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Session thirty four was a week ago and lasted five and a half hours.
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After spending some time mending their wounds, the party sends Rocco and Thade down the passage after the guard. Moving silently, they discover the passage opens into a larger room after a short while, and in this room are a group of giants with their faces painted white like skulls, waiting in ambush. Rocco and Thade fall back to the party to discuss next steps.
It is decided that the best course of action is to sneak back to the chamber where the giants are located and attack. The party does so, and manages to get the drop on most of the giants. Tade turns invisible and lashes out with his chain whip. Rocco fires from the rear, filling the giants with many arrows. Virgil steps to the fore, exchanging blows and receiving a big swing in return from one of the giants, pushing him back to the rear of the party. Zol dodges rocks thrown at him while blasting the giants with electric arc over and over again. Mym considers using her most powerful magic, but realizes she is likely to damage Thade in the process (whom she cannot see as he is invisible), so she stands back and takes her cue from Zol, blasting the giants with cantrips.
Slowly but surely, the giants are slain, and though they fight to the death, they are brought down without too much trouble from the party. After the carnage, the party finds nothing of value, but there is some unknown meat on a spit roasting over a fire in front of an opening that leads out to the quarry pit to their east. Seeing the shadow giant still in the quarry tending to his fire, the party decides to press on, still searching for Barushak and his commander, Laslunn.
In the next chamber, Rocco discovers a group of undead cave bears eating the corpse of the guard who fled from them earlier. Immediately smelling Rocco, the undead bears move to attack, and Rocco falls back to the party for cover and support. The bears prove to be a very minor distraction, and even when the last bear manages to grab Virgil in a tight bear hug, it is dispatched with relative ease.
The chamber which the bears were guarding is a strange one indeed. There are images of bears carved on the wall to the south, flanking an open passageway, through which Rocco’s keen ears detect the faint sound of stone scraping on stone. Though another passage leads north, and the party suspects it leads towards Barushak, they decide to investigate the sounds to the south so as not to leave anything surprising to their rear.
In the chamber ahead they find what Thade recognizes as a shrine to Minderhal, the evil smith god of giants. Flanking the entrance are two more giants, and scribing on a stone tablet is another giant - this one lacking flesh and with two points of blue light in its orbital sockets. Not knowing what this is, but knowing that it is an immensely powerful being, the group decides to parlay with it.
Speaking in Necril, Mym greets the being and Thade presents a holy symbol of Asmodeus, hoping to deceive the ominous figure into thinking that they are, if not allies, then certainly not a threat. The party’s interrogator seems convinced, and seems to know that the party is at the quarry to kill Laslunn. He tells them that he will leave them be, provided they do not disturb his work and that they leave Laslunn’s corpse for him when they are done. The party agrees, figuring that they do not want to cross this being, and leaves the room, with Thade rushing Virgil out before he does something rash that endangers them all.
Headin down the other passage to the north, the party soon turns towards the east, and they figure they are now on the far side of the aurry from when they first arrived. The passage opens into a larger room, with three other exits. This room appears to be some sort of alchemical laboratory, and there are several Triad agents here, along with another alchemical golem. Mym strides into the room, confidently trying to deceive the Triad into thinking they are allies, but the Triad does not fall for her deception and moves to attack.
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We finally had a month with two game sessions! However, this only happened because April had five weekends and we played on the first and fifth Saturdays. Still, I am counting this a win since our last two-session month was all the way back in June of 2021, sessions twenty two and twenty three.
I had fun roleplaying Jaggaki the lich, and the party was very intimidated by him, as they all critically failed their knowledge checks to identify him. I will let them avoid fighting Jaggaki entirely, as I suspect they will have a hard fight against Laslunn since Barushak is with her. However, if the party gets through the rest of the quarry without much trouble I may have Jaggaki encounter them again. Since they agreed to leave Laslunn's body for the lich after they kill her, I plan on having Jaggaki turn Laslunn or Barushak into some form of undead, perhaps a ghost, for the party to encounter at some point down the line, provided Jaggaki does not attack them in the quarry when they are done with Laslunn.
Rocco and Thade also critically failed their knowledge checks to identify the giants, so we ended up joking that they think they're skull giants, and that's how I referred to them the rest of the session. One good thing about my players is they are pretty good about separating PC and player knowledge, so we have fun with failed checks like these.
As usual, my session notes can be found here, with photos. Regretfully I didn't take any photos of the fight against the undead bears, as I have some cool minis I bought on Etsy for this fight. Maybe they'll fight some again if they once again encounter Jaggaki.
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Session thirty five was on Saturday and lasted five and a half hours.
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Thade leaps to attack with dimensional assault, lashing out at the Triads with his bastard sword. Zol decides to bide his time, waiting for an opportunity to strike when the time is optimal. Virgil and Mym join Thade in engaging the Triads up close, and Rocco does as he always does and fills them with arrows.
Soon the Triads are on the defensive, attempting to run as they are cut down one by one. But the golem advances without concern, striking Mym with an acid needle and doing terrible damage to her in the process. It continues its assault, even as Thade strikes it hard enough to destroy its poison reservoir and Virgil follows suit, rupturing its acid reservoir. The resulting explosion as the golem is destroyed turns out to be too much for Mym to bear and she drops to the ground, covered with acid burns over her entire body. Thade is quick to offer her healing as Rocco kills the last Triad as he attempts to flee down the corridor to the east. As Virgil takes time to tend to Mym’s wounds and Rocco takes a look around at the various alchemical items scattered about, Zol and Thade head north to an adjacent chamber.
Zol encounters a man sitting serenely on a couch, casually reading a book in a room that is far too opulent for its location. Tapestries cover the walls and lush rugs the floor, and a finely crafted gameboard of Imperial Conquest sits atop a table by the couch. The seated man greets Zol, asking if he was involved in the commotion he heard in the adjacent room. Not trusting this man in the slightest, Zol speaks with the man, trying to suss out who he is and why he is here amidst the Triad.
The man invites Zol to take a look at the game board and asks him what he thinks of the situation for the red player. Taking a close look Zol sees that the only possible outcome for the game is a draw, and also notes that the shadows cast by some of the black pieces are flickering, though there is no source of open flame in the room to make them dance. Now even more suspicious, Zol tells the man the game must end in a draw and walks across the room to inspect some tapestries. The man tells Zol that is a shame, and says he sees a move that can be taken, reaching for the board as he does so. His hands brushes the table hard and knocks it over, scattering pieces to the floor. As this happens the shadows from two of the black pieces rise up threateningly and reach out their black claws, grasping for Thade.
Zol uses his grim trophy in an attempt to intimidate the man into giving up any idea he may have about violence. This angers the man, and he casts dominate to take control of Zol’s mind. Helpless to resist, Zol finds himself casting disintegrate and magic missile at Mym as she enters the room to assist. She survives this assault and casts blessing of defiance to bolster her allies’ minds. Rocco fires arrows at the strange man as he takes cover behind Zol. Thade is assaulted on two sides as the shadows tear and claw at him, draining his life and eventually succeeding at clawing away his very shadow, which rises up to attack its former master! Weak from this assault, Thade is in trouble and is ecstatic to see Virgil stride up to the shadows and begins striking them down with his machete, seemingly unfazed by their incorporeality.
Still under mental control, Zol cats disintegrate once again, this time on Thade. The man cackles as he manipulates his puppet into fireballing his allies, while also casting his own spells to harass the party. He tries to dominate Virgil also, but thanks to Mym’s blessing he is able to resist, and retains control of his mind while continuing to strike at the shadows.
Rocco fires arrow after arrow at the man, which seems to hurt him, unlike several other strikes by his allies; the man must have some sort of resistance to physical damage, yet arrows hurt him just fine. Mym continues to battle the man with her magic, using haunting hymn to assault his mind sonically. Eventually Zol manages to break free of the mental control. But succumbs once again after the man casts dominate yet again. Zol can do naught but watch as his magic is used against his friends as he helplessly watches on in horror.
The man’s eyes flash green and visions of an orangutan-headed man eating elven babies fills Zol’s mind. Mym sees the same, and Rocco sees dwarven babies eaten in such a fashion. Realizing that this man is not human, the party redoubles their effort to stop him. The shadows fall one by one to Virgil’s machete, and Thade is grateful for the help, though he is so weakened he can barely hold himself up and his blows on the man do not hurt him.
With the shadows defeated, the man is slowly but surely brought down, though he goes fighting the entire time. As he is slain by Mym’s mental assault, his body changes as it falls, his heading becoming that of an orangutan and his hands seemingly on his arms backwards. Thade and Mym realize this man was actually a rakshasa, the reason they started investigating the Scarlet Triad in the first place. It takes some time after the rakshasa’s death, but eventually Zol comes to his senses, horrified by what he was forced to do. Almost defeated, the party takes stock of their situation, too hurt to move further into the cavern complex but also unsure if they can safely rest and recover.
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I don't think my text above fully gets across just how dire the situation was for the party. Had Mym not cast her blessing to boost everyone's Will save by 4, Virgil would have failed his save versus dominate and then the party would truly have been in trouble. Virgil's AC is sky high and he would have been able to slowly whittle the party down as the remaining members would be attacked by two of their own. I had Zol's player roll to see who he attacked each time he cast a spell, since I didn't want to seem biased. Had he cast disintegrate on Thade, Thade would have really been in trouble, since the first roll of the day for him was a critical failure and he decided to use his background benefit for the first time, prophecy's pawn. This enabled him to reroll his d20 but also means I can force him to reroll another d20 sometime in the next 24 in-game hours, which I absolutely would have done had he been targeted by a disintegrate. Thade's player is the DM in our group's 5e game and he disintegrated my PC a while back, so it would be karmic justice for the same to happen to his PC (which he fully expected to happen if Zol rolled his number for targeting).
The shadows really did a number on Thade, he was enfeebled 5 by the end of the fight, basically removing any chance for him to succeed with melee strikes. The party is lucky Rocco wasn't dominated, as he did the most damage since Vaklish the rakshasa was not resistance to piercing damage.
As beaten up as the party is, they are contemplating resting for a night, and even doing so in Laslunn's chamber, not knowing she is just on the other side of a curtain to the east, with her velstrac interlocutor and Barushak as well. They are definitely in a very bad spot, and if they try to camp without leaving the quarry things will probably go very badly for them, as Laslunn or even Jaggaki would very likely attack them in the night.
We should finish book three in our next session, after starting it one year ago in session twenty one. As usual, my session notes can be found here, with photos.
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Session thirty six was on Saturday and lasted five and a half hours.
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Mym sends her spider Pavel into the room beyond the curtain to see if they can safely rest where they currently are. Unfortunately for Pavel, he is immediately spotted by the occupants of the room: Barusha, a velstrac interlocutor and Laslunn herself. Pavel attempts to flee immediately down a tunnel near the floor on the south wall, but Laslunn is faster and fires a flaming arrow into Pavel just before he disappears down the tunnel. Mym, having projected her senses into Pavel, knows they are right outside the room where Laslunn is, so the party decides to fall back immediately.
Hurt as they are, they decide to leave the quarry to regroup and recover. The party meets no resistance as they leave the quarry, and after traveling a few hours down the road they initially came up, they leave the road, following Rocco’s lead into the trees to set up camp for the night. Concerned that someone, or something, might pursue them from the quarry, they do not start a fire for the night, as they have winter clothing for most of them, and Rocco gratefully accepts a winter wolf elixir from Mym to keep him warm during the night.
After a rest, the party awakens before dawn, to head back to the quarry to see if Laslunn remains there. As they get back to the road, Rocco notices that something large tracked them down the road, but his skills as a ranger were enough to hide their tracks when they left the road, so their pursuer continued on, then eventually doubled back and seems to have returned to the quarry. Staying alert for a potential ambush, the party continues on in the darkness, Virgil being led by Mym as he cannot see in the dark.
It is not long before Rocco spots the shadow giant Aadrushian from the quarry hiding amongst the trees, right as he throws a rock that crashes into Virgil. The party takes cover, with Rocco returning fire from his bow and Zol taking shots with his magic. Mym and Thade take cover off the road and Virgil is left on his own against the incoming rocks. Eventually Thade and Virgil close on the giant, and it is dispatched after it deals out some punishment to Thade and Virgil. Mym uses her medical skill on the party before they resume their trek back to the quarry.
The party reaches the quarry with no further incident, and they see that there is no one in the center of the quarry, so they realize the giant they just slew was the same one that was hanging out in the middle of the quarry. Making their way silently down the corridors once again, they come across the skull giants. Greeting them, the giants tell them that their boss wants to see them. Gathering their nerve, the party once again enters the shrine to Minderhal to see the undead giant.
“You slew Aadrushian, yet Laslunn lives” the giant says in Necril as they enter. Thade manages to convince the giant that they are on their way to kill Laslunn now, and will fulfill their promise of leaving her corpse afterward for him to do with as he pleases. “I will be watching” the giant tells the party as they respectfully leave the shrine. Zol realizes that the giant must be scrying on them, and advises the party that they should be careful not to do anything to betray the giant, as he will likely know immediately.
Unsure if Laslunn would remain when Pavel first encountered her, the party once again sends Pvel to investigate, this time creeping up through the tunnel that he initially escaped down. Once again the room is occupied and once again Pavel is spotted immediately. Laslunn pulls a level on the control panel against the northeast wall, and suddenly hidden sluices open up and the lake that was being held back by them starts pouring into the room. Pavel is flushed down the tunnel into the quarry as the water churns in the control room and pours continuously down the tunnels. Mym, once again perceiving through Pavel’s senses, tells the party that Laslunn is present and ready to fight, and that the water is likely to flood the quarry and drown the occupants of the pits in its center, which Pavel discovers are slaves as he is washed down with the water.
Springing into action, Rocco leaps down from the cave mouth and into the quarry, landing gracefully and immediately sprints for the pits, intending to free the captives before they drown. Virgil and Thade charge towards the control room while Mym and Zol hang back and provide cover with their magic.
The interlocutor stands on the stairs into the control room, blocking access to it and slashing at Thade and Virgil with its claws. Laslunn fires arrows with deadly accuracy, the arrowheads bursting into flame as soon as the arrow leaves the bow. Barushak hangs back and uses his magic to the best of his ability, though Zol is successful in countering some of his magic. Seeing how deadly Laslunn is with her arrows, Zol conjures a wall of wind to thwart her attempts to target the party. Though the magical wind is successful in preventing Laslunn from firing arrows at the party, it is ineffective at preventing the water from flowing down into the quarry where Pavel and Rocco are. The control room does fill with churning water to shin height, making it difficult to move through.
Virgil hacks at the interlocutor with his machete, though he sees himself in its flesh, temporarily throwing him off. Soon enough the wounds he inflicts on the interlocutor start stitching themselves up, erasing the effort he has put into slaying this fiend.
Down in the quarry Pavel starts picking the lock on the nearest pit, just as Rocco arrives and uses his skeleton key to do the same.
Dismayed at the magic preventing her attacks, Laslunn barks a command at Barushak to magically move them to the other side of the wall. Barushak complies with collective transposition, which enables the two of them to teleport to the other side of the magical wind. Unfortunately for them, Thade and Virgil resist the effects of the spell, and Virgil twists the magic to teleport him closer to the control panel, intending to shut it down. Thade also twists Barushak’s intent and places himself right next to Barushak, intending to strike him down with his magical chain.
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Even though the party is split (with Rocco down in the quarry attempting to free the slaves) and Virgil apparently disengaging in order to stop the water flow, things are looking decent for the party, considering this is a severe encounter. The wall of wind Zol casts really did a number on Laslunn, effectively preventing her from attacking for two rounds. Laslunn and Barushak are now in position to unleash their full might, however, so things may take a turn for the worse for the party. Rocco is also in for a surprise, as there are yet more members of the Triad at the quarry whom the party has yet to encounter, but will soon join the fray.
We should finish up book three in our next session, after playing it for almost a year (sixteen sessions for this book so far).
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session thirty seven was on Saturday and lasted five hours.
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As Rocco begins unlocking the cages in the quarry to free the captives, a hail of arrows starts falling on him. Ignoring the danger to himself even as several arrows strike him, Rocco doggedly continues working on the locks, desperate to get the captives free before the water rises above the level of the pits and drowns them.
Also worried about the captives drowning, Virgil makes his way to the sluice gate control panel and sees that there is no easy way to close the sluices. So he begins smashing the gates with his sword, attempting to jam the sluice back into a closed position. His progress is steady but slow, and the water continues to flow into the quarry, filing the pits.
Zol casts globe of invulnerability to protect himself from Barushak, and is rushed by the interlocutor, which proceeds to slice him to ribbons, though his mirror image protects him from several attacks. Using vampiric exsanguination, he manages to drain a bit of life from both the interlocutor and barushak, gaining some of it for himself. Pressed by the interlocutor, he roots it in place with impaling spike, buying himself some time to fall back a bit. This is not enough to save him though, as the interlocutor tears itself free from the spike and advances once again, this time smashing Zol to the ground, leaving him bleeding and dying on the floor.
Thade slashes Barushak with his chain, pursuing him about the room as Barushak desperately tries to get out of his reach. For his efforts, Thade is rewarded with a cone of cold right in his face, with Mym also being caught in its chilling blast. Thade returns the favor to Barushak, striking him down as he retreats to a corner of the room.
