#72 Ghost, Deathlocks, and the Drider patrol

 The party found shelter in the ruins of Princess Ahmos's palace.  There they rested.

Samm began complaining of a headache.  And very soon after he vanished.  In his place was a wood elf, apparently a monk.  Too weak to fight, but the wood elfshared his story.

He was a crewman on a Githzerai ship, on a mission to eradicate Githyanki Marauders.  After a successful mission, the ship and its crew were damaged and in need of rest.  While recovering, they were attacked by some unknown force.  The wood elf was captured in the attack.  And he soon found himself imprisoned in an ancient ruined city, ruled by a figure know as "The Thinker of Thoughts".

He was kept separated from other prisoners, and the guards were quite strong.  He decided to bide his time by meditating.  

Soon after he was contacted telepathically by a wizard named Sihirbaz.  Si was imprisoned in a part of the city with an anti-magic field.  He was unable to cast spells.  But the guards were unaware that Si had psionic ability.  

Si had come to Ares to investigate his theory that there might be a colony of Illithids there.  The presence of a Githzerai encampment made him worry that they might be there seeking Illithids.  

He had come to know that there was no large colony of Illithids.  But "The Thinker" is, in fact, and Illithid.  He has rebelled against his Elder Mind leader and set out to build his own colony.  He seeks allies among Ares' underdark races, and with a sect of Thri-Kreen who secretly oppose the Githzerai settlers in Mud City.

Somehow (unknown to the wood elf Monk) Si had managed to craft a scroll and hide it in the prison.  Using this scroll, the wood elf could invoke a spell that would cause his body to switch places with a specific ally of Si.  This ally was Samm, who Si believed might be part of a rescue party.

Hence, the wood elf is here now, and Samm has been wisked away into the prison.

As the party rested, Perra investigated a collapsed section of floor in the palace ruins.  In the level below, he saw a group of human soldiers who greeted him.  These soldiers were happy to see him, and asked for rescue from the undead ruins.  But Perra was able to see with his divine sense that these soldiers were in fact a troop of undead laying in wait to ambush them.

At the same time, a ghost appeared out of a wall in the ground level of the palace.  This ghost entered Jedwin's body and took possession of him.

Battle commenced.  Jedwin was eventually freed from control of the ghost.  From his time possessed, he learned something about the party of undead soldiers.  

During her reign Princess Ahmos was so powerful that a group of warlocks began to follow her, drawing their arcane power from her.  When she tranformed to her current undead form, the warlocks also died but rose again in undeath, to be "Deathlocks".

The fight was difficult, but the deathlocks were defeated, and the ghost destroyed.  At one point, Perra used a Banishment spell to force the ghost out of Jedwin.  As ghosts are capable of moving at will between Ethereal and Material planes, the Ghost was able to return to the battle, but was never able to take possession of any other party members.

Once the undead were defeated, the party descended beneath the palace to find the underground river that the Kobold had described.  They also found a boat and began to travel down the river in the direction of the ancient city.  

The ranger warned them that this area was clearly being patrolled by someone.

Sure enough the party were ambushed by this patrol.  Two driders, and many Duergar made up this group.  One of the Duergar was a powerful warlord.  And the group also had a troll with them.

The party defeated the patrol with great difficulty.  

#71 - Princess Ahmos

Captain Hurst and Samm were finished with their exploration, and decided to return to the party.  It turns out, Hurst was actually a skilled tracker.  He determined as they went that another group was in the area.  A group of Thri-Kreen were stalking the party, some of them were shape shifters who could transform into giant flying wasps.

By the time Hurst and Samm reached the party, they found that an ambush has already been set.  As the party exited the dragon cave, they were immediately swarmed by a party of Thri druids.  This group included a strange warrior, so skilled that he could use his 4 arms to make many attack simultaneously.  

The party defeated the Thri ambush and continued on.  From the strange warrior, they recovered a sun blade. 

Their kobold guide told them what they were about to face.  The key that they had recovered from the dragon's lair it made to unlock a secret gate, that enters the ancient city from an underwater river.  The entrance to the river is beneath the palace of an undead being called Princess Ahmos.

The Princess was human in life.  A mage from another world who came here centuries ago and was able to attract a large following of Thri.  Her existence, as well as the existence of many of her followers, continues in undeath.  The exist in an eternal cycle of rebuilding and tearing down two structures.  At one end of Ahmos' valley, there is her palace, and and the other end her pyramid tomb.  

When the party arrived, they witnessed many Thri exoskeleton husks shuffling along in undead form.  They labored between the two structures, robbing one of material to build onto the other, in an endless futile cycle.  

the party observed this strange parade for a while, until the princess herself, along with a host of stronger followers emerged and crossed the valley.

