Session 9: Mausoleum Battle

The party starts this session where we left off, in the gigantic Longstrider family mausoleum, having just killed a giant spider that attacked them.

Mick, now officially an Arcane Trickster, casts Dancing Lights to provide better illumination in the building. The three adventurers spread out, searching the chamber, looking for anything unusual. As they make their way back, Simon discovers a sarcophagus with a slightly out of place lid. The group gathers around it and Mick moves it. Looking inside they find it empty! No remains!

They continue searching, and Mick hears something outside the doors. The party move into hiding/defensive positions, Debi behind a sarcophogus, Mick stealthing along wall, and Simon readying his boomerang. 

Three zombies come shambling into the chamber and begin moving toward the PCs. Simon hits a zombie with his boomerang, the weapon lodged in the undead cranium. 

We move into combat. Mick throws a dagger and hits. The zombies move toward the PCs. Simon successfully uses turn undead on 3 of them. Debi blasts two with Thunderwave. 

The doors to the mausoleum slam shut! The PCs hear the wooden bar fall into place, locking them in! Someone has trapped them in there with the zombies! 

The battle continues. The PCs use spells and weapons to fell zombies, but are surprised to find that even a "dead" zombie might remain animated! You have to really smite them hard! (5e has Undead Fortitude). 

The PCs take damage, and they find that zombies are easy to hit but hard to kill. After 7 rounds of combat they manage to kill the zombies. They notice that none of the zombies look like they have been dead for very long. They also notice that zombies clothing isn't very old, and that they all look like they were big beefy young men. Sounds like six of the nine missing people have been found. 

The PCs go to the door. There is not enough room to stick a dagger through to raise the bar on the door, but they can see it through the small gap. Mick tries to raise it using Mage Hand, but can't. Then he and Debi both cast Mage Hand and team up, managing to raise it and open the door. The lock had fallen apart then they picked it last session.

They group explores the overgrown graveyard to the east of the building, finding nothing. Simon returns to the building while Debi and Mick us stealth along the tree line to see if anyone follows him, but nothing happens. The rejoin him. They search the zombies bodies, and find that one of them is still wearing a silver ring.

They leave the graveyard and go get some rest, agreeing to meet again with Mayor Wartis the next day.

End of session. 
Same day.
Waiting until end of adventure to give XP.

Session 8: Gravetown

 The PCs start where they left off. They have retrieved the ritual book of the Sethi cult. However, it's the middle of the night. Knowing that Rivas may have people looking for them, they go to the house of Mick's mentor, Blix Yodarian. 

Blix lets them stay the night and talks with them. He advises Mick to associate with solid people and be trustworthy with them. He also tells him that he'll begin training him in magic use.

The next day they return to the Temple of Ahki and join the real Abbot Lightman in locking the ritual book in the temple's vault. The Abbot tell's Simon that he will teach him new prayers and mediations to deepen his relationship with Ahki and allow him to draw on more of her power.

Debi is summoned to the shop of Raxalliah the Merchant, who gives her the Book of the Loremaster. He tells her to spend a month studying it, and it will give her insight into psychology, storytelling, and other bard skills. 

The PCs each spend a month in study (after which they gain their 3rd level abilities). During that month, Debi encounters Rivas while she is performing at the Eye of the Beholder. Rivas simply applauds her, and gives her a respectful nod. No apparent animosity for their recent conflicts. 

After that month goes by, Mick encounters the thief Slovas at the Eye. Slovas tells him of a rumor that the residents of the neighborhood known as Gravetown are having trouble with some entity who's come up from the Under-City. Gravetown is an area where once the rich of Langwon resided. It borders a massive graveyard (thus the name) where those rich and noble were buried. Now it is a downtrodden area. Debi and Simon show up and Mick tells them of the rumor. They decide to investigate. Debi confirms the rumor with Vern, the bartender. 

The PCs go to Gravetown and find the streets unusually empty. They are directed by a few drunks still on the street to the Bard's Flute pub. There they find a public meeting taking place. A man in fine clothing is on the band stage, flanked by two fighters. The place is crowded with residents who are yelling "What are you going to do about this?" and likewise. The place is about to erupt into violence. Mick cries out that he and his friends can help! The crowd turns, looks at the three, and one man says "What can you do?" Deb jumps up on stage and begins to speak to the crowd, rolling a very high Persuasion roll, and calming the people. She learns that the man on stage is named Wartis. Mick amazes the crowd with some minor magic, and Debi lets them speak. The PCs learn that a number of young men in the neighborhood have disappeared, and the Wartis (the mayor) is unwilling to call the City Guard in to put things right. Wartis explains that it would cause fear and destroy the economy of the neighborhood, and that they can handle it themselves. Debi and the other two agree to help them, the crowd disperses, and they PCs join Wartis in a meeting in his office.

