Summer oneshot: Kraken Corpse Delve

A week ago my group sat around a real table again for the first time in a year and a half - great fun and so much easier than playing remotely. I'll make this a very short summary, because I've still got a lot of writing to do for the third story in this summer "break" from my main campaign. Next up is a couple of sessions romping through spooky scary Ravenloft...

KRAKEN CORPSE DELVE

Is a module by Dungeon Age where the players go on a dungeon crawl through the titanic corpse of a monster from the deep sea. And there's not just arcane organs to harvest down there...

Bryce over at TenFootPole.org did a great review of this module. I agree with him that the concept is cool, the writing is brief and evocative and the document is very easy to use at the table. 

If I missed anything during prep & play it was a handy overview of all the harvestable organs in the Kraken and slightly more detailed maps with symbols and short call-out text of what can be found in each location in the kraken corpse.

Come to think of it, I would have appreciated short hints in the text like 'to the north, there is the glimmering of a great eye; south-west, you hear the creak of large chitin joints'. Right now you're left to improvise that essential info to give players a choice in where they're going.

CHANGES 

I've switched the challenge level of the module for level 7 players and increased gold values of the various organs and the focal diamond to give the party a truly ludicrous prize to fight over. Used stats from the monster manual instead of the stats given; hell hounds as dream foxes (not encountered), black oozes and violet fungi as gill parasites, beholder zombies as Rapid Eye Monsters, an umber hulk for the Vivid Butterfly and a level 13 mindflayer wizard as the big nasty.

INTRO ADDED: A DEBT TO SETTLE

So why are you lunatics delving into the corpse of a kraken? I added a short hook to the oneshot where the players all knew each other from before, had various debts to settle, and needed a quick score: like being the first to stake a claim on the newly discovered kraken corpse on the edge of the Inner Sea of Thal and harvest its arcane organs for the alchemists of His Dread Majesty Gulfrey II. 

(I'm sort of creating a unified setting for this oneshot and the upcoming Ravenloft story, in the same world as Skerples' Kidnap the Archpriest.)

Characters, level 7 in D&D 5e:

• Feline (Fuh-LEE-nuh, actually a first name in the Netherlands) Allard Berkenbosch de Visser van Coevorden Rakshasa III, Tabaxi wizard affectionally called 'no, bad kitty' by her mom. Cute, chaotic, amoral. Needs 13,000 gp to start an orphanage to take good care of stray rodents.
  "Because a happy mouse is a tasty mouse!"
  
• Vydh, lizardman fighter all alone in the world and looking for others of his kind, needs 16.000 gp to pay of gambling and drug debts.
  
• Bubastis, shifter ranger with a favored terrain of "someone else's vault and pockets", has 3000 gp in gambling debts
  
• El Grande Bomba, catch-phrase spouting, folding-chair wielding bard / barbarian with a whopping 43,000 gp debt (the player elected to roll 3d20 for his debt rather than the d20 I asked for)
  
• Bubbles, tiefling druid / warlock with a handy talent for shapeshifting and for teleporting away obstacles. Has a 7000 gp debt to the alchemy guild, inherited from his sadly deceased mentor.

PLAYTHROUGH

I described the party's approach to the kraken corpse, first in a month-long sea voyage, then a weeks-long trek through the desert. They keep finding odd situations: like the original discover of the kraken corpse being surprised to see them already - he only just got back from finding the corpse and sent the letter to inform the party just a week ago. Or the sand-covered remains of an old caravan headed to the kraken corpse, over a decade old. And when they arrive on the shores of the Inner Sea, they find it gone...replaced by an ancient mud flat.

If you're read the module or even just Bryce's review, you know that someone's messing round with time in the module. I decided it was leaking time, which led to all these paradoxical finds.

The party meet Ajeral, a tentacle-bestudded woman from the far future here to change history so that the world's won't be overrun by tentacly beasties that change humanity to fit their own image. Only her sister Xejal is sending dream monsters through the still-open time gate (Ajeral wants to go back at some point!) - can the party yank out the 100,000 gp diamond the size of her head from the gate and close it?

Bubbles shares her memories of her world - sun darkened, mountainous horrors - and comes away convinced the weird lady is telling the truth: there be shiny down there. Also, now has 10ft single-target telepathy.

The party head down into the kraken corpse, meeting Havian the old chitin miner (who'se been her for decades) and Sister Akandra, blind and ancient (immortal?) head priest of a buried temple to a sea angel, who is convinced that the sea is still on her doorstep. She blesses the party for their stories and sends them deeper into the corpse.

Down at the tentacles, the party tangles with paralytic poison from the kraken's tendrils and slides between them, down to the gigantic 10ft kraken eye blocking the way down. There are things inside it, in addition to the eye fluid which acts as potions of true seeing. Bubbles uses her Helm of Teleportation to teleport the entire thing to his alchemy lab. 

Down they go along the optic nerve, to take a side branch and end up in the ink sac. An ancient sailor's body drifts in the black-purple fluid: mouth open in a horror grin, skin twisted into tentacles and see shells. The group very carefully flies, climbs, teleports or otherwise make their way across the ink. Bubastis slips and falls in, which nets her seven tentacles sprouting from his chin and braiding themselves into a goatee.

A squeeze through a fleshy channel later, the group finds themselves in the egg sac, full of tiny (5ft) kraken babies, still ripening or ready to hatch. WISELY, they don't mess with these yet but they do meet the Vivid Butterfly, a dream beast sent by Xeyal. She tells them her younger sister is misguided, and she can offer them anything they want - literally a wish - if they bring Ajeral back through the time gate.

Most of the party is down with this, except for Feline and La Grande Bomba. And so the illusionary showers of pearls, images of the location of lizardman tribes and other gifts vanish as the Vivid Butterfly declares: you are but my dreams, you are not real! We run a fight where the party first needs to convince themselves they are not delusions, and then have to withstand the Butterfly's hypnotic gaze (I used an Umber Hulk stat block). 

Victorious, the party attempts to catch their breath, to discover that this area is full of noxious gasses, krakenflesh quakes and passing dream beasts! Random encounter checks, baby. They wisely retreat to the ink sac to finish their short rest.

Final encounter: Xeyal

I bring out the Dwarven Forge map of the final location in this delve: a big open cavern with the shining, swirling Time Gate to the far future. Xeyal tries to convince the party one last time, but they're not having it - and so it's on! I'm using a 13th level Enchanter wizard on top of a mindflayer chassis, with legendary actions to keep pace with the party. 

* I'm sorry team, I was mistaken in giving Xeyal the ability to focus on two concentration spells at the same time! That's reserved for the opium-smoking wizards in my Belswick campaign ;)

Mind blasts, lightning bolts, a Bigby's Hand to catch Bubbles making an end run around her, invisibility and dominate person* to turn Vydh to her side: in the end Xeyal almost wins by downing the entire party with a Circle of Death, but Feline counterspells it. Enraged Disintegration follows, only for Feline to dodge away by using Sister Akandra's blessing! 

 It's a close call, but as Bubbles yanks out the focal diamond from the time gate and Helm-of-Teleports it to his lab, Xeyal loses focus (as do I, after a long night and fight keeping track of legendary actions, saves, bonus actions and more). The sister drops, and everyone catches their breath after a well-earned victory.

World saves, loot obtained, on the next oneshot!

Belswick 32 & 33: doing the dishes

Last time in Belswick, the PCs negotiated for safe passage with a bunch of frost giants who'd lost their holy silver cup. These sessions they solve the riddle of who stole the Cup of Thrymm and get it back from a lake hag. Also: playing nice with Orcs, saving young love and getting adopted by a Roc.

News: these are the last Belswick sessions for the coming months. I need a bit of time to recharge my Belswick inspiration and figure out how to move this campaign to a mid and end game. Also I need to get some other ideas out of my system: it's summer oneshot madness y'all! More about that later. First:

Who stole the Cup of Thrymm from its locked shrine?

It's a Guess Who plot! Only a few giants are small and agile enough to climb the shrine tower and squeeze through the narrow window. Hagden the half-stone giant turns out to be in love with Jarlsdottir Brynna; Brynna has hatched with the wise woman Denise at the mountain lake where the cup gets stolen and found again by Hagden, giving him the social standing to ask Brynna's hand in marriage.

Of course the players confront the pair down in the cellar, safe from other giants...but manage to talk their way out of getting splattered across the floor; they'll go bring back the Cup without telling on the couple. It'll be a nice way to win the giants' favor and thwart the enemy Arraynian spies who want to win passage for their own troups.

How'd that all go?

Pretty ok really. The band follows the old underground Dwarven canal to near the mountain lake where Denise lives. En route they meet Brian the Dungeon Bug and buy a lot of info and magic boots off of him (gnawed-off feet included). Brian in return warns them not to step in the Green Slime. Ricky the scouting imp finds a troll skull, rendered inert by intense acid. Brian helpfully lets the group know that Denise has a pet. Sort of a lizard, blackish, with wings?

They ran for it, of course?

Strangely not. At the mountain lake, the party chats with Denise. Redhaired Pyrrha, herself feytouched, makes a deal for an unspecified later favor: can Denise get her dragon to call on the Arraynians? Sure, sister! Mike the Druid wants the dragon to leave the lake (it's polluting it and killing all the fish) and offers his own domain as a new nest: after some haggling, also a deal.