They used the Serpentine Owl magic item to create a distraction, and made a mad dash for the entrance to the palace, knowing that this was their path to the underground river.  This tactic was largely effective.  Most of Ahmos' warriors were too slow to cut them off.  Only the Princess herself could move quickly enough to be a problem.  She had the ability to turn herself into whirling torrent of sand, and race across the valley very quickly.  

It was Perra who confronted her, using much of his strength in a flurry of divine attacks that dispelled her undead form.  

The kobold guide knew this to be temporary.  Something about the valley has always caused Ahmos' to regenerate whenever she is defeated.

The fairy druid Arceus was able to locate an entrance to the palace ruins, and the party quickly went in to avoid the onslaught of the remaining undead.  

#70 - Blue Dragon's den

 The Kobold prisoners revealed several facts to the party.  

·         There are "worms" in the crags, and the closer you get to the center the more likely you are to encounter them

·         There are undead spirits who reside along the trail to the center

·         This group of kobold’s is from Terra Malatia.  They were brought here by the Thinker of Thoughts as Tribute to the blue dragons.  (Azazel, Lema, and Hizzah).  The Thinker has established a base of operation in the ancient city.   He wanted to make peace with his neighbor Lema and her sons.  So he arranged for a group of kobolds to be brought to Ares as their servants.  Lema and Azazel are now dead, but Hizzah survives.

·         Sihirbaz did pass through, but the kobolds betrayed him to a group of Thri bounty hunters, in the employ of the Thinker.  He was likely captured and taken prisoner.

·         Hizzah is in possession of a key to a secret gate to the city.

With that news, the party decided to attempt a raid on the blue dragon den to recover the key.

They encountered Hizzah, the surviving young dragon, and a large contingent of kobolds.  This included a high level kobold cleric, and several winged and non-winged kobold minions.

The ranger Mahlkier scouted out the site in advance, and they wisely chose to focus their fire on the kobolds first.  They were able to take out almost all of the minions, and do serious damage to the cleric.  The cleric turned invisible to escape.  But the party's wizard, Jedwin, had the ability of "true sight" from a device he possess.  He was able to finish off the cleric soon after.  

The party recovered the dragon's treasure hoard.  The party also found a key, which may be the key to the ancient city gate.       

15000GP

·         1900PP

·       4 are objects (250 GP each)

o   Large Tapestry

o   Carved Ivory Statuette

o   Bronze Crown

o   Silver necklace with a gemstone pendant

o   Potion of cloud giant strength   (claimed by Perra/Bill)

o   Potion of Speed (claimed by Lenny/John)        

o   Spell Scroll 1 (Create food and water)  (Claimed by Jedwin/Randy)

o   Potion of Climbing (Claimed by Mahlkier/Patrick)

o   Philter of Love (unclaimed)

o   Dust of Dryness (Claimed by Mahlkier/Patrick)

o   Potion of Water Breathing (claimed by Whisper/Brian)

o   Potion of Growth (unclaimed)

o   Wind Fan (claimed by Whisper/Brian)

o   Shield of Missile Attraction (claimed by Perra/Bill)  THIS IS  A CURSED ITEM.  Now that Perra as attuned to it, he will always choose to wield it, and suffer its effects until the curse is dispelled.  In fact, this item is kind of a mixed blessing that might actually do more good than harm.)

o   Figurine of Wondrous Power (Serpentine Owl) (claimed by Jedwin/Randy)

#69 - Kobold Temple

 

The party was now at the bottom of one of the deep crags in the desert floor, which formed a sort of canyon labyrinth.  Samm and Captain Hurst split off to explore one branch of the maze.

The rest of the party proceeded, and soon realized that they were being watched and followed.

The faerie confronted one of the lurking spies by flying high above and seeing it from the sky.  Once discovered, the spies revealed themselves to be a group of 7 fearsome scorpion people.

One of the scorpion men could speak the common tongue.  From this group they learned the following

• Sihirbaz had come through this way
• There is a group of newly arrived kobolds along the path that Sihirbaz followed.  These kobolds came to worship and serve the recently killed blue dragons.
• There are other hazards along to path to the ancient cities, including "worms" and undead.
• There is a troop of Thri warriors also exploring the crags

The ranger scouted forward to investigate the kobold camp.  He found evidence that they were in the process of building a new temple.  They appeared to have equipment and weapons that are not made on Ares.

The kobold group was forming a war party, presumably to seek out whoever killed the blue dragons.

The party pushed forward to ambush the kobold war party.  The battle was difficult, but the party triumphed.

The faerie recovered a staff of swarming insects from one of the defeated kobolds.

At the end of the session the party has 3 kobold warriors as prisoners.  

