In today's post I gave you a quick summary of sessions 46 to 53 of the campaign La Llamada de los dioses (also known as the Black Box) I'm refeering with my usual game group at La Cofradia del rol, to read the previous campaign sessions you may follow these links: #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29 #30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 to #45
As I explained you in the previous post the campaign was interrupted by the COVID 19 pandemics (and for many reasons I'm also behind the posts corresponding to gaming sessions, but I hope to catch up now that the campaign is heading to its conclusion…).
Session #46
Assistant chronicler: Amaia
After having played a transition session that allowed us to introduce new characters, Ecmo the druid (played currently by Alejandro, a new player) and Bobby the explorer (Kris' new character, replacing the unfortunate Luna), these are found by the other adventurers after appearing through the characteristic blue glow from which other characters had appeared before. Ecmo appearing transformed as a bear made the player characters uneasy for a moment fearing a new clash, but when the newcomers knew the mission they were into didn't hesitate to join the group.
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Dragon skeleton
Original image by JL G at Pixabay (License) |
The group went ahead, exploring the tunnels while hearing how the wind blew in the darkness, until reaching a new cavern where they found a dragon skeleton and a little coffer among its remains. After getting sure that it didn't contained any trap they opened it and found a ring inside that, thanks to the timely Arcane Knowledge roll, knew it was magic (metagame: it had the capability of substract 2 damage points from attacks suffered by the carrier) and decided that Flynn should carry it to improve his protection.
After this discovering the group left the cavern to continue exploring the tunnels, but before leaving they took with them some of the monster's teeth after Belacqua, the half-elf magician, concluded that the skeleton was that of a red dragon (it wasn't known why, with players' mind you never know… 😉).
Soon they found another cavern where a cleric of Penumbra had a meeting with a group of 4 ogres, the characters didn't hesitate to immediately confront them with their usual tactics, with Flynn the cleric using Blessing and Prayer given by Valion and the other ones successfully attacking (although, as always Haidut the assassin didn't make a good use of his capabilities after failing his attempt to surprise the evil cleric).
After this brief encounter, all the player characters had enough bicephalous lion medallions to go back and head to Penumbra clerics' chamber found in this level, accessed through tunnels marked with some cryptic inscriptions (recall they have discovered these tunnels in session #36.
"Time goes fast"
"Time goes slow"
"Time goes slow"
After entering the tunnel marked as… (no, I'm sorry I'm not going to say which one 😉) and going inside the chambers of the evil clerics attacking and finishing them before they could react, searched the chamber and discovered magic tomes and scrolls which surely will be uesful and 7 keys to open as many coffers containing a great number of potions and treasure.
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Felix the cat
Original image by Alexa at Pixabay (License) |
They were about to leave when they heared some pitiful meows from a cat locked up into a cage at the back of the room. Ecmo the druid was able to talk to Felix (this was the kitten's name) taking advantage of his ability to communicate with animals and the Belacqua the half-elf magician decided to adopt him as her familiar.
After having rest a little they went ahead and down to the lower level of the caves system through a tunnel hidden in the lair of a Morlock tribe, Alanna the paladin convinced them to obtain passage for the group and reached a cave, surely the Morlock's pantry, to rest enough time after a hard day.
Having set the respective guard turns Belacqua began to sleep, although her rest wasn't as peaceful as she would have wished, because she had a dream where she was observed by Felix, with eyes denoting a great curiosity…
Session #47
Assistant chronicler: Amaia
After having rested, the group began to explore this new level of the complex and Alanna the paladin soon began to perceive the influence of Evil in the place just when they were entering a cavern with a muddy floor, from which a fleet-footed zombie crowd emerged to immediately confront the characters. Of course this attack wasn't troublesome for a so competent group, with Flynn the cleric turning and destroying a great number of living dead and the others quickly finishing the few ones escaping the righteous fury of Valion.
After this trivial encounter they reached an intersection where they were haunted by a feeling of desolation gripping their hearts…
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Demon statues
Original image scanned by johnny_automatic at Openclipart (License) |
With this anguish weighing on their souls they set to investigate the nearer rooms and reached a chamber occupied by two humanoid statues of black stone, with the eye of Penumbra carved in their chest and demon faces, both holding stone jars with their shoulders, with their invisible contents that seems to be poured over the entrance.
At the back of the chamber Belacqua could discern a mechanism composed by 4 levers, each one of a different color (red, blue, green and black), and Bobby saw behind this a closed granite portal with many inscriptions which surely were magical and which surely would led to a near chamber.