Denise meanwhile is willing to give back the Cup of Thrymm if the party tear down a "possessed" stone hut on the shore. This turns out to be a shrine to the Nameless Saint of Ravens, who leads the pure of heart to destroy sources of evil. Sure enough, the hut is covered in ivy blowing against the wind. The party isn't really phased about tearing down a holy shrine: sure, it's a deal!

Bad things happen then?

What else? Shams the dwarf downs a potion of burrowing and starts to undermine the shrine; Barak the orc takes a potion of bottled breath and blows the shambling mound off the hut. While Barak is praying to the Raven Saint, the shambling mound sits on the ground gathering its wits - and the shrine collapses on Shams and Barak both. Even that isn't enough to give the slow shambling mound a real chance. 

Denise is delighted and promises to give back the Cup of Thrymm after one more night of admiring it. That night her pet black dragon walks up to the force field the party sleeps under and chats with Mike, catching his smell for later.

Then there's running, right?

Surprisingly, Mike stands his ground. (Smart. Running gets you swatted.) The following morning, silver Cup in hand, the group heads back for the Giant fortress. 

And they FINALLY roll the Roc-in-the-distance on the random encounter chart!

The giant bird circles behind faraway clouds and the party dives for cover - except Pyrrha and Mike who stand and admire it. One spot check later, the titan bird banks and lines up for an attack run. Pyrrha races off - and Mike gets snatched up for snacksies in an enormous clawed foot.

...as per usual for this player, who always gets himself into crazy situations. And sometimes even out of it: as a druid, he can talk to animals. "Papa, why did you snatch me up?" One awesome bluff check later, the Roc, thoroughly confused and also myopic, puts the hatchling on his back, from where it promptly escapes, diving down into the lake. Dad dives after - "son, no!" - but can't catch the druid. Then it remembers: it doesn't have hatchlings! And flies off.

It says a lot about the rest of the party that they just stand there and wait for the druid to roll up to them.

Meanwhile, the Cup and the giants?

Oh yeah. The session is winding up and I want to wrap things up. The party uses the Cup to win the Jarl's favor. The Arraynians get conned into visiting the mountain lake and aren't seen again. 

...except for their leader, a fair-haired woman called Julie; she visits party wizard Guy, wearing tattered clothing and covered in acid burns. She forgives him; she has recently talked to Guy's sister that he thought dead; and she lets him know that the White Rose of Arrayne can bring brother and sister together again.

Guy, not having foreseen this with his divining skills, falls for the honeyed words (and well-timed charm spell). As power gathers around Julie to whisk them both Elsewhere - no spell-words or arcane gestures here, but a pressure in the mind - the Arraynian's plans are rudely thwarted: Barak has sent his quarter-ton riding boar to chat with the lady.

A snap of power; a wizard saved; a paladin familiar returning later with stories of a great void filled with plastic, twisting forms of many colours. Enough to sink our teeth in after summer. Until then!

Belswick 31 - the burglared Jarl

Over 30 sessions of this campaign, unbelievable! I'm still enjoying it, even though Planescape, Eberron, Star Wars and Delta Green are very tempting. So many campaign ideas, so little time.

Last time in Belswick, the newest members of the Eagle Rider mercenaries made their way to the Frostreaver clan of ice giants, to bargain for safe passage into the enemy kingdom of Arrayne. Right before getting there, they fought a bunch of Arraynian spies with either impressive training or mental powers that allowed them to act and fight as one.

THIS SESSION

We pick up a replacement for the fallen Ungulu the Inquisitor priest of the Exile. Pyrrha, who had introducing herself as the sister of dead Mike the Druid back in Crossroads, wakes up next to a massive wolf with a white front leg. "Morning sis. What's up?"

The party make their way to the Three Spires mountain landmark, the last (hard) climbs before the ice giant stronghold. With Mike's shapeshifting into a giant ape, Pyrrha getting buoyed up by the Winter Court's winds and solid rock climbing by Shams the dwarf, the party make it up without serious problems. Guy the wizard bitches about having to make this hellish climb, but does fine in the end, as does Barak the holy fighter of Gromesh.

At the Frostreaver stronghold, the group find themselves in a thievery plot!

This session's Dwarven Forge build is Asdir's Hall, made with the Emperor's Mega Pack and some bits and bobs (Walls & Pillars set for the throne, and pieces of dungeon wall corner for the fallen rubble.)

THE GIANTS

• Jarl Asdir Rimebeard has lost the sacred Cup of Thrymm from the clan's locked tower shrine. He's not sure who stole the 5 foot silver drinking bowl, but is willing to grant the wish of whoever brings it back.
• Brynna Jarlsdottir is Asdir's (sole surviving) daughter and is a handful of trouble. Has confirmed through throwing the runes that the Cup is not in or near the giant fort.
• Wisewoman Kitha Frosttongue is tasked with keeping the clan's stories and memories, and protected the Cup of Thrymm.
• Jantru Shardfist is a hot-headed brute who comes close to challenging Asdir and picks on weaker Hagden.
• Warak Fogbreath is an older hunter.
• Hagden is a grey-tinted, slender mongrel of an ice giant; it turns out his mother was a stone giant captured on a raid. The clan look down on him as a lesser specimen of gianthood. Jantru in particular pesters him constantly.

THEIR GUESTS

• Julie de Rennes, emmissary from Arrayne here to win passage for her armies into Belswick; wasn't here with her servants when the Cup of Thrymm was stolen but has pledged to find it.
• Yutrus of the Spear, servant of the yet-unnamed Lord of the Spear somewhere in these mountains; was here on other business when the Cup was stolen, pledged to find it.
• The party, housed not in the halls themselves but with Hagden in a hut outside. He gives them his pillow to use as a communal bed.

THE REST OF THE SESSION

Lots of investigating, talking, following and otherwise sleuthing. Basically, we're playing a game of Guess Who ("do they have glasses? a beard? red hair?"), inspired by Triple Suns' posts on how to structure mystery plots. I'll let the players sort out their own notes because I don't want to give out too much info or steer them in any particular direction.

FINAL SCENE

Barak sneaks after Yutrus' Orc band when they take the giant's stairs into the pass below the fort. There the Orc meets with a runner from Yutrus' bands in the area; apparently the search for the Cup of Thrymm isn't going too well for the Orcs, who have run into a band of harpies in the high mountains. (Aren't the players happy they took the longer route through the hinterlands?)

Belswick 30 - onto the pyre

Last time in Belswick, our band of newly minted mercenaries set out through the hinterland mountains of Belswick and the Stone Principality. Their goal: to negotiate free passage for their mercenary band into southern Arrayne with the border-tribe of frost giants. On the way, the group drank with orcs, haggled for canvas at a quarry, and partook in a nice paganheretical ritual at a lightning-stricken tree. Pyrrha the Warlock lost her powers and everyone gained resistance to electricity. At the top of the last mountain before the Three Spires and the lair of the giants, the group met up with some woodsmen from Arrayne, chased up the mountain by a storm.

THIS SESSION

Much manoeuvering around the Arraynian woodsmen, who seem very in touch with each other, even finishing each others' sentences. Their leader appears to be a strawberry-blond woman in the habit of inhaling purple smoke, who claims to be a trader from Arrayne looking for a profitable route into Belswick. Or, you know, they could be a nest of psionics spies like the ones that murdered the group's last patron.

Something you said?
Pyrrha gets something caught in her throat: it feels hard, and sharp, and is slicing into her as she coughs blood. A robin alights on a nearby rock, picking at Pyrrha's hand as she tries and fails to get the sharp object out of her throat. "Need help?" asks the tiny winter fae. "You shouldn't gamble away Grandma's Gifts so easily. Consider this a lesson." With the help of Barak, half-orc paladin of Saint Gormesh, Pyrrha manages to get the piece out of her throat...and wins back her powers, three days and three nights after selling them for lightning resistance.

Here's a Suggestion for you
At the campfire at night, there are songs shared by the two groups in a semi-comfortable setting. Pyrrha manages to wreck the mood by casting Suggestion on one of the well-armed 'woodsmen': "How about you tell us what you're really here for?" Before anyone can act, the man blurts out that they're here to trade favor with the giants and win Arrayne's armies a back road into Belswick. The big trick would be to find the Giant Jarl's lost silver drinking basin, which disappeared weeks ago and should be somewhere in the area.

The two groups look at each other and walk around the campfire a bit, until party priest and inquisitor Ungulu decides that it's fireball time. The smoke-wreathed lady counterspells his magic, and the fight is on: Ungulu gets hammered by two trained veterans, the woodsmen throw spiritual weapon spells, and the enemy wizard goes to hide and throw fireballs, only to get hit by one in return.

I cast fireball centered on myself
It looks like Ungulu is going down...so he decides to up the stakes and cry out to his patron the Exile (local equivalent of Satan and Nyarlathotep all rolled into one), offering his life and any the Exile should want to take to bring his brother Harald back to life. And casts a fireball on himself, three opponents, Barak, Barak's pet boar Zendod, party wizard Guy and party fighter Shams.

After the blood rite, a detonation of hellfire claims the mountain top and all the baddies (including Ungulu) and Zendod expire. Guy, you couldn't make it to the session, so we hope your wizard could take 26 fire damage.

And in a corner of the field, Ungulu's 'silence-sworn novice' (disguised zombie) wakes up and takes his first breath since years.

Aftermath
I had NOT expected this kind of action when I plopped down some spies on a mountain top! But hidden character goals are a wonderful thing, and Ungulu with his many intimidating moments may have been one of those stars that shine twice as bright and twice as short. Also, his player has joyfully gone through four different characters by now, which is actually a bit under par for him.

