Session 2

Date: 1/14/2018

Attending: Jake, Justin, Dave, Joey, Wes

Absent: Aaron – Girlfriend’s Family

Start Time: 7:25 p.m.

Aaron was absent but rather than apply an in-game solution to this the character of Jace was simply ignored. We acted like Jace was not present, but for continuity’s sake he was present rectroactively.

The session begins where the last left off, with the party exploring the ground floor of the ruined structure deep in the jungle of Demos the Cursed Isle. Old Jarl and Born-Under-Red-Sky are hanging out by the entrance to the ruins, and the 4 (5 with Jace) PCs are with Norris and Ostar.

Exploring the side corridor that corners around the room with the centipedes, they find an old triggered trap. Two spears stick out from opposite walls in the narrow hallway, and hanging from one is the skeleton of a humanoid figure, his clothes and gear rendered to rot, rust, and decay from the ravages of time. Oranthal examines the skeleton and determines it to be human, while Osbert rifles through the remains of his stuff.

Osbert finds a small pouch containing 10 small copper triangles that seem to be old coinage. Around his neck is a necklace of carved shells. Oranthal casts a spell and determines that the necklace is not magical. Since his spell is running he sweeps the gear of the party and hurries back to the centipede room and glances about. The only magic he sees with his spell are items the party has in their possession:

Soromir’s sword

Osbert’s sword

Khalo’s horn

Jace’s monkey

Ular’s hatchet

The corridor continues past the spear trap and a long rectangular room opens up to the left. The wall directly ahead is lined with seven doors, and in the center of the room opposite the wall with doors is a staircase leading down. At this time it is discovered that Ostar has some skill at trap finding and lock picking, and the party puts him to work searching the various doors for traps.

Assuming, based on Ostar’s examination, that the first door is trap free Osbert kicks it in. The spongy old wood shatters into powder revealing a small room with the remains of a stray pallet on the floor. Osbert looks around and tells the other that he thinks this building is an old temple – these seven doors being the rooms where monks or acolytes sleep. That would make the larger room the centipedes were in a receiving room. An examination of the other six doors supports this theory. In the straw pallet of the center room Ostar finds a jade flute which Oranthal determines to be non magical and worth 60 gp. Ostar hangs onto the flute. Another corridor branches off at the end terminating at the tree that is growing through the building; the receiving room is encircled with hallways.

Osbert directs Ostar to search the stairs leading down for traps. Both Ostar and Oranthal suggest that the group should instead advance upward since they know how tall the structure is versus a potentially infinite warren of subterranean traveling. Osbert agrees and the party returns to the receiving room to head up the stairs (Ostar never actually searched the stairs leading down, a note I need to make in the records for no real reason what-so-ever).

Advancing up the stairs the party enters a room with two doors across from the stairs. The one on the right is collapsed into a pile of rubble about waist high. In the room is a large glowing beetle, some sort of organ or sac underneath giving off a red glow, which scurries over the collapsed rubble out of the room. Opting for the door on the left which is still intact, they move through and into a long irregular shaped hallway that “L-shapes” away to the left and behind them. The floor stones are loose but stable (as determined by Ostar). Vines grow through the far wall and at the end of the hall is a staircase going up. Ostar finds evidence of a secret door (Search DC of 14) and the party explores a short hallway beyond that.

The hidden hall is dark and musty – the jungle has not yet penetrated these walls with root, vine, and time – and at the end of it they find an old small wooden chest. Ostar picks the lock and within, under rotten cloth, is three gems (ruby and two opals), four vials, and a slender wooden stick. Oranthal declares the stick to be a wand and the vials to be potions. The vials and gems are divvied up and Oranthal takes the wand. Returning to the irregular shaped hallway, the party continues upstairs.

The final floor of the temple begins with a long open room. The tree continues through here, up and out the top of the ruins. In the center of this room is a large ornate door, made entirely out of brass long since covered with a thick patina of oxidation. Underneath the green residue Oranthal sees carving and etchings which is determined to be a spell of warding keeping something within the room. The magic has long since expired. Osbert, wary due to his past history tries to start a discussion regarding the wisdom of opening the door. A discussion that gets cut off immediately as Oranthal simply grabs the pull ring in the center of the door and pulls it open with a loud tortured screech of old oil-less metal hinges.

