The Sixth Session

May 19, 2018, Campaign: Wildfire

1. In the Mausoleum
2. The artifact.
3. Ship's sniping
4. The Spectator
5. Chloe
6. Conclusion

In the car ride before the session, the players discussed ways of throwing the campaign off the rails by implementing cryptocurrency using in-game methods. (This is part of an attempt to solve the question of how the Party can pool funds to purchase large items, and how that money pool can be maintained.) What the conversation eventually settled on was a spell cast using voice, material

In the Mausoleum

We begin to hear chanting down the corridor that we havne't explored yet. Marnoc examines the altar in the room we're in and there's stuff.

We head down the corridor, led by Belmac, and beneath the magical chanting, we hear a small voice asking "we have the items; are we going to leave or should we be attacking the city?" The chanting stops, answers "I will take the city" and the chanting continues. The first voice says "Very well" and leaves down a differnt hallway. We come to a corner in the hall. Ship sticks their head around the corner and sees a dwarf with pallid demeanor,It's a Duergar. walking towards a hole in the wall at the back of the room. The main centernpiece of the room is a glowing orb with coalescing energy. The chanting figure is elfin by shape.

Marnoc shoves Belmac around the corner! With Belmac's 3 on Stealth, the chanting figure sees Belmac. "I'll hold them off" says the figure to the Duergar.

Belmac says "Excuse me? I'm looking for the bathroom? I'm nkinda lost?" The elf is befuddled, but casts Fireball right in the middle of everyone. Everyone takes 8d6 fire damage. The orb disappears as the elf has lost his concentration.

1. Round 1
   1. Ship is down, passes a saving throw
   2. Theren is down, fails a saving throw
   3. Marnoc is down, fails
   4. The elf says, "If you want you and your friends to live, you'll do as I say. Stabilize them," and then walks up to where the fireball landed.
   5. Belmac is the only one standing. "I don't know how to do that." He pulls out this crimson potion, of healing and nature, a potion of Greater Healing for 4d4 + 4 = 12 HP.
   6. Zoltar is down, with a natural 20 is conscious at 1 HP. The figure repeats, "You will do as I say."
   7. Ship's Bear is down, fails a saving throw.
2. Round 2
   1. Ship passes a death save.
   2. Theren fails a death save.
   3. Marnoc fails a death save.
   4. The elfin figure administers a potion to Marnoc, giving him 7 HP, and then pulls him out of the way so that Belmac can move.
   5. Belmac makes a natural 1 minus 1 = 0 on medicine. He feels a burst of inspiration. He does CPR with the Bear Knuckles, and stabilizes Theren.
   6. Zoltar is conscious and has 1 HP; is adjacent to Ship (2 passed saves) and The Bear (1 failed), so Zoltar uses a healing potion on the Bear; it's conscious with 2d4+2 = 6 HP. The Bear is mad that someone attacked the Party, but The Bear sees that the new figure is helping, and so it doesn't know to attack the new figure.
3. Round 3.
   1. Ship passes a death save and is stable but unconscious.

The elfin figure says "One of you, carry your friend, follow me." The elf is of pallid complexion, with gray skin and purple pallor. He gestures for everyone to precede him down the hallway.

"Who are you?" asks Marnoc.

Belmac looks the elf up and down, and tries to assess how powerful the elf is. He decides that maybe if we were all well rested, we might be able to take the elf down as a team.

Marnoc picks up Theren; Zoltar puts Ship on the Bear.

"What's your name?" asks Marnoc.

"Lucius," says the elf. Lucius gestures towards the back of the room, into the hole that the pallid dwarf went into.

Marnoc makes an insight check with natural 20 +5 = 25 to determine the elf's intentions; with a history knowledge check of 5 + 1 = 6 he doesn't know much about the elf other than he's a Drow and if he wanted to kill us, we'd be dead. The Drow in this world have mainly limited themselves to the islands surrounding the continent and the Underdark; finding someone from the Florian Technocracy not in those regions is really rare.

The dark hole leads to a passageway leads to a stairway that leads down, down, down. Marnoc asks the elf if the elf can carry Theren; the elf says no. We spend a long, long time traveling down the stairs. After about an hour, Theren and Ship come to with 1 hit point apiece.

"Good morning, Ship" says Belmac. "But have we had breakfast yet?" asks Ship. "No, but I'm quite hungry."

