Westmist Sessions #31 - She's Starting to Creep Me Out

Spending just a couple of days in Westmist to recover and refit, the party soon headed back to Stonehell to further explore the new level. This time a pair of new henchmen accompanied the four stalwarts; Erijay, Darnoth, Riley, Kern. Kern hired Beorn the Twice Cursed, a strange mage from a far northern land with a raven for a companion. Riley, meanwhile, took up with a strange Wildman by the name Gurruk, a beastmaster from the woods. And of course Foxy and Sweet Jenny filled out the livestock part of the party. Norm, for his part, chose to stay in Westmist to spend some of his hard earned gold and party away for Year’s End.

Trudging through the snow, the party once more entered the second level through their secret entrance. Reaching the old hobgoblin lair, they were surprised to see light ahead as they left the caverns. Sneaking ahead to investigate, Kern was surprised to hear a familiar feminine voice say “Hello Mr. Kern. It’s good to see you again”. When he and the rest of the party emerged from the corridor, they found Lachesis and her ogre henchmen waiting for them. The lady once more unnerved them with her knowledge of their supposedly secret entrance, and after a short conversation left ht party to scratch their collective heads once more.  Moving onward, the party encountered a band of kobolds scrubbing scorch marks off a length of corridor, and none to interested speaking today (“imagine putting hard working kobolds to sleep …”). Finally down the stairs again, they headed for the magically locked double doors. Riley, chanting orisons to the mighty Habuu, called on his god to dispel the magical lock. They party was then free to explore deeper into the complex without fear of having their retreat blocked by the locked portals.

 After ransacking an old storeroom (and loading some bags of leaves onto Sweet Jenny), they discovered a room with cistern in the centre of a wet floor. Cautiously moving forward, a section of what appeared to be the floor lashed at Darnorth with a grey slimy pseudopod. The rest of the party came to the dwarfs rescue, but not before the acidic ooze had largely destroyed his fine suit of plate mail. While there was some discussion of returning to town to re-amour the dwarf, they decided to move on and take their chances with a slightly less solid Darnorth.  The next room stood out due to its unusual door; unlike the usual iron banded wood seen elsewhere in Stonehell, this door was banded in what appeared to be bronze. Opening it, the party saw on the other side a rectangular shape, glowing with a bright white light. Entering, Erijay and Riley moved towards the object, only to be jumped by three gargoyles hiding above the door.  After battering the flying creatures into stone rubble, the party proceeded to examine the object. It appeared to have no physical existence, but yet the light did support weight and resisted their attempts to move or damage it. Going over it from top to bottom, no clues were found, except a sense of general unease and tingling felt by Riley when he crawled behind the object.

 Having exhausted all attempts at unraveling the mystery, the party moved on, only to once more meet Lachesis waiting for them in the corridor. Again, she gave them the distinct impression nothing they were doing escaped her notice. Once more, a futile attempt to pump her for information failed, and the party was left to continue on relying on their own wits. Although she did, in response to Kerns question, hint that there existed a safe room within the dungeon where the party could rest. And she would tell them where to find it, in return for the proper payment, of course.

Left alone again, the party pushed on, fighting a band of bugbears lazing around in one room. In others they found a few curious objects (a wooden statue of a mouse labeled ELEPHANTS TERROR; and an iron coin, painted white with the number “5” on each side). Opening another set of double doors, they were greeted by heavy, humid air and a smell of earth and plant growth. Pushing west beyond the doors, they soon encountered loam on the floor and then a tangle of grasses, ferns and mosses. Overhead was a curious set of iron pipes dripping water, while about them was a faint ethereal glow. Breaking into a few more rooms, they found more verdant plant growth. One was an old horticultural library, and the other contained a pair of crates. One full of fine glassware and the other full of bottles of 100 year old wine. Taking this as a sign on Year’s End Eve, the party backtracked and headed home to Westmist to celebrate the end of the 1577th year since the rise of the First Imperium, and to look forward to additional adventures and riches in the year ahead.

Westmist Session #30 - More and More Curious

Before delving back into Stonehell, the party decided to track down information onthe Rod of Narissa. Asking around, they were directed to the home of Thuridici the Sage. Having discussed their needs with the learned man, he agreed to take on the job of tracking down the likely location of the Rod.