Mym moves through the room, her sanctuary temporarily confusing Laslunn’s attempts to shoot her. The interlocutor is not confused though, and strikes her down as she attempts to cast a spell.
Alone in the room with Laslunn and the interlocutor, Thade draws his wand of vampiric exsanguination and drains the life from both foes, killing the interlocutor. Thus rejuvenated, Thade advances on Laslunn, who falls back into the still-present globe of invulnerability to protect herself from Thade’s magic.
Virgil manages to break all the sluice gates, stopping the flow of water. Angered that Laslunn would drown the captives so callously, he advances on Laslunn with his sword at the ready. As Laslunn continues to fall back from his advance, firing arrows all the while, Virgil reaches Zol, still bleeding out in the globe of invulnerability, and restores him with his healer’s gloves.
Thade reaches Mym and revives her with an elixir of life, just as Laslunn unleashes another barrage of arrows, dropping Zol once again and Virgil as well.
The Triad snipers that had been firing upon Rocco are shot at in return as Rocco has succeeded in unlocking all of the gates covering the pits. The snipers retreat down the tunnel, outgunned by Rocco and looking to back up their boss.
Mym reaches Zol just as he bleeds out, but uses breath of life to prevent his death. Lying in a puddle of his own blood, Zol casts disintegrate on Laslunn, reducing her to a pile of ash. Seeing their boss defeated, the remaining Triad snipers attempt to flee, but are chased down and slain by the party, with Thade summoning an air elemental to assist. Broken and almost defeated, the party gathers their strength and sighs in relief. Their ordeal is over, for now.
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This was an amazing session! If I was writing this story as a movie script, I could scarcely have made it more dramatic.
The party was almost down for the count, with three of them gaining the dying condition at least once (Zol twice!), and Zol's life only being saved by Mym after she scrambled to get inside the globe so that her magic could work if he failed to stabilize (the party had long ago used all of their Hero Cards). The dice were on their side, however, as both the velstrac interlocutor and Laslunn critically failed their saves versus Thade's vampiric exsanguination, buying him a bit more time as he was healed for 52 HP. Laslunn also critically failed her save versus Zol's disintegrate, amazingly. I used the same d20 for all three rolls, and they all came up 1. I think I will save this d20 for further use only in the most dramatic moments, as it now has a special place in this game.
The players were all on the edge of their seats, with things looking very grim up until the very end. None of them had enough hit points to survive another arrow from Laslunn, let alone a critical, which she was dropping on them with ease.
Zol's player was pacing around my kitchen, and shouted in joy as I revealed the result of the die roll for Laslunn's final save. I sat there in shock for a few moments, processing what transpired. I thought for sure this was going to be a TPK, but Desna apparently saw otherwise.
The captives were also saved, the water finally stopping just four inches from the top, and Rocco was able to help them get out of the cages.
So after two and a half years of irregular playing, we are halfway done with this campaign. I estimate we'll finish some time in early 2055. As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session thirty eight was three weeks ago, and I just now got around to writing up my notes. It lasted six hours.
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With the defeat of Laslunn, the party gathers up the folks recently freed from bondage and head out of the quarry. Back in Whiterock, most of these folks head off to their farms from which they were abducted, but a few travel with the party back to Kintargo.
Reporting back to Nolly, the party is thanked by the Bellflower Network as well as Lady Docur and Halleka Shadeborn, the Nidalese ambassador. Since the party has recovered documents indicating that Laslunn’s boss is on the other side of Jewelgate and is planning an assault on Alseta’s Ring, the party decides to head back to Breachill to launch a preemptive attack. After several weeks of rest and recovery from their ordeal at the Quarry, the party is ready to depart Breachill once again to take on the Scarlet Triad.
Using the Eye of the Wise discovered at the Quarry, Mym opens the Jewelgate portal and the party steps through, finding themselves in a dusty chamber filled with strange crystalline structures. Sitting at a desk reading a book in the ghostly figure of an elven woman. When Mym approaches her, the apparition greets her in Elven, introducing herself as Talamira. The ghostly woman seems confused, and repeats herself after a few sentences regardless of what is said to her/.
Paying her no mind, several of the party approach the crystals after noticing them humming faintly. Much to their chagrin, the crystals start vibrating violently, causing some distress to the party, and enraged at the intrusion on her crystals, Talamira attacks the party, using both magic and her telekinetic powers to hurl razor-sharp shards of crystals around the room.
While Zol tries unsuccessfully to intimidate the ghost, Rocco, Thade and Virgil discover a way to disable the crystals by placing objects just so, to interfere with their resonating. Once this is done, Talamira fades into nothingness, the power that had captured her soul depleted from the crystals. As she departs, she thanks the party for helping her along to the afterlife.
Traveling through the other portal beyond the crystals, the party finds themselves in a large cavern, with more curious crystals growing out of the walls, floor and ceiling of the chamber. As the party moves through the chamber in single file, they are startled when several of the crystal formations move towards them and attack.
Moving faster than any crystal has a right to, one clump of them engulfs Mym, trapping her within its body. Virgil acts quickly though, and is able to free her immediately. The rest of the party attacks, finding their attacks not doing much damage, but Zol blasts them with lightning and Mym does the same with sonic, doing break damage to the crystals. Unfortunately for Thade, he is not quick enough on his feet and one of the crystals engulfs him also, but fortunately he is able to use his magic to escape its grasp, attacking it in the process. As Virgil hacks at another crystal, he shatters it so devastatingly that it splits into two, and continues its assault.
Steering clear of the crystals on the walls, the party is able to destroy the crystals little by little, dodging out of their way as they move to engulf them again. Once the crystals are defeated, ther party searches the chamber and finds a magic staff, clearly left behind by a previous victim of the crystals.
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Most of the session was spent taking care of downtime activities, with the party retraining feats and scribing spells into their spellbooks. All in all they took three weeks for this, and seem to be on track to do this between each book in the adventure path.
While fighting the carnivorous crystals, Thade was engulfed. On his turn he rolled his saving throw to avoid being petrified, and failed at first. I hadn't yet told him the result, but he had said what the total was, and eventually decided to use a Hero Card to re-roll the save. After the session I told him the result of what failing that save would have been, and he was surprised, and glad he decided on using a card. I think this will further reinforce my players pretty much only using their Hero Cards when a saving throw is failed.
We played another session this past weekend, I'll get around to typing up those notes when I have some time. My next session will need to be skipped as I will be out of town celebrating my anniversary, so the next time we play won't be until late August.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session thirty nine was last month and lasted five hours.
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Proceeding further into the caves, the party enters a large cavern, with more crystals along the walls and ceiling and several very round tunnels leading out. Rocco knows that these tunnels were not formed naturally, and that many of the crystals appear to have been crushed, regrowing back over time. As they move across the cavern, there is suddenly a great tremor in the earth, and an enormous purple worm erupts from the ground and moves to eat the party.
They party tries to flee, but before they can do so the worm swallows Zol, who hadn’t yet had time to react. His magic saves his life once again as he escapes with dimension door. With Zol safe (for now) the party starts a fighting withdrawal, heading down into one of the narrow tunnels while firing back at the worm with arrows and magic.
The worm pursues, swallowing Rocco after lunging at him with its tooth-filled maw. Virgil approaches the worm, intent on freeing his friend, but he need not have done so, as the worm must have found the dwarf distasteful as it regurgitates Rocco, spitting him out and striking Virgil in the process. Being the skilled ranger that he is, Rocco lands on his feet and immediately returns to filling the worm with arrows.
Mym hurts the worm with shadow blast and a fireball from her wand of wonder, and Zol casts magic missile at it. Virgil also ends up swallowed, but the worm is finally slain by the party before he suffocates inside its belly. Virgil slices his way free, disgusted at the indignity of it all. Before proceeding further into the tunnel, Mym takes a tooth from the worm as a souvenir.
After traveling for an hour or so, the tunnel widens to reveal another cavern. THis time there is a worked stone wall cutting across the cavern, extending all the way to the ceiling. In the center of this way is a crack, as if someone, or something, has over time excavated a passage, just enough for a person to move through without hindrance. Rocco recognizes this as the exterior wall of a dwarven city. The party must be close to civilization.
Creeping forward, Rocco and Thade see that beyond the twenty-foot thick curtain wall, there is a chamber with two fountains in it. The fountains, as well as the walls of the chamber, are covered in a sickly-looking fungus. Two large humanoids with four arms and mouths in their heads, themselves also covered in fungus, are watching a large bat-like creature devouring the corpse of a dwarf. As they peer in, the party is seen by the bat-thing and the occupants of the room move to attack.
The humanoid figures lurch forward disturbingly, their limbs moving in unnatural ways, as the bat-thing disappears into a sphere of darkness that it conjured. Thade and Rocco take the brunt of the humanoid attacks, each being knocked down in turn. Zol unleashes phantasmal killer and acid arrow, while Mym uses blood vendetta to cause one of the humanoids to bleed after striking her.
Much of the chamber is covered in magical darkness that was summoned by the bat creature, which obscures everyone’s vision except for Rocco, thanks to his greater darkvision.
The bat-think ambushes Rocco and Thade from the darkness, but is brought down as Virgil steps up to cover Zol as he retreats back through the crack. Stepping over Virgil, one of the humanoids twists its body unnervingly and pursues Zol through the crack without issue, before being blasted with fire as Zol fireballs himself in an attempt to immolate it. Zol fails in killing it, but Virgil takes up the slack and puts the thing down permanently with some well-placed slashes from his machete.
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Sorry about the delay in posting, things have been busy even with a skipped session earlier this month. We have a session scheduled for this Saturday, which should happen unless one of my players tests positive for COVID in the morning.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty was on Saturday and lasted six hours.
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After Thade’s light spell fails to dispel the bat-thing’s darkness, Mym summons forth a healing well to assist her allies. She and Rocco take advantage of it, their wounds inflicted by the bat-thing closing up rapidly. With his health restored, Rocco is able to muster the energy to fire enough arrows into the creature to put it down for good. With the last foe defeated, the party decides to settle down for a while to rest and recover. Before doing so, Thade takes some chains he has on him and fastens them to the door on the far side of the mold-encrusted chamber, adding a padlock so that the party can rest at least some ease. They then retreat back through the crack in the wall and set up camp.
During the night, Thade hears the doors move, as if something on the other side attempted to open them, but the chains hold tight. He remains vigilant during the rest of his watch, but nothing further happens. Alerting the next in line for the night, he goes to sleep. With no further disturbances in the night, the party awakes the following morning, rested and ready to face whatever lies ahead of them.
In the morning the chains are removed from the door, and Rocco cracks it open to see what lies beyond. He sees several more gugs in the next chamber, beyond a hallway with five doors in it. The chamber is covered with cracks in the walls and floor, and from these cracks spill more of the mold. Unperturbed by the mold, the three gugs are engaged in discussion about how tasty dwarves are, as they take the limbs of dwarves and dip them in the moldy cracks to season the limbs before eating them.
Deciding that they definitely do not want to fight the gugs in the middle of the mold-encrusted room, the party comes up with a plan to lure them out. Thade will use ghost sound to create a decoy, mimicking the sound of dwarves being loud and rowdy. They hope to lure the gugs out of the room, and well as anything else that may be behind the doors they see lining the hallway beyond the door.
The lure works, and the gugs charge down the hall to attack the party. As they do so, Zol casts fireball, targeting two of the gugs as well as a significant clumping of the mold. Unfortunately for him, his magic this morning is quite weak, as the gugs are barely affected by the blast and the mold is entirely intact when the smoke clears. Clearly the party will need to do something else in order to make the room safe to traverse, but that can wait until after the guggs have been dealt with.
With Rocco firing arrows into it and Thade blasting it with magic, Rocco is able to slay the first gug to enter their trap. The tabard on his recently-acquired plate of victory is now adorned with two gugs, showing his victories over the foul aberrations. Mym uses her rod of wonder and she turns invisible, which suits her well as she was not planning on facing the gugs directly.
Zol retreats back through the crack in the wall as one of the gugs pursues him and gets behind him, cutting off his retreat. Virigil leaps into action, charging at the crack and shoving Zol out of the way and continues on, shoving the gug further back into the crack, enabling Zol to get out of harm’s way. Virgil continues hacking away at the gug with his machete, eventually putting it down like the others before it, adding one more victory to his tabard.
With the gugs starting to fall, one of them retreats back the way they came, pounding on a door on the far side of the room. The party fears this will bring reinforcements, and they couldn’t be more right, as soon even more gugs pile into the chamber and join the fight.
An unseen creature from beyond the hallway is casting spells as combat with the gugs rages on. First a mass of black tentacles erupts from the stones, lashing out at everything in the room and grabbing some of them, party and gugs alike.
Thade blasts multiple gugs with weapon storm, also catching Zol in its effect as he was unaware of Zol’s location due to Zol casting invisibility on himself. This kills a gug, and another strikes down Thade in retaliation. Seeing her paramour on the ground bleeding, this causes Mym to enter a rage, and she steps up to him to heal him with her magic.
Virgil downs yet another gug, as the invisible spellcaster dismisses the black tentacles and enters the fray. It bites Mym, even though she is invisible, and nearly takes her head completely off. Rocco retreats to a corner of the room, trying to escape its tremendous reach, but the unseen foe follows him, casting wall of stone to seal them off from the rest of the party. Zol defeats this plan by using shape stone to create a hole through which Virgil can advance, and Mym uses spirit blast to rock its world. With the gugs dead the unseen foe is soon overwhelmed, even though it remains invisible. The fight ends as Zol uses a combination of true strike and disintegrate to reduce the foe to a pile of ash. Having just barely escaped yet another battle with gugs, the party hopes this is the last of them, as they need to rest and recover once more.
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This was another tough fight for the party, as I may have overtuned things a bit too much to compensate for the 5th party members. I gave Xevalorg (the gug spellcaster) invisibility at 4th level, and it turns out darkness and invisibility are weak points for this party, as they didn't prepare any magic to counter these tactics. I have a feeling they will from now on.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty one was on Saturday and lasted five and a half hours.
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With the gugs defeated, the party goes about disabling the mold in the next room, taking their time and being very methodical. With the mold out of the picture, they investigate the rooms to the south, but find only an empty kitchen and several lavatories.
In the room to the north, they encounter the makeshift prison used by the gugs to house their food. In one of the cells is a dwarven ghoul named Deadmouth, who asks the party for food. They oblige him by throwing in chunks of gug meat. When they realize that Deadmouth is not a threat to them, they use their magic to warp the stone enclosure, setting him free. When the party points out the other dead gugs in the previous room, Deadmouth goes about gorging himself on their corpses. The party finds some loot in the gug’s throne and then continues on into the ruined city of Saggorak.
Amongst the ruins, the party encounters the dwarven scout Parjil Longbraid. Parjil tells the PCs that they are in Saggorak, the ruined dwarven city, and escorts them to Kovlar, the portion of Saggorak where the surviving dwarves make their home behind high, strong walls. Parjil escorts the party to Kovlar’s ruling body, the Council of Regents, where they meet Forgemaster Kelda Halrig of the Anviller’s Guild and the other guildmasters seated on the council.
Forgemaster Halrig tells the party that she is glad they are here, as there have been some strange occurrences in the city lately, and they might be able to use the party’s help. But first, the council needs to be convinced of the party’s intentions. Each member of the council takes turns questioning the party, trying to see if they can be trusted with these tasks. Though some of the councilors are skeptical, the majority of them are convinced by the party to allow them to help. The council makes arrangements for the party to stay at the Gold Sky Inn in the Traveler’s District, and will see them again the following day to tell them what will be asked of them.
Virgil, Rocco and Zol head to the headquarters of the Guild of Faith to see if they can suss out anything strange here. Virgil’s fears of the guild being run by those faithful to Droskar are alleviated when he finds out that they are disgusted by that faith and will have nothing to do with them.
At the Gold Sky Inn, Mym convinces the proprietor, Stinna, to allow her to have a table in the corner to tell fortunes to any interested customers. Thade lifts the coin purse off a wealthy but drunk merchant seated at the bar, while Rocco and Zol enjoy pints of Mushroom Stout, a local favorite. They are joined in drinking by Highphysic Natri Dolgindir of the Physic Guild, and much merriment is had by all.
The following day the party sees the council once again, and several councilors tell the party of the issues they are having. One of the members of the Guild of Finery has gone missing; there is a dispute between the Anviller’s Guild and several merchants that needs arbitration; there has been a steep decline in the population of bluecrabs in Bluecrab Lake, an important source of food for the city, and several fishermen sent to investigate never returned; and an important antimagic rune has been stolen from the vaults under Regent’s Hall. In addition to these problems, Archmage Hromgar Nalruven of the Guild of Spells asks the party if they came into the Darklands by way of an aiudara. When the party lies and tells him they did not, he asks them to let him know if they happen to come across one, as his guild could study it, hopefully to learn how to create one themselves.
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This was a session without combat, one of only a handful in this campaign so far. I decided not to have the grikkitog engage the party in this session as the last two sessions they had some hard fights. However, I may introduce it later in the area, perhaps if they are having some easy encounters.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty two last last Saturday and lasted five and half hours.
