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Post by Daos on Mar 6, 2022 22:37:11 GMT -8
Possible, but I somehow doubt you'll remember to.
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Post by Daos on Mar 7, 2022 14:03:47 GMT -8
XP time: Acquiring the Whispcap Powder - 25 XP Scaring off Na'Krasha - 1,700 XP Defeating one guard - 50 XP Freeing Clover - 25 XP Freeing and Recruiting Nemeia - 480 XP Realizing the summoning circle was flawed - 25 XP Capturing the pixies - 25 XP TOTAL: 2,330 XP That puts Zinnia at 5,981 XP total, which means she needs 519 more XP to level up. Don't forget to update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Mar 13, 2022 14:45:03 GMT -8
Wyld Times at Affburgh
Session 03 - No More Room in Hell We picked up right where we left off, with the party in the library, being filled in on Barbed Devils by Vicavor. They knew it was somewhere in the library, so the three of them decided to search for it. This search was done with a skill challenge; five skill checks, with the party having to pass at least 3 to succeed. First, they made an investigation check to get started. Then they found a bookshelf that was on fire, and Zinnia used Ray of Frost to put it out. Then they ran afoul a nosy librarian, and Zinnia outright told her the library had been on fire to send her away. Then they came across a fallen shelf, which they had to move out of the way to proceed. Then they put the fallen shelf back in place to stop anyone from following them into a bottleneck where the devil had holed up. All in all, she passed 2 and failed 3, which wasn't great.
Anyway, the barbed devil was holed up in a dusty room with just one entrance, lined with boxes of old student attendance records. The devil had already summoned three dretches, and they all attacked at once.
Things didn't go well. Vicavor tried to hold them all in place with a Web spell, but they kept making their saves and Vicavor lost his concentration after an attack. He instead focused on defense, keeping Protection from Evil up on Zinnia while maintaining an Arcane Ward on himself. Zinnia focused on spells that require CON saves on the barbed devil, but it gets a +7 to CON saves so it kept passing. They managed to take out one of the dretches, but then Nemeia and Vicavor went down, and Zinnia was very low on HP. It was at this point the headmistress burst in, and easily banished the remaining fiends, before demanding to know what was going on.
After the fallen were revived, the whole group was dragged to her office and chewed out. Zinnia claimed it was her fault, that she convinced Vicavor to let her try out a summoning spell and she accidentally summoned a devil. But this still made Vicavor responsible, as far as she was concerned, and apparently this wasn't his first big screw up, so she expelled him. With nowhere to go now, Zinnia offered to let him join the party. They returned to her place to rest for the night.
The following day, since Vicavor knew nothing about Zinnia's mother being missing, they decided to try the temple and search for Kelra. Upon arriving at the Temple of Koralle, they meet with Kelra's father. He explains she is not currently there. Shortly after taking her rites and becoming a cleric, she volunteered to be assigned on the frontline to help the soldiers in the war against the goblins. This surprises Zinnia--she thought that war was over. But it turns out tensions have heated up again lately, and there have been several border skirmishes in the past few months.
Zinnia wasn't thrilled to return to the site of her first spellcasting surge, but there was little choice. They headed out of the city toward a small triage field hospital camp in a swampy region. They find Kelra there, who doesn't recognize Zinnia at first because she has her hood up, as usual. Suddenly, a pair of zombies show up and the party easily dispatches them. Kelra thanks the party, explaining that this has been going on for about a week now.
Kelra explains that random lost patients were returning to life, attacking other patients and healers alike. They started burning their dead as a result, but there was always a risk in the time between death and cremation that one would return, and they didn't have the manpower or the fuel to keep up with all the dead coming in. The captain, a man named Lassan, refuses to withdraw from the region, although Kelra thinks it would be a good idea. He is offering 1500 GP to anyone who can solve the problem, though.
Zinnia speaks with the captain, but he doesn't know anything, so she returns to Kelra. Kelra explains she has a theory--there's a rumor of cultists in the nearby hills who are responsible. She heard the rumor from one of her patients, Gregor. Gregor is a soldier recovering from a bad sword cut to the thigh. He explains that he heard the rumor from another healer, a man with cool hands and blue eyes. Apparently this healer has run afoul of these cultists in the past, and liked Kelra, he believed they should withdraw from the area.
