Session 28: A Pool of Madness

 The party begins where they left off. The decide to explore one of the stone stairwells that descend under the ruins of the castle. 

Simon cast Light on a crossbow bolt, and Mick fires the bolt down into the passage. They go down the stairs, coming to an old cellar what was likely used to store food in the past. Mick lights it up with Dancing Lights. There are overturned shelves and other junk. At the far side of the room they see a door off its hinges and on the floor, in front of an opening.

Beyond the passage they find a rough-hewn passageway that curves. It is dark. Mick lights up the passage and sees three human shapes clinging to the rough walls and ceiling, moving like spiders. They are pale, skinny and sinewy, have stringy hair and wild eyes, and wear the remnants of simple clothing. The creatures squint as the light hits them and begin chattering and gibbering and laughing in a disturbing display of madness. Skittering across the walls and ceiling like roaches, they move quickly and attack the party.

One of the creatures bites Mick. The bite does a little damage, but also attacks Mick's mind. He hear's, in his mind, horrible shrieking and mad howls of tortured human minds, taking additional psychic damage. Each time the creatures are hit they simple giggle madly. The party kills these insane beings, and continues down the hall.

The passage opens into a large excavated cavern-like chamber with a 20-foot ceiling. Dancing lights illuminates the chamber, revealing human bones scattered across the floor, an area raised 10' at the far end and stone steps leading up to it, and in the middle of the floor a 3' tall stone cistern the apparently is full of water. 

Mick walks by the pool on his way to the steps. As he comes nearer the pool his mind is assaulted by the feeling of dozens of minds screaming in terror and confusion. Debi comes up for a look and the same thing happens. 

Suddenly Simon is confronted by a being that looks like the old man from his lucid dream. The creature attacks him. He fails a save and is paralyzed due to a mental assault in which he senses some familial connection with what is happening -- he is stunned and loses a turn.

Mick runs up the stairs. When he and Debi looked into the pool they saw clear water, human skulls sitting in the bottom, and thousands of undulating smoky black tendrils moving in the water in a complex web, constantly changing and shifting. 

Simon regains his senses and casts Bless on himself and his two friends.

The party feels confusion and madness emanating from the pool. Debi sings and gives Bardic Inspiration to Simon.

Longer water tendrils rise from the pool and attack the party, ignoring armor protection and doing psychic damage upon hitting.

Debi is confronted by a creature resembling a mixture of her patron, Rax, and his pet, Magpie. The creature attacks her. Mick is confronted and attacked by what appears to be an undead version of his mentor, Blix Yodarian. The PCs see each other fighting non-existent enemies. Simon finally saves and the Phantasmal Force illusion leaves his mind. He blasts the pool with Guiding Bolt. The spell hits, and the party hears dozens of voices screaming in their heads.

More water tendrils attack, but finally Debi and Mick save against the spell. Simon attacks with Sacred Flame. Debi leaves the room (she has taken heavy damage), as Mick slashes into the pool with his magic dagger. He is surprised that it does in fact cut and damage the smoky black tendrils in the water. 

Calling upon the power of Ahki, Simon calls down Sacred Flame once again to blast the pool. 

The party hears screaming in their heads and each takes psychic damage Simon's spell destroys the network of magic neural tendrils in the pool in an explosion of mental energy. 

Debi comes back in. The characters all feel a sense of peace replacing the background noise of insanity and confusion. They go up on the raised area and find record books which list the names of inmates in the asylum who were apparently used in evil magic experiments in this chamber. They find scrolls describing those experiments and the theories behind them. They put all this stuff in the Portable Hole and leave.

As they exit the stairs to the surface they find a gigantic blue saber toothed blue cat sitting high above them in the ruins. Clearly it is Bubastis. The cat slowly evaluates them. Each of them feel the cat's mind telepathically probing theirs. They converse with him. He says they have silenced the screaming he has heard in his mind for many years, and he is grateful. In thanks, he allows Debi to cut one of his smaller whiskers to complete her quest on the island, then tells them to leave without killing anyone else.

The party leaves, returning to their rowboat by the small dock.

End of Session.

