DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

The Ninety-First Session

September 16, 2023, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We return to Sky Diamond and learn some things about Belladonna: she caused the Divergence. Then we go to the pyramid, learn of the Quadroads mission to explore it, and enter ourselves. It's a small little pyramid, but it's also hard to get into without dying. We defeat the first floor, and find the second.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Now
  3. To the other location
  4. The Divergence
  5. To the Pyramid
  6. In Barehold
  7. Next Session

Last session

We went back to Lanthet, defeated the attacking demons and undead, but did not manage to defeat the Mummy Lord before he magically seized the corpse of Kerjes.

Now

To defeat the Mummy Lord, we need to break his canoptic jars, which are probably hidden inside his pyramid.

We stagger and limp back to Majorie and Merril. They have defeated the third Herzous.

Back in the main square, we notice that the area where Kerjes once was is outlined with a licheny, mossy substance. It dies when Ryltar hits it with a Ray of Frost, but after some discussion, Merrill determines that it's just sort of a side effect of the death of a Green Dragon, since they're sort of the essence of wild growth.

Merrill doesn't think that even a demi-god would be able to guarantee a resurrection of the dragon.

Ryltar explains: The first demonic attack was summoned by Belladonna and led by Kerjes, while Belladonna was in jail under the Banyo Tree. There are no visible locks on the cage of roots, but still we think she is trapped in there.

In Jerry's home, we do some rest and rejuvenation.

We learn that a Hag would normally have control of natural things like roots, but Belladonna doesn't. She look like a Hag, acts like a Hag, smells like a Hag, but doesn't do things in green. She does devils. And her boyfriend, the Mummy Lord Degrazil, deals in the Undead.

We take a short rest and heal up some.

We're mostly out of spells for the day, so we think about what to do.

While we're in Jerry's house, Ryltar grabs a fork.

Jerry deposits 47,000 gold into some mixing bowls in the kitchen, for Umara to give to Merrill for buying things.

Who can we message?

And when it comes to questions of "what's the best way to defeat Mummy Lords", Sky Diamond is going to be the best place, since they know people who know people, and they're near the pyramid.

Out in the streets, there's the noises of a healing city: calls for lumber, for logging, for similar.

We spend 8 hours helping the city:

No matter what ravages the land and buildings, as long as there are people to rebuild, there will be hope and chances for survival.

And then we message Guy in the evening:

Kerjes' corpse stolen by Degrazil. How to locate canoptic jars? Crack open pyramid? Kill undead? Degrazil not weak to fire. Degrazil working with Belladonna. Fuck.

The reply:

Oh no. I'll tell the Deans. Canoptic jars are usually in the Mummy's resting place They should be vulnerable to Fire. Belladonna's doing? Will research.

Evening turns to night, we sleep in Jerry's house, and night turns to morning.

To the other location

Jerry says goodbye to her Family again. Ryltar Polymorphs a random peasant into a Giant Ape.

We decide to Teleport to Sky Diamond, talk to the Deans, and then head out to the Pyramid.

We arrive at the Lyceum. There's a new receptionist, who makes us do the paperwork again. But we are expected, and the Deans are waiting for us. In the tunnel to the Academy there's a little gnome sleeping: Guy stayed up for us. Jerry picks him up and carries him with us. We get into Sky Diamond, and take Guy back to his room. He wakes up as we go into the building,a nd asks to be let down.

Guy takes us to a small mansion within the Academy, the residence of Dean Kamal. We are ushered in, and to a room, where Guy knocks, and we are invited in.

There are four deans:

We are invited in, and they invite us to sit. Guy yawns in reverence and is permitted to depart.

They ask about the corpse of Kerjes; the woman in black asks if we know of any other dragon's corpse. We don't. She says that they will not be able to raise Kerjes; they don't have enough resources. Maybe, if they hat at least 10k platinum, made into a wire. We say that the Great Banyo tree has that. But they also need a second dragon's corpse, and they don't have that. From what we know of ancient dragons, they are far and remote and have their own myths surrounding them, and their territory is larger than contients. They stay far away from each other. To go to one would be an ordeal, and it's extremely unlikely that they will be able to find another ancient dragon, let alone its corpse.

So why do they want Kerjes? Because she represents the elemental power of growth, the forest, dark, and elusive. When a body is slain, those energies are released, and enhance the growth of what's around.

We read them in on the existence of "the Big B." Ryltar explains that Kerjes' corpse might be of benefit to Belladonna, to release her or break the enchantment that holds her there.

The longer the dragon decomposes, the longer its effect has to spread, turning the land into something like a feywild. It will take over the Woven Council in time, if they don't get removed by Belladonna.

We are asked to step outside for a bit.

We discuss whether to name names.

We're invited back in. Kamal is looking out the window. The others are staring at the walls.

