Session 75: I’m Helping
6/23/24-6/27/24, rest 6/28, active 6/29
PC: Gwendolyn, Argon, Legany, Aldric, Ophio
Hench: Mahin, Madrof, Amadayo, Arthur, Godfrey, Amazing Jonathan
Gwendolyn’s face had been reconstructed and the swelling had abated, so Team A was back in action. They still had a pending mission for Lord Eros Tyring but were skeered of the forest. They tooled around town to enjoy the end of the Solstice festivities and make s’mores and throw tomatoes at elves, you know, the usual, while they discussed what hooks to pursue.
Aldric was able to recruit The Amazing Jonathan, a street performer mage who had a dark streak in his humor. They also added a new PC and player (Welcome!) in Ophio the Warlock, our first of the campaign. With the new recruit they decided that a run at a dark and gloomy tower to the west was the right move and prepared for that.
There was an old road that was still mostly intact leading towards their objective, so the group followed that as far as they could. It was hot, sunny, and kind of dusty so when they spotted a misty natural spring in the distance the group was eager to rest nearby. Ever cautious, it took some time for them to approach it, detecting for evil and tracking and whatnot, but the spring was just a beautiful natural spring that fed a little brook running off to the north.
Well rested and refreshed, the group continued on, eventually camping at the end of the day off to the north of the road. Unfortunately the Lawfuls in the group were plagued with terrible dreams and failed to achieve a restful night’s sleep. Ophio was geeked like he had too many cups of coffee and was eager to figure out why.
The paladins eventually discerned evil in a particular direction, leading them a short distance to a strange cairn, a head-height pyramid of stacked stone spheres. Out of the top of the cairn thrust a gnarled post with a desiccated old woman’s corpse hanging from it by the neck. The warlock felt this was the source of his jitters and suspected there was something powerful about it. The paladins hated it immediately and tore it down.
There was a grave sized cavity underneath with a leather bound and locked tome resting in it, which Ophio immediately jumped in and grabbed. The lawfuls were content to destroy the sinkhole with holy water and the party spent the remainder of the day resting so they weren’t fatigued. A golden eagle encounter was seen as a good omen to the Ehlonna followers and they were able to get some rest. During the night, some wights rose from the ground to attack, but chose their targets poorly in the paladins and were rebuffed.
Daylight brought a new day and eagerness to get to the objective. Unfortunately, they got lost, so they wandered a few hexes in the wrong direction before three huge demonic looking canines appeared on a nearby hill. The party attempted to evade, which failed. The fight was on and it was tough, ending in Legany Twocrowns downed and several others heavily wounded. Fortunately barbarians have savage resilience and he shook it off.
Eventually the group realized they should have seen the tower by now and decided to track themselves back to where they started. This brought them back to the barghest battlefield, where they smacked foreheads for not attempting to find the enemy’s lair. This search was successful, finding a den dug into the side of a hill.
Inside were three rated R Paw Patrol pups, snarling and yipping profanity in Common under the light of a glowing 8 pointed star on the back of the cave. Aldric’s player eagerly led the puppy murder, gleeful to finally be able to exact revenge on those annoying cartoon characters. Someone’s got young children.
The Patrol was guarding the lair’s treasure, which was pretty significant. We tend to roll random treasure live because it’s fun. This isn’t always a best practice, but dogs can’t use magic items so knowing what was in the hoard wasn’t going to impact the results of any interactions.
A lot of time was spent trying to figure out what to do about the chaotic emblem, which was slowly rotating counter clockwise. Eventually Argon the Earthforger decided he would mar it with his magic by deforming the wall. He set up his implements to cast a ceremonial spell and needed some absurdly low roll to fail. The rest of the party cleared out in case of disaster and were amazed to see the dwarf’s implements explode in his hands. He rolled a 1 which caused a mishap!
They rushed to his aid, the results of the mortal wounds roll requiring Aldric to amputate the dwarf’s mutilated hand and leaving him walking wounded for the rest of the session. Ophio raked his hand through the available blood and slapped it on the star, which changed colors but otherwise didn’t react. Argon the dwarf mumbled, “I’m helping” which got a big laugh. The warlock then cut his own hand and did the same thing. This time the sigil picked up speed in its spin, eventually throwing off sparks and opening into some kind of opaque, blacklit portal or window. Ever seeking dark power, Ophio went through, the portal closed, and… welcome to the campaign.
The party waited a while but when he never came back they packed up their loot and bounced. En route back to Arete, they were accosted by two ettins which were confused by the party’s presence. Aldric tried to intimidate them but that just made them angry. Another tough fight but this party is resilient and they scraped by without any deaths. They made it back to Arete with a good score but a missing PC.
Musings:
We love adding players to the table, especially when they show up talking about Vancian magic, consequences for player actions, and how paladins should only be Lawful Good. He’s gonna make it.
2d6 is my friend. I use a gradient worst to best, like a reaction check with fate, for stuff that I haven’t prepped. I used it a lot this session to determine wtf any of this meant. Hag sinkhole of evil? Demon dogs? The random comes in when PCs interact with the environment. I like explaining why it’s good or bad for them without dictating that it’s good or bad for them.
This current hook is shaping up into something interesting. Looking forward to how it plays out.
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