"Keep quiet," says Lucius.

Theren pulls out the Book of Chained Edicts, and learns that there's a dark god of some sort that might be related to this situation.

While on the stairs, we all take a short rest and regain hit die of health. The stairwell is masonry done by Duergar; Belmac is not impressed.

Three hours of walking later, the stairwell opens up into a cave. Lucius points out where he wants us to go; there's a small town made of chopped-down pieces of giant mushroom; we're going there. Ship notices that some mushrooms are flammable in nature; but Ship doesn't know what the mushrooms down here in the Underdark are. Belmac pulls a piece off of a mushroom and licks it; he thinks that the tall, treelike mushrooms are hallucinogenic in nature. He grabs about a quarter of a pound of hallucinogenic mushrooms with a 9 Stealth check before the elf notices and tells him to leave the mushrooms alone.

"Where the heck are we going?" asks Zoltar.

"We're going to that town there," says Lucius, "the town of Frostberg."

Off in the dark there is a rustling of direwolf-sized bugs. In Frostberg there are more Duergar, all in scale armor. Many of the Duergar carry whips, with which they are flaying some small, pale Gnomes. These gnomes are Svirfneblin, deep Gnomes. The Gnomes are mining, and are carrying precious gems to the dwarves. The elf brings us to the Duergar, and says, "That went quicker than I expected." Tod later tells us that he rolled unexpectedly well for Lucius' Firebolt, and was pleased that we could just go straight to the enslavement portion of this meission.

Ship hides in the middle of the group of the Party. Lucius turns and goes back to where he came from. The dwarf comes to inspect the Party.

Marnoc attempts to carouse with the Dwarf; "pff, that guy," he says.

The Dwarf replies, "Lucius has his ways." Ship moves to the other side of the Bear.

"Does he mind if we smoke?" asks Marnoc.

"You'll need it where you're going," says the Dwarf.

"Maybe we should ge to know each other," Theren says, using Suggestion to suggest that we follow Lucius back up.

"I suggest you don't cast magic on me," says the Dwarf.

"Why'd he cast Fireball on us?" whines Belmac. "I was looking for a bathroom."

"You were trying to stop us." Six Duergar come out from the barracks; the lead Duergar says that the new Duergar will take us to the tasks. They chain the party up, including The Bear, but they fail their stealth checks with four 2 in a row, and they don't notice Ship. Ship remains unchained.

The dwarves lead the party back into the Underdark. As we walk, Theren starts getting a vision. Maybe he stepped in a mushroom or something; he doesn't really know. He sees before him a great silver door. On it is a symbol which he recognizes, covering the crack in the door. It's a door that is sealed by this symbol, the symbol of his patron Kezzerith. There's an empty gray stone room, with this door on one wall. He hears the words, "It is waiting for you."

It's now around 2 a.m.; it's quite late. The party slows. The party has not had their weapons taken. Belmac reminds the Party that he is Belmac, Breaker of Chains, and Zoltar has but to cry out in distress. The dwarves are unimpressed; they tell us that we are going to an artifact that the Zverfniblin can't access, and that the Dwarves are forbidden by historical edict from retrieving. If we succeed, the Dwarves have no choice but to let us go.

The cogs are turning in Belmac's head.

We drive onwards, to the location where they are setting up camp. It's been six hours since the town, near to be 4 a.m. "Can we sleep here?" asks Marnoc. "That's what we're here to do. Still much more travel." We go down to the mushrooms; the dwarves make lean-tos from the caps of the mushrooms and gesture everyone to sleep under the biggest one. Belmac licks the cap; he has horrible visions with bad bugs crawling out of people's orifices. The party is still chained together.

Marnoc asks if the party can be unchained; Zoltar repeats it. Belmac chimes in, "You and that centipede crawling out of your mouth can shut it." During the hullabalooo, ship with a 5+5=10 Stealth sneaks out the back of the hut. (The Dwarves rolled a 2, 5, 1.) Belmac wonders if the mushrooms can be used to make hallucinogenic arrows with his alchemy things; with double proficiency he doesn't really know, but he does know that by he'd need to distill the essence of the mushroom and some oil. Belmac is having this conversation out loud at the top of his lungs; he's having great ideas while hallucinating. Belmac decides he has a quest to make hallucinogenic mushroom oils and make mushroom beer.