Ryltar tells them that the entity is like a Hag, named Belladonna.

The three deans look at Kamal. He turns and thanks us, and says that they will take steps to prevent any further intrusions from the Banyo Tree. They will send guards, and others, to surround it.

Jerry asks how they will handle various scenarios. If his people are seduced. If the forest rises up against them. If their camps are raided in the night by a Roc. If the Mummy Lord's forces come from the pyramid

Kamal says, "I will be there." At the tree.

The other deans protest, but he quiets them. "She has come back. We have our duties." He turns to us: "Thank you for your candor." The door to the room opens.

Ryltar: "We've come this far, and you're asking us to sit it out? With respect, we helped save Belladonna's sister." He pulls out the Ice Heart of Winter, saying, "This wand was wielded by one who was killed by her a thousand years ago. I don't think it's right to exclude us."

The other human male agrees, saying, "We will not stop your course of actions, to prevent this. You are enabling our course of actions to prevent this."

"You're going to the Tree as well."

"I am to prevent Belladonna's ascension. I will not engage, but to prevent."

"But if you don't su— If we don't deal with it for once and for all, what's to stop it from happening 50, a hundred years down the line?"

"A thousand years down the line."

"Always once in a thousand years?" 18 on Investigation.

There's a realization in what we've stumbled upon. It's not every thousand years. It just happens to be the time.

The room is tense. One of the Deans says, "We agreed." The woman in black says, "Tell them."

Kamal: "Belladonna caused the Divergence."

The Divergence

Kamal continues: ", from what we know. And what you're holding there may be the key to prevent or aid her return."

Ryltar: "So we've come to understand. It seems our propecy is foretold in the stars; duno if you've heard about it."

"We've heard."

"Ren hypothesized that the prophecy was recorded in the movements of the stars, representing a collection of fey artifacts. We have three so far."

"There will be more. We can only postulate when and how, but a thousand years ago, Belladonna was at the center of it. We can gather that Belladonna was at the center of it, until the Gods and their servants intervened. Doing so, they scattered Belladonna."

"How do we stop an ascension to godhood?"

"You have one piece that can help. Vurguron, may we see your shield?" He hands it over. "The Gods and their servants may strike back. The Fey Seeds may be powerful; devices, but the Gods grant powers as well. A shield crafted by Bahamut is one. There may be others."

"You wouldn't happen to know their names or where they are?"

Kamal hesitates. The woman in black speaks: "Uncovering the past, before all died and were buried, is difficult. It is rare for them to be buried with great artifacts, rare for them to be buried at all."

Do you think us chasing down Degrazil in the immediate future will be worth our time?"

"Yes. As you say, she is trapped for now."

"She seemed keen to escape; it seems we delayed her departure by removing that."

"You did. Any delay of her completion is more time that we can prepare."

"So: Degrazil, Mummy Lord. Canoptic jars, 5 of them, in his Pyramid, and guarded by any things that Belladonna and he may have thought up." "Yes."

Their advice on desecrating the Canoptic Jars: holy water, smashing, stomping.

We tell them about Belladonna's sister, the Lady of the Forest.

Ryltar thinks that we should look into the Hero's Feasts spells, for disease and poison and fright, increases in health. We should look into radiant damage for use against the Undead.

The Deans mention one more weapon: Cabal's Ruin. It's cloak with a unique effect, able to mitigate magics cast upon the wearer, and to repel them back. It was stolen, last known location was in Setton, about three months ago.

To the Pyramid

Kamal asks if we'd like a ride to the Pyramid, since he's going that ways anyways.

His teleportation spell looks like a spreading fractal of glass that ensconces us, and shatters, taking us to a sunny field.

We look around, and there's a stone point sticking out of the ground. It's the point of the pyramid, about 500 feet away.

Kamal says, "We have our duties," and he strides off to the east.

Jerry pops Pass Without Trace.

We are on the southeast side, and there's an opening on the east side. Jerry sees that there's a tent and campfire and sentry at the entrance. The sentry appears to be Quadroads guards, alive and living. Their tent bears the symbol of the Quadroads.

Ryltar hates this. Jerry does, too.

We sit for a bit to watch the two guards, to see if there's going to be a good opportunity to sneak past them. Five minutes go by, and another two guards come from Barehold proper. They relieve the current guards, who return to Barehold.

We are suspicious of whether everything is on the up-and-up in Barehold.

In Barehold

We sneak over to Barehold. There's a small encampment. The guards aren't acting undead. They act like normal guards folk. Barehold had previously been empty, and there are still no signs of villagers.

We go up the road a little ways, drop Pass Without Trace, and come down the road. They ask us to identify us.

We say that we're the Knights of the Summer Court; we're here to kill the Mummy Lord. They said that Thrai said we'd be here.

They had lost three guards before, exploring the pyramid. There are also West Haven guards here. Thrai is around, and stressed.

