Saturday, February 2, 2013

Session 7

Members


Kilborn Blindshaft - Dwarven Fighter
Solaris - Human Ranger
Lórien - Elf Wizard
Kylaria Delani - Elf Rogue
Marcillus - Human Cleric

The Adventure

As the party awoke from their slumber, they all recanted evil dreams of Iban beckoning them to his side.  Even Kylaria's meditations were disrupted by the taint of Iban's evil mind.

Venturing down the well everyone felt the grip of icy hands all around them, slowly dragging them further into the darkness.  It was very clear that Koftik was losing his battle against insanity.  His constant mutterings and replies to the telepathic messages that kept echoing in his skull were clear indicators that all was not right in his head.  After some encouragement, he turned around and made his way out of the cavern.

Venturing off to the north, the party came across a rope.  After repeated checking for traps or magical auras, Kylaria picked up the 20 ft rope and put it in her pack.  Going back the way she came, she headed west, and came across some rusted prison cells.  Two of the prisoners remained alive, two others, not so fortunate.  On first sighting them, the closest one yelled, "Eating me … they keep eating me! Eating me from the inside. Please stop them! … I can feel them wriggling around inside me right now. … please stop them!"

Past the prisons, the cave was a dead end.  The first prisoner managed to grab Irmo and take a bite.  Relishing the flavor of the non-existent meat he was chewing.  He was also clearly not all there in the head.  He then managed to grapple Kilborn before being knocked out and removed to a different cell.  The other prisoner escaped.

Finding a patch of lose ground, Kilborn began to dig.  He widened and deepened the tunnel that the previous occupant had been working on.  10 ft. in, he found another cave.  Sneaking ahead, Kylaria found a crumbling path of stone passage ways across a 10 ft deep cavern.  Further south, she found a locked door.  A quick pick of the lock, and the party chose the southern route.  They stumbled upon a group of Orchre Jellies.  At first hitting them only seemed to multiply the threat, but as they divided, they got weaker and weaker.  Lórien's Stinking Cloud made the fight end quickly.
On opening the door at the end of the passage, Kylaria's bow got caught and knocked her out as she tried to pass.  In falling her rapier slid out and clattered to the floor.  She came to a few minutes later.

Kylaria again took the lead and noticed some Ankhegs to the northeast.  It appeared that there were only three of the large insect like beasts, but another three crawled out of the shadows to the north.  Spraying acid among the party and biting at everyone.  These mindless creatures were also quickly put down.  In the remains, Marcillus came across a Larmacian Holy Symbol, a rare magic symbol, made of a special alloy first discovered by the priest Larmac.

Heading further into the cavern, the party came across a tunnel leading down and to the west.  It stunk of rotting flesh.  As Kylaria stepped through, she shook off the feeling of despair that infused the cavern, and started her attack.  Marcillus followed and was hit by a feeling of despair so great that he was paralyzed and later hit and cursed with the rotting touch of a mummy.  

Taking out the rearguard with a stinking cloud, Kilborn smashed mummies left and right.  Marcillus was in bad shape after the fight.  The curse prevented him from being healed and he was close to death.  The party chose that time to head out of the cavern and return to town to seek healing in the local temple at the Keep.  A small fee was negotiated, and the party spent the night in the tavern.  Regaining strength and studying up spells for the day, they headed back to the cave.

Venturing further north, Kylaria stumbled and a Succubus moved in to investigate.  She immediately tried to dominate Kylaria.  Kylaria smiled as she thought to herself that the succubus' mind tricks would not work on an elf.  She had wasted her attempt.  Kilborn charged to the front lines and slashed away.  Shedding her attempts at dominating him as well.  Lórien cast Hold Monster with his wand, but she quickly shrugged off the paralysis.  When the end of the battle was in sight, the Succubus fled, drawing an attack from Kilborn, who put her down.

Venturing back to the easternly cave, Kylaria noticed a small subterranean pool with a hydra living in it.  Moving in, the party attacked.  The hydra tried to get at them, but the cave narrowed to 10 ft and she couldn't squeeze through.  The melee was soon joined by a second hydra.  Taking two approaches, they chopped the heads off one and killed the other.  
Lórien's Stinking Cloud did some heavy damage, until one of them slid below the water.  During the fight, Kilborn critically failed, falling just within range of the hydra.  One head hit a critical on Kilborn and he was nearly dead.  He failed his death save, and was cured by the cleric with no HP to spare.  Lórien cast invisibly on Kilborn and all survived the encounter.

At the far end of the cave, across the water was an enchanted cage with a unicorn in it.  The magical barrier prevented anything solid from passing, and there was no visible door or lock.  To the left of the cage was a rattle made of bone.  A black skull was painted on it.  Lórien tried to identify it, but a powerful curse prevented him from figuring out what it was.  Everyone decided to leave it for later.

Venturing further into the cavern, Kylaria found a group of paladins.  They offered their meager rations of cave moss, mushrooms, and vermin meat.  The paladins explained that they had been held there for a long time.  They could not venture further because of a magical enchantment on the sinister well to the west, and the magical barrier that the Succubus had erected to keep them trapped.  Kylaria offered food and water, and the party ventured further in to investigate.

There was an arcane message written on the mouth of the well, "Feed me three crests of the blessed and the creatures remains".  The party determined that they needed the crests of the paladins.  After talking to them, Kylaria decided that they would not part with their crests while alive, and that they were determined to get back to their brotherhood as soon as they left the cave.

The paladins followed to help investigate the unicorn cage, and while there, Kylaria attacked and dropped the first one, and Kilborn damaged the second.  Marcillus chose to remain out of the fight, as he couldn't attack a lawful good paladin.
  
Lórien sent Irmo to the cage to try to grab the rattle.  It instantly killed the bird.  Lórien knew instinctively that the bird was gone and it would be longer than usual before he could bring it back.  Its last dying image was one of a leather bound book hidden by the rattle.  Lórien grabbed it with mage hand, and added it to his loot for the day.

With just seconds left on the sleep spell, the party headed for the exit and back to town.  The leather bound tome radiated arcane knowledge, but Lórien was unable to determine what was written.  After a short rest in the tavern, the party advanced to level six.  Lórien's increased powers allowed him to learn a bit more about the ancient ritual contained in the book.

We will see what secrets are contained on the ancient vellum pages in the next session ...

Loot:

140 gp

Magic Items:

3 Acid Arrows
Larmacian Holy Symbol +1
Scroll of Chill Touch
+1 Ring of Protection
Leather bound ritual tome
Essence of Darkness (6 doses)
2 Scrolls of Remove Curse

XP:

Orchre Jellies: 2040
Ankhegs: 2250
Mummies: 3360
Hydras: 2800
Succubus: 3240
Paladins: 1140
Quest XP: 1520
Total: 16350
Per Person: 3270
Just enough to hit level 6

Total Campaign XP per Person: 9,500

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