Everyone goes to sleep; in this huge cavern Ship easily finds a place to go to sleep.

The party levels up.

The artifact.

After our rest, the Duergar wake up the party. The dwarves push the party along; Ship follows at a distance. After some time, they reach what is a small door, leading into the side of the cave. The dwarves sayt hat they won't enter there; the Party should enter and bring back whatever they find there. "What do we get if we bring it out?" asks Marnoc. "Your freedom." "But if we get a better offer than freedom; we might not bring it out." "What better offer might you get?" "you've bever been in there; I've never been in there; it might be the land of hookers and blow in there.. We might not bring stuff out." Zoltar asks if there are any other exits; the Duergar don't know.

The party is unmanacled and enter. Ship sees the dwarves sit against the wall. Marnoc shouts, "Oh my god; it's full of naked women!" The Duergar hear, but say "we are forbidden to enter!" "What in the hell are we looking for?" They reply, "We have been told by our mistress there is an artefact."

In the room, it's plain gray with a cylindrival hole in the ceiling, with 4 ceilings against a wall. There's a door on the opposite side.

The Bear hangs back in the entrance, ready for Ship's thing.

Ship's sniping

With a 20 to hit; Ship hits Dwarf #1 for 11 damage; its Ensnaring Strike fails.

1. Round 1.
   1. Zoltar casts Firebolt on Dwarf #4; with an 11 it glances off their scale armor.
   2. Ship with 14 doesn't hit Dwarf #1.
   3. Marnoc casts Bless for +1d4 on all attack and saving throws for Belmac, Theren, and Zoltar.
   4. Belmac moves up and prepares his action to double-claw anyone that gets past the bear.
   5. Theren calls out to Ship, "Just get in here; they're not going to run in" and readies an Eldritch Blast if they try to attack Ship when Ship runs in.
   6. Dwarf #5 runs 50 feet in the direction that he thinks Ship is in, but doesn't know where Ship actually is.
   7. Dwarf #6 runs also.
   8. #4 runs to a spot pretty close to Ship
   9. #1 runs pretty far away.
   10. The Bear grabs Dwarf #3 and tries to pull him into the room; but doesn't really succeed. The Dwarf #3 is grappled.
   11. Dwarf #3 runs, taking 4d4 + 2 opportunity damage from the Bear and runs straight past Ship.
   12. Dwarf #2 runs in the direction of #1.
2. Round 2.
   1. Zoltar uses Minor Illusion to create an illusion of Noidesop about 15 feet outside the door; a symbol of Noidesop in shiny glowing rune form, like it was uncovered by them running away.
   2. Ship shouts in a bad UnderCommon, something heard nearby.
   3. Dwarf #5 moves to near where Ship was
   4. Dwarf #6 moves next to Ship
   5. Marnoc uses Thaumaturgy to create the sounds of orgasmic bliss coming from the door, trying to lure the Dwarves towards the door. He shouts "my god, the beautiful women" but does so crudely. It sounds like a bunch of Gnomes crying.
   6. Dwarf #4 moves close enough to Ship to do an attack. Theren's readied attack hits for 10 damage in the back of the head. Ship's attack is thrown off by the magic;
   7. Theren landed on Darf #4 for 6 damage.
   8. Belmac squeezes past the Bear, fires an arrow at #4, with 11 to hit, the arrow goes a little wide, and then ducks back inside.
   9. The Bear runs after Dwarf #2 and tries to attack.
   10. Dwarf #3 makes an attack against Ship and fails.
   11. Dwarf #2 fails an attack on the Bear.
   12. Dwarf #1 moves close to the Bear.
3. Round 3.
   1. Zoltar holds on to Shatter.
   2. Dwarf #5 makes an attack on Ship, with a critical hit does a mere 8 damage.
   3. Ship use the action Disengage to move 30 feet away, to 20 feet out from the door.
   4. Dwarves #6 and #5 are 5 feet behind Ship, but can't attack because they're chasing.
   5. Marnoc is smoking a pipe.
   6. Dwarf #4 moves up next to Ship, as does Dwarf #3.
   7. Theren uses Eldritch Blast again, does some damage to Dwarf #4.
   8. Belmac runs out, grabs Ship and drags Ship back into the room, provoking two attacks of opportunity, one hits for 12 piercing. Belmac slaps Ship, calls Ship a fucking idiot.
   9. #1 hits the bear for 8 damage.
   10. The Bear disengages from Dwarves #1 and #2 and runs into the room.
   11. Marnoc slaps the bear and calls it a fucking idiot.