So the party returned to Kelra and described the man. She knew who they meant--a man named Dormal. She agrees to take the party to see him, but strangely, they find him missing from his post. Investigating, Zinnia deduces that he went toward the big tent where they store corpses (under guard now; only healers may enter) until they can be cremated. Kelra signals the guards to let the party inside.
However, before they can go in, they hear strange chanting coming from inside the tent. Two zombies emerge and tear the guards apart. The party easily dispatches them, then hurries inside. They see a man with blue eyes animating a spectre from the corpses, then try to flee by using his dagger to cut a hole into the tent wall. Nemeia hurries and engages him, while Zinnia and Vicavor deal with the spectre. Fortunately, Protection from Evil and Arcane Ward protect them, but Nemeia has no protection and falls to Vampiric Touch and Blight, allowing the necromancer to flee. By the time the spectre is dealt with, he is long gone, and Zinnia focuses on helping Nemeia over chasing him.
Once it's all said and done, Kelra thanks them for their help. But since the necromancer fled, they never learned what he was up to or who he really was. Captain Lassan reluctantly, and with much grumbling, pays up and then decides to withdraw anyway. This leaves Kelra free to join the party. However, like the others, she doesn't know what happened to Zinnia's mother. They all return to Zinnia's house to retire for the night.
Notes I've never done a skill challenge before, and that was interesting. I would propose a problem, and just allow Horizon to come up with a solution and decide on a proper roll for it. Sometimes she surprised me. For instance, with the burning shelf, I thought for sure she would use her Decanter of Endless Water. Instead, she used an ice cantrip. Anyway, the more checks she passed, the fewer dretches would have already been summoned when they caught up to the barbed devil. If she had passed them all, there would have been none. But she failed most of them, so there were already three of them.
Vicavor has now joined the party. He's a level 4 Abjurer with the Observant feat, and a half-elf like Zinnia. I figured since Zinnia was already a blaster type, there was no need for another one, and decided to have him focus on defense and utility spells.
The party never went to the hills to check, but if it isn't obvious by now, there were no cultists hidden there, so they wouldn't have found any evidence of them there.
The story behind the necromancer is he actually killed the real Dormal and took his place. But why he did it, is left in the air. Perhaps the party will encounter him again some day.
Kelra joins the party. She's a level 4 Grave Cleric with the Healer and Keen Mind feats. Looking over her abilities, Horizon agreed that she will prove very useful against Kyristan. And I wanted to do something different than yet another Life Cleric.
Well, that's three of the four possible party members to recruit. I'll do XP tomorrow, and we'll continue the adventure next week. Stay tuned.
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Post by Daos on Mar 14, 2022 8:21:13 GMT -8
XP time: Defeating 1 dretch - 16 XP Recruiting Vicavor - 195 XP Defeating 4 zombies - 66 XP Defeating 1 spectre - 66 XP Recruiting Kelra - 270 XP TOTAL: 613 XP That puts Zinnia at 6,594 XP total, which means puts her at level 5. Don't forget to level up and update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Mar 20, 2022 14:13:25 GMT -8
We had our session last night, but I had a bit of a late start today, so I don't have time to write up the summary. I'll do that tomorrow.
I will say, for anyone who is interested, that Horizon chose Fireball for Zinnia's first 3rd level spell. She hasn't debuted it just yet, but I'm sure it will be spectacular when the day comes.
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Post by Daos on Mar 21, 2022 14:55:50 GMT -8
Wyld Times at Affburgh
Session 04 - Draconic Infestation We picked up the following morning. The party headed for the barracks in hopes of finding and speaking to Raiann, the last of Zinnia's old friends who might know where her mother is. The town guards use an old keep as their headquarters, and the party finds it locked down with two beleaguered guards trying to disperse a crowd of locals. Zinnia approaches and asks for entrance, but is told no one is allowed inside. She reveals she is the Hero of Affburgh, and one of the guards convinces the other that she could probably be of help. They pull the party aside and explain that something wild is going on inside. Guards started acting strangely, then attacking each other. There were reports of large black beasts roaming around inside the keep. These two were assigned front gate duty and they didn't know what else to do, so shut down the gate. The knights have been summoned, but there's no telling how long it will take them to arrive. But if the Hero of Affburgh could clean this mess up, they'll be happy to let her in.
