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Kazmojen selling an orphan to a duergar. 

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Session 6: 2/23/2017

Chapter 1: Life’s Bazaar, continued

               We started this session coming to grips with some sad news. Due to a personal issue, Meg, the player that had created Tiny Shalhoub had moved away, so not only was the party now without their impulsive martial artist, our group was now without our friend. She was a bright spot in our days, had a great sense of humor, and contributed a lot of energy to our story and our fun. Her absence will be keenly felt.

               In the story, we rewound the tape a bit and the explanation for her absence is that the group went their separate ways to take care of various errands in Cauldron and agreed on a time and place to meet back up to resume their delve. At the pre-determined time, Tiny was nowhere to be seen. The party spent a little bit of time looking for her, but could find no clues or trail, so they decided to move ahead with their exploration.

               The group descended into Jzadirune once more and headed directly to the elevator, its location revealed by Yuathyb, the darkling elder. The elevator was guarded by a pair of hobgoblins, and as the door to the elevator opened, the hobgoblins snapped to attention, drew their swords, and readied their shields.

               Amria was the first to act, and she used one of her psionic powers, Occluded Mind, to make the hobgoblin believe a telepathic message: “I am your commander.” The hobgoblin rolled a saving throw and failed terribly, so the confusion on his face was evident. She called out to the group, “leave that one alone for now,” and the group piled in and began cutting down the other hobgoblin. The affected hobgoblin was confused and wasn’t processing the situation capably, so it was difficult for the hobgoblins to work together. This is one of their strengths, teamwork for martial advantage, and Amria had effectively done away with the bond necessary for that. Still, he wasn’t totally convinced that his partner was suddenly a traitor, or that these strangers were allies, especially as they continued to beat on him for a few rounds. It was a moot point eventually, as the hobgoblin was beaten to death and left on the elevator floor bleeding his life out.

               The party threw the lever that activated the elevator, and it descended for a full minute into the depths of the Malachite Fortress. When it eventually halted, the group found a secret door that led to a room containing another lever. Testing this, they found it to be an elevator call lever, and paid it little mind. Amria used one of her new tricks, the Mask of Many Faces, and she looked just like one of the hobgoblins that they had just defeated.

               Hugo checked out the rooms beyond in a very stealthy manner and found a hallway containing a pair of empty cages and a pair of statues of dwarven female warriors holding swords aloft. Amria could also now Detect Magic at will and when she did so, she detected a concentration of magical energies on both statues. The group concluded that the statues would probably animate at some point and attack. They then debated how to best proceed. Some argued in favor of checking to see if the statues would animate and attack Amria in her hobgoblin disguise. Some argued in favor of destroying the statues before they even activated. This latter argument was the one that won out, and the group opened fire on one of the statues. After this initial attack, the dwarven women wrought of malachite silently advanced toward the group, their swords held at the ready.

               The combat took a few rounds, as the statues proved resistant to most damage, but the party soon took them out. Hugo moved to check the room, and immediately heard angry footsteps from an adjacent chamber. As he tried a warning and to move away from that door, it crashed open and a massive, oafish hulk stamped out of the room with a length of stone in his hands. “SHUT UP!” it yelled, “SLEEPING!” and its makeshift club knocked the wind out of Hugo.

               The ogre continued the fight from which the constructs had been removed, and laid a good amount of damage down. After their victory, the group investigated the room that previously housed the ogre and found it decorated in filth. Mired in the filth, they found a chest, which Ris retrieved for the party. It was locked, but the group found a key on the ogre, and it fit the lock.

               The chest held a decent-sized hoard of coinage consisting of copper and silver. The party proceeded to investigate a secret door that they had uncovered, finding it led to a tunnel that proceeded east then south. The tunnel ended in an armory where the group found a multitude of weaponry and armor secreted away. The room was impressive in the amount of armaments it contained, but nothing was of particular worth, so the party left it for now and investigated onward.

               Hugo and Amria, both of whom are possessed of exceptional Perception skills, could hear a faint hammering of metal on metal through the nearby secret door. Hugo decided to be very stealthy as he opened the door, and he was greeted with a wave of heat and the sound of hammering increased greatly in volume. The room that they looked upon was a massive forge where three goblins and a female dwarf were hammering on javelins. Two halflings were seated on the floor across the room, working small links of chain into a suit of what would soon be chain mail. A pair of hobgoblins stood nearby, overseeing the work.

               Hugo’s reconnaissance went unnoticed, so he returned to the armory to talk about his findings and assist the group to make a plan. Amria used her Mask of Many Faces to again resemble a hobgoblin from the elevator. She walked in with Fogo and Ris in front of her, Ris’ sword in one hand, a rolled up scroll of paper in the other. Fogo’s sword was left behind in the armory, and Hugo was hiding in wait, watching the scene play out. As the group entered the forge, the hobgoblins called out a challenge. Amria raised the scroll and advanced, and I had her player roll a Deception check. She rolled very highly and the hobgoblins waited to see what Amria would hand over. The other creatures in the forge were watching as well, interested in what was happening.

               So it was that they all saw the scroll shed its illusion and transform into a red glass wand that sprayed a blast of fire into the faces of the hobgoblin guards. Ris jumped up near the anvils to protect the dwarf from the goblins and Fogo launched himself forward, ready to cut down any possible survivors of the fiery spray.

               Mechanically, this is what happened: Amria’s scroll was the Wand of Burning Hands she had found in Jzadirune. Her Mask of Many Faces disguises her equipment as well as her appearance, so she disguised it as a scroll that she hoped the hobgoblins would think are orders. She can’t speak Goblin, so she kept her mouth shut. Fogo leveled into eldritch knight, and could now summon his sword, which was his bonded weapon, from afar. So he could summon it into his hands even as he swung to slash open the hobgoblins.

               The hobgoblins challenged Amria because she entered the room through a secret door from a hidden armory. Even if she was escorting prisoners, there’s no reason for her to enter through the path she did, and hobgoblins are well-disciplined and structured. Her roll succeeded beautifully, however, so the hobgoblins gave her the benefit of the doubt. When she got within 15 feet, she blew all but 1 charge on the wand and roasted the hobgoblins. One hobgoblin failed its save and was instantly incinerated. The other made its save and only lasted long enough for Fogo to cut it down. Ris made quick work of the three goblins and in the aftermath, the three prisoners stared, wide-eyed, and waited to see what this explosion of violence would portend. Ris strolled to the dwarf and held out his hand. “Come with me if you want to live.” She meekly put her manacles’ chain into Ris’ hand.

               Hugo rolled his eyes and explained better, that this was a rescue. The dwarf gave her name as Sondor Ironfold. The halflings were Jeneer Everdawn and Maple. Fogo recognized Jeneer from around Bluecrater Academy as a jeweler’s apprentice that he hadn’t seen in a long while. Maple was a feisty Halfling, ready to assist the party in rescuing the rest of the prisoners. She gave directions to the cells and the party was on the verge of escorting the freed slaves to the surface, but changed their minds as they found their operation was time-sensitive. They feared that taking the prisoners to the surface would have a detrimental impact on the prisoners that remained should the absence be noted. For this reason, the two slaves who would not accompany the party remained in the secret armory.

