Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Session 103: Seeking Refuge and Blessing the Dead

Session Date: April 8, 2022

In-game date: 22nd of Flamerule, 1491

The Wanderers escaped from the prison by fighting their way through a wave of enforcers. They had one puzzle to deal with but the solution was deduction and arithmetic. They made their way back to the Wild Hunt Nite Club where they healed and rested.

Garren learned Neilum the Undertaker may be conducting a ritual in one of the crypts. Ezriel suggested Garren take this opportunity to put a rest to the ritual and bring peace to his fallen comrades.

The party entered the crypt. Andrasti saw things in the Ethereal Plan so she stepped into it and took a stand against several Lich Hounds. Andrasti unfortunately suffered a major bite from a hound and is currently incapacitated. Treori stepped in and grappled the Lich Hound. The rest of the Wanderers found the secret panel leading to the room Andrasti is in. Currently everyone and the enemy is on the Prime Material Plane.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

Session 102: Jail Break

Session Date: April 1, 2022

In-game date: 21th of Flamerule, 1491

The wanderers licked their wounds and recovered from the chase party fight. They then proceeded deeper into the prison in search of Senitar. Eventually the PCs found a basin attached to a wall beneath a plaque with a graph. It was a puzzle. What did it mean?

Basin

~231 cubic inches

Plaque

Andrasti correctly deduced the graph represented the freezing of water. The party poured a mixture of straight and holy water into the basin. Wizrd for Hire froze it. This opened a secret door. Some of the PCs entered into the hallway and chamber beyond where they found an injured Senitar Bladestream. They healed her after confirming her identity.

The party was then ambushed by a cunning enemy; couple of Ooze Masters, an Anti-Paladin, Sword Wraith Warriors and Vampiric Mist. They split the party when someone dispelled the magic holding the prison door open. ElaDyn and Eretria obliterated the mists. The party prevailed. They freed Senitar.

The puzzle portrayed a temperature graph of an unspecified by finite volume of water as it froze. The initial temperature of the water was 50 degrees F. The final temperature after some 900 minutes was 0 degrees F. The main clue was the plateau at 32 degrees F.

Thursday, March 31, 2022

Session 101: Finding Senitar

Session Date: March 25, 2022

In-game date: 20th of Flamerule, 1491

They digested the intelligence.

Moved on in the continued search for Senitar leaving the children with Utaeth.

Learned Chorthum and Lord Cedrick Lauron have plans for the Soul Organ.

The Soul Organ may harbor something.

They moved back to the prison level but where stalked by the chase party. Darrin & Garren almost died from the Kick of Nadar.

Garren took a non-evil life with the Xanthos blade and became afflicted with the psychosis Dyspraxia as a punishment.

Trigger: Attempting to employ speech.

Effects: Whenever Garren attempts to employ speech, a Wisdom saving throw DC 17 is required to determine if what comes out is unintelligible gibberish. This would prevent the casting of spells with verbal components.

Description: A character afflicted with dyspraxia has difficulty articulating speech, rendering them essentially mute when the malady asserts itself. If a character wishes to speak for any reason, a Wisdom saving throw is required. Failure indicates that the afflicted may not attempt to do anything involving speech for 1d4 rounds, after which another Wisdom saving throw is possible. Strangely enough, a bard's ability to sing is unimpaired by this malady, though any other verbal performance (such as comedy or oratory) is.

Healers:

Characters proficient in Medicine can perform a help action when an afflicted individual attempts their Wisdom saving throw giving them advantage. However, the helping character must be level seven or higher. Anyone with a Proficiency in Heal may attempt to soothe the character afflicted with an active condition, though they must succeed on a check equal to the malady's Wisdom saving throw DC +1/2 the afflicted's Charisma score. This is an attack action requiring 1d4 rounds, with success reducing the severity by one step (mild conditions are suppressed). The palliative effect lasts for 2d8 rounds if the condition is chronic, or until another triggering event occurs.