A half-orc captain in the Quadroads livery accompanies us to the pyramid. Closer to to the pyramid, we smell a pervasive stench of rotting fish, coming from where the pyramid's edge clips the edge of the pond.

Inside the pyramid, we are introduced to a small pile of ash, which was the third guard to die. The other two stepped into the pyramid and immediately died of old age.

They have been deciphering some glyphs: Degrazil Imrohar, Butcher of Othe, The Silencer.

On the left is a jackal-headed statue of a human, and on the right, a crocodile-headed human. The jackal has lazer eyes.

Apparently there's a divination block within the pyramid; the scrying eye doesn't work.

From outside the pyramid, Ryltar can see no magical signatures within it.

After some thought, we send in Ryltar's Shadow Hound, into the pyramid and down the ramp.

It takes 12 points of psychic, and uses its reaction to flee the pyramid, whimpering.

He dismisses it and resummons it, having it phase through the walls and try to enter the pyramid that way. It takes 8 points psychic damage and flees the pyramid again. So we send it in from a deeper part of the wall, and it avoids the entrance fear effect. We walk it past the crocodile, and it takes a lot of poison damage from the crocodile's exhaled cloud of poisonous smoke: Cloud Kill. The 20' radius sphere wafts out of the pyramid, traveling 50', and then poofs out of space.

We send the dog back in, to see if the thing can retrigger more than once per day. Turns out it can! And the dog dies.

Jerry catches a fish and throws it through the doorway. It passes through the door arch and dies at the threshold. It continues on, without wriggling, past the statues, and plaps against the center pillar within the pyramid.

Percival can do Countercharm to give us advantage against fright and intimidation and charm. But it's not immunity. He also understands that the apparent fright spell is Dissonant Whispers, which you wouldn't be affected by if you can't hear it.

Jerry goes and grabs another fish, casts Silence into the entrance, and tosses the fish into the pyramid. It succeeded on Dissonant Whispers but still takes damage from the spell, and dies, because it has few HP.

Ryltar walks in, taking 6 psychic. There's a brief moment of darkness, and dessicated faces fly past his vision. Outside was damp, like a dewy fall morning. Inside, it's dry. He still can't see the Silence spell.

He investigates the ground in front of the statues. Can't see anything.

He pulls out the Ice Heart and meditates upon it. Can he feel the Weave, the magic around us? He apparently kicked up some dust, and that's messing with his senses.

Outside, Jerry looks around the pyramid. The base of the pyramid is below ground level by a foot and a half. There's no other entrances; it's solid stone laid perfectly. She climbs to the top of the pyramid and looks for inscriptions. She finds Dwarvish runes, reading:

Degrazil, Imohar, Butcher of Othe, the Silencer.

Ryltar casts Shape Water with his waterskin and moves some water over the ash pile. But there's no water in his waterskin.

He walks out, tells the group what his experiences are. He throws a block of ice in, and it dries up. We put a cup of wine from the Abracadabrus in, and it turns to vinegar, without water.

Jerry puts another fish inside her bag, and she and Ryltar Dimension Door into the pyramid, onto parts of the floor that are known safe. Nothing bad happens. Percival and Vurguron follow.

She pushes the fish forwards, one square at a time, and we get to the central pillars. The torches in the room light up, and there's a skull in each corner. The skulls light up with a firey glow, each casting a Fireball. Two are dodged or countered so we take only 22 fire damage.

  1. Round 1:
    1. Ryltar Slows the four skulls.
    2. The southeast skull casts two Fire Rays against Vurguron. Slowed, these take longer to cast. The flame gathers atop the stairs and by the entrance.
    3. Percival attacks one of the skulls with his Storm Boomerang, and bardically inspires Vurguron.
    4. Vurguron attacks the Southeast Skull and swings with his sword, dealing three metric fucktons of damage, fracturing the skull and putting out its flames.
    5. Jerry cracks the northwest skull, but it's not dead quite yet.
  2. Round 2
    1. Ryltar casts Ray of Frost and it fizzles out in the air.
    2. Jerry takes some Magic Missile
    3. Percival attacks the northeast skull and inspires Jerry
    4. Vurguron kills the southwest skull
    5. Jerry smashes the northwest skull, and attacks the northeast
  3. Round 3
    1. Ryltar bonks the northwest skull with his ice staff, but it Shields.
    2. It tries to attack at range.
    3. Vurguron moves upstairs into the next room. It's full of the detritus of the afterlife, including the sarcophagus and four stone chests.
    4. Percival bonks the skull with his mace.
    5. Jerry Smash.

So that's the downstairs room dealt with.

Vurguron is in an empty room with the sarcophagus on the eastern wall. There's a chair on the northeast side, and chests on the other corners. Tables on the north and south walls.

Next Session