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The party decides to first investigate the inferior merchandise. They stop by the workshop of Aruki Stormview, master smith, whose work is among those being accused of being subpar. Examining a shortsword bearing his sigil that the party brought from the Hall of Oaths, Stormview tells the party that the sigil is not his, but is instead a forgery. Thade senses that the smith is not saying everything he knows, and talks him into revealing that Stormview recognizes the work of this inferior blade - that of his former apprentice and failed guild aspirant Brigven. With a name and location provided by Stormview, the party sets off to question him, with Stormview telling the party that he is going to have some words with Brigven himself when they are done.
At Brigven’s workshop Virgil and Mym go in the front door as Thade and Rocco head around to the rear. Zols hangs around the street outside, looking aloof. Virgil confronts Brigven with the inferior shortsword and Brigven tries to flee, only to be confronted by Thade at the back door. Outnumbered and cowardly, Brigven admits to creating inferior weapons for a cult of Droskar worshippers led by someone named Illsrah Embermead. The party takes him to Regent’s Hall and hands him over to the Guild of Arms. Forgemaster Halrig is so pleased she gifts the party several dwarven clan daggers, and offers to upgrade one of their weapons. Thade gladly hands over his spiked chain to have its enchantments improved.
Deciding to investigate the lake next, the party heads on down to Lakeside and enters Nadrym’s Barbershop and Pub. There they are greeted by the eccentric dwarf Nadrym, owner and operator of the establishment. With his hair cut in a fantastic style, colored with various dyes and braided in an unusual fashion for a dwarf, he offers not only the usual services one can expect in such a business, but also what the party came for: gossip. Mym orders a glass of the dwarven wine known as A Taste of Heaven, and Nadrym himself cuts and styles her hair. Thade goes for a shave and everyone else bellies up to the bar for a pint of mushroom stout. They hear stories from Nadym and his employees, as well as other patrons, who are mostly fishermen, since the facility is quite near the lake. They hear stories of missing crabs, sea monsters, islands that come to life and swallow ships, and all of the usual stories one hears from fishermen, especially those that are stuck ashore. Since there are fishemen that are missing and presumed dead, the party decides not to go out onto the lake until the following day, when Thade’s chain should be ready.
In the meantime, they speak with Adorned Dolgindir to see if they can help locate Algret, the missing tailor. Mym casts object reading on the note that was left on Dolgindir’s desk, and she determines that it is indeed a forgery, as the party suspected. Over in her home, located above her workshop, the party doesn’t find anything out of the ordinary. It is the home of a dwarven woman, and letters found in a drawer show that the handwriting doesn’t match the note, also as they suspected would be the case. Asking around, they find that some of her neighbors have seen her heading out into the Earthfire district in the days before she went missing, but there the trail goes dead for them. The party will need to resort to other means to find Algret, whether she be dead or alive.
The following day they head out onto Bluecrab Lake, using two rowboats provided by Commander Hammersong. Far out onto the lake they locate the crab breeding grounds, and put ashore onto a sandbar. There they find several dead crabs, and they are able to determine that the crabs died from poison. Mym collects a sample of water from the area, as well as several crab bodies, to return to Hammersong for further investigation. On their way back, the waters around them erupt as several large shapes rise up out of the water to attack.
Two dragon turtles erupt from the water, capsizing the boats and dumping the party into the water. Fortunately for them, Mym had cast water breathing earlier in the day, in anticipation of an event such as this. Mym casts air walk and gets up into the air, and Zol casts fly and joins her. Virgil and Thade fight the dragon turtles from the water, while Rocco climbs up on an overturned boat in order to better use his bow. One dragon turtle is brought down quickly, though it is able to breathe a cloud of superheated steam onto the party. As it dies and begins to sink, the party is disturbed to see that the fight has brought even more unwanted attention: an enormous lake serpent swims up, attracted by the blood in the water. The second dragon turtle, gravely harmed by Rocco arrows and terrified of the serpent, begins to swim away, but Rocco is able to kill it before it escapes, leaving just the serpent to deal with.
The serpent swallows Thade but he escapes with his magic. Determined to not let its meal escape so easily, it swallows him again, and this time he manages to climb up out of its gullet while Virigl hacks away with his new magic axe and Zol blasts it with magic. Mym uses her magic to support Thade and Virgil in their fight, and Zol uses disintegrate and magic missile to wear it down. Before Thade can be swallowed for yet a third time, the serpent is slain and the waters of Bluecrab Lake are once again calm.
Thade reports that when he was in the bellow of the beast, he was not alone in there: the partly-digested remains of the dwarven fishermen were also in there, their fate finally determined. With the remains of the crabs and a sample of the poisoned water returned to Hammersong, he rewards the party with many potions of healing, sure to be of use to them in the rest of their investigations into the strange occurrences in Kovlar.
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This was a fun session, with some interesting aquatic combat. At one point every mini on the map was at a different elevation, which made me often refer to an online hypotenuse calculator to find ranges for various spells and such. While I am glad for this encounter in the game, I think I will try to minimize aquatic combat in the future as it seemed to be a bit slower. Had the party not prepared water breathing ahead of time things could have gone much worse for them, but they were smart and Mym prepared the correct spells before they entered the lake.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty three was last month and lasted four hours.
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Thade and Rocco head to the Shaggy Mouse tavern in The Barricade district to seek out some underworld contacts, hoping they would be able to point them in the right direction. There they meet Grotmod Deathbane, a fixer of sorts. After his palms are sufficiently greased, Grotmod is able to point them towards a warehouse in the Earthfire district, where he heard about some guards on the take have been setting up shop.
Upon leaving the Shaggy Mouse, Thade senses that he and Rocco are being watched, and soon discovers that Deadmouth has been following them throughout the city. Realizing that Deadmouth is not a threat to them, Thade allows Deadmouth to continue following them, and he is acting rather like a lost puppy, grateful that the party freed him from certain doom at the hands of the gugs.
Making their way to the warehouse, Thade and Rocco determine that it has been fortified, and are reluctant to enter without the rest of the party present. They idle in the shadows and wait for their comrades to arrive.
Meanwhile, Virgil, Zol and Mym speak with Archmage Hromgar Nalruven of the Guild of Spells, hoping to gain access to his private library, to research more about a possible cult of Droskar in the city, and perhaps to even learn some magic from him. Virgil is able to convince Nalruven to allow them access to his personal library, and he invites them to dinner at his home later that night. Magically alerted to the presence of the warehouse by Thade, the party sets out for the Earthfire district to rejoin their comrades and breach the building.
Entering the building through the only door, the party is attacked by a number of uniformed guards wielding mauls. Though the guards are fiercely proficient with tier mauls, and knock a number of the party down with them, they are eventually defeated without too much fuss. Exploring the warehouse the party discovers that is has been converted into a makeshift prison, and locked up inside they find Algret.
Algret reveals that she is in fact a spy in the employ of the Guild of Arms who had been charged with investigating possible corruption within the ranks. She followed her clues to this location, only to be set upon by the corrupt guards and imprisoned here. She was so deep undercover that few people even knew she was on the case, and by the time the PCs arrive she’s all but lost hope. She thanks them for her rescue and tells them that she needs to report immediately to her superior, Commander Grokar Hammersong.
Taking pity on the perpetually starving Deadmouth, the party allows him to feast upon the corpses of the dead guards in the warehouse, which he does with gusto.
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The party leveled up to 13 after the session and should be in for some good roleplaying with Nalruven next session.
It took me a while to type up my notes due to many things - the holidays, sickness, and life in general getting in the way. These also prevented us from gathering for another session. But we look to be getting back on track and should have our next session in early December.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Due to the holidays and family engagements I had been unable to type up my notes from the last two sessions, but I have finally done so and here they are.
Session forty four was last month and lasted five hours.
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Heading back to Hammersong’s office with Algret, the party reports what they discovered in Chiselrock’s prison. Hammersong has Chiselrock immediately arrested and interrogated by the Guild of Arms officers. Thade asks to also interrogate Chiselrock, suggesting that he will use unconventional means to get the information he seeks, but hammersong denies this request as it is beneath the dignity of a dwarf. Still, Hammersong’s men are able to extract information from Chiselrock about a plot of his to work with someone named Embermead, head of a cult of Droskar in the city, as well as Chiselrock’s plan to instate himself as king of Kovlar.
After leaving Hammersong’;s office the party heads over to Archmage Hromgar Nalruven’s estate for their dinner appointment. It is a typical dwarven house, located in one of the nicer areas of Kovlar, but once they are ushered inside by a valet they find the interior of the house is far larger than the outside, and is the very definition of comfort and class.
They enjoy drinks and light snacks in Nalruven’s study, and Thade mentions to their host that they do in fact know the location of an aiudara. Pleased that they have so fortuitously located the thing he has been looking for, he rewards Thade and Zol with scrolls from his personal library. These scrolls are high level magic, and the recipients are grateful and look to add these to their collections as the first opportunity.
Dinner is served at a long table, and several courses are brought out by invisible servants. The food is delicious, though the party does not know if this is due to culinary skill or magical influence, but they seem not to care as they are rarely treated to such high quality nourishment and company.
After dinner, as promised, Nalruven grants the party access to his personal library, which is an entire wing of his home, comprising two floors. In order to find what they are looking for, all the inquisitive reader needs to do is pick up a small silver bell from a pedestal in the center of the library and ring the bell while speaking aloud the subject of their desire. Nalruven demonstrates this, and a ghostly arrow appears in the air before him, before floating off in the direction of his request before slowly fading from view. Virgil and Thade both say the name Droskar, and off they go to read what they can about this evil deity of the Duergar. Zol inquires about aiudara, and he is led back to the study room where they first spoke with Nalruven this evening. Mym opts not to read any books but rather entertains herself, while Rocco finds a bar cart and partakes of more of Nalruven’s fine liquor.
After an entire evening browsing the stacks on religions of the dwarven people, Virgil and Thader discover that their information is likely correct, and that there is a cult of Droskar is hidden in Kovlar and likely operating out of an abandoned temple to all dwarven gods, located in a empty party of the city. Zol discovers that Nalruven likely already knew about the aiudara they told him about earlier, causing him to become suspicious of Nalruven’s intentions. Why would the archmage pretend not to know about the gate and even reward the party for sharing this information with him?
After staying the night in Nalruven’s guestrooms and having a harry dwarven breakfast, the party heads into the abandoned part of town to find the temple they believe houses the cult of Droskar, in what they have come to believe is called the Hidden Forge.
Finding the temple without difficulty, the party searches carefully. After some time Virgil is able to locate a secret door in the basement, behind which is a long and straight staircase, descending deep into the darkness. At the bottom of the stairs they find a dimly-lit room, with large statues flanking the tunnel from which they emerged. On the torah side of the chamber is a double door, above which is written in Dwarven “Praise the Faith.” Thinking this is some sort of test for entry, Rocco says "Praise the Faith" in his best Dwarven and opens the doors. When nothing happens to him, the party of the party follows, repeating the phrase as they cross the threshold
Beyond is another room, with many doors leading to exits. The first they check out is a dirty barracks, with nothing in it but straw mats on the floor. Another door from the room is cracked open, and beyond it Rocco finds several dwarves chained to a wheel, which they turn ever so slowly in a never-ending circle. Another door leads Virgil to a privy, and as he finds it they hear from behind the closed double doors a strong voice call out “Praise the Faith” in Dwarven. The party dashes for cover, to either hide or lay in ambush, but not Zol. Instead he readies himself near the door, prepared to chat with whomever comes through it.
The doors open and Zol sees a duergar man and human woman. Zol greets them, saying “Praise the Faith” in an attempt to make them believe he is part of the cult. The two newcomers do not fall for this deception, and attack the party.
As the duergar whips Zol, viciously slashing his body and tangling his feet beneath him, Zol counters with his magic, turning invisible as the rest of the party comes to his defense. Outnumbered and outmatched, the duergar and human are soon on their heels and look desperate, and run to the stone statues in the corner of the entry room. With their fists they bang on the statues, which come to life as the party slays the cultists - once again the party find themselves fighting stone golems.
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This session had a lot of great roleplaying with Nalruven, and the party seemed to enjoy the long break from combat, though of course they did find some right at the end of the session. Their break would be short lived, however, as the next session would be almost entirely combat, with the party really challenged by what they found in the forge.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty five was two weeks ago and lasted five and a half hours.
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Thade also turns invisible, and remembers that the previous golem they fought was vulnerable to cold magic, so he blasts them repeatedly with ray of frost. Zol follows Thade’s lead, as Virgil positions himself in the doorway to prevent the golems from reaching his allies. Rocco falls back after being slowed by one of the golems, firing arrows into them, which do not seem to damage the golems as much as he would hope.
Virgil slams one of the doors shut and spikes it closed, but the golems burst through easily, unimpeded by this improvised defense. Though the golems try to stomp over Virgil and into the room, he stands his ground and prevents them from reaching the rest of the party. With the golems largely kept outside the room and Virgil taking the brunt of their attacks, the golems are dispatched in time after being worn down with cold and water magic. Mym tends to the wounded with her magic and healing kit, and everyone takes a breath to evaluate their situation.
Freeing the dwarves shackled to the wheel turning in the other room, one of the dwarves introduces himself as Zamak. He tells the party to beware the room to the west, as there is a powerful undead being in there. Zamak and the other dwarves thank the PCs and flee up the stairs, heading back into Kovlar and freedom.
Once everyone is properly recovered, Rocco opens a door to the west, and is immediately hit with a wave of intense heat. Beyond the door is a large chamber with a pool of magma in the center. Surrounding the magma are several anvils with dwarves toiling away, beating shapeless metal rods with iron hammers.
Standing guard over the dwarves is a large figure, which appears to be the undead creature Zamak warned the party about. It is wearing heavy plate armor and wields a flaming spiked chain and large hammer in its hands. It immediately sees Rocco peering through the door and moves to attack.
It lashes out at Rocco with its chain twice and strips the flesh from Rocco’s body, peeling away not just Rocco’s skin but also part of his soul as he falls back under the creature’s assault. Feeling the heat wash into the room he is in, Virgil drinks a potion to fortify himself from the heat and advances to protect his allies. Seeing Rocco take such a thrashing convinces Zol to cast mirror image to protect himself, and Thade follows suit. Mym prepares some magic to heal Rocco, who she sees is in great danger.
Rocco moves away from the creature, hoping it focuses on the rest of the party, but as he retreats through a different door the creature follows and strikes him down with his chain. Rocco lies dying in the forge chamber, separated from his allies by the hulking beast. Virgil steps up and hacks away at it with his machete, which he is delighted to find is extra effective against this creature due to its frost rune. Taking their cue from Virgil, Thade and Zol attack it with cold magic, with Thade using ray of frost again and Zol using cone of cold. Unfortunately for Zol the creature dodges his magic, frustrating his attempts to damage it.
With the rest of the party gathered in front of it, the creature inhales a massive amount of air and breathes it back out again, exhaling a cloud of stinging soot, ash and glowing embers. Burned by this cloud of toxic breath that lingers in the air, the party scatters. Zol retreats back through into the entry room. Mym dashes past the creature to get close enough to Rocco to heal him with her magic, preventing his death. Thade uses his magic to get beyond the creature and into the forge room. Virgil alone stands up to the creature, maneuvering out of the cloud but staying close enough to keep hacking away with his machete.
Eventually the party manages to bring the creature down, but not before it deals out a severe beating to them. With everyone wounded and Rocco barely escaping death thanks to Mym’s magic, the party takes a moment to assess the situation.
The party strips the creature of its gear, acquiring its magical plate armor, its adamantine hammer as well as the flaming adamantine spiked chain, which Thade keeps for himself. Thade sets about the wheel, which the party knows is a sacred altar to Droskar, damaging it as much as he can and desecrating what parts he cannot destroy.
Seeing their tormentors dead, the dwarves at the anvils drop their hammers and thank the party, before fleeing up the stairs, following their companions that the party freed earlier, gratefully accepting food and water offered by the party to help them out.
Exhausted from their recent fights and out of magic for the most part, the party barricades themselves into the former slave barracks and gets some rest for the night. In the morning, they find themselves quite unsettled, as if this evil place finds them unwelcome. Virgil feels somehow most distant from Mother Jaguar, his connection to her muted, while Thade’s skin itches all over, as if he is covered in hives that he cannot see. Deeply unsettled by this evil place, they decide to leave as soon as they can, but are quite surprised when Virgil opens the door. Standing outside it is the undead creature they just slew, and it attacks them again!
Trapped in such a small space the creature’s deadly breath is effective once again, though this time it surrounds itself in the cloud, which does not seem to affect it. Without its armor and weapons it is less effective when attacking, however, and is soon brought down before it can deal too much damage with the lump of metal it took from one of the anvils.
Deciding they want this creature dead once and for all, they toss its body into the magma in an attempt to burn it, but they find it simply floats on the surface, immune to the intense heat. They will need to figure out something else if they are to be rid of this creature permanently.
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Thade took the soul chain, so I will be rolling secret Will saves for him each day to see if he falls under its effects, which is inevitable since my players roll d20s in advance for secret rolls and I compare the results when needed, and he has a natural 1 coming up soon. Things are going to go very badly for him if he doesn't catch on that the reason the accursed forge-spurned is respawning is because it wants its soul chain back.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty six was two weeks ago and lasted six hours.
