@MrCZAR Twitter Feed live log 003
As we resume, we receive a more detailed description of The Crystal Fields. Aside from a bluish crystalline environment surrounding us, the creatures are also plated with similar crystals, with hues ranging from a brighter blue to a light pink.
Two more adventuring parties fall through the portal. The first is a little rough, but the second seems nearly flawless. They either had a very clean path through the maze, or they are incredibly good at their jobs. We recognize one of the clerics in the last group.
One of the new strangers comes up and introduces himself to us as Tyrelor, an elven warrior of some sort. He's very soft-spoken, and quite positive given the experience his troupe just went through. He introduces us to Ilona Underbane the Funkiller. She seems nice.
As we're speaking with Tyrelor, we recognize the cleric from the final group - the veteran cleric that we had an opportunity to recruit before we entered the Spire. He's got a goliath with him, and she is absolutely cut. She's got interesting runes painted onto her arms.
So many introductions to make, assuming we can all find a safe place to cohabitate. There seems to be no way back... the gate is definitely one-way.
Marcus comes to us as the representative of the party that came through right behind us. Alongside him, an individual of each of the other two parties also approach. We are already discussing with Marcus what to do about settling a new base camp.
Tyrelor is the representative for his party. As we settle and explore, he tells us that one of his scouts has found a path to the east. One of Marcus' party found a path to the west. A human named Silvius speaks up for his party - the "flawless" group with the goliath.
Silvius' party has a scribe handy, which will be incredibly useful to map out our new terrain. His name is Garrett, but he tells us he can't do any cartography unless he's got a navigator alongside him. WELP.
As we talk to the other party leads, we learn that most of these others aren't very social... so why are they even in a group to begin with? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Our party decides to help those who didn't go scouting help set up an actual campsite near the gate so that if anyone else comes through, there's something familiar for them to fall into. After a hearty meal prepared by Mia, we head out.
A sorceress from another party tries to cast eldritch blast against the gate, but it ricochets and blasts into a piece of crystal embedded into the ground. The crystal shatters, and a small piece flies back into the gate, which seems to activate it for just a moment.
A few arguments between parties arise, and we decide to continue on our way and let them figure it out themselves. The ground is barren away from the crystal barrier, but as we move further away, there's... grass? It's pink, but it looks like grass.
One of the crystalline allosauruses is chasing a whole flock of crystal-plated dodos, chomping down and devouring a couple of them. It's a bit terrifying. This seems like some sort of hunting grounds, not unlike what we were familiar with outside of Urthspyre.
A flock of birds comes running toward us, and Fenwyse casts Snare and the whole party ducks for cover.
The party springs into action, but unsurprisingly, most of our attacks seem less effective. The natural crystalline armor is quite handy for these things.
@komuroto: Okay Mia, it's your turn. What are you gonna do, Jed? @jed_w_turner: I'm gonna put a ball in its ass.
Mia casts Catapult on the iron ball she's been carrying around with her since before they entered the maze. It absolutely obliterates one of the birds. in-character Mia: "I'm really glad I invested in an iron ball."
We kill another, and as one of the two trapped in the Snare gets loose, something lumbers toward us. Uh-oh
A crystalline allosaur tramples over the horizon and is immediately upon us. There's still a bird dangling from the Snare and we can only hope that the snacc is more interesting than us wee party members. Simon casts Shatter. Oh boy.
Fenwyse runs toward the allosaur, because it's stopped now and we really didn't want that to happen. Here goes nothing. @komuroto: "Roll percentile to see if it attacks you. If you die, I want it to be on you, not me."
I rolled a 97. Apparently that was in the dinosaur's favor. It pounces on Fenwyse, ripping into her with its teeth. So much for casting thunderwave from directly underneath it.
After getting bitten, Fenwyse gets stepped on as the allosaur continues forward to eat the bird suspended from the Snare. Hmm, it's almost like someone expected that exact thing to happen, so maaaayyyyyybe Simon shouldn't have cast Shatter to get its attention. I'm not salty.