As the party picks through the Arraynian spies' encampment, they all talk about Ungulu's unfortunate end. Shams the Dwarf finds one opponent still alive and drags him out of sight of bloodthirsty Pyrrha so the poor guy can clamber down the mountain in the dead of night. Pyrrha nonetheless tracks him down for even more information about the spies and their goals...and lets the man go.

Harald collects Ungulu's burnt and broken body and announces he will try to get his idiot brother back from the dead. This will likely take serious magic and deal-making, but the man seems convinced he can make that happen.

Barak, finally, unbothered by the raw emotion and skullduggery around him, loots:

• 1300 gp in gems, nondescript coins and easily-traded goods [2 equipment slots]
  
• a circlet with two gems that can be slid in front of one's eyes (magical) [0 slots]
  
• a very bare but well-made amulet with a closed eye engraved on the back (magical) [0 slots]
  
• edit: 2 packs of dense purple incense powder, and a shallow bronze hand bowl to burn it in. [1 slot]
  

Belswick 29 - Climbing Mt. Heresy

Last time in Belswick, our adventuring party joined the Eagle Lances of the Rock, a mercenary company that's fighting off the invasion by nasty, possibly heretical and definitely semi-French Arrayne in the south. To open a new route for the company, the party is to negotiate safe passage with the frost giants of the southern snake mountains. Off you trot.

Player comments in red, DM's notes in...teal?

Player-facing map of this path crawl. All connections take one day to walk (unless the random dice gods intervene). Dotted lines are hard-to-find paths, zig-zags are extra-hard climbs that take a Constitution save to avoid getting a point of exhaustion. The party mostly took the left-most branch (the Hinterlands), veering into the central path (High Mountains) by crossing from the Old Gate to the Ruined Tower. There are much more of those secret passages on the map, but they'll have to find those on their own :)

WHO WOULD ACCEPT THAT KIND OF SUICIDE MISSION?

• Guy Montfaulc, diviner wizard and occasionally afflicted with psionic blackouts ever since his youth
  
• Shams Metalgrog, dwarf and arcane knight looking for reasons to stay on the surface and not join her race's Downward Crusade
• Barak Sapat-Gromesh, holy warrior of the ...god? saint? Gormesh, and scout for Tyaak's Free Lances of the Rock. Rides a massive dire boar named Zendod, Orcish for "fluffy".
  Shams: I love how there's an orc word for "fluffy". That changes my whole way of looking at them.
  DM: versatile beast, that one. Riding animal, totem beast, bedroll, emergency ration...
  
• Pyrrha 'little red', wild girl of the small remnant of people that still follow the old ways. Big rages, summons flint weapons from the ground and flings dangerous magic around when "playing with people"
• Ungulu the Vulture, birdling cleric of the Order of Light and member of the Inquisition. Very interested in heresy perpetrated by the new religious order of "Zulin" in Arrayne

 

WHAT DID THESE LOONS GET  UP TO?

A good old-fashioned pointcrawl, that's why! I mapped out the region, gave them the choice between three routes to the Frost Giant fortress, and entrusted my fate to the dice. Out of the hill road (long, boring), the high mountains (short, dangerous) and the hinterlands (middle length, weird), the players choose weirdness. They buy rations and trust to their survival skills to find food and water.

Every day, the group elects someone to lead them, who then rolls for weather conditions and random encounters. Chaos, take the wheel:
Pyrrha: mini-map and random encounter rolls were a treat! Too bad that we didn't roll any of the really kooky stuff, but this still was a very interesting trip.

• Barak leads the group out on the road to the Quarry and further into the hinterlands, gets them lost a couple of hours out of mercenary HQ because of cruddy encounter roll. Extremely steep climb means half the party is exhausted. Worse still, it started raining like hell because of crappy weather check. Only one character has thought to bring a tent. 
• Ungulu sneaks out in the middle of the night with his acolyte Harald. Catches a wild beast and sacrifices it to definitely not the Authority, asking to speak with "his brother". Such power is granted, and the normally almost entranced "Harald" becomes more animate, speaking to his brother of "the pain that this half-life causes him". Ungulu promises to sacrifice more often so he can talk to Harald more. He is warned that the price will increase. Just this once, he will agree to bleed himself, and Harald slowly carves the sign of a key into his brother's palm. The party notice when Ungulu and Haralad come back all bloody from their "prayer" (lucky perception roll!) but their religion check is low enough that they don't know what the key symbol means. Probably nothing bad.
• Barak: no-one is who they seem in this party. What the hell is this guy's deal!
• DM: mad props for Ungulu. He's scary even for an inquisitor, he's got a dark secret and he's not afraid to show that at the table. Very fun to see the party come to grips with that.
• Pyrrha: the way he goes through characters (Mike the Druid - Sydney the Sorceror - Morrti the Artificer - Ungulu the Inquisitor), he has to, or those secrets never make it into the session ;) But definitely a highlight: very dark, foreboding and emotional.
  
• Next day the weather is better, and the party makes it to their first marker on the map: the Quarry. Here the blue-lipped workers are hard to distract and hard to stop talking when they start. The foxling overseer is happy to sell the party canvas for tents at a mark-up if they help make dinner. He gives them directions: continue to the Dwarf Farm, detour to the Cloven Oak (a lightning-struck tree), or take a short cut into the Raging Gorge in the high mountains. The group rests up and decides to go for the Cloven Oak.
• Barak takes the opportunity to tell the story of his patron saint Gormesh, who preached to the Orcs and was struck by lightning but finished his sermon before exploding. He'll tell it daily or more this session.
• Barak: Man I love playing this guy and coming up with his one-liners. Bless me with your lightning!
• Pyrrha: keep the Flemish accent!
  
• The climb to the oak is pretty doable, and the party meets up with the purple-robed beetlefolk acolyte Hannah of the Order of the Scroll, who is gathering old folk tales and who wanted to see the lightning-stricken oak. Apparently it's almost the anniversary of an old lightning spirit casting its might at the tree, and she'll hang around a couple of weeks to see if anything happens.
• The party wake up at night to an atmosphere charged with electricity, and see Hannah performing a ritual with copper at the cloven oak. Shams gets her to confess that she's not tale-gatherer but a minder of this sleeping godling: she has to finish the ritual and ground the tree before the godling can awaken!
• Touching the tree, the party get the idea that a proper offering might bring...attention. Shams places her family greatsword in the cleft, Guy sets a child's doll, Barak leaves a trusted handaxe,...and Pyrrha, Harald and Ungulu all climb into the tree. Pyrrha wants to use her magic power to draw the lightning, Ungulu wants to give of himself to bring Harald back to life. Hannah is FRANTIC at this heretical ritual, but cannot stop the group.
• Ungulu: let's face it, Shams intimidated the shit out of her. Who is that dwarf really? One moment she's having her familiar heal the wounded, then it's browbeating beetlelings. I thought I was the scary one.
• DM: he is. Fuck does that vultureling inquisitor scare me.
  
• Lightning strikes! I roll a sick amount of damage and call for saving throws: everyone lives, but the tree-dwellers take a solid 40-something lightning damage. All the gifts evaporate under the discharge...including Pyrrha's magical abilities! Her spells, cantrips and especially her power to call weapons out of the earth are gone. In return, everyone has resistance to lightning for a month. And Harald? Harald looks a bit more present, a bit more focused. He's still pretty quiet...probably because he chooses to now. There's a bit of lightning deep in his eyes.
  
• Ungulu: thanks so much to Guy for using his daily prophetic insight to improve my aweful dex save. Sadly even the higher result wasn't enough to avoid getting fried.
• Pyrrha: my previous character Tilly the Dealmaker would LOVE to find out that the group has been indulging in a little heresy on the side.
• DM: yeah, we should play a one-on-one session soon and find out how "retirement as an abbot" is treating Tilly. 
  
• The group continues south, finding a short cut (lucky encounter roll!) as the weather turns fair. Shams leads the group past a still (moonshine made by the farm hands) and takes a small keg for a couple of gold pieces. She then takes the group to the Old Gate past the Dwarf Farm. Here the group finds five orcs in a hunting band, who are pretty sick after pestering an old lady at the Crystal Lake one day out. The party shares their own food and makes friends.
• Pyrrha: Poor Shams. "I don't know what to do with my life anyway - oh hey, alcohol!"
  
• On the next morning, Guy decides to lead the party not ahead to the Waterfall but into the high mountains, where he has spied a Ruined Tower through his familiar's eyes. Halfway the grueling climb it starts to rain again, then hail and lightning break loose: clearly they're in danger! Guy pulls up a magic dome of force that will keep out pretty much anything for eight hours. Barak stares at the lightning - did he tell the group about how his patron saint handled lightning? - and Pyrrha marvels at the dome and her own complete lack of magic.
• The next day, the group completes the killer climb up the mountaint (by amazing rolls, no-one got exhausted!) and meets a bunch of...woodsmen? at the top, sheltering from the last of the storm in the Ruined Tower. "'ello? Oo are vous?", their leader calls out.
  
  "Shit, did we cross into Arrayne?"
  DM: We'll find out next session!
  

...DM, while writing up this log: fuck, only NOW does the little part of my brain that runs Hannah the Beetle realise that she saw a heresy-hunting Inquisitor participate in a witch rite to get power from some old god! I'm sure that won't come back to haunt the group.

