April 9th, 2017

The Return to The Cursed Valley and Finding the Mkemba Palace

The (limited) adventurers of the day from left to right:

Nilo playing Kag the “Can I train? Can I train? Can I train” human magic-user

Nick momentarily playing Merrick the Death-Dealing Drone Human Fighter before handing control to

Chris playing Deckard the “I Have A Plan!” Human Ex-Fighter Thief

Sarai playing Desorna the Distracted Elven Swordswoman Axe-Maiden Fighter

New Matt briefly playing Randy Rhoads the Halfling Bard who put in appearance before using stealth again

Zack playing LaVeya the “I can help you, but not as much as you need.” Human Druid

and, as always, The DM briefly playing Catherine's character Ydee the “Stealth for the win” Half-Elven Thief

Back in Rimwatch the party continued their time spent resting and recovering, training, and/or continuing to help the town recover. Kag absolutely, positively wanted to get his third level, but he would have to make the two day journey back to Twinlake Vale to find someone to train him. Resolutely he found a caravan to travel north with so as not to be going solo and made the trip to Twinlake. Once there he made a very good bargain to reduce the cost of training only to realize that he had nowhere close to the money he needed to train. Oops? The kind and benevolent DM gave Nilo his one retcon to allow him to be back in time at Rimwatch to discuss with the party how to borrow the needed money to go and level. Once that was settled, he once again went to Twinlake and paid for training, getting him to level 3.

Upon his return to Rimwatch and the party finishing the stuff they needed to do the decision was made to return to the Cursed Valley and use the magical Staff of Pathfinding that Deckard had gotten from the archdruid to find their way to the Mkemba Palace for once and for all. A relatively quick trip to the rim later, the party found their way to the inside of the rim walls and activated the staff so it could lead them toward their goal.

After a while spent winding their way through the valley they were startled to hear the sound of flapping wings above the canopy. They hesitated to listen, but the sound of the wings vanished without incident. The party continued on.

After a while longer, as the first charge was wearing off, the party found their way to an open space with a large pool/small lake in it with a smallish island rising out of the near center of the lake. Using his ring of water walking Merrick walked across the water to the island, crossed it and started across the other side as the rest of the party made their way around the outer edge. As Merrick started his second water crossing there was a loud thud behind him as Korvanthir/Ashbeak the drake swooped in to land on his island. Startled, Merrick spun to face the drake, and seeing him so close and glaring balefully at him, Merrick decided to do the best thing he could to escape: he pulled off his ring of water walking and immediately sunk ribs deep in water and knee deep in the mud underneath. Figuring that this was not going to help, Merrick put the ring back on only to find that being imbedded in the mud prevented him from rising to the surface. From this experience Merrick managed to hear something that few had heard before: a drake laughing quietly to himself. Somewhat encouraged by this and hopeful that it meant he wasn't about to die, Merrick spoke to the drake and learned that they were still waiting for the party at the Mkemba Palace. Sent on their way again, the druid activated another charge on the staff and the party proceeded forward along the trail.

A short while after this the party, except for Ydee, were taken by surprise by a group of eight lizard men who surrounded most of the party except for the aforementioned thief who slipped into the undergrowth and vanished from sight. Another yuan ti was with them and it stated they they were there to escort the party to the palace. As they were surrounded and their thief had vanished, perhaps to follow them and try to assist them in their future time of need, the party followed the yuan ti and the lizard men to the palace.

After a while of walking the party found themselves walking through a place of oddly spaced trees which the druid recognized had been an orchard many centuries ago. After passing through the old gate of a low stone wall they found themselves approaching a palace that once had been magnificent and still had some of the remaining vestiges of its former glory. An open gateway with a raised portcullis led into a courtyard that had grown wild long ago but that still maintained some of its former glory. They were led to the courtyard fountain that was filled with black water and had an immense 15' tall statue of a rearing dragon standing on the central pedestal. Its wings were spread wide, its claws out as if to attack and its mouth seeming to be frozen in mid attack. The yuan ti suggested that they protect themselves from the dangers of the ancient spells that protected the palace by wading in to touch the statue. The party was hesitant to do so, so the yuan ti shrugged and said “As you wish.” and led them to a side door in the courtyard.

The party entered through the door still following the yuan ti while the lizard men took up posts outside the door. The hall went maybe twenty feet before it ended at a door. As the yuan ti opened the door it said “Thank you for your gift.” Before the party knew what was happening the floor had fallen away under them and they found themselves in a long slide that lasted a while before dropping them out for a fifteen foot drop into the water below. All the party managed to enter the water fairly cleanly and safely except for Desorna who landed awkwardly and took a bit of damage and Merrick who faceplanted onto the water like it was concrete thanks to his ring and took full damage. The advantage to this was that he alone was fairly dry, which meant he could easily light a torch so the party could see. Once the torch was lit and they recovered themselves they slogged or walked to the shore and looked at the two tunnel exits before them, one to the left and one to the right.