Studying the levers searching for traps that would activate after pulling them (they discovered none) they concluded that depending of which one they would pull different effects would happen, so they prepared to test the green lever, but they did this carefully, marked by the paranoia at his point, tying a rope to the lever to pull it from outside the chamber while they didn't cease to carefully look at the two statues. After pulling it they heard how a mechanism activated (an opening door?) and shortly after some footsteps that without doubt belonged to a big-sized being.
With the chance of a clash Flynn didn't hesitate to Bless the group and Haidut the assassin risked to go back to the chamber to return the green lever to the starting position. After a brief wait, and seeing that nothing was happening, the group decided to pull the red lever with the same cautions as with the green one… And thankfully they did it like this, because as soon as the lever moved lava began to gush from the jars.
In order to avoid greater evils Flynn Levitated to stay away from burning lava and crawled on the ceiling, as he had done other times in situations as dangerous as this one, to pull the rope and cut the igneous flux, lasso the blue lever and pull it to, as they supposed, flow water from the jars to cool the lava.
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Amber golem
The original image is a wax model for a sculpture by Antoine-Louis Barye en The Walters Art Museum (CC0 1.0) |
After satisfactorily solving the situation the group discussed about next steps, when Haidut rightly inferred that the black level would open the granite portal and what was awaiting them in the other side would go out to seach them, the moment they would take advantage and pull the red lever and make tha lava fall over the monster. Said and done, they clashed with the creature, an amber cat-like golem that Alanna finished off after Ecmo's Ellectric Ray.
After disposing of the monster they went inside the cave where it was locked up and discovered it was protecting a powerful magical scepter which according to Ecmo it was surely forged by dark elves. After discussing what to do with such marvellous object the group decided it had to be carried by Belacqua and prepared to rest before continue to explore the level.
Belacqua's rest again was rather anxious, because he dreamed again with Felix, the cat she adopted as a familiar in the previous session (although who knows who adopted whom 🤔) and this time she seemed to see some strange diffuse figures appearing briefly behind the animal, whom also appeared to have a gaze denoting a certain intelligence degree, more than you might expect from a simple cat…
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The magical deck of cards in action...
Original image: Tarot card lot at PickPik (License) |
Once rested they decided to take the risk with tha magical deck of cards (and how bad they want to get into trouble assuming they have bad luck 🤔…):
- Bobby the explorer draws a card and… lose sight 🙄.
- Alanna the paladin healths Bobby and in turn draws another card and… goes up a level! 🥳
- Ecmo the druid draws two cards and… his INT increases +1 and acquires the ability to repeat a failed roll once a day! 🥳
- Haidut the assassin draws a card and… gets trapped inside 🙄 (luckily Flynn Dispells Magic and liberates him).
- Belacqua the half-elf magician draws a card and… goes up a level! 🥳
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The cavern of the cilinder...
Original image: Caves Background 9 by RAJESH misra at PublicDomainPictures.net (CC0 1.0) |
Studying the so misteryous cilinder they noticed that it was metallic and hollow inside, being able to enter through a drop-down door, and they also saw they could ascend through it thanks to evenly spaced rings.
Flynn decided to investigate inside the cilinder and Levitated into it until reaching the upper part and finding a lever, to which he tied a rope and then descended to the base and continued studying the statues and doors concluding that these were of magical nature.
Fearing the worst they decided to have a try and locked up themselves inside the cilinder and then pulled the rope tied to the lever, which of course started the magic mechanism of the statues and these began to spit balls of fire that bounced over the cave walls and the cilinder producing a great noise. After a while that seemed eternal the noise stopped and they dared to open the door and go out to see how the igneous trap had calcined the walls and the lower part of the cilinder, which led them to assume, correctly, that anyone who had remained outside the cylinder would have turned to ash.
After beholding for a few moments what would have meant a certain death they noticed that the doors leading to next room where open, so they didn't hesitate to cross them and they succeed just in time when the heavy doors were closing.