Wartis expresses skepticism that anything is actually wrong, blaming the superstitious nature of the peasants, of whom he speaks with some derision. He agrees to hire the PCs to investigate the matter. He'll pay them each 20 gp if they will report back tomorrow with their findings. They agree and leave.

They are summoned to a home by a woman they call Three-Teeth, who they met in the meeting. She tells them that Wartis is a coward, and that one night she saw two "living dead" knock out a young man and carry him toward the graveyard.

It is the middle of the night. Mick uses Disguise Self to make him appear like a young muscular man to make himself a target. They go to the foundry area, across from the graveyard. No one attacks Mick, but Debi sees a humanoid figure through the fog beyond the gate to the graveyard. 

Mick picks the lock to the gate. They enter the graveyard, discovering a region about 200 feet in where the vegetation is dead, in the center their is a large mausoleum.  They move toward it and see a humanoid figure lurking around. 

They find the front door of the building locked. Mick picks the lock. The building is stone, 15' tall, with an overhang on front. There is a dome on top, with multicolored glass panes, some of which are broken. They hear something inside crash. Opening the door, they see in the filtered moonlight many sarcophagi. Mick enters the building and casts dancing lights to light it all up. When he casts the spell, a giant spider that was hidden in the dome hits him with web, restraining him.

Mick makes a STR check and breaks free. The spider is hanging from the side of the dome. Debit cases Cloud of Daggers, dealing damage to the monster. Simon casts Sacred Flame, hitting the monster. It drops down and attacks, biting Simon, who saves vs poison. The PCs use weapons to kill the monster before it can gain attack.

End of session. 
Time elapsed this session. 32 days.
Time elapsed in campaign: 6 weeks, 3 days

GM Notes: How's It Going

We've now played seven sessions of this campaign. Running a campaign that isn't a simple dungeon crawl every week is challenging but the payoff is nice. Having players that are into that kind of thing is even better. 

In this past session, an evil wizard used the Alter Self spell to impersonate the Abbot of the Temple of Ahki, the home temple of one of the PCs. In the old days (back in highschool) there was never really a good use for spells like that, as the situations never called for it. We were always just fighting. The players have had chances to use disguise, deception, performance, etc. 

There are things that happen in the game that the players are unaware of. I put clues in, and there are ways they could discover some of the hidden aspects, but I'm not leading them there. My thinking is that the bad guys are smart too, and have their goals.

In this last session, the evil wizard attacked the PCs with Stinking Cloud to incapacitate them without potentially damaging the ritual book that was in the room with them. He used Mage Hand to retrieve it while they were barfing and took off. It was a good plan, but amazingly on the next round the PCs all made their very hard saving throws and recovered, and were able to pursue before he got away. His plan was to get away with the book, not fight. But the dice had their own ideas and for the next two rounds the players had good luck and defeated him. Could he have still run? Sure, but he wanted and needed that book, and was trying to retrieve it.  Things just didn't go his way.  Had fewer of the PCs recovered from Stinking Cloud that first combat round he'd have gotten away easily. 

Session 7: Heist

We start where we left of, the party still standing in the ritual chamber deep under Demonheads Brewery. 

They PCs ask the one captive who has given up if they should expect more trouble on the way out. He says yes, there are guard where they entered, and probably more on the way. 

The party returns to the upper level of the temple. Mick climbs up the previously discovered ladder leading up one of the two ventilation pipes to the surface. Near the top he comes to the iron grate. With a coin with the light cantrip held between his teeth, he attempts to pick the lock on the grate, but fails. 

He goes back down. After conferring with the others, he follows Debi back up the ladder and assists her, with her darkvision, and she picks the lock. Debi stands up inside the massive metal demonhead statue in front of the brewery and tell the others to come up. Debi sees that the mouth in hinged, and there is a lever. She pulls the lever, and the mouth opens with a clang, allowing her to exit.  Mick follows her and hides in an alley across the street. A guard comes around to check on the clanging sound. Debi casts Charm Person on him, but it fails. He's trying to figure out how she is. Simon climbs out of the tunnel and misses him with Sacred Flame. Mick shoots him with an arrow and takes him out. The rest of the party exits the tunnel and they take off through the alleys. The Slash Sisters escort the captive to the city gates and tell him to scram.  The PCs take the ritual book back to the Temple of Ahki.

