2025/01/24: A Materials Hunt in Kaelund Part 3 Report
General Summary
Malakai, Knight, Kal'vus, Zess, Ba'alzamon, Kelsey
When we last left off, the party was facing off against a party of saurial adventurer ghosts in a an ancient vault. A horn-head (triceratops) with a giant gnarled staff and a robe decorated with skulls led the defenders. Flanking him were two blade-backed saurials (stegosauruses), one dual-wielding macuahuitl and the other wielding a spear. Two fin-heads in robes supported them with wands and rings. The last member was a pterodactyl-looking guy with a big set of javelins. (Big relative to him, at least; he was small.)
The big hornhead withdrew immediately, casting a variety of buffs and filling the room with a harmless green gas that made spellcasting more difficult. Zess put a barrage of arrows into him in retaliation, but the powerful magical defenses he'd cast deflected all but a few. Kelsey and Kal'vus charged, and Kal'vus narrowly got Kelsey over a group of spear-wielding minions who suddenly appeared from invisibility to intercept them. Kelsey's offense against the big guy proved fruitless, however; her all-out attacks just slid off. Malakai's subsequent assault similarly failed to penetrate the superb magical defenses, but at least he put himself in position to defend the rest of the assault team.
The pterodactyl took to the air and started flying the most erratic pattern anyone in the party had ever seen, passing in and out of portals. He started readying a javelin. Ba'alzamon headed back out the door to try to get out of the fog. Knight, who had prepped to defend the party at the door, was left on his lonesome. And then the enemy fighters attacked.
Kelsey took two macuahuitls to the face from the bladeback standing next to the hornhead. She didn't even try to dodge; in true Kelsey fashion, she leaned in. Moments later, she was facedown on the floor in a spreading spatter of blood. The saurial spearmaster looked at the winning fight next to him, looked at Knight by the door, and chose the latter. His ballistic arc bypassed Kal'vus entirely. It took most of Knight's flurry of parries to stop the relentless assault; analysis suggested that the two were about equal in skill, and the saurial hit even harder than Knight does.
Ba'alzamon headed back down the hallway, contacted Renedge, and tried to pull the metaphysical wires out of the statues that were pouring life energy into the ghosts. It... sort of worked. Ba'alzamon died. The triceratops vanished. The bewildered archmage found himself floating ghostily in the hornhead's place in the middle of the fight. He quickly found that he was compelled to defend the vault and its contents, but he wasn't compelled to attack the party. He turned to the dinosaurs, called out "We must protect the hidden loot, comrades!", and gave the party a huge wink.
After a bit more inconclusive back-and-forth, Malakai getting time-trapped and then freed, and Ba'alzamon accidentally healing the ghosts with a blast of positive energy, Knight evacuated their surviving teammates from the vault. Back near the statues, as the group was looking themselves over, they saw Ba'alzamon's body stand back up. The triceratops spirit had swapped into the body!
Thanks to a Tongues by Malakai, a peaceful conversation ensued. Knight introduced himself. The triceratops man introduced himself in return, though he had trouble pronouncing his name through a human mouth.
With assurances that the party had no ill intentions, and with an understanding of how long it had been since the saurials were alive, the hornhead provided exposition on what this facility was made to be. "A safe residence for our people and our possessions to last through the dead times." Past the statues there's supposed to be a whole city, and a big pyramid. There's supposed to be a lot of stuff down here.
The true treasure down here is the thing needed to continue their people. Stasised eggs, perhaps? That's the one, secret thing still being defended in the vault.
The hornhead told the party of a great eight-legged beast on the other side of the cave-in. White scales on the back, black on the bottom. Very powerful, still alive, great at destroying things including magical wards. It would probably provide great materials for Knight's armor.
The villain who made the beast was also still there. Very evil. Hiding behind the black door. The reason he hadn't come out to finish the party yet is because he thought this was just Ba'alzamon talking and not the triceratops guy. The villain apparently defeated that entire saurial party of heroes on his own. He (and the rest of the "thieves") were apparently members of the much-hated Animus Society. They were the ones who looted the vault, and presumably the ones who created the twisted experiments encountered earlier in the corridor.
With an agreement made and the conversation finished, the party and the shaman successfully did a spell interaction to kick the triceratops man out of Ba'alzamon's body and get Ba'alzamon back in. Then the triceratops guy arrived from down the corridor as an old human man.
His name, better pronounced, is Hua Tok, triceratops shaman. He is a life magic shaman. He was the one who made the statues. His magic works in a different way than the heroes of today are used to.
The party decided to head home to rest and rememorize before coming back to get the eggs and face the true villain and monster of this place. Ba'alzamon took Hua Tok to his place while the rest rested at Castle Fallingstar.
The evil boss is an immensely powerful spellcaster. Tends to do waves of different damage effects. Powerful defensive spells.
Rewards Granted
2 xp
Character(s) interacted with
Created Content
Notes
The planet is angry, all the time. It can be assuaged, though. It likes singing! Especially saurial throat-singing. Very low rumbling melodies.
Arghent had a bunch of brothers and sisters. He killed all of them by getting close, casting antimagic shell, and then choking them to death.
Kal'vus
Zess
Knight of Darkhome
Kelsey of Kaelund
Ba'alzamon Dreamender
Malakai
Report Date
24 Jan 2025
Primary Location
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Related Characters
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