Belswick 28 - junior mercenaries

Last time in Belswick, the players fought off assassins at the wedding of lord Haine Kerjules the Hedgehog and Olga the Widow - not succeeding in saving either of them (although in Olga's case, she'd been dead for a few years already). Now under the control of Haine's son Silas, fiefs Crossroads and Culfield are preparing to join the war of wider Belswick against southern Arrayne.

update: now with loot / gifts

 

CHARACTERS

• Guy Montfaulc, diviner wizard and occasional haver of psionic blackouts (player sadly not present this session)
  
• Shams Metalgrog, dwarf and arcane knight looking for reasons to stay on the surface and not join her race's Downward Crusade
• Lomin Mor, elf rogue, disgraced former noble and longtime impersonator of the Lady Olga of Culfield after she passed away, to avoid a useless nephew inheriting the fief (leaves the group at least temporarily this session)
• Barak Sapat-Gromesh, holy warrior of the ...god? saint? Gromesh, and scout for Tyaak's Free Lances of the Rock (new character of Lomin's player)
  
• Pyrrha 'little red', wild girl of the small remnant of people that still follow the old ways. Big rages, summons flint weapons from the ground and flings dangerous magic around when "playing with people"
• Ungulu the Vulture, birdling cleric of the Order of Light and member of the Inquisition. Very interested in heresy perpetrated by the new religious order of "Zulin" in Arrayne
  

THIS SESSION

Young hedgehogling Silas is a different ruler than his father, and the PCs find themselves out of favor. The old Kerjules' house wizard Guy is summarily dismissed after failing to save his lord, Lomin Mor no longer has his lady's ear (and wig, and dress), and it seems no-one has any more ties to Crossroads.

After the old lord and lady's funeral, they decide to head south to follow up on an invitation from Tyaak the eagle, a noble son setting up his own mercenary band to fight in the war against Arrayne.

Before leaving, some last affairs to take care of. 

• Shams gets their former party member Abbott Tilbord to draw them a map of all the Du'van tombs in the area, and write a separate scroll with all the information the group has gathered on the old snake people. 
• Lomin says farewell to the group, telling them that he has personal affairs to take care of in Arrayne. He then talks to Bishop Urael - his brother - and asks him to go back to Arrayne together. Urael agrees, but will need to make a detour to the north first. Lomin then has the sword of assassin St. Etienne de Cours identified by Guy: it's a magic sword that bites extra hard when facing werewolves. Lomin - actually Azrael d'Arendil - gives the sword to Shams, and gifts Guy with a scroll of the Knock spell.
  
• Pyrrha puts her request to Silaw Kerjules: she was sent to inherit the estate of her brother Mike, which has reverted back to Silas after Mike's death. Silas will consider the request, if Pyrrha will spy on her companions and try to determine if they were connected to his father's death.

 

The trip is fairly quick and uneventful:

• in barony Walden, one meeting with a bog hag just east of Crossroads, who trades Ungulu one happy memory for a secret of a person he can name. He describes his summoning spirits of the damned to lay waste to assassins at the wedding, and she's surprised to discover that he actually considers that a happy memory! In return...well, Ungulu just walks off and says he'll be in touch.
• in barony Corsewall, one ambush by three giant spiders that quickly get turned into meat for dinner; Ungulu and Pyrrha whip out spices and pans and turn the ghastly things into a proper meal.
• in barony Nether Stowey, one encounter with celebrating monks of the Circle of Thorns, celebrating nature's bounty with all kinds of meals. Pyrrha gives them a bit of the spider meat and they bless her with one use of Inspiration.
• in barony Ballumbie, one encounter with a trio of bog mummies bearing the holy symbol of the Order of St Vivione the healer; they appear to warn people away from a plague that has vanished over 80 years ago. The group easily outpace them.
• in barony Ballumbie, one charge by an enormous boar bearing an even bigger Half-Orc - the group get ready to roll initiative, when we introduce Lomin's new character: Barak Sarpat-Gromesh, a scout of Tyaak's and a holy warrior of Gromesh. Ungulu immediately wants to know - he is talking about the Authority, yes? But of course! 

Barak takes the group up to the Eagle's Eyrie: a steep climb of stairs and slopes going up maybe a kilometer from the valley below to a rock outcrop bearing five tall towers. You can take the place by force, if you can fly or have a lot of people to spare for the inevitable bombardment on the stairs.

Inside the castle:

• Tyaak welcomes the party - he actually knows all of them: Shams and Guy met him in the mildly heretical Devil's Ring tournament half a year ago, and young Pyrrha (about 16) and devout Ungulu participated, what, 10 years back?
  
  
• Tyaak explains that his mercenary troup, the Eagle Lances of the Rock, will undertake fast raids behind enemy lines rather than slogging it out with the Arraynians.
  
  
• The Eagle Lances have had a couple of setbacks: surprisingly well-coordinated tactics without flags or horns in a confrontation outside Lissecourt to the south, and a band of negotiators with the mountain giants getting eaten while negotiating a back passage into Arrayne.
  
  
• The PCs decide to join the Eagle Lances, stipulating that they do have other obligations. As long as those don't collide, they'll work for Tyaak to the best of their ability. Barak will join them as scout on their first mission: arrange safe passage for the Eagle Lances of the Rock from the ice giants of the southern Snake Mountains!
  
  
• Pay: 4 gp / week, plus 25% of all ransoms and loot that the party acquires during their adventures. Ungulu waves this pay for an as of yet unspecified future favor.

 

LOOT AND GIFTS

• Pyrrha: Inspiration (advantage on one d20 roll) for celebrating the feast of nature with monks of the Circle of Thorns
• Guy: scroll with the Knock spell
• Shams: +1 longsword, +2d8 damage to werewolves, belonged to Ser Etienne de Cours
  

Belswick 27 - wedding crashers

Last time in Belswick, my players worked their way through a wedding between two local nobles (one being their patron, the other an alter ego of one of the PCs). After getting a leading member of the Inquisition out of the way with a good dose of purgatives, their way is clear to a relaxed wedding dinner...until a band of assassins crashes the party and shoots their patron in the chest. Wartime is a bitch and all those nobles together were a juicy target. It's a party! 

This 'red wedding' session was very much inspired by Yames Young's If you Love your World, Set it Free - sometimes, you need to shake up the comfortable little world your players have built (and that you loved to build for them). War was already visible as backdrop a couple of sessions; now it's come to their doors and cost them a patron. I'm very curious to see how they'll respond.

 

OUR BEST MEN AND MAIDS OF HONOUR

• Guy the wizard - human diviner of the Lodge of Augurs, player absent due to real life. Missed you man.
• Lomin Mor the rogue - elf sneakthief and secretly a big softie with a heart of gold. Which he probably stole somewhere.
• Pyrrha the barbarilock - young human girl raised by...well, we'll get into that at some point, but for now this tiny redhead is raging and throwing warlock spells.
• Shams Metalgrog - dwarf fighter noble from the Deepward Crusades, not-so-quietly looking for a good way to stay in the surface lands.
• Ungulu the inquisitor - vultureling cleric of the Authority and the Order of Light. Which means fire. Which means godawful murder spells and a more intimidating demeanor than the fucking warlock. Love it.

 

Ungulu, Cleric of the Authority

PLAYER SUMMARIES AND RESPONSES

UNGULU
Great session! Even waiting for my turn there was never a dull moment. Great job by the DM.

Highlights: Lomin ending up in the thick of the fight sacrificing his healing potions to NPCs? Where's the real Lomin?? (Then after the fight he starts looting. Aaannd he's back)
Shams - how often can you miss people with a greatsword?
Pyrrha - using your decapitated enemy like a pillow to sleep off the post-rage exhaustion? Genius.
Ungulu, to guard: "No authority, you say? I AM THE AUTHORITY."
DM: good job playing all the different NPCs, exciting combat, fun interactions and everything that happened was connected.

PYRRHA
Yes, very cool session. I get that the DM was a bit anxious to run it, but it was very good. Maybe you felt like you were endlessly flipping back and forth in the Monster Manual, but it really wasn't an issue. You had cool enemies on the board and a lot of interesting and impactful actions.
The assassin sticking with Kerjules again, and again...wow.
The intrigue during and after the fight, delicious! There are big changes coming
Lomin turns out to have had a real relationship with Olga. Big softie indeed!
Shams out of armor seems completely out of her comfort zone. And also personally hit by this attack and eager for revenge.
Ungulu, sweet lord! Burn em, rip their chests open, judge them all.. let someone else sort em out
Pyrrha could wade in and do her thing - targets softened up by fireballs go down nice and fast 😌

Very curious to see what this will all lead to. Looking forward to next game!

SHAMS
Super cool session with lots of different aspects. Applause for the DM, because there were a lot of NPCs to keep track of 👏🏼
Great roleplaying by the players, lots of intense but quiet conversation.
Shams is very disappointed. Big failure with her sword. So all the accusations from around the village have wormed their way into her head. And losing the old Kerjules is a big let-down. Especially now Kerjules the younger seems to go the war mongering way of the White Rose followers. I hate revenge, so let's look up those people.
Shams is not feeling like hanging around Crossroads for much longer. Her original mission of setting up a trade route is complete, so she's free to go her own way.
After seeing them in action, Shams is a big fan of Urael and Ungulu. Clearly first impressions don't tell the whole story.
Let's see if we can stop this war. Step one, the White Rose's followers.
That is, if we're not going to hell first. Welcome back Ricky!

This new d20 (a holiday present from my wife) went on an absolute murder spree this session.

