Dark Paths 49

Dark Paths of Riddleport
Session 49
September 7, 2014

Through the Portal

Despite the loss of their two companions, the rest of the Gold Goblin Crew carries on. But first, they have to overcome the aqueous afflictions that have stricken Aragon and Snargash and forced them to remain underwater. Even communicating between the surface of the pool was difficult. After a few moments of contemplation, the sounds of battle carried into the room from the south, followed by a few familiar Elves stumbling into the room. One of the Elves, a friend named Sairalindë, was skilled at the magical arts and was able to help Snargash not begin to choke when he stuck his head out of the water. With the ability to do this, Snargash was able to play some tunes on his flutes that relieved the afflictions, though at quite a great cost as he had already far surpassed his safe threshold of asking his patrons for divine aid. After his casting, Snargash found he had a strong aversion to water of any kind!

Sairalindë told them that the Drow and their Demon allies were rallying behind them and trying to push into this area of the Academy but that in the early moments of the assault, their other companion, Kwava, had fallen and been taken. The trail (of blood) lead through this room and into the next. Sairalindë urges the Crew to follow the trail, stop the Drow masters from completing their foul plan and that she and the other Elves would do their best to keep the pressing forces of evil from following.

The portal

The Crew followed a fairly obvious trail of blood into the next chamber and found they lead up to a large, apparently functioning gate. The two Elves in the group recognized this as a re-purposed Aiudara (ancient Elf-gate), now topped with what appeared to be a chunk of rune covered stone cut from the indestructible Cyphergate as the keystone. The image past the gate revealed a shadowy, but strangely beautiful image of an Elven city in a sylvan setting. 

Ancient Celwynvian

Wasting no time, the Crew passed through the gate and found themselves in a strange place indeed. Though they could see and feel and hear and smell the environment, all of these senses were some how muted or shaded from their full effects. Most disturbing, though, was the sky. The entire sky seemed to swirl into large, grey vortex that seemed to be formed around a giant dark blot in the sky, similar to the one they had first encountered some time ago in Riddleport, but this one was much larger. 

The old Observatory

Almost immediately, a strolling, tall Elf gentleman nearly walked right into them, his attention focused on the activity in the sky. He introduced himself as Ilamin Silverwind. He shared that this city was in fact, Celwynvian and that the date was some 10,000 years earlier than it should have been, indicating a time just before the Starstone fell from the sky and nearly destroyed the entire world. The conversation with this ancient Elf carried on for a while and the Crew gleaned a few bits of important information from him. He told them that he didn't think that the vortex or blot was anything to worry about. They learned that some strange activity had been occurring in the old Observatory on the other side of the city. They also learned that he knew nothing of "dark skinned, white haired Elves" though he mentioned that a Human, Talgoren, living in the city nearby had made some similar comments about "dark elves." Ilmin pointed out the way to his house, which happened to be on the way to the Observatory.

Hideous winged Demons... The Vrock

The Crew set out to find this Talgoren to learn more about what was going on in this strange shadow version of ancient Celwynvian. On the way to Talgoren's house, the Crew was spotted by a pair of hideous winged vulture like demons, called Vrock by the other Elves. As the demons approached, it was quickly apparent that they were very different than other things in this realm. They seemed very solid and real. Though dark and hideous, their colors contrasted sharply with the shadow grey of everything else in this world. 

Fighting the winged Demons!

The battle was on. The demons stopped at a good range and summoned two more of their kind while Aragon charged down the street. Aethel and Guy began firing projectiles at them while Snargash began using his magic, now strangely refreshed, to help his companions. It almost seemed that the battle might take a bad turn when the sky was filled with the roar of a Dragon and the green wings of Razorhorn were seen flapping overhead, but fortunately the beast paid no attention to the fight in the streets and flew away.

Tower, this is Razorhor requesting a fly by.

The battle was tough but with a few good shots and lucky breaks, the Crew was victorious. Aragon had been stunned during the fight and taken a few good hits in addition to being afflicted by some disgusting skin condition that caused little green and purple tendrils to grow from his flesh.

Why's everyone always picking on Aragon?

Talgoren

Pressing on, the Crew arrived at Talgoren's mansion and were drawn inside by an open door, an inviting path and the soft sound of harp music playing. There they found a lounging Human, Talgoren. He was one of the Azlanti, the First Humans, known to inhabit Golarion before the Starfall. He was polite and welcoming. He offered wine and snacks to all, though Aethel and Aragon appeared to be in too much of a hurry to partake in refreshments. He says he too has seen the "dark skinned" Elves, though no one else has listened to him. He also tells that he believes that the strange occurrences in the sky are probably nothing more than backlash from the battle that his people are currently waging against the Aboleth, or Devilfish, as he calls them. Aethel waits impatiently outside, keeping watch and Aragon paces stiffly back and forth near the door until he spots a cooling pie on a silver tray nearby. His mood immediately changes and the normally stoic Elf smiles and almost giddy as he asks for a piece of pie. Though the wine and desserts were only shadowy imitations of the real thing, those who had consumed felt revitalized after the recent battle with the Vrock.

Talgoren confirms that the "dark Elves" have been quite active near the old Observatory and he has seen them trafficking with Demons, Troglodytes and even a Dragon. He packs some treats to go and gives the Crew an extra decanter of wine for the road. After saying goodbyes to this strange Human, the Crew heads off down the street for their next target, the Observatory.

Notes

Finally, we have gotten back to the Dark Paths of Riddleport after a 2 month hiatus. Things go busy, then busier, then even a little busier and I could not get the time to sit down on a Sunday evening to get this game done! But finally, we got to it. By my estimation, we have one more session to go, and that will be next Sunday, and one way or another, this campaign will wrap. Ahh.

Cast of Characters: 

Aethelarian "Aethel" Flitterseed - Noble Elf wizard played by +Daniel White 
Aragon Whisperwind - Elven Bladedancer played by +Arne Jamtgaard 
Guy Greystone - Gnome telekinetic played by +Gren Drake 
Snargash Windblown - Half-Orc monk played by +Amergin O'Kai 
and +Jason Woollard as the DM

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