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Heading down the tunnel leading out of the Hidden Forge, the party travels for miles underground before coming to a door. Listening at the door they hear fighting on the other side, and are able to determine that several people are sparring with each other. Bursting through the door they encounter members of the Scarlet Triad, and set upon them immediately. The slavers do not put up much of a fight, and the party finds some supplies in the room, which appears to have been some sort of storage room, with a pit in the center leading down to a magma flow, likely used by the slavers for incinerating trash.
Heading up the stairs leading out of the room, the party enters what appears to be a shrine to Droskar. In the room beyond the shrine they find a barracks, which is quickly looted. Beyond this room they hear movement, so they take cover as Mym uses her magic to disguise herself as one of the agents they recently slew in the storeroom.
Mym enters a mess hall, filled with more agents of the Triad. Her magic fools them, however, and as they return to their meals she proceeds into the next room, which turns out to be an alchemical laboratory. Therein she finds a woman working, who yells at her to get out of the private lab, which Mym promptly does.
Reporting back to her friends in the barracks, they quickly decide upon a plan. Zol will block the entrance Mym used with his magic, while Thade uses his insistent doorknocker to create a door on the wall between the barracks at the lab. Their plan is a success, and they are able to assault the lab and surprise the Triad in the process.
As the party piles into the room, Mym sends Pavel to the door leading to the mess hall, and he is able to lock the door while the rest of the party attacks the alchemist. The party makes the mistake of bunching up and the alchemist uses this to her advantage, quickly brewing bombs and lobbing them into the midst of the party, burning them with fire and scalding their flesh with acid.
Eventually the Triad agents force open the door, but are confronted with Pavel in the doorway, several unable to maneuver past him to defend their mistress. Some do, however, and rush up to the party to fight. Virgil shoves one of them into the enormous hearth, and Zol uses his magic to dazzle those who can make it past the fearsome Pavel guarding the doorway.
Soon enough the Triad members are dispatched, as the party successfully divides them and defeats them in detail. Looting the lab and the alchemist’s bedroom, the party finds a map that indicates a route to take through the ruins of Kovlar, the haunted city that lies beyond this Triad outpost.
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This session included a fine example of the party really synergizing well in pre-combat decisions. Usually they leap into frays willy-nilly, but this time they came up with a good plan and executed it quite well. This resulted in the fight with Zuferian the alchemist being not very tough for them, though it helps that I played her poorly. Alchemists are one of those classes that do not come up very often, so I forget many of their abilities, even though I created a battle card for her with all the relevant info on it. Either way I don't think it would have mattered, as them being able to separate her from her minions so easily meant she didn't really stand a chance.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty seven was two weekends ago and lasted five and a half hours.
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Searching the alchemist’s chambers, the party finds not only her formula book, but also a map. Upon leaving this hideout, they discover that they are deep within Saggorak, and the map they found leads to a location far on the other side of the destroyed city. The path on the map doesn’t lead in a straight line, however, it zigs and zags its way through the city, seemingly at random. Deciding this path likely indicates a safe route to traverse the city, the party follows it, hoping it leads to Illsrah Embermead, leader of the Scarlet Triad in Saggorak.
Not long after leaving the Old Workshop, the party suspects that they are being watched. They catch glimpses of eyes watching from the shadows, but when they look, nothing is there. A sense of unease settles on them as they move through the silent city. Soon enough Rocco’s keen eyes spot a familiar figure watching them from behind a ruined building - it is Deadmouth.
Deadmouth waves to the party, indicating that they should follow him. Though he is off the path indicated on their map, they trust him and follow him as he makes his way through the city. Deadmouth tells them he is taking them to the king of Saggorak, a person whom they really want to meet. Deadmouth leads them on a convoluted path, similar to one they followed on the map, with twists and turns that seem to be random, but they suspect are avoiding danger for them. Before long, Deadmouth leads them to a fine hall, one of the few intact buildings remaining in the haunted city.
Within they meet an ancient dwarven king, King Harral, seated upon a throne. Surrounding him are several skeletal dwarven knights, his honor guard. The king introduces himself, and asks who these interlopers are who find themselves in his city of the dead. With introductions out of the way, the king tells the party of the fall of his city, and how the wyrm Veshumirix is the source of all of his woes. The party tells the king that they believe Embermead has recruited the dragon to her cause, but the king corrects this belief, letting them know that it is Veshumirix that is truly in charge.
Since the party’s goals are aligned with the king’s (they both wish the Triad destroyed in Saggorak and it seems the dragon must die in order for this to happen), the king agrees to assist the party with sanctuary and information. Harral tells the party of the various factions of undead within his city, and that these factions will try to destroy any living beings they encounter. If the party can weaken two of these factions by either killing their leader or acquiring items that will protect them, the party will stand a much better chance of defeating the Triad and Veshumirix.
If the party heads to the king’s former residence when he was alive, they can obtain his ceremonial robe. This robe will protect him from the Bound, the bodiless undead whose souls are tied to the city, as well as the mindless local haunts that the party now realizes must be what the Triad map and Deadmouth were guiding them around. If the party can kill Falrok, leader of the Starved, they can sow discord among these poor souls that are slaves to their hunger. Agreeing that with these two factions weekend they should have a much easier time dealing with the Triad, the party decides to spend the night under the watchful eye of the king and his honor guard, and will head out in the morning to confront these two factions of undead.
Deciding to first head for the haunted halls and recover the robe, the party once again follows Deadmouth through the city’s ruined streets. With Deadmouth’s guidance they avoid the city’s deadly haunts, but are unnerved when they have to cross an alley that has bloodstains going up the walls on either side. Curious at how such an event came to be, they are nevertheless unharmed by it and continue on their way.
Arriving at the haunted halls of the king’s former residence, they gain entry via a tower that has collapsed into the building, bypassing the ground floor and finding themselves directly outside the king’s former chamber on the second floor. Opening the door, they find nothing of note but do see a pile of moldy robes in the corner of the room. Entering the room to get the robe, the party finds themselves assaulted by invisible entities that create a whirlwind of objects flying about the room. After being pummeled by the flying rocks and debris for a bit, Thade gets the idea to grab the robe and put it on, at which point the entities cease their assault. Bloodied and bruised, the party leaves the hall and heads back into Saggorak.
Deadmouth eyes the robe in awe, touching its hem with his claw, saying that this is indeed the former robe of the king, abandoned by him when the city fell millenia ago and unlife gripped its inhabitants. Thade’s keen magical eyes realize it is a powerful robe of the archmagi, and knows that this item’s power is what will keep the Bound at bay while they are in Saggorak.
With Deadmouth once again leading the party across town, this time to the mine where Falrok resides, they encounter a group of gugs eating the corpses of dwarves, with an enormous troll standing by watching. Realizing that their path is now obstructed and theory would have to backtrack for some time to get around these creatures, the party lays an ambush for them, but unfortunately for them Zol is not sneaky and a fight breaks out.
Rocco fires an enfilading arrow to lead things off, and Zol blasts the group with magic and Thade also uses his. Mym uses her rod of wonder and creates a lightning bolt, accidentally blasting through the party to shock several of the gugs. Virgil raises his shield and advances as Deadmouth burrows into the ground, knowing he has no chance against gugs as their kind had captured him previously and were planning on eating him.
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I was initially surprised the party didn't fight with King Harral, but then again they also negotiated with the lich Jaggaki in the previous book, so I guess it is par for the course at this point. What I am interested in seeing is if they return his crown, as they know the king is cursed but I did not elaborate on how it can be lifted, other than with the death of the dragon, which wasn't strictly true but in effect basically is necessary to obtain the crown.
Regretfully I didn't take photos of the encounter with the king or the poltergeists, but perhaps I will if they return to the king with the crown at the end of this book.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty eight was last month and lasted six hours.
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The remaining gugs and troll are dispatched without much effort, with Zol using acid arrow, Mym using blink charge, Thade using cone of cold, while Virgil and Rocco attack with machete and bow. When the dust settles Deadmouth emerges from the hole he dug, and rips off a troll arm for a snack while the party continues on towards the Sanctum of the Starved.
Arriving at the sanctum, the party sneaks inside the disused mine. Thade takes a tunnel to the right while Rocco scouts forward past a dilapidated mine cart as the rest of the party hangs out at the entrance, suspicious of the eerie quiet.
Their caution pays off, as three stone figures emerge from the walls of the cavern and move to attack. These creatures are quickly identified as stone golems, but the strange veins of silver rock running across their surface speaks to them not being the same kind of stone golem the party ran into previously.
As the party images the golems, the terrible creature of flame and hatred they encountered in the Hidden Forge comes upon them from behind. Twice before they have put this creature down and yet it is here again, risen from the dead to pursue them once more. Zol has to use his magic to turn invisible and dodge out of the creature’s path, but this is hardly necessary as the creature seems intent on reaching Thade.
Zol uses impaling spike to temporarily halt the creature’s progress, as the rest of the party focuses on the golems. They drop one golem and then a second soon enough, but the noise of the battle has alerted another foe to their presence, this time a huge skeleton, emerging from the shadows behind Rocco, who is furthest into the sanctum. Rocco has to retreat back to his friends. Thade critically hurt the skeleton with a spellstrike disintegration, though this seemingly angers it as it turns its full attention on Thade.
Things once again take a dark turn for the party as a fierce-looking ghoul emerges from a side tunnel and charges to Thade’s rear as he is engaged with the skeleton. Taking advantage of the situation, the creature of flame bellows forth a cloud of burning ash and smoke, blinding Virgil. Much to Mym’s dismay, Thade is grabbed by the skeleton and swallowed whole, knocking him unconscious in the process. The party can see Thader through the ribs of the skeleton, and they work quickly to free him. Mym uses healing well to create a place where the party can regain their strength, and Zol manages to drop the skeleton with his favorite spell cast at his highest level - magic missile. Rocco critically hits the ghoul (who the party now realize is their pretty Falrok) with several arrows, once of which is a spellstrike acid arrow.
The creature of flame is dropped yet again, and Virgil manages to slay Falrok while blinded, bringing an end to the encounter. Thade is saved from death and the healing well is quickly drained to heal the party with its magic. Exhausted and once again victorious, the party debates on how they will proceed, though everyone is hurt and low on magic.
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Due to our RPG marathon taking place in mid-March we had a large gap between sessions, but the next is scheduled for this Saturday.
The fight in the sanctum was harder than it should have been, with the gashadokuro, Falrok and the accursed forge-spurned joining in the fight with the golems.
After the session Zol's player announced this would be his last, as he and his wife were moving to another state a few weeks after the session. We were all bummed but happy for him at the same time, as his wife was getting a big promotion and he works remotely so could do so from anywhere. He promised to come back to town when possible for one of our RPG marathons through, and I hope he sticks to that as he is fun to play with. I am still not sure how to deal with Zol in the campaign, but will likely have him leave no later than this book, possibly earlier if a likely opportunity presents itself.
Speaking of RPG marathons, we played The One Ring and Alien during that week, totaling about forty hours of game time over five days. We all enjoyed our first experience of The One Ring and I am surprised they all survived the Alien cinematic scenario Heart of Darkness. It shows they are learning the system and really leaning into it.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session forty nine was yesterday and lasted four hours.
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Exploring the rest of the mine, the party finds a pile of dwarven remains and a room full of bones. Virgil performs last rites for the poor souls of the deceased, and the party moves out after finding a large iron key hidden in a skull, along with an adamantine pick. Regrouping with Deadmouth outside the entrance of the mine, they head back to King Harral to let him know of their success.
On the way, Thade realizes that the creature of fire which has been pursuing them is an accursed forge-spurned. These creatures are what becomes of dwarven worshippers of Droskar who have failed to live up to his standards when they die. Thade now realizes that this creature will continue to reanimate every night and pursue him so long as he possesses its soul chain. Thade doesn’t share this information with the rest of the party, however, as he is not sure how to deal with it going forward.
At King Harral’s hall the party discusses what to do next. Zol tells them that he will not be continuing on with them, as he will remain behind to learn necromantic magic from King Harral and to also confront Archmage Nalruven about why he was deceiving the party about the aiudara. Disappointed but secretly thinking Zol is afraid of confronting the dragon Veshumirix, they bid him farewell in the morning and head out for the Temple of All Gods to confront Illsrah Embermead and the dragon.
After some hours of travel through the ruined city, the party sneaks up to the temple, but are spotted by an enormous three-headed centipede-like creature that immediately moves to attack them. It starts by breathing a cone of fire from one of its heads, causing the party to disperse in all directions.
Rocco fires arrows at the creature but they mostly bounce off its thick hide. Perhaps Rocco is distracted by the absence of his friend Zol, as normally his aim is quite deadly. Thade casts fleet step on himself as he anticipates having to run from this creature. Virgil steps up and attacks with his machete, and while his attacks harm the creature his strikes are not as effective as they normally are when he is fighting evil creatures, particularly the undead. Mym uses her cold magic to slowly wear down the creature that Thade has identified as a mukradi. The cold seems to hurt it more than fire, so the party focuses on doing that.
Virgil is bitten by two of the creature’s maws at the same time and Mym dances away from a tail strike that almost caught her by surprised, as she was standing twenty feet away from the mukradi at the time. Thade uses his superior speed to run around the creature to the other side of the temple entrance, using ray of frost on it after his baleful polymorph fails to have an effect.
After the mukradi tramples both Virgil and Mym under its many sharp feet, it shoots a bolt of lightning from another one of its mouths, this time frying Virgil and Thade. Mym is knocked down by its tail, and she decides to use her magic to help Virgil rather than directly attack the creature. Thade charges in, using his spellstrike cone of cold to deal a tremendous amount of damage to the mukradi. His glee at the damage he caused is short lived, however, as the mukradi turns its attention on him and nearly tears him in half with two of its maws. Thade drops to the ground, dying from the grevious wounds inflicted upon him, the mukradi towering above him ready to deliver the killing blow
Having climbed to the top of the temple to get out of the creature’s reach, Rocco puts his bow aside and pulls out his dwarven thrower, filing it at the mukradi from the roof. His aim is true, striking the mukradi right in one of its three heads, and the blow is enough to bring the beast down, its body collapsing beside Thade. Virgil and Mym rush to Thade’s side, saving his life with their medical skills. Gathering their breath and treating their wounds, the party wonders what horrors await them inside the temple if this beast was merely the gatekeeper.
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Zol's player didn't level up Zol to 14 before he moved, and the character sheet he gave me didn't include his spells or inventory (which the player kept in a notebook), so I wasn't able to keep Zol in the game, leading to the awkward removal in the manner described above. The other players were ok with it when I told them I didn't have enough info to keep Zol going at least through the rest of this book, and they proceeded with just the four of them, down one of their heaviest hitters (Zol loves direct attack spells).
The session was only four hours long because after the session we all went out to dinner and then saw the new D&D movie afterwards. We liked it, some of us more than others, but I would definitely recommend it to anyone who plays RPGs.
I upgraded my table since our last session, as I was able to source additional toppers for my game table. I took two of these and cut a hole into them for the TV, which I have now mounted on furniture risers to make it level. I think the effect looks nicer, and my players are happier for the extra room they now have when playing (though of course going from five to four players also helps with this). You can see a photo of the new setup here. I have two more toppers, so I may try modifying those so that the TV can be used in portrait mode for me (giving even more table space to the players on the sides of the table), though there is just barely enough room in the toppers to do this, so I will have to be very careful I proceed with this idea.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty was two weekends ago and lasted six hours.
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Needing to heal after their ordeal with the mukradi, the party falls back into Saggorak to find a secure place. They locate an abandoned store with a basement and spend about thirty minutes treating their wounds and refocusing. Upon leaving the basement when ready to enter the Temple of All Gods, Rocco discovers tracks in the store above where they rested. It seems something insect-like tracked them to this location but was unable to discover them in the basement, then went further into Saggorak from the direction they came. Relieved to have gotten a break for once, the party returns to the temple.
Deciding that they need to be as discreet as possible, the party opts to make their own entrance into the temple. They scale the walls to gain access to the roof, where they use their insistent door knocker to create their own entrance towards the rear of the building. To their delight, they find that the door they create is located directly above a towering statue, making climbing down onto the second floor of the building easy. With a number of doors and two stairwells exiting the room they are in, they decide to scout a bit. Using his brass ear, Thade discovers two guards on the other side of a pair of doors, so they decide to head downstairs as they were told Illsrah and Veshumirix can be found under the temple.
On this level they find themselves in a chamber with an altar to Dangvitt, the god of debt, pursuit and vengeance. Ignoring the offerings in the collection bowl, the party places Thade’s chain in the bowl, which they know is cursed. They hope this offering will appease Dangvitt and the creature of flame and death that has been pursuing them will cease doing so.
Elsewhere on this floor the party discovers a chamber with an altar to Magrim, god of the afterlife. They light some candles to honor Magrim and move into the chamber beyond, which appears to be a mausoleum. While there are hundreds of urns containing the remains of cremated citizens of Saggorak on the shelves in this room, what disturbs the party the most is the pile of corpses unceremoniously dumped against the rear wall of this room. Deciding that getting on Magrim’s good side could benefit them, they decide to help the poor souls of the dead reach their final resting spot. While the party is laying out the corpses respectfully and saying prayers to whichever god will listen, the pile of corpses suddenly animates into a huge undead form and moves to attack them!
