This was the final session before Covid, and it involved the party joining a dwarven expedition to liberate the lost city of Kilndelve and traveling overland through undead-infested lands. I'm mentioning it here for posterity, since the planned Kilndelve campaign went on hiatus for the next couple year until restarting with a fresh roster of heroes.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Saturday, February 8, 2020
Timberlands Campaign, Sessions 16 & 17: Big Fish in a Small Dungeon
March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
The party once again discovered that the dungeon tunnels were flooded. This time, though, the control station was just beyond. Releasing the auxiliary control lock-out back to Wainskirtle allowed the dungeon to be drained. Jeeves stayed back at the control station to keep in contact, while the rest of the party advanced into the final chamber. Sensors in the primary control station indicated "unusual levels of extraplanar activity" in the area.
Aside from a small entry ledge, the room had no floor. Instead, the entire floor was effectively a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. The infinite ocean beyond was murky with depth and dimly illuminated, but something far below with too many tentacles to be a standard fish was staring back out of the abyss. In both corners of the ledge, chuul guards waited for the signal to scuttle forward to the attack. A host of slimy-skinned humanoids, transformed thralls of the aberration, floated just below the waves. The aboleth used its innate telepathy to initiate conversation with the party, informing them that they were merely pawns of more powerful forces manipulating the Tower. Only by allying with the aboleth could the Tower be preserved against the dreadful threats gathering against the region.
Jeeves reported that the Chancellor and his trolls were advancing through the dungeon, creating a sense of urgency in the conversation. The party pondered the possibility of turning against the chancellor by flooding the tunnels again, much to the delight of the aboleth. It offered immortality in exchange for the alliance, assuring the party that even slavery (to the winning side, of course) was a far better fate than a cursed existence among the undead. A slightly better sales pitch might have carried the day (weighed against the obviously dubious character of the Chancellor!), but apparently the idea of an eternity of aquatic servitude wasn't quite sufficient tempting. Instead, the party steeled itself for battle.
At first the situation seemed promising, as a wave of enthralled skum were cut down by powerful arcane magics. But then from behind the party, a powerful ambush force of drow dropped in the astral plane behind the party's spellcasters, along with abeholder sorcerous sphere, a marilith, and a vaguely familiar mind flayer. The aboleth chuckled (or some psionic equivalent thereof) and demanded surrender. Instead, the party moved to intercept the new attackers. Viserion, reasoning that this was a sufficiently dire situation to be worth trading the last vestiges of virtue in his soul for the power of an artifact, donned the Iron Crown to claim its power.
Viserion charged the mind flayer (fortunately responding fast enough to prevent any psychic mindslave nonsense), but took a polymorph eyebeam form the sorcerous sphere in exchange and promptly found himself transformed into an unhappy lemming dropped into a bottomless ocean. (Note: Rolled this saving throw three times. Came up a "1" every time!) The party had little time to intercept the ridiculously large number of drow blades from behind, but fortunately the chancellor and his dire trolls burst into the hallway just in time to pin them down from behind, chopping through the back ranks of surprised drow on the way to the marilith. After a few rounds of brutal hand-to-hand fighting, the party was down one dragon but otherwise victorious.
The aboleth seized the unhappy lemming (who was wearing a miniaturized version of the Iron Crown of the Sorcerer Kings, which apparently couldn't be completely abosorbed by the polymorph), with obvious intent of converting it into some kind of abominable immortal-dragon-lemming-slimeskin-mindslave, and beat a hasty retreat into the depths. Thinking quickly, Zelmar used a short-range teleport to catch it from behind and grapple away the mind-controlled rodent. The aboleth briefly gave chase, but quickly realized it was overmatched by the party and turned around for another retreat... but too late.
The party elected to eliminate the whole "evil lemming dragon god" problem by tossing both the crown and the lemming into a bag of devouring, but kept a single dragon scale in case they changed their minds.
Roster
Mercenaries and followers:
Viserion, transformed by an eyebeam into a lemming and drowned on the elemental plane of water, then completely destroyed along with the Iron Crown of the Sorcerer Kings using a bag of devouring.
Saltbeard, who wasn't injured but decided that he was outta there and promptly exited the dungeon by the quickest route.
Will's character was cut down by a chuul as well.
Treasure
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 16110 gp and its total weight is 274 stone.
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 33097 gp and its total weight is 17 stone.
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 14000 gp and its total weight is 0 stone.
Total treasure value: 103,007 gp
Total treasure value per member (7 shares): 14715.3 gp
Note: I think only four players (Reba, Sion, Andrew, and maybe Kyle) have continuing characters, but I'm still giving the retiring characters from previous sessions (including Jonathan, who missed the final night) a share of the treasure. I guess technically you could cut the missing/quitting characters out... but even if so, you'd only split their shares, not get any more experience from them.
