#55 - The path to "The Temple"

The party of 3rd level character reaches the trail that Venos had described to them.  He had told them of a secret outpost known as "The Temple".  Pale Moon uses this as a hide-out, and a meeting place with their goblin allies.  Venos told them that they should search the swamp in a certain area for wooden walk-ways.  These walk-ways would lead to the temple.

The find that a halfling rogue called "Lightfoot" has followed them on their journey.  He wants to join in the party.  He is seeking a potential reward from White Skull if he can give them information about the location of "The Temple". 

The party finds a dry niche in the swamp where they can take an extended rest.  And while doing so, Malkir, explores on his own.  On the trail, he encounters two zombies.  He finds them on his own at first, but after suffering some wounds, he decides to retreat back to the camp.

Later the party finds these same zombies and destroys them. 

They come to a fork in the road.  To the left, the trail continues, but seems to end in a gate in the distance.  The trail goes off to the right as well.

This trail is a walkway of wooden slabs.  In many places, it has tall rails, designed to keep out swamp creatures. 

The party decides to explore the trail to the right.  They encounter a patrol, 4 goblins and 2 worgs.    The goblins let our war cries and the worgs bare down on the party.  A fight ensues.  The party dispatches the goblins and worgs, and disposes the bodies in the swamp.

The return to the other branch of the trail, and stealthily approach the gate.  Behind the gate is large guard post, staffed by an ogre, two goblins and 2 worgs. 

The party decides to leave the trail and sneak past the guard post. 

As we leave off, the party has successfully sneaked under the guard post.  But they have aroused the suspicion of one of the worgs.

20 points of experience awarded.  For finding the temple trail.  For fighting the zombies, and the goblin patrol.  No experience awarded yet for the guard post. 

Boggs Town #1 - Prince Kellen's Island

a party of 5 characters (human pally, half-elf rogue, half-elf bard, elf ranger, gnome sorcerer) agreed to work for Prince Kellen in exchange for passage to Boggs Town in Terra Malatia.  They agreed to two years of servitude.

They were transported by ship, along with a halfling librarian named Seymore.  Along with the passengers, the ship carried its crew and many crates filled with books.  Seymore is the keeper of the Prince's book collection.  He is escorting it to a new home being built for the prince in the new world.

The ship arrived after 3 weeks.

The party went ashore and met Olga.  A leather armored dwarf, as wide as she is tall, with long blond braids and thick mutton chops.  Ogla tells the party that she is their new boss.

She takes them over the hills from the shore where they landed, to a valley that has been cleared of trees.  Workers have constructed a barn and barracks.  They are clearing the land for a farm, and construction has begun on a large mansion.  There are many laborers working to build the farm, a troop of guards, and a captain of the guards.

Olga's job is to explore this island that The Prince has chosen.  And the party work for her in doing that.

One morning Olga calls the party to one of the fields and informs them that they will be playing a game of "capture the flag".  Against two suits of animated armor, and two flying swords.  This is a deadly exercise in combat training.  The party defeats the animated objects, but suffers some serious wounds in the process.  Olga is very critical of the parties choice to fight the objects to the end, rather than sending a runner to get the flag.

The party takes an extended rest to heal.  The next morning they depart to check out a strange rock formation on a western beach.  Some rocks in the shape of a creature have been spotted from afar.  Ogla wants to know what they are.

The party goes to the beach by canoe, rather than crossing over land.

Turns out the rock formation is a gargoyle.  It guards a stone slab, built to seal up a cave entrance.  The slab has writing on it, in some ancient language.

The bard sneaks up to the slab and casts "Comprehend Language".  It says
"Beware!!  Enter not this cave.  Fearsome creatures dwell beneath".

The Paladin and Rogue choose to move the stone slab, arousing the gargoyle, and releasing a swarm of rats.

The party battles the rats and gargoyle, succeeding in the end.  But they use all of their spells in the process.  They decide to take an extended rest on the beach.

Awarded 33 points of experience.  For combat against the gargoyle and rats.  For combat in the "capture the flag game".  For the skill challenge of canoeing to the beach.  For discovering the cave entrance.

