October 8th, 2017

The Continuing Story in the “What Now?” Chronicles

From my left:

Mikey playing Ivan Lok'tar the 5^th level dwarven fighter and party spokesdwarf

Nicholas playing Merrick the 7^th level human fighter

Paige playing Keeva the 4^th level halfling infiltrator

Hunter playing Flever Graveltoes the 2^nd level FINALLY gnome ranger

Zack playing LaVeya the 6^th/3^rd level human druid/magic-user

New Connor playing Iloxiron the 3^rd level half-elven spellsword

and the DM playing Ydee the 6^th level half-elf thief for the absent Catherine

The session began with the adventurers in Treefold. As was natural for this group, a certain amount of ridiculousness was to be expected, and after several expected actions it began quickly.

The expected actions began with Ivan, LaVeya, Iloxiron and Flever, YES, Flever actually training for their new levels. LaVeya's new focus on being a magic-user in addition to a druid meant she was gaining her third level as a mage. Once that money was well spent, the adventurers began taking care of the ridiculousness.

Flever had bought materials to make a felt hat for himself. Based on the random lack of knowledge percolating through his brain he went down to the riverside to roll the felt. This resulted in a major fail as the muddy shallows by fast flowing waters do not make for a good work surface and before too long he found that most of the felt had been lost downriver and what was left was glotted with mud. Sadly rendering the rest to the waters he went to find his wife and chicken-children for comfort. On the way he looked longingly at the platform shoes he had admired so much and his spirits were lifted by being told that they were on sale now for only 30 g.p. Happily he bought them and skipped off to find his wife with his spirits lifted again. Keeva just stared at him in absolute bewilderment for a while as he prattled happily on. Then, since he was still wearing LaVeya's hand me down leather armor which fit him not at all, an effort was made to find him clothing that would be more his size. He ended up with a simple robe since Keeva refused to give him an advance on his allowance, and then he was in need of a weapon. After some moments of thought Merrick ripped a limb off of a tree and presented it to Flever as a club. Against Merrick's suggestion Flever decided not to strip the smaller branches and leaves off of his new club as they made it more festive.

Another event had occurred during this time, a most unusual one which was all but inexplicable to poor Flever. While lamenting the loss of what would have been his very fashionable hat, the gnome found himself hit on the head and rendered unconscious. Tired of listening to him bewail his hatless fate, LaVeya had decided to . . . . . help. Using a stone shape spell, she found a roughly head-sized boulder, emptied it out so it was vaguely hat-shaped (and rolled a critfail in the process of “going to make him a hat”, so things went downhill from there) and then snuck up behind Flever and slammed it down on his head so he would have a hat. Flever was knocked out and likely somewhat concussed by having his head jammed into what was more like a rough edged stone fishbowl instead of a hat. Some serious damage was done as LaVeya extracted the gnome's head from his 'hat', scraping his face and head up in the process. Struck by an amusing thought, LaVeya tucked the unconscious gnome's hands into the stone and then used stone shape to seal them inside. Keeva then chased LaVeya, kicking at her as they ran.

Flever woke up a short while later unable to move much or to scratch his nose. Startled by his entrapped hands, the gnome began to bewail his fate. Some out-of-game discussion entailed as to whether or not Flever could use the stone ball as a weapon (DM said no, based on the gnome's strength) which devolved into who might be able to use Flever as a weapon. Thus the concept of the Shrieking Gnomish War Flail was born. It was decided that Merrick could use Flever as a weapon at this point, and the DM calculated the damage dice for such a weapon. Around this time Nick actually showed up to take control of Merrick from the DM, and the DM received Nick's thousand-yard-death-stare when told of his new weapon proficiency. Hunter wanted to know if this meant his character could be enchanted and maybe become an artifact, and what his artifact name would be. The DM informed him that his artifact name had already been determined: Shrieking Gnomish War Flail. Hunter was not happy with the ordinariness of such a name, saying that it sounded like a typical Saturday night for him. Thus Flever's artifact name became Typical Saturday Night. In the end LaVeya cast stone shape on the boulder again and Flever's hands were freed.