Zinnia agrees and they let the party inside the courtyard, closing the gate behind them. The courtyard is eerily empty, but there are several hastily set up palisades, some of which appear damaged from something corrosive. Zinnia decides to check the mess hall first, which is quite a mess, indeed. Tables and chairs are overturned, and she hears something eating noisily behind one of the tables. She tries to sneak up on it, but whatever it is hears her and leaps out of cover--it's a black drake. Zinnia, Kelra and Vicavor start throwing all of their spells at it, but the drake dies within the second round. The party can't figure out why it would be here, though.
They move on to the next room, which appears to be a shrine dedicated to Koralle. There are two drakes tearing up the place, and the party unloads a lot of spells on them, killing them easily.
They move on to a small library. They find a single book laying open on a table, out of place from the rest that are neatly arranged on shelves. The book is on local monster ecology, and the page it is on is about a great black dragon in the swamplands to the south named Vespera. From there, the party finds a small study. There's a dead guard near a locked door to the south. Investigating it, Zinnia realizes he died from massive claw marks to the chest (larger than the drake's) and notes there are acid burns on his back. What's more, it appears that he died locking the door. Despite this, Zinnia has Nemeia pick it. Opening it up reveals a massive and very dark audience chamber. Having second thoughts about entering, Zinnia decides to close the door and not enter. She brings up that Raiann was dragon-touched, specifically black dragon-touched, and wondered if she had something to do with all of this.
(On Amtar, there is a rare phenomenon known as dragon-touched, where a person is infused with a fragment of a dragon's soul. Sometimes this is done intentionally, and sometimes--as is Raiann's case--it happens by accident at birth, especially when a dragon nearby dies at around the same time. With 5E, I just updated this to use the Dragonborn race.)
Nemeia mentions that Raiann's condition has increased recently; whereas before she had a few black scale patches on her skin and a pair of small horns on her head, she recently acquired small black wings, as well.
The party heads up to the second floor and finds the captain's personal quarters. Inside is not the captain of the guard, but a black dragon! Well, to be precise, it's a black dragon wyrmling. But still! The party quickly kills it (largely thanks to Zinnia having a wild surge that allowed her to attack twice in the same round), but feel weird about slaughtering a child. They also wonder what a wyrmling was doing in the keep. They take a short rest, then head out onto the north wall, where they can see the courtyard from above (it's still deserted). They move on to the northwestern tower, where they find an officer's quarters, where someone is snoring loudly in the bed. Zinnia pulls down the covers and finds an annoyed and bleary-eyed black drake. The party quickly dispatches it.
Heading south onto the west wall, they find a break room (unoccupied) and from there another room that is locked. Nemeia picks it, and as soon as Zinnia opens the door, she's attacked by a guard. She manages to convince the guard she isn't an enemy. There are three guards here, Gil, Terra and Sonya. They locked themselves in the tower when things went awry. They don't know what happened but try to recount what they do know. They had been assigned to the south wall when they heard yelling around the keep. They spotted some black creatures running in the courtyard, and witnessed a big commotion at the audience hall (lots of guards fleeing and trying to lock it up). They were then attacked by some other guards and had to fall back to the tower. Zinnia asks them about Raiann, but they aren't sure where she is. She was assigned to the east wall, though.
Zinnia decides to leave the guards be, and heads downstairs back to the first floor. This brings her to the barracks for the common guards; filled with bunkbeds and such. She finds two guards fighting two other guards, so engrossed that neither team notices her yet. She stops and asks the party their thoughts on how they could stop the guards from fighting without killing them. While they were talking, one of the guards gets killed. So the party jumps in. However, their rolls suddenly all drop to single digits, and they can't seem to hit anyone. Two guards have teamed up against the third one, and they kill her, before turning to the party. Eventually, the party is able to knock them both out.
Notes Our first dungeon crawl of this adventure. Originally, all four quests were going to be dungeon crawls, but then I realized that would create a lot of extra work for me and be pretty redundant, so I changed the others, but kept this one intact.
At one point I actually felt the need to step in and warn Horizon that maybe she doesn't want to blow the party's entire spell selection in the first few battles. There were several instances where she'd knock an enemy down to single digit HP then start having the party throw up buff spells (Protection from Evil, Bless, etc.) only for the enemy to die before it's next turn, which would render those spells completely wasted. I think she was accustomed to the previous quests, where there was only one or two fights, but they were really tough; but this is a dungeon crawl, so it's multiple fights that are mostly weak, save for a boss or two.
Had Zinnia said a little prayer at the shrine after saving it, the entire party would have regained 1d8 HP on the spot.