THIS GAME, MAN

I'll admit, I wasn't feeling it before the game started. I'd just sprung an assassination attempt on a wedding party at the end of last session. Great cliff hanger, but it involved about 16 different NPCs, most with their own stat block. All represented by paper minis on a Dwarven Forge build, streamed over crappy video...it was going to be a lot of work and I was really knackered from work.

Of course, then the webcam conked out completely. Fuck you, microsoft livecam. But on the plus side, it meant I had to run the entire combat theatre of the mind style. That sure got me going! Old school baby. Well, old school with camera photos over whatsapp. Next time I'll try and use the phone as a webcam with iVcam.

 

THIS GAME

Long combat. Surprisingly cool to run; there were a lot of little roleplaying moments I could tuck in there. Sure, it ran to 2/3rds of the session, but it was fun!

Some highlights:

• Shams dispelling the targeting beacon on Ungulu with a fist in his stomach. That sabre-wielder would have fucked him up. Of course karma means that she then hits absolutely no-one with her zweihander (summon weapon is key if you have to check your murdertools at the door) for the rest of the combat...so sorry!
• Peter Walden, Hedgehogling noble, pulling the feet from under some thug on the banquet table, critting and breaking dude's neck
• Peter's new wife Liselle trying to bodycheck her very spiky husband into another thug
• Lomin Mor, Lomin EVERYTHING NOT NAILED DOWN IS MINE Mor, dancing past the entire mass of enemies to pour healing potion after expensive healing potion down his liege's throat
• Lomin's older brother, bishop Urael, surreptitiously helping out in the fray with sagitta arcana spells (dog latin for Eldritch Blast, a very warlock and very heretical spell). Not that any of the party saw, but the players definitely took note :D
• Pyrrha, new at this wedding shit and not impressed so far, ripping a flint greatsword out of the very earth and lopping off heads left and right. Biggest kill: Ser Etienne de Cours, a displaced knight whose family held holdings in Ozillac; an Arraynian barony before Belswick took it as recompense for the last war
• Lightning bolts from an invisible mage (greater invisibility is murder) laying down scores of wedding guests
• Ungulu, already a fairly creepy cleric, popping Spiritual Guardians. "Four white-robed spirits weeping blood rise from the earth and attend me. I go down everyone in the room: ignore, damnation, damnation, ignore...for now, damnation, damnation..."

In the end, the party prevents most of the collected nobles from being killed. They don't save everyone though: Haine Kerjules, Hedgehogling lord of Crossroads, sighs his last. While the entire band of knights, thugs, clerics (and what was up with that "For the White Rose" and "In the Name of Zulin" shit anyway?) and rogues gets mowed down by the group, one lone assassin buries his swords in Kerjules' chest up to the hilt. And again, because there's Lomin with the healing potions, and again...and then a couple of lightning bolts cut across the room, finishing the old knight.

Busy map. Even busier to run this theatre of the mind because the webcam broke.

CHASE

A pop in the air signifies the invisible mage has teleported away, and the chase is on through dark Crossroads. Guy leads the way with his diviner mentor Fergus, intuiting tracks and finding a bolted-shut shack with ritual chanting coming from inside. Pyrrha and Shams try but fail to knock down the door, and Ungulu gives it the last push with bright light focused into fire. Right before the enemy wizard can walk through a just-opened teleportation circle, the party's old cleric Tilbørd becomes visible behind him and whispers a word, stunning the mage. Ropes come out as the circle flickers and fails.

 

GOODBYE

In the feast hall, old Lady Olga of Culfield lies down next to her new husband and says goodbye to him and to Lomin. Olga was formally still in mourning for her original husband Malcer. And frankly it's a bit of puzzler how she's here at all, because Olga has been dead for years; her old friend Lomin has been taking her place to keep an incompetent nephew from controlling the fief. Lomin's bishop brother Urael has somehow managed to bring the real Olga back for this one wedding day. Lomin says his goodbyes - again.

 

INTERROGATION

We skip a couple of days. Haine's son Silas, now lord of Crossroads and Culfield, takes charge. The mage-assassin is in his dungeon; new knights are being elevated and war taxes are raised even further than before. Old Haine's court wizard Guy and his mentor Fergus are dismissed as useless conjurers of tricks. The party, formerly friends at court, are looked at as failures by the new strongmen assembled by the young hedgehog. Worse, there's dark mutterings about Guy and Lomin's slight Arraynian accents...are they working for the enemy?

And in the middle of all that, Pyrrha and Ungulu stride up to the dungeon, scare the guard witless and have a fifteen minute talk with the captured wizard. We fade to black and they get the information that southern Arrayne, newly at war with Belswick, is behind the attack.

More information: Zulin is the god of a newly elevated sect within the Church; the True Authority, it is claimed. (Heresy!) Finally, the White Rose was the name of a young Arraynian lady knight in the last war with Arrayne.

FROM HELL

As the PCs sit in the Crossroads inn, mourning and nursing wounded egos, they discuss where to go next. Suddenly, the flagstones begin to shake and smoke fills the air. A sinkhole opens up under the table and reddish-yellow light flares up. In the smoke, a shadow of what comes from below can be seen. Giant horns curving back over the skull, a tail snaking back and forth, clawed hands and bat wings flapping. The shadow grows. Cries of anguish sound from beneath. PCs cower behind furniture.

Up rises...Ricky the Imp, Shams' 1 foot high familiar whom she sent out to get One Answer from Hell (five remaining) a few sessions ago!

They really deserved a hope spot. Of course he had to open his mouth. Anguished: "you're all going to hell!"

 

SPOILS OF WAR

• some 300 gold worth of coins and gems in hidden pouches
• the magic sword of Ser Etienne de Cours, not identified yet

 

THE ENEMIES

All from the Monster Manual NPC section, with small changes:

• Priest, leveled up to lvl 7 for a Stone Shape escape spell (not used)
• 2x Acolyte, for spell support, blessings and minor healing
• Knight, for buffing attack rolls
• Veteran, bodyguard to the Knight and secondary anchor for the front line
  
• 2x Thug, support fighters
• Assassin, for taking down the noble targets
• Spies, support assassins
• Mage, with level 5 swapped out for Teleportation Circle and a level 4 for Evard's Black Tentacles (not used)
  

Belswick 26: getting married

Last session in Belswick, our heroes escaped the collapsing lair of Xiximanter the Serpent Lich, hired a bunch of dwarves to turn it into a quarry for dressed stone and take care of their affairs in the villages of Crossroads, Culfield and Witmarrow, and blast to kill themself out of existence experimenting with Xixi's horrible fungal cloning chamber. This session, it's wedding time as Lomin the rogue's alter ego Olga gets married to Lord Kerjules the Hedgehog!

NEW CHARACTERS

Last session Morti the Artificer blew himself up and Tilbord the Cleric/Bard/Warlock/Abomination actually retired as an abbot and teacher of the new Open Book orphanage in Crossroads!

This session we see these players' new characters: wild and fey Pyrrha, wearing a sun dress, wolf-pelt cloak and conjuring arcane fire and flint weapons; and vulture-faced Ungulu the Cleric of the always understanding, always friendly Order of St Kurelda of the Light - the Inquisition. They have ties to both Lord Kerjules and Mother Iranelle of the order of light, which is enough to get them forced on the party! Ungulu brings with him a fellow Acolyte of the Light, one Harald who took his vow of silence so serious he cut out his own tongue.

LOOSE ENDS

Guy the wizard wasn't present for last session's haven turns, so we handle those now. He has regained control of his magic as something clicks in his mind and his graps of psionics fades...for now. He spends time recovering from this childhood-affliction grown stronger and exchanges letters with fellow student Ylaine de Nantres in Arrayne, who has spotted Guy's sister Josephine. But didn't Guy talk to her on the Isles of the Dead back at the beginning of the campaign??

Catching up with his mentor Fergus, Guy presents the spellbook of Xiximanter, which contains one very dangerous, very heretical spell banned by the Church of the Authority: Plane Shift. Both understand what they have in hand: a one-way ticket to they pyre. After coded correspondence with their August Lodge of Augurs and Diviners, Guy's remaining college debt of about 45000 gp is erased, he gains a nominal 4000 gp reward for the spellbook, and a position as Ardent Seer and Adept of the Lodge worth 30 gp/month!

We zap back to the end of last session, when Shams, Guy, Lomin and Tilbord each got woken up by the shattered ghost of Brent the Cloned Bandit! It's a bit of a struggle, but they manage to defeat the ghost wearing nothing but nightshirt and hastily scrounged weaponry. The last of this guy, hopefully?

WEDDING TIME

It's time to get married! Lomin has been playing the role of long-deceased Lady Olga of Culfield, who was a close friend and didn't have heirs or relatives who could inherit. Now Olga will marry Lord Kerjules of neighbouring Crossroads to cement the region against coming war with southern Arrayne.

We run through a couple of scenes during the wedding:

Tourney! Mostly good-natured archery, jousting and melee, until spurned inheritor Sir Drake Selbern steps up in his crude plate armor to insult the living daylights out of old, decrepid Lady Olga. This needs a champion to settle the guy once and for all. Eyes turns to Shams the Dwarf, but who steps up but newly introduced Pyrha wearing nothing more than a sun dress? It seems like an unfair battle, and it is - the barbarian girl absolutely demolishes Selbern as he hacks into her with his sword.