After some more time spent focusing on adventuring type things such as asking questions for uncertain answers and pursuing leads for future events, the adventurers decided to return to Rimwatch because of their concerns over the blue dragon that had been seen flying that way. They, led by Merrick, had wanted to make sure that the people of Rimwatch were still alive and well and hadn't been blasted into oblivion by yet another strafing run from a lightning breath weapon, but they had not been so concerned that they wanted to head down there too quickly and potentially be within the town when the strafing runs came. Self-preservation.

They reached Rimwatch after several days of travel and were happy to find that the town was still intact and had rebuilt into a better version of itself. Lieutenant Carrick and his troops had departed months before, but the south-facing defensive wall they had constructed was in place and was manned by militia to keep a watch on the rim of the Cursed Valley to the south. Bill, the innkeeper, was happy to see them and share the news of what had transpired since their last visit. Most of it was simple village matters though he did tell them that their friend Deckard had come to town several days before, chatted with Earl the ranger for a while, and then two days ago they both left heading east toward Avonlea's druidic enclave. He also told them that the blue dragon had flown over on its way to the Valley, and there were several nervous weeks after that where no one got much sleep, but nothing else had happened afterward and things returned more or less to normal. Reassured by this, the party discussed what to do next. Although their previous excursions to the Cursed Valley had almost ended in catastrophic disaster for the party and much of the civilization of the region, the decision was made to return to the Valley again. However the decision was made to avoid any dragons or drakes.

A short journey south led them to the top of the rim and they looked down into the thick Okeefenokee style morass of plantlife and swamp-dwellers that was this area of the Cursed Valley. Steeling themselves for the journey they descended into the area, certain of their skills in avoiding conflict. Unfortunately this certainly faded along with the certainty that LaVeya knew the path they were taking. When Flever piped up with, “You know, I think this is the fourth time we've passed this tree...” it was decided that maybe the ranger, even though he hadn't been here before, was a safer bet to find a path through the bog. With some time spent the gnome led them to a small lake with an island in the center of it. As Nick/Merrick started to freak, the earth drake on the island raised his head, glared at the adventurers and said, “Why have you come back? Are you that stupid? Are you here to waken her again after she has just gotten back to sleep? Are you really this stupid?”

The party's stupidity may have been self evident, but Korvanthir the earth drake was of a mind to not kill them once they swore they were going to go nowhere near the sleeping dragon. Once he was fairly sure they were not that level of stupid, if only just, he was willing to talk with them. He did tell Merrick that the blue dragon had come down to provide something as part of the ritual and then returned home again. No mischief was intended by his coming and going, but the blue did enjoy spreading some fear in his wake, so his overflights may have been intentional. The streamer of smoke that Merrick had seen coming from the area of the Yuan-ti castle was likely from one of the bonfires they burned as part of their weird seasonal rituals and was not a sign of conflict. Korvanthir would know if such conflicts were occurring, and they were not.

When asked if there was anything that the adventurers could do, Korvanthir got a sly reptilian smile that Merrick, long used to talking with the drake, recognized. There were, the drake suggested, some lizards to the west whose populations had perhaps expanded beyond what they should. If the party wanted to go and cull the herd Korvanthir would have no problems with that. Plus it would keep them away from the sleeping dragon to the west, and that was killing two threats with one breath weapon in Korvanthir's mind. Though Merrick was nervous about this, the adventurers left peaceably and headed west to look for the lizards.

Along the way there were some minor issues, but finally the adventurers left the swampy center of the valley behind and began rising into the heavily wooded foothills that rose from the murky waters behind them. After a while of traveling the adventurers came over a rise and found a small settlement spread out before them. There were sixty or so mud huts around a larger central building, and quite a few lizardfolk wandering around on whatever business they might have. Almost directly underneath our heroes at the base of the cliff there was a large paddock with maybe a score of giant lizards in it. At least two other paddocks were visible around the periphery of the lizardman town. While some of the party were enthusiastic about assaulting a village of around 250 adult lizard men and the maybe fifty giant lizards that they had, more experienced heads were pretty much totally opposed to the idea. There was some thought of sneaking into the village to assassinate the chief of the village and the shaman that was also there based on some of the fetishes hanging from the eaves of the central building, but there was some confidence on the part of some players that the DM wouldn't allow them to find anything that they couldn't handle. The DM quickly stepped in and reminded them that he had posted a meme of his DM philosophy in the FB group wall that said “There's a lot going on in the world. Not all of it is your level.” With more not-very-subtle hints from the DM and more experienced players, the decision was made to bypass the village completely and exit the valley to the west and take news of the build up of lizard men to the authorities in Southvale, the nearest small city. Wise choices my friends, very wise choices.