The left tunnel was the chosen one, and the party followed it until they entered a room with three insectoid creatures in it, both about three feet long with a pair of pincer claws and a tail that arched over their back. Recognizing these as giant scorpions, the party attacked with Desorna happy to use her newly returned and freshly enchanted silvered pole axe. The battle was a tough one as the insects carapace turned aside some weapon attacks and their pincers and poisonous sting were dangerous. Desorna failed one save and then was lost in immense pain as the scorpion's venomous neurotoxin wracked her body for massive damage. The need to kill the vicious arachnids was increased after that attack, and soon they lay lifeless on the floor. Examining their corpses Deckard noticed a pattern of a large black diamond on the creatures' backs, but this meant nothing to him or any of the rest of the party. Two exits left the room, one in the right hand wall and the other from the forward-left corner. Following the left hand rule the party continued to the left.

The tunnel turned as they went down it until they entered in the corner of a small cavern with a broad river flowing through it. Though most of the party could barely see the far edge of the river, Desorna and Merrick could see further, far enough to see that another passage was heading out of the room on the far side. With some work with Merrick's water walking ability and some iron spikes and ropes the party crossed the river in relative safety.

The short but broad passage on the far side went a short distance before opening into a smallish room with a sandy floor. As the party entered the room a gigantic scorpion exploded up from the loose sand and attacked with surprise. The battle went poorly for the party as they continued to attack and damage the scorpion over and over until it looked dead but was still attacking. Meanwhile, the scorpion undid all the healing that LaVeya the druid had given Desorna after the last scorpion battle. Finally, after taking more than a hundred points of damage the scorpion collapsed and was still. Though the party didn't notice, this one also had a large black diamond shape on its carapace.

After poking around and finding not much, the party started digging in the sand where they found several items from past victims including a suit of chainmail, a potion bottle, a spear, and a sealed bottle. Merrick had a moment caused by his ring of delusion which led to him asking to examine the bottle. It was ceramic with a brassy color on the bottom half and a crimson color on the top. Making the decision that he needed to drink whatever was in it, Merrick opened it freeing the creature within.

As the efreeti that had been trapped inside of it appeared in a burst of flame and the smell of ozone and burnt metal, it spoke saying, “For my freedom I offer you one boon. Choose wisely.” As Merrick had been the one to open the bottle, the party decided that this was Merrick's wish and so Nick was called on the phone, the situation explained to him, and the option given to him so he could make his choice. Instead of, I dunno, wishing the party was back in Rimview safe and sound, he asked for a suit of red dragon plate mail. The efreet laughed and vanished in a burst of flame, returning with a suit of plate armor for the fighter to wear. Merrick was overjoyed and began to change into it right then and there while the efreet muttered something about not wanting to be him when the original owner came looking for it before the efreet vanished in another puff of smoke with the smell of brimstone.

The plate armor was wonderfully ornate. Though made of metal it had been carefully made to resemble dragon scales. The full helm that came with it looked like the head of a dragon, though obviously scaled down to fit a human. Though the party had no idea of the armor's powers, if any, they approved of the shiny new suit and proceeded onward.

Having explored to the end of these tunnels, the party returned to the room where they fought the smaller scorpions and headed out the other passage. After a short journey it ended in a “T” intersection with passages to the left and right. Left hand rule being the rule of the day, the party continued forward down the left hallway.

After another short jaunt they found themselves entering another room. This room was roughly 20 feet in diameter and had a 35' high ceiling. The center ten or so feet of the wall to their left was a 20 foot high cliff with an open spot above it. After making a brief search of the chamber the party went to look at the cliff where Desorna managed to scale the cliff. Once up top she turned to look down at her friends below her when something hit her hard in the back and sent her flying off of the cliff to plummet back down to the floor and once again undo the healing that LaVeya had done. The party members pulled out their ranged weapons and began using them as the mistmarsh giant on the cliff's edge pulled his immense bow from behind his back and began firing back at the party. Merrick was the odd man out in this instance as he had neither bow nor sling nor magic spells, so he began throwing whatever weapons he had that were remotely suitable, starting with his single hand axe and continuing with his one spear and the new spear the party had found. His results were fairly universally pathetic, which the fighter blamed on the awkward ornateness of his new armor. Though the hand axe flew high and wide the spears fell short, hitting the cliff wall and tumbling back down to land at his feet. Frustrated by this ineptitude, Merrick gave up and used a rope and grappling hook to give him a better way to get in sword range. Rushing up LaVeya grabbed up the spears and began throwing them again, rolling a natural 20 with the new spear and discovering that it was a spear of impaling, which ended up killing the giant dead. After scaling the cliff face and claiming the booty from the giant's bag, the party searched the area and discovered that the area was a sleeping area for a group of giants. A passage in the back of the cave led further, but Deckard prevailed on the party to finish exploring the rest of the passages on the downhill side of the cliff before proceeding higher up.

Proceeding down to the other hallway off of the “T” intersection, the party found themselves in another small cavern with two exits just as two more mistmarsh giants came in through one of the other exits. Battle was quickly joined and a lot of damage later the fight was won, with the bard using his single minor regen spell to keep Desorna in the fight. With few hit points and fewer spell points the party tried to figure the best place to rest and heal up, deciding that the gigantic scorpion's lair would suit their needs, plus the sandy floor would lead to more comfortable sleep than the rough stone floors elsewhere. After dragging the giant scorpion's body down the hallway and dumping it in the river the party decided to rest for the night. And here we halted for the week.

Experience per character:

Kag: 1,772

Merrick: 986 after rebuilding xp
Deckard: 1,772

Randy: 886

Desorna: 1,772

LaVeya: 1,772

Ydee: 886