XP award for this and the previous session: 510xp

Session 27: Castle Island

 We resume where we left off. The PCs are in the wizard's lair, having killed him and his imp familiar. They search the building, finding potions of healing, fire breathing, and storm giant strength. The return home for a long rest.

The next day they return to Rivas Greel's home to tell him what happened. They are let in by his goblin doorman and meet with him. He thanks them for their help. He leaves the room briefly and returns with the statue the retrieved for him. He holds it up, then he smashes it on the floor, breaking it. He explains that he staged the whole thing to draw out anyone plotting against him. The magic aura that Simon detected on the statue was in fact Nystul's Magic Aura spell cast on the statue. 

Debi is unhappy that they have been used. Rivas apologizes, and tells the trio that he owes them all favors now, and he will make things right by them. Debi reluctantly accepts this apology as do Mick and Simon. 

Debi tells Simon and Mick about her recent encounter with Raxilliah the Merchant, and that Rax tasked her with bring them a whisker from the giant blue feline, Bubastis, on Castle Island. The other two agree to accompany her on this task.

They go to the World Library to research Castle Island and Bubatis. They find that until about 25 years ago the island, site of a ruined castle, was the location of an insane asylum where the most crazy of Langwon were sent. At some point people started disappearing and rumors of evil began to circulate. It is now the home to the remaining patients, humanoid beings (like ogres), and the legendary cat Bubastis. Debi finds the account of a man who encountered the cat on the island, saying that Bubastis was about 10' long and spoke directly into his mind. 

They go to the port of Langwon, and the harbor master directs them to dock 42, where he says they'll find a ship and captain that may be willing to take them to Castle Island, which about a 1-day sail out into the ocean.

Going to doc 42, they see a somewhat beat-up ship and a single goblin crew member swabbing the deck. They address him, and he calls the captain - Captain Klank -- also a goblin. They negotiate passage - only 120 gp IF Simon will heal his infected tooth. Simon heals him. They set off the next day, sailing through the night on the Troll's Tooth. Debi and Mick entertain the crew.

Arriving at the island, Klank takes them to the north side, gives them a rowboat, and tells them he'll wait three days for them. 

The trio rows to shore, pulling their boat on to dry land.

They follow a trail into the woods, and after a while are attacked by 8 local humans. Debi is hit by two primitive spears. Mick uses and illusionary roar in the woods to scare three of them away. Simon fries one with Sacred Flame. Debi blasts with Thunderwave. Mick crossbows one. Debi uses Detect Thoughts to read the surface thoughts of one of them, and finds him to be 100% insane and thinking "They're back to get us! Kill them!". The PCs dispatch those who didn't run and continue on their way.

Up the trail they avoid a village of ramshackle huts and a woman tending a garden. They continue toward the castle ruins. 

Arriving, they find a castle that has been mostly destroyed. They creep up, and hear two ogres inside the walls eating and talking. Sneaking around the side, Mick uses Mage Hand to place his line and grappling hook over the edge or the top of one of the towers. The trio climb. 

Quietly looking over the grounds from the top of the tower, they see the ogres. They also see, in the rubble, two stone staircases going down under the ruins. Debi fires a crossbow bolt with a little catnip down by one of the stairs. Nothing comes up. They come up with a plan.

Going back down, they sneak to a hole in the outside of the wall not far from the ogres. Mick uses Minor Illusion to create the roar of a big cat. Failing morale rolls, the ogres drop their meals exclaming "Bubastis! RUN!". They run out the front gate to escape their perceived enemy, and go out into the woods.

The team enters the ruins. Debi retrieves her crossbow bolt. 

End of Session. 

Sesson 26: Wizard Hunt

 The PCs find out that the wizards was disguised and Rivas's friend Cushing Hammar, a local "merchant." Larsh finds him tied up. They investigate, going to building Simon tracked him to in the previous session.

They surveil the building and chat up people in the neighborhood. The local kids are afraid of the building and tell them all sorts of wild tales about the goings on in there. 

The group climbs to the roof, where they find a metal framed glass dome that casts mystic symbols down to the bottom floor. Looking through, they can see that there are large holes in the 2nd and 3rd floors. They cannot however get in via the roof.

