Wandered Roads 36

Wandered Roads of Varisia
Session 36
November 15, 2014

Campaign Timeline

Hey Lady (Sorshen)

Oathday, 4th of Neth

The group got into the boats and poled to the east. Daellin waited on the shore for a bit then

the underground river

used his magic to follow by flying. The boats entered a large cavern with strange and colorful motes of light blinking and flitting about. Thin stalactites hung from the high ceiling. A wide beach could be seen to the south and a large, flat stone platform sat in the center of the lake. The platform was clearly worked stone as it was perfectly flat and regularly shaped. The only thing on the island was a sparkling glass statue of a woman in a jumping pose. Instead of hands, she seemed to have long, curving blades. Two mooring posts could be seen at the front edge of this “island.” Past the island, at the far end of the cavern, a cloud of churning mist and roaring sound of rushing water indicated a waterfall where the water dropped out of the lake into some lower chamber.

The group headed for the island but quickly the lake became too deep and the boats could no longer be controlled. They were caught in the quicker current of the waterfall on the far side of the island but Daellin was able to fly down and grab the ropes and easily pull the boats to the safety.

the glass golem

The moment the Elf touched down to tie the boats up, the glass statue sprung to life and moved to attack. As it approached, it was seen to have the same visage as Sorshen, the Runelord, a common theme for the statues and decorations of the complex. The glass golem was a nimble and quick and proved to be a tough opponent, though in short order, it was destroyed. The construct shattered and was no more than a pile of glass dust on the ground. The island was searched but nothing was discovered.

With Daellin’s help, the group maneuvered the boats over to the southern shore. This sandy beach was similar to the one they found the boats on except this one had two sandy grave mounds, each topped with large metal shields. Each shield seems to have been hastily painted over to display a Thassalonian rune, that of Lust, the mark of Sorshen. At Kallin’s urging, the group left the graves alone and pressed on through a stone door leading into the rough stone wall behind the beach.

The room behind the door was covered in numerous detailed murals and paintings of various otherworldly beings participating in wanton sexual acts. Every vertical surface of the room was covered but stop abruptly after turning down the hallway to the south, as though abandoned by the artist. A thorough search of the room turned up nothing of significance except for Kallin, who learned several new things he had not even dreamed of before.

The passage twisted and turned for a bit before ending at a set of iron bars blocking the way. Past the bars laid a large chamber, brightly lit by some sort of magical light. The floors, walls and ceiling of the chamber were polished to an almost mirror like shine. The arched ceilings were supported by two rows of columns that had been carved to resemble Runelord Sorshen in various levels of undress. Before the bars could be examined closely, a voice called out from the chamber, challenging the group as to whether they were friend of foe. A well muscled, pale skinned man appeared from behind one of the pillars and approached.  He was armed with a long, thin blade and he wore his silvery white hair in a long braid that stretched past his waist. As he spoke, it was noted that he bore sharp, fanged teeth, like that of a Vampire. He conversed for a moment with the group before declaring them foes and stated that he would stop them if they attempted to pass. He then stepped back behind the pillar and could no longer be seen.

a pale and skillful guardian

Ehlyna began bashing on one lock while Calina started trying to pick the one on the other side. This brought on an attack from the pale man, first with his bow, then closer up with his rapier. He seemed quite strong and skilled and moved with an unnatural speed. Kallin used his Pharasmic magic to find out more about this foe, and was able to determine that he was NOT a Vampire, not an Undead being at all. This guardian continued his harassment of the group as they attempted to breach the bars, skillfully avoiding injury and always ending his attacks back behind another pillar.

Realizing that bashing and picking the locks was taking too long, Vexeron summoned powerful earth magic and reformed the stone wall to the right of the bars, making a narrow passageway into the room. The group quickly flooded into the room and attempted to engage their new foe. The pale man moved about the room nearly twice as fast as some of the party members and wielded his rapier with skill. Though it took longer than their typical battle, eventually the 8 heroes were able to vanquish this foe without even taking any hits from him, though there were several close calls, and despite being one verses many, he held out for some time. Ehlyna quickly severed his head and as she was cleaning the blood from her axe, Vosk leaped forward and drove a wooden stake through his heart. “Just in case,” he said, looking warily at the sharp teeth sticking out.