               It should be noted that this was the point where the group was finally able to identify themselves by their team name. Maple asked Amria, “Who are you?” and she replied, “Hell Delvers.” There was much satisfied grinning around the table. The group had discussed for a while now what name they wanted for their band and had landed on Hell Delvers. It has a very nice ring to it, I must say.

               The forge had two exits that could be seen: one to the west and one to the south. Maple volunteered that the group could get to the western side of the fortress either way, but if they went west, they would have to deal with a pair of hobgoblins who were on guard in that hallway. If they went south, they would pass through the dining hall, which was ‘probably’ empty at this time of night. The group vied to head south, and the dining hall was indeed empty right now. The room had a few doors, one of which headed west.

               “That passes through the block,” Maple said. “That’s where Kazmojen displays the slaves for buyers.”

The group asked, “Are there any guards there?”

Maple shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. Probably.”

Hugo approached the door and could hear a high-pitched wail, ululating faintly through the door. He pulled Maple over, but she couldn’t hear the sound. He opened the door, and the group could all hear the howling now. It was a maddening sound, like the wind whistling through a cave. Hugo’s intent was to open the door stealthily, but he was immediately noticed by the crowd on the other side of the door.

The room was a wide, open space with two cages, this time holding large beetles with glowing orange glands near their eyes. Two hobgoblins stood guard near a raised section of the floor where a stone spike held three human children in manacles. Nearby, an armor-clad, gangly figure conversed with a blonde-bearded dwarf in purple robes. At his feet was a large quadrupedal creature with an emaciated frame almost totally hidden under quills. This was the creature that was constantly making the howling noises, and it stood from where it lay to howl an alarm at the intruders.

The situation turned to combat immediately, and the party shot at the hobgoblins a couple of times and retreated, using cover to their advantage as the arcane-centric dwarf used spells to make the party fall asleep. The armored figure, Kazmojen, ordered his howler to stay for now, and he cried out for the party to identify themselves and their intentions. The party didn’t deign to respond, so Kazmojen assumed that they were would-be rescuers. He walked to the children, who were screaming and hiding as much as their bonds allowed, and rested his battleaxe on one child’s shoulders. “Come out and drop your weapons or I kill them all!”

The party isn’t one to wrestle with decisions like this for long, being prone to a cold logic for the most part. Amria stated, “If we drop our weapons and surrender, then we all die.” Ris, however, rushed out and used a spell, Compelled Duel, in an attempt to dominate Kazmojen’s attention. His heroism was rewarded. Kazmojen’s saving throw failed.

Compelled Duel doesn’t mean that an enemy can’t attack other targets, it just means that he gets a disadvantage to attack targets other than the opponent that cast the spell. According to the rules, Kazmojen could still decapitate his hostages, albeit he would be a bit more reluctant to do so. This felt like rules cheese to me, so Kazmojen walked away from his hostages, commanding his howler, “Prickles, feast!” The howler leapt onto the child and savaged him thoroughly. One of the hobgoblins went around to get reinforcements, and they started flanking the group from the north side of the dining hall. Fogo stepped up to fend off this group while Amria ran into the slaver’s chamber and started blasting the howler with eldritch blasts, effectively gaining the creature’s attention.

Ris and Kazmojen became locked in a battle, and Ris’ new plate mail armor came in quite handy as he deflected blow after blow from Kazmojen’s battle axe. The spellcasting dwarf became invisible and made a swift exit after catching a couple of Hugo’s crossbow bolts, but he reappeared soon enough, a pair of minor fiends in tow. The lemures, as they were known, waddled to help Kazmojen in his battle, but Ris held them all off long enough for Hugo to join and assist. Hugo disengaged once the children were clear and healed the mauled child just in time to save his life. The child was savaged and embedded with quills, but thanks to Hugo’s magic, he would live. Amria fought off the howler for as long as she could, and just as she thought she was at her limit, she blasted the howler backward with a Mind Thrust, which sent the creature flying to where it lay limp on the cold stone ground. She now turned her attention to finding the invisible dwarf, as her blindsight made her the most capable to do so. The dwarven spellcaster had no idea that he could be seen, so he made no effort to hide as he fled through the chamber. Amria blasted him from behind with an eldritch blast, and the dwarf fell to the ground and lost concentration on his Invisibility spell. Still conscious, he continued his escape. When Amria followed, he went through a room that held another pair of hobgoblins, who moved to the exit to cover his escape.

Meanwhile, the group had whittled down the hobgoblins in this room, and all that remained was Kazmojen. Ris offered him a chance to surrender, but the slaver cursed the gnome and continued to lay into him with his axe. Hugo sent Kazmojen retreating with Dissonant Whispers, and this created an opportunity for Ris to gain another attack on him. He cut deeply into the half-dwarf and then chased him across the room, ending the battle with a divine smite. Kazmojen fell to the ground, dead at last.

Hugo and Ris moved to follow Amria and assist as she attempted to fend off the hobgoblins down the hall, and Fogo moved to free the children from their bondage. As he turned around, Kazmojen stood once more on his feet. The slaver’s anger was only held at bay by his fatigue as he pointed his battleaxe at Fogo and stated, “I’m going to kill you.”

This is where we ended our session. The battle at the end was fantastic, and the party survived through their wits, teamwork, and the luck of the dice. How was Kazmojen still standing? We’ll find out next week. Hopefully the party can reassemble before Fogo is left alone with the armored warrior for too long.

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Tiny’s Second Dream

Tiny’s was comfortable for the first time in days, sleeping on a pallet in the locksmith’s house. It was a welcome change from the depressing confines of the dark underground complex she had been exploring for only gods knew how long now. Sleep came easily, but the peace was deceptive.

               A gentle androgynous voice wakes her. “Behold. He is saved.” Tiny blinks open her eyes and sees that she’s now in a cell. Three of the walls are shining black stone while the last is a grid of iron bars. The small cell has a pile of straw and ratty furs and across the room from that is a bucket emitting a horrid stench. Crouched atop the pallet is a boy of about nine years with matted black hair. He is dressed in rags and has his arms wrapped around his knees, his head hung low. The cell is pitch black and Tiny isn’t sure how it is that she can see in this darkness, the details outlined in shades of gray.

               The dark silence is disturbed by the loud shriek of rusty hinges. Light pours in from without and illuminates another figure standing in the cell: a tall figure that seems perfectly sculpted, as if it were the template for the perfect male. Its musculature is statuesque but not nearly as impressive as the large feathered wings folded on its back. Its face is unable to be made out, obscured in golden smoke. Footsteps are heard and the light of a lantern approaches quickly.