While the thing made up of hundreds of individual corpses is terrifying, it proves to not be much of a threat to the party. Thade instantly recognizes what it is and is able to land a spellstrike ray of frost on it with great precision, and soon enough the creature is destroyed, the corpses falling back into an inanimate pile. Healing up their minor wounds and taking a few moments to catch their breath, the party continues to explore this floor of the temple.
On the other wing of the temple they discover what appears to be a jail. Deciding that there is nothing in here worth their time without even entering the room, they close and bar the door and head back through the last door they found on this level.
On the other side of this door the party finds a pair of stairs descending below street level, but unfortunately for them it is guarded by two immense demons squeezing into the small chamber beyond. These fiends are missing their forelimbs, but their immense claws are still capable of causing grievous wounds if the party is not careful.
As Thade and Rocco fall back one of the demons grabs Virgil in its claw. The other casts dimension door to position itself behind the party, cutting off their escape. Though the rooms in the temple are cramped, the demons seem to know their way around it intimately, and the party will need more than just Thade’s spellstrike prismatic spray to fight their way out of this encounter.
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The party has managed to make their way through the temple with only two fights so far, and if they defeat the glabrezu they will have nothing between them and Ilssrah. They have missed out on some great magic items, though, but I suppose that is the price to pay when skipping encounters while using milestone leveling.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty one was on Saturday and lasted six hours.
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Virgil is able to easily escape the clutches of the demon, as Rocco fires arrow after arrow into it. Mym uses her magic to create a magical healing well to aid her allies who are hurt, and Thade uses his cold iron chain to great effect, as the demons are especially susceptible to weapons of its make. With their magic and Thade’s chain, the demons don’t last much longer, and are killed in turn, though they do manage to hurt the party and deplete much of their magical resources.
Deciding they need to recover once again, Thade decides to use his scroll of magnificent mansion to create a safe haven wherein they can recover their strength. In this safe haven, Mym spends some time crafting frost vials for use against Veshumirix, and hands some out to everyone. Virgil spends his time in prayer, communing with his goddess Kazutal, Mother Jaguar. He asks for her aid in defeating the Scarlet Triad, against whom he has been fighting for so long. Rocco falls asleep as soon as his head hits his pack, as he is a man of action first and foremost, and is already ready to face whatever foes he finds.
In the morning, the party leaves their extraplanar haven and discovers that the bodies of the demons have been removed. Sure that Embermead knows they are coming, they send Mym’s spider Pavel down the stairs to see what awaits them below.
At last they find their prey, as Pavels finds a dwarven woman working at an anvil in a room outfitted as a very fine workshop. Forges line one wall, with anvils placed before them. Unfortunately for Pavel the woman sees him spying on her, and she calls out to him.
“So you are the ones who have been causing me so much trouble! You can try hiding but I will find you!”
With these words she sends two massive golems made of iron to kill the spider, and raps her hammer on one of the anvils, magically sending the sound of an alarm throughout the complex. Realizing that the guards they avoided on the upper floor will now respond, Thade uses his scroll of ravenous portal to turn the door behind them into a mimic, blocking the way for Embermead’s reinforcements. Soon enough they hear the sound of combat on the other side as Embermead’s guards try to fight their way through the mimic to come to their mistress’ aid. With danger behind them and their foe ahead, the party rushes down the stairs to confront Embermead at long last.
Embermead uses her magic to shield herself, creating an aura of evil that spreads from her and slowly begins to fill the room. Thade uses his magic to charge at Embermead, using dimensional assault to get behind her and catch her flat-footed. Rocco draws his adamantine hammer and strikes at the golems, while Virgil supports him and tries to draw their attention away from his companions. Mym attempts to dispel Embermead’s protective spell, but one of the golems strikes her, interrupting her magic.
The golems breathe a poisonous cloud of gas on the party, forcing them to displace and spread out some more. Embermead summons a blade barrier to bisect the room, trapping Thade on one side. But not before one of the iron golems is brought down under a flurry of blows from Rocco as well as Thade’s magic.
The second golem steps up to Rocco and shoves him through the barrier, but Rocco manages to avoid the blades, ending up on the other side unharmed. Thade continues his assault on Embermead, striking with his chain and using fire shield to harm her as she strikes at him.
As she always does, Mym heals the party with her magic as the fight drags on, using healing well and other spells to boost her friends’ health. Not to be outdone, Embermead also uses her magic to heal herself, much to the party’s dismay.
Sooner than they would have hoped, Embermead’s guards arrive, one coming down each set of stairs. These duergar immediately join the fray, attacking Rocco and Mym with their hatchets. Taking advantage of this distraction, Embermead yells out to her guards to slay these intruders and then makes for the exit. Not willing to let her escape his fury, Virgil pursues her as she runs for the stairs leading down into the darkness, where the party suspects the magma dragon Veshumirix awaits.
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At long last the party finds Embermead, and are doing quite well against her. The idea to use the ravenous portal to delay her reinforcements was inspired, so even though the mimic is much lower level than the guards, I decided to have it kill two of them and delay the others by about five rounds.
The party really hopes they can prevent Embermead from retreating, as they suspect if she can get to Veshumirix they would have to face them together, and that would be one hell of a fight for them.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty two was on Saturday and lasted five and a half hours.
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As Ilssrah retreats downstairs, Thade fires some spells off at her, but she manages to escape as her duergar minions and sole remaining golem guardian occupy the party. It is not long before Rocco’s adamantine hammer and Virgil’s blade ally bring down the golem and then the duergar. The last duergar realizes his situation is hopeless and turns invisible, fleeing upstairs. The party recovers the guiding chisel and discusses what to do.
Convinced that Ilssrah is now with the magma dragon Veshumirix, they decide to expend yet another scroll to cast magnificent mansion to recover their strength before heading deeper under the temple. While they are hoping the dragon has slain Ilssrah for her failure, they are not sure if this will be the case when they descend.
Heading down the stairs the following day, Rocco stealthily descends into a warmer and warmer tunnel. Coming to a pair of doors, he waits for the rest of the party to come to him before proceeding. In the room beyond the doors are the remains of three dwarves, whom Rocco and Virgil identify as champions of Torag, their armor and weapons ruined by flame. Realizing these would-be dragonslayers are an indication that they are getting close to Veshumirix, the party crosses the room to a door on the far side. As they do, the skeletons animate and attack with broken yet flaming weapons.
Recognizing that these are dragonscarred dead, and likely raised from death by Veshumirix, Thade tells the party to attack them with cold magic. This proves to be immensely useful as the dead dwarves are seemingly weak to it. Without too much trouble the skeletons are destroyed, but the party is now sure that Veshumirix knows they are here. Mym heals up the party’s wounds and they proceed beyond the door.
Seeing a natural chamber half-filled with flowing magma, the party sends Rocco to scout ahead. He makes his way silently along the ledge, feeling the immense heat coming from the magma twenty feet below the ledge he traverses. As silently as he had ever moved, he crossed the room to a tunnel on the far side, and motions for the party to follow. Though Thade and Mym are able to make their way silently along the ledge, Virgil’s heavy armor proves too much for him to move about silently. He accidentally kicks a rock from the ledge, knocking it into the magma below. As the rock splashes down into the molten rock, it awakens something.
Rising from magma is a creature that can only be described as a living volcano. It towers high above the party, even though it is in the magma twenty feet below. It moves towards the party advancing along the ledge, but Thade reacts quickly. Using his most powerful magic, Thade polymorphs the creature into a harmless mole, which plummets into the magma below and is incinerated.
With a stunned look on his face, Virgil peers over the edge where the hapless- and newly-created mole fell to its fiery doom and asks “Was that thing friendly?”
Not quite knowing the answer to that question, or perhaps not wanting to know if they just committed a heinous act against a potential ally, the party proceeds down the tunnel, continuing their search for Ilssrah and Veshumirix.
Moving into the next chamber, the party once again finds a ledge next to a drop, with roiling magma churning twenty feet below the chamber. Thade uses his magic to traverse the room to a tunnel entrance on the far side. However, just as in the previous chamber, when the party follows they awaken more guardians from the magma below.
Two creatures made of flame and rock leap out of the magma, landing with explosions of flame at their points of impact. Fire rolls over the party, but Rocco and Mym manage to duck the flames, while Virgil is not so lucky, though he is somewhat protected by his magical ring the flames scorch his body, causing severe burns.
Thade realizes that these are magma guardians, and like the dragonscarred dead earlier, are susceptible to cold magic. Sharing his knowledge with the others, Mym attacks them by casting purifying icicle and Virgil uses his blade ally with the frost rune. Rocco uses his trust bow, though when the arrows burst into flames upon firing, the fire has no effect on these creatures.
Thade lands a critical blow with a cone of cold spellstrike, devastating the creatures. This, along with Mym’s cold magic and Virgil’s frost rune, soon brings the creatures down, and the party takes some time for Mym to heal up their wounds with both magic and skilled hands.
Readying themselves once again, they sneak down the far passage that starts sloping downwards and find what they believe to be Veshumirix’s lair. An enormous chamber is filled with magma, with a kedge along the wall to their left. But what catches their eye is the ledge on the far side of the chamber - it is filled with a hoard of treasure. CoIns of every type, items that are surely magic, and untold other riches await them. With no dragon or Ilssrah in sight, they set about deciding how best to obtain this priceless treasure for themselves, and maybe slay the dragon and Ilssrah in the process, should theory make an appearance.
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Thade polymorphing the dalos was the highlight of the session. Even with the incapacitation trait, it sill polymorphed into a mole, while retaining its mind. Which is extra unfortunate for it, as it was conscious of what happened to it as it plummeted into the magma and died instantly. It was unanimaiously agreed upon by the party that this act alone wins Thade the MVP Hero Card for next session. I had bought and painted the deep cuts earth elemental lord mini just for this encounter, and it was over before it began. Oh well, that's what happens when the dice roll against you. At least Thade's player complimented my paint job on it. On the plus side, Thade he won't be doing this to Veshumirix next session as he only had baleful polymorph prepared once.
Speaking of which, I am going to have Ilssrah join Veshumirix and am dropping the magma guardian from the encounter. This will keep the encounter at severe, and just a bit tougher, but that's one consequence of letting Ilssrah escape from the temple last session. The party does the guiding chisel, so the upcoming fight is enbtirely optional for them. However, if they do not slay the dragon, King Harral will have some feelings about this.
Mym's player has wanted a broom of flying since she created her witch, and I hinted at the end of the session that she saw a broom-like object leaning against the cavern wall at the back of the dragon's hoard. She lit up when I said this, so I think she will do her absolute best to defeat the dragon and acquire it.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty three was two weeks ago and lasted four hours.
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Securing their rope of climbing to a wall, the party climbed out over the magma to a ledge of rock in the large chamber, across from the dragon’s hoard. Thade and Mym call out to Veshumirix, whom they assume is in the chamber undetected. When the party has flattered Veshumirix enough, she rises from the magma to address them directly. Thade suggests that they have no quarrel with her, and only want to find Ilssrah, whom they believe to have come to the dragon’s chamber. Veshumirix decides to test the party, and calls out to Ilssrah, whom is invisibly hiding near the hoard. Veshumirix tells Ilssrah to prove herself by slaying the party, and she sinks back down into the magma.
In order to reach his quarry, Thade calls upon his magical tiefling heritage and grows wings from his back. Mym casts airwalk on herself for the same purpose. Virgil and Rocco try all means at their disposal to find Ilssrah, but have no luck locating her precise location. Eventually Mym dispels the invisibility Ilssrah was using to hide herself and sees Ilssrah is also magically suspended above the magma.
Thade flies over to Ilssrah as she retreats to the dragon hoard, fearful that her flight will also be dispelled, dropping her into the magma below. Rocco fires arrows at Ilssrah as Virgil hurls his shifted trident at her clear across the cavern.
Ilssrah tries to slay the party with her spells, but being outnumbered means she is not able to stand up to them. After Rocco lands a particularly damaging arrow on her, Ilssrah cries out to Veshumirix for assistance. Deciding she has seen enough incompetence already, Veshumirix rises from the magma, addressing Ilssrah directly.
“Ilssrah, you are a disappointment!” Veshumirix roars as she breathes a cone of molten rock across Thade, Mym and Ilssrah. The heroes withstand the attack, but Ilssrah’s flesh is melted from her bones under the intense heat as she dies screaming.
A magma guardian rises from the magma to assist Veshumirix, and Thade blasts them both with prismatic spray. Mym casts eclipse burst and catches both as well. Rocco uses an elemental gem to summon an earth elemental, hoping it can distract the dragon and buy his friends some time. Virgil continues hurling his trident, scoring hit after hit after it magically returns to his hand after each throw.
Veshumriix crosses the chamber to breathe on Rocco, Virgil and the elemental. Rocco manages to dodge the fearsome breath, but Virgil is not so lucky. He is burned, though his magical ring offers some protection. The elemental is incinerated before it had much of a chance to do anything.
Soon the magma guardians fall to Thade and Mym’s cold magic, so they direct their attention back to the dragon pressuring their allies across the room. Thade uses his new wings to fly behind the dragon and attack it from the rear, but he is knocked out of the air by the dragon and falls into the magma below. Virgil’s faith is his deity Kazutal is so great that he is able to free Thade from the sticky magma, though Thade is burned in the process.
With Mym alone near the treasure, Veshumirix flies to her and savagely bites her, bringing her close to death. The dragon then flies back to the other to finish them off, but before she can do so she is brought down by a combination of Rocco’s arrows and finally by a well-placed throw from Virgil, his trident piercing the wyrm’s heart. As the dragon drops into the magma below she screams at the heroes, telling them they will never withstand Dahaj’s fury.
Thade flies over to Mym to heal her with a potion to prevent her death, and the party takes a moment to process what they have just done: slay a dragon in its own lair.
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The fight was easier on the party than I had anticipated, but I think this is mostly because I had them fight Ilssrah alone for a few rounds before Veshumirix joined in. And the magma guardian joined even later, barely having an effect. The party was well-prepared with many spells that deal cold damage, and the frost rune on Virgil's shifting weapon also is a major contributor. The flame run on Rocco's bow was of course sueless, but he is deadly accurate and deals a ton of damage.
This was their first fight asgainst a dragon in the campaign, and it may have caused them to become over confident. The next time they face a dragon things will not go so well for them, though it will be a short encounter per the encounter in the book.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty four was earlier this month and lasted four and a half hours.
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With the magma dragon defeated, the party collects its treasures and heads back upstairs. They take some time to explore the rooms in the temple that they had bypassed, but do not find anything of importance, so they collect the insistent door knocker that was used to gain entry and head back to King Harral.
Mym hands the crown of Saggorak to King Harral, and what passes for relief crosses his skeletal face. Placing it upon his head, he crumbles into dust, along with his death knights. His armor, maul and a wand are left behind, though, so the party collects these and heads back to Kovlar.
Reporting to the council of what has happened over the past several days, they are treated as heroes, a feast is consumed that evening and a new holiday is declared honoring their accomplishment. They reunite with Zol, who has been studying with Archmage Hromgar Nalruven, trying to discover more secrets of the aiudara. He tells them that he has confirmed that some portion of Dahak’s essence has been trapped in the magical portals since he was defeated by the Ekujae long ago, but his power is growing and he soon might escape if nothing is done to stop him. Borrowing a large quantity of books from Nalruven, Zol promises to discover what he can and report back to the archmage, hopefully with a solution to this apocalyptic problem.
Returning to Breachill via the portals, the party spends some time reuniting with their friends who have been busy at work restoring the keep. Tendulkar has been very successful in restoring the keep, and even upgrading parts of it to a better condition than it formerly had. Jack and Chiana are still here, heading out regularly to Cypress Point to help that town rebuild from its recent destruction at the hands of the Scarlet Triad. Having rested and restored themselves, after a week has passed they once again head into the portal, this time through Duskgate.
Inside they find a room dedicated to elven artifice, and and attacked by frescoes of elves that magically animate to protect the way station. The party has little difficulty in defeating these golems, remarking to themselves afterwards that they have come a long way since the first golem they faced back in the Sunset Imports warehouse in Kintargo.
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Much of this session was spent on downtime activities once the party returned to Breachill. They all retrained some feats and Thade scribed some scrolls. I had hoped they would progress to the encounter with Dahak's manifestatrion in this session as it would be a great place to leave off, but it was not to be as we had to cut the session shorter than our usual length. Afterwards it was decided to cut all future sessions at my house by an hour, so they should last around five hours each now. This helps out not only me, but also two of my players, who drive almost an hour to reach my house, and they have young kids that get quite antsy after six hours or so at my house.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty five was on Saturday and lasted five hours.
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Continuing down the same passage, Rocco finds himself at the entrance to a round chamber, with another passage leading off to his right. The walls are adorned with a mural of an elven life, from birth, through adulthood and to old age and death. Suspecting this is not a normal room, Rocco calls for Thade to come check it out. Thade’s magical senses detect magic in a staff leaning against the far wall, and he thinks the room, and possibly the staff, is haunted. Thade asks Mym to assist, so he sends her spider Pvel into the room, and through him is able to suppress the haunt with an occult invocation. The party takes the staff without issue and hurries down the new passage into the next chamber.