Gil, Terra and Sonya could have joined the party temporarily, had Horizon tried to do this quest first, as she would have had no party members by that point.
I'll get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Mar 22, 2022 13:13:53 GMT -8
XP time: Defeating Black Drakes (x3) - 100 XP Defeating Black Wyrmling - 112 XP Defeating Crazed Guards (x2) - 12 XP
TOTAL: 224 XP That puts Zinnia at 6,818 XP total, which means she needs another 7,182 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on Apr 24, 2022 12:14:51 GMT -8
Wyld Times at AffburghIt's been awhile. This session was actually a long time ago, but then there was that whole mess with my apartment and then Horizon got sick, so we haven't had a session since then. But hopefully next week will be good, so I want to get this up while I still remember something about it.
Session 05 - Rescuing RaiannWe picked up where we left off, with the charmed guards defeated. Zinnia has them tied up, and the party continues to the east wall. However, upon arriving, they see no sign of Raiann. Unsure of what else to do, Zinnia leads the group to the locked up audience hall. It remains pitch black inside, as they enter from the second floor, so they are all on a large balcony overseeing the room. It's there they discover a very young black dragon. A fight breaks out, and Zinnia has the party scatter a bit, but it's hard as there is limited room to move up there. Eventually, though, they are victorious and take the creature down. After taking another short rest in a room with a dead dragon, she leads the group into the basement (after being reminded it existed). Down below is the dungeon, where several guards are locked up by charmed guards. When the charmed guards attack, Zinnia immediately surrenders, allowing the entire party to have their weapons taken and locked up, as well. Speaking through the bars to the other locked up guards, she learns that there is an old mage lab down here, as the entire fortress used to belong to a wizard a long time ago. People have been taking prisoners within the room, and when they return, they are charmed. And now the party's turn will be soon. Zinnia uses a patch on her Robe of Useful Items to create a window in her cell, which she uses to crawl into the guard's room, where all of their belongings are. However, there are also guards there, and a fight quickly breaks out. Zinnia falls, yet again. When she comes to, the guards she worked so hard to avoid hurting were all dead, and one of her hands was now completely skeletal. She gathers up their equipment, frees her companions and the locked up guards, and fights the remaining charmed guards to reach the wizard's lab. Inside, they find a magic circle and some kind of portal leading to what appears to be a marsh or swamp. Raiann is there, but she doesn't seem to recognize Zinnia or anyone else, and only speaks of 'embracing the darkness.' When Zinnia refuses, a dark and deep voice from within the portal speaks, saying all intruders must be slain. This causes Raiann to attack. Zinnia finally gets to use her new Fireball spell, which is used to blow up the portal. This does not end the charm, but it does seem to weaken Raiann, and the party is able to knock her out. Zinnia has Vicavor look over the magic circle. He claims it's the most complicated and advanced one he's ever seen. It not only allows one to open a two-way portal, but also any spells cast through the portal are greatly enhanced. Shortly after, Raiann wakes up, dazed and confused. At this point, a contingent of Swadian Knights arrive on the scene, a bit too late. Once everything has been cleared up, and control of the barracks resumed, the captain of the guard dismisses Raiann. Although it's decided she didn't do any of this on purpose, and so no charges will be brought up against her, there's always a chance it could happen again, so better safe than sorry. Zinnia is more than happy to recruit Raiann into her group, however. Once back at Zinnia's house, Raiann reveals she recently had contact with Zinnia's mother. There was a police report a couple of weeks ago, where apparently some strange men in black cloaks were harassing Arabella, and of all people, Xanros was helping protect her. Xanros was an ex of Zinnia's, a swashbuckling elf and something of a bad boy, that Arabella never approved of. In any case, Raiann reasons that if she can find Xanros, he might know more. There's just one problem. Xanros was last seen in the employ of a local criminal lord in the city. That's right, Augury. Zinnia laments having to deal with her again, but sees no other choice. NotesI wasn't sure if a young black dragon would be too much for a party of this level, so I found some homebrewed rules for a 'very' young one instead. It was probably for the best, because even the very young one proved quite a challenge. I was pretty skeptical when Zinnia just surrendered to the charm guards, especially when it became clear she didn't really have a plan in mind to escape and was just winging it. But she managed to pull it off. In any case, the full party has now been built. Raiann is a Black Dragonborn Eldritch Knight. This means that Nemeia is the only party member who is not also a spellcaster; that's 5E for you. Now that the party is built, Zinnia can focus on the mystery of what happened to her mother. A mystery that seems to deepen with each clue she learns. I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by Daos on Apr 25, 2022 11:57:04 GMT -8
Session XP: Defeating Very Young Black Dragon - 450 XP Defeating Charmed Guards (x3) - 18 XP Defeating Raiann - 12 XP Recruiting Raiann - 272 XP Learning about her mother and Xanros - 100 XP TOTAL: 852 XP That puts Zinnia at 7,670 XP total, which means she needs another 6,330 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream .
