Wandered Roads 32

Wandered Roads of Varisia
Session 32
June 14, 2014

Campaign Timeline

Deeper Still...

Oathday, 27th of Lamashan

Hound of Hell

The Heroes of Sandpoint continued their seemingly unending exploration of the complex inside and beneath the Irespan piling known as "The Crow." The came across a strange circular maze that had all surfaces covered with thick iron plates, each covered in spiky Thassalonian runes. Occasional scorch marks and burnt bones were spotted in the maze. A Created Servant that strongly resembled Samad and dubbed Samad Junior, was sent ahead to scout the area. After a few minutes, some distant growling and roaring sounds punctuated the end Samad Junior. Further exploration revealed the source of this noise as that of a Hellhound. A brief skirmish ended with the Hellhound nothing more than
another scorch mark on the floor.

Eventually the center of the maze was found and it revelaed itself to be something of a planar portal or summoning area. Vexeron was able to determine that the entire maze with its iron bound passages were a giant tool used to aid in opening planar gateways, this one possibly leading directly to the Hells and other Infernal places. In an attempt to destroy this device, some of the metal plates were pried from the wall, first through brute force, then through magic. In all, about 20 of the plates were removed, but Vexeron could not determine if anything they were doing had any affect on the function of the area, so the efforts were stopped.

Next the Heroes explored an unworked passage, an oddity thus far in this structure. This passageway was rough cut from natural caverns and appeared damp and a bit muddy.  As the companions explored down a slight slope, the ground suddenly shifted under their feet, turning into something of a rock slide that deposited everyone in a shallow pool of water in a large natural cavern. The passage behind them had fallen away considerably and it would be difficult to return that way so they pressed onward.

Grey Ooze... yuck!

The far edge of the shallow pool was covered in what at first appeared to be slippery rocks and mud but quickly turned out to be a dangerous foe. The ground was covered in what appeared to be some sort of mobile and aggressive grey ooze thing that wasted no time in striking out with sticky, acidic tendrils. Samad quickly learned that sword slashes merely divided the ooze into smaller but more numerous foes.

Vexeron tried to light it on fire with magical flame, but that had no effect and in the end, it turned out that non-bladed impact weapons like staves and hands and feet were the most effective weapon. Minimal damage was taken, though Calina noted that her armor was damaged some by the creatures corrosive touch and it would have to be repaired once they were back in Magnimar.

Gross!

The party continued their exploration and eventually the natural caverns met back up with the carved stone hallways they were familiar with. The next set of rooms, halls and chambers led them to locked iron door with some sort of Thassalonian sign on it. Not concerned with the sign, Ehlyna kicked the door in and burst into the next room where the group was set upon by a trio of strange and disturbing creatures. These malformed lumps of flesh hopped around on long spindly legs an bit at victims with wide, toothy maws. This encounter was also met with violence and in a few moments, they creatures were nothing more than bloody lumps of skin and bone.

The exhausted party felt that it was getting late and was finally time to make camp and rest for the night. They retreated to the storage room they had successfully camped in the previous night and were able to secure themselves again and get some rest. Upon waking, they traveled back to where they had left off.

Fireday, 28th of Lamashan

The next area to explore was a large, ornate room with raised platforms on either of its ends. Both platforms had steps that led down to dark and murky water that covered most of the room. Ominous black pillars ran along both side walls of the chamber, their surfaces carved in the likeness of numerous tentacles intertwined. Wary of the dark water, Vexeron summoned up another Servant, this one, Ehlina, had the face of Calina on top of Ehlyna's body. This got a chuckle from a few members of the party, and stern looks from others. Vexeron sent the Servant down the steps and into the water. Ehlina started swimming after several steps as it appeared that the water was quite deep. Almost immediately, Ehlina ran into trouble as several grey shapes crested and converged on her, quickly attacking and dragging her under the waves. Vexeron instinctively knew that Ehlina was no more and another way to cross the room was devised.

Aquatic Sinspawn

Daellin tapped his magical prowess to give Ehlyna and Kallin the powers of flight before teleporting himself and Leela safely to the other side. Vexeron used his magic to Apportate the remaining members high up and over the water. As Vexeron crossed, the creatures in the water made a few leaps out trying to get him, revealing themselves as aquatic versions of the Sinspawn that had been previously encountered.

After passing the water filled chamber without incident, the heroes discovered yet another long flight of stairs leading down. Descending at least another 30 feet or so, they reailized that they were now on a lower level of the dungeon.

The first thing they came to was some sort of underground cistern that filled a small chamber. An ornate, shiny black onyx torch burned in a sconce near the entry way. Tunnels with channels of water headed off in three different directions. Waterlogged and rotted timbers acted as makeshift bridges across the mouths of each water channel. A raspy singing could be heard coming from the passage to the east.

Curious about the singing and not wanting to cross over any of the timber bridges, the party headed to the east, walking carefully along a narrow ledge that ran alongside the 5 foot wide trough of water. The

an underground sewer of some type...

passage led to another cistern like chamber. This chamber had a stone arch bridge that went across the room and led out by one dry passage to the south. Around the entire outside edge of the room was painted the city skyline of Magnimar down near the water level. Several small boats were painted below the city level, giving them the impression of actually floating on the dark water in the room. The singing had stopped but shortly after arriving at the room, a raspy voice called out, coming from somewhere down below the bridge.

The voice, which ended up belonging to one Lockerbie Brast, asked questions about the heroes and their reason for being down here. Lockerbie seemed quite happy to have someone to talk to and over the course of the conversation, it was revealed that he was some type of undead, which was confirmed by one of Kallin's spells, and that he had previously been a ship captain of a fishing vessel that sank near by. The companions realized that it was the same ship they had seen from the underwater observation dome the previous day. Lockerbie agreed to help them with some information about some of the areas nearby if they said promised him that they would retrieve a special broach that sank with his ship, the Liza Jane and return it to his beloved of the same name in Magnimar. After being convinced by the group that they would try to help him, he revealed that there were some deep Gnomes, or Derro, operating nearby. He explained that they were dangerous and evil and he had not had any interactions with them yet, but they he had observed them coming and going sometimes, often returning to their lair with captives.

Session Notes

Though we were short a few players this session, it was a fantastic mix of exploration, combat, vandalism and conversation. It was a really fun and exciting session. I was able to challenge the characters and put them in some situations that were potentially dangerous and they were able to deal with the challenges and over come each obstacle, often in a way I had not envisioned.

Characters Present:

Kallin Hawkril, Half-Orc shaman and budding Priest of Pharasma - played by +Daniel Ernst
Calina - Varisian Human archer and scout - played by +Carol Coburn
Leela Cardnool, Gnome scout, cartographer and Illusionist - played by +Lisa Smith
Daellin Silvanthalas, Elven Farstrider Ranger - played by +Ben Lipe
Vexeron, Human wizard - played by +Greg Grady
Ehlyna Fuzziface - Dwarven Warrior - played by +Jodi H
Samad Aldhul, Human ex-mercenary - played by +JeCorey Holder

and +Jason Woollard as the DM