In the next chamber Rocco spies the exit portal, but something is off about it. It is currently active, when all the other portals they have encountered thus far have been inactive when found. Also, he can see a twilight desert landscape in the portal, whereas previous ones showed only a gray mist when active, and there is sand in this room at the base of the portal, having apparently been blown into the way station by the desert wind. He fires an arrow into the portal and sees it disappear into the desert. Deciding it is safe, he grabs a handful of sand and moves to throw it into the portal. However, as he approaches, he disappears into the sand and something hiding there engulfs him!
Moving quickly, the rest of the party comes to Rocco’s aid, with Thade firing off spells at the now-discovered creature made of sand. Virgil steps up and attacks with his machete, and Mym uses her magic to support her allies. Rocco manages to escape from inside the creature before it can consume him, and though the creature blasts the party with great gouts of sandy breath and lands mighty blows with his sandy fists, they manage to slay the thing before it can do more harm to them. After Mym patches up their wounds, they step into the portal, deciding against exploring the rest of the way station in case there are more guardians like this sand creature.
On the other side of the portal, the party finds themselves not in a desert but instead in a burning hellscape. All around them a town is aflame, with smoke choking their lungs and the screams of wounded and dying civilians filling their ears. To their horror, they soon realize they are in Breachill, and the keep they now call home has been destroyed as a volcano erupted from underneath it. A cloud of ash pours out of the volcano, covering the sky from horizon to horizon, swirling over the town in unnatural patterns.
Virgil leaps into action immediately, heading into a nearby burning building to lift some fallen beams off of a trapped man. With the man wounded, Virgil leads him to an open spot in a nearby plaza and heads off into the smoke to seek out more people in need of help. Thade uses his cold magic spells to extinguish several fires nearby, growing his wings and flying up into the air to get a better vantage point of what is going on and to ensure his friends are not in immediate danger. Mym heads to the plaza where townsfolk are gathering, and tends to their wounds with both her magic and healing kit. Rocco climbs down from the building he found himself atop of and tries to kick in a door to help some people trapped on the other side, but the thick wooden door refuses to give way to his boot.
The party all stop what they are doing as there is a rumble from the cloud above, and the cloud forms into the shape of a dragon and mocks the party in a voice born of thunder. It tells them they are puny mortals and shall burn with the rest of the world. Angered by this, Rocco fires an arrow into the cloud, and though the arrow strikes true, he is unsure if it had any effect other than causing another roll of thunder to boom across the town. Thade flies up into the cloud and unleashes a spellstrike into it with his magical chain, and he is sure it has some effect as he is hurled back to the ground afterwards by another explosion of thunder, his ears left ringing. Mym and Virgil continue to help folks on the ground.
Angered by the arrogance of the party thinking they could hurt it, the cloud (which the party now realizes is a manifestation of Dahak) swirls down into the center of the town, and solidifies into the form of a gargantuan dragon, whose red scales eerily reflect the light emanating from the burning town all around it.
Rocco fires an arrow into the dragon’s thick red hide, causing it to roar in pain and then he seeks cover behind a burning building, knowing it will soon unleash its fiery breath. Mym casts eclipse burt on the dragon, also hurting it and drawing its attention upon her. Thade joins in and uses his magic upon the dragon as well, preparing for the worst to come. Virgil raises his shield, using his battle prayer on the beast, hoping for Kazutal’s assistance in this direst of situations, though the dragon seems unconcerned by his appeal to Mother Jaguar. Tired of their feeble attempts to hinder it, the dragon unleashes a stream of fire from its mouth, enveloping the entire party even though they are scattered all around the plaza. As the fire burns their flesh, the party is thrown backwards and hears the dragon bellow in its thundering voice: “This is but the first of many devastations. Wherever you go, my fury shall follow.”
As they fall to the ground the party suddenly finds themselves in a different location. Gone are the town, the screaming civilians, the volcano and cloud of ash. Instead they are in a barren desert landscape, much like the one they saw through the portal. It is after sunset and a dust storm is swirling all about them, limiting their vision and hampering their ability to move through the sand.
Close by they find the Duskgate portal, canted at an angle and leaving against an obelisk rising out of the sand. At the base of the obelisk is the body of a gnome, which Rocco is able to determine has been dead for about two days, and his wounds are consistent with those suffered from falling from a great height. Thade determines that the dust storm is of supernatural origin, and that the party should seek shelter and wait it out. Though Rocco spies a town in the distance, they decide not to head towards it, fearing they can become lost too easily. Thade uses a scroll of magnificent mansion to create a shelter for them, and they proceed into it, with Virgil bringing along the body of the gnome.
In the magical sanctuary, Virgil discovers some correspondence on the gnome, indicating that he was sent from the nearby town to seek help from the Pactmaster of Katapesh, hoping they can assist with the supernatural storm that has been ravaging their town for days on end. Virgil performs burial rites for the deceased gnome, and buries him in the extradimensional garden of the mansion, as that is the best he can do for the gnome in this situation. Once this is done, the party rests and recovers from their recent ordeal.
The following morning, the party discovers the sandstorm is still raging, so they decide to try their luck by heading towards the town they can occasionally glimpse through breaks in the storm.
Reaching the town, they find its streets eerily empty, though they suspect the residents are all sheltering from the storm. Deciding to head for the largest building in town, they come across a group of gnomes and an elf fleeing from a nearby building. Deciding to investigate the danger, the party prepares to enter the building when Rocco spies a creature inside that seems to be a living sandstorm, crackling with electrical energy.
The creature sees them as well and exits the building, its body erupting with a thunderous roar as lightning bolts shoot from it in every direction. Though the party is unhurt by this, the elf in the rear of the group of fleeing civilians is slain instantly. Mym responds by casting curse of death on the creature, and though it suffers greatly under the spell, Thade puts it out of its misery by scaring it to death with phantasmal killer. Before the party can celebrate their victory, two more of the same creature descend from the storm above, intent on slaying the party as well as the civilians who have disappeared into the deserted streets.
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This was a good session, and the party succeeded on all of the tasks in the manifestation encounter, dealing 85 damage to the Promise of Fire as well as passing almost all of the skill checks to help the civilians (six total successes, but poor Rocco couldn't breach a door and had to listen to the civilians burning alive on the other side).
The players immediately suspected something wasn't right about this situation when I had the manifestation go last, as one of them rolled really low on their initiative roll. This was confirmed when the fiery breath hurled them into the desert, and they now beleive this is Breachill's future should they fail in their goal of defeating Dahak.
They also didn't fully explore the Duskgate Way Station, which is unusual for them, although they are begining to more and more not fully explore places. Let's hope they don't miss too much more in the future, as they have already missed out on some powerful magic by failing perception checks (namely in the Temple of All Gods last book).
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty six was on Saturday and lasted four and a half hours.
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Thade is able to determine that these creatures are uthuls, evil elementals of wind and lightning that are native to the material plane. The remaining two uthuls are dispatched without much trouble as the party is largely able to dodge their electrical attacks, and the party investigates the house from which the civilians fled. Inside they find evidence that the civilians were holed up in here for some time, but were desperate to leave as they had run out of food and water.
Deciding to head towards the largest building in town, the party collects the corpse of the slain elf and heads back out into the storm. They make it to the building without issue, and are relieved to enter the large building, safely out of the wind-driven sand.
Inside they are greeted by Satla Kivarn, soukmaster of Finderplain. She explains to the party that FInderplain has been beset by an unnatural sandstorm for more than a week, and she is getting desperate as the refuge they are in is running critically low on food, water and medical supplies. Mym offers to help the wounded and provides what food and water she can with her magic. Satal implores the party to help them out by finding supplies in the granary on the other side of town, as well as seeing if any survivors are still out there, as the last few she sent out have not returned, and she fears the uthuls and worse have slain them.
Heading out to the granary, the party hears a distant howling in the wind, an ominous sound. When they arrive at the granary they are able to easily find a large quantity of supplies. Using a combination of muscle and magic, they are able to get much of it back to Satla, though Mym loses some in the driving wind and does not go back for it for fear of being lost in the storm. With their immediate needs for sustenance fulfilled, Satla asks the party to now see if they can locate any survivors out in the town and bring them back to her. She points them in the direction of Royal Rise, where High King Narvimelbs has likely holed up with a large amount of supplies.
Once again braving the storm, the party find their way to Royal Rise, which despite its grandiose name is little more than a few small homes awkwardly combined into a single compound with makeshift walls surrounding a simple courtyard. Knocking on the door of what seems to be the most likely residence for a “king” they are soon welcomed into a dimly-lit home by an older-looking gnome who quickly disappears into a back room. After a moment he re-emerges, this time wearing a stately ermine robe many sizes too large for him, and seats himself upon a wooden chair badly and incompletely painted in gold. He introduces himself as High King Narvimelbs and welcomes the party into his “kingdom.” Not quite sure what they were expecting, but knowing that it wasn’t this, the party is unimpressed, and asks the king if he has any supplies he can provide to Satla. He says all he has is a bit of alcohol, and tells the party he will return to Satla with it if they can match him in drinks. Thade steps up to the challenge, and manages to swallow the very watery beer, impressing the king enough to convince him to return with them.
On the way back to Satla, the howling is once again heard, and this time Thade is able to identify its source: a wendigo. Normally found only in the arctic, Thade is not quite sure what such a beast is doing this far south, but suspects it is the source of not only the missing citizens but also the storm itself. Wendigos are known for causing unnatural weather, as well as tormenting mortals with hunger and starvation before cursing them with cannibalism and turning them into a wendigo also. Should they encounter the wendigo, they will have to kill it to end the supernatural storm and free the town.
Satla shows the party to one of her citizens, a gnome named Eloisil who is in the infirmary not doing very well. Upon examination, Mym determines that Eloisil is likely a victim of the wendigo, as he has a fever and is uninterested in any of the food they brought back with them. Using her magic Mym is able to restore his health and remove the curse, for which Eloisil is immensely grateful.
For a third time they head out into the storm, this time to Bluemarket to find some survivors. Upon arrival they see a light in an inn called the Stove and Cupboard. Inside they find desperate survivors, and learn that the wendigo is likely in the area, from the survivors' descriptions of a towering horned man with glowing eyes. Deciding that these civilians cannot make it back to Satla with such a beast in the area, the party heads outside to offer themselves up as bait, hoping to lure the creature into an ambush.
Sure enough, as soon as Thade steps outside, he spies the creature atop a nearby building, from which it unleashes one of its terrifying howls. Though the party is not phased, the civilians in the inn cower in fear and are about to run for their lives.
Rocco immediately fires arrows at the creatures as it flies down to meet them, grabbing Thade in one of its immense claws. Virgil charges it to free his compatriot and Mym blasts it with her magic. Thade escapes with dimensional assault and attacks it with his chain. Before the creature can recover, Thade lands a devastating blow with a disintegrate spellstrike, staggering the creature. It grabs Thade and attempts to fly away with him, but he resists the creature’s magic and Mym slashes it with her cold iron claws and Rocco bashes it with his cold iron warhammer. Before it can escape it dies, and the party notices an immediate lessening of the storm.
The party marvels at the ease with which they have defeated the terror of Finderplain, and escort the civilians back to Satla. After resting with Satal and her people for the night, the next morning they get dire news: the Scarlet Triad was in town overnight and appears to have taken a local merchant of antiquities after ransacking his store. Satala offers up camels for the party if they can track down the Triad members and return the merchant safely to them. The party agrees and decides to head out after the Triad immediately, hoping to catch them before they can reach their apparent destination - the sprawling metropolis of Katapesh.
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Due to several vacations, my anniversary and a general inability to get the group together, it was six weeks between sessions, but we are back at it again, though we will miss our next scheduled session due to the Labor Day holiday.
The fight with the wendigo went far faster than I anticipated, mainly due to Thade landing a critical hit with his spellstrike disintegrate. He dealt 168 damage to the wendigo, more than half of its HP in a single blow and the most damaging single attack in the campaign so far. After that all it could do was try to grab his and escape, but he made his saving throws (having a liberator in the party also greatly helps with PCs being grabbed and such) and it died soon after. Such is life.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty seven was on Saturday and lasted four and a half hours.
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The party heads out to Katapesh with Satla leading the way. Though the trip should only take four days, a sandstorm impedes their progress and they don’t arrive until six days have passed. Fearing the Triad has already reached the city and registered Benneb as a slave, Satla decides to head straight to one of her local contacts after guiding the party to her friend’s inn, The Tickled Pickle, run by the orc Tharg. Tharg sets the party up in several rooms and tells them that any friend of Satla is welcome in his inn as long as they desire.
Satla and Thade head into the Lower City district known as the Nightstalls, where Satla’s contact Krystara runs a perfume pavilion. Not entirely sure that Krystara can be trusted not to give up the party’s presence and intentions to the Triad, Thade magically disguises himself and enters Krystara’s Emporium to see if he can get some information out of Krystara. After buying some expensive perfumes he is able to discreetly learn that not only has the Triad brought Benneb into the city, but they have also captured the guildmaster of the Jeweller’s Guild, a gnome named Exavisu Kerndallion. Thade also learns that the gnomes are likely to be held in a secure location, and will be auctioned off later in the month. The party will need to act decisively if they are to prevent the gnomes from being purchased and moved out of the city, and the auction represents the best opportunity to do so. Once the gnomes are safe the party will destroy the Triad’s reputation and by working to get their guild charter revoked at the Council of Guilds later in the month. With just three weeks to go until the next council, they do not have much time to waste.
The next day the party split up to handle various tasks. Rocco spends some time with members of the guild of Street Sweepers and Dung Carters, helping them cart their loads around the city and subtly influencing them away from the Scarlet Triad. Thade returns to Krystara and is able to build up a connection with her, giving him a greater chance of success to navigate Katapesh’s political climate in the future. Mym spent the day shopping for rare formulae but was unsuccessful. Virgil heads to the Gilded Shell, a store run by the master smith Malthus Feyhew. There he upgrades some of his weapons and also inquires about procuring arms for use by the Bellflower Network back in Kintargo. Virgil also seeks out another member of the Fraternal Order of the Anvil, one Mekrem Oagli of the SIlver Ewe. It turns out Mekrem’s been cast out of his guild, and he suspects Jelek Jaziman of the Scarlet Triad is responsible. Virgil agrees to help him out with this and vows to return that night with the rest of the party to investigate.
That night the party heads to the Silver Ewe to see if they can help Mekrem clear his name. Surely if they are able to find evidence of Jelek’s misdeeds this will sway the Fraternal Order of the Anvil to vote against the Triad. Magically disguised as Zephyr Guards, they enter with a key provided by Mekrem and find nothing but scraps of paper and graffiti-covered walls. Noticeably they find no evidence of any dangerous ores being stored or worked here, which is one of the charges that were leveled at Mekrem when he was ousted from his guild.
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I believe this was the third session of the campaign that featured no combat. The players really seem to be getting into the downtime activites available to take down the Triad, and I am eager to see what they do next session.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty eight was on Saturday and lasted five and a half hours.
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The following morning the party goes to see Maz Loturo, the auctioneer who sold Mekrem’s goods. Thinking he is in on the actions taken against Mekrem, they magically disguise themselves as Triad agents and claim they are there to collect the goods from Mekrem’s store. Talking smoothly, Thade is able to take a look at Maz’s record book and stealthily tear a page out. From this stolen page the party learns that the goods were sold at a steep discount to two individuals named Weyir and Aanam al-Jebir. A brief chat with Krystara confirms that they are Triad enforcers who can frequently be found gambling poorly at the Golden Scarab.
That night at the Golden Scarab, the party takes some time to indulge in gambling. Rocco wins playing Knick Tickle while Mym tries her hand at The Stump. Virgil takes up a position at the bar while Thade moves about the crowd, looking for Weyir and Aanam. When Virgil decides to gamble on a game of Knivesies, Mym draws the ire of security when she casts guidance on the participant Virgil was betting on. This causes a stir but she is able to evade the guards and hide out at the bar. When Virgil scopes out a staircase leading to the basement, the party pays an entrance fee and is let downstairs.
In the basement Thade decides to participate in the Jackal Box after seeing another contestant being torn to shreds by the wild animals. He is easily able to cross the pit without being bitten and collects his winnings. In the final chamber of the basement a game of Zombie Melee is about to begin. The party wages on the older, smaller contestant facing off against the shrouded newcomer. Both necromancers raise the corpses piled on a dais between them, and when the dust settles the newcomer is victorious.
As they collect their winnings, they notice a pair arguing behind the losing contestant, and realize it is Weyir and Aanam. Seizing the opportunity the party quickly gets in their face and confronts them about their actions against Mekrem. Realizing they are outmatched, Weyir soon confesses to acting on Jelek’s command to ruin Mekrem’s reputation. Under threat of severe pain at the hands of the party, the pair of Triad enforcers agree to confess their deeds to the Guild of Anvillers in the morning.