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Post by Daos on May 1, 2022 23:18:34 GMT -8
Wyld Times at AffburghNot sure if anyone else is still reading this or not, but it's helpful to have a place to reference it, so I'll keep at it.
Session 06 - Deliveries for EvilThe following day, the party wakes up and has a quick meal before heading to the slums. Zinnia does the same deal as before when meeting with Augury; going into the dive bar, requesting a meeting, and then being given directions to a seemingly abandoned seedy warehouse which turns out to secretly house a nice looking office. Upon meeting with the tiefling crime lord, Zinnia explains she is looking for Xanros. Augury notes that Zinnia now has a full party, and mentions she could use some muscle for a small job. If Zinnia agrees, she'll help her out. Seeing no other choice, Zinnia accepts. Augury explains that a wagon was delivering some precious and valuable cargo to her, but it was ambushed by bandits en route. Only one of her guards survived the attack, a Tabaxi named Tracks In The Dust. The cargo, which Augury is rather cagey about, is rather perishable and she wants it back as soon as possible. It's also large and bulky, so she's hopeful the bandits haven't made it too far yet. She sends Tracks with them to take them to the site of the ambush. She also sends her skeletal raven, Marrow, with them which will allow them to communicate with Augury if anything comes up. The party sets out, leaving the city, with Tracks leading the way. He's gruff and taciturn. Nemeia tries to engage him in conversation, though, and learns that there were 8 bandits, but the guards killed four of them, so only four remain. He claims to have no idea what the cargo is. He also says the bandits sneaked up on them from behind, which is how they were caught unawares. The party comes to a large pothole in the road, which Tracks points out to them. It's easy to walk around it on foot, but on a wagon or on horseback, it could be rather dangerous. This road is rarely used, which is why it's popular with smugglers, but as a result, it sees no maintenance at all. Tracks notes that the wagon hit that pothole and he was worried the cargo would crack. He didn't see it coming, because he was in the rear, watching their backs. Zinnia doesn't notice anything amiss at this point, but Vicavor notes the contradictions in the tabaxi's story. If he didn't know what the cargo was, why was he worried it would crack? If he was in the back, watching the rear, how did the bandits sneak up behind them? Vicavor relays this to Zinnia, who presses Tracks on the matter. He grows increasingly nervous and tries to backpedal a bit. Zinnia actually deduces he is leading them into an ambush, but does not actually do anything about it and continues following him anyway. When they reach the site of the ambush, three bandits jump out and shoot at the party with crossbows. Tracks draws his blades and joins them. The fight is fairly tough, but nobody goes down (but comes close). Once two of the bandits are down, Tracks withdraws. He jumps on a nearby horse (which is carrying a large item wrapped in blankets) and rides off. Once the final bandit is dispatched, Marrow starts to speak with Augury's voice, requesting a report. Zinnia is honest, telling her that Tracks betrayed her and ran off with the cargo. Augury offers to double their reward if they bring him back alive. With that, the party grabs the other bandits' horses and ride after him. Raiann takes the lead, but she loses the trail and Zinnia has to take over and find it again. The party manages to track him down easily enough, as his horse is weighed down with the cargo. Zinnia knocks him from his horse with some magic missiles, and then a fight breaks out again. Without his support (and being already wounded), he goes down easily enough, but Raiann manages to knock him out instead of kill him. They find some rope among the bandits' horses saddlepacks, and tie him up. When he comes to, he tells them that the cargo is a wyvern's egg. He begs and pleads for the party to make some kind of deal with him. Zinnia feels bad, knowing what Augury might do to him, but at the same time, this is the only lead she has to find her mother, and nothing will sway her. Kyristan, watching through her eyes, commends her for making the practical choice--something that only annoys her further. Augury is pleased when they turn over both the egg and Tracks. She offers them 150 gold. When asked what she will do with the tabaxi, Augury says she has ways of making people useful, even if they are unwilling. But she reminds the party that those who keep their word retain her favor, and those who do not... In any case, she explains Xanros has done some freelance work for her. She doesn't know his exact location, and hasn't seen or heard from him in days. But she knows he has a safehouse in the nearby mountains. If he is looking to stay low, he's probably there. Even if he's not, it's a good chance there is a clue there to where he might be. Zinnia asks how long Xanros has done freelance work for her. She replies a couple of years--which means he was doing so while they were still dating, to Zinnia's chagrin. NotesIt was fun to bring back Augury. I rather like that character. The only thing more amusing than Horizons failing to notice the holes in Tracks' story was Raiann somehow failing a DC 5 survival check. As for the former, I had worried I had been too obvious with Tracks' contradictions, but I guess I was more subtle than I realized. Anyway, not a lot of notes on this one. It was a pretty simple quest, but it led to Zinnia getting a step closer to finding her mother. I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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Post by GravityEmblem on May 2, 2022 8:50:42 GMT -8
I am reading it, though I don't have an awful lot to say. Though I didn't know Tabaxi existed in your world.