Ka'Lem steps under the dinosaur and pierces it from underneath. It roars, and Mia casts Catapult directly through its face. It's still standing. Simon tries Shatter again, this time a little more tactically. Thunder reverberates through its body and it begins to fall
One quickened spell later, and Simon fells the beast. Ka'Lem rolls out from under it before getting crushed. It screams as it dies, and more appear on the horizon. It's time to go.
We escape and take a short rest back at the campsite. After some time and conversation with other groups, we hear loud slamming sounds in the background. Silvius and his party are pitting two allosaurs against one another as they crash repeatedly into parts of a crystal barrier.
Meanwhile, behind us, Mia is Catapulting her iron ball into various crystals and cataloguing the results as the sound and force seem to transfer more intensely through the material.
Ahead of us, the warring dinosaurs are making more noise... the other parties turn away and prepare. They're intentionally trying to draw more in to the area. Fenwyse, Simon, and Ka'Lem prepare for combat to assist the other parties.
Four crystalline allosaurs stampede into the area. There are two more already being pounced on by the other groups, but this isn't looking good for them as they're pretty close to the incoming horde. We move closer and begin preparations.
The other parties slay the two allosaurs they are fighting. At the base camp, Mia discovers something interesting about the crystals - she theorizes they can be attuned to specific elements, and seem quite good at transferring energy.
As our party starts to enter the fray, Fen moves forward and drops a Hawk Totem into the middle of the other parties so that she can grant them advantage each round at her whim. Ka'Lem moves forward and stabs the underside of one of the dinos, and Simon moves up casts Shatter.
Daalha, the goliath fighter from the final party through the portal, takes Fen's advantage and strikes down one of the allosaurs which had been hit by Simon's Shatter. It was TERRIFYING.
Back at camp, Mia and the dwarven mystic, Duerthic, continue their investigations. They determine that if they can gather a pound of crystal fragments, they should be able to construct an object large enough to reopen the portal, and potentially stabilize it?
On the battlefield, Ka'Lem moves up and strikes at one of the allosaur twice, bringing it to the ground. A trio of material components and a bunch of crystal fragments drop. There are two crystalline dinos remaining.
More back-and-forth between allies and dinos. Fenwyse runs under one of the dinosaurs and uses Primary Savagery to slash toward a weak spot. Ka'Lem turns and drops it. One crystalline allosaur remains.
Daalha swings at the final allosaur and smashes it into pieces. The parties rejoice and return to the camp, slightly richer and with a bunch of crystal fragments.
Duerthic and Mia are finishing a ritual to construct a solid crystal out of the fragments. The rectangular prism seems to absorb energy, but won't hold any of their arcane magic. They're pondering over whether it's the wrong arcane energy, or the wrong type of magic altogether.
Fenwyse tries to funnel some nature energy into the prism. It pulls from her, but doesn't seem to retain it. It's slightly draining. Simon tries to channel divine energy into it, but as a sorcerer, it seems like his divine essence isn't quite appropriate.
M'Zera, our tabaxi cleric, meekly asks if she can see the prism. As she holds it, it almost immediately pulls essence from her and glows a mellow yellow. Scared of the item in her hand, she tosses it back to Mia. The light fades, but as Mia holds it, her energy enters the prism.
After realizing it needs a verbal component, Mia begins muttering a bunch of phrases and key words until coming upon one that works: "recall." She dematerializes, not unlike when the monsters die. No loot drops from her, but she is gone.
Unbeknownst to us, Mia has arrived at the front of the Spire, announcing that she has returned from The Crystal Fields. She immediately seeks out the council, and dozens of people swarm around her as they interrogate her from every direction.
Meanwhile, as Fenwyse panics about being alone, everyone tries to talk her out of taking the other crystal and going off into the abyss. What if Mia is dead? The collective parties determine that a better use of their time would be to continue gathering fragments to make more.
Days go by. d a y s
The collective parties continue their work building new prisms, though their work slows as people assume that Mia isn't coming back. On the outside, Mia finds a messenger for Eagle, and sells the information on how to build the recall crystals.