               The lead figure is stout and decked in steel. Black metal plates cover its torso and parts of its arms and legs. It carries a torch in a thick hand, at the end of an arm that is too long for its body. Its arms and legs give it a gangly appearance and a hunch as it walks toward the cell, its face impossible to see behind the black metal helmet it wears.

               Floating in the air behind it is a creature of pure nightmare, an orb dominated with a single massive eye mounted over a slavering open maw filled with hooked teeth. Stalks ending with smaller eyes writhe atop the creature’s crown, seeking and inspecting all around it as it hovers after the metal-garbed figure. Lastly, a lithe form in a black robe, its face hidden by a cowl, follows behind.

               The angelic figure near Tiny speaks again. “At last, salvation.” The boy looks up as the door to his cell is opened. His face is homely, speckled with freckles, his awkward face gaunt and plump in a way specific to children. He kicks and scampers toward the back of his cell, obviously terrified of the monstrosity and its entourage. His fear is audible as he whimpers, begins to hyperventilate, unable to take his eyes off the floating creature.

               A thick voice echoes out from the helmet’s confines as the shorter figure gestures. “Here he is. He is kept safe and healthy until he is sold, then he is someone else’s problem.” The helmed man puts emphasis on odd words, his speech strange. The floating creature, the beholder, moves its lips and emits a slurred approximation of the Common language.

               “Terrem Kharatys. You should not have been taken from Cauldron. Keep the others. They are of no consequence. Come, Terrem – you will be safe with me.” One of the creature’s eyestalks focuses on the boy and emits a silver ray that touches the child. With jerky movements, Terrem stands up and walks toward the trio.

               “Yes, alright,” the helmed figure is shifting his weight from leg to leg. He seems uneasy until the lithe robed figure stretches out a hand and offers a silver coffer. The armored figure accepts it greedily and opens the lid. “Yes, this will do. This is fine.” The trio, now a quartet with Terrem in tow, walk from the hallway. The angelic figure standing near Tiny has a gentle smile on its face. “He is delivered.”

               As the door to the cell slams shut, Tiny is startled awake, back in the locksmith’s house.

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Session 5: 2/16/2017

Chapter 1: Life’s Bazaar, continued

               The party started tonight’s session with a bit of discussion regarding what they should do next. Opinions were split, as some wanted to continue exploration, while others were eager to return to the surface and search for information on the Vanishing, an affliction that caused Jzadirune to be closed and sealed long ago, and now affected Hugo. Hugo was torn between seeking a cure on the surface and exploring to see if a cure had been found and was kept in the complex itself.  

               Ultimately, the argument to continue the search below ground won out, and the party continued to explore the eastern section of Jzadirune. The party explored a tunnel to the south that turned east and found a room which contained the bloated, long-dead corpse of a carrion crawler. Hugo noticed that the inside of the beast had been hollowed out and that a couple of coffers were actually hidden away inside the creature.

               The party eagerly investigated and found a few items of worth, including a couple of spell scrolls. Moving on from this area, the group circled back to the Hall of Dancing Lights and explored some of the chambers branching off from this room. One room turned out to be an empty guest quarters and the other was a storage area. Amria discovered a hidden door in the storage area, which led to a large bathroom. The bathroom had a large marble tub with a constant flow of water from overhead. The room was coated in spider webs and a cocooned humanoid form was hanging over the tub.

               Tiny stealthily infiltrated the room and sighted a giant arachnid perched in the webs, lazily weaving away. The spider had not noticed the monk as she snuck in, but when Hugo tried to follow behind her into the room, the creature easily spied him. Tiny used the brief advantage she would have due to her stealth to strike the first blow. The spider could not make contact using its venomous bite, and the party took it down quickly, owing their success to Ris’ smite ability and Amria’s powerful eldritch blast.

               The group continued to explore and found a ruined dining hall. Most of the furniture had been removed and demolished, probably to build the barricades that held the grick in its chamber. This hall had many paths to move toward, and the party went forward as systematically as possible. One of the rooms held an empty pantry with moldy food and decayed herbs but another turned out to be a kitchen. Tiny once again led the way, stealthily, and she spied a humanoid garbed from head to toe in black cloth crouched in a dark corner, its hand gripping a dagger. Tiny and the creature locked eyes and she advanced menacingly but was halted by a dagger sinking deeply between her shoulder blades. She spun just in time to see another fly toward her and bury itself in her front. Tiny went down in a bloody heap and the group entered to fight the pair of small humanoids, the one seen and the one unseen.

               The creatures were quick and precise with their strikes, but couldn’t stand against the havoc that the group could wreak. The creatures held one more surprise, though: After being dealt a mortal blow, they exploded in a flash of light that threatened to blind anyone close enough. There were no corpses to examine in the aftermath, simply piles of ash and daggers.

               Fogo boggled his mind to recall any information that he may have come across in the library of Bluecrater and remembered that these creatures were called Darklings, fey that had been cursed by the light. Any light they encountered burned their skin and was absorbed to shorten their lives. Still, the creatures had a craving for beauty and brightness, and willingly suffered for the chance to see things unique and beautiful.

               The party healed Tiny and headed north, where they found an underground illusory forest. It was a magnificent creation of magic, complete with rays of sunshine perforating a canopy of large trees growing from the grassy ground. It was a peaceful distraction, but the party continued onward and found another strange chamber, where spheres of invisibility hid creatures in its corners.

               Another damaged automaton seemed to materialize alongside a darkling. The creatures were quick and violent, but they fell to the party’s weapons and magic.

               The party explored onward and found a room with a silver cage atop a wooden chest. In the cage was a rat with a star-shaped patch of fur on its head. It was standing up and gripping the bars, urgently squeaking and shaking the cage. The party piled in to release the creature, but as they approached, the chest opened to reveal rows of sharp teeth and a mouth curled into a grin. It flapped its lid open and actually seemed to be trying to communicate. No one could understand it, so Hugo advanced and tried to release the rat, but the mimic snapped at him and combat began.

               The mimic was cut down, but not before wrapping its heavy tongue around Hugo’s arm and pulling him into its maw, nearly making a meal of the bard. Once the creature was dispatched, the party released the rat from its cage. Ris, being a gnome and thereby able to communicate with small mammals, heard its tale of kidnapping and imprisonment. Afterward, the party moved into a side room, where a skulk hid and stabbed Tiny from a hole in the ground. It was defeated quickly and the party decided now may be a good time for a brief rest.

               The next room to the north held the remains of a glassblowing workshop. The party found a single creature attempting to hide. The party spoke out loud to it, and the very darkness itself seemed to unfold. The creature was a tall, graceful creature dressed similarly to the darklings. In its delicate hands it held a short sword and a dagger. Hugo, ever a perceptive young man, noticed that the little bit of flesh that could be seen of the creature was obviously affected by the Vanishing. Fogo asked it in Common, “Be you friend or foe?”