Magical Items (easily ID'd by the Tower)
Killed: skittering maw [1600], marid [3900], 2 intellect devourers [2x980=1960], 6 chuul [6x3400=20,400], 10 skum [350], 5 drow 3rd-level fighters [400], 1 drow 5th-level lieutenant [500], 1 drow 7th-level priestess [1490], Lady Vysh, a marilith [2500], Brzzt-Kosh, a sorcerous sphere [4800], Molyg the Polyp, a mind flayer [1600], Brasyphylactis, an aboleth [2600]
Total: 42,100 xp
Total experience from treasure: 103,007 xp
Total experience from kills: 42,100 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 145,107 xp
Total experience per member: 20,730 xp
The party once again discovered that the dungeon tunnels were flooded. This time, though, the control station was just beyond. Releasing the auxiliary control lock-out back to Wainskirtle allowed the dungeon to be drained. Jeeves stayed back at the control station to keep in contact, while the rest of the party advanced into the final chamber. Sensors in the primary control station indicated "unusual levels of extraplanar activity" in the area.
Aside from a small entry ledge, the room had no floor. Instead, the entire floor was effectively a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water. The infinite ocean beyond was murky with depth and dimly illuminated, but something far below with too many tentacles to be a standard fish was staring back out of the abyss. In both corners of the ledge, chuul guards waited for the signal to scuttle forward to the attack. A host of slimy-skinned humanoids, transformed thralls of the aberration, floated just below the waves. The aboleth used its innate telepathy to initiate conversation with the party, informing them that they were merely pawns of more powerful forces manipulating the Tower. Only by allying with the aboleth could the Tower be preserved against the dreadful threats gathering against the region.Jeeves reported that the Chancellor and his trolls were advancing through the dungeon, creating a sense of urgency in the conversation. The party pondered the possibility of turning against the chancellor by flooding the tunnels again, much to the delight of the aboleth. It offered immortality in exchange for the alliance, assuring the party that even slavery (to the winning side, of course) was a far better fate than a cursed existence among the undead. A slightly better sales pitch might have carried the day (weighed against the obviously dubious character of the Chancellor!), but apparently the idea of an eternity of aquatic servitude wasn't quite sufficient tempting. Instead, the party steeled itself for battle.
At first the situation seemed promising, as a wave of enthralled skum were cut down by powerful arcane magics. But then from behind the party, a powerful ambush force of drow dropped in the astral plane behind the party's spellcasters, along with a
Viserion charged the mind flayer (fortunately responding fast enough to prevent any psychic mindslave nonsense), but took a polymorph eyebeam form the sorcerous sphere in exchange and promptly found himself transformed into an unhappy lemming dropped into a bottomless ocean. (Note: Rolled this saving throw three times. Came up a "1" every time!) The party had little time to intercept the ridiculously large number of drow blades from behind, but fortunately the chancellor and his dire trolls burst into the hallway just in time to pin them down from behind, chopping through the back ranks of surprised drow on the way to the marilith. After a few rounds of brutal hand-to-hand fighting, the party was down one dragon but otherwise victorious.
The aboleth seized the unhappy lemming (who was wearing a miniaturized version of the Iron Crown of the Sorcerer Kings, which apparently couldn't be completely abosorbed by the polymorph), with obvious intent of converting it into some kind of abominable immortal-dragon-lemming-slimeskin-mindslave, and beat a hasty retreat into the depths. Thinking quickly, Zelmar used a short-range teleport to catch it from behind and grapple away the mind-controlled rodent. The aboleth briefly gave chase, but quickly realized it was overmatched by the party and turned around for another retreat... but too late.
The party elected to eliminate the whole "evil lemming dragon god" problem by tossing both the crown and the lemming into a bag of devouring, but kept a single dragon scale in case they changed their minds.
Roster
- Zelmar Krackiss, lizard-in-disguise (Andrew)
- Edward
SirDame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic - Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
- Anatolia
- Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
- Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
- Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
- Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
- Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
- Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
- a powerful new arcane caster (Kyle)
- Saltbeard, dwarven pirate (Trefor)
- Will's character
- Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
- 10 dwarven lieutenants:
- 4 5th-level vaultguards
- 3 4th-level vaultguards
- 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
- 2nd-level vaultguard
- 18 fire dwarf infantry
- ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign
- Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
- The
veryyoung white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants - Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
- Sir Robin (sounds retired, according to Kim)
Casualties
Viserion, transformed by an eyebeam into a lemming and drowned on the elemental plane of water, then completely destroyed along with the Iron Crown of the Sorcerer Kings using a bag of devouring.
Saltbeard, who wasn't injured but decided that he was outta there and promptly exited the dungeon by the quickest route.
Will's character was cut down by a chuul as well.
Treasure
- 8 jars of lamp oil, worth 20 gp each and weighing 6 stone per jar.
- 3 jars of dyes and pigments, worth 50 gp each and weighing 5 stone each.
- 60 animal horns worth 2 gp each, weighing 2 stone per 5 horns.
- 2 jars of dyes and pigments, worth 50 gp each and weighing 5 stone each.
- 2 thousand silver pieces.
- 3 barrels of fine spirits or liquor, worth 200 gp each and weighing 16 stone each.
- 4 barrels of fine spirits or liquor, worth 200 gp each and weighing 16 stone each.
- 1 crates of glassware, worth 200 gp each and weighing 5 stone each.
- 2 thousand electrum pieces.
