaguing the city there may be something more mundane like some grand derro experiment."

Going for some esoteric derro lore. Do they have much to do with dreams? Can they all cast darkness spells? Basically how much does the shoe fit?

"Helvara." Tassira looks back where they just came from before approaching her.

"Kayleigh is correct--there's something down there that has a fondness for darkness spells and sharp objects. Unless we have a way to counteract those darkness spells, our efforts to cleanse the basement will be considerably more difficult."

"Do you happen to have any darkvision scrolls or potions lying about? Or could you perhaps point us to someone who can provide such things?"

Helvara looks to Tassira with a blank expression, head shaking in the negative. She replies in a whisper, though anyone standing nearby can hear.

"You're the only wizard I know! If you can't fix it... oh, I should never have bought this place! No wonder it was so cheap!"

The only decent places to find scrolls in Old Korvosa are up in Garrison Hill. Across the bridges, in the city proper you can still find just about anything you want - with the possible exception of remove disease scrolls.

The derro you encountered in the Mausoleum in the Gray were small, darkness-loving monsters, just like these. Kayleigh's already noted the lack of crossbows this time as a difference. They do have the ability to create darkness. It seems to Regeris like there was also a difference in smell between the two. There's a musty dankness about these latest enemies that you don't remember with the derros. Like old garbage or moldy rags. Maybe it was the presence of all the dead stuff everywhere in the necromancers tunnels that masked this subtler stench.

Still settled on a second attempt down the steps?

"Alright. Let's give it another try. But his time if we find a point where out light won't penetrate the darkness, we just back out. No point in getting punctured again to learn the same lesson."

OK with me. Kayleigh will stay toward the back, maybe just in front of Tassira.

Regeris grits his teeth. "Fair enough, we can see how many of these spells they have. Does somebody have a wand of curing by any chance?"

Regeris is at 14/28. Anyone got a CLW juice box?

Tassira sighs. "Alright--gonna have to do this the old-fashioned way."

She fishes Ravnos out of her backpack. "Ravnos? Buddy? You're gonna have to help us sniff those darkness-wielders out, okay? You think you're up for it?"

The calico tabby gives Tassira an unimpressed look. "Meow mew."

The cat hops out of the mage's arms. "Mew grrowr meow!"

@Regeris: I believe you missed This Healing Channel, so he should be at 24/28. Kayleigh can easily heal him to full if you'd like.

Nebbin hefts his sword, ready to descend again to the darkness. I'm still down 9 hp if we want to do another channel or CLW.

Nah, the -4 is good. Who doesn't dig scars?

Regeris blinks as he remembers Tassira's cat. "Sending Ravnos up ahead is an excellent idea. Above all, we need information and maybe he can see what we can't."

After closely examining Regeris and Nebbin, Kayleigh decides that a second healing channel is in order. After all, it doesn't make sense to head into another potential ambush without being at or near full strength.

The cleric squats to scratch Ravnos behind the ears. "You be careful, too," she adds with a nervous smile.

Channel Positive Energy #2 of 7: 3d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 5) = 13

Sending Ravnos ahead only lets Tassira use her empathic link to leverage the cat's impressions. She's just as blind in the total darkness of underground (and also in magical darkness) as everyone else, but scent does entitle her to detect the presence of a smell and direction to it (with a move action). Exact locations only come when the enemies are in adjacent squares, a marginal advantage in combat that might not justify exposing her to being killed or taken in the dark. Given these limitations, my post assumes she's not very far ahead of the party. Just far enough to maximize her low-light vision in the dim light zone provided by the party's spells.

Led by Ravnos the intrepid, the party threads its way back down the steps. Maybe half-way down, Ravnos alerts on a stench of mildew and rot coming up from the darkness ahead. The scent of the creatures you just fought.