Unfortunately on their way around the town one member of the party (Keeva) set off a deadfall trap the lizard men had built to protect themselves from attack. Luckily only half of the deadfall was set off and so there was half as much damage dealt. The short people's side of the party was hit by the trap, though Ivan and Flever made their saves and took half damage from the trap. Full damage dropped Keeva from her max of 28 down to 5 hit points. The eleven hit points that both Ivan and Flever took barely phased the doughty dwarf but reduced the already damaged gnome to negative 6 hit points! LaVeya healed him but the gnome could barely stumble along after being so badly hurt, so Merrick grabbed the gnome by the back of the head/scruff of the neck, picked him up, and the party moved along as fast as they could before lizard men came to see what had set off their trap.

On the relatively uneventful trip to Southvale it was also decided to find a druid who might be able to get word to Avonlea and Rimwatch about the large number of lizard men in the swamps. Merrick made a report to the guards at Southvale where he was recognized by his reputation and given respect for it, an odd feeling for the fighter but one he decided he could get used to. Merrick went to the Curio Shop to see if there was anything there that might help the party. There were some items, but Merrick instead paid off the last bit of his personal Curio Shop debt to the shopkeepers. Some time was spent in town so Flever could recover from his near death experience, and then the party continued south towards Ruinheath where they knew there was a druid's grove so they could send their message.

In Ruinheath the party considered what they should do next. Since the Proving Grounds were nearby, there was the thought of returning there. Valandil was still in town, and he was happy to see some of his old friends and their new associates. He had not worked much on getting the bard to be his ex-wife yet, but he was going to go and meet her so he couldn't adventure with the group. He did write down the activation words for the teleporter to the castle for them and wished them luck. *

The party went in search of the grove and found the druidess there. She welcomed them and agreed to pass on the message they had, but since they were in the neighborhood AND they owed a great debt to the druids, she prevailed on them to investigate a nearby area that seemed to fester with ill will; a pit in the earth that the adventurers could explore and take care of the evil within. A bit uncomfortable with the build-up, the adventurers acknowledged their debt and agreed to go investigate.

They began the trip and were slightly unnerved when after almost two hours they found a sharp line of demarcation between the rolling hills and forests they had been traveling through previously and the badlands that seemed to just start without any transitional area in between the two. Cautiously they continued on until they found what must be the aforementioned pit. It was nearly a hundred feet across and disappeared into pitch black as it descended into the earth. A narrow rock pathway spiraled down the sides of the pit toward the blackness below. Though they were unnerved by the sight, the adventurers began their descent.

About fifty feet down into the pit an opening was found in the wall, leading into a natural cave hallway and darkness beyond. The pitch blackness at the bottom of the pit seemed much closer now, and careful attempts made to prod it showed that it wasn't dirty water but some sort of mostly solidified muck at the bottom of the pit. However, using a five foot pole to touch the muck resulted in a four and a half foot pole as the bottom part of it seemed to have been eaten away. A decision was made to go no closer to the muck and to instead check out the cave.

The cave passage went roughly forty feet down before it turned to the right. This passage went roughly one hundred feet before it opened into a room. This room was roughly circular as best as the adventurers could tell though the light of their torch only illuminated part of the room. At the edge of the light near the center of the room was a huge squat frog-like figure on its hind legs looking at the party with its large bulbous eyes. Visible behind it was a large stone block of some sort, about half this thing's height and square. Initiative was rolled as this thing leapt to the attack!

The creature's tough rubbery hide made it hard to damage, and its sharply taloned claws and giant mouth did serious damage when they hit. The claws also seemed to be poisoned judging by the vertigo suffered by those clawed by them. Keeva scrambled past it to launch arrows at it from behind while the other members of the party attacked it from the front. At one point the creature let out a belching sonic attack that partly deafened those in front of it and stunned Ydee and Iloxiron sending them both falling to the ground unable to act. Finally the battered dwarven and human fighters made an end of the grotesque thing and all was quiet. Ivan began to search the thing with Merrick's help while LaVeya got both Ydee and Iloxiron back on their feet. Meanwhile Keeva examined the strange stone thing and noted the odd symbols engraved in it. As she reached out to touch it there was an odd distortion in the air around her and two more of these toadlings appeared.