- 3 carcass scavenger carcasses, totaling 21 hit dice and weighing 1 stone per HD. Their values are: 900, 280, 350
- 5 bee, killer giant carcasses, totaling 32 hit dice and weighing 1 stone per HD. Their values are: 640, 800, 420, 350, 120
- 3 thousand gold pieces.
- 50 GP crystal.
- 75 GP sardonyx.
- 50 GP citrine.
- 50 GP crystal.
- 25 GP lapis lazuli.
- 25 GP agate.
- 25 GP lapis lazuli.
- 50 GP moonstone.
- 25 GP tiger eye.
- 50 GP citrine.
- 50 GP onyx.
- 50 GP crystal.
- 10 GP malachite.
- 25 GP turquoise.
- 25 GP tiger eye.
- 25 GP agate.
- 25 GP tiger eye.
- 50 GP onyx.
- 50 GP crystal.
- 75 GP chalcedony.
- 25 GP turquoise.
- 25 GP turquoise.
- 25 GP tiger eye.
- 25 GP agate.
- 25 GP tiger eye.
- 50 GP bloodstone.
- 25 GP tiger eye.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from ivory worth 600 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from wrought copper worth 110 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from carved jade worth 1200 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from chryselephantine worth 900 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from ivory worth 900 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from fine wood worth 600 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from porcelain worth 600 GP.
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 16110 gp and its total weight is 274 stone.
- 18 pieces of fine ivory, weighing 1 stone per 100 GP value.
- Their values are: 4, 80, 48, 73, 95, 81, 99, 20, 27, 6, 78, 63, 13, 50, 32, 96, 58, 74
- The total value is: 997 and the average value is 55.
- 3 crates of fine porcelain, worth 500 gp each and weighing 2 stone each.
- 2 thousand gold pieces.
- 6 opal cameo portraits and intaglio erotic tableux, each worth 800 gp.
- 8000 GP flawless facet cut diamond.
- 4000 GP flawless diamond.
- 6000 GP facet cut star sapphire.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from chryselephantine worth 800 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from wrought orichalcum worth 3000 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from wrought platinum worth 1000 GP.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from silver studded with turquoise worth 1000 GP.
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 33097 gp and its total weight is 17 stone.
- 3 thousand platinum pieces.
- A piece of jewelry constructed from gold studded with ruby worth 5000 GP.
- 2 ornamental jars of rare spices, worth 2500 gp each and weighing 4 stone each.
- 48 typical fur capes, worth 100 gp each and weighing 1 stone each.
- 2 thousand platinum pieces.
- 6000 GP facet cut star ruby.
- 8000 GP flawless facet cut diamond.
The total value of this hoard (excluding any magic) is 14000 gp and its total weight is 0 stone.
Total treasure value: 103,007 gp
Total treasure value per member (7 shares): 14715.3 gp
Note: I think only four players (Reba, Sion, Andrew, and maybe Kyle) have continuing characters, but I'm still giving the retiring characters from previous sessions (including Jonathan, who missed the final night) a share of the treasure. I guess technically you could cut the missing/quitting characters out... but even if so, you'd only split their shares, not get any more experience from them.
Magical Items (easily ID'd by the Tower)
- The totally unreadable private journal of... probably Eldred, judging from the creepy cover
- Potion of Dragon Control
- A scroll with the following spells: Speak with Dead, Permanent Illusion, Curse of Swine, Silent Step, Dismember, Haste
- A scroll of the following type: Ward against Magic
- A scroll with the following spells: Charm Monster
- ... and a treasure map
Killed: skittering maw [1600], marid [3900], 2 intellect devourers [2x980=1960], 6 chuul [6x3400=20,400], 10 skum [350], 5 drow 3rd-level fighters [400], 1 drow 5th-level lieutenant [500], 1 drow 7th-level priestess [1490], Lady Vysh, a marilith [2500], Brzzt-Kosh, a sorcerous sphere [4800], Molyg the Polyp, a mind flayer [1600], Brasyphylactis, an aboleth [2600]
Total: 42,100 xp
Total experience from treasure: 103,007 xp
Total experience from kills: 42,100 xp
Total experience from exploration: 0 xp
Total experience: 145,107 xp
Total experience per member: 20,730 xp
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Timberlands Campaign, Session 15: It's A Recap!
March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
The party regrouped in the idol chamber, descending one at a time through the trap door above. The choices were forward into the chamber with the recently-expired leeches, or backward into the room with the intellect devourer. Everyone felt curious enough about the latter direction to backtrack, but moved carefully through the room with the half-dozen odd nozzle fixtures in the walls, sensing a trap. Walking through the room one at a time didn't seem to set anything off, however.
The room beyond was full of dead rats, the aftermath of the swarm used to drive off the intellect devourer. (The massively powerful fire elemental warrior had dispatched it with a single blow upon entering.) The room didn't "detect" as a trap in any formal sense (i.e., a trigger), but the presence of multiple pipes, valves, and faucet apertures around the perimeter left little doubt that it was intended to be flooded and drained in a controlled way.
Sure enough, the moment everyone was inside the room, the heavy entry door sung shut. Shayna made a dash for the entrance in bird form, but was caught inside even as the door slammed over one wing, pinning her in place. The room rapidly began to fill as water poured from the pipes.