               The creature responded in Elven, “I will not sully my tongue with your dirty language.” Fogo and Hugo both understood Elven, so Fogo repeated his question after a diplomatic apology. The creature answered, “I was foe until you slaughtered my clan. I’m more inclined to be a friend now, if you’re open to negotiation.”

               “What do you have in mind?”

               “An exchange of information, a truce, in the interest of a longer life lived. I don’t believe I can beat you all, but should I fall, I shall not leave this plane by myself. There are things you wish to know. Ask your questions, I shall answer, and then I shall go.”

               The party discussed quickly and agreed to the terms, only asking also for one of the missing keys that they had not yet found. The creature agreed to this.

               “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

               “I am Yuathyb. My clan and I were simply… living.”

               “What do you know about the kidnapped children?”

               “We took them, me and mine, and gave them to a dwarf. He takes them below, into the Malachite Hold. We bring them to the elevator and hand them over to hobgoblins.”

               “What do you get out of this? Why do you do it?”

               To this, Yuathyb simply shrugged. Hugo stepped in eagerly, “Do you have any ideas on how to cure this? The Vanishing?”

               Yuathyb’s eyes betrayed a hidden smile. “Of course not.”

               The conversation sputtered out and it was time for Yuathyb to leave. He dropped the key onto the ground before him and backed out of the room. To leave, he had to pass by Tiny, and he gave her a wink before padding into the darkness and disappearing.

               The party inspected the room and from here found another secret door. This door led to a chamber filled with wealth. A gnome-sized suit of plate mail was filled from boot to helm with gold coins, and jewelry of all kinds lay about the room, in urns and casks.

               The party celebrated the discovery with a foray to the surface. The doorway into Ghelve’s Locks was blocked by a table stacked with dishes that made a lot of noise as Fogo pushed it out of the way. Ghelve came running down the stairs to investigate and was overjoyed at the party’s arrival. He insisted on hosting the party overnight. Fogo asked him to unlock the spellbook they had found, and Ghelve happily agreed. He even offered to make a key for the book’s lock. Fogo decided to go to his father’s house and sleep there for the night, hoping to speak with him about Jzadirune. His father was not present, though.

               The party slept and Tiny had another nightmare, wherein she saw one of the kidnapped children. The next day, everyone ran about on their own errands. Fogo discovered upon waking that he had also contracted the dreaded Vanishing, and the first place he went that morning was to visit his father at Bluecrater University.

               He walked to his father’s personal study at Bluecrater and found the man eating his breakfast. Seymour Xavius Fumar was an elderly man with little obvious concern for his personal appearance. The top of his head was bald and his white, wispy hair was wild and at all angles. He was poring over a couple of tomes and scratching notes into another, only glancing at Fogo as he entered. “Three days, Fogo,” he said. “I haven’t seen you in three days. Where the hells have you been?”

               Proudly, Fogo began to tell his father of the adventure he had been on, telling him all about Jzadirune and the skulks.

               “It isn’t real, Fogo. Don’t make up stories. Are you in some kind of trouble? Do you need money? Is that what this is about?”

               Fogo grew angry. “No, I found money, I found a lot of money. I’ve been to Jzadirune! Look at me! I have the Vanishing, that ended Jzadirune!  I came here to talk to you about it and to see if you could help me!”

               Seymour looked up with a roll of his eyes and paused when he noticed Fogo’s vanishing flesh. “My word, you do. And of course, you brought it here! How did you get it? What is it doing to you?” He stood up and skirted along the walls, keeping distance between himself and Fogo. “Stay here, I’m going to help you, but first you’ll have to be quarantined. Don’t move!” With that, he retreated from the room, slammed the door and locked it behind him.

               Frustrated and disappointed beyond measure, Fogo waited a moment before kicking the door open and leaving the University to find something to spend his money on.

               Tiny was eager to find a bank to store her gold then get back to exploring the underground complex. Amria and Ris ventured to the Temple of St. Cuthbert and updated Jenya Urikas on the status of their investigation. Amria purchased healing potions and asked if the priestess could cure her curse. Jenya agreed, but asked for a donation as compensation, which she would discount for the party’s service to the church thus far. She charged only 250 gold pieces for the spell, and just like that, Amria was no longer cursed.

               They asked her for her opinions on the Vanishing, and she offered to take a look at Hugo, if he’d like, and to see if there was anything she could do to help him. Hugo declined at first, certain that there was nothing she could do for him. After a bit of persuasion, he relented and went to the temple. Jenya reached for Hugo’s hands, but he flinched back. “Don’t touch me, you might get it.” She smiled gently in reply, “It’s alright. I’m not afraid.” She took his hands and closed her eyes, muttering a prayer that sounded like a conversation almost. She finally looked up at him and smiled. “It is a curse, and I can remove it.” She cast the same spell that cured Amria and Hugo was whole once more. “Do you know how you became afflicted with it in the first place?”

               The party did not, so the question went unanswered for now. Unfortunately, she could not cure Fogo, since her inventory of spells of that caliber had been depleted for the day. Fogo visited a magic item store and tried to make a deal on selling his Gray Bag of Tricks, but ended up eventually selling it to Ris instead so that he could buy better armor.

               Refreshed and restocked, the party descended once more into Jzadirune. They followed the instructions given to them by Yuathyb and found the secret door to the elevator that would take them into the Malachite Fortress, further beneath the surface. A duo of hobgoblins, wielding expertly forged weapons and bedecked in high quality armor, would be the last challenge to overcome before they could make that descent… and that’s where we ended.

An eldritch knight with a spellbook

When the party spent the night at Ghelve’s Locks, they leveled up to third. Fogo picked the eldritch knight archetype and he wanted to discuss the spellbook that he found in Jzadirune. The normal rules for eldritch knights only give them access to Abjuration and Evocation spells, and they do not use spellbooks. Fogo’s player wanted to know if that could be adjusted a bit, and we worked on expanding the rules a bit to give Fogo more versatility.

The rule that we agreed to was to allow Fogo a spellbook for spells outside of the Abjuration and Evocation schools and he would get one slot per spell level for spells in that category. It’s more expensive for him to scribe spells (100gp per page instead of 50gp per page, I think).

This fits because Fogo comes from a scholarly background and is more inclined to toting around a book and learning from it. I don’t think this will be game-breaking, and since the party lacks a dedicated wizard or sorcerer, it adds some extra adaptability to the group. We’ll see how it goes.

Moving things along

We’ve been in the same dungeon for four sessions now. It’s time to go! Jzadirune is a great dungeon crawl. It has a unique personality, a multitude of traps and more than one mystery that the team is trying to crack. Still, it gets old after a while. As a DM, it’s important to maintain a gauge on interest level and keep things moving. In this case, the group walked over traps that I didn’t trigger, they found secret doors pretty easily, and they even found keys and were able to move on quicker than was written.