Later in the week the party decides to participate in the gladiatorial games at the arena. After being told the rules and signing paperwork absolving the Guild of Gladiators of any responsibility should they meet with death or dismemberment, the party faces off against the creature known as the Duneshaker. It is a gargantuan creature that was captured out in the depths of the desert, and though it is a fearsome opponent the party manages to take it down. With the creature defeated the party collects their purse (along with some money kicked in by other gladiators who lost comrades to the Duneshaker) and are now members of the Guild of Gladiators. They plan to challenge guildmaster Bshez “Sand Claws” Shak for control of the guild later in the month if she will not vote against the Triad at the upcoming council.
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I thought the fight against the Duneshaker would be tougher for the party, but since this is the only fight the party had in the session they made good use of their Hero Point cards to reduce some of the damage taken by them. Thade using haste on the party greatly helped with dominating the action economy in the fight. One standout moment was when Virgil, after Mym cast wind walk on him, mimed running up the back of the creature to appear to ride it. I ruled this a great way to pander to the crowd, and he spent the last few rounds of the fight atop it like a cowboy at a rodeo.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session fifty nine was yesterday and lasted four hours.
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Over the next several days, the party continues to work against the Triad. Thade uncovers information regarding the Triad extorting the Farmer’s Union and that the Triad has failed to protect several caravans as they were ambushed in the desert on their way to bring the harvest into Katapesh. Thade also meets with the gnome farmer Milminik who is drowning his woes in a local pub. After plying him with several pints of Katapeshi Light, Thade is able to extract enough information from Milminik to determine that he was a survivor of the caravan ambushes, which took place at an oasis a day’s travel outside of the city. Milminik reveals that the caravan was ambushed just after sunset by large beetle-like creatures that spat fire and were capable of biting a camel in half with a single snap of their jaws. Thade realizes that these creatures are most likely Xotanispawn, and are immune to fire but are susceptible to light. He plans to use this information later when the party makes their way out to the oasis to deal with these creatures. Before Thade leaves, Milminik asks Thade to give those creatures a good kicking for him and his slain camel Bessie.
Virgil makes contact with the Steel Falcons, a branch of the Eagle Knights of Andoran. These elite warriors are similar in nature to the Bellflower Network, whose mission is to free those held in bondage. This unit is in town to strike against the Scarlet Triad during their upcoming auction. Virgil’s Steel Falcon contact, going by the codename Bishop, informs him that the auction is happening at Bhetshamtal estate in three days' time. Bishop promises to aid the party in a raid to rescue the captives slated to be sold at this event.
Rocco spends time with the Guild of Bakers and Butchers, sharing with them several recipes for dwarven bread that he made in his youth, as well as learning a few new recipes himself. Slowly but surely he is able to influence their members towards ending their support for the Scarlet Triad, and soon enough he will have their guildmaster’s promise to vote against the Triad at the upcoming Council of Guilds.
On her way to meet with a member of the Guild of Poison Makers, Mym receives a letter bearing a seal from the Order of Alchemists and Potion Makers. The letter requests a meeting between her and the guildmistress Okztrok. Ignoring it for the time being, Mym makes her way to the Nightstalls to the store owned by Guur the Poison Maker. Shortly after she makes her way into the store, Guur recognizes Mym as the witch who has been causing so much commotion in the guild community lately, and tells her he cannot sell anything to her. As she is ushered out politely but forcefully, Mym asks why she is being treated this way. Guur tells her to speak with guildmaster Hahcuss, who can be found at the Tainted Leaf, a ways down the street.
Making her way into the Tainted leaf, Mym sees it is a hookah lounge, decadently filled with cushions and silks. In the low candlelight, she is directed to a rear area where a Garundi man lounges, drinking alcohol from a salt-rimmed glass as two naked women partake of the hookah in the center of the chamber. Dismissing the women, he introduces himself as Hahcuss Hrann, guildmaster of the Guild of Poison Makers, and invites Mym to join him. From Hahcuss, Mym learns that Okztrok was poisoned, and some in that guild think she had something to do with it. Insisting that she is innocent, Mym convinces Hahcuss that she had nothing to do with the poisoning, and proposes that someone took advantage of her meeting with the guild to pin the assassination attempt on her. Hahcuss vows to investigate the matter himself, with the full power of his guild behind him. Hahcuss asks her to give him two days to find out what he can about this poisoning.
Before heading back to the Tickled Pickle, Mym goes to see Okztrok, who is currently deathly ill from some kind of poison, and is barely clinging to life with the aid of Doctor Remie. The good doctor is unable to determine what kind of poison is affecting Okztrok, and it takes all of her medical skill to keep the patient alive. Mym is able to use her magic to determine that the poison used is nightmare salt, an extremely powerful poison used by only the most skilled of poisoners. With the doctor’s aid, Mym is able to extend Okztrok’s life for one more night, and vows to return in the morning with magic to cure her. True to her word, Mym returns in the morning at first light and uses her magic to remove the poison from Okztrok’s system. Though still weak, Okztrok is able to recall a bit of what happened before she fell ill - she had her normal meal of djamet, a stew of chicken, tomatoes, onion, and strong spices, served with salted flatbread. She slept poorly and awoke suddenly from a nightmare in which a dragon had set the bedroom on fire. Nightmares since have consistently involved deserts, heat shimmers, fire, and dangerous beasts. Mym is able to determine that there was an unknown cook in the guild’s kitchen that day, a middle-aged Garundi woman of generic appearance. Vowing to find this likely poisoner, Mym heads back to the Tickled Pickle to reunite with the party.
Deciding to next take care of the Xotanispawn that ambushed the caravan at the oasis, Thade uses teleport to take the party there magically. Assuming that the creatures won’t make an appearance until nightfall, Virgil deploys the gourd home to provide some shelter from the sun, and the party settles in to ambush the ambushers.
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We missed two scheduled sessions due to scheduling conflicts as well as sickness, but we are still on track to get through the rest of this adventure path. The holidays coming up are sure to cause some more issues, but we will get there eventually. Six weeks between sessions makes things hard to remember, but then that is partly why I type up my notes that end of getting posted here.
This was another session without combat, which I believe makes four so far. It was also our shortest session of the campaign, and this is likely to be the norm going forward as circumstances have changed for some of the players, and with two of them having a one hour drive to reach my house, this is about the shorest we can go without feeling the time spent driving isn't worth it.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
Session sixty was on Saturday and lasted five hours.
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The party sets up to ambush the Xotanispawn, with Rocco hiding high up in a palm tree and the rest of the party in the oasis near the shore, hoping it can provide some comfort against their foe’s fiery attacks. As expected, shortly after sunset the creatures emerge from the sand, and instantly devour the two summoned dogs the party used as bait. The Xotanispawn are large beetle-like creatures, with waves of heat rolling off their bodies as the party attacks.
As the party planned accordingly, they are able to slay the beats without too much effort, though they are thoroughly singed in the process. All save Rocco that is, as he remained in his tree throughout the fight, no worse for wear. Their spells and weapons that deal cold damage were particularly useful in the fight. Virgil removes the mandibles from the slain creatures to bring back to the Farmer’s Guild as proof of their destruction, confident this will sway them to vote against the Scarlet Triad at the upcoming Council of Guilds.
The following morning Thade teleports the party back to the city. Virgil heads over to the Farmer’s Union and accepts a sizable reward for killing the Xotanispawn. Thade spends the day shopping, looking for a recording rod but he is unsuccessful. Rocco heads out to see the Butchers and Bakers again, but is unsuccessful in swaying them any further away from the Scarlet Triad.
Mym spends the day shopping for new tattoos, but is also unsuccessful. However, she does stop in to see Guur the poisonmonger, whom she met earlier in the week. Guur tells her that his guildmaster, Hahcuss Hrann, is sick, and poisoning is suspected. When Mym arrives at his home, she is escorted upstairs and once again finds Doctor Remie tending to the patient. Though Mym is able to use her medical skills to extend Hahcuss’ life for another day, she isn’t prepared at this moment to cure him of the affliction. She does, however, help enough that Hahcuss is able to become coherent momentarily, and when Mym asks who did this, he gasps out “Follow the salt” before losing consciousness again. Mym realizes that she saw Hahcuss drinking a beverage from a salt-rimmed glass when last she saw him, and also that Okztrok reported eating salted bread as part of the meal she had before falling sick. Mym decides it is time to regroup with the party and do something about this poisoner, as they seem to be poisoning people that Mym is getting close to. Mym tells the party what she has learned, and leaves it up to them to find the poisoner while she prepares her magic to cure Hahcuss.
Tracking down a source of salt in the city, Virgil learns from a stevedore that one particular building at the end of the docks is used for storing salt, and he has seen the dark-haired Garundi woman described by staff at the homes of both poison victims. Thade uses pest form to turn into a fly, and enters the building through an open window. Inside he spots the same woman filling a small pouch with salt. Heading back outside, Thade works with Rocco and Virgil to come up with a plan. Rocco sneaks inside and gets into position overlooking the woman’s location, while Virgil brazenly walks in, trying to bluff his way into having the woman reveal if she is the one they are looking for. Thade follows behind invisibly, ready to support Virgil if needed.
The woman sees Virgil alone and assumes he is an easy victim, and she manages to charm him. When Rocco sees Virgil acting strangely, he assumes the worst and attacks her. Thade helps out by using his magic against her.
Thade is able to dispel the charm as the woman stabs out at Rocco with a poisoned dagger, scoring a hit and inflicting him with nightmare salt. She also manages to stupefy Rocco, setting him up for more enchantment spells later. Rocco fights on, grappling her with one hand to prevent her from escaping, while hitting her with his warhammer in his other hand. Virgil comes to his senses as Thade’s magic has now freed his mind, and as his senses clear he comes to the realization that this woman isn’t what she seems, but is in fact a lamia matriarch in disguise. Without Mym present to support them with her healing magic, the rest of the party realizes they might have bitten off more than they can chew.
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This was a good session, with the Xotanispawn giving the party a good run for their money, and the lamia as well, though that fight has yet to be resolved. Without the 4th member of the party present, things can definitely go wrong for them, especially as Thade didn't prepare many offensive spells and Rocco is currently Stupefied 4. Rocco also failed his save against the nightmare salt poison, but it won't take affect for an hour (assuming he survives the battle).
The session ended in a very satisfying manner, with Virgil going last in the final round we played and critically succeeeding on a Recall Knowledge check with his third action to determine that this woman is in fact a lamia matriarch (I had been dropping hints about her having an unusual nature during the encounter). I don't usually like ending a session in the middle of a fight, but this was one hell of a cliffhanger.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session sixty one was on Saturday and lasted five hours.
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The lamia matriarch’s body shifts and changes, her legs fusing and becoming serpentine in shape as her true snake-like form is revealed. She also grows in size, towering above the party as she casts a spell on Rocco, his weakened mind unable to resist her magic. Rocco immediately releases her and leaves the building, magically compelled to abandon the fight as well as his friends. Now seeing their opponent’s true form and power, Virgil and Thade decide that with Mym and Rocco not able to support them, this fight is beyond their capacity to triumph.
Thade traps the lamia with a maze spell, allowing Virgil to seize this opportunity to disengage and fall back, following Rocco out of the area. After just a few seconds pass, however, the lamia returns, and Thade is all alone with her. He decides to escape the best way he can, using dimension door to travel back to the Tickled Pickle, hoping his allies can regroup with him there. As Virigil makes his way out of the docks, he sees the lamia magically fly up through the opening on the roof of the salt warehouse, hissing at him as he escapes to safety. The group has evaded her for now, but fear they have not seen the last of her.
In the morning, Rocco has recovered from the dosage of nightmare salt poison administered to him by the lamia. Mym travels to see Hahcuss at his home, and is able to use her magic to cure him of the nightmare salt as well. Hahcuss is immensely grateful to Mym, and assures her that his vote in the upcoming council meeting will be against the Scarlet Triad. With his vote, and the vote of the carpenter’s guild, whom Virgil is able to finally get on board, the party almost has the requisite number of votes to revoke the Triad’s charter.
That evening the auction of Exavisu and other captured gnomes at Bhetshamtal estate is scheduled to take place during the Triad’s soirée, so the party spends much of the afternoon in preparation. Their plan is to use the greater hats of disguise they all recently acquired for this event to sneak into the party as caterers. They will then move about the estate separately to see if they can quickly locate the captives, planning on evading pursuit and changing their appearance again with the hats should they be discovered.
Using the tradesman’s entrance at the rear of the estate, the party talks their way past the guard on duty and enters the grounds. Virgil and Mym grab drink trays from the kitchen and head into the garden to mingle among the guests, seeing who is present and listening in on conversations. Thade heads down into the basement while Rocco scouts out the first floor, pretending to be picking up discarded dinnerware for return to the kitchen.
In the garden, Virgil and Mym take note of the guests arriving. All of them are wealthy though none of them are familiar to the party. Virgil checks to see if there are hidden guards about, but all he finds are the plainclothes ones on patrol, several of which have large hounds on leashes. Mym eavesdrops on conversations and gathers some gossip as the guests all have something negative to say about someone else at the event.
Rocco finds nothing of note on the first floor so he heads upstairs. There he is challenged by a lone guard but his magical disguise allows him to convince the guard of his noble intentions. Finding nothing else of note upstairs other than some very fine indoor plumbing, he checks the attic. Here he finds nothing but dust, but realizes this would be a good spot to hide out if he were to be pursued. As he is exiting he once again is stopped by the guard, but he is able to talk his way out of the situation and is escorted off the floor and back into the foyer.
In the basement Thade comes across two drunk guards leaving a room, soon followed by a servant adjusting her skirts. When she makes eye contact with Thade she blushes and hurries upstairs after the guards. Finding the wine cellar, Thade empties six vials of giant wasp venom into an equal number of bottles of fine wine, confident that this private stock of bottles will not kill anyone unaffiliated with the Triad.
Behind a locked door in one remote part of the basement, Thade finds a cell, wherein three gnomes are chained up. He uses his magic to communicate this with Mym, who finds the rest of the party above ground and informs them that they are ready to extract the captives.
Rocco heads to the kitchen to watch over the stairs leading into the basement while Virgil heads back out to the garden where the guests are, to signal Bishop of the Steel Falcons to create a distraction to cover the party’s exfiltration of the gnomes. Mym heads into the basement to assist Thade and notices one of the doors in the basement is likely the estate’s vault.
Thade unlocks both the cell door and the chains securing the gnomes to the wall and uses his magic to disguise them as best he can. Since the dogs in the garden are no doubt trained to pursue escaped slaves, he gives them a scent of rotten potatoes and the gnomes and are hidden in large potato sacks. Mym and Rocco get them upstairs and into the kitchen, ready for Virgil to send the signal. As Virgil does so, several explosions are heard at the front gate as the Steel Falcons uphold their end of the plan. The guards in the garden all rush to the front gate and a battle ensues. Seizing this opportunity Mym, Rocco and Virgil get the gnomes out of the rear gate by talking their way past the guard, with Virgil now disguised at the head guard. With the gnomes safe, they make their way away from the estate with haste.
Alone in the basement, Thade breaks into the vault and quickly loots it of everything valuable that he can find. Most importantly, he finds a ledger bearing the Triad’s sigil. Realizing this could be of invaluable assistance in convincing the remaining guilds to turn against the Triad (particularly the Aspis Consortium), he makes himself invisible and makes his exit out of the rear kitchen door. He is greeted by a sign of chaos, with guests running all about to escape the battle at the main gate and the head guard yelling at the rear gate guard, who is very confused as he just saw his leader leaving out of this very gate not one minute prior. As Thade emerges several of the hounds pick up his scent, but he activates his wings and flies up into the sky, leaving behind chaos and confusion.
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The players were amazed that they made it out of the estate without combat, but they prepared well and aced all of their rolls, so their awareness was at zero. Well done for them.
I plan on having the lamia matriarch make another appearance as she will now track down the party, though they have now leveled up and will be better preapred for when they face her again. She will also continue to poison guildmasters the party has swayed to their side. Maybe I will have her attack the party when they are otherwise engaged in combat, or perhaps have several minions with her if they track her down. I will need to think it over.
This is the last session of the year for us as the holidays are coming up, so we won't play again until some time in January.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session sixty two was last month and lasted four hours.
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The party takes Exavisu to the Jeweler’s Guild building, where she thanks them for freeing her and her fellow gnomes. She rewards the party and vows to do everything she can to have the guild charter for the Scarlet Triad revoked. When asked about what she was doing while in captivity, she tells them that she was locked in a magical forge, working to reconstruct a magical golden sphere, though she does not know its purpose. The party realizes that this could be an orb of gold dragonkind, an artifact that can be used to dominate gold dragons. Rocco recalls that he saw a shard of such an orb embedded in the chest of the red dragon Kyrion, whom he helped rescue from the cult in the Mwangi Expanse. The party decides they must prevent the Triad from using such a terrible weapon, as the destruction that can be wrought with such an artifact is immense.
Back at the Tickled Pickle, the party rests and recuperates. While cleaning the perfume bottle she liberated from the vault below Bhetshamtal Estate, Thade accidentally summons from it a djinni named Palqari. When he is informed that there is a single wish remaining, Thade decides to use it to free Palqari from the bottle forever. The djinni thanks Thade for the kindness, and informs him that he will not forget the kindness.