Crossing the town square after meeting the sage, the party observed a company of the March Baron’s mercenaries at drill. As they passed by, one of the men in the ranks make eye contact with Erijay, and proceeded to draw a strange snake symbol in the air. Leaping to the elf maid’s defense, the redoubtable Riley grabbed the man with a mail clad grip and started to question the fellow. When the rest of the company began to draw weapons, the mercenary’s commander (Captain Jackson) intervened and none too kindly confronted the party. After some angry words and shoving, the man-at-arms apologized, saying only that he thought he recognized the sword Erijay carried and meant no disrespect. Walking away before blows were traded, the party was none the less intrigued by the man’s actions and comments, and arranged to have Riker track him down later and arrange a meeting.  That evening, Erijay and Riley made their way to the Foam and Whistle tavern where they found the man drinking with his mates. Discreetly separating him from his friends, Erijay and Riley began to question the mercenary. The swarthy man, Bithaboon by name, said he came from the far southern jungles where the tribes worshiped the dread serpent Yg. And he recognized the sword the elf carried as an artifact of that cult. Bluffing, the two convinced Btihaboon that they were secretly members of the cult, and pumped him for information (particularly about the Cobra Codex). He was not able to provide much new information, but did confirm a lot of what they already knew, including the fact that there was a second shrine of Yg in Stonehell.

Back to Stonehell the next day, Darnorth, Riley, Erijay (with Foxy) and Kern (with Norm and Sweet Jenny) headed for the old hobgoblin fortress to find the stairs going down they had been informed of on their previous expedition.   These they quickly found, but not before an unfortunate incident involving kobolds, bearer beetles and a sleep spell. After waking the kobolds and smoothing some ruffled scales, the party did learn the kobolds were headed to level four with a load of ‘fresh’ bodies for the Gentleman Ghouls. But the upset little humanoids weren’t really interest in much talk given their treatment, and soon headed down the stairs and away from the party.  The party followed shortly, finding themselves in a room with a pool and a large iron cube stuck on end in the middle. After fooling around a bit with it, they explored a few other rooms. Highlights included one with a cantilevered floor that could be turned on its axis, another rune covered obelisk like the one on the second level, and a set of stairs going down. They also discovered a room eerily lined with about two dozen statues, several of which showed expressions of extreme terror. Passing warily through, they next encountered a door covered with outward protruding spikes. As they examined the door and hallway, it suddenly started to open, and a huge ogre emerged. Reacting quickly, swords were drawn and blood flowed, but the ogre retreated through the door with a howl and slammed it shut and locked it despite the party’s best efforts. Inside, the party could now here two voices calling out to each other (“Rufus!”, “Tusk!”, “tell mistress!”). They first tried mollifying the ogres, but that didn’t seem to work. After fiddling with the door (and setting off some spikes in the process), they were able to force it open. On the other side they found an opulently furnished sitting room. Fine rugs covered the floor, ornate furniture lined the walls, and a silk dressing screen covered  the north wall. But there were no ogres.

Searching further, the party found a storeroom with foodstuffs (and a cage full of giant rats). At the next door, Kern heard someone on the other side. Assuming the room was occupied by the ogres and their ‘mistress’, they tried parley again. After some persuasion, a cultured woman’s voice told them to go back to the audience room and await her presence. The party obeyed, and spent an hour cooling their heels. Then, the door hidden behind the silk screen opened, and the two ogres emerged (incidentally blocking the mirror set up to observe whoever or whatever came out of the room). Hidden behind the screen, a quite female voice informed them her name was Lachesis and that she dealt in information about the inhabitants of Stonehell. And she then related precise knowledge of everything the party had done in the dungeon over the last 8 months. Somewhat unnerved, the party starting asking questions, only to be met with the response that ‘knowledge is gold’. They did convince Lachesis to take the cold stone for her larder, and squeezed a little information out of her regarding the shine of Yg and the Cobra Codex on the fifth level. Cannily, Kern asked what the party could do for her. At that, she stepped out from behind the screen. They observed a slim female figure, clothed in fine but dated gowns, with head and face covered in a veil. She softly informed them she would much like to have information on the wererats that inhabited part of this level, and who were somewhat rivals of hers. Riley tried to clarify if she wanted information on her rivals or elimination of her rivals, but she was much too coy to answer that directly. Riley then offered to cure Rufus of the wounds they had inadvertently inflicted on him, after which the two blind ogres escorted the party out of the chamber and back to the corridor outside the spiked door. 