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Cave with a pond
Original image: Cave interior by Hollingsworth John and Karen, USFWS (CC0 1.0) |
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Nixie
Original image scanned by j4p4n at Openclipart (License) |
After this scare they went ahead reaching a cave with a shallow water pond and some intriguing lights over it… After Ecmo checked the water to discard it was poisoned (players were paranoid 😄), the group engaged to observe the strange lights, which were nixies (small fairies) whom Ecmo could communicate with. They explain him that can help them to go through the submarine channel in the lake's bottom thanks to the gift of temporary breathing underwater, although they also advised them to be careful, because a dangerous beast inhabits the bottom of the lake (a terraron) and may attack them. For a moment the group doubted of the good intentions of the little creatures, but for Belacqua it was clear they wanted to help them and Ecmo achieved to communicate with the creature thanks to his druid gifts and after knowing its Neutral alignment he convinced it to not attack them, allowng the group to proceed without trouble to the other side, to reach another cave and behold an entrance to another one with the shape of a demoniac head, something they had seen previously, although in this case from the eyes of this monstruosity flowed boiling water streams…
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Sahuagin: Original image by Blade-Fury
(CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
As they were unsure how to go through the demoniac head and continue, they decided to leave it for later and using the map obtained in previous sessions delved into a tunnel and another cave. This cave had the floor covered with a quagmire where Bobby detected footprints of an animal that Ecmo identified as a chimera, something that seemed a bit strange to Bobby because it didn't check with the information the character had, but before he could warn the other characters the creature pounced on and they were forced to fight, achieving to beat it quickly, something that seemed strange, and also discovered that the creature was chained to the wall and it was really a humanoid creature adopting the shape of a chimera (ie, it was really a doppelganger). But hostilities didn't end here, because a group of sahuagin immediately appeared and attacked from behind, thinking they may suprise and quickly finish them, something that of course they didn't managed to do, because Flynn, Alanna and Ecmo quickly prevailed defeated them without too much effort.
Session #48
Assistant chronicler: Amaia
After the showdown with the sahuagin the group explored the adjacent passages without finding something interesting, so they went to the bridge over the river of lava marked in their map and were about to cross it, but the fact that Alanna the paladin detected Evil near dissuaded them and they went back to the cavern with the demoniac head and the boiling water and began to think about how to evade this barrier.
Alanna knew that the boiling water wasn't a water elemental, something that would make crossing the water very dangerous (in fact she couldn't help but to think about Eru, the water god who had instructed to do the mission) and Haidut the assassin didn't detect any trap in the rocky head and the rocky walkway going through the demoniac mouth.
After a few doubtful moments Belacqua casted a Cold Cone to the eyes from which the boiling water gushed to stop the flux for a moment and the group managed to get through thanks to the corresponding DEX rolls after a close call, because the water immediately gushed back again at their backs (it was a very close call 😅).
In the chamber they reached afterwards the water came up to their waists, so they advanced with difficulty, and found 6 statues representing marine creatures and gods (a siren, a newt, god Leviathan, a naga, god Rivulus and last one that recalled them god Eru), all with tridents in their hands, and at the back a great wooden door with both leaves closed by a pair of crossed tridents. Flynn the cleric, who didn't trust appearances, casted the spell Find Traps which discovered none but had the effect to faintly illuminate tridents closing the portal indicating the presence of magic in the chamber and taking Belacqua to signal (thanks to the correponding successful roll of Arcane Knowledge) these were part of the openig system of the door.
Getting near the door they began to study the tridents and saw a pair of interesting things:
- The trident tips have engravings with references to the statues in the chamber.
- Tridents can be put in vertical position and the tips can spin on themselves.
- When they put vertically the left trident the statues of the newt, the siren and Eru lit up.
- When they put vertically the right trident the statue of Leviathan, the nga nd Rivulus lit up.
- Spinning the corresponding tips of each statue (in the correct order 😉) the door opened…
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Aboleth
DND Aboleth by ahmonza on Newgrounds (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) |
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Locathah
Dr. Zorgtron the Locathah by gladlad on DeviantArt (CC BY-SA 3.0) |
After resting they went on and in the next chamber they reached an underground lake with a threatening whirlpool in the center… Although what was really dangerous in this location were those Aboleth (yes, there were more than one) and there were also a party of locathah, so when trying to cross the lake they had to face these so dangerous creatures using all their abilities at full and even then they couldn't avoid one of the aboleth attacking Haidut and poisoning him and then bewitching Flynn, who attacked his companions dominated by the creature. Finally Alanna could kill the monster and free Flynn of its influence, then the cleric healed Haidut.
Session #49
Assistant chronicler: Ero
After having faced and defeated the dangerous lake monsters, the group devoted themselves to study the place they were in and soon found out that in one of the walls there was a cleft allowing to go to another cave. There they found a coffer keeping a treasure of gold ingots, a pearl necklace and a +2 scimitar. After ascertaining there wasn't any danger they decided to rest there before going on, time that Belacqua also spent studying her magic arts.
After finishing the rest period they went back to the cavern containing the lake and were surprised by the attack of aother terraron which was finally defeated by Belacqua with her Magic Missile spell.