Perusing the ledger also removed from the estate’s vault, the party discovers that the Triad has been double dealing with many of the other guilds in Katapesh, and they quickly realize this proof will help them turn even more guilds against the Triad. Virgil takes the ledger to the Temple of Measured Weights, the largest church of Abadar in the city. There he shows the Garundi priest Aakif Ashad the ledger, and how the Triad is double dealing with the church of Abadar as well. Aakif thanks Virgil for the information, and informs him that the church will no longer be lending money to the Triad, though they cannot take direct action against the guild while their charter remains.
Rocco spends a day talking to anyone who will listen, openly challenging Bshez “Sand Claws” Shak to a fight in the arena for control of the Gladiator’s Guild. When word gets back to her of Rocco’s arrogance, she finds him in a market and publicly accepts his challenge. They will fight in the arena at noon the next Toilday. When the day arrives, the party finds themselves facing off against Bshez and the four calikangs known as the Blood Blades. When Rocco refuses to come down from the pillar atop which he stands, Bshez calls him out as a coward, and urges the Blood Blades to slay all of the challengers. The crowd cheers for the hometown favorite as the fight for control of the guild begins!
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We had a break of six weeks between sessions before this game, due to the holidays and several life challenges among the group, so it took me some time to write up my session notes. We have had one more session since this one that I still need to type up, so that will be posted as soon as I can get around to it.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session sixty three was two weeks ago and lasted five hours.
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Bshez throws her javelin at Thade, striking him squarely in the chest. She then drinks a potion of flying and flies up to Rocco atop the pillar. The Blood Blades then charge into the fray and begin punching everyone in range with their many fists. Rocco does a backflip off the pillar, landing squarely on his feet, much to the enjoyment of the crowd. Thade hits Bshez with a polar ray that devastates her. Mym mounts her broom and flies above the melee, using her magic to support her allies. Virgil wades in with his shield held high, deflecting blows from the calikangs and dealing out his own in turn. He then leaps atop a pillar by using two calikangs to propel himself upwards and strikes down at them from above.
One of the calikangs is instantly slain as Thade’s beheading buzzsaw takes off its head. He then spellstrikes Bshez with phantasmal killer, taking her out of the fight. With his last ounce of magical energy he takes a second calikang down before collapsing himself. With Bzhez and two of the Blood Blades out of the fight, it is a simple matter for the rest of the party to defeat their remaining opponents.
With the fight over, the crowd erupts into cheers. The dead are removed from the arena and Bshez declares the party the victors. She then removes her armor in shame and leaves the arena, and Katapesh, forever, her head hung low in shame. In the bowels of the arenas the other gladiators cheer for the party, happy to be rid of Bshez as she was a tyrant of a guildmistress. When offered the role of heading up the guild, the party refuses, and the gladiators choose Amrah al-Jifin to lead them. Amrah vows to support the party in their determination to have the Triad’s charter revoked in the upcoming council of guilds.
As the party continues influencing Katapesh’s various guilds, Mym encounters a dwarf named Whahar in the lobby of the League of Peshmongers. He introduces himself as Whahar, and urges her to meet him at a tavern called the Red Dhabba down by the docks that same evening.
When Mym and the party arrive that evening, Whahar tells them that he works for someone whom he is not willing to name, that can sway the Peshmongers to their cause if they do a job for his employer. Whahar plies the party with their favorite alcoholic drinks, and tells them that all they have to do is pick up a package from the Seer in the Nightstalls and deliver it to the Marble Sphinx within twenty four hours. The party has many questions for Whahar, and does not seem to entirely trust his intentions.
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As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
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Session sixty four was yesterday and lasted five hours.
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The party agrees to act as couriers for the package, even though Virgil suspects that Whahar is representing the Unseen Hand, a clandestine organization known to commit bribery, blackmail, and minor acts of terrorism. The Unseen Hand is said to be run by a mysterious figure known only as Ghost. No one seems to know this person’s real name or what they look like. The party figures that they can accept the package from the Seer, and if it looks dangerous, they can go back on their word and deal with those consequences. Knowing they are likely dealing with very dangerous people, the party agrees to the task. Leaving the Red Dhabba, the party heads into the Nightstalls to find the tower of the Seer.
The Seer’s storefront is unlike most others in the Nightstalls, for it is a three story tower of stone. Letting themselves inside, the party finds a dark shop filled with spell components of every kind inside delicate glass cases. Standing behind a large ledger in a figure in a deep red robe, its hands covered with thick leather gloves and its face hidden in the shadows of a deep cowl. “Greetings” says a voice from the robe, “I have been expecting you.”
The party greets the Seer and tells them they are here to pick up a package for Whahar. The Seers tells them that the deal is unfortunately off, and he cannot give it to them. When asked why, the Seer tells them that the contents of the package pose a threat to his business and his livelihood. When the party displays their acumen with the magical arts (except for Rocco, of course), the Seer relents and gives them the package, telling them that he expects payment through the usual channels. The party accepts the package, a small thickly-made box secured with a heavy brass lock, putting it into Rocco’s bag of holding. As they are exiting the store, Thade gets an uncanny feeling about the Seer, and it clicks for them that the Seer is undead, and likely a lich. Glad to be out of his presence, the party heads out of the neighborhood to deliver the package.
Taking an indirect route up to the inner city in case they are being followed, the party is stopped by the Zephyr Guard as they make their way through Jackal Gate. The sergeant in command activates a nearby spiritbound aluum, and after it scans the party and finds nothing, he lets the party proceed on their way. When asked why they were stopped, the sergeant informs the party that there are some criminal sorts about, and they are looking for fugitives. Rocco suspects that the guards were looking for their package, and it being in his bag of holding prevented its discovery.
At the Marble Sphinx, an enormous 120 foot tall sandstone statue, the party decides to open the box before leaving it at the Sphinx. Thade casts magnificent mansion and enters with Rocco while Mym and Virgil keep watch outside. Rocco uses his skeleton key to open the lock and Thade uses one of the mansion’s servants to open the box. When nothing explodes nor comes out of the box, it is discovered that inside are three sapphires with a mild enchantment about them. Thade deduces that these are fake control gems for the spiritbound aluums operated by the Zephyr Guard. Deciding that the contacts are harmless, if illegal, they close up the box and leave the mansion, depositing the package at the badge of the Sphinx. Their task complete, they head back to the Tickled Pickle to rest, as it is now nearing dawn.
At noon the following day Rocco heads back to the Red Dhabba to see if he can find Whahar, while the rest of the party continues their efforts to undermine the Scarlet Triad. In the tavern Rocco doesn’t find Whahar, but there is an envelope left for him at the bar. Inside is a gift of two grinning pugwampis, as well as a letter from Whahar. The letter congratulates the party for accomplishing the task given to them and informs them that Ghost has agreed to meet with them at the ibis fountain near the Guild of Peshmongers building, one hour before sunset. Rocco makes his way back to the Pickle and informs the party of his news, and they all set out to meet with Ghost.
At the plaza the party finds a few citizens buying pesh and other drugs, but there is no sign of Whahar or anyone they think might be Ghost. After a few minutes of waiting around, a pair of Zephyr Guards with aluums following enter the plaza. One of the guards has a charcoal drawing and is showing it to passersby, seemingly asking them about it. Mym sends Pavel to climb atop one of the stalls and spy on the guards. Pavel discovers that the parchment shows the face of the dark-haired Garundi woman that was the disguise of the lamia matriarch that ambushed them in the salt warehouse. One of the citizens, upon seeing the drawing, points towards the fountain where a woman is filling a jug of water. As the guards advance towards her, the woman leaves her jug and tries to slip away into the stalls. Attempting to stop this escape, the guards pull out their aluum control amulets and command the constructs to capture the woman, but instead the aluum take hold of the guards and tear them limb from limb. Several party members notice that two humans in dark clothing have their own amulets and seem to have ordered the constructs to slay the guard. The aluum then turn their attention to the plaza, rampaging through it and attacking everything in reach as the two humans who set them loose flee from the area.
Leaping into action the party attacks the constructs, hoping to save the citizens and businesses in the area from further destruction. Realizing that their magic is almost certainly going to be useless against these mindless machines, the party attacks with hammers, trident and sword to bring them down. Realizing their metal parts are resistant to his attacks, Virgil concentrates on tripping the automatons as Rocco smashes them effectively with his adamantine warhammer. Mym manages to slow them down with heal spells that also revitalize her friends. Though the fists and obliteration beams fired out of the eyes of the aluum are devastating, Mym’s magic is up to the task of countering the damage dealt. Soon enough Virgil, Rocco and Thade bring the constructs down, their bodies falling apart in the ruins of the plaza. Knowing that the sapphires in their chests trap the souls of those slain by the aluum, Thade makes an effort to smash the gems into dust, freeing the souls of the occupants to speed on their way to the Boneyard.
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This will be the last session for a month as our yearly RPG marathon is coming up. While nothing is yet set in stone for what we are going to play, it looks like I will finally be running Starfinder for the group, the first time I have done so despite owning every hardcover for the system and many of the adventures.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.
Session sixty five was yesterday and lasted four hours.
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With the threat at Ibis square neutralized, a number of citizens approach to assess the damage. Some start to recover what they can from their destroyed market stalls, others debate on what caused this mess. An elderly woman asks Virgil if he will deal with the Pactmasters, who have now lost control of their aluums multiple times. Virgil assures her that he will find those responsible for this event and deliver justice. Others in the crowd come to the defense of the Pactmasters, and suggest that there are other, nefarious forces at play in Katapesh lately.
Deciding that the rampage was meant to also destroy the guildhall of the League of Peshmongers located close by, the party heads over there to speak with the guildmaster. They are ushered into the office of Treman “Spikeface” Ulkulratu where they meet the stern dwarven guildmaster, whose lips are stained red by years of smoking wyrm pesh. Thade informs Spikeface that the Unseen hand is behind the recent attack and that it was also meant to destroy his guild. They tell their story of how they came to encounter Whahar, and show the letter from him to Spikeface. Spikeface is inclined to believe the party, and informs them that his guild wizards will work their magic on the letter, to determine if what they say is the truth. If what they say is indeed true, Spikeface promises to agree to the party’s request to vote against the Scarlet Triad in the upcoming Council of Guilds.
Deciding that the best way to get the Imperial Union of Breeders on their side is to capture the elusive camel known as Duneshadow, Thade teleports the party to the foothills of the Brazen Peaks, located almost a hundred miles from Katapesh. Rocco manages to find traces of the camel in the barren desert, and the following day it is spotted atop a faraway dune. The camel is the most beautiful animal the party has ever seen, with fierce blue eyes and streaks of blue hair running down the sides of its umber body. The party manages to approach carefully, without spooking the animal, and are able to get within a dozen paces as it watches them calmly. Mym uses her magic to conjure a well from which the camel can quench its thirst, and Virgil places a bridle over the camel’s head.
No sooner does Virgil do this than a shadow passes over the party as a gargantuan bird-like creature flies between them and the sun. Looking much like a majestic peacock with a fifty foot wingspan, it alights on a nearby boulder and addresses them in the Celestial tongue: “Who are you who dare to steal this living art from the canvas that is Katapesh?”
Thade recognizes this creature as a simurgh, an extremely powerful creature with the reputation of being a celestial vigilante. With Mym translating the Celestial tongue for him, Thade speaks to the creature, who introduces itself as Prihayn Ti Huet. Thade informs Prihayn that they mean neither harm nor disrespect, and are acting on behalf of the Imperial Union of Breeders in Katapesh. Thade is wise enough to recognize that Prihayn is either a servant of or at least sympathetic to Shelyn, the goddess of art. Thade pulls a holy symbol of Shelyn from under his shirt as he speaks to Prihayn of the party’s pure intentions. With assurances that Duneshadow will not be harmed, Prihayn agrees that the party can take the camel to Katapesh, but that only art can pay for art. Mym offers to tattoo a bewitching bloom on Prihayn’s leg, in the form of a bellflower. Prihayn agrees, and Mym creates a lovely work of art with her magical skill, incorporating the iconography of Shelyn into the tattoo’s pattern. Satisfied with his new tattoo art, Prihayn reminds the party that should the camel come to harm, there will be a reckoning, and takes off into the sky with a powerful thrust of his wings, creating a mini dust storm in his wake. Satisfied that they have what they need to sway the Imperial Union of Breeders to their side, the party returns to Katapesh via Thade’s teleportation magic.
Entering the city with the magnificent camel on a leash, the party is stared at by everyone they come across, many people stopping and whispering to each other as they pass. When they arrive at the guildhall of the Imperial Union of Breeders, they are greeted at the gate by guildmaster Aldane Zulran, who had already received word that the prize he has so long sought is making its way to him. Delivery of the camel to Aldane immediately grants the party his gratitude, and he agrees to cast his vote against the Scarlet Triad at the upcoming council meeting. Aldane also gives the party a set of magical horseshoes and a satchel of gold. When Thade warns Aldane of what will happen should any misfortune fall upon Duneshadow, Aldane assures Thade that the camel will be treated with the utmost of respect, as such a magnificent creature is due nothing less in his eyes. With yet another guild on their side, the party focuses on the last two.
Virgil has a custom necklace made in the colors of House Barcado. Though he spends a pretty penny on it, his influence with the Jeweler’s Guide gets him a necklace of immense beauty. Virgil then meets with Ytrim Azas, guildmistress of the Aspis Consortium. Offering the necklace to her as a gift, as well as a lie about where the consortium can locate the raw materials needed to construct more durable ships, the two strike a deal. Ytrim agrees to vote against the Triad if Virgil can promise to bring Uri Zandivar to her alive. Virgil readily agrees to this and the two part ways.
The following day is the Council of Guilds, and the council hall is abuzz with activity. Many people await in the antechamber, gossiping and partaking of hors d'oeuvres while waiting for the council to officially begin. All of the guild leaders are present, and each has a lieutenant with them. Also among the crowd are a number of Zephyr Guards, as well as some civilians that the party do not recognize.
Thade is greeted by Spikeface, who informs him that he was correct about Whahar, and Spikeface informs Thade that he will see to Whahar’s fate himself. Thade objects, as he wants to be the one to mete out Whahar’s justice, and the two make a wager of 100 gold crowns that each of them will be the one to get to Whahar first.
Virgil is approached by Ytrim, who discretely tells him “Should you find yourself in the Scarlet Triad’s headquarters later on, keep an eye out for the frog - he’s the one who knows how to get downstairs.” She then slips away into the crowd, leaving Virgil to ponder the message.
A message is delivered to Mym, written in Whahar’s hand, informing her that Ghost is most intrigued by the meeting in Ibis square, and will continue watching the party’s actions with interest.
Soon enough the council begins, with Pactbroker Hashim ibn Sayyid calling the meeting to order. Time is spent on old business, run of the mill guild business that is of little interest to the party. But after an hour of mundane activity, the Pactbroker raps his gavel on the soundblock and the room falls silent. He calls for any new business, and at this the guildmasters all look to the party as one. Thade steps up to the lectern and addresses the assembled guildmasters, accusing the Scarlet Triad of various crimes and moral failures, holding in one hand the ledger he retrieved from the vault under Bhetshamtal Estate.
Uri Zandivar stands up to denounce these accusations, and both he and his lieutenant Jelek Jaziman speak against the party, denying the accusations as spurious and coming from foreign troublemakers. They attempt to besmirch the reputation of the party, but several of the guildmasters speak up on their behalf. Before things devolve into utter chaos, once again the Pactbroker raps his gavel, bringing the room to silence. He declares that a vote shall be called on the matter of the Triad’s continued membership in the council of guilds. The vote is taken and thirteen of the fifteen guilds vote to revoke the Triad’s membership, much to the party’s elation.
Uri once again speaks, saying that he is not surprised that the morally hypocritical guilds would betray him and vote thus, and that he and his organization will travel to another city to find more enlightened and welcoming allies. He also reveals that the Triad is currently “hosting” a Pactmaster as a guest, whose safety shall mirror the Triad’s own. A door in the rear of the chamber opens, and a Pactmaster enters to speak. He informs all present that the Triad is to be given three days to vacate the city, during which time they are to be left alone, lest any harm come to the Pactmaster in their custody. Satisfied that he has won, Uri and Jelek leave the room to tend to their own affairs.
Once the room is cleared out, the Pactbroker leads the party into a back room, where two Pactmasters await. They introduce themselves as Angruul and Morvithus, and inform the party that they are aware of their exploits in Katapesh. They beseech the party to rescue their colleague being held by the Triad, whom they identify as Tsandarkon. Tsandarkon went missing earlier that morning, and while the Pactmasters suspected the Triad, they had no proof until Uri spooky just now. The Pactmasters inform the party that the three day window announced earlier can, and should be, ignored, as that was politics. Should the party free their comrade, the city will reward them greatly.
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The party almost made a sweep of getting all of the guild on their side, only just missing out on the Guild of Fleshmongers. Thade had a chance to sway them at the last moment during the council, but as the guild had 3 points left he needed to get a critical success on his diplomacy check, but he only got a success. So close, and yet so far.
This was a great session, and all of the players pulled their weight in various ways. The party will level up before the next session, and then decide on how they're going to finally tackle the Triad once and for all.
As usual, my notes can be found here, along with photos.