Returning to the ground, they enter the building.

On the bottom floor they find arcane, profane symbols painted on the walls. A summoning chamber. This may account for the wizard attempting to have Rivas's statue stolen. 

They explore the 2nd floor, finding living quarters.

On the 3rd floor as they explore something invisible strikes Mick, knocking him over the edge of the whole in the floor. Mick makes an acrobatics roll, manages to grab the edge as he falls by, and flips himself to safety down on the 2nd floor!

An Imp is now visible after its attack on Mick.

The wizard materializes and attacks with another lightning bolt, doing some damage to Debi and Simon. They attack with spells - Debi with Dissonant Whispers, doing damage. Eventually Simon hits him with Guiding Bolt - the wizard screams as he falls through the hole, to lie dead in the middle of his summoning circle 30 feet below!

End of session.

Session 25: Scum Town Shuffle

 The PCs begin where we left off, in the old textile mill with Ty Kimbal in front of them.

Ty has introduced himself, saying he was testing them to see if they would be worthy adventuring companions. He is quite arrogant. He gives each of them a small bag with 5gp for their trouble, and invites them to the Eye of the Beholder for a drink, it still be night time. 

After a quick drink he leaves. The PCs stay. Their old associate Rivas Greel comes in with his bodyguard Larsh. Rivas sits with them and invites them to a party the next night at his estate, saying he has acquired a piece of pre-cataclysm artwork and is throwing a party at which friends and associates can view it. He's in a great mood. The trio accepts the invitation.

That night each of the PCs has a different experience:

• Simon has a lucid dream, in which he is on an island with a castle. He explores the castle, finding a long corridor full of prison cells. Each cell has a human skeleton in it. He hears "help..." coming from further down. After going down what seemed and endless corridor, he comes to the end. He finds a cell with an old, withered person in a cloak and hood sitting against the wall. As Simon watches, the person pulls back the hood, revealing a face just like Simon's but aged many many years. It begins cackling madly at him. Simon awakens.
• There's a knock on Mick's door. It's his thief associate Slovas,  who informs him about the party at Rivas's house, the artwork which is a statuette carved from a huge ruby of a pre-cataclysmic barbarian queen. He wants Mick and the others to help hims steal it. Mick says he'll discuss it with the others and they pick a place to meet up the next day.
• Debi hears a trilling music in her room, and sees a spectral image of Rax's pet, Magpie, who signals for Debi to follow. She enters Rax's shop, where they catch up. Rax tasks her to go to the Castle Island, a days sail off the coast of Langwon, and retrieve a whisker from the giant feline being Bubastis, who lives on the island. No strict time frame. Debi of course agrees.

Mick buys some fancy clothes and hat with a feather in it for the party. The group arrives to find many VIPs they have previously met already at the party. Debi is offered a snack by Slovas, who is disguised as a servant. He winks at her. She lets Mick know that he's there. 

The house is crowded with people. Rivas invites Debi to entertain in the trophy room, where the statuette sits on a stone platform, under glass. She rolls a total of 22 on a performance roll, completely entrancing the crowd with her song and the Moon Lyre. 

As she performs, she sees the statue suddenly disappear from its display case. She sees Slovas looking surprised. Simon casts detect magic, and is aware that a man standing hear him as cast a spell. A servant near the door to the lounge suddenly has the statue in his hands. He throws it to another person who runs out the front door.  Mick and Debi take off after them followed by Larsh. Simon sees the spellcaster turn invisible. He attacks but misses as the other two pursue the thieves, Simon casts Locate Object to track the unique boots the wizard was wearing. He follows the wizard outside, to find that he' dropped invisibility and use Fly to take off. Simon hits him with Guiding Bolt, but he continues flying. 

Simon tracks the spellcaster from the ground using Locate Object after the wizard dips between buildings. 

Meanwhile Mick and Larsh chase the thief with the statue into the sewers. Debit pursues the other and casts Charm Person on him, convincing him to lead her to where the thieves had planned to go to get away. He leads her to the sewer, where she meets Mick and Larsh. The charmed thief reveals that his partner is hidden in a secret hiding behind a secret door, and that just beyond it is large chamber where they'd have been attacked by giant frogs. They open the door and catch the other thief.