As the days pass, those of us still in The Crystal Fields begin farming xp on the hunting grounds. Without Mia, Fenwyse has been an angry bundle of energy, so everyone's been trying to keep her busy. The party prepares for the next day's hunt, and just as they're setting out...
...Mia comes through the gate with a troupe of guards and a bunch of miners from Urthspyre. The miners almost immediately get to work, and the rest of us are completely taken aback. We have a charter from the council of Urthspyre giving Mia permission to establish a town.
Another couple of days go by as the parties continue scouting. Welcome to Crystonia, the Crystal City. Mia has filled out all the paperwork and sent it back to the council along with the next group of returning guards. The council says the new settlement needs a mayor!
Bolton Winpinny, the halfling councilmember, immediately leaps at an opportunity to be on the frontier. Nobody on the council stops him, and nobody at The Crystal Fields has any objection. What a great title! Mayor of the first town beyond the Spire.
As we settle for the last evening, and the settlement is established, we gain some experience and reach level four! Mia preps food for everyone who's hanging around, and then presents us all with signet rings with a symbol of a key. Because we're the Keybearers. ...ugh
Doing some housekeeping during some non-downtime. We're forwarding the clock two months to run through the hunting grounds toward the center of the zone. As far as we can tell, whatever "dungeon" may exist is inside the caves that were spotted far off in the distance.
We finally find an entrance to an underground cavern, and as we cross the "line" into its zone, text appears above us: The Crystal Caverns. This seems important. We look down from the text and OH SHIT it's a massive crystalline allosaur, much larger than the others.
Combat recap: The greater allosaur lunges immediately toward Fenwyse, swiping at her, but misses. Simon moves aside and casts mindspike, M'Zera casts beacon of hope, Ka'Lem crushes its face with a warhammer, Mia casts ice knife with great success, and Fenwyse shifts around it.
Fenwyse attempts a thunderclap, but the allosaur is unaffected. The greater allosaur didn't appreciate that, and turns around to bite Fen - missing entirely. Taking advantage of the distracted creature, Ka'Lem bashes it with his newly acquired tower shield.
Mia missed with a quick catapult, and Fenwyse shifts a bit further behind and slams the allosaur with a catastrophic thunderwave. It shatters into crystal bits, and Fenwyse finds a +1 sling and some kind of rare item that nobody in the party is able to identify.
We wander through the cavern a bit, finding a random footprint. Weird. Where did it come from? As we look around, Ka'Lem and Fenwyse get the wild idea to throw her up to a crystal stalactite to examine what the weird notches are carved into the crystal.
As Fen is launched upward, the party hears a click. Something seems to happen as the ground shifts beneath Ka'Lem, and a swarm of giant spiders begins to fill the room. Fen realizes the notches are a magical rune, carved in elvish, designating an explosive.
How did that get up here? As the party runs back through a narrow path, leaving Fen in the room alone, she touches the rune and uses mold earth to give herself handholds to shimmy along the ceiling as the crystal explodes and drops to the ground. More than half the spiders die.
Mia casts flame sphere in the narrow path that led into the room, and more spiders die as they chase after the party. Only five remain, and the party swoops back in, making quick work of them as Fen drops down. We continue moving through the cavern, finding more footprints.
Narrow passageways... but wait, what? There's a chest over there! Fen sprints toward the chest because she hasn't had an opportunity to open one yet, and it is LOADED with gold. Nice!
As soon as the chest disappears, we hear some stuff that sounds like wagon wheels approaching rapidly. That's... odd.
Crystalline armadillos nearly the size of our tank come rolling into the room. They don't seem terribly aggressive, but we are foreign objects and they begin to show hostility toward us.
M'Zera sets up a barrier wall utilizing spirit guardians, and these poor little guys are getting absolutely destroyed as they enter the area of effect. We take a few shots at them but we're mostly ineffective, primarily because they keep making their saves.
We're slowly whittling these armadillos down, but it's primarily the spirit guardians doing a lot of the work. These little dudes are tough!
