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).
To write the chronicle of this session I was helped by Kris, who acted as assistant chronicler during its development.
We continue with the adventures in the campaign La Llamada de los dioses and Efrén joins us, he is a new player and a begginner in role-playing games who occasionally will be in charge of one of the playing characters ready to descend to the lower level of the underground complex where the evil followers of the dark god Penumbra are ready to satisfy his plans.
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| Tarot Cards by Glegle at Pixabay (Pixabay license) |
But before the group was prepared to carry on with the descent Kris wanted her character, Luna the half-elf, to take a chance with the deck of magic cards, so she drew one to see what fate had reserved for her goddess fortune (and for the record, now rolls will be a bit more random and complicated, because instead of using the table in teh campaign book I have created a matrix with all the outcomes and in which is necessary to make 2 D20 rolls to guess which card have been chosen... Yes, I know, I'm a little bit evil 😈).
The outcomes were the following ones:
- A sex change, going from being a female character to a male one (well, as Belacqua's character in the previous session).
- A strange brightness enveloping her without any other visible effect (at least immediately).
- A sex change, going from being a female character to a male one (well!, again).
- Loss of 6 hit points (well, with a character like Alanna it's not so worrying given she is strong and robust).
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| Brown Bird Duck by Clker-Free-vector-Images at Pixabay (Pixabay license) |
After experiencing these changes the group decided to recover from these so random emotions and rest a little before starting to descend to the lower level, so they tap to sleep after establishing the corresponding duty shifts and it was then when, in Belacqua and Luna's shift, what happened to the half-elf was discovered: at night she transforms into a duck... 😂
After this discovery, which obviously was object of a great number of funny comments by players, the group went downstairs and found themselves in the middle of a rocky island in a lava lake, At their feet also discovered an inscription carved in rock encouraging them to follow the Incandescent King path. Looking around they also take into account that the island was also linked to other caves of the level by many bridges, also made of rock, and one of them was also pulled down, so it was impossible to cross it.
While the characters were thinking about what to do next Belacqua concluded that the Incandescent King was the Sun, so if they followed its path in the sky related with the bridges' disposition they will avoid any trap there, so the group did it and choosed one of the bridges and ended facing a group of 3 ogre guards.
In the combat happening next Luna (with her bow), Alanna (with a Critical roll in combat), Belacqua (using her Magic Projectile spell, with a projectile for each ogre) and Flynn (Blessing the group and attacking) standed out and the ogres were easily beaten.
After this first confrontation in the level they approached a cave where Alanna Detected Evil given her condition as a Valion paladin. Going insnde the cave the characters discovered a well in the middle which seemed to be dry. To check it Belacqua threw a rock inside and after falling they could hear a strange noise, nothing like water's noise or that of a rock after hitting the ground... Hassba looked inside the well and could see a kind of mud beginning to climb the walls, clearly willing to reach the characters, as Belacqua confirmed when she saw the creature forming a kind of tentacle while going up. Decided to finish the creature before becoming a major menace Belacqua, who thinks fire can damage it, casted her Flaming Sphere spell and Hassba threw one of his last flasks full of oil to burn better (yes, as you may see fire it's still one of the group constants).
Once the monster was consumed the characters thought they have finished with the danger inside the cave, but Alanna was still Detecting Evil there, so it was clear there were misteries to discover in the place...
Eager to find what was happening the group helped Flynn to go down into the well with a rope and, after a brief drop touching the walls, the cleric discovered a secret door and after opening it a lateral tunnel emanating a bitting cold. At the end of the tunnel it was possible to see a sarcophagus and behind it an altar with a cristal sphere resting there, its light illuminating inside the chamber...
Suspecting they were in the presence of a living dead or other similar monster the group began to prepare for a combat which could be deadly, so the other characters also went down the well and reached the passage and Flynn used his skill to Expel Living Dead without seeming to have effect...
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| Vampire I-Figure Stock by shd-stock (CC BY 3.0)
Wolf Yawn Hangover by christels (Pixabay license) |
When the characters cautiously aproached the sarcophagus the lid exploded into a thousand pieces and from the inside arised a vampire who quickly attacked Hassba and, besides hurting him, used his powers to take out 2 character levels (yes, the matter waas becoming dangerous). Seeing the creature they faced Flynn tried again to Expel it (without success) and the rest of the group put all their effort to try to defeat it before it used its powers against them, although they couldn't avoid Hassba to fall under its influence and and so hypnotized he was eager to attack his brothers in arms.
Combat went on and Flynn Blessed the other charcters to try to tip the scales in their favor, so his companions could cause enough damage to force it to adopt its misty form to retreat and recover forces to strike back. In this moment Flynn began to swiftly think about how to get out from the situation gracefully, because surely the undead would return to attack them with renewed strength, and thanks to an Arcane Knowledge Critical roll (20!) he realised inside the sarcophagus there was no trace of native soil vampire need to properly regenerate and rest, so he guessed rightly that the mysterious crystal orb was intimately linked to the vampire and it was this that provided it with energy.
Convinced of this theory he made the gesture of destroying it and this caused the vampire to return changing from its misty form to a human one (in addition he was accompanied by 5 wolves that he had been able to conjure up so that they could get on top of the rest of the characters) and pounced over Flynn, but he won the initiative and could Bless the crystal sphere before the monster could do him any harm.
After this thrilling combat the characters decided to rest a few hours before moving forward and took advantage of one of Remove Curse potions they have encountered in previous sessions to liberate Hassba from the vampire's influence, which still refused to go away and Flynn took the opportunity to study the sphere carefully to discover that if he took it during enough time his Intelligence and Wisdom would increase, which of course would be very useful in order to overcome the obstacles that awaited them.
After having rested they went out from the tunnel and climbed the well to continue explorating the tunnels, which led them to face a a large group of gnoll warriors, that although they were able to battle (and even one of them achieved an attack with a Critical roll against Belacqua) they could'nt beat the characters.
Shortly after they were surprised by a troll who almost managed to kill Lena (Luna's friend they discovered in the library they found in session #24) but Alanna achieved to defend her by standing in the attack of the beast and receiving the damage that was intended for the girl. In the combat that happened next Flynn managed to blind the troll with the Light spell and his companions achieved to attack it with Luna finally killing the troll. Searching among the skeletal remains of the troll's dead enemies at his cave they discovered many trasures (more experience!) and a valuable protection ring giving +2 to AC that ended up being for Flynn.
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| tarot Cards by Glegle at Pixabay (Pixabay license) |
The session was already running out, but before finishing some players wanted their characters to draw again some magic cards, so Hassba (Ero's character), Alanna (Efrén's character), Flynn (Alex's character) and Luna (Kris' character) tried their luck with the following results:
- Hassba draw 2 cards and saw his Dexterity reduced in 1 point but also acquired the ability to See in Darkness as elfs and dwarfs do.
- Alanna draw 1 card and lost 6 hit points.
- Flynn draw 1 card and increased in 1 his AC.
- Luna draw 1 card... and saw herself trapped inside it! 😱
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
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