"Don't do that again" says Belmac; Ships gives him one of their two healing potion; he heals a little.

The Spectator

We're in the room with the skeletons; Marnoc examines them with his warhammer. He hears a booming voice from the ceiling's cylindrical hole. A sphere comes down, and says, "Don't mess with my friends!" "Oh okay," Marnoc says. It's a Behlolder, with one big eye and four small eyes on stalks; it persistently calls Marnoc a 'bastard'; it's a Medium-sized, abnormally-sized Beholder. It's a Spectator. Zoltar proclaims, "Zoltar is name my!" The Spectator sounds like it's mad. "A Celestial? Half celestial. Not simple; not bastard. Why are you here?" All its eyes look at her. It turns to one side and commands an invisible being, "shut up" and then goes back to staring at Zoltar.

Theren Prestidigitations one skeleton to go 'hee hee'.

The Spectator turns to the speaking skeleton. "Horace! Why are you talking! It has been centuries!"

Zoltar does the same thing; the Spectator calls the next talking skeleton Ian.

We convey that the bastard dwarves outside kidnapped us; Belmac says something that makes the Spectator think that he's not stupid. Belmac basks in the appreciation. The Spectator reveals that his name is Therezdun, the name of the thing up in the mausoleum. Long ago, there was an artefact brought in here, but Therezdum didn't see it. Therezdum says that the skeletons are his honored guests; we are just passing through. Marnoc sincerely apologizes for any inconvenience. We walk to the door on the far side of the room; the Spectator zips up the hole in the ceiling.

Marnoc opens the door. In this new room there's a great silver door, a regal bed, and a lot of fancy furniture. On a scale of 10 out of 10, there's a 12 out of 10 Drow woman on the bed, asleep. Marnoc says, "I knew it."

Chloe

We walk in.

The Drow woman wakes up. "Oh, hello, I haven't seen anyone in ages. Who are you?" Marnoc introduces us. She replies, "I go by Chloe; to what do I have the honor of you coming into my abode?"

"Well, we're looking for an artefact for some burder guys," says Belmac.

"Oh, the Duergar." We tell of the quest; she says that she only knows of the door, which is the door that Theren dreamed of. It's just a door, to her knowledge.

Ship is 95% attracted to her.Ship's player rolled for this figure. Chloe walks up to Ship and caresses their arm. "Oh, you're an interesting specimen." "I like to think I am?" stammers Ship. "Hmm…" muses Chloe.

Marnoc tries to open the door; Belmac helps; they can't. Zoltar knocks on the door. Belmac offers the door a platinum piece. The door does nothing. Marnoc asks Chloe what she's doing here; she replies that she's cursed to stay here. She wraps her arms around Ship. Ship goes "um."

Chloe says that the artefact was brought in like 5 years ago; that she's timeless. She goes over to Belmac; he goes to push her away and says, "Timmy and the well" but ends up embracing her. Belmac is infatuated.

Theren tells Marnoc that he knows the door, but doesn't know what's inside it.

Belmac tries to bribe Marnoc into giving him the bottle of wine from last session; he fails. Marnoc casts Augury to determine what will happen if the door is opened.

(somehow, the door is opened.)

Chloe sighs the "pay attention to me" sigh; Ship pays attention but also backs way up. Belmac hears a voice in his head, "Defend yourself." From the door that Theren has now opened come four skeletons. One in mage's robes, one with two whips, one with a scimitar, and one with a greataxe.