Towards the end, the group made a quick trip to the surface and quick is the key word. Cauldron is a highly detailed small city and there are a lot of roleplaying opportunities and possible adventure hooks that can come up, but I could tell that the group wasn’t interested in lingering. For the most part, they wanted to drop off the buttload of gold they found, buy some healing potions, and get back to work. It’s exciting that the group is moving closer to the heart of the kidnappings and I look forward to the next session.

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Amria’s Book

When Amria leveled up, she took a level in warlock. This was her experience when she slept that night.

Amria dreamed and remembered sight. She remembered seeing the mask, glowing red from the heat, held by tongs wielded by men wearing thick gloves as it approached her face, that red glow becoming the last color she ever saw. The heat of it scalded her face before the iron ever even touched her flesh, burned her hair and eyebrows just from proximity, and was excruciating as it locked on and held tight to the flesh on her face. She screamed and it echoed weirdly around her. That scream lasted forever. As she dreamed, she still heard it, echoing from the confines of her mask.

Before the mask, though, what was there? Who was she? A victim, punished for being different in a world where different is the normal. She remembers, but she’s also forgotten. She carries a strange book, an obvious masterpiece, bound in black leather, embossed with gold lettering, diagrams within illuminated brilliantly. But what is this language? It isn’t one that Amria can identify, or even Fogo, the once-part-time librarian of Bluecrater Academy. Where did she get it and why is she still carrying it?

Tonight, she remembers. The first entry, a page crawling with drawings assumed to be letters of some alien alphabet, calls out to her. The entry is in a strange cadence and Amria remembers the translation. She remembers the gate.

Came the night, we beheld the shine from the gate

Lavender, lilac, lily, verbena, and nightshade splayed around us

Mothers and daughters, fathers and sons

The dark between stars yawned wide and we passed through

Hands held, enraptured, passed through the gate and the gate through us

Came the journey, we beheld the glisten of flesh

Naked and true, pure and unmasked

Crimson stained the indigo growth

What we were to what we are, where we stand to where we travel

The song filled our eyes and our hearts rejoiced

Came the dance, we beheld majesty unknown

The writhing grasp of possibility strangled the banal what is

All was fluid, all was motion

All became one, All became the gate

Yog-Sothoth was all

Came the rapture

When she woke, she hesitantly opened the tome, and the words were plain to her, blazing as if it were hot iron waiting to press against her once-soft cheek and gelled irises. With her sight that is not sight, she can see the facing page, an illumination of a gathering of men, women, and children of all species, stripped of flesh, their muscled skulls obviously enraptured. Brilliant purple flowers surround them in a field and along wooden latticed arches. The musculature is especially brilliant, crimson spilling over the brilliant purple of the garden. The moon above them is golden and somehow menacing, appearing to almost plummet toward the gathered individuals.

Short of breath, she closes the book… and remembers how to pull power through the gate and into the world.

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A skulk wrapped in a ragamoffyn. 

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Session 4: 2/9/2017

Chapter 1: Life’s Bazaar, continued

               We started this week with our party looking into the sad eyes of a magically summoned giant elk. The creature was summoned from a Gray Bag of Tricks and was way too large to exit the room via any of its humanoid-sized exits. With a wave goodbye, the party followed a tunnel toward the north and west. The group loudly discussed marching order and the consideration of stealth, and ultimately decided on letting Hugo scout the room first. He peeked in and found a tinkering workshop.

               In the center of this room was a half-built automaton. A lot of metallic debris cluttered the room and it drew the group’s attention. Hugo waved the party in and as they entered, a skulk made his move. He heard the party’s approach, but wasn’t perceptive enough to see Hugo slip into the room. The rest of the party wasn’t as stealthy, so the first one behind Hugo, Fogo, got a rapier in the ribs. The party piled in and began combat. They soon realized that this was no regular skulk, though. This skulk was wrapped up by a ragamoffyn, the cloth-like construct that the party had previously encountered. This ragamoffyn had dominated the skulk, and had the benefit of the skulk’s agility and stealth capabilities along with the construct’s defenses and toughness. The creature lasted a while, with all damage split between the construct and its dominated victim. Fogo tried to pull the ragamoffyn off the skulk, but the creatures were fully bonded, and the warrior found a multitude of cilia-like threads from the ragamoffyn were embedded in the skulk’s flesh. It was a very eerie encounter, because the construct lasted longer than its host did, and when the skulk’s ruined body fell dead, the ragamoffyn detached and began seeking its next victim. Luckily, the party was able to put the creature down without suffering much injury.

               The party traveled north from here and entered a dusty room with inert fans installed in the ceiling. The most noticeable item in this room was the shapeless lump under the sheet in the center of the room. Most of the party was very cautious, but Hugo showed typical disregard for his own safety as he threw the cloth off of the object. This revealed another automaton, this one damaged but functional. It had twin drills instead of arms and it was obvious that this was what had been digging the tunnels around Jzadirune. The construct had Gnomish commands etched into its surface, “Thrymbryl” (activate) and “Myglym” (Deactivate).

               Ris and Hugo, both of whom knew Gnomish, gleefully shouted commands at the construct. It was an unreliable creature at best, only responding about half the time. Still, the party seemingly acquired an interesting new ally, and they dubbed it Clunker. Clunker’s first task was to pulverize a random section of wall so the group could get a feel for its capabilities. After telling it to stop, they instructed it to move down a nearby tunnel.

               The tunnel ended in a classroom, a room with chalkboards on the walls and a few rows of desks. Clunker walked through the room and when it ran out of room to walk, it stopped, staring at the wall. The party gave the room a look-over and found a secret door in the western wall. Upon opening it, thick fog rolled out of the room beyond. Able to investigate with her blindsight, Amria was best suited to investigate this room, which turned out to be a library that had been emptied of its books.

               Empty shelves lined the walls and Amria could detect vermin cowering in the corners of the room. A single lectern stood in the center of the room. Tiny made an attempt to lure out the vermin, but could not get the cowardly creatures to follow her toward the trap she had prepared. After a bit of debate, the group decided to pile into the library and take the fight to the creatures hiding in the mist. As they attacked, the creatures revealed themselves to be oversized centipedes, striking with venomous stingers. The group overcame the vermin and then found another secret door to the north.

               This door revealed a chamber where an illusory gnome appeared. It spoke to the party, “I am Emirystul, librarian of Jzadirune. The scrolls you seek have been destroyed to keep you and others from fading into nothingness. The curse of the Vanishing began here, in these mystic halls, and here it will remain. Be careful what you find, and mind whatever magic was wrought here.”  The group was a bit uneasy over this warning, but continued onward.

               They doubled back, Clunker following behind, and entered a well-appointed hall complete with a throne. Seated atop this throne was an elderly gnome with a silver crown, slumbering gently. The party was as stealthy as they could be as they approached the sleeping king. After getting close enough, they found that this gnome was also an illusion. Investigating the room further, Amria found a gnomish face carved into the wall. It spoke to her, “If you wish an audience with the king, place your finest coin in my mouth.”