#68 Shipwrecked in the Desert

 While the rest of the party sought out the beacon Arceus , Lenny, and Mahlkier investigated what Si did while in the city.  

They learned that he met with the Anarch as planned.  And then he spent time in the Treasure Hunters guild.  He hired a guide named Bolo Norbek to take him to some specific sights.  

He wanted to visit a group of Thri living in the desert by some old ruins (not the same ruins where they others had found the beacon).  Norbek took him there and observed the conversation, though he could not understand any of what was said.  However when Si became asking questions about a particular set of glyphs on the side of a monument, the Thri became quite upset.  Si used a spell to teleport himself and Bolo away before it became violent.

The rest of the party returned from their mission to find the beacon.  As a group, they needed to decide if they would go to the Thri ruins to investigate the glyphs that had angered the Thri, or simply begin their journey to the location indicated on the note found with the beacon.

They decided not to investigate the glyphs.  They had Captain Hurst fly them to the desert location.  Seeing two large blue figures in the sky, Hurst landed the ship.  In this part of the desert, the ground was cracked with deep crevices, forming a convoluted labyrinth of canyons.  

The two blue figures in the sky were blue dragons.  They attacked the party, but were defeated fairly quickly.  However, Hurst's ship was damaged in the process.

When we ended the session, the entire party had descended into the canyon, seeking a path to the center, which is likely the location of the ancient city that Sihirbaz had described in his note.

#67 - Finding the beacon

 While aboard the Godetia Minaru the party met with a Githzerai officer named Narmak Rinrath.  Rinrath acts a sort of ambassador to all non-Gith people who come in contact with the Minaru.  

Several months ago, Sihirbaz appeared on the ship.  Not in physical form, but as a magical projection.  Rinrath was assigned to speak to him.  Si asked many questions about the presence of a Gith outpost on Ares.  Why was this location chosen?  Why had it become so important that they would choose to station and Anarch here, and build an adamantine tower here?

Rinrath didn't have the answers to these questions.  But he did arrange for Si to meet with the Anarch.  Rinrath knows that the meeting occurred, and that Sihirbaz spent time in the Ares Outpost city.  But he knows little more than that.

Using the homing device that CP-Thirty possesses, the party was able to locate the beacon that Si had set.  It was in a desert location, 4 days journey across a dune sea from the city.

The party called upon a favor owed to them by Captain Hurst.  Hurst faired them to the surface of Ares, stopping first at the Ares Outpost city to drop off part of the group.

Chace - Arceus - fairy druid
John  - Lenny - Warforged fighter 
Patrick - Mahlkier   - Wood elf Ranger

The remainder went on to the location of the beacon.  

Bill - Perra  - Dragonborn Paladin
Stan - Samm - Human Fighter
Randy - Jedwin -  Human Wizard
Brian - Whisper - Tiefling Rogue

They found the beacon in temple ruins in a canyon.  While recovering the beacon they were attacked by a stone golem, and number of sentient boulder creatures, apparently set up to guard the temple ruins.

   

With some difficulty they defeated the stone guardians, and recovered Si's beacon.  It came with a message.

Regrettably, I must be brief.  I have arranged this beacon to signal for aid only if I have not returned from my journey within 10 days.  I suspect that the Constructs that guard this temple will have regenerated by the time you arrive here.  My apologies for the challenge that they may have presented. 

I have come to Ares out of curiosity and concern.  Why would the Githzerai have chosen this world for an outpost?  I believe that the answer to this question may lie in the ruins of an ancient city.  It is there that I have gone.  I plan to travel east from here, perhaps two days journey by camel.  I believe I will find a labyrinth of natural canyons, likely partially buried in the dunes.  The entrance to the city is to be found there.

The party waited over-night for Captain Hurst to return to pick them up.  While they waited they recovered a number of small artifacts from the temple.  These were small statuettes depicting Thri-Kreen figures.  They also observed that the temple alter is less worn down than the rest of the temple ruins, perhaps indicating recent repairs.  It seems that maybe someone is still using this temple for some purpose.  

In exchange for the recovered statuettes, Captain Hurst agreed to continue providing taxi service to the party as they explore Ares.  He returns them to the Ares Outpost city, and promises to help them journey to the ancient city that Si's note mentioned.  

#66 - A rescue mission

Characters

Chace - Arceus - fairy druid
John  - Lenny - Warforged fighter 
Patrick - Mahlkier   - Wood elf Ranger
Bill - Perra  - Dragonborn Paladin
Stan - Samm - Human Fighter
Randy - Jedwin -  Human Wizard
Brian - Whisper - Tiefling Rogue

The party was summoned by the Wizard Merl, an assistant to Sihirbaz.  