The dwarves attempted to bash through the bulkhead of stone, while Brand the elemental warrior pushed into the room beyond. The dungeon-bashing attempt made some moderate progress (a small exit hole that allowed a single person to crawl through at once), but the unoccupied far-corner room turned out to present a bigger problem -- the enormous vaulted ceiling was a starfield of unfamiliar constellations enchanted with some kind of ritual magic, and disembodied chanting in an ancient language echoed from the walls. Brand entered and promptly went insane, charging back to attack his own party (with all his ridiculous damage output).
The entire party took down the enraged newcomer, fortunately with no casualties, but unfortunately only after lots of fire-generated steam had turned the room into a sauna above, and the culintary equivalent of hot rat-carcass soup below. At that point, however, the increasingly flooded room filled with strange fog, and the party realized they were not alone. A detection spell reveled the presence of a towering water elemental (in actual fact, a marid in wave-form). Effectively blinded by the obscuring fog, the party staggered around through waist-deep water in an attempt to defeat the creature and/or shut off the water valves. The elemental was quickly cut down to size by dragon-breath, and the closing valves gradually reduced the flood to a trickle.
At the conclusion of the battle, the party backtracked toward the other direction (but only after the dwarves had set off the acid gas trap in the room beyond!) The leech room was drained using a bag of devouring (wait, why didn't they just use that in the first place?!?), and the party detected some kind of illusion-magic altering the apparently smooth appearance of the bare walls. Closer inspection revealed hidden alcoves containing more lurking chuul ambusers! The creatures put up fierce resistance, leaving the party worn and exhausted -- and wondering who would go through so much trouble to transform the lower levels into an overengineered deathpit, and why!
Roster
Mercenaries and followers:
The party regrouped in the idol chamber, descending one at a time through the trap door above. The choices were forward into the chamber with the recently-expired leeches, or backward into the room with the intellect devourer. Everyone felt curious enough about the latter direction to backtrack, but moved carefully through the room with the half-dozen odd nozzle fixtures in the walls, sensing a trap. Walking through the room one at a time didn't seem to set anything off, however.
The room beyond was full of dead rats, the aftermath of the swarm used to drive off the intellect devourer. (The massively powerful fire elemental warrior had dispatched it with a single blow upon entering.) The room didn't "detect" as a trap in any formal sense (i.e., a trigger), but the presence of multiple pipes, valves, and faucet apertures around the perimeter left little doubt that it was intended to be flooded and drained in a controlled way.
Sure enough, the moment everyone was inside the room, the heavy entry door sung shut. Shayna made a dash for the entrance in bird form, but was caught inside even as the door slammed over one wing, pinning her in place. The room rapidly began to fill as water poured from the pipes.
 |
| Drainage issues are a common dungeon design problem. |
The entire party took down the enraged newcomer, fortunately with no casualties, but unfortunately only after lots of fire-generated steam had turned the room into a sauna above, and the culintary equivalent of hot rat-carcass soup below. At that point, however, the increasingly flooded room filled with strange fog, and the party realized they were not alone. A detection spell reveled the presence of a towering water elemental (in actual fact, a marid in wave-form). Effectively blinded by the obscuring fog, the party staggered around through waist-deep water in an attempt to defeat the creature and/or shut off the water valves. The elemental was quickly cut down to size by dragon-breath, and the closing valves gradually reduced the flood to a trickle.At the conclusion of the battle, the party backtracked toward the other direction (but only after the dwarves had set off the acid gas trap in the room beyond!) The leech room was drained using a bag of devouring (wait, why didn't they just use that in the first place?!?), and the party detected some kind of illusion-magic altering the apparently smooth appearance of the bare walls. Closer inspection revealed hidden alcoves containing more lurking chuul ambusers! The creatures put up fierce resistance, leaving the party worn and exhausted -- and wondering who would go through so much trouble to transform the lower levels into an overengineered deathpit, and why!
Roster
- Edward
SirDame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew) - Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
- Zelmar
- Anatolia
- Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
Insanely OP flaming slayer demigodBrand (Kyle)- Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
- Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
- Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
- Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
- Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
- Saltbeard, dwarven pirate (Trefor)
- Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
- 10 dwarven lieutenants:
- 4 5th-level vaultguards
- 3 4th-level vaultguards
- 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
- 2nd-level vaultguard
- 18 fire dwarf infantry
- ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign
- Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
- The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
- Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
- Sir Robin
Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:
- Zalgesh
- Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
- Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
- Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
- Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
Casualties
Brand the overpowered fire elemental, put down by the rest of the party under influence of madness
To be continued, treasure/experiencewhen if you're ever finally out...
Brand the overpowered fire elemental, put down by the rest of the party under influence of madness
To be continued, treasure/experience
Friday, August 2, 2019
Timberlands Campaign, Session 13: Duelling Club
March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
This is a short placeholder for the session right before my vacation which I never wrote up. The short version is that Viserion got into the White Tower with the Chancellor, the tower went into a security lockdown, and a state of open battle broke out between forces loyal to the Chancellor (including his personal dire troll detail) and forces contolled by the Unspecified Evil Entity.