Wedding ceremony! The Crossroads church is packed as Bishop Urael - Lomin's brother - seals the two nobles in holy matrimony. Interestingly enough, both Olga and Lomin are seen in the church, a gift of the bishop. Afterwards, it's time to pay up: Urael wants the party to make sure Mother Iranelle of the Inquisition isn't present at the wedding dinner. After typical PC-debate, the group settles on tried and tested poison.

Reception and gift-giving, during which Lomin buys four potions of purgatives from Annabelle the potion maker, intimidating her with his knowledge of her link to the former goblin infestation in Xiximanter's tomb. Inquisitor Ungulu amuses himself intimidating a dozing guard at a cart - and discovers a hidden magic sigil below the wares. Before he can interrogate the guard, the guy disappears in a cloud of purple mist. Meanwhile the other characters each try to slip the old nun a dose. One attempt goes awry but two others via invisibility and sneaky disguise succeed, and soon the White Robe is waddle-running to an outhouse, not to return for the night...

Finally, a wonderful evening feast where the whole party is invited. Urael has one last gift to bestow: a dinner with the memories of the departed, to wish well and feel connected. It's a strange thing to see Olga dining with her dead husband Malcer, to see the shades of Brent the bandit and Vedric von Vermis the wizard harrassing Tilbord in a corner, for always-glib Lomin to have a tearful heart-to-heart with his murdered fiancee Valanthe, and for Guy to speak to his dead sister ("do not mistake the medium for the message").

Then a group of servers walks in from opposing doors and denounces these heretical proceedings in the name of unknown Zulin. Strange angelic creatures covered in wings and eyes start to swirl around their leader, before Guy dispels the cloud and Ungulu lobs a cleansing fireball into the mass - but not before one of the group shoots Lord Kerjules in the heart with a poisoned bolt. The hedgehogling goes down, frothing at the mouth - and that's where we'll continue next session!

Belswick 25: killing PCs during downtime

Last session in Belswick, the players vanquished Xiximanter the Lich and finally cleared the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. Hoorah! Now they deal with the aftermath in a length downtime session, which ends with a double botch and sudden PC death. I already ran part of this haven turn for two players in a mini session for 2 players; this time, we pick up with almost the entire group - our wizard couldn't make it.

 
IN CROSSROADS AND BEYOND, war with Arrayne is in full swing. Soldiers pass through, taxes are raised and whispers talk of dangerous spies from the southern kingdom. Crossroads fares well: the town has grown since winter with new shops and inhabitants who are turning the town into a supply point for the war.

THE PARTY STARTS OUT in the lab of Xiximanter the Lich in the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. As the roof starts to crumble and collapse, Tilly races to rescue as many artifacts and books as he can. Helped by Shams, he saves a few books, but heavy rocks knock the talking alchemy set containing parts of Xiximanter's soul out of his hands. Choosing wisdom over valor, the pair exit the collapsing lab. The rest of the tomb seems stable enough.

INVESTIGATING THEIR HAUL, the party puts the following on the table as Tilly manages to wrench their secrets out of the ether with identify spells:

• Ring of Spell Storing, 5 levels max, requires attunement, 2500 gp
• Bag of Holding, weighs 2 inventory slots and can contain 20, 1200 gp
• Potions of Healing: 2x greater (100 gp each, 4d4+4) and 1x superior (500 gp, 8d4+8)
• Xiximanter's Alchemist's Stone: one use as level 14 Transmutor (heal & cure of inflictions, revive, give youth), 2000 gp
• 3 Tuning Forks for the rare and discouraged cleric spell Plane Shift (wizards don't get this spell, or any other of level 7 or higher; those simply don't exist), total value 750 gp

Xiximanter's Spellbook in Du'van, worth 3250 for the spells alone and at least double that to the right collector - Order of the Scroll, Order of Light or Lodge of Augurs & Diviners:

1. detect magic, shield, thunderwave
2. acid arrow, detect thoughts, invisibility
3. counterspell, dispel magic
4. dimension door, polymorph
5. cloudkill, scrying
6. contingency, programmed illusion
7. plane shift

LOMIN the Elf Rogue talks to lord Haine Kerjules about the lord's upcoming wedding to Olga of Culfield - Lomin's alter ego. Lomin confesses he has been playing Olga's role since she died 2-3 winters ago. Kerjules is distraught - if this comes out, his name is ruined! Without asking for huge bribes or favours, Lomin suggests that "Olga" can pass away soon after the wedding, making sure that the secret is safe.

There is a sickness in fief Culfield. Animals and serfs are winded and lightheaded - bad air from Witmarrow swamp? Manuel the steward, haggard and pale, gives Lomin a letter "for the priest". He explains he doesn't know what's inside or who gave it to him. He explains he was assaulted on Candle Night and given this missive for Tilbord. Lomin promises to take the letter to Tilly, as Manuel is working day and night to pay the war taxes and keep the estate running.

Lomin's brother Urael, roving bishop in the order of the scroll, visits Lomin with a proposal. Not only is Urael looking into Azrael--sorry, Lomin's claim that he was framed for murder by their own brother, he can help make the wedding go smoother. Urael is willing to use magic to make it seem that Lomin and Olga are both present at the wedding. No price is discussed.

SHAMS THE DWARF ELDRITCH KNIGHT gets her armor and shield repaired, is inducted into the Marble Library of the dwarves by her aunt Tole, and visits potionmaker Annabelle to stock up on healing potions. Weirdly enough, the potionmaker doesn't seem to recognize Shams or remember her being rescued from the bandits in the Serpent Tomb. (For that matter, where did that Annabelle go?)

TILLY THE BARD/CLERIC/WARLOCK is busy starting up his orphanage in fief Crossroads. He is happy to get help from the nun Moira the mouseling of the Order of the Scroll. Tilly's mentor Father Eustace has been having trouble taking care of the Sleeping Priest Hieronymus in the northern woods. Luckily, Mother Iranelle of the Order of St Kurelda is passing through to lend an hand. Always fun to talk with the inquisition when you're an arch-heretic!

Iranelle's titanic bodyguard is one of the dreaded Scarlet Guard of the Archbishop Hector himself. Its armor reminds Tilly of a deviant design powered by stolen souls he once saw, but when he tries to investigate, the guard cruelly grasps Tillys hand and shoves him back, hand on the hilt of his enormous greatsword.

MORTI THE GNOME ARTIFICER is busy investigating the resurrective sarcophagus left in the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. He wants to turn it into a walking tank with parts scavenged from his clockwork rhinoceros Uni. It turns out that there are control gems missing. "Crucial control rods missing", hiss the Du'van serpent folk runes; "continue anyway?"

By happy accident, Lomin has found a couple of the gems "in the dirt" and is willing to sell them to Morti. Together with the wizard Fergus the Augur - Guy's mentor, now happy that his tower can finally be built with stones from the Tomb - Morti manages to create enough copies of the control gem to repair the sarcophagus.

Gems in hand, the gnome returns to the Tomb of the Serpent Kings to finish his new invention. The dwarves quarrying there are eager to get the gnome and his foolish contraption out of the way! Which side of the crystals goes where though? Messing around, Morti rolls poorly and gets zapped with arcane energy. As he flips the gems around, I ask him for one last Arcana check - with advantage, because he's been very careful so far.

Morti's first Arcana roll is a 1. Red light begins to glow inside the sarcophagus, quickly shifting up via orange, yellow and green to blue-ish purple. From behind him, Morti's almost-intelligent Green Book of Inventation mutters "oh no, and this one was showing such promise..." Luckily, advantage means you get to roll twice and keep the higher!

Morti rolls...a second 1. The jagged light from the sarcophagus quickly dopplers beyond violet straight into a blinding flash of octarin...and as the light fades, the entire room is empty.

Morti's player had told me he was interested in trying out a new character. We weren't quite ready yet to make the switch, but a double botch like that with an ancient arcane device has to be rewarded somehow! Goodbye Morti, I would have loved to see more of you. And maybe we will? After all, they didn't find a body...

As we start to fade to black, a last scene. Everyone is in their respective bed sleeping or trancing, as a raspy whisper curls into their ears. "You bastard...you killed me! Not once, not twice, but thirty times!"

Standing at the foot of each bed, half transparent with hate-yellow eyes and bearing the wounds of all the executions his clones were put through, is Brent the Bandit, cloned and murdered and now back from the dead one last time to get his revenge!

PLAYER QUOTES

SHAMS

• Tilly thinking that knowledge is much more important than his life. Bit of a bother if you think about it.
• Morti and Tilly are exactly the same. That gnome - by the Authority, if I find him I'll hit him until his eyes are straight again...
• Good job by the dwarves setting up the trade house. Trade route already good for Witmarrow. But the war is showing the rotten parts of society.
• Oh yeah, and a wedding - little culture shock there, I've never seen so much hubbub about a simple contract.

TILLY

• Morti surviving a fight with a lich to then disappear himself with an experiment. Seriously, double 1 on a roll with advantage...it's a gift. 😂😭
• Tilly staying in the background during the lich fight only to risk his life to save a book as the ceiling caves in.
• Shams is the only hero in the group, and her imp the only paladin 😂 Thanks for saving me!
• Lomin scrambling to get control of his shady business and ending up richer once again.
• Big changes in Crossroads, interesting! And more big changes to come. Marriage. War. Bring it!