Merl's message to them:

Merl said “The fates are with us.  This vessel has come to us just as we are in need of it.”

“I have received a distress call from Sihirbaz.  He needs your help, and you will need that vessel to find him.”

“He and I are in the habit of scrying a wide range of places for potential threats to Fort Aralan.  Of course you know that there is a rising force of Bahumati to the west.  But Si has cast his eyes much further away than that.”

“In the night sky, you may have seen occasionally a red dot.  This is not a star.  It is another world.  Like our own in some ways, but very different too.  He gazed upon it with a spell that can peer across the Astral Sea.  And there he saw an Adamantine tower.”

“Such a tower is known to signal the existence of a Gith settlement.  Githzerai actually.”

“Do you know the tale of the Gith war?”

“Eons ago, well before anything that any of us has ever known came into being.  Before the plague.  Before the Four Kingdoms arose.  Before the time of Trakas Wingsong by thousands of years.  Illithids ruled thousands of worlds across the Astral Sea.  They may have even ruled this one, though I have seen no evidence of it.’

“The Illithids used a race of green-skinned men as their muscle.  These people were enslaved as soldiers and workers.  One day a leader of these people named “Gith” lead a revolution.  She toppled the Illithid order, killing most of them, and scattering what remained.”

“When the war ended, Gith’s people separated into two factions.  The Githyanki thought it their right to rule all creation with an iron first, just as the Illithids had done.  They formed a society made for war and conquest.”

“A separate group, called Githzerai sought exile from this.  They used powerful magic to carve out a realm within Limbo itself.  There they would be safe from both their GIthyanki brothers, and the remnants of the Illithid empire.”

“Githzerai rarely create settlements outside of their refuge in Limbo.  When they do, it is for one of two purposes.  If they find Illithids, they will come forward to destroy them.  If they discover a Githyanki scheme to conquer new territories, they might come forward to put a stop to it.”

“The existence of an Adamantine Tower tells us that there are Githzerai.  It may also signal the existence of Githyanki, or Illithids, or both.  When the Goblin King launched his raid on our shop to steal the crown, there was a Gith wizard among the raiders.”

“This is the threat that Sihibaz has gone to investigate.  And he is in trouble”.

Departure

The party departed aboard their astral ship, bound for the red point in the sky.  

The ship came equipped with a Modron pilot named "CP - Thirty".

With CP30 at the helm, they recieved a distress call and responded.  Another astral ship was being chased by two large creatures.  (re-skinned Aboloth's, which live natively in the Astral).

They defeated these creatures.  They found the other ship crewed by a bunch of gun-toting hippo-men, lead by Captain Hurst.

Captain Hurst is a treasure hunter who bases his ship on board the gargantuan Githzerai ship Godetia Minaru

Hurst's ship was damaged, and the party agreed to tow him back to the Minaru.  In exchange he has promised to ferry them to the surface of the red planet below.

They met Narmak Rinrath of the Githzerai as well.

Recap

 Main set of character

Original group of "Fort Aralan" characters are now at 11th level (I think).

Move recently they defeated a beholder who had set up an encampment south of the city.  His layer was linked to an  orbital station.  They recovered a ship there that can sail on the astral sea. (See this post)

Their long time mentor, the wizard Sihirbaz is missing.

New set of characters

A new set of characters was started.  These characters were not in the Fort Aralan setting.  Instead they were refugees of the Gith war.  Their home worlds were destroyed by Githyanki marauders.  They were rescued by Githzerai, and brought to "Ares Outpost".  On a desert world, this is the last remaining city of a Thri-Kreen population facing extinction.  (See this post)

This group of characters was given shelter within the walls of Ares Outpost, while most refugees had to live outside the walls in a shanty town.  They received this shelter in exchange for working for a Gith captain named Rinrath. 

Rinrath sent the party to investigate some smugglers.  Ancient Thri-Kreen artifacts had been stolen, and Rinrath had learned of a meeting between the thieves and the buyers.  The party interrupted this sale.  In the process they learned that the buyer was a Thri-Kreen druid.

They traced this druid to an order living in an underdark realm beneath the mountain.  On their journey to investigate this place, they encountered many underdark creatures, including Myconids and Grey Gnomes.  They also learned of a mysterious figure known as "The Thinker of Thoughts", who was stirring up trouble among the underdark peoples.  

The druid order, called "The Preservers" or "Preservationists" had an enormous cavern with an artificial sun.  Within it they created a ecosystem populated with plant and creatures from Ares before it became a desert.  

All the druids were Thri, except for one - a halfling named Bell.  Bell was friendly to them at first, but eventually attacked them.  They defeated her in battle, and learned that her mind had been taken over by an Intellect Devourer.