The room beyond takes up the rest of the floor. The walls ceiling and floor are covered in symbols and engravings. On the far wall is an altar similarly covered made of stone (which after the initial DM description was forgotten by the party, never searched or examined). The floor has many rotted remains of pillows used to kneel or meditate, long since destroyed by time. In each corner of the room are 4 crystals stretching from floor to ceiling and about seven feet in diameter. Two of them are broken revealing that the crystals are hollow. The two intact ones have creatures inside of them – in one is a rough humanoid shaped figure the size of an ogre seemingly made completely of rock and stone. In the other is a blue skinned humanoid who from the waist down seems to be made of swirling mist and gas. He is bald except for a topknot of hair, has a long forked goatee and rings stud his ears and nostrils. From each crystal is a groove cut into the floor. The grooves from the two intact crystals are filled with a pulsing violet glow. The four grooves run to the center of the room where a wooden ark (ornate formal box) rests on the floor, gilded with brass now a bright green of patina.

A long involved argument breaks out over whether or not to release the beings in the crystals. Osbert is firmly against it, Oranthal insists that it is cruel to leave them trapped. The crystals appear to be sound proof but with crude signs and writing some basic communication is had with the djinn. He is asked if he is in pain. He nods yes but all are sure he is lying. He also says that he has been inside the crystal for 600 years (timeline: previous game Knights of Mist Valley was roughly 800 years ago, Godslayer War was about 500).

Pausing the debate the party decides to open the ark. Khalo lifts the lid revealing several contents. After examining the room and the ark, Oranthal discovers that the whole set up is a massive abjuration to keep others off of the island, and something within the island. It warded against all manner of transportation including extra planar gates. The items within the ark are:

A clay urn of freshwater

A clay urn of saltwater

A sack of dirt

A rock

2 rotted leaves

3 charred sticks

An empty but sealed glass jar

All are taken from the island and represent various elemental and material aspects of it. Having discovered the function of the temple (but not its purpose) they return to arguing over the djinn.  After letting the discussion go for a while, Soromir smashes the crystal releasing the djinn (which angers Osbert). The djinn swirls into the room claps his hands and disappears.

A new argument ensues over Soromir’s actions when the issue had not yet been resolved. A few minutes later there is a loud clap and the djinn returns. Glancing around the room the djinn throws a sack down on the ground and announces, “We are quits and even. My thanks.” He then disappears with another clap.

Soromir picks up the sack, which is about the size of a pillowcase, and from it pulls a steaming hot beef roast – large enough to feed nine people, a small cask of ale, two water skins each holding 6 gallons of water, three loaves of bread, and a sack of coins (700 gp). Osbert goes down to fetch Old Jarl and Born-Under-Red-Sky (noticing a loud chittering noise coming from where the beetle disappeared on the 2^nd floor) and the party sits down to feast (the sack lies forgotten on the floor where it still remains – no one catching or noticing the volume of what was removed versus the size of the sack). The coins are split up amongst all save Born-Under-Red-Sky who has no interest in coins and Jace who “not being there” doesn’t get a cut). Khalo asks if Osbert would carry his share (100 coins) who agrees.

The party then descends to the 2^nd floor, leaving Old Jarl and Born-Under-Red-Sky in the room above, and explores the rubble blocked doorway where the beetle disappeared and from whence Osbert heard the chittering earlier.

Climbing over the rubble the party moves through a very short and cramped hallway into a large room. Part of the far wall of this room has collapsed revealing the room beyond, and a large hole in the side of the temple exposes this room to the jungle outside. In the corner is another skeleton hunched over holding a knife made of obsidian. In the room are 6 fire beetles (the glowing guy from earlier) and 2 bombardier beetles, larger insects that spray a cone of acid vapor. The party engages but the cramped space and the constant sprays of acid make it a difficult fight. The fire beetles bite hard and deep inflicting grievous wounds on all, but party emerges victorious and through Norris’ healing none-the-worse for wear.

Pushing into the final room they see a summoning circle inscribed on the floor. Osbert uses a rock to ruin the circle, chipping away at the carvings, and the whole party pulls back to the center of the building to rest for the night.

They make camp, and Oranthal and Ostar are able to determine that the wand found earlier is a wand of identify. They use it on Ular’s hatchet and then retire. On the final watch Soromir hears a droning buzz noise. Waking up the party they peer outside the ruins and see giant wasps flying past in the early hours of the morning. As the wasps do not seem to notice or care about the temple building they go back to bed and finish out the night.

End of Session

300 XP; 50 to Joey for blogging

A note: I made some snide comments above about things the party overlooked. It’s easy to identify those things in hindsight and especially if you are the DM, but the session was fast paced aside from the discussions and the party did an excellent job of using skills and intuitively putting things together. The PCs rarely find or notice everything a DM has planned and that is ok. I reserve the right to find such things amusing and to poke gentle fun now and then.