After this unexpected run-in they went ahead crossing the lake and reaching the next cave but before entering it, recalling the potential dangers they had detected in the previous session, decided to take precautions and Ecmo summoned a small terraron, as he had done before, to send him to explore at the same time that they used a too well studied to see inside the cave with a mirror arranged in the appropiate angle.
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Shulu
Mind Flayer by Deligaris on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
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Crabman
Daily Imagination #235 - Crabman by Xephio on Newgrounds (CC BY-NC 3.0) |
The monsters they could detect with these maneuvers were a shulu, an evil creature follower of the Archaics and similar to Illithid, and his crabmen escort. Without overthinking they jumped into the fight and Flynn blessed all of them while Belacqua casted a Cold Cone to the crabmen achieving to kill two of them. The shulu fidget nervously and threw a Magic Projectile to Alanna considering her one of the most dangerous adversaries, but this didn't avoid the group's counterattack with a Fire Ball by Belacqua, an Electric Ray by Ecmo and a good sword blow by Alanna (Bobby fumbling his attack roll with the bow and losing the arrow and Haidut's sword falling by accident didn't affect at all the outcome of the combat 😁).
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Manta Ray Cape
Imágenes originales: Manta Ray Free Stock Photo - Public Domain Pictures by Piotr Siedlecki (CC0 1.0) Cape - PNG All (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
After defeating these so dangerous enemies they devoted themselves to rummage in their enemies' corpses seaching for any object that proved to be useful and obtained two magical objects (as well as all the treasure they carried): a Manta Ray Cape and a Free Action Ring.
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Water Idol
Bronze statue of an aristocratic boy The Metropolitan Museum of Art Public Domain (Open Access policy) |
But what really caught their eyes was a little shrine at the back of the cavern and the statuette inside it, shining with blue tones and seeming to lure the playing characters, as if it wanted to be carried by them… (well, they guessed this could be an important object for the campaign course and that it could be necessaty to take it 😉).
Having carefully picked up the statuette they came back and reached again the entrance with the demoniac head gushing boiling water and the group decided to use again the same trick that allowed them to pass the first time, so Belacqua casted again Cold Cone to try to freeze most of the dangerous flux (but not all) and, although the group successfully passed more or less intact, neither Ecmo nor Bobby achieved a good enough DEX roll to avoid part of the water jet touching them causin burning that neede to be tended by the group.
Once recovered from the scare they went on with the exploration of the underground passages and with the help of the map reached a new cave with an entry that, oh surprise, was also decorated with a demoniac head, although this time instead of burning water flowing from its eyes found something like a dry-looking vine full of thorns falling over the head's mouth as a thick curtain.
Of course this aspect wasn't very appealing and if you add Ecmo's opinion that these were some evil plants, something confirmed by Alanna after Detecting Evil in them, surely they wouldn't risk to pass without due caution, like Belacqua did casting Fire Ball against the filthy creepers and completely burn them.
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Vine monster
Plant mutant by ThemeFinland on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) |
After this so incendiary interlude they went inside the cave and a humanoid creature that seemed to be formed by the same kind of malefic vines of the entrance rushed to them and pounce on Belacqua gravely injuring her, meaning that the rest of the group had to intervene attacking the creature, which finally was defeated by Alanna.
After healing the wounds taken in the combat they reached a small cave with 3 tunnels delving into darkness that given their short height they would go into them crouching and going on all fours…
Session #50
Assistant chronicler: Amaia
In the previous session they had ended in a small cave from which 3 very tiny tunnels started that would force them to go crouching if they decided to enter these.
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Entrance to caves I, II and IV...
Original image: Inside A Cave by Petr Kratochvil at PublicDomainPictures.net (CC0 1.0) |
Studying the tunnels and trying to see if there was any footprint or clue giving them some indication of what player characters would face they noticed the following:
At the side of each entrance there were some strange symbols that time and erosion had made almost unreadable, but they succeed to deduce these matched numbers I, II and IV.
Trying to find any track in the entrance of the tunnels they saw treads which may correspond to many types of creatures:
- In the tunnel marked as I there was the trace of very old footprints and a size larger than those of a human…
- In the tunnel marked as II there was the mark of a footprint which may correspond to a big-sized humanoid monster…
- In the tunnel marked as IV was some kind of winding trace…
They gathered around the cards and began to shyly draw one by one:
- Bobby… found himself rather strange, but apparently nothing happened… 🙃
- Alanna's INT… decreased in 1 point 🙄
- Ecmo's INT… increased in 1 point! 🥳
- Haidut… acquired the ability to Levitate. 🥳
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Cyclops
Original image of a fresco of Polyphemus painted by Giulio Romano in the Sala di Psiche, Palazzo del Tè, Mantua |
After a brief minutes of joy and jokes they returned to what was important and went into the tunnel marked I on all fours, finding a cyclops watching them with his only eye and pouncing on them with a sinister growl and although for a moment seemed that the creature was able to easily defeat them (or even collapse the cavern over their heads) they had no problem defeting it, being Belacqua who ended up giving the last blow.