Simon follows the wizard into a building. After a brief encounter, the wizard blasts him with Lightning bolt, coming 1 point from killing him. The wizard leaves, not knowing that Simon can heal himself quickly to almost full health calling upon the power of his god, Ahki. Simon then follows the wizard, successfully using stealth, to what may be his lair.

He returns to the group.

End of session. 

Sessions 22, 23, and 24: Lament's Stronghold and The Test

 This will be a quick recap, as it has been a while.

The party arrives at the Great Canyon and finds the triangular obelisk markers of the stairs down to the bottom of the canyon. Debi Hari uses the scroll's incantation to drop the magical force field which previously repelled Mick as he attempted to go through. The party starts down the stairs on the 600 foot decent. 

Halfway down they are attacked by a flock of disgusting, flying, fleshy creature that look like  across between hairless bats and mosquitoes -- stirges. The creature are easy to kill, but with three stirges per party member they do some damage. The party survives and makes it to the bottom.

They find the entrance to the stronghold of Straja Lament. Debi opens it. Inside they find the mummies of an elf in shining chainmail, a barbarian, and a dwarf. When Debi uses Mage Hand to take the elven chainmail and try it on, she gets a nasty electrical shock. They leave it. 

Going up the stairs Mick almost finds a trap, but misses it. As he steps on one of the steps, and iron gate blocks off the exit at the bottom, leaving Jewell and Lorian locked out of the stairwell. Meanwhile in the room above a crystal golem-like construct attacks. They destroy it, and the party manages to figure out the gate mechanism. Debit and Mick use Mage Hands to manipulate the mechanism while the strong characters lift the 600 pound iron gate. The party is reunited.

They explore the stronghold. Simon finds a hollow wall and then a secret door that provides and easy entrance to the interior. 

They explore, finding Lament's old chambers and workshop. They fight the hydra-vine in her garden. They discover the treasure room in which they fight two more of the crystal guardians. Finally they defeat 9 giant crystal spider constructs in the bottom of a pit room.

They leave and return to Langwon. XP 445 each. 

 Returning to Langwon, the PCs are at the Eye of the Beholder. They are lured to an abandoned textile factory by what appears to be Blix Yodarian, Mick's mentor. Mick goes in first by himself and is hit by a crossbow bolt trap in some stairs. Simon and Debi join him. They find themselves in a building that has been filled with deadly traps, which they explore. Finally they open a door and see a beholder in there. Simon cast Sacred Flame but misses. Debi casts Cloud of Daggers. Mick slams the door shut. It is the monster's turn. They hear a giant blast of air inside the room but don't open the door.

A wizardly figure appears behind them, introducing himself as Ty Kindal, who has been studying them. He set this all up to access their prowess as potential adventuring partners, and explains that inside the room was a Gas Spore, not a Beholder, and that they avoided being infected by its explosion when Mick slammed the door.

End of session 23. 200 more XP each.

Session 21: Back to the North

•  The party prepares for a journey back to the north, into the foothills of the Ironclaw Mountains.
• They buy provisions and other supplies
• They meet up with the Slash Sisters and Lorian and begin walking north along the same road they have travelled before
• The have no encounters the first day and rest in Ilwon, before continuing the journey north to Grogo's Stronghold. They rest in the stronghold, which they cleared out of bandits a week before
• The party travels further north, to the village of Garwon, only a few miles from the foothills
• Debi goes into town and speaks to the villagers, who are simple hunters, who agree to let the party rest in the village that night
• Debi and Mick entertain the people, gaining their goodwill
• They meet a hunter named Rothgar who has seen pylons like those the party seeks on the edge of the Great Canyon
• Rothgar agrees to take them there, if they will kill two ogres who killed his brothers a couple of years before. The party agrees
• The next morning they set off, Rothgar leading the way. They travel into the foothills, so the area Rothgar thinks the ogres live
• Debi starts playing her Elf Pipes, and soon attracts the ogres, who attack. Two of them!
• The ogres are slow. They take damage from all the PCs. Debi casts Dissonant Whispers on one, causing him to run away. The party hits him with missle weapons and spells while the other continues to miss his attacks. The party defeats the two very strong ogres without taking damage - great tactics.
• They find the ogre's lair, a cave. Inside is a little treasure and the skeletons of Rothgar's brothers. They give the brothers a proper burial, and spend the night in the cave.