They get back to the temple the sun rises, and find Abbot Lightman talking to another priest. He sends the other priest away, and greets the three PCs. They tell him what they found, that apparently Rivas Greel is involved in the cult, that the priestess is dead, and they show him the ritual book. He thanks them, says he'll take care of the book, says they should get some rest and to come back once they have rested and he will reward them. They leave the book with him and agree on a meeting time.

When they come back, Lightman comes out and says "So, you're back! What did you find?" Confused, the PCs explain that they saw him last night, that he as speaking with Brother Michael when they arrived, and they gave him the book. Michael confirms this. It is clear that someone was INSIDE the temple, someone impersonated Abbot Lightman down to the correct voice, and they had given the book away!

Lightman is not angry. They have all been fooled. Lightman thinks they are on the right track and tells them they should continue their investigation. They go to the Eye of the Beholder tavern to plan.

They assume Rivas now knows who they are, but they know where he lives, and Mick has a third-floor flat next to his estate. They go there to spy. 

That night, after Rivas and Larsh leave for a night of drinking, the Debi and Mick climb to the roof. They see the goblin worg-keeper/gateman, as he closes the gate behind Rivas. Debi casts sleep, knocking him out. Mick and Debi easily scale the fence after Simon uses Thaumaturgy to create a ruckus far from the gate to distract the worgs. It works. Mick and Debi quickly let him in, and they quickly drag the goblin inside the house, binding and gagging him before he can wake. 

They explore the first floor, finding nothing of interest. On the 2nd floor they find the library, where Rivas has many works of occult art, books, scrolls, etc. They see the book they gave away -- the Ritual Book of Sethi. As they search the room, a door opens and they see a large man in black robes in the doorway. He casts stinking cloud, sickening all three, then uses Mage Hand to grab the book and run down the hall. The three PCs all make their saving throw on the next round, and follow him. He is nearly at the top of the spiral staircase to the third floor when Debi blasts him with Thunderwave, hitting him hard. He drops the ritual book on the stairs.  Simon hits him with Guiding Bolt, doing massive damage. Mick dashes up the steps, grabs the book, and using his quick retreat bonus action to come back down.  The wizard casts Magic Missile, hitting Debi and Simon each with two missiles. Simon runs up the steps and misses with his mace. Debi hits with Dissonant Whispers,  and from below, Mick hits the wizard with his short bow, killing him. He falls down the steps at Debi's feet. 

They loot his body, finding some gold and gems as well as magic bracers. Mick searches the hallway for secret doors. He finds the Wizards workshop as well as a hidden compartment with a ladder leading to the third floor and down to the basement. They check the rest of the house, including the third floor which is Rivas' quarters. They find his notes about his journey to the Old City and numerous old texts. as well as four magic scrolls. Simon and Debi go to the basement, where Simon finds a tunnel leading to another ladder, which leads up to the locked shed across the alley, outside the ways. The PCs use that to exit the compound. 

End of session.
Great use of spells, skills, stealth, planning, and roleplaying. Smart play.
2 days elapsed. 
Total game time passed. 2 weeks 2 days.
XP for this session: 125
All PC can now to go 3rd level, where they will likely be for some time.

Session 6: the Cult Returns

 The group starts where we left off.

They leave Karloff the Alchemist's tomb and house. It is now daytime. They return to the site of Raxalliah's shop to find it, unsurprisingly, not there. They make plans to return that next night to talk to Rax, and each go their separate ways to rest. The each take some of the things they have found. Needing only a small amount of sleep, Debi reads the journal of Karloff's journey into the Fae realm, written in Sylvan. In matters of Fae lore, she will now get a +1 to her rolls. 

They meet up again that next foggy night to find Rax's shop once more accessible. They hear singing coming from the fog-shrouded door. Entering, as usual, Magpie is singing for Rax. The shop looks different than it did the previous night, with things moved around and different inventory, as if more than one night has passed. They great them after the song and talk about what they have found. They give them the journal, and Rax inquires of each what they experienced. They show Rax the Manual of Flesh Gollum construction, and Rax tells them it is too dangerous for them to keep. They agree to have it locked in the vault at the Temple of Ahki. Rax and Magpie sing a song together about an extra-planar conflict. Debi thinks Rax may in fact be a bard. Rax bids them fairwell, telling they will likely reappear in the future, and expresses and interest in the career or the bard, Debi, who has inquired if there is a finer lyre in the shop she might purchase. Rax says no, but they will keep an eye out.