After finishing the monster they saw that at the end of the cavern there was a tunnel that allowed them to reach another bigger cave and thet the tunnels II and IV, with its caves, surely ended in this crossing, although the tunnel of cavern II was closed by huge black doors.
While they were deciding what to do Belacqua listened something like the sound of the beach sand moved by the wind that seemed to come from the cave they had just discovered, urging them to approach and discover that inside the cave, a big one, existed a great windswept sand sea, as if apart of the world of the surface would have been magically transported to the unknown depths.
At that moment Haidut deided to try his recent acquired ability to Levitate and reach the ceiling of the cave, and then crawl to the other side without failing any roll, which would have thrown him to the sea of sand (something that could have happened given the player's luck, that in some cases isn't very favourable). Once in the other side he descended and discovered that there were a pair of entrances to as many caves, so he decided to examine the nearest one with the help of a mirror and not get exposed to any danger, but found nothing.
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Purple worm
Dnd Mini - Purple Worm 1 by HeyLookItsAMoose on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) |
Meanwhile the other characters continue thinking about what todo when Ecmo threw a stone to the center of the sands… stirring up the emergence from the depths of a giant purple worm!
The beast rushed over the group and Flynn and Ecmo decided that it was better to Levitate to escape the attack… although they couldn't avoid to be swallowed by the maws of the worm!
Willing to liberate their companions Belacqua casted Fire Ball against the word while Alanna, rising the sword, charged against the beast and Bobby and Haidut didn't ceased to shoot arrows. Finally Flynn broke free from the beast's maw, although when he tried to release Ecmo he fumbled the roll and falled into a quicksand trap, beginning to sink fast. Luckily Belacqua could use a Teleportation spell to move Flynn safe and sound with Haidut in the other side of the cave, from where he finished the worm with an accurate arrow after the rest of the group was crushing the beast with their attacks.
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Taranis Temple
Original image: Entrance to old monument by pics_pd (CC0 1.0) |
After the combat all the group was able to reunite in the other side of the cave and were ready to explore what was ahead and Belacqua, with the help of Haidut's mirror and her ability to See in the Darkness, determined that inside was a small temple devoted to Taranis, an ancient goddess of elements and natural forces forgotten a long time ago.
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Elemental Protection Ring
Original image created by Chrisdesign at Openclipart (License) |
Walking inside the temple Bobby discovered an altar with a small trapdoor at the base, that was examined by Haidut in search of traps detecting none. When opening it they found a truly magical and useful treasure, because inside it there was a magical ring protecting the bearer from the attacks of Earth Elementals (which ended in Ecmo's hands).
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Duck
Original image created by Frank at Openclipart (License) |
After this discovering they decided to rest before contuing exploring, so they established the corresponding guard shifts and then the card chosen by Bobby was known… Because he became a duck! (yes, it seems that Kris has a little bit of bad luck with ducks). However the rest of the group didn't allow the joke to last too long and Flynn ended Dispelling Magic to erase the effects of the card.
Afer having rested (and Belacqua having studied her spells) I thought they would immediately carry on, but before doing so… they took again their chance with the cards! 🙄.
Oh well… The outcomes were the following:
- Bobby draw a card… and was trapped inside it! 😵
- Ecmo draw another card… and his STR increased in 1 point! 🥳
- Alanna draw another card… and acquired the ability to See in the Darkness! 🥳
And when at last thwy were ready to continue with the mission they began to hear some noise coming from the tunnel they wanted to explore next, so Alanna had the idea of a possible use of Bobby the character-card: turn him into some kind of drone…
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Bobby (trapped inside a card)
Tarot/Trading card template by AbsintheIsMySoul on DeviantArt (CC BY-SA 3.0) |
Allow me to explain it: she tied a rope to the card and threw it forward with the intention of recovering it afterwards pulling it so Bobby could explain what he had seen, although this didn't work as she hoped, because when she pulled the rope to recover Bobby she saw this tensed… A rakasta had caught it with one of its claws and pulled in turn to see what was in the other side!