The group gathered up his equipment, most of it being of a magical nature, and moved on. The next chamber was a wide hallway curving off into the darkness to the right. Running down the center of this hallway was a row of pillars supporting the ceiling. Each pillar was carved, once again, to resemble Sorshen. The first pillar was strangely missing its head. A quick search of the area showed it to be safe and the party progressed down the hallway.

creepy heads!

When they reached the 2nd pillar, the eyes of the statue started to glow, then the head started to wobble and shake. Most of the party stepped back a bit as the head lurched upward from the statue and rose up on spindly, black legs. The glow of light in the eyes grew brighter and then a magical bolt shot out of them at one of the party members. On cue, the heroes attacked, though their weapons seemed fairly inefficient against the stone creature. The head crawled around the top of the statue and continued to send glowing green bolts of energy down upon the party. After a few moments, several of the companions had been magically paralyzed by these bolts. After what seemed like forever, the party was victorious over the magical stone guardian and within a few minutes, the paralyzed members were able to move again.

Looking ahead, several more similar statues could be seen before the hallway curved out of sight.

Session Notes

We were missing several players again but we played on. In fact, one player that was not able to be present managed to play anyway through the wonders of modern technology. We used an extra laptop propped up on a box and ran a Hangout with +Jodi H so she could still play despite being laid up due to a recent surgery. It's not an ideal way to play, but it was definitely better than not having her there!

remote connect win!

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
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
Vosk, Half-Orc Pathfinder who gets the job done, no matter what - played by +james schaffner 

and +Jason Woollard as the DM

Wandered Roads 34

Wandered Roads of Varisia
Session 34
August 23, 2014

Campaign Timeline

Into the Swamp

Fireday, 28th of Lamashan
After dealing with the Derro under the city as best they could, the Heroes of Sandpoint returned to the surface and made their way back to the city. They immediately tried to make contact with the Pathfinder Lodge, but Shelia was unavailable. Making the best of the situation, they quickly got down to sorting, identifying and selling the loot they had gathered. While this was going, Daellin wandered off with a good portion of his share of the loot and went on a shopping spree, buying himself a very expensive and well tailored outfit, complete with copious amounts of jewelry bordering on gaudy. He spent some time getting a manicure and having his hair styled as well.

Starday, 29th of Lamashan
The next day, the group met with Shelia at the Pathfinder Lodge. She was excited to hear that they had in fact, recovered the Shard of Greed. She raised an eyebrow at Daellin and called him out as the carrier of the Shard. He produced the shard and she explained what she had learned about the each of the Shards, presenting them with her notes on the subject.

Shelia's notes on the Shards.

She then produced an Ioun Stone, a pale blue rhomboid, and touched it to the Shard. The two items fused together, leaving a small bump on the Shard in the place where the indention had once been. Daellin immediately felt a little more like himself, though he still liked his new outfit and jewelry.

Shelia suggested activating the Shard to see where it pointed toward the next one, so Daellin grasped the metal fragment and concentrated on the location. He got a vision of a swamp, then a coastline, then a tall stone statue of a beautiful woman holding up a glowing scepter. This monument was unfamiliar to most of the companions, but it was not unfamiliar to Shelia. She named it the Lady's Light, an ancient Thassalonian monument a bit to the south and west of Magnimar. It was once controlled by Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust and it made perfect sense that the Shard of Lust resided in one of her monuments.

Shelia gave some basic info on the Lady's Light, that it was believed to be just a statue, that it sat on a point of land far into the Mushfens and that its coastline was very difficult to approach due to dangerous reefs and shoals. She also added that the swamps were dangerous and full of many nasty creatures. She offered to find passage on a ship going that way that could drop them off on the coast nearby and also told them she could send along another Pathfinder that knew his way around a swamp. The group thought this was a good idea and agreed to meet back at the manor the following day.