A week passes, with each PC going about their business. Debi reads the book she found about the Elf-Dwarf War. Simon studies. Mick continues working to learn some magic, and uses his new flat to spy on Revis Greel's estate next door from the roof of the 3-floor building. He sees Revis and his bodyguard Larsh leave nightly, sees the goblin worg-keeper and gate-keeper letting in the help. 

Toward the end of the week, Abbot Lightman gives Simon a new mission. He is impressed by Simon and his friend's skill, and charges Simon with figuring out what is happening with the Sethi cult. The priests they captured has been in custody for two weeks and is ready to talk. The Abbot tells Simon to get his friends together and get to work. He gives Simon 50 gp with which to hire "muscle" if they need it. 

Simon and the others convene at the Eye of the Beholder tavern. Debi asks Vern the bartender if he knows any good muscle and he refers her to tavern regulars, the Slash Sisters. Once Debi hears a description she recalls the two tough looking women they have seen there before. Mick procures a fake ruby, to show the priestess should she want to see it (she has indicated it is important).

They meet the Slash Sister, Jewell Kestrel (carries a great sword) and Greta Strongbow (carries a longsword and short bow). They agree to a price of working with the PCs.

The PCs interrogate the priestess, trying a charm spell (which fails) and various social skills. She is ready to get out, and if they take her to the secret temple they found under Demonheads Brewery she'll show them the purpose the cursed ruby they brought back from their first exploration. 

The Slash Sisters and the PCs meet again later at the Temple of Ahki, and from there return to the entrance to the secret Temple of Sethi. They make their way through the known parts of the complex without incident. In the small room where they fought the slime snake, the priestess find a secret door they had missed. They all back up, and Debi uses Mage Hand to trigger it.

Beyond it they find stairs leading even further down. Mick checks for traps as they proceed down, Simon's mace emitting light from the Light cantrip he has cast on it. 

They explore, finding a massive coliseum style room. The floor is 10' down. A ramp in front of them leads down. The ceiling is 30', with four massive support columns. On the floor is a 10' tall circular platform with stairs leading up. There is a similar one as well, square in shape. There is also a pit 15' across bordered by a 5' wide obsidian ring. There is a mechanism hanging from the ceiling - a boom that hangs currently over the pit, from which hangs a heavy chain with a massive, nasty hook on the end. On the square platform is a big book. Mick examines it, and sees it has the same kind of script that is on the hilt of his magic dagger. Some kind of ritual book. 

Most of the group goes down the ramp, while Simon begins ritual casting Detect Magic. As they explore, Debi looks into the pit, which awakens a something down there. She backs off about 15' as 4 massive tentacles begin flailing up and around the pit, blindly try to grasp anything. She fires her crossbow and hits it, as Greta hits a tentacle with an arrow. The priestess laughs. Everyone's attention but Simon's is drawn by the monster, as a crossbow bolt hits Simon in the back ruining his ritual cast. Six armored thugs have followed them down and are now attacking.  Simons cast bless on himself and the Slash Sisters. Debi uses Bardic Inspiration no Simon. The PCs exchange ranged attacks with them as Jewell charges up the ramp nearly cutting one of the thugs in two with her great sword. More ranged attacks. (the thugs make TERRIBLE attack rolls). The last two thugs surrender.

Simon attempts to intimidate them into telling who they are working for while the Slash Sisters keep the priestess under control. They are more afraid of their leader. They have Jewell toss one of them in the monster pit, which loosens the other guy's tongue. He shows them a card - about the size of playing card - with a wolf face on it. Apparently they are connected in some way to Rivas Greel. They agree to let him go if he leaves town, but he is afraid the priestess will squeal on him. He begs them to kill her. As they discuss what to do with her, the thug breaks free of Jewell (rolls a natural 20) and slams into the priestess, sending her falling into the monster pit. The screams are incredible.  Problem solved! 

Simon casts detect magic. They find no other magic around. Thye take the ritual book, pay the Slash Sister the rest of that they agreed to. The sisters are quite happy, having made some money and had some fun. 

Before leaving, Simon casts his Sacred Flame on the creature in the pit until it is dead. 

End of session. The group is still in the complex. 

7 days have passed.
Elapsed time in game: 2 weeks
XP for PCs: 110 each
XP for Slash Sisters: 60 each