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Rakasta
Tiger Samurai - Hiroshi Saito by TheLivingShadow on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
In the fight that followed Flynn casted Prayer as he was used to and Alanna achieved to bring down the moster with an accurate Critical.
After recovering Bobby, the character-card, he could describe that in the cavern he had seen in the other side there was another rakasta waiting them and there was also a misterious clay idol over an altar in its center. The rakasta wasn't a problem because Flynn quickly finished him, but when tried to move the statue they were surrounded by tens of rocks being expelled from the ground becoming a vaguely humanoid conglomerate that, after uttering a vigorous roar, lunged over the group with clearly hostile intentions.
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Earth Idol
Door Guardian (Dvarapala) The Metropolitan Museum of Art Public Domain (Open Access policy) |
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Earth Elemental
Earth Elemental by Devtexture on Newgrounds (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
The Earth Elemental, that after all that was the creature, attacked them immediately and it would have been a combat that would have finished the group if it hadn't been for Flynn's Blessing and Belacqua's Fire Ball, which ended melting the Elemental until it turned into a puddle of mud.
After the clash with this spirit of nature they retraced their steps and devoted themselves to examine the mysterious black doors which without doubt led towards to cavern II. Finding no way to open them from the side they were on they decided to go back even further and enter the cavern through the entrance, although first they used Bobby again, the character-card-drone, who could describe them that inside of the said cave there was a stone sphinx that directed its gaze undaunted to the black doors at the back of the cavern.
Needing a rest the group decided to camp in the cavern, but before ending the session Ecmo encouraged himself to draw another card from the magic deck and it went well, so now he is also able to Levitate 🥳 (by Valion, this is looking more and more like a group of jumping jacks 😁).
Session #51
Assistant chronicler: Kris
In the previous session the group had camped in the cave with the mysterious sphinx gazing undaunted to the black doors and, after a deserved rest, they devoted themselves to examine it thoroughly trying to figure out its possible magic nature (something that Belacqua knew with a right roll of Arcane Knowledge that made her to quickly cover it with the Web spell just in case) and if there were traps around it (with Flynn corroborating that didn't exist with the spell Detect Traps).
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Sphinx
Original image: Sphinx of Hatshepsut New Kingdom; Dynasty 18 Reign: Joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III by Peter Roan (CC BY-NC 2.0) |
When the characters went to the black doors soon detected magic in them, emanating from the mysterious symbols carved in them and that can't be opened pushing them. It was then when the mysterious sphinx seemed to come to life and with a voice resonating in the walls of the cavern pronounced the following words:
“I am the light of the world.
Without me, Valion could not exist neither the clerics would make sense.
But sphinxes and Penumbra would continue to exist.”
Without me, Valion could not exist neither the clerics would make sense.
But sphinxes and Penumbra would continue to exist.”
Of course the sphinx challenged the characters to solve the riddle tht had thrown to them and Alanna quickly guessed the answer (no, I won't put it here because there will still be people playing the campaign and the plot must not be spoiled, although it's very easy to solve it).
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Ettin
Original image: Ettin (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) |
After having solved the riddle the doors opened and they could access the other side, where they have benn in the previous session (well, they have decided to solve the enigma of that cave because they are completists), so they went to the entrance of the remaining cave to investigate in the site, the cave marked with number IV, and used Bobby again as a character-card-drone throwing the card tied to a rope to be able to examine the interior of the cave, allowing them to find out there was an ettin waiting for them, whom they immediately confronted and soon defeated, Flynn being the one who finished him off with a well-aimed arrow.
Examining the map of the underground complex they carried with them they easily guessed that the disposition of the level was based in the four basic elements forming the world: Water, Air, Earth and Fire. Of these elements they had already gathered the statuettes representing Water and Earth, so they only need to visit the remaining caves to obtain them.
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Red Dragon
Red dragon by Azany on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
But to achieve this objective they had to cross a rocky bridge over a crevasse from where was easy to see a lava river that of course didn't inspire them a lot of trust, so they decided to take safety measures to ascertain which dangers may await them. Said and done Bobby Was again the asset to rely upon, although this time the maneuver was a bit more elaborated, because Flynn threw the character-card-drone with an arrow to the other side of the bridge (he was lucky with the roll and it didn't fell into the lava) and next cast Illuminate so Bobby could examine more easily the surroundings. What they could know after recovering Bobby was that under the bridge… a red dragon had its lair there!