#54 - Breakdown

Merl summoned Perra, Lenny, and Valaran to the secret room in the basement of the magic shop.  This room is essentially like a giant bag of holding.  It is a pocket of space in another plane of existence.  Because of the size of this secret room, it is slightly unstable, and unlike a normal bag of holding, its location is possibly discoverable by others.

Merl has observed cracks forming in the outer walls of the room, and is concerned that someone might be trying to break in.

Sure enough, the crack breaks open.  In comes a strange looking Wizard and a party of orcs.

Also, the crack in the room caused its magic to become very unstable.  Random objects appearing and disappearing.  The shape of the room changing.  Party members and foes being randomly teleported across the room.

The party secured the crown, and took it through the exit, while engaged in battle with the orcs and wizard.  The party was victorious.  However, Merl was badly injured, the room destroyed, and the strange wizard escaped.

#53 - New Kids on the Block

This session was a bit of a departure from the normal.  In order to introduce a new player to the game, we thought we'd try a "one-shot" adventure with lower level characters.  However, the "one-shot" is not really over.  We'll run it for at least one more session before returning to the other group.  And I think it might be fun to keep both parties running in separate groups that are still somewhat connected by storyline for a while.

So for a while, we'll refer to that group of characters currently at 11th level as the "Tier 3 Party".  And this group of 3rd level characters is the "Tier 1 Party".

Malkir (Wood Elf Ranger), Ashe (Tabaxi Cleric), and Li (Halfling Monk) are all immigrants to Fort Aralan from The Four Kingdoms.  They are indentured to the city as payment for their transport.  Benji (Warforged Fighter) was discovered in the battlefield beneath The Green Mountain.  He was revived by the Wizard Merl.  Not knowing what to make of him, the city placed him among their indentured adventurers.

All 4 of these characters were taken to the Captain of the Guard.  They were offered release from their servitude in exchange for retrieving two fugitives.  Garrett and Roscoe Mordai are cousins.  They had been known to work with the White Skull organization in criminal activity.  Both are wanted in connection with planting teleport sigils that enabled recent terror attacks on the city.  Roscoe has been in hiding.

Garrett was captured and being housed at a detention block along the north wall in the Aldbarrow neighborhood.  Recently Garret, and 4 bandits from the criminal group "Pale Moon" excaped.

The party met with the captain of the guard, the commander of the Aldbarrow detention block , and a barkeep in Balckburough who was know to associate with Garrett and Roscoe.

The barkeep tipped the party off that they may have gone to a tavern in Ostwick known as the "Kraken's Back".  This is a known hangout for "Pale Moon".

The party went to the tavern, where they were confronted by an angry group of bandits, led by a Halfling bard named Venos.  They fought with this group and defeated them.  They spared the Bard's life.

Summary of information learned by the party in this session:
- Pale Moon is an up and coming criminal organization, challenging White Skull for control of some parts of the city.
- Pale Moon sometimes aligns itself with Goblin factions outside the city.  White Skull never does this.
- White Skull has placed a hit out on Garrett and Roscoe.  Their involvement with a goblin is enough to get them expelled from the group.  Their involvement with the terror attacks has taken that to a new level.  White Skull's leadership wants them dead.
- Garrett and Roscoe have left the city.  With both the city guard and White Skull after them, they need to get out of town.  They are seeking refuge among goblins allied with Pale Moon.  A group from Pale Moon helped them escape the city.  They left for a secret base camp in the swamp south of the city.

The party left the city on their way to the base camp.  When the session ended, they were just about to come upon the camp......

#52 - A hot show at the theater

In the middle of the night, the party broke into the theater.  They toom a long rest in one of the back stage rooms, but did not venture any further.  The wanted to allow Perra to perform Dispel Magic on the Sigil to prevent anything from coming through.

Little did they know, that just on the other side of that stained veneer door, an Efreeti had already come through the sigil.  He polymorphed himself into the form of a stage hand, and began to set up a deadly surprise for tomorrow's matinee.