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Post by Daos on May 2, 2022 13:52:04 GMT -8
They do, technically. Just not in the same way they do in 5E. If you recall, when I started running Wyld Times, I was in the process of converting Lost Souls into 5E. Later, I realized this wasn't possible without significantly changing the entire feel and flavor of the setting, so I abandoned the idea and started working on a new setting instead. So as a result, Wyld Times is at least somewhat non-canonical now. In 2E, Tabaxi existed (indeed, they first appeared in 1E). But they were a primitive and obscure species that dwells in tropical jungles (so Renosia, basically). There are no rules anywhere for them to be playable, not even in the Complete Book of Humanoids. In fact, Horizons had never even heard of them and just wrote 'cat person' in her notes following my description. I was really surprised they made them playable in 5E, considering how obscure they were back in the day. Anyway, Session XP: Defeating Bandits (x3) - 15 XP Defeating Tracks - 90 XP Retrieving the wyvern egg intact - 100 XP Turning in Tracks alive - 100 XP Learning Xanros' past with Augury - 100 XP TOTAL: 405 XP That puts Zinnia at 8,075 XP total, which means she needs another 5,925 to level up. Don't forget update your character sheet, HorizonsDream.
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Post by GravityEmblem on May 2, 2022 14:08:54 GMT -8
I guess they just wanted to make a Catfolk race, and someone noticed they had a special name for them back in the day. Weird! I always thought of Tabaxi as something...iconic to D&D, in a way. Like, if you're going to put a Catfolk race in your setting, you may as well call it a Tabaxi, right? (I certainly did in my setting) Funny that you guys weren't familiar with them.
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Post by Daos on May 2, 2022 16:00:37 GMT -8
That just may be the case--that they wanted a catfolk race, and just used the tabaxi as they were already there. But I don't think they were very popular back in the day. I don't think I've ever even used one in my games before, even.
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Post by Daos on Jun 12, 2022 14:03:15 GMT -8
Wyld Times at Affburgh
Wow, it's been like, what, a month now? Between the renovations, getting sick and Horizon just sleeping in really late, it's been awhile. But the adventure continued, at least partially, last night.
Session 07 - Up the Mountain We opened the following day. Zinnia is flushed with cash (around 1500 GP), so we decided to upgrade everyone's gear. She bought studded leather and more arrows for Nemeia; a light crossbow and bolts for Vicavor; scale mail and a sling with bullets for Kelra; and a shield, spear and flail for Raeanne. She also bought all of them a single healing potion and grabbed some rope and a grappling hook for their trek into the mountains, which she gave to Raeanne. Even with all that shopping, it barely put a dent into her finances.
Before setting out, she asked Kelra to cast Lesser Restoration on her, to see if it would fix her strange condition. Unfortunately, it didn't work. But that at least rules out it's not a disease that is afflicting her, and making her appear to be turning into a skeleton of some kind. Kelra agreed to do some research at the temple when they returned.