We finish the combat, and we're calling it a night here. We should be playing again next Wednesday, but there's a chance we may not? I'll let you all know before next week!
Two more adventuring parties fall through the portal. The first is a little rough, but the second seems nearly flawless. They either had a very clean path through the maze, or they are incredibly good at their jobs. We recognize one of the clerics in the last group.
One of the new strangers comes up and introduces himself to us as Tyrelor, an elven warrior of some sort. He's very soft-spoken, and quite positive given the experience his troupe just went through. He introduces us to Ilona Underbane the Funkiller. She seems nice.
As we're speaking with Tyrelor, we recognize the cleric from the final group - the veteran cleric that we had an opportunity to recruit before we entered the Spire. He's got a goliath with him, and she is absolutely cut. She's got interesting runes painted onto her arms.
So many introductions to make, assuming we can all find a safe place to cohabitate. There seems to be no way back... the gate is definitely one-way.
Marcus comes to us as the representative of the party that came through right behind us. Alongside him, an individual of each of the other two parties also approach. We are already discussing with Marcus what to do about settling a new base camp.
Tyrelor is the representative for his party. As we settle and explore, he tells us that one of his scouts has found a path to the east. One of Marcus' party found a path to the west. A human named Silvius speaks up for his party - the "flawless" group with the goliath.
Silvius' party has a scribe handy, which will be incredibly useful to map out our new terrain. His name is Garrett, but he tells us he can't do any cartography unless he's got a navigator alongside him. WELP.
As we talk to the other party leads, we learn that most of these others aren't very social... so why are they even in a group to begin with? Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Our party decides to help those who didn't go scouting help set up an actual campsite near the gate so that if anyone else comes through, there's something familiar for them to fall into. After a hearty meal prepared by Mia, we head out.
A sorceress from another party tries to cast eldritch blast against the gate, but it ricochets and blasts into a piece of crystal embedded into the ground. The crystal shatters, and a small piece flies back into the gate, which seems to activate it for just a moment.
A few arguments between parties arise, and we decide to continue on our way and let them figure it out themselves. The ground is barren away from the crystal barrier, but as we move further away, there's... grass? It's pink, but it looks like grass.
One of the crystalline allosauruses is chasing a whole flock of crystal-plated dodos, chomping down and devouring a couple of them. It's a bit terrifying. This seems like some sort of hunting grounds, not unlike what we were familiar with outside of Urthspyre.
A flock of birds comes running toward us, and Fenwyse casts Snare and the whole party ducks for cover.
The party springs into action, but unsurprisingly, most of our attacks seem less effective. The natural crystalline armor is quite handy for these things.
@komuroto: Okay Mia, it's your turn. What are you gonna do, Jed? @jed_w_turner: I'm gonna put a ball in its ass.
Mia casts Catapult on the iron ball she's been carrying around with her since before they entered the maze. It absolutely obliterates one of the birds. in-character Mia: "I'm really glad I invested in an iron ball."
We kill another, and as one of the two trapped in the Snare gets loose, something lumbers toward us. Uh-oh
A crystalline allosaur tramples over the horizon and is immediately upon us. There's still a bird dangling from the Snare and we can only hope that the snacc is more interesting than us wee party members. Simon casts Shatter. Oh boy.
Fenwyse runs toward the allosaur, because it's stopped now and we really didn't want that to happen. Here goes nothing. @komuroto: "Roll percentile to see if it attacks you. If you die, I want it to be on you, not me."
I rolled a 97. Apparently that was in the dinosaur's favor. It pounces on Fenwyse, ripping into her with its teeth. So much for casting thunderwave from directly underneath it.
After getting bitten, Fenwyse gets stepped on as the allosaur continues forward to eat the bird suspended from the Snare. Hmm, it's almost like someone expected that exact thing to happen, so maaaayyyyyybe Simon shouldn't have cast Shatter to get its attention. I'm not salty.