Keeva and Iloxiron, who had gone to pick up his dropped sword, made tracks back to the rest of the party. Having faced one alone and taken a lot of damage before emerging triumphant, the adventurers were in no shape to face two more and so while Ivan and Merrick backed down the hallway as the rear guard the rest of the party made haste to the entrance. Ydee was in front and she shouted back that the black stuff from the bottom of the pit was oozing its way down the hallway. It was like a gigantic black pudding, so the party was feeling trapped by a frog and a dark place. After spending a brief time discussing the dilemma, Ydee said ”Screw it, I'm going to run across this thing if I can and up the trail.” She was successful in doing so and the rest of the party followed suit, each of them taking some damage from their scamper, and more if they happened to get unlucky and stumble and fall while crossing the ooze. The party made it to the top and back to the druidess to give her the story of the things of nightmares in the pit. Cassiopeia (I found the druidess' name in my notes when I got home. Star and moon druidess, but I couldn't remember which star I had named her after) was concerned by the things that the adventurers had found and thought that perhaps the adventure was better reported to Avonlea and maybe given to more experienced adventurers. Tired and wounded, the party accepted her offer to rest for the evening at the grove.

The next day LaVeya decided to try to go back and see if she could deface the stone with her stone shape spells. Flying off in sparrow form with Iloxiron insistently tracking after her though he lagged behind, she returned to the pit. The ooze-thing had returned to the bottom of the pit, and there were no remaining toad-frog-things. Not even the body of the one they had killed. Her attempt to ruin the altar-thing by stone shaping it failed miserably as it resisted her spell. And with a distortion of the air around her a new creature, like the others but alarmingly larger, popped into being.

Panicked, LaVeya flew as fast as her bird form could take her toward the entrance and after a moment's hesitation to adapt to its surroundings the thing leapt after her, swatting at her with both of its clawed hands, damaging her and sending her skittering down the passageway where she lay in a semi-paralyzed heap. Meanwhile the creature, who was too big to fit into the narrow confines of the passageway, began clawing away at the cave walls, hewing out a larger passage to get it within reach of the prey it wanted to rend to pieces. As best as she could in her semi-paralyzed state, LaVeya flapped her wings in an attempt to advance down the passage in any way she could so she could be out of reach of the monstrous creature. She managed to flap far enough away that it couldn't reach her before the paralysis faded enough that she could fly out of the area.

Upon reaching the open air she found Iloxiron and warned him about the creature. He seemed determined to go to die, I mean explore, and carefully continued on while LaVeya took her battered and bruised self back to the druidesses grove. Carefully and cautiously Iloxiron entered the pit. The ooze creature was quiescent at the moment, so he didn't disturb it and carefully, slowly advanced down the passageway. As he drew closer he could see where the toad-thing had madly dug out the sides of the passage in its attempt to catch the sparrow, but the toad-thing was not visible. Carefully Iloxiron continued forward, further down the hall and into the cave chamber.

Once in the cave chamber he stayed well away from the carved stone in the center of the room. Another cave passageway was directly across from the entrance, and this one sloped upward to the edge of sight. In the left hand wall of the cave another passage ran away from the room at an angle, disappearing into the darkness as well. At this juncture Iloxiron decided that now was a good time to depart and did so, returning to the grove by late afternoon. He passed on the additional information about the cave to the others, and they all prepared to rest for the night.

And there we ended the session for the week.

Experience points for the adventure

Ivan – 1000

Merrick – 1000

Flever – 1100

Keeva – 1000

LaVeya – 1250

Iloxiron – 1100

Ydee – A number.

Footnote:

* The DM was all ready for the return to the Castle in the Sky, even more so than the players perhaps, though they were excited too. But then Nick asked if Valandil could supply him with copies of the maps of the places that they had explored, and I realized that that book of graph paper was in a totally different backpack**. Thus they were sent to go on the following, seriously deadly adventure instead.

** The DM had his master maps that he keeps at home and then he has his book of graph paper so he can draw the maps of the places the party has been as they adventure so he an tell if they have discovered certain things or not. Often the answer is 'not'. But, this way, he KNOWS where they have been and he also knows where their maps are horribly, painfully wrong because of the tricks in the dungeons. Without his book of exploration maps, he was not able to comply with Merrick's simple request.