He set up 7 clay pots, each containing a magmin waiting to burst out and set fire to the crowded theater.

In the early morning, the party awoke, and went further into the theater.  They found the sigil, which Perra dispelled.  They also found 3 of the clay pots behind the back stage curtain.

Samm heard the Efreeti and peered through the curtain to see him.  The man that he saw said "Don't miss the matinee.  It's going to be a really hot show!" and then turned to smoke (gaseous form).  He floated off into the theater seating area.

The clay pots all popped open, releasing little magmin eager to light fires.

The Efreeti landed in a balcony seat, and cast Wall of Fire across the front of the stage.  .

The Party engaged in combat against the Magmin, who were quite weak, but exploded at the death, spreading flame and doing damage.

From his balcony perch, the Efreeti summoned 2 fire elementals to battle the party.  Lenny was quite effective at fighting them off.

Eventually, it came down to just the party and the Efreeti.  Perra tried to contain him with a pearl of power, but missed.

He fly down into the seating area.

Perra again tried the Pearl of Power.  This time succeeding.  He was able to trap the fire genie for a full minute.  But in this time, the genie used a spell to enlarge himself to huge size.

The party surrounded him,waiting for the pearl's prison to expire.  When it did, the huge Efreeti was able to land two deadly blows on Volaryn with his scimitar.

In the end, the party was too much for this foe.  But the theater was badly damaged.  This city's board of directors was getting impatient with these deadly attacks.

Back at the magic shop, the party was once again paid a visit by the strange old goblin.  Once again, some distant being spoke through him.  He offered once again to buy the crown, this time adding that the attacks were the result of a curse (lying) and that by selling the crown, the party could be rid of it.
The goblin (not under control of the distant voice) agreed to let Merl scry on him, in exchange for payment.  Merl was able to conjure an image of a huge crystal floating about a natural pier.  This pier was jutting out into the ocean from a beach somewhere to the south of Fort Aralan.

#51 - Chaos in the Garden District

With the help of the Wizard Merl, the party brings the petrified thief from the North Gate Basilisk Incident back to the magic shop.  There they restore him to life.  There learn that his name is Garrett.  Garrett and his cousin Roscoe had been approached by a strange old goblin.  The goblin paid them to place teleport sigils throughout the city.  Ostensibly these portals were being placed to set up some later burglaries.

Garrett told the party that he had placed two other sigils.  One each under two bridges in the garden district canals.  Roscoe had agreed to place one as well, but Garrett did not know where.

Garrett told the party that if they sent a message through a barkeeper in Blackburough, they could arrange a meeting with Roscoe.  Through a messenger they arranged a midnight meeting.

In the meantime, the party went to the Garden District, seeking the sigils beneath the canal bridges.

One sigil was overgrown with plant growth.  These plants turned out to be two shambling mounds.  One of them nearly took Gevin by surprise.  As the party engaged these two plant monsters in combat, the other sigil activated, bringing a 5-headed Hydra into the canal.

After some struggle the party defeated these enemies.  At one point, the hydra had as many as 12 heads, 4 of them biting Samm in a single round, nearly taking him out.

After this battle concluded the party met up with Roscoe, who told them that he had planted the last sigil in a theater in the Aldhaven district.

The party went to Aldhaven, and picked the lock on a backstage door.  They intent to take a long rest before entering so that Perra can prepare "Dispel Magic" to destroy the sigil.

#50 - Panic in Northgate

After some time off, the party has re-united in the magic shop of Sihirbaz.  There are some familiar faces, and some new ones.

Perra (Bill's Dragonborn Paladin), Samm (Stan's human fighter) and Geven (Jim's elven ranger) are all there.

There are some new faces as well.
LNE ("Lenny") is a warforged fighter.  Warforged are sentient constructs crafted in ancient times are warriors.  Lenny was found in the battlefield below Green Mountain.  He has been "shut-down" all that time.  Sihirbaz recovered him and was able to get him working again.  (This is John's character for this segment of the campaign).