Ka'Lem steps under the dinosaur and pierces it from underneath. It roars, and Mia casts Catapult directly through its face. It's still standing. Simon tries Shatter again, this time a little more tactically. Thunder reverberates through its body and it begins to fall
One quickened spell later, and Simon fells the beast. Ka'Lem rolls out from under it before getting crushed. It screams as it dies, and more appear on the horizon. It's time to go.
We escape and take a short rest back at the campsite. After some time and conversation with other groups, we hear loud slamming sounds in the background. Silvius and his party are pitting two allosaurs against one another as they crash repeatedly into parts of a crystal barrier.
Meanwhile, behind us, Mia is Catapulting her iron ball into various crystals and cataloguing the results as the sound and force seem to transfer more intensely through the material.
Ahead of us, the warring dinosaurs are making more noise... the other parties turn away and prepare. They're intentionally trying to draw more in to the area. Fenwyse, Simon, and Ka'Lem prepare for combat to assist the other parties.
Four crystalline allosaurs stampede into the area. There are two more already being pounced on by the other groups, but this isn't looking good for them as they're pretty close to the incoming horde. We move closer and begin preparations.
The other parties slay the two allosaurs they are fighting. At the base camp, Mia discovers something interesting about the crystals - she theorizes they can be attuned to specific elements, and seem quite good at transferring energy.
As our party starts to enter the fray, Fen moves forward and drops a Hawk Totem into the middle of the other parties so that she can grant them advantage each round at her whim. Ka'Lem moves forward and stabs the underside of one of the dinos, and Simon moves up casts Shatter.
Daalha, the goliath fighter from the final party through the portal, takes Fen's advantage and strikes down one of the allosaurs which had been hit by Simon's Shatter. It was TERRIFYING.
Back at camp, Mia and the dwarven mystic, Duerthic, continue their investigations. They determine that if they can gather a pound of crystal fragments, they should be able to construct an object large enough to reopen the portal, and potentially stabilize it?
On the battlefield, Ka'Lem moves up and strikes at one of the allosaur twice, bringing it to the ground. A trio of material components and a bunch of crystal fragments drop. There are two crystalline dinos remaining.
More back-and-forth between allies and dinos. Fenwyse runs under one of the dinosaurs and uses Primary Savagery to slash toward a weak spot. Ka'Lem turns and drops it. One crystalline allosaur remains.
Daalha swings at the final allosaur and smashes it into pieces. The parties rejoice and return to the camp, slightly richer and with a bunch of crystal fragments.
Duerthic and Mia are finishing a ritual to construct a solid crystal out of the fragments. The rectangular prism seems to absorb energy, but won't hold any of their arcane magic. They're pondering over whether it's the wrong arcane energy, or the wrong type of magic altogether.
Fenwyse tries to funnel some nature energy into the prism. It pulls from her, but doesn't seem to retain it. It's slightly draining. Simon tries to channel divine energy into it, but as a sorcerer, it seems like his divine essence isn't quite appropriate.
M'Zera, our tabaxi cleric, meekly asks if she can see the prism. As she holds it, it almost immediately pulls essence from her and glows a mellow yellow. Scared of the item in her hand, she tosses it back to Mia. The light fades, but as Mia holds it, her energy enters the prism.
After realizing it needs a verbal component, Mia begins muttering a bunch of phrases and key words until coming upon one that works: "recall." She dematerializes, not unlike when the monsters die. No loot drops from her, but she is gone.
Unbeknownst to us, Mia has arrived at the front of the Spire, announcing that she has returned from The Crystal Fields. She immediately seeks out the council, and dozens of people swarm around her as they interrogate her from every direction.
Meanwhile, as Fenwyse panics about being alone, everyone tries to talk her out of taking the other crystal and going off into the abyss. What if Mia is dead? The collective parties determine that a better use of their time would be to continue gathering fragments to make more.
Days go by. d a y s
The collective parties continue their work building new prisms, though their work slows as people assume that Mia isn't coming back. On the outside, Mia finds a messenger for Eagle, and sells the information on how to build the recall crystals.
