Black Box: La Llamada de los dioses – Session 4

With this post I'm going on with the campaign log of La Llamada de los dioses I'm refereeing for my regular game group at La Cofradía del rol, for previous campaign sessions you may read these links: #1 #2 #3

Character - Light Infantryman and Cleric by Matthew Hodgson (CC BY-NC 2.0)

As always remember you may find spoilers, so if you are playing the campaign or think about playing it you probably do not want to read more beyond this point (or perhaps you want, who knows).

As I explained in the last post of this campaing log characters meet god Eru and acepted the mission he proposed to them: recover his trident, a gift from his father Aegïr, which was stolen by some misterious and evil clerics and carried to a misterious island that does not appear in any known map.

After reaching the island thanks to the push given by Eru to the Sombra Rauda characters began to border its rugged coastline searching for a suitable place to anchor and examined the landscape appearing before their eyes: some mountaintops and woods. While sailing they could also obtain information about the outline of the mysterious island and some of its inner characteristics thanks to Kai ordering her eagle to fly over it (yes some characters have pets and can communicate with them: Kai has an eagle named Washi, Luna a vixen named Fuego and Meler a rat named Tachi).

Map made by Zonk PJ (Demonio Sonriente)

Finally they chose a beach in the north of the island, a place with the remains of a lighthouse, and went ashore using the boat they still kept. While investigating the zone they decided to send Washi and Fuego to the ruins, so it allowed them to discover that inside of the lighthouse were two halfling corpses and up from the structure was a human looking at them...

It was at this moment that the situation rushed and Morkhan, who certainly doesn't know to keep his mouth shut, began to shout and adress lighthouse occupants in a rude and arrogant way, which obviously did not please the man at the top, so he used his powers and launched its magic missile spell (yes, he is a magician) completely completely striking down the large and foul-mouthed cleric.

With the disadvantage of not having a cleric (not having healing spells and the chance of expelling undead) Luna tried to repeat the feat of the previous session (the misterious procedure that helped to save Morkhan's live), but this time it did not help at all, so the character finally died, will be a matter of making a new one.

Logo of Aventuras en La Marca del Este by Manu Saez

Seeing that the place could be dangerous (from the ruins of the lighthouse a pair of arrows were shot against the group without hitting them) they decided it was better to leave and continue sailing along the coast hoping to find some other place where they will be better received. After saying a last word for the soul of Morkhan (and some of the characters doing something that's better to keep it for himself ಠ_ಠ) they boarded the ship again.

After a few hours travelling and looking to the landscape before them, an apparently extinct volcanic cone, some mountains and a pine forest, they decided to go ashore again and explore this last one: an ancient and gloomy forest in which they felt observed from the first moment they went into it.

After walking a while inside it an arrow shot out from the depths of the forest and stuck in a tree nearby the characters. Soon after this appeared a mysterious hooded stranger and asked them about the reasons for their presence on the island, after assuring him they were peaceful people and didn't want to cause any damage the archer presented himself as Shar, an old white-bearded druid who arrived many years ago on the island along with others like him and explorers to establish a circle of worship. The circle was slaughtered by evil clerics of Penumbra and the stone circle was desecrated.

Speaking with Shar characters obtained the following information:

• The druid knows routes used by clerics of Penumbra to travel through the mountains and had hired mercenaris and orcs to patrol the island.
• The suspicion that something strange and terrible is hidden inside the volcano.
• The routes of mercenary and orc patrols.
• The sinking of the cleric's fleet carried out by a sea titan (of course by Eru) and since then cleric's surveilance had increased.
• Existence of a lizard men settlement in the marshes south of the island, clerics of penumbra had convinced them to collaborate in the island surveillance in exchange of various gifts.
• The danger hidden in the northern mountains, probably a basilisk because of the petrified remnants he discovered exploring.

Finally characters agreed with Shar that he wil go with them to explore the rest of the island and reach the gates of the cleric's hideout in exchange of helping him to recover the stone circle.

On leaving the forest they went into the clearing on which was located the stone circle and faced the cursed remains of the druids, converted into reanimated skeletons able to surprise emerging from the depths of earth. The battle that followed was intense (and missed the cleric ...), although they were careful to use water Morkhan blessed at the beginning of the session, which was to help them get rid of some of their enemies.

Back to pine forest they detected in time one group of orcs patroling the island, which enabled them to pass unnoticed climbing to the treetops. During the moments when they were hidden they could listen and read the orcs lips (yes, some also can read lips) and knew that something mysterious is wiping out part of the patrols.

Once safely in Shar's cabin characters have begun to plan their next moves, including a possible visit to the town of lizard men, so Heldenhammer is preparing a costume with mud, leaves and bark from trees.

What will happen in the next session?

As is customary to say:

To be continued...

The graphical elements of these post without proper credits are created with elements from

Freepik and Openclipart.

This entry it's also available in the following languages:
Castellano Català