               Amria, who knew her coins by touch, drew a copper piece from her pouch and placed it into the carving’s mouth. It animated and appeared to swallow the coin. Almost immediately, it spat the coin back at the blind woman. “Miser! What a paltry tribute! I curse you with clumsiness!” Amria rolled a Wisdom saving throw as the curse took hold, and she failed. She felt her movements become less graceful, her feet felt heavier. The curse of clumsiness had taken hold.

               Fogo stood before the face next and fed it a gold piece. Another rhyme, this time from the mouth of the illusory king.

“Betrayed we are by our own magic,

One by one, we fade away -

Jzadirune’s lost! Oh, how tragic!

We curse the vanishing day.”

In addition to this rhyme, the more attentive members of the party could hear the faint sound of a coin dropping atop a pile of other coins, coming from somewhere inside the throne. Clunker was given the order to tear the throne apart, and he did so with gusto. It didn’t take long for the pulverizer automaton to reduce the throne to rubble and reveal a hollow in the throne that hid a number of coins and two of the rune-marked keys to the gear doors of Jzadirune.

               Fogo commanded Clunker to follow, but the automaton was nonresponsive. The warrior tried again, but this time, the automaton went berserk. It began to lay into the group with its weaponized arms as the party tried over and over again, unsuccessfully, to deactivate the automaton. The party was forced to retaliate with violence, and Ris cast Compelled Duel on Clunker, ensuring that he would dominate the construct’s attention from then on. Fortunately, the next player to act instructed Clunker to stop, and the instruction was accepted. It stood inert, still focused on Ris, its attention eerie as it stood still, awaiting further instructions. The party decided to leave Clunker where he was, rather than depend on an unreliable ally. Perhaps they would come back for him when all of this was done.

               From the king’s chamber, the party explored nearby a while. They went through a few empty rooms. From one of these empty rooms, they found yet another secret door, which led to an armory of sorts. A locked chest held a red glass wand and the room also contained a variety of weapons, shields, and a suit of scale mail perfectly sized for a gnome. From there, the party explored a room that was once a large art gallery, but was now empty of decoration. A secret chamber near this room contained a small vault using illusion to hide the large landscape paintings within. The art was obviously valuable, but it was large in its frame, so Tiny dexterously used a knife to remove the paintings from their frames and rolled them up for easier carrying.

               The party explored further into the complex and found a room with a large map of Jzadirune on the wall. From here, the group went south and found a room with a couple of skulks that were obviously afflicted with the mysterious Vanishing curse. The skulks were semi-transparent, creating a strange effect that worked well with their natural camouflage to provide an opportunity for them to strike from hiding. After dispatching the skulks, the party found a secret door to a costume storage area, which held a multitude of masks, gaudy robes, and mock weapons.

               Another secret door to the south led to an open theater, complete with stage and seating. The party could see a figure hiding beneath the stage, and they tried to make peaceful contact. Attempts at this failed, however, and the creature eventually lashed out with long, tentacle-like appendages in an attempt to strangle the life out of Tiny. The creature was but one choker against a group of adventurers, however, so it didn’t last long against their onslaught. Hugo explored underneath the stage and found a high-quality mandolin, a locked spellbook, a silver rod and another key to Jzadirune’s gear doors.

               The final chamber explored for the night was a large hall decorated with dancing lights. A couple of skulks hid within and struck with crossbows as the party entered, but they too fell quickly.  The party decided to rest, for recuperative reasons as well as to spend some time with their newfound loot and explore its capabilities. The night passed without event, and they found that the red glass wand was a Wand of Burning Hands and the silver rod was a Wand of Secrets.

               When the party woke from their rest, they were appalled to realize that Hugo was beginning to fade away. His skin had become semi-translucent and it appeared that he was suffering from the Vanishing. On this dreadful note, we ended the session.

Easy Fights

Toward the end of the night, I found that the group was getting through fights pretty easily. I asked some of the players and they agreed, after leveling up to second level, the group was a heftier force in combat. They were no longer in danger of getting dropped in one blow or even after a couple, and they were starting to be much more cautious as they adventured from room to room. Next session, I’m going to crank up the difficulty a bit.

Notes

I found that I’m shuffling around my notes a lot while I play. I have a map booklet, a campaign hardcover, my typed-up notes, and I converted some of the monsters to 5e on my own, so I printed those stat blocks up. In my further notes, I’m going to consolidate a bit. I’m putting boxed text in my typed notes, as well as monster stat blocks. I have time to prepare so I’m going to try to use it effectively so I don’t have to shuffle around so many different sources of information.

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The grick - not so tough after all.

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The grand hall, which held a grick.

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An automaton and some dark creepers.

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Session 3: 2/2/2017

We were down one player, as Meg, Tiny’s player, was away, but we had a spectator in J.D., who was new to D&D and RPGs in general, and we let him take up Tiny’s character sheet to fill in.

Chapter 1: Life’s Bazaar, continued

We began tonight’s session with a roll for initiative, and Hugo was the only player to act in the surprise round. From outside of the room, the party saw Hugo enter, and then saw two blades pierce his torso, one from the skulk he was smirking at, and another from the skulk he didn’t notice, hiding behind him. The party sprang into action and saved Hugo before he could bleed to death. Ris healed the bard with his Lay on Hands ability, and soon after, the skulks were soundly defeated.

There were two tunnels leading out of this room, but the party didn’t want to explore those just yet, pondering the possibility that these tunnels were dug by newcomers and weren’t part of the original architecture.

Returning to the room full of masks, the group triggered the rhyme welcoming them to Jzadirune once again. The group took a moment to inspect the area a bit more thoroughly, now that the obvious doors had been found, and a secret door was found on the northern end of the room. The group entered this hallway and found another secret door at the end of the hallway. This secret door was also on the other side of another pit trap.

The group took a moment to observe the trap and tried, but failed, to find a way to disarm it. The party did notice that the pit was triggered from weight, and Ris, who weighed the least, volunteered to test it out. He tied a rope to himself and walked across. The pit remained closed. Hugo tried next, assuming the pit was perhaps broken, but his weight triggered the trap. The group could hear gears grinding and clanking in the walls. The group rolled initiative, and Hugo narrowly escaped the pit before the lid slammed shut and the grinding machinery under the floor reached a crescendo of noise.

Wary of the mysterious noises, the group bypassed the pit and entered the secret door on the other side. They now entered a room that held, in addition to the great gear doors, a set of heavy iron double doors. As the group discussed how best to proceed, they could hear noise on the other side of the door, a heavy sliding noise and an occasional thump against the door. Unable to unlock the heavy doors right now, the party turned around and left the mystery of what lay within behind them.

The party now decided to investigate the remaining hallway that led away from the western side of the mask room. They followed along this hallway until it met with another corridor that ran north to south, a multitude of gear-shaped doors along its walls. The group journeyed north and found yet another secret door, which opened to reveal a ransacked alchemist’s lab. Debris littered the floor, including easily recognizable alchemist’s supplies, a bundle of cloth, and a rod with a gnomish rune at its end. A fan was installed on the ceiling to circulate air, but it lay still right now, a belt connected to it running through the wall to the north.