As the days pass, those of us still in The Crystal Fields begin farming xp on the hunting grounds. Without Mia, Fenwyse has been an angry bundle of energy, so everyone's been trying to keep her busy. The party prepares for the next day's hunt, and just as they're setting out...
...Mia comes through the gate with a troupe of guards and a bunch of miners from Urthspyre. The miners almost immediately get to work, and the rest of us are completely taken aback. We have a charter from the council of Urthspyre giving Mia permission to establish a town.
Another couple of days go by as the parties continue scouting. Welcome to Crystonia, the Crystal City. Mia has filled out all the paperwork and sent it back to the council along with the next group of returning guards. The council says the new settlement needs a mayor!
Bolton Winpinny, the halfling councilmember, immediately leaps at an opportunity to be on the frontier. Nobody on the council stops him, and nobody at The Crystal Fields has any objection. What a great title! Mayor of the first town beyond the Spire.
As we settle for the last evening, and the settlement is established, we gain some experience and reach level four! Mia preps food for everyone who's hanging around, and then presents us all with signet rings with a symbol of a key. Because we're the Keybearers. ...ugh
Doing some housekeeping during some non-downtime. We're forwarding the clock two months to run through the hunting grounds toward the center of the zone. As far as we can tell, whatever "dungeon" may exist is inside the caves that were spotted far off in the distance.
We finally find an entrance to an underground cavern, and as we cross the "line" into its zone, text appears above us: The Crystal Caverns. This seems important. We look down from the text and OH SHIT it's a massive crystalline allosaur, much larger than the others.
Combat recap: The greater allosaur lunges immediately toward Fenwyse, swiping at her, but misses. Simon moves aside and casts mindspike, M'Zera casts beacon of hope, Ka'Lem crushes its face with a warhammer, Mia casts ice knife with great success, and Fenwyse shifts around it.
Fenwyse attempts a thunderclap, but the allosaur is unaffected. The greater allosaur didn't appreciate that, and turns around to bite Fen - missing entirely. Taking advantage of the distracted creature, Ka'Lem bashes it with his newly acquired tower shield.
Mia missed with a quick catapult, and Fenwyse shifts a bit further behind and slams the allosaur with a catastrophic thunderwave. It shatters into crystal bits, and Fenwyse finds a +1 sling and some kind of rare item that nobody in the party is able to identify.
We wander through the cavern a bit, finding a random footprint. Weird. Where did it come from? As we look around, Ka'Lem and Fenwyse get the wild idea to throw her up to a crystal stalactite to examine what the weird notches are carved into the crystal.
As Fen is launched upward, the party hears a click. Something seems to happen as the ground shifts beneath Ka'Lem, and a swarm of giant spiders begins to fill the room. Fen realizes the notches are a magical rune, carved in elvish, designating an explosive.
How did that get up here? As the party runs back through a narrow path, leaving Fen in the room alone, she touches the rune and uses mold earth to give herself handholds to shimmy along the ceiling as the crystal explodes and drops to the ground. More than half the spiders die.
Mia casts flame sphere in the narrow path that led into the room, and more spiders die as they chase after the party. Only five remain, and the party swoops back in, making quick work of them as Fen drops down. We continue moving through the cavern, finding more footprints.
Narrow passageways... but wait, what? There's a chest over there! Fen sprints toward the chest because she hasn't had an opportunity to open one yet, and it is LOADED with gold. Nice!
As soon as the chest disappears, we hear some stuff that sounds like wagon wheels approaching rapidly. That's... odd.
Crystalline armadillos nearly the size of our tank come rolling into the room. They don't seem terribly aggressive, but we are foreign objects and they begin to show hostility toward us.
M'Zera sets up a barrier wall utilizing spirit guardians, and these poor little guys are getting absolutely destroyed as they enter the area of effect. We take a few shots at them but we're mostly ineffective, primarily because they keep making their saves.
We're slowly whittling these armadillos down, but it's primarily the spirit guardians doing a lot of the work. These little dudes are tough!
We finish the combat, and we're calling it a night here. We should be playing again next Wednesday, but there's a chance we may not? I'll let you all know before next week!
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