Session 20: the Scroll

 The party begins still at the bandit tower, having killed all the bandits, looted the tower finding some gold, silver, artifacts, and a scroll in a metal cylinder. 

They need to find a way to prove to the villagers in Ilwon that they killed the bandits. They decide to throw the bodies in Mick's portable hole and just take them back to the village. 

They take a short rest and regain some hit points and set off to return to Ilwon.

Day and night 1 or travel are uneventful. They get a long rest. 

Day 2 of travel is uneventful. They arrive back at Ilwon, show the bodies to the villagers, and there is a big impromptu party for them that night. 

They return to Langwon the next day via the north gate. 

They have examined the scroll and found that it has a picture of a cliff face with two triangular pylons in front of it, and in arcane text there there is a spell incantation that will cause some kind of door to open. There is no indication where it is located.

The PCs begin to research the scroll. Simon takes it to the Temple of Ahki and checks in. Bishop Lightman has no idea where it is, but says that in the foothills and the Iron Claw mountains there are lots of weird sites.

Debi goes to the World Library but finds nothing. She is told to come back with the actual scroll and perhaps an old librarian will know something about it.

Mick goes to visit his mentor, Blix Yodarian. They catch up. Blix does not know anything about the described scroll, but says that maybe someone else who has travelled up north would know something. Mick asks him if he thinks the PCs are skilled enough to venture to the Old City. Blix says they are getting close, but at this point should take their friend Lorian, the fighter, and at least two more skilled fighters, as the Old City is very dangerous.

Debi returns to the library with Simon and the scroll. They asked the old librarian to look at the scroll. Before she makes a research roll, Debit uses Bardic Inspiration on her and Simon cast Bless. With the extra buff the librarian easily makes the roll. 

She tells them the pylons look like those said to mark the stronghold of the ancient wizard Straja Lament. She was a wizard who came from the barbarian tribes in the mountains, and is said to have died in battle with rival tribes. The stronghold is supposed to be somewhere in the Great Canyon, which runs hundreds of miles east to west across the foothills. Simon studies some maps of the area to the north. 

The group convenes at the Eye of the Beholder tavern. They decide to put together an expedition to find the stronghold. Lorian agrees to go with him, as do their old allies the Slash Sisters. They discuss what preparations. The 2 PCs retire to their rooms at the Inn of the Eye nextdoor. Simon has the scroll.

Simon awakens in the night to find two thieves in his room, one about to go out his window, the other holding the scroll cylinder. Simon cast Command on the guy with the scroll, but he saves. Simon then blasts him with Sacred Flame. The other thief goes out the third floor window, climbing down. Debi is awakened when Simon casts Guiding Bolt on the guy. She grabs her short sword and find Simon's door open. Mick awakens as well. Debi uses Mage Hand to snatch the scroll from the thief by surprise (using a contest of STR vs her spell attack modifier). Simon is blocking the window. Mick tackles the thief. Simon sees the other running away and jumps from the window, taking 14 points of damage from the fall! He pursues the fleeing thief, casting Sacred Flame repeatedly. 

In Simon's room, the thief stops resisting (with Mick's dagger at his throat). Debi uses a Persuasion vs Wisdom contest, and persuades him to tell them he was hired by Clovis the Hook, a local scumbag known to Mick. He knows nothing else. They let him go.

Simon uses his Jump ring to land in front of the first thief, who gives up. He's tired of getting hit with Sacred Flame. He's tough, but he's a thief and doesn't want to fight. He begs Simon to let him go. Simon makes him promise to do penance and give money to the Temple of Ahki and lets him go.

End of session.
Days passed. 6.
Time elapsed in campaign. 12 weeks.
No XP awarded yet, but will get 100 for roleplaying and 100 for great skill use and clever play, each.