In the face of the terrible news they tried to obtain more information, so Ecmo took advantage of his abilities as a druid and called a pair of bats that said them that the dragon was really old (and therefore dangerous) and reminded them of the legend of the elf Aerin and the sword of ice (something they had find out in session #42), so they went back to the hall where they had obtained the weapon and left it in the space that it filled in the mural painting, hoping that this simple gesture would make the monster disappear… Something that of course didn't happened, because the dragon was still in its lair when the group returned to the bridge, so they decided to go back and recover the sword, confronting on the way a dakr elf patrol they easily defeated.
Once in the bridge they considered how to cross it without attracting the attention of the dragon and finally they decided to try one's luck trying not to step on it, using spells like Spider Climbing, the ability to Levitate of part of the group members and Belacqua's Fly spell, who also acquired an appearance akin to Aerin with the spell Change Aspect.
They began one after another to cross to the other side but Flynn failed his roll, so the dragon detected the group and took off to face the players. Belacqua, with the aspect of Aerin, tried to convince the dragon of the futility of coming up against her because she had defeated it before, but the monster fell angrily on them after hearing such words, so they were forced to combat it, even resorting to magical means like the medusa head they had obtained in session #30 (and that it was useless), but they couldn't avoid that the dragon's breath turned to ash Flynn and Haidut as well as the magic bag (Mary Poppins' bag) they used to move many objects accumulated from past sessions.
Combat wasn't very favourable for the group, but luckily Belacqua's magical knowledge allowed her to find out the most vulnerable point of the dragon, so she Teleported Alanna under the dragon's belly and then threw the sword of ice to her, that the paladin catched in the air to attack with fury. Finally Ecmo casted an Electric Ray and achieved to kill the dragon.
After a so dramatic combat the surviving characters mourned the loss of their comrades and they set out to search the dragon's lair and, of course, to see its treasure.
Afterwards, the survivors continued on and reached a cave inhabited by a troll and an old woman who turned out to be a witch, easily defeating both, and then took a well-deserved rest.
Session #52
Assistant chronicler: El Dado Inquieto (Me)
We left the group of characters in a cave after losing two of their comrades at the hands of a fiery dragon and a third converted in an improvised charcter-card-drone, so in this session I decided it was the appropiate time to introduce new characters (that two died incinerated and the other one basically dependent from the actions of the rest of the group didn't make made him very attractive).
Therefore, after having rested in the witch nest, the group discovered Kris' new character, a female thief named Lia that appeared tied and covered with a blanket, who was captured by the witch after “accidentally” appearing in the underground complex suctioned by a mysterious blueish light and been wandering in the maze of tunnels and caves (a resource I have used widely and you would know if you have followed the adventures and misadventures of the players in the blog).
After liberating her and joining the group of player characters they were attracted by noises denoting the beginning of a combat inside a cave near them, taking them to discover another new character about to fight a monster shaped as a bull covered in metallic plates, blowing out a greenish breath which didn't augurate nothing good and at the moment was pouncing over at trot against him.
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Gorgon
Original image: File:Dnd Gorgon.png - Wikimedia Commons by Mariana Ruiz Villarreal (LadyofHats) (CC0 1.0) |
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Errol Flynn
Original image: File:Errol Flynn1.jpg - Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain) |
The monster turned out to be a gorgon, extremely dangerous and able to paralize others with its breath (as did with Ecmo, Lia and Belacqua), but luckily Errol, Alex new character being also a Valion's cleric and Flynn's brother, the previous cleric of the group (notice here the world play with the name of the actor Errol Flynn 😁), helped by Alanna the paladin, could finish the beast and remove the curse of the other player characters.
After due introductions (and find out that Errol, of course, also appeared in the site thanks to the damn haze of blue flashes), the group was attracted by the wind howling in another cavern. Entering it they could see that the floor was bored with a deep chasm with not enough space to circle it and reach the other site (where there was an entrance to another tunnel), but what atracted their attention was that over the chasm, and at mercy of the wind, there was semitransparent sphere and a girl prisoner inside, with rather exotic clothes and oriental features, who was hitting non stop a strange glyph that was floating alongside her (and that was Ero's new character).
Watching this strange scene Belacqua concluded that magical and supernatural forces had sprung into action in the place and that the sphere was at the mercy of an Air Elemental that was shaking it from one place to another, although this situation didn't last too long: the girl finally managed to break the glyph and the sphere imprisoning her quickly disolved, allowing her to descend helped by her cane, sticking it in the wall of the cave until reaching the floor.