Or maybe all of them were just in such a deep state of paranoia that they started fighting one another spontaneously for no reason at all. It was hard to tell. Regardless, after a protracted wand battle with a bunch of apprentices, everyone eventually took shelter in Master Wainskirtle's office and opted to return to the dungeon on his advisement, rather than participate further in the fear-driven guerrilla warfare in the hallways.
This is a short placeholder for the session right before my vacation which I never wrote up. The short version is that Viserion got into the White Tower with the Chancellor, the tower went into a security lockdown, and a state of open battle broke out between forces loyal to the Chancellor (including his personal dire troll detail) and forces contolled by the Unspecified Evil Entity.
Or maybe all of them were just in such a deep state of paranoia that they started fighting one another spontaneously for no reason at all. It was hard to tell. Regardless, after a protracted wand battle with a bunch of apprentices, everyone eventually took shelter in Master Wainskirtle's office and opted to return to the dungeon on his advisement, rather than participate further in the fear-driven guerrilla warfare in the hallways.
Saturday, July 20, 2019
Timberlands Campaign, Session 14: The Monsters That The Monsters Are Afraid Of
March 2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
After regrouping, the party pushed farther into the depths of the White Tower Academy dungeons. The upper level control stations had been locked out, making it inevitable that the only solution to the infestation of water-planar creatures in the depths would only be eradicated by a frontal assault. The party elected to split into two groups, with the amphibious lizardmen exploring ahead to find and unlock the local control station, returning permissions to Master Wainskirtle in the control room above, while everyone else waited.
Of course the waiting members soon become bored, and wandered upstairs (and directly into a
purple-worm ambush!) to investigate the trolls who had been described as living on the fifth level. They were conspicuously absent from their chambers, with evidence of a battle between them and some other force of many-legged creatures. Deeper into the southwestern areas of the level, the party found an elaborate laboratory: great glass vessels full of mundane and magical beasts being altered by some kind of blue fluid, cast-off bodies with skulls oozing the same blue ichor, and a ritual circle with the unfortunate victims of magical sacrifices -- including a slowly regenerating troll, pained by mutilations to the point of burning anger. He could tell them little, beyond the savage nature of the attack, and the existence of a trap-door passage leading to the lower level somewhere beyond the flooded hallways.
Returning throuth the lab, the vanguard encountered a chuul, a huge sentient crustacean patrolling on behalf of some greater master. The creature put up a dreadful fight before being subdued. Beyond that, the party found a pack of hellhounds guarding the private chambers of a disagreeable stone giant. After a short struggle, the party secured the area and sent Shayna down the verticle shaft to investigate.
Meanwhile, the two lizardmen met numerous guardians along the way forward: a wyvern, another intellect devourer, and a partially flooded chamber populated by nasty little leeches. After nearly perishing, the two retreated to the sealed shrine of an idol depicting some kind of betentacled fish-monster flailing a throng of miserable humans. There they waited... until the serendipitous arrival of Shayna from above!
Roster
Mercenaries and followers:
After regrouping, the party pushed farther into the depths of the White Tower Academy dungeons. The upper level control stations had been locked out, making it inevitable that the only solution to the infestation of water-planar creatures in the depths would only be eradicated by a frontal assault. The party elected to split into two groups, with the amphibious lizardmen exploring ahead to find and unlock the local control station, returning permissions to Master Wainskirtle in the control room above, while everyone else waited.
Of course the waiting members soon become bored, and wandered upstairs (and directly into a
purple-worm ambush!) to investigate the trolls who had been described as living on the fifth level. They were conspicuously absent from their chambers, with evidence of a battle between them and some other force of many-legged creatures. Deeper into the southwestern areas of the level, the party found an elaborate laboratory: great glass vessels full of mundane and magical beasts being altered by some kind of blue fluid, cast-off bodies with skulls oozing the same blue ichor, and a ritual circle with the unfortunate victims of magical sacrifices -- including a slowly regenerating troll, pained by mutilations to the point of burning anger. He could tell them little, beyond the savage nature of the attack, and the existence of a trap-door passage leading to the lower level somewhere beyond the flooded hallways.
 |
| Surprise! No one expects the cthulhu-lobster inquisition! |
Returning throuth the lab, the vanguard encountered a chuul, a huge sentient crustacean patrolling on behalf of some greater master. The creature put up a dreadful fight before being subdued. Beyond that, the party found a pack of hellhounds guarding the private chambers of a disagreeable stone giant. After a short struggle, the party secured the area and sent Shayna down the verticle shaft to investigate.
Meanwhile, the two lizardmen met numerous guardians along the way forward: a wyvern, another intellect devourer, and a partially flooded chamber populated by nasty little leeches. After nearly perishing, the two retreated to the sealed shrine of an idol depicting some kind of betentacled fish-monster flailing a throng of miserable humans. There they waited... until the serendipitous arrival of Shayna from above!
Roster
- Edward (run with it)
SirDame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew) - Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
- Zelmar
- Anatolia
- Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
- Insanely OP flaming slayer demigod (Kyle)
- Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
- Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
- Thrassian witch (Will)
- Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
- Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
- Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
- Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
- Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
- 10 dwarven lieutenants:
- 4 5th-level vaultguards
- 3 4th-level vaultguards
- 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
- 2nd-level vaultguard
- 18 fire dwarf infantry
- ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign
- Saltbeard (Trefor)
- The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
- Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
- Sir Robin
Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:
- Zalgesh
- Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
- Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
- Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
- Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
Casualties
Will's Thrassian, badly drained by a persistent leech
To be continued, treasure/experience when you're finally out...