Back to exploring, the party again approached a set of door they had earlier found. These particular doors were locked, but the wily Kern could find no mechanical lock to open. Instead, Erijay used her knock spell to open them.  Unfortunately, the doors closed and locked behind the party, despite their best spiking efforts.  Confident they could still get out (since Erijay still had a knock spell memorized), they pushed on and encountered a band of bugbears in the next room. A short sleep and melee session followed, and the bugbears were soon dead. Finding nothing of interest in the room the bugbears were trashing, the party passed into the next room to find one of the odder sights seen thus a far in the dungeon. A half dozen baboons, composed half of gangrenous flesh and half of mechanical bits and hoses filled with a glowing green liquid.  Each had one hand replaced by a serrated blade, and their jaws were of metal. Not particularly interested in tangling with these creatures, the party tried to avoid them. But the things were in no mood to allow the intruders to leave, and they moved to attack. The party soon found that in addition to biting or slashing with their blades, the odd creatures could pair up and shoot lightning bolts as well. They were shortly all slain, however, with the tried and true combination of another Erijay sleep spell and slashing/smashing by the rest of the party. Puzzled and unnerved by the odd events of the last few hours, the party elected the head back to Westmist to rest and reequip for another day.

New House Rule - The Player Character Entourage

As we discussed last game, here is the formalized ruling for having 'back up' players characters. I’ve also update the Google Docs "House Rules" to include this one.

Entourage Rule: Each player may roll up one extra character, of whatever class they desire, to act as their ‘back-up’ PC. This second character will be a henchman/hireling of the primary character and follows all the rules for henchmen/hirelings (i.e. morale checks when necessary, half share of xp and treasure, etc).  In the event the primary character meets an unfortunate and permanent demise, the ‘back-up’ PC gets promoted to be the new player character. The player may then promote one of their other hirelings/henchmen or roll another character to become their new ‘backup PC’.

 

Westmist Session #29 - I Thought Dwarves Could Resist Poison?

With Darnorth now fully recovered, the party began planning for their next decent into Stonehell. But not before first asking some pointed questions of Kern, who had mysterious disappeared for a day, only to come back with an uncontrollable case of the giggles and exhaling smoke with every breath (both of which thankfully cleared up in a few days).  Accepting the merchants mumbled explanation of wizards towers and quests, with a collective shrug their attention turned to the task at hand. Having found little of interest in their last few forays on the second level, the party was anxious to head deeper. However, the near disastrous encounter with the gargoyles last time made them wary of using the elevator. And they weren’t anxious to rely on the shaft discovered even earlier, so the decision was made to search the unexplored areas of the second level for additional routes deeper into the dungeon. Thus decided, Darnorth, Riley, Erijay (with Foxy) and Kern (with Norm and Sweet Jenny) headed out into the cold winter day to delve the depths of Stonehell.

After an uneventful passage to and through the first level, the party began further exploration around the lair of the madmen with the giant Jack-in-the-Box. Working their way around a giant toad who seemed interested in them, but non-hostile, they first went to recover the Jack-in-the-Box and the treasure they had left behind. To nobody’s surprise, it was no longer in the room. In other rooms nearby, they first disturbed a group of madmen with children (whom they left alone) as well as the tribes’ midden (from which they recovered the body of a dwarf adventurer carrying a set of silver dwarven gaming plaques). They also encounter a pair of bedraggled hobgoblins. Darnorth attempted to intimidate them by pointing out their former commanders’ helmet, which now adorned the dwarfs head. This plan backfired and the enraged hobgoblins attacked. They were swiftly dealt with, but not before one landed a hard blow to the dwarf in revenge. 

Figuring there was little of interest left in the area, the party proceeded south into further unexplored sections. First stop was a room with a recessed caisson ceiling, which was decorated with the globes and a bas-relief of a shouting bearded face. Words were written in a speech balloon next to the mouth, so Darnorth levitated up to read them. At which point the script started to crystallize and crackle, and then exploded in a blast of intense cold that chilled and tumbled the dwarf head over heels. Following the reasoning that the trap must be protecting something, Darnorth tapped on the ceiling (now script free) and discovered it was hollow. A harder blow with Rileys’ war hammer broke open a small chamber, from which poured a shower of gold and silver coin over the dwarf and then onto the floor.  After exploring a map room, meeting room, and fighting off a band of berzerkers, the party found themselves in a small room with a low alter. On the dusty alter was a mass of candles and three brass scrolls, while over it glared a great three-lobed eye. Riley reached out to take the scrolls, but as he touched them, the eye shot a blue ray at the cleric. Shaking off the faint incorporeal feeling the ray caused, Riley took a ten foot pole and knocked the scrolls on the floor, then rolled them out the door and out of sight of the eye. He picked them up (safely) and passed them to Darnorth, who (thanks to his helm) was able to decipher the strange Braille-like writing. The three proved to be clerical scrolls, and Riley pocked the scrolls of speak with plants, quest, and locate object. 