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Than-Bi
Original image: Martial Artist. by BoxOfWant on Newgrounds (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0) |
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Air Elemental
Air Elemental by jorgeArtwork on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
The group finally got together and decided to go ahead and entered the tunnel allowing them to exit the cave of the chasm, but they were impelled towards it by a powerful gust of wind and almost fell inside, something that would put them at the mercy of the Elemental. Luckily they confronted the creature and Ecmo the druid finally managed to defeat it, thus allowing them to rest, obtain new treasures and make the proper introductions with the new character, whose name was Than-Bi and was a Mystic expert in martial arts that arrived to this remote place thanks to, oh surprise 😁, a mysterious blue haze and being captured like the other new characters by the witch defeated in the previous session.
Session #53
Assistant chronicler: El Dado Inquieto (Me)
The previous session had ended with the new player characters already integrated in the group and prepared to go ahead after resting in the cave where they faced the gorgon.
With the help of the map obtained in previous sessions they finally reached another cave with an entrance decorated with a demoniac head, but this time from its eyes emanated a strange mist covering the grotesque mouth serving as an entrance that without doubt would lead them to new dangers...
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Lava tunnel
Original image: Free Stock Photo 5529 thurston lava tube | freeimageslive by Photoeverywhere (CC BY 3.0) |
Do you think they would jump headlong into it? Well it won't be, because they decided to explore a little more and discovered a black rock passage slowly acquiring a reddish coloration and beginning to crackle under their feet, so they decided to go back and face again the new demoniac head, but not before Belacqua deciding to cover the floor of the passage with a Web spell, with the player thinking it would be useful in case that something or someone tried to follow them or that something would arise under the black rock (one way or another the possible pursuer would be trapped by the Web.
Coming again in front of the head the group hesitated to advance for a moment, so Than-bi decided to gather a rock from the floor and throw it inside the mouth and, after the echo of a few bounces, hear how it hit something, something that uttered a powerful roar…
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Chimera
CHIMERA by parin81270024 on DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) |
Warned that a monster surely was waiting for them further ahead the group decided toenter this new tunnel taking all kind of possible cautions… And they did well, because a chimera was waiting for them and attacked just seeing them but managed to beat it with a Blessing by Errol, a Cool Cone by Belacqua and a final accurate blow by Ecmo.
After getting rid of this dangerous monster the group realized that in its lair it was possible to find the remains of some of its victims, so this took they to discover potions to Heal Light Wounds and Grave Wounds (which surely would be helpful later) and to think that it was curious that they had encountered another chimera-shaped monster (something that happened in session #47, in this post).
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Shadow
Original image created by liftarn at Openclipart (License) |
Exploring the next cavern they faced a ghostly being (a Shadow) that seemed to protect a sword that did not inspired them much confidence, so they not dared to touch it once the creature was defeated and covered it with a blnket and soon forgot it and carried on until reaching a huge room dominated by four great horns resting over stone ashlars and, once again, great double doors at the end of the cavern and this time the following inscription reading:
“May the voice of Penumbra reveal the truth to you”
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Horn
Original image scanned by Kevin David Pointon at Openclipart (License) |
It was evident that open the doors and advance they had to blow into the right one, so they were a quite a while studying the inscriptions and drawings carved in them, until guessing which was the right and secure one (no, I neither will say which one was 😉).
Once the portal was opened they observed that the next one was divided by two by a botomless abyss and in the opposed side there was a cornice that would allow them to go forward once they reached it, but to do it they would have to use a strange footbridge made by four small floating islets…
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A walk on clouds
Floating Stairs by Shadoworen117 on Newgrounds (CC BY-NC 3.0) |
Of course the players didn't believe that to go to other side would be easy, so they began to think in the most proper strategy to achieve it. As part of said preparations they would make use of ropes and Belacqua decided to use the spell Web to go covering one of the sides of the abyss and then have a safety net if they fall or slip. Besides this they didn't think about going all at the same time, so the first ones would be Lia, Than-Bi and Errol, which would try to secure the passage of the others once in the other side.
When they where prepared Belacqua casted the first Web and the first group began to jump from one islet to another, realizing that the islets didn't remained static in place and as they stepped on them these slowly descended, so this could make the characters to fall to the abysm if they were not careful and failed some of their rolls (in fact Than-Bi was about to slip and Belacqua was about to cast Feather Fall on her to avoid what would surely be a certain death). Furthermore they also perceived an strange sensation, like the abyss willing to absorbe them...
Once the first group had passed they engaged in laying ropes to help the others, who prepared to follow them, with Alanna and Belacqua passing without problems, but Ecmo slipped in the last rocky islet, hardly grabbing the islet and hanging over the abysm…
What will happen in next sessions?
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:
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