Will's Thrassian, badly drained by a persistent leech
To be continued, treasure/experience when you're finally out...
Saturday, May 18, 2019
Timberlands Campaign, Session 12: Get Out of my Head!
March 1-2, Caudex Annales, 71 AUP
By this time it was late at night. The party gathered back up at the Dream Arena chamber. Mahlon Dreadwhit continued to rant about the secret dice-roller controlling everyone's actions until he was given a good hard nap, and the party decided to investigate the machine to see what might be lurking inside of it. Nathalia Bonare (now acting headmistress of Starchapel) reassured everyone that it was totally safe. The party was cautious, requesting that the destination be set to a version of the conference room upstairs, and that Dreadwhit be placed inside of the dream to test the flow of magic across the boundary between the Dreamlands and reality. When Dreadwhit initially remained unconscious, Shayna volunteered to entered the dream as well.
She arrived in the Dreamlands to witness a lecture by the ill-favored scholar in front of a bunch of disinterested students. At the end of the dream, as the room faded back into mist, she could hear a distant murmuring voice. The voice grew louder as she ventured beyond the boundaries (to the great alarm of Nathalia, who quickly lost the ability to track locations), but seemed to be speaking no recognizable words. In order to bypass the loss of tracking, the party decided to send in another member with a crystal ball. This seemed to work -- the magic of the crystal ball functioned just as successfully as a manifested object in the Dreamlands, and the paired set could work as a two-way communication system. Nathalia joined the dream with a tongues spell in order to interpret the language, which seemed to consist of overlapping instructions intended for a large number of different persons, a sort of psychic switchboard.
Unfortunately, the presence of multiple eavesdroppers was detected, and the source mounted an attack directly against the minds of the dream visitors. Nathalia failed to defend her mind, and quickly fell under the influence of some dark power. Even after being awakened (and then subjected to both the "normal" and "lizardman" versions of dispel magic) she continued to emit a string of apocalyptic rantings of the most disturbing sort. (Lizard version: Smash mage against another solid object!) In an act of desperation, the party decided to throw a protective helmet on her head (of the sort used to block out ESP attempts, thinly coated with lead/gold). Somehow it worked! The distant source was unable to penetrate the lining.
The party notified Alaric Wainskirtle, the Seadom Hall master, and recommended that he put on a tinfoil hat of his own. (He's ex-military in a fantasy world, so being awakened in the middle of the night and having someone recommend cranial protection against mind-control rays is perfectly plausible.) They attempted to do the same for the other two masters... and found that Enoch Teacandle, the gnome from Dunston Eyot, had gone off to explore the dungeon on his own.
At this point, a portion of the party finally decided to investigate the dungeons. (Ed.: Took you long enough!) Zelmar stayed behind to monitor Teacandle's activities with his crystal ball. The late-night crew in the bulwarked control room waved them through security, carefully opening and shutting the doors to allow access. Just beyond they found some very suspicious orcs on the upper level, who waved them past. In other portions of the first level, they found usual sorts of creatures acting unusually -- goblins cowering in a corner, pit vipers dropping from the ceiling, the rest of the orcs huddling together on high alert. After surviving a rolling-ball trap, they met a strange (but apparently honorable) entity, born of fire and ascending from some extraplanar rift on the lower levels.
Meanwhile, the other members of the party (Zelmar, Shayna, and Anatolia) decided to catch up. Zelmar, in a moment of bad judgment, decided to come alone ahead of the others. Having the advantage of being able to speak orc allowed him to discover that the orcs were suspicious that their own leader was under some evil influence. Zelmar agreed to help them confront the subchief. This resulted in a tense staredown, followed by the alarming revelation that the chief's skull had been compromised by the presence of an intellect devourer.
The intellect devourer ripped apart several orcs, and showed surprising resistance to physical damage. Fortunately, Zelmar was able to drop a damage-over-time spell that slowly wounded the skittering brain. Unfortunately, he was paralyzed almost immediately afterward by the psionic assaults of the nasty little brain parasite. The devourer shrank down, crawled into his mouth, and began burrowing through the soft palate in order to access the tastiest bits of the cerebral cortex. Tragically, the creature expired at roughly the same time as Zelmar, leaving him dead with a nasty-looking brain monster corpse clogging his half-eaten face. (Adventuring, it's such a glamorous life.)
Shayna and Anatolia arrived a while later to witness the carnage. They dragged Zelmar back into the control room, whereupon they discovered another unpleasant secret: the night crew in the control room consisted of three doppelgangers, who were looking to eliminate witnesses. Anatolia and Shayna powered up with spells and dispatched the faceless horrors. Zelmar was beyond recovery, so the others pushed forward to find the rest of the party.
