2025/01/31: A Materials Hunt in Kaelund Part 4 Report
General Summary
Malakai, Knight, Kal'vus, Zess, Ba'alzamon, Kitsa
We rejoined our party as they were in the midst of evening downtime. Zess unexpectedly ran into a copy of Ba'alzamon in the Rook in Castle Fallingstar. She called the real Ba'alzamon, who told her in no uncertain terms to kill it if she found it again. "I wouldn't go to that cesspit if my life depended on it" (or something along those lines). "Fuck you, and fuck the Order."
At around the same time, Kal'vus was heading down into the dungeons under the castle to visit his students, who were practicing adventuring down there. He ran into a fluffy new friend on the way. Kitsa is a tibbit. Grey and white tabby. Literally housecat sized. Has daggers and a ukulele when in larger form. Has shapeshifting powers. Her hat (which is cutesy) doesn't meld into her form when she shapeshifts like most equipment does, which she hates. It's permanently melded to her head because of an incident with an incompetent wizard. It has great stats, though!
She wasn't quite sure how she got there. "There was a pretty light, and I followed it, and now I'm lost."
Then, while they were talking, a group of minotaur skeletons came around the corner. (Kal'vus went into a defensive stance. Kitsa just puffed up.)
The resulting fight was somewhat bewildering. The minotaurs put the two adventurers in some sort of maze effect, allowing the minotaurs to teleport around and preventing the two from leaving. After some dodging, a failed escape attempt, and some much-needed healing by Kitsa, Kal'vus went into his fourth stance and killed the lot of the minotaurs. The minotaurs poofed into black smoke. Kal'vus and Kitsa headed back up to the surface to alert people about the strange increase in difficulty in the lower levels.
They found Zess looking concerned in the Castle Fallingstar courtyard. The only other person around was a heavily tattooed halfling, who was smoking on his own. (His name is Brand.) Kal'vus enlisted Zess to help grab some backup adventurers and go to save his students, because clearly something was wrong in the dungeon.
They located several available adventurers in the Rook. Many of them trying to be the shady, intriguing guy in the corner, but there weren't enough corners for all of them.
Guy with a purple, crystalline bow.
Dusky-skinned, burly guy in a cloak. (Medium-gray skin, so odd for a human.) Probably barbarian.
Spiky-armored enforcer guy at the bar.
The dusky-skinned guy took Kal'vus's offer. Guy isn't wearing armor, but he's "solid beefcake" and at least on par with Kal'vus. He was in and ready to go before Kal'vus even mentioned payment. "Someone's in trouble? There's something to fight? I'm in!" His name is Deragon. Deragon turns out to actually be a monk! He's got scaly skin defenses that can parry swords. ("He parried. With his chest.") He's probably a shapeshifted dragon. He was very disappointed when there wasn't any further thing to fight down there. The apprentices were safe. Kal'vus sparred with Deragon (and lost, partially due to exhaustion from his new stance). They promised a rematch later when Kal'vus is at his best. Meanwhile, Knight had his ghost/banshee attachment situation checked back at New Hallownest. There was only an apprentice available to look at it. They did some banishment/spirit ward thing and said they'd "stopped the progression" and it should be okay until someone more experienced looks at it, if it isn't gone. Knight found this concerning, since he didn't even know there was something to progress, but it would wait until Rodger got back and could take a more expert look. The party regrouped the next morning at the Rook. They took a detour to drop the drow hybrid kids off at New Hallownest. The kids were enchanted by the place, and by the concept of a friendly, comfortable civilization and people to talk to. (The Cult of Karnifax started trying to recruit some of them immediately. Knight told them to go easy on that.) Ba'alzamon recognized the new teleport ward on the city as he transported in. It didn't stop him, though. The ward looks like green sparkles in Ba'alzamon's peripheral vision. Hua Tok also showed up. He was still in human form, but he had an illusion of his saurial form up. The spell was sparkly to Knight. Dream magic? Once the group was in the New Hallownest secure command post, they discussed strategy. Hua Tok had a dreaming spell set up that would essentially "replace" the party with dream duplicates that would then go fight the spirit defenders in the vault. Knight suspected this would maybe have problems with him and asked further. They decided Knight would go in and fight without the illusion, then pretend to die dramatically at the end. Knight and Malakai practiced Knight pretending to die dramatically while fighting alongside the illusions. Kitsa directed, with excellent proficiency and effect. The party teleported in. Went and did the illusion fight. It worked. Knight's acting wasn't great, but it worked. All the saurials survived and were successfully transferred to simulacra. Then, as the fight ended and the ritual finished, the warded door opened and a mysterious hooded figure wandered out. Kal'vus, the first of those present to react, opened up on him. The bisected remains of the body turned to pieces of black cloth as they drifted to the ground. A younger, more arrogant voice than the one that warned Ba'alzamon the day before said "Spoilsport". Kal'vus kept going to maintain his stance. He went right through the open door. It led out into an ancient city. There was even a giant pyramid. Around the party, up and down the hallway, there were flashing lights, and a horde of 20-foot-tall wrought-iron men dropped onto the floor and prepared to attack. 50 iron golems. And then 10 red dragons came in after them. Kitsa cast buffs. Malakai added buffs. And then Ba'alzamon got his response from Rapsity, and a full party of eight adventurers specially tailored to fight mages appeared via Summon Assault Squad to join the chaos. They killed three red dragons and four iron golems within seconds of arrival.
