Session 2: Colossal Skeletons and Genocide Surprise

General Summary

From the base of the Northern Ridge in Place-Between-Places, our heroes continued their journey toward the Northern Chain's Root.
Their journey started off innocently enough: Elgin and Krathag competently plotted the group's journey through the mountain range. Then, Daz petitioned Veraak for guidance and lead the adventurers to a steep cliff, forcing them to make a wide detour. From the cliff's edge, however, they discovered an oddity: a colossal skeleton, hundreds of feet tall, impaled by a massive sword against the side of a mountain. The party agreed to investigate the fallen creature and made their way around Daz's cliff.
Arete, mistakenly confident in his stealth, suggested sneaking past three giant spiders they encountered on their way to the colossus. ended up alerting the beasts in the process. Of the three spiders, one escaped, and the poison from the other two was extracted while they lay unconscious. Krathag wanted to train one of the spiders as a companion. He fed it dried meats, confusing it and causing it to scamper up a tree. Ultimately, it didn't appear to be noticeably friendly, so Krathag squished it. Miranro covered himself with giant spider ichor to hide himself from detection.
After arriving at the gigantic skeleton, which the party named Colossus of the Place-Between-Places, they took a closer look. The humanoid skeleton isn't of a known species, even if its size is ignored. The sword pinning it to the mountainside is driven nearly to the hilt in the earth, so only a small portion of the blade is visible. The blade appears a deep obsidian with traces of moving colors. This material closely resembles the Chains, though with significantly less movement. Skorpa used his blade to scrape a powder from one of the protruding bones, and Krathag salvaged the last pinky bone from one of its hands.
Nearing the Ridge's apex, the team spotted thick spider webs near the root of the Chain. In preparation for a possibly unwinnable fight, they hatched a plan: the core group would draw out any creatures by pushing toward the Chain and cleansing the webs with a purifying flame, while the aromatically disguised Miranro approached the Chain from the East and took the required measurements.
The plan worked largely as planned. Miranro was able to secret his way to the measuring point (marked by a large red "X" and a sign saying "Measure here!") and the rest drew out a massive spider with purple and pink markings. The spider was fast on its feet, but significantly hindered by an early Bane cast by Elgin. One of its legs was removed by Krathag, driving it to retreat.
Miranro successfully measured and noted the distance between Vendaria and Veraakden. When measuring the distance between Vendaria and Dheg Lhodar, a beam of light burst from the measuring apparatus towards Dheg Lhodar. The beam backfired, incinerating Miranro's dominant eye, but the Chain holding Dheg Lhodar was severed, dropping the dwarven isle toward The Great Empty. As the isle fell, a dwarven figure, hundreds of miles tall, appeared in the air above it. With one hand on the Chain above and below the break, it strained to stop the isle's fall. But, just as its grip stuck, it shrank to half its size. With its smaller hands, its grip failed and the isle plunged into the clouds below.
Daz, "raised to not be a little bitch," pursued the giant spider into a hole near the Chain. The rest of the party followed in due course into the hole to a large tunnel which opened and quickly descended into the roots of the mountain. The spider was finally felled by Arete, but not before four grey-skinned and armored elf-like figures stepped out from just out of sight. The tunnel was filled with an impenetrable magical darkness pushing the party out of the underground tunnel.
The party quickly looted some bodies that were (until recently) strewn about in webs. They found a nearly-bottomless bag, goggles, a clear glass sphere, and a wooden mask, all of which seem to have some arcane origin. Skorpa attempted to wear the mask, but it violently leapt from his face.
After collecting the loot, they party made their way back down the mountain toward Midport. As they left the rocky peak and returned to the woods, an airship flew above them at low altitude. It seemed to be in a hurry, and heading for the peak.
(Loosely adapted from KLam's post on Discord)

Rewards Granted

• Nearly-bottomless bag (?)
• Goggles (?)
• Clear glass sphere (?)
• Wooden mask (?)
• LEVEL 3

Report Date

18 Jan 2020

Primary Location

Place-Between-Places