Thursday, March 24, 2022

Session 100: Finding Senitar & Making Sense

Session Date: March 18, 2022

In-game date: 20th of Flamerule, 1491

Chrothum the Putrid

The 100th session was attended by only half the players. I brought in a few ad-hoc NPCs to round out the party. Each player took an NPC.

Chrothum wasn't anywhere to be found, at least, to the best of the parties knowledge, he wasn't there in the workshop.

The Wanderers fought their way into Chrothum's workshop and were met by a Drake. No one bothered to ask her name.

As she perched herself over the clutch of children, she informed the party that on the desk was a pile of documents they might find helpful.

The party found a treasure trove of intelligence that was found on Senitar and Caleb Rice. The pile of information should help the party better understand their current situation on the Upside Down World.

Intelligence Trove

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Session 99: Finding Senitar

Session Date: March 11, 2022

In-game date: 19th of Flamerule, 1491

Finding Senitar

"Wizrd for Hire" a.k.a (Skarius) appeared and offered his services. The party hired him with a bit of complaining over his fee. Some in the party clearly felt it unacceptable to offer him a fair share of the treasure but as a whole were unable to clearly negotiate, preferring to complain and render forth sarcasm instead. Skarius wonders if the evil within Lauron Castle is subverting the Wanderers ability to work together. Skarius will certainly keep his eye's on Darrin. To ease relations, Skarius offered to provide support for 1 day for 350 gp and expenses and would than discuss future arrangements. Garren accepted the offer.

Our heroes set about finding Senitar and prepared to follow-up on the lead Caleb gave them concerning a half-elf and a group of children. Caleb said he saw "Chrothum The Putrid" - a necromancer - was with them and they may be in his nearby workshop. But Caleb did say he was uncertain if these were "the" half-elf and children the party was looking for.

Dunning checked the door but was busted by the guards waiting outside. A fight took place with the guards more concerned with taking out Garren than anyone else in the party. The Bonepoweder Ghouls succeeded in dropping Garren, and one attempted to carry him off but ElaDyn punched the ghoul into Skarius's magic circle. Garren was dropped and the ghoul was slaughtered. The fight ended rather quickly with the remainder of the guards blinded by ElaDyns Anhk.

As the characters travelled to Chrothum's workshop, the players themselves were rewarded with a conversation taking place in Graceland between commander Delmar Tales and Quartermaster Lane Tongue. Delmar expressed his developing belief the stories concerning the Wanderer's having been in Graceland multiple times over the years deserved real attention. He suggested to Lang the real fight might be with the Wanderers and the fight at Graceland was but a distraction. Lang, listened and agreed it wasn't a bad idea but expressed it could be difficult to get General Ripley on board with bringing an army to support the Wanderers in their endeavors. They both pondered the idea that someone is able to control time; sending the Wanderers back to complete a job they keep failing.

Delmar also revealed Senitar was late in reporting in. She was investigating the possibility that Orcus had found a way through the fold in the region around the Lauron Wilderness - where the Wanderers always go. He also said Quasnic received a message from someone - possibly Senitar - and took off without talking to anyone. Both Lang and Delmar expressed their concern Senitar cold be in trouble and agreed to revisit the conversation in the morning.

Delmar finished by asking Lang to come take a look at an individual a patrol had captured the other night. The prisoner claims to be a follower of Orcus. And he was found in the same region the Wanderers come from when they enter this plane. It would be unusual to find a follower of Orcus on this side of the fold because there are not supposed to be any followers left. Orcus consumed all his followers in the early days of the apocalypse. The fold, put in place by Helios has Orcus isolated and contained. For now.

Chrothum's Workshop

The party found the workshop. A tunnel bore off ahead filled with a dark smelly water. Stationed in front of the water was a wooden hammer and a block of wood. The party attempted several rapping patterns by striking the hammer on the wood. The echo reverberated down the tunnel.

Darrin and Wolfy climbed across the ceiling to the other side where they found a second hammer and block of wood. Darrin tried a "shave and haircut" pattern on the block but nothing came of it.