Sunday 30th of Lamashan
The group met back at the Pathfinder Lodge and were introduced to Vosk, a Half-Orc Pathfinder. He

Vosk, Half Orc Pathfnider

seemed friendly enough and appeared to hold himself well, though he spoke a bit roughly at times and seemed uninterested in dealing with any heavy work. Sheila informed them that she had contacted a ship that was leaving the following morning that had agreed to drop them off. They would have to walk the 4 or 5 days back after their adventure was done though. Vosk suggested going to talk to a crazy old man he knew that might know something useful about that area of the Mushfens.

Following Vosk, the group found this contact, a crazy street preacher named Jasper. He was preaching about the end of the world and how everyone he saw was the chosen one of Groetus and that the end of the world was coming. He behaved erratically and tried to flee, but eventually Vosk got some useful information out of him. He said to find Maroux, the Half Orc witch that lived in the area, and tell her that Jasper sent them.

Moonday 1st of Neth
The next morning, the group of companions left Magnimar. They had gained a new ally, Vosk, and left an old one behind. Leela had been tasked by the Pathfinders to return with another crew and create more accurate maps of the structures beneath the Crow Irespan piling. The captain dropped the group off several miles north of the Lady's Light, at the furthest south landing place available. He had his crew row them out to the shore then bid them farewell and good luck. Calina enjoyed reuniting with Paka, her Firepelt cougar companion. Paka had gotten a sense of where Calina was headed and then ran along through the swamps and along the shoreline, following the ship.

The swamps were treacherous and wet, and in no time, Daellin had soiled his new vestments. He talked with Kallin about using his magic to help keep his clothing clean while traveling through the swamp. After some time, the travelers spotted some small islands, one of which had a path and bridge leading to a small shack. It was the dwelling of Maroux. She was quite distrustful and adamant about everyone leaving her alone, then Jasper's name was mentioned and she changed her tone a bit. She demanded that the group retrieve some special seaweed from the far side of the neighboring island before she would consider talking to them. Eager to get on her good side, the group agreed, though they would have to do it the next day, as it was getting late. Maroux agreed to let the group sleep on her island as long as they didn't bother her.

Toilday 2nd of Neth
The next morning the group headed out to find the seaweed. The task seemed simple enough, she gave them buckets and told them right where to find what they were looking for. As they gathered the aquatic plant, a curious shipwreck just off the shore caught many an eye. Upon closer inspection, it was found that the waterlogged shell of a ship was full of pirate skeletons. They tried to grab Daellin when he flew out to investigate, but they did not pursue him back to the shore. The party decided they could not leave these undead abominations around so they approached the boat and dealt with the skeletons. Some small amount of loot was recovered, including a magical cutlass, a water filled map or scroll case and a small corroded copper ring that Vosk took for himself and shoved it on his little

New jewelry for Vosk.

finger.

When the party returned to Maroux's island with the seaweed, they found that some of their companions had headed back earlier with their bucket of seaweed. Maroux's general attitude had changed significantly. She was now almost pleasant and quite willing to share information on the area. Over a horrible tasting dinner, she told them what she knew of the Lady's Light (which was not much) and of the nearby warring swamp tribes (one Lizardfolk and the other the frog-like Boggards), and more importantly, she told them of some other recent visitors to the swamp. A group of plate clad, lady knights from Korsova, led by a woman by the name of Oriana, had come to the Mushfens in search of the Runelords forgotten treasures to help rebuild their order, that of the formerly deposed Queen of Korsova. The final bit of information Maroux passed on was her thoughts on how to actually ENTER the Lady's Light. She was aware of a network of tunnels beneath this part of the swamp that led to an underground entrance of the monument. She explained that Oriana had recently returned to her hut with an offer of joining her troop, the Grey Maidens. She told Maroux how she had led her knights through the tunnels and into the monument and discovered that Runelord Sorshen was still alive and well and running the place. Maroux said she kindly turned down the offer, which didn't please Oriana at all.

Armed with this information, the group decides that their best bet is to try to enter the tunnels through a nearby cave not controlled by either the Lizardfolk or the Boggards, but was potentially the home of "something big and nasty" according to Maroux.