LOMIN

• Hilarity ensues. And shenanigans.
• Thank Shams for tagging along with Tilbørd, or else it would have been a double casualty today. Although of course there was also a succubus around to lend a manicured hand.
• Morti surviving Xiximanter the lich to die as he sticks his fingers into the wall plug...
• DM: you have advantage on this roll!
• Morti: great, only I rolled double ones...
• Lomin was in great form. Loved the little talks with Kerjules & Urael, but also with Morti & Baphomet / Annabelle.

MORTI

• Great session!
• Morti's double 1 - nuff said
• Tilly is going to retire.... No more soul training of deal making?
• Lomin plays a real rogue
• Shamms saves Tilly, well done!

POTIONS THAT ANNABELLE CAN BREW

Common recipes: 50 gp each
comprehension, false life, hate, healing 2d4+2, heroism, love, sovereign grease, ventriloquism

Uncommon recipes: 100 gp each
breathlessness, burrow, clairvoyance, darkvision, energy resistance (one element), fire breath, giant size, glibness, greater healing 4d4+4, hide from animals, hide from undead, levitation, magic weapon, purge poisons, shrink, speak with beasts, speak with birds, speak with crawling things, speak with fish, speak with plants, spider climb, tongues, transposition, water breathing

Rare recipes: 500 gp each
deep sleep, flight, gaseous form, haste, superior healing 8d4+8, invisibility, poison (DMG), sovereign glue, transformation: rat, transformation: salmon, water walk

Belswick interlude - One Question for Hell

"What the fuck happened to your family's armor and shield?"
"Black ooze. Don't ask."

In which my wife and I meet up with Tilly's player on a lazy Saturday to play their haven turns. This mini session of Belswick: heresy, devilish contracts, saying no to promotion, and sending the littlest paladin to Hell.

Last session in Belswick, the party made bone meal out of Xiximanter the lich, earning level 7 and two solid haven turns for all their trouble. This is how Tilly the cleric and Shams the eldritch knight spend that time:

TILLY convinces Baltoplat the Succubus (liberated from Xiximanter's tomb) to serve as his confidant and agent. Baltoplat will assume the guise of Moira the Mouseling nun of the Order of the Scroll and act as caretaker for Tilly's orphanage-cum-spy-school in Crossroads.

The price: one soul freely given for each year of service, or four souls captured through Tilly's infernal Soul Coin, or the contract is void and the devil is free to act as she please. The pair sign an infernal contract and tear it into two halves, each of which heals into the full text; Baltoplat hands one to Tilly and the other to a little notary imp in a monk's frock. If Tilly wants more services - like learning how to summon devils or binding imps, he will have to pay extra.

Then in a dark, dark rite, Tilly uses necrotic power to shear off his left hand, grafting on the Hand of the Betrayer instead. As a nice aside, this desecrates the old cemetary north of Crossroads, allowing entrance to his buddy Jacques Cousteau the Ghoul.

SHAMS returns to the neighbouring fief Witmarrow, where her Dwarf compatriots have built up a fortified trade house above an underground vault and barracks. From here they will trade advanced siegecraft and alchemy to Duchy Belswick in return for food and basic materials. Shams' aunt Tole arrives to stone shape-caulk any leaks in the cellar - and to tell Shams that she's done well, congrats, now accept a glitzy position as captain of a company on the Dwarves' Great Trek Down.

Shams, however, is very ready to turn her back on her race's mad dash into the depths: she wants to stay topside. Together with Tole she hatches a plan to be inducted into the loreseekers of Tole's Marble Library, which will give her an honourable way to stay in the sunlands. We run-skip past difficult discussions with Shams' family in the underground city of Holderhek and her oath of allegiance to the Marble Library.

On Tilly's behalf, Shams talks to the surface dwarf Doravik, a red-bearded miner from Copperstone contracted to get all the worked stone out of the Tomb of the Serpent Kings to build a wizard tower and other fortifications. Doravik is apprehensive at first when he sees the noble dwarf from the deep kingdoms, but warms up a bit after Tilly tells him that the knight actually likes it topside.

SHAMS AND TILLY catch up and discuss all the heretical things they've learned in the Tomb of the Serpent Kings. Tilly warns the Dwarf that this knowledge is enough to get her on the pyre and into Hell which is why he's been keeping it to himself. The Dwarf, however, wants to know what she's in for with this party. Tilly teaches her the Du'van tongue and she learns the following about the Tomb of the Serpent Kings:

• built by the long-dead Du'van (Serpent Folk) after they fucked up invading Heaven and killed the Creator. The top god is now an angel calling itself the Authority who set up the system of Hell and sin to keep souls from overrunning his meager excuse for a heavenly city. Many current-day devils and demons were hatched after the fall and think this is the natural state of affairs.
• Du'van remnants set up a colony of 6 tombs in current-day Belswick. Here they tried to revive their race, creating the Elves as a fleshy placeholder to keep the Du'van souls from damnation. This is pretty unique lore; Tilly thinks the party may be the only ones to know.

TILLY asks Shams to talk to her imp familiar Ricky. The little guy was imprisoned by a Du'van wizard way before the Fall, and is not-so-quietly appalled by the concept of sin and punishment that Tilly keeps trying to explain. Tilly wants Ricky to sneak into Hell and get some information out.

SHAMS can actually ask Six Questions to Hell as thanks for freeing Ricky. It turns out basic stuff like "who is this Count Naberius devil" or "is our buddy Mike in Hell" is a freebie; for her first real question, Shams wishes to know what is behind the new war between Kingdoms Pembroke (in which Belswick) and Arrayne to the south. Tilly tacks on the following to get a quick who-is-who / whereabouts of the following:

• Vorraak Soulbinder, a devil master of chains
  (thank god for Tilly's player's notes and memory; I'd totally forgotten about this one! Improv is nice, but you need to write it down or lose it...)
  
• Count Naberius, tamer of beasts
• Baltoplat the succubus
• Mike the druid

Shams gets the little imp a backpack full of pocket bacon before he leaves. After she signs the correct form, Ricky turns the parchment into a burning portal and dives into Hell.

RIGHT BEFORE WE END THE GAME, we find Tilly asleep as he dreams of a white-lit room, details hazy but reminiscent of Xiximanter's laboratory. Snake bones rattle on the tiles as the Serpent Mage slithers up. "You're interesting, monkey. We should talk."

Belswick 24: PCs 1, Lich 0

How does a lich manage to die at the hands of five level 6 rubes? Careful roleplay and following Keith Amman's advice, that's how! In The Monsters Know What They're Doing, Keith sets out how to have a lich lay waste to adventurers in style - but also explains how a lich's arrogance can have it make critical mistakes.

Last time in Belswick, we left the players in the rooms of Xiximanter the Serpent Mage. Dude has been hanging out in the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, experimenting on ways to improve living creatures, cloning them and bringing them back to life. Something to do with the entire Serpent Folk empire dying off after raiding Heaven.

The PCs just want to clear this hole in the ground of any trouble, so they can turn it into a quarry for quality dressed stone. Needless to say, this will end badly.

Terrain: Dwarven Forge Dungeon of Doom and Hellscape (pedestal of pain). Mini: D&D's Sul Khatesh

OUR HEROES

TILLY - cleric and bard of the Authority, illegal scholar of the Du'van Serpent Folk, Warlock of the Radiant Maiden, buddy to Baltoplat the Succubus, wooer of the nyad in the Boswitch Bathhouse, and friend to ghouls everywhere.
SHAMS METALGROG - Dwarf fighter with minor arcane powers and a powerful drive to break away from her people and build a life under the sun.
GUY - wizard of the Augurs and Diviners and (after weird dreams in his youth) sometimes psion. Currently locked in psion mode and slinging around acid, nightmares and telekinetic punches like they're on sale.
LOMIN MOR - Elf acquirer of unsecured shiny, rogue and (when donning dress and wig) the rightful ruler of Fief Culfield and about to get married when he gets out of this dump.
MORTI FIZZLELOT - Gnomish artificer with an unhealthy appetite for experimenting with Things Better Left Alone. Currently turning Xiximanter's fungal cloning device into a walking sarcophagus-tank.

HOW IT ALL WENT TO SHIT

Xixi clearly hasn't spoken to people for centuries - let alone scatter-brained weirdos like these five. While some PCs try to bluff and negotiate, others try to rob the lich blind while he can see them. It all turns nasty when the party psion shows his powers, Xixi tries to stuff the psion and cleric (possessed of weird Du'van magic) into a holding pen, and instead takes Morti's rocket axe to the face.

HOW I NERFED XIXIMANTER

• Because Guy the psion wriggled his acid-covered fingers through a macguffin in Xixi's lab, there go the lich's lair actions.
• Based on Keith Amman's post and earlier knowledge of just how much damage this party can dish out, I left Xiximanter his legendary actions and saving throws.
• I wanted a reason for Xixi not to whip out his high level spells at the first time of trouble, so I specified that his lich state is flawed (rooted in backstory that I'm not sharing yet). He takes 2x spell level damage whenever he casts a spell. His arrogance reinforces that: he doesn't need high magic to wipe the floor with these guys!