Hugo moved in to investigate further. With a surprising suddenness, the bundle of cloth on the ground launched itself at the bard’s face. Unable to react quickly enough, Hugo fell victim to the cloth’s crushing, suffocating embrace. The group rushed to assist, but were hesitant to strike with their weapons. In its initial attack, the cloth had crushed the life out of Hugo. Any further damage would certainly kill their companion, so they endeavored to forcibly unwrap Hugo, Fogo on one side and Ris on another. The two warriors did well in their struggle and pulled the creature from Hugo, stretching the cloth between them. Others tried to slice into the cloth, but it was strangely resilient and resistant to their weapons. The party didn’t give up, though, and they could eventually inflict enough damage to the cloth to render it ‘dead’ and inert.

After awakening, Hugo confessed to a probing within his mind, coming from the cloth. Glad that the threat had passed, the group inspected the debris and found that, sure enough, the rod was one of the keys needed to get through some of the Jzadirune doors. They also found a few alchemist’s fires and enough supplies to equal alchemist’s tools and brewer’s tools. Another secret door was revealed in this chamber, and it led to an open corridor that ran from east to west. In a few niches carved into the wall, the party could spot inert generators that once turned the fan behind them and belts that ran to other rooms for suspected similar function.

To the east was something very notable, however, as the party saw what appeared to be a makeshift wall built from wooden planks and destroyed furniture. The group stood near it and offered opinions on the wall’s function. Hearing this discussion, the room’s occupant slithered over to investigate. The party heard the same creature that was on the other side of the iron doors they encountered previously. Curiosity got the better of them, and they looked for a hole to peek through. Upon finding one, they spied a thick, green hide covering a serpentine creature of some kind. Tiny decided to taunt the creature, yelling through the hole that the group was peeking through. The creature started making an excited warbling screech as it explored the wall, looking for where the noise was coming through.

A green tentacle with a hooked growth of chitin on its end found the peekhole, curled up, and gave a mighty pull as the creature screeched its excitement. Parts of the wall began to fall, creating an opening large enough for the creature to strike through, albeit at a disadvantage. Tiny stood closest to the wall, so was first to get painfully slashed up by the creature’s bladed tentacles. It tried to draw her close for a bite with its dangerous beak, but she managed to slip from its grip before it could do so. The group attacked the creature through the wall, suffering the same disadvantage to attack as the creature did. The party eventually damaged the creature enough to drive it off, and it crawled away to tend its wounds and put out the fire that had started on it from a thrown alchemist’s fire. Hugo used this pause to grant inspiration to Fogo. The party broke through the rest of the wall and pursued, Fogo finding it hiding in the darkness around a corner, its flesh camouflaging to match its surroundings. Fogo spotted the creature easily, though, and with a mighty swing from his greatsword, sliced the creature into an unconscious and dying state. Hugo attributed the victory to his granted inspiration and posed with a boot planted on the dead creature’s corpse.

After taking a minute to catch their breath, the party found that the creature (a grick), was trapped in an immense chamber with twin balconies elevated off the ground and a heavy wooden gear suspended from the ceiling by chains. The faint noise of finely tuned clockwork resounded through the air all throughout the chamber. The area looked defensible, so the party rebuilt the damaged wall as best they could and bed down to rest for the night. Upon resting, the party leveled up to second level.

We took a short break so that the group could level up their characters, roll hit points, and so on, and then we continued. Back in the hallway that they had originally come from, the party found a gear door that they could open with one of their new keys (They found a “U” key in the room with the cloth monster, and a “Z” key in the room with the grick). Opening a door revealed an empty room, but Amria located a secret door to the south, and the party entered, a little jumpy after their recent encounters. The room had three chests with carved animal faces laying on the floor. The first chest had a badger carved in, and Tiny poked at it with one of Ris’ javelins to make sure it wouldn’t come alive and try to eat anyone. When it didn’t animate, she opened the lid and was disappointed to find it empty. The next chest had a fox carved into it, and Tiny repeated the process and was met with identical results: the chest was empty. The final chest had a rabbit’s head carved into its lid, and contained only a simple gray sack. As Tiny poked at it, Fogo swatted her away and picked up the sack.

The party cringed as Fogo shook the sack around, then reached in, feeling a few small, fuzzy spheres within. He wrapped his hand around one of the objects and pulled it from the sack and was amazed as it grew and grew into an elk large enough to push all party members into the surrounding walls. Fogo had found a Gray Bag of Tricks, the party’s first magical item.

This was our stopping point for the evening, and we will resume next week.

The Grick

I thought the grick would be a tougher encounter for 1st level characters. In the original incarnation of Shackled City, that room held a grell, which is a floating brain with tentacles and a beak. The grell is dangerous because of its maneuverability and its capability to paralyze opponents. It is also a CR of 3, which awards 700 experience points. The threshold for an encounter considered deadly in 5e is 500 xp. The grick is a CR of 2 and should have been classified as hard. The grick has a decent damage output and is tough. The PCs didn’t have magical weapons, so all physical damage was halved. The warlock was more effective than the others, granted, but I didn’t expect the fight to be as one-sided as it turned out to be.

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The player’s map of Jzadirune. Follow along at home!

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Gnomish Runes: not much of a mystery if there’s a gnome in the group.

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Keygan Ghelve, Lockmaker and unwilling accomplice to a kidnapping conspiracy. Below, the skulk hiding in his shop.

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Player Handout of the Divination performed by the Star of Justice.

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Session 2: 1/26/2017

The second session wasn’t as long as the previous. There were constraints that prevented us from going too long into the night.

Chapter 1: Life’s Bazaar, continued

We began with the party waking up and recapping their options. I prepared with the thought that they would go to the library then to investigate the locksmith’s shop. Of course, they did this in opposite order, which meant the library got skipped completely.

The party proceeded to Ghelve’s locks. It was morning, and the party saw that the place was open for business. They attempted a nonchalant approach, five heavily armed and armored individuals pretending that they didn’t know each other as they all entered at the same time. Keygan Ghelve, who is not a complete idiot, quickly caught on that something was afoot, and challenged the party to get to the point of their visit or kindly get out.

As the party explained their investigation, the old gnome locksmith was skeptical. The fact that they had a gnome in their group helped their cause, however. Ghelve loudly denied any involvement, but began to motion to the curtain behind him, using his eyes and body language to convey that it wasn’t totally safe to speak. Unfortunately, Tiny’s read of this situation was that Ghelve was trying to subtly flirt with her. Fogo caught on to what was happening and peeked behind the curtain. His curiosity was rewarded as he noticed an almost entirely nude figure whose skin seemed to blend in to his surroundings. Fogo rolled Stealth to see how discrete he could take his peek, and he rolled badly. The creature behind the curtain, a skulk, sliced through Fogo’s face, cutting through his cheek and jawbone. With a spray of blood, combat had begun.