Wealday, 3rd of Neth
At first light, the group set out to the swamp, skirting an inland lake on their way to the cavern. On their way, they came across a recent battlefield littered with the bodies (but NOT the heads) of several dozen Lizardfolk warriors. While examining the battlefield, some signs were found of modern forged weapons, supporting Maroux's claim that Oriana and the Grey Maidens had joined forces with the

Teng-Quet of the World Pond

Boggards. Kallin noticed the spirit of a Lizardfolk crouched over one of the decapitated bodies. He approached it and spoke though the spirit did not speak any language Kallin understood. Daellin used his magic to give Kallin the ability to understand the spirits language. Kallin learned from the spirit, Teng Quet of the World Pond, that the Lizardfolk had been slaughtered while on a hunting party by the Boggards with help from the weapons they had gotten from the Grey Maidens. Kallin asked Teng Quet what he knew about the nearby cave and he was happy to tell. He called it the Cavern of Many Mouths and said that the party should go there and be met by Gegganallag and that they would be assisted in their quest. Kallin thanked Teng Quet and said a prayer to Pharasma and performed a ritual that allowed the spirit to move beyond to the Boneyard.

The party then moved on, crossed a small stream and moved up into a rocky area before finding the cave. They approached the large cavern mouth slowly and stealthily with Vosk and Daellin in the lead. They reached the mouth of the cavern and spotted some scattered coins in the rocky dirt near the entrance as well as scattered bones of differing sized creatures. They also found a silver necklace stuck in the mud near a foot long crystal wand. Pocketing the treasure, the two moved up into the cave quietly. The others followed behind. The cave led in and then up and to the right, requiring the two scouts to climb up some before the cave leveled off again. At the top of the climb, they saw the resident of the Cavern of Many Mouths, a large, writhing form of scales, teeth and claws - a hydra!

Before they could decide what to do, the draconic beast leaped to its feet and roared. Daellin and Vosk turned and jumped back down the shaft, running for the cavern mouth. The hydra pursued and once down below, it let loose with a mouthful of flaming death. The two scouts dove for cover though Daellin was caught by the fire and knocked to the ground. The rest of the group moved up and into position while Vosk took to the shadows, hoping to maneuver for a good sneak attack.

Immediately, Daellin activated the haste powers of his newly acquired Shard and propelled himself into the nearby bog, putting the fire out. The rest of the group moved in to battle the 5 snake-headed dragon, led by Ehlyna. Samad and Paka moved around the outside edge of the cavern while Calina moved into position and began sending arrows toward one of the many eyes the creature posessed. Kallin fell into a support position and Vexeron began casting a large fireball. The beast breathed again, sending Kallin and Vexeron diving for cover. In the chaos, Vexeron dropped his fireball, sending up an even bigger ball of flame than the hydra had, and nearly burning himself to a crisp. The wizard then lost consciousness due to his fiery wounds.

Gegganallag of the Cavern of Many Mouths

The battle raged on for some time while Kallin tried extinguishing his companion and eventually, the hydra, cut and bruised quite severely, charged for the bog, dove in and did not resurface anywhere within sight.

Vexeron was quickly stabilized and the group determined that they would take the hydra's cave as their camp for now, assuming that badly beaten hydra would not come back and that its reputation in the swamp would keep most other nuisances from approaching.

Session Photos - The Hydra Fight!

The hydra attacks... so does Ehlyna!

Diving out of the way of the flames!

Paka leaps onto the hydra's back!

Surrounding the 5-headed hydra isn't easy!

Session Notes

We were missing quite a few regular players but had a new face at the table as well. My good friend Jim finally gave in to my incessant badgering about joining the GURPS game and let me come help him make a character the night before and then joined us for some gaming. I grew up gaming with Jim and it was great to have him back at the table. Ben, Jim and myself had rolled many countless dice together in our youth!

Please forgive the very un-hydra-ish mini being used in the above photos. Unfortunately I accidentally left my hydra mini at home and we had to use one of Dan's dragons as a stand in. Oops!

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
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
Vosk, Half-Orc Pathfinder who gets the job done, no matter what - played by +james schaffner 

and +Jason Woollard as the DM