Dunning and ElaDyn decided to cross the water. Dunning waded and ElaDyn carefully flew. Unfortunately, the Reach of Nadar took notice of ElaDyn and proceeded to Snatch, Grab and Drown him. The Reach is an abomination crafted by Chrothum. It is a series of incredibly strong and remarkedly agile arms from several Storm Giants that act as guards to Chrothum's lair. They are impossible to see when submerged. The Reach had ElaDyn pinned, paralyzed and suffocating. Garren found himself in a similar situation. Andrasti attempted another syncopated rhythm on the wooden block, she may have been close to solving the puzzle, but it wasn't close enough. Andrasti then attempted to hack at the Reach but they were next to impossible to see when submerged. After a tussle, ElaDyn escaped and so did Garren. At this time, Skarius cast control water and moved the water out of the way. This made the Reach of Nadar now visible and vulnerable. However, the wall of water now cuts off Darrin and Wolfy from the rest of the party. The DM always exploits a split party situation.

Open Loops:

Finding Senitar
Prison Break
Dembe's revival
Feeding Orcus
Blessing the dead
The Lauron Curse
The Crow
Eretria Awakens

Alliances formed:

Trying out Wizrd for Hire

Enemies made:

Prison Guards

Allegiance unknown:

Caleb Rice

Friday, March 4, 2022

Session 98: Celestial Promises & Finding Senitar

Session Date: March 4, 2022

In-game date: 18 and 19th of Flamerule, 1491

Celestial Promises

Ratez took command of the battlefield with a blanket of Forest of Spears. It immobilized the skeleton shock troops that tore Garren up with their volley of crossbow bolts. It also trapped a Ghast Warlmonger in the sewer channel. For three rounds it tried to break free from the mass of spears.

Treori finished off a Warlmonger through a constriction attack.

ElaDyn placed strategic hits through a series of hand-to-hand combat bouts on the Iron Ghoul. He also revealed his Anhk of Aten; the beam of radiance burning everything in the path. Ratez followed up with a Sudden Stampede, crushing the remaining skeletons.

On the NE side of the map, a swarm of rats, ghouls, ghasts, a troll, and a night hulk bore down on the party. Wolfy pulled a paralyzed Andrasti from the sewer channel and carried her up to the celling removing the threat of being drowned. Garren Launched a fire ball seriously wounding the horde. Forest defender continued to hack away at the swarm of rats. Darrin finished off the swarm with his breath weapon. Seeing defeat, the remaining Imperial Skulls fled.

Vuliev appeared and pondered out loud how the party should best break the news to Mezgon. Ratez noticed there is an anomaly in Zellix's star map that cannot be explained away as an error. So there could be something to the prophecy but it has been misunderstood. The ritual Mezgon was to perform may have an entirely unknown outcome.

Andrasti came up with a brillant idea, craft a dream with the Star Dust she pilfered and plant a vision of what happened, the truth, with Mezgon. This way they would not have to directly let Mezgon know she was fooled. It worked. They saved Mezgon's pride and in the process, didn't make her look like a fool.

Meeting Mezgon

Mezgon thanked the party for dealing with the betrayal. But she also needed to feel them out some more. She tossed down some tiles with pictures on them and asked the party to come up with a story using them. She again tossed down another set of tiles and asked for a different story. A final set was tossed down and she asked the party to connect the two prior stories to this one.

They made up a story about a safe that only a troll could unlock and a hero in search of this troll.

Next they told a tale of a dragon who was late to files taxes and ended up crushing an elderly person as the dragon made haste to not be late.
Finally they crafted a tale where the Dragon and Troll fought one another on top of the pyramid but not before they ate a final meal together under a big tent. Just as the two were about to fight, a wizard conjured up a massive wind that blew them down off the pyramid.

Mezgon, impressed with their ability to communicate was now able to trust enough in them to hear them out. She gave them access to the sewer grate above her lair. She only asked for a small favor; acquire an onyx necklace from Quix, a worker in the prison. They need to do it with out killing him or letting him know she wants it.