After checking out a room with a herringbone pattern on the floor, they next encountered a most unusual dungeon sight; a 12’ tall wind vane covered in strange glyphs. Darnorth read these and found they had something to do with the Elemental Plane of Air. Playing with the vane, they found it moved freely, and also found a hidden compartment below it containing another set of dwarven gambling plaques along with jewelry and coins.  Heading to the next room, they found a chamber much like the last, except it contained a 12’ tall obelisk also covered in runes. The party spent some time playing with the weather vane to see if they could ‘activate’ the obelisk to see what it would do. But with no success. Erijay copied down the glyphs for further study in the hopes of later deciphering their meaning.

Next encountering (and slaying) another bedraggled band of hobgoblins, the party also recovered a satchel containing bologna, cheese and brandy. The bologna didn’t last long, being fed to yet another giant toad so it would allow them to pass unmolested. With the toad behind them, the party examined a fountain of silvery metal (a sample of which Erijay collected) and a room containing a statue and a green slime on the ceiling (which fell on Kern and had to be burned off). Next stop was a room with a font, where a voice said “Discard your raiment and cleanse thy hands and feet”. In no time, Darnorth and Riley had stripped naked (while Erijay looked away), and poured a flask of holy water into the font to wash. Apart from feeling a little less ‘dungeon grungy', nothing else happened.  So after first reminding Riley to get dressed, the party headed down a diagonal corridor. They soon heard a voice ahead, preaching a sermon of fire and brimstone. Moving forward, they entered a large room full of fire blackened pews, in the middle of which stood a skeleton engulfed in a column of flame. Sensing they were in for a fight, Riley blessed the party and then silenced the being. The skeleton, which until now had more or less ignored them, turned on the party ferociously once it realized it could no longer preach. It proved a short fight, however, as the party surrounded the undead preacher and ended his proselytizing days. 

Moving down another diagonal corridor, they soon heard a very loud buzzing noise ahead. Kern moved ahead silently in the shadows and checked out the next room. It containing a huge wasp nest, around which buzzed a couple dozen giant wasps. He also noticed the floor was a mess of holes and overturned flagstones. Going back to report to the rest of the party, the decision was made to attack. Getting ready to burn the nest, numerous torches were lit, while Erijay prepared a sleep spell. Unfortunately, the wasps must have heard the preparations, as they were waiting for the party when they entered the room. In the mess that followed, Erijay and Darnorth in the front rank were overwhelmed by wasps, while several also flew over their heads to attack the rear ranks. Darnorth, as is his apt, fell to the poison of the flying beasts. Erijay, though stung multiple times and losing her first sleep spell in the process, survived the poison and was able to get off her second sleep. That proved the end of the wasps, as those not already slain by the party now fell into slumber. Pushing Darnorth’s body out of the way for now, the party finished off the comatose wasps, then turned their attention to the diggings. Figuring there must be something here, they all set to work with crowbar and shovel, until after awhile Riley shouted with glee when he uncovered a hoard of gems and jewelry. Loading up Sweet Jenny with the treasure and the dwarf, the party prepared to leave, but found their way blocked once more by a pack of the confounded giant toads. Since these seemed a little more aggressive than the others encounter thus far, the party choose to exit by another passage and work their way around the toads and then out of the dungeon. 

Back in town, a familiar routine was followed. First to Afflain the Fence to cash in some treasure for coin, and then to the Temple to exchange the coin for a raised dwarf. At the Temple, they were met with some bemusement by some of the younger acolytes, who had apparently been taking bets on which party member would be back to be raised next. The young Undervirtue who won the bet then suggested they could save some coin if they tracked down the legendary Rod of Narissa. After some prompting, he told them the story of the great ArchVirtue Narissa and the powerful magical rod she carried, which could bring the dead back to a full and vigorous life. She had been utterly destroyed some 300 years ago in battle with the elementalist lich Raxeses, but not before she used the rod to destroy the foul undead creature. The rod itself has not been seen since, apparently lost in the massive sandstorm that buried the mountain valley where the battle took place.

Leaving the stories and snickers behind, the party brought Darnorth home and deposited him in bed. Erijay went to visit Synthini for help deciphering the glyphs on the obelisk and weather vane. When the alchemist could not offer any help, the elf maid tracked down Bazzrel to question him. He wasn’t able to help much either, but confirmed that they did indeed pertain to the elemental plane of air and were some sort of summoning glyphs. More he could not say, as the elemental planes were not his area of study. However, he did note he had an acquaintance in the town of Serin some days travel to the east who was more knowledgeable in such matters and might be able to help.