NOTABLE ACTIONS

• Xiximanter relying on 3 cantrips a month (for 15-20 damage each) in addition to low-level spells, before he gets needled enough to break out the big guns.
• Morti dealing 40+ damage in 2 attacks through judicious use of sharpshooter feat and magical axe.
• Xiximanter using Dominate Monster to turn that Gnome into a handy meat puppet to attack Shams.
• Shams rushing forward with a great two-handed blow of her non...that doesn't even scratch the lich's skull. Shams switching to arcane spells (lich going WTF is this,
• Guy smashing his psionics through Xiximanter's magical defenses like a hot knife through butter and getting Thunderwaved into a wall for his efforts - dropping to 0 hp with a beautiful concussion!
• Xiximanter going for his stash of healing potions - only to discover that Lomin has swiped them!
• Tilly the cleric inspiring and actually healing his allies! Shocked faces on the Skype call. Doppleganger! The end times are upon us!
• Xixi catching Lomin and Morti in a beaut of a Cloudkill.
• Lomin dropping his bow and igniting his Sun Blade to move toe to toe with the snake skeleton. Xixi's eye-flames growing WIDE with shock as he recognizes the ancient holy blade straight through Lomin's (expensive!) illusionary disguise for it, and burning Shield after Shield spell to avoid getting wasted by it. Then paralysing Lomin with a touch...only for a restored Guy taking him in a telekinetic grasp and crushing the lich's bones to dust.

PLAYER LIKES

GUY
Stealing a healing potion, making the lich cry because Guy wrecked years of work, Lomin actually charging in, killer axes, the Dwarf that burned the Lich with a cantrip.


MORTI
Lomin trying to pick a lich's locker with the guy not 10 feet away 👍🏻
Very cool combat with lots of nasty surprises!
Tilly didn't get the chance to cut a deal (no doubt he'll get another chance) but very useful with his hex curse.
Guy is scary just really really scary
Shams, just had to takea swipe at Morti for the command monster (serves him right 🤣). Also well-placed healing potion.
Damn that command monster was bad! But on the plus side now he can read the Duvan instructions on his cloning machine 😈


SHAMS
Lomin being on brand and wonderfully cheeky.
Awesome Lich. Delightful quirks 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Morti is a bad-ass.
Guy is squishy.
Tilly, damn you and your love for the Du'van.
Breaking Ricky out of that binding circle was my best choice yet. Including the decision to stick with this group.


LOMIN
What a wonderful villain. Especially him pointing Guy and Tilly to the holding pen: "well go on, jump in". Legendary. I was slightly less of a fan of his combat skills...
Morti the axe maniac in in full effect. Too bad he was fighting us this time! (Something tells me it's very good that Lomin was hidden out of sight...)
Tilbørd just not having the chops to close this deal. Amazing!
Shams getting blocked by Morti pretty hard, but good for her for not getting roasted by that cantrip. Ricky was very active, even if invisible most of the time.
Guy was mainly very, very scary. But luckily on our side.
And Lomin? He was very happy with all the distractions you caused. And a bit richer, even if he had to use a dust pan to gather up that broken gem...
Oh, one final hilarious moment: DM informing the group that the lich has 1 hp left after Lomin's suicide strike with the sun blade. Then unleashing murderous counter which leaves Lomin at...1 hp with a little help from Tilbørd 😅


TILLY
Deal was out the window when the entire party walked in with me 😅
Then again, walking up to that lich alone would have been... unpleasant 🤨

Highlights:
We could have had a flesh golem, IF the group didn't deal such a truckload of damage 🤣
We would all have been murdered by that lich, IF the group didn't deal such a truckload of damage 😆
The lich was perfect - enough brakes on his powers and in-character bad decisions to give us a chance, but still very, very tense. We were close to a TPK 😅

Guy is a walking nuke. Morti a railgun. Lomin has a lightsaber and a sniper bow. Shams is a steel-plated Swiss army knife - good luck trying to pierce that armor, while she comes after you with sword, hammer, magic and healing potions.

LOOT AND REWARDS

After finally clearing the Tomb of the Serpent Kings, the party hits level 7!

• Lomin snatched two focus crystals from two cobra statues projecting a wall of fire. One fell and shattered into 350gp worth of gem dust, the other is a fist-sized emerald worth 450 gp.
• Guy snatched Xiximanter's spellbook and Lomin swiped a bunch of stuff from a locked chest. To be IDd next session: 3 potions, a heavy bag of chainmail, a platinum ring in an ivory box, a multi-colored stone in an amulet, and three tuning forks of milky-white crystal, red-flecked iron and ruby-encrusted brass.
  

Lankhmar #2: thief! stop!

Session two in a second campaign to my main rural/medieval Belswick one. This one is a city campaign following the adventures of three people of the rogueish persuasion as they navigate the joys and perils of the great city of Lankhmar.

Lankhmar on the river Hlal, greatest city of Nehwon and home to uncountable secrets!

 

ADVENTURE

DCC Masks of Lankhmar, a two-part adventure by Dungeon Crawl Classics. I added material for my home game - will do a review after the group completes the module.

CHARACTERS

• XALO, nosy and curious gnome warlock with trouble understanding the concept of ownership; read a weird book once and is able to cast spells - and take someone's dying breath to strengthen herself.
• SIX BURDEN, half-drow rogue: a thin reed of an orphan who grew up in Lankhmar and knows every little shortcut through its mazy streets. Not a member of the Thieves' Guild, but surely that can only be a matter of time?
• BUNTY, half-orc druid who wants nothing more than to start a bakery and learn how to make the wonderful sour and hard-crusted bread she once got from a passing merchant.

SUMMARY

The trio convince Igris the Collector that they can prevent his beautiful new acquisition - a golden key - from being stolen by the Thieves' Guild; hatch a plan to stand watch during Igris' masqued ball; confront two thieves and their bodyguards from the Slayers' Guild; and are all horribly surprised when a third party takes the Golden Key from the supposedly impenetrable vault, leading to a wild chase across the city until their quarry mysteriously escapes from a walled-off alley. At least the characters manage to recover half of the Golden Key, which turns out to be hollow and contains a rolled up parchment inside...

HIGHLIGHTS

Xalo hatching a wildly complex plan to break into a bakery for the party's breakfast; Six Burden just waiting for the inevitable chaos and walking out with a still-warm apple pie.

The entire party subverting the module's plan ("you all meet in a cellar while you are trying to rob Igris the Collector") because I just had to insert a starting scene showing where the group got the intel for this heist in the first place. "Why don't we offer Igris to stop the thieves that are going to rob him instead?" They turned a heist into a castle defence scenario just like that!

Six Burden and Bunty tag-teaming Igris over second breakfast. They not only negotiate a reward of 20gp each when they manage to successfully prevent the robbery, but also secure longer-term employment as Igris' retrievers of other historical curiosities. Privately-employed thieves, the Thieves' Guild will love that... 

Bunty and Xalo negotiating side deals: 

• Bunty wants to talk with Igris' baker to see if that guy knows the origins of the sour bread Bunty craves (nope, but does know where it may come from: the bakers in either Kvarch Nar, Ool Hrusp or Sarheenmar, three of the Eight Cities across the Inner Sea.)
• Xalo wants access to Igris' library to see if there's any exciting magic to be found there. Instead, she gets a travelogue with handy phrases and sights across the long caravan route from Igris' home city of Kiraay, all the way to Lankhmar, to keep her busy during the stake-out later in the day.

Xalo sneaking off to inspect the new construction that will add to Igris' mansion; an octagonal tower laced with magical wards and conduits, all leading to a ritual chamber at the very top. It's going to be interesting to get in there when the tower is operational!

The party joining the masqued ball as servants, checking out the high and mighty coming to rub elbows:

• Igris the Collector, as be-turbaned vizier from his far city of Kiraay;
• Lord Rannash, a severe-looking man in leathers, a cruel helmet and a riding whip;
• Demoiselle Hisvin, the daughter of Hisvin the grain merchant; a platinum blonde wisp of a girl in sheer silks, silver chainlets and a rat's mask, and her dark-skinned, imperious servant woman in golden slave bands and a lion's mask;
• ...and many important looking merchants, sages, minor nobles and ladies and gentlemen of the night to keep them all company.

Xalo hiding under the stairs into the cellar, where the vault is. Cunningly, she uses her prestidigitation magic to mark the soles of the kitchen staff with an arcane sigil, so that she can recognize them coming down the stairs.

Nice reconnaissance by Bunty and Six Burden, who sniff out the two thieves Issek and Tovlis separately entering the grounds disguised as a merchant and as part a delivery party.

A cellar fight that could have gone very badly for the group, split up as they are; until Tovlis goes down under Xalo's life-stealing blade. The Gnome briefly hazes out and runs her dagger across the fallen thief's neck, while the words LET IT FLOW echo in her mind. Apparently this is a regular thing for her. Gnomes, man...

Rail-thin Issek decides to go for gold rather than combat and jumps through the magical fire ward that Igris had inscribed around the vault; opening the vault door, he then gets knocked on the head by someone hiding inside the vault - and running off with the precious Golden Key in hand! Bunty is nearest and sees the new intruder leave a jade, seven-legged spider in the vault before running off.

A foot chase across Lankhmar, in which the young woman clutching the Golden Key leads the party through the masses in the Street of the Gods, crashes through a glass pane carried by two Glaziers' Guildsmen, takes to the rooftops, then down and into the opium-haze of the House of Red Lanterns, finally to run south to the Plaza of Dark Delights before our heroes corner her near Tanitha's Pets, where a feisty jaguar from Klesh is trying to escape.

Six Burden manages to sic the jaguar on their quarry and it tackles the girl into an alley. When the group runs up seconds later, the jaguar is sitting on half a Golden Key, looking surprised at a fading doorway in purplish smoke on the alley wall. On the floor, next to it, is another jade carving of a seven-legged spider, and a mocking note that says no-one is clever enough to catch the Jade Spider - especially not a blundering half-orc, half-elf and gnome.