The combat was a five on one short affair. Fogo used his second wind ability, which I described as him growling through the pain and shoving his jaw back into place. He rolled to heal max hit points, so I figured it fit. Tiny grappled onto the skulk and held him still. She intimidated him into dropping his sword and answering a couple of questions, which the skulk was hesitant to do. Still, he hissed that he had allies down below, in the dark, and that the party would all die if they went down there. After getting what they could out of him, Tiny moved to slit his throat. Hugo, Fogo, and Amria agreed with this sentiment. In fact, Amria was all for a more sinister fate, using the skulk for ‘trap bait’ and dragging him along for the ride. Ris tried to intervene on the creature’s behalf, but Tiny wasn’t having it. She opened up the skulk’s neck and he quickly bled to death. This left an uneasy situation, but Ris didn’t defend his position with violence and made his disapproval known.

After the skulk was down, the locksmith was able to explain his role in the kidnappings more accurately. He penitently confessed that he had made skeleton keys for the kidnappers after they kidnapped his familiar, Starbrow, and threatened to kill him if he didn’t assist. The party believed his shame was legitimate, so they didn’t penalize the gnome any further. Keygan explained that his shop is one of the last remaining entrances to Jzadirune, and that this is where the kidnappers are coming out of. He didn’t have much more knowledge to share, but did have an old map of the place, which he handed over eagerly. He warned them against the traps and the curse, then pleaded with the party to rescue his poor Starbrow.

The party was very cautious as they descended the tunnels and entered the ancient facility. Hugo had the best eyes, Tiny was a naturally curious creature, and Amria had always possessed an eerily aware aura, her fingers and ears always searching for details that her eyes would never catch. The group encountered their first trap on the stairs that led into the complex. Hugo made an attempt at figuring the trap out, and during his investigation, noticed that there was also a secret door right above the pit. He performed more searching and found that the secret door was tied to a sconce above it that was mounted differently than other sconces they had encountered. This one could rotate, apparently. Before the group could discuss much, he made a command decision and rotated the sconce clockwise.

The trap’s lid opened beneath his feet, and he made a leap to safety. The party spent a couple of seconds grumbling, then the lid click-click-clicked back into place. Hugo tried again, this time turning the sconce counter-clockwise. This did the trick, and the secret door popped open. The group entered this new hallway quietly, hyper-alert for any further traps or secrets as they quickly approached a dead end. The group found another pit trap in the corridor, and Tiny insisted on checking this one out. She started poking around the pit’s edges, and her player rolled a natural 1 on the check to investigate. During her investigation, she found part of the edge that had crumbled, and stuck her fingers in to feel around a little better. She found a small, smooth metal catch of some kind and it responded to her probing by flinging itself away, causing the pit to spring open. Ris and Hugo leapt to safety, almost falling into the trap. The party waited as the pit tried to reset itself, but after listening to the shuddering click and watching the lid vibrate loudly until a crack of some kind was heard, they were unhappy to see that the lid remained open.

Turning around, the group returned the way they had come from and entered a large chamber where the gentle sounds of the forest could be heard. The noises were emitted by copper masks mounted to the wall all around them. From one, the calming rush of water; from another, the call of a sparrow; and so on. One of the masks greeted the party with a short rhyme:

“Welcome to Jzadirune - behold the wonder!

But beware, ye who seek to plunder.

Traps abound and guardians peer

Beyond every portal, behind every gear.”

This room was also the party’s first encounter with the gear doors of Jzadirune. Each door had a rune of some kind on it, and it looked very mysterious to most of them. To Ris, however, it was just the gnomish alphabet, and he was able to easily make sense of the runes on each door. One of the doors to the south was ajar, and from it escaped a fair amount of light. The party decided to investigate.

Hugo entered the room and found a glow rod sitting on the floor, the source of light spilling from the room. He was also able to see the skulk hiding right beside the door, and gave him an unamused smirk. “Really?” he asked, and the skulk’s response was to stab out with his rapier. This is where we ended tonight’s session.

House Rules

This session brought up some interesting instances where I had to house rule some things. I’ll explain below.

Familiars

In third edition D&D, if a wizard lost his familiar, it was bad news. Third edition was really big on crunch, and everything had a mechanic tied to it. If a spellcaster lost their familiar back then, they lost experience points and took penalties to rolls, and lost sleep and got a tax penalty and all kinds of other insanity. Fifth edition moved away from this mindset. In fifth edition, if a spellcaster loses their familiar, all they have to do is summon another one, so this would not work as a lever against the locksmith Keygan Ghelve. The trope of ‘save my family’ was already in full effect, so I didn’t want to change the victim from his familiar. I also didn’t want to make a rule against the feel of fifth edition, since I didn’t yet feel I had fully explored its capabilities.

My house rule for familiars was that when a familiar is summoned, the bond formed between them and their master is the same kinship as a person would have for their child. This was a ‘roleplay’ solution, I suppose, and it makes the familiar less of a disposable asset and more of a real creature with personality and its own identity. This rule didn’t come up at all, though, and none of the players asked or challenged this, so it was moot. It will probably come up later, however, since at least one party member is aiming toward growth that includes a familiar.

Blindsight

Blindsight is a nightmare, from a rules perspective. It threatens to defuse a lot of tense situations, especially in an adventure where the party is hunting for stealthy types that may be lurking in any shadow. Amria has blindsight out to 30 feet, but beyond that, she is 100% blind. This is a pretty crazy trade, with big sums on each side of the bargain.

After talking it over with the player, though, it turned out that blindsight isn’t as game-breaking as you would first believe. We looked at a little errata and discussed it back and forth and got a happy medium. Blindsight is different from a dragon’s truesight (I don’t know if that’s still a thing in 5e), and it still requires ‘line of effect’. This comes from the perceiving creature using other cues, such as changes in air pressure, sound, and even the wind to detect the environment and movement within it. So a creature hiding behind a curtain, for instance, is still effectively hidden. If a creature knows about Amria’s blindsight somehow, or is making some attempt to stand perfectly still just in case, then Amria would get a normal chance to detect it, Perception vs. Stealth. If a creature doesn’t know about the blindsight and isn’t trying to defeat it or a similar effect, Amria would get advantage to the roll. She wouldn’t automatically detect the hidden creature, because even a sighted person isn’t always paying the best attention to everything that they perceive.

The last aspect of this house rule is that I believe there are certain creatures that possess qualities making them stealthy regardless of what senses the perceiver would use to notice them. This would include skulks, who possess qualities that make them more difficult to scry, track, and perceive visually. I ruled that the skulks are also ‘slippery’ to Amria’s blindsight, so it’s a straight Perception vs. Stealth roll for Amria to notice the skulks.

[imthescapman-blog]

Poor Ruphus getting his head beaten in by Last Laugh thugs.