The survivors regrouped by the stairs to the lower levels and did a bit of scouting. The path followed by Teacandle seemed to lead to the sixth and lowest level, which was damp and filled with the sound of flowing water. The party sent lizard swimmers ahead down the flooded tunnels, only to fall victim to an ambush from a puddle behind them that ended up being deeper than anticipated -- deep enough to contain a skittering maw. Only the timely intervention of the mysterious fire-lord saved the exhausted party from an untimely demise. At that point, everyone decided it might be best to retreat from the dungeons and regroup.
Roster
Mercenaries and followers:
By this time it was late at night. The party gathered back up at the Dream Arena chamber. Mahlon Dreadwhit continued to rant about the secret dice-roller controlling everyone's actions until he was given a good hard nap, and the party decided to investigate the machine to see what might be lurking inside of it. Nathalia Bonare (now acting headmistress of Starchapel) reassured everyone that it was totally safe. The party was cautious, requesting that the destination be set to a version of the conference room upstairs, and that Dreadwhit be placed inside of the dream to test the flow of magic across the boundary between the Dreamlands and reality. When Dreadwhit initially remained unconscious, Shayna volunteered to entered the dream as well.
She arrived in the Dreamlands to witness a lecture by the ill-favored scholar in front of a bunch of disinterested students. At the end of the dream, as the room faded back into mist, she could hear a distant murmuring voice. The voice grew louder as she ventured beyond the boundaries (to the great alarm of Nathalia, who quickly lost the ability to track locations), but seemed to be speaking no recognizable words. In order to bypass the loss of tracking, the party decided to send in another member with a crystal ball. This seemed to work -- the magic of the crystal ball functioned just as successfully as a manifested object in the Dreamlands, and the paired set could work as a two-way communication system. Nathalia joined the dream with a tongues spell in order to interpret the language, which seemed to consist of overlapping instructions intended for a large number of different persons, a sort of psychic switchboard.
Unfortunately, the presence of multiple eavesdroppers was detected, and the source mounted an attack directly against the minds of the dream visitors. Nathalia failed to defend her mind, and quickly fell under the influence of some dark power. Even after being awakened (and then subjected to both the "normal" and "lizardman" versions of dispel magic) she continued to emit a string of apocalyptic rantings of the most disturbing sort. (Lizard version: Smash mage against another solid object!) In an act of desperation, the party decided to throw a protective helmet on her head (of the sort used to block out ESP attempts, thinly coated with lead/gold). Somehow it worked! The distant source was unable to penetrate the lining.
The party notified Alaric Wainskirtle, the Seadom Hall master, and recommended that he put on a tinfoil hat of his own. (He's ex-military in a fantasy world, so being awakened in the middle of the night and having someone recommend cranial protection against mind-control rays is perfectly plausible.) They attempted to do the same for the other two masters... and found that Enoch Teacandle, the gnome from Dunston Eyot, had gone off to explore the dungeon on his own.
At this point, a portion of the party finally decided to investigate the dungeons. (Ed.: Took you long enough!) Zelmar stayed behind to monitor Teacandle's activities with his crystal ball. The late-night crew in the bulwarked control room waved them through security, carefully opening and shutting the doors to allow access. Just beyond they found some very suspicious orcs on the upper level, who waved them past. In other portions of the first level, they found usual sorts of creatures acting unusually -- goblins cowering in a corner, pit vipers dropping from the ceiling, the rest of the orcs huddling together on high alert. After surviving a rolling-ball trap, they met a strange (but apparently honorable) entity, born of fire and ascending from some extraplanar rift on the lower levels.
Meanwhile, the other members of the party (Zelmar, Shayna, and Anatolia) decided to catch up. Zelmar, in a moment of bad judgment, decided to come alone ahead of the others. Having the advantage of being able to speak orc allowed him to discover that the orcs were suspicious that their own leader was under some evil influence. Zelmar agreed to help them confront the subchief. This resulted in a tense staredown, followed by the alarming revelation that the chief's skull had been compromised by the presence of an intellect devourer.
The intellect devourer ripped apart several orcs, and showed surprising resistance to physical damage. Fortunately, Zelmar was able to drop a damage-over-time spell that slowly wounded the skittering brain. Unfortunately, he was paralyzed almost immediately afterward by the psionic assaults of the nasty little brain parasite. The devourer shrank down, crawled into his mouth, and began burrowing through the soft palate in order to access the tastiest bits of the cerebral cortex. Tragically, the creature expired at roughly the same time as Zelmar, leaving him dead with a nasty-looking brain monster corpse clogging his half-eaten face. (Adventuring, it's such a glamorous life.)
Shayna and Anatolia arrived a while later to witness the carnage. They dragged Zelmar back into the control room, whereupon they discovered another unpleasant secret: the night crew in the control room consisted of three doppelgangers, who were looking to eliminate witnesses. Anatolia and Shayna powered up with spells and dispatched the faceless horrors. Zelmar was beyond recovery, so the others pushed forward to find the rest of the party.The survivors regrouped by the stairs to the lower levels and did a bit of scouting. The path followed by Teacandle seemed to lead to the sixth and lowest level, which was damp and filled with the sound of flowing water. The party sent lizard swimmers ahead down the flooded tunnels, only to fall victim to an ambush from a puddle behind them that ended up being deeper than anticipated -- deep enough to contain a skittering maw. Only the timely intervention of the mysterious fire-lord saved the exhausted party from an untimely demise. At that point, everyone decided it might be best to retreat from the dungeons and regroup.