- An avarial.
- A big norse guy who lopped an iron golem in half with his axe.
- Various others. Then there was the loudest belch anyone would ever hear. It vibrated matter. It vibrated magic. It was Rapsity's Rude Noise, a.k.a. Power Word Belch, and it was magnificent. Kal'vus got into a weapon lock with the sphere that remained of the visible mage. Physics was bending and warping under the blade. And then Zess put five crits into the sphere through melee without a single stray shot. There was a girly scream, and then the sphere imploded and launched Kal'vus away. The fire dragons breathed fire. Hua Tok countered by sucking all the fire in the area into a sphere in his palm. It even pulled Ba'alzamon's hair back in that direction. The fight against the remaining minions seemed to be going well until the moment Ba'alzamon stepped into the next room and saw the enormous ticking time bomb set on top of a building. As the last enemies were finished off, Ba'alzamon set to trying to drain the energy from the bomb. Rapsity offered an evacuation route for those who wanted it. Knight, Kal'vus, and the saurials made a desperate beeline for the vault and managed to rescue all of the tens of thousands of eggs in the few minutes they had, then dove through a portal to the dream realm before the bomb went off. The blast destroyed the city. It destroyed the vault. It blew parts of the cavern roof sky high. It was still far less than it would have been without Ba'alzamon's intervention. (Malakai and Union also helped.) And as dust and rocks rained down on the Great Rift, the giant reptilian monster that had been prowling the ancient city started climbing up out of the crater. Its top half was coming out of the top of the mile-deep canyon before its back legs left the bottom. The evacuees could see it (and the explosion) from Castle Kaelund.
The dusky-skinned guy took Kal'vus's offer. Guy isn't wearing armor, but he's "solid beefcake" and at least on par with Kal'vus. He was in and ready to go before Kal'vus even mentioned payment. "Someone's in trouble? There's something to fight? I'm in!" His name is Deragon. Deragon turns out to actually be a monk! He's got scaly skin defenses that can parry swords. ("He parried. With his chest.") He's probably a shapeshifted dragon. He was very disappointed when there wasn't any further thing to fight down there. The apprentices were safe. Kal'vus sparred with Deragon (and lost, partially due to exhaustion from his new stance). They promised a rematch later when Kal'vus is at his best. Meanwhile, Knight had his ghost/banshee attachment situation checked back at New Hallownest. There was only an apprentice available to look at it. They did some banishment/spirit ward thing and said they'd "stopped the progression" and it should be okay until someone more experienced looks at it, if it isn't gone. Knight found this concerning, since he didn't even know there was something to progress, but it would wait until Rodger got back and could take a more expert look. The party regrouped the next morning at the Rook. They took a detour to drop the drow hybrid kids off at New Hallownest. The kids were enchanted by the place, and by the concept of a friendly, comfortable civilization and people to talk to. (The Cult of Karnifax started trying to recruit some of them immediately. Knight told them to go easy on that.) Ba'alzamon recognized the new teleport ward on the city as he transported in. It didn't stop him, though. The ward looks like green sparkles in Ba'alzamon's peripheral vision. Hua Tok also showed up. He was still in human form, but he had an illusion of his saurial form up. The spell was sparkly to Knight. Dream magic? Once the group was in the New Hallownest secure command post, they discussed strategy. Hua Tok had a dreaming spell set up that would essentially "replace" the party with dream duplicates that would then go fight the spirit defenders in the vault. Knight suspected this would maybe have problems with him and asked further. They decided Knight would go in and fight without the illusion, then pretend to die dramatically at the end. Knight and Malakai practiced Knight pretending to die dramatically while fighting alongside the illusions. Kitsa directed, with excellent proficiency and effect. The party teleported in. Went and did the illusion fight. It worked. Knight's acting wasn't great, but it worked. All the saurials survived and were successfully transferred to simulacra. Then, as the fight ended and the ritual finished, the warded door opened and a mysterious hooded figure wandered out. Kal'vus, the first of those present to react, opened up on him. The bisected remains of the body turned to pieces of black cloth as they drifted to the ground. A younger, more arrogant voice than the one that warned Ba'alzamon the day before said "Spoilsport". Kal'vus kept going to maintain his stance. He went right through the open door. It led out into an ancient city. There was even a giant pyramid. Around the party, up and down the hallway, there were flashing lights, and a horde of 20-foot-tall wrought-iron men dropped onto the floor and prepared to attack. 50 iron golems. And then 10 red dragons came in after them. Kitsa cast buffs. Malakai added buffs. And