The party sets out, reaching the base of the mountains without incident. They find a fairly easy hiking trail to take to the top, which is quite convenient. After about an hour on it, though, there is a small tremor. This puzzles the party, as there is no volcanic activity anywhere near here, as far as any of them know. After a bit more travel, the easy times come to an end, as they find that the path is completely blocked by a landslide. They find another path to take, but it's far harsher and more steep. Zinnia isn't even able to reach it, but luckily Raeanne is able to make the climb and then throw down the rope for the rest of them.
From here on, things get tougher. They decide to tie the rope to each other for the steeper climbs, just in case. During one particularly steep climb, there is another tremor and Zinnia is nearly knocked off, but is able to hold on and maintain her grip.
A short time later, they start hearing an odd sound. It resembles a single boulder rolling downhill, followed by a pause, then the same sound again. It just keeps repeating, again and again. They come across a sort of bowl-shaped pit in the ground. There is a boulder, about four feet tall, rolling in the pit. It descends one side and up the other, but doesn't quite make it to the lip of the pit, so rolls back down the other side. It seems to have endless momentum, never slowing or stopping. Zinnia uses Detect Magic on it, and realizes it is not natural. Vicavor waits for it to get close, then tries poking it with a stick. Surprisingly, the boulder appears startled by this, and rolls down to the bottom of the pit. Zinnia tosses a pebble at it, and the boulder rolls aside to avoid being hit by it. It's at this point the boulder sort of unfolds itself, revealing it is actually humanoid, but made entirely of rock.
Due to some poor rolls, nobody can figure out what it is, but they are able to deduce that it is from the Elemental Plane of Earth, and it seems lost and afraid. Maybe even young? Zinnia decides they should just leave it alone, so the party walks around the pit and continues on. It doesn't take long before they can hear it rolling around again, and it occurs to Zinnia it might be stuck. The party heads back, and Zinnia climbs down into the pit with it, with one end of the rope. The creature seems fearful of her, so she tries to offer it one of her rations. But it isn't interested. She tries offering her iron pot, and while it seems curious, doesn't accept it. So she tries a gold piece. The creature eagerly scarfs it down. So she offers it another hundred gold pieces, and the creature feasts on them, seemingly quite hungry.
Having earned the creature's trust, Zinnia ties the rope end around it, then has the entire party try to pull it out of the pit. This is accomplished with a group Athletics check (Vicavor rolls a 2, and I joke that he only fakes helping), which the party succeeds and pulls the creature out. Now free of the pit, the creature barfs up a pure diamond and offers it to Zinnia, before rolling away happily.
From here, the party is able to get back on the easy trail again. However, as they are walking it, a shadow passes overhead quickly. Zinnia notes a single black feather, quite large, fluttering down toward them. The party make perception checks (Vicavor fails again, and I joke he's too distracted by the feather) and spot a pair of perytons flying right at them.
Zinnia opens with a fireball, blasting the creatures to the ground. From there, it wasn't much of a fight. The party sustained minor injuries and quickly took out the weakened monstrosities.
Continuing onward, the party came to a large chasm that once had a rope bridge covering it. But the bridge had snapped in half, with both sides dangling into the chasm. It was about 40 feet across, far too wide to jump. But there appeared to be no other way across. Zinnia came up with an idea. She used her Robe of Useful Items to produce a scroll of Fly. She used it on herself, then flew down with the rope to retie the bridge halves together, repairing it (but it cost her the rope). The party was now able to cross, albeit carefully and one at a time.
Once on the other side, they could hear the sound of rushing water, like a waterfall. Not too far further, they come across a picturesque cabin up against the mountain side.
Notes Most of the challenges I set up for this mountain climb were pretty direct, but the one with the galeb duhr required the most creativity. The creature only spoke Terran, which none of the party could speak, so communicating wasn't possible. Horizon has never encountered or heard of the galeb duhr before, so I tried to mimic some of the mannerisms of the goron from Zelda, which is something she was familiar with. There was no 'right' solution to this puzzle, really. It was just stuck and wanted to be free. It was up to Zinnia to realize that and come up with a plan. When she offered it gold to eat, I assumed she might give up 10-20 pieces, and was surprised when she offered 100. So I came up with the diamond on the spot as a sort of reward for her generosity.
Horizon has never encountered or heard of perytons, either. Which might be why she opened with her most powerful spell. Better safe than sorry, one could say. Ironically, both perytons were finished off by Vicavor's crossbow, so money well spent.
Kind of ended on a cliffhanger of sorts, but it was already midnight by that point so I decided to close things there.
I'll try and get XP up tomorrow.
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