Roster
- Edw...ina(?)
SirDame Winsley, 5th-level dandy mystic (Andrew) - Jeeves, 1st-level butler-paladin
- Zelmar
- Anatolia
- Frigodria Dawnbringer, 5th-level paladin (Reba)
- Mysterious fiery stranger that one-shots everything (Kyle)
- Grurdev Onyxvault, 5th-level dwarven lightbearer (Sion)
- Need to check about henchmen here also (two, I think)...
- Someone new (Will)
- Viserion, 5th-level young white dragon (Zac)
- Adonirim, 3rd-level mage
- Shayna, 6th-level shaman (Kim)
- Ur khla lu khbea, 4th-level gladiator (Jonathan)
- Slarus (Austin)
- Thorvald, maybe?!?
- Army o' skeletons (400+ at this point), with a few abominations as champions
- Aksel Steelheart, 9th-level vaultlord
- 10 dwarven lieutenants:
- 4 5th-level vaultguards
- 3 4th-level vaultguards
- 2 3rd-level vaultgaurds
- 2nd-level vaultguard
- 18 fire dwarf infantry
- ~ 90 light-infantry pirate survivors from the defeat of the Charybdis crew in the Saberstrath campaign
- Saltbeard (Trefor)
- The very young white dragon, Namazu, reporting back on the frost giants
- Sir Rock Boulder Fist, dwarven 5th-level summoner
- Sir Robin
Retiring, unless they somehow resurface:
- Zalgesh
- Jarrus Velt, 5th-level thief
- Thorvald, 6th-level spy (Zac's Mom's PC, not a henchman)
- Togast, 6th-level skinscribe (Juston is happily married)
- Tu'a'than, 5th level spriggan
Casualties
Zelmar, paralyzed and chewed up by a tiny brain that crawled into his mouth
To be continued...
Zelmar, paralyzed and chewed up by a tiny brain that crawled into his mouth
To be continued...
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Teacandle's Notes
Lost Dwarven Kingdom of Kilndelve (see Grimrigg for details)
Location: Great Barrier Range, far east of Kargau
Story: Dwaves excavated into liminal zone with the underworld,
balrog’s legion poured out, tried to lure in venerable dragon to
fight them, turned out that the dragon was old friends with the
balrog, dwarves ran off
Dragon - Venerable? Must be enormous by now...
Balrog - opened gate to underworld, probably still open
Artifacts: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords - conveys leadership of dwarven clans; Bow of the Great Eagles - incredible range, friendship with all eagles?; Seal of Chaos - maybe worn by Balrog, gates in fiends, sounds redundant to be honest
The Ransomed Maiden, sunken
prize ship off Birkenstrand
Location:
50 miles south of Birkenstrand, initially along coast
Story:
Flagship of anti-piracy fleet was captured by pirates, cursed with
undeath by captain’s
wish as he walked plank so
they could never touch his spear,
attacked by dragon turtle on the way back to port
Dragon Turtle still guarding wreck? Those things live for centuries...
Shining Spear - destroys undead that view its brilliance or something like that, sounds useful right about now
Flooded Mass Grave
Location: North of Hainburg
Story: Proud queen murdered by her own doppelganger after gift sent
by invading army, commander of army betrayed by underlings, rebels
defeated, died alone in dismal swamp
Barrow Wights (lots)
Diadem of the Imperial Warmistress - can also be used by bladedancers
Treasure map to Great Axe of the North - would have been useful against those frost giants
Cursed Hero’s Cairn
Location: Between Halheim and Kargau
Story: Eternally regenerating hero enchanted with sleep, buried alive
while resting at sinkhole of evil during a single night, body eaten
alive slowly by gradually expanding rot-grub colony, became wraith, really bad-tempered about having spent several decades being constantly eaten alive ("I mean, I would be!")
Deathbound Wraith
Shield of the Empyrean Heavens - protects against evocations when invoked while stationary, only way to face down a death knight's fireballs!
Wandering mummy-worm “The Mendicant”
Location: Anyone’s guess
Story: Giant purple worm fed and charmed into protecting town,
devoured all attackers, eventually army sent to capture town, worm
devoured thousands of them before killed, then embalmed and raised
Purple Worm Mummy
Corselet of the Imperial Warmistress (might require refitting with new laces/boning)
The Mountain’s Root, stone troll colony
Location: Mountains east of Hochgrube
Story: Long tunnel to heart of mountain, center of mountain in
permanent darkness, full of edible but unpalatable mushrooms, trolls
keep pit full of thousands of captive humans to convert the mushrooms into edible meat (the brutes!)
Stone Trolls (lots)
Bracers of the Imperial Warmistress - deflect missiles with your wrists, bet that looks awesome
....at the end, Teacandle appends a personal note indicating that he'd be very interested in any reports about the location of the Boots of the Imperial Warmistress, which are red and strappy and unexpectedly great for jumping despite three-inch heels.
He also indicates that if the party doesn't have any use for this kind of gear, he can locate what he describes as "an interested and motivated buyer".
[DM note: As God is my witness, I rolled all these items randomly off the Heroic Fantasy table.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)