Merl.  This is an NPC wizard, diviner.  Human.  A long time apprentice to Sihirbaz, but a powerful wizard in his own right.  He works at the university, and assists Sihirbaz in the study of ancient magic.  He is oftern in charge of the shop when Sihirbaz is away.

Valaran.   (Brian's new character).  This is a Triton Barbarian.

As described in Volo's Guide, the Tritons were a race that came to the material plane to battle evil water elementals that had crossed over.  They formed a small civilization in the sea to the south-east of Terra Malatia.  (The Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico).  But the plague that wiped out Terra Malatia effected the Triton as well.

Their cities fell, and they were reduced to nomadic bands of warriors at the bottom of the sea.  This accounts for his barbarian nature.

He dwells in a small section of a ruined ancient city.  This city is near a portal to the elemental plane of water. His tribe still feels an obligation to act as guardians to whatever might cross that portal.

One day the discovered that a Water Myrmidon had crossed the portal.  This is usually not a good thing.

So Valaran began to track the Myrmidon.  He tracked him all the way to the surface, where he found a ship wreck.  The Myrmidon and a small group of Water Elementals had pushed a ship into the rocks of a small island.  Many of the crew were killed, and those that remained could not have survived on their own.

Valaran helped them ready their life boat for a journey across the open sea to the nearest port.  And he guided them there.  This is how he came to Fort Aralan.  He wanted to warn the city about the Myrmidon.  This is how he found Sihirbaz, and came to the magic shop.


During this meeting at the shop, the party was visited by a weak old Goblin, claiming he had a message to deliver.  The party agreed to listen.  This message was clearly the voice of some other being, channeled through the goblin.  Referred to as "my associate", this being offers 30,000 GP to purchase the Crown Of Trakas.  He is offended and slightly threatening when the offer is declined.  "Be Warned".  During this conversation he showed the party a handful of shiny new gold coins, with a rombus shape, and with the letter "Z" on one side.

Later, an alarmed crowd informs the party that there has been some disturbance at the Northgate Bazaar.  They eventually find that 5 basilisks were released into the crowd via a teleport sigil.  The party is able to clear the area of these monsters with little trouble.  But many people are hurt or turned to stone.  The attack was executed by a young wizard who was turned to stone in the process.  He carried a note "Be Warned".  And he had paid for the storage shack that he used with coins matching the "Z" coins that the goblin had carried.

Finally, the party tracked down and interviewed a surviving crewman from the ship wrecked by the Myrmidon.  They learn that the ship had no cargo, and there was not real reason for it to be attacked.  "Be Warned".  The Myrmidon had told them they they would no longer have access to these waters until they get what they want.

BTW, during all this the party read Merl's notes on the Crown of Trakas.  He appears to exhibit some of the symptoms that it brings with it.  He has lost a lot of wieght, he smells bad, and his skin is turning grey.

Crown of Trakas:

Ancient crown possessed by the spirit of the Bahumati warlord Trakas Wingsong.

This spirit can emerge from the crown in the form of a Flame Skull.  This can be prevented by wrapping a silver chain around the crown.

Minor Beneficial Properties

+1 to AC while attuned

Ability to cast 3 spells.  Each spell recharges on a roll of 6 on d6.  If the recharge roll fails, the spell cannot be cast until the following day.  The spells are Bless, Command, and Heroism.

Major Beneficial Properties

While attuned, cannot be blinded, deafened, petrified, or stunned

Ability to cast 2 spells.  Each spell recharges on a roll of 6 on d6.  If the recharge roll fails, the spell cannot be cast until the following day.  The spells are Crusader’s mantle, Circle of Power

Minor Detrimental Properties

While attuned, the holder of the crown loses 1 lb per day until they are 20 pounds below normal weight.

While attuned the holder’s skin becomes grey and flaky.

While attuned the holder emits the faint odor of a dead reptile.

Major Detrimental  Properties

Several times a day, the holder experiences vivid hallucinations of carnage from the war experience of Trakas Wingsong

Attuned holder may be possessed by Trakas Wingsong.  Whenever a power of the artifact is used, there is a 50% chance that he will attempt this.  He will succeed unless the holder succeeds on a DC 20 CHA saving throw.