1. Round 1
   1. Ship readies an arrow; shouts to the skeletons, "Do you know Therezdum?" The skeletons' jaws clatter. But Primeval Awareness doesn't work for talking to them, because they're not beasts; they're undead. If one attacks a party member; Ship will shoot it.
   2. Belmac walks up to the door, pushes Marnoc out of the way, and attacks Whip. He doesn't hit with the first swing, but hits on the second swing.
   3. The Bear attempts to sit on top of Chloe; she says "oh no" and is sat upon. Not gently does it sit, but implacably.
   4. Marnoc casts Sacred Flame on Whip; Whip evades.
   5. The Mage Skeleton casts Spiritual Weapon at Ship but does not hit; the spell ends up next to Ship. It's a giant glowing battleaxe floating at the end of Chloe's bed, which Ship is hiding behind.
   6. Axe Skeleton pushes up and attacks Theren for 13 damage, and then clatters angrily.
   7. Zoltar moves to casts Shatter inside the room with the skeletons. They take some damage.
   8. Theren longswords one.
   9. Scimitar swings at Theren but misses
   10. Whip attacks Belmac; misses with the first whip and hits with the second for minimum damage.
2. Round 2.
   1. Ship hits the mage with a lightning arrow.
   2. Belmac hits the Whip agains.
   3. The Bear continues to sit on Chloe.
   4. Marnoc casts Sacred Flame on Whip for 8.
   5. Zoltar casts Shatter to hit all the skeletons again.
   6. The Mage's Spiritual Weapon hits Ship, bringing ship down to 5/28 HP. Belmac shakes off a Hold Person
   7. Greataxe runs forward, tries to push through Theren, but fails.
   8. Scimitar hits Theren.
   9. Threen casts Armor of Agathys.
   10. Whip hits Belmac for a bit.
3. Round 3
   1. Ship moves behind the bear, away from the bed and Spirit Weapon, and hits Scimitar with another arrow.
   2. Belmac kills The Whip and then moves on to The Greataxe.
   3. Chloe pushes The Bear off, and moves to the opposite side of the room. The bear, perturbed, doesn't succeed in hitting the nearby skeleton with its claws. The bear is sad, for he has failed everyhting that he was tasked to do.
   4. Marnoc casts Sacred Flame on Scimitar for a little damage.
   5. Zoltar casts Magic Missile on Scimitar; kills it.
   6. The Mage attacks Theren with the Spiritual Weapon and hits; tries to hit Theren with Hold Person and paralyzes him.
   7. The Greataxe attacks Theren; it takes 10 cold damage from his Armor of Agathys and dies at the same time as it takes him down.
   8. Theren passes a death saving throw.
4. Round 4.
   1. Ship kills the Mage.
   2. Belmac sits down in agonizing pain.
   3. The Bear returns to sitting on Chloe.
   4. Marnoc puts a boot on Theren's chest and uses it to cast Spare The Dying.

Behind the skeltons is a pillar, on which is a floating silvery mask, looks like the Dragon Priests' masks from Skyrim.

⊕

Marnoc picks up the scimitar from the defeated skeleton warrior.

Chloe complains to Ship that the bear is uncivilized; Ship replies that the bear must've liked her. (Insincerely.)

Theren, now healed by Belmac, goes to look at the silvery mask.

"Oh, don't go so far," simpers Chloe, and the badly wounded Belmac returns to her side. It doesn't sound really malicious. Ship realizes that she's a Succubus, but not being overly aggressive. She's trying to play it cool. The Bear is still sitting on her. Belmac gives the Bear scritches and tries to push it off Chloe, but continually fails.

Theren touches the mercurial the mask; he immediately feels a bond with the mask. He gets the Mask of Shadows. It sinks into his face and he looks normal of appearance.

Chloe asks if we can let her out; Ship says "no, you're not my type." Chloe reveals her true form; Belmac remains charmed when she grows wings and tails and a horn. Belmac invites her to leave the room, but his invitation doesn't count.

Marnoc talks to her a bunch.

Marnoc moves to the next room; he looks through the door and doesn't see any dwarves in the main cavern. He invites Chloe into the Spectator's room and the ethereal bonds chaining her to the bedroom shatter. She offers to help us exit the temple. Belmac calls Therezdum down and introduces her.

Belmac convinces Therezdum to attack other dwarves if they are brought into his room. Belmac shakes hands with Therezdum; Therezdum lacking any hands to shake instead uses a stasis ray.

Belmac walks out the door, to try to convince the dwarves to help us.

Conclusion

We're underground, having gained a Succubus ally. Belmac just walked out the door into what will probably be a swarm of pissed-off Duergar.

Ship has learned that, when shooting from cover, to move around from cover to cover, especially after shouting. Sniping is useless when you blow your cover. Ship resolves to buy some arrows from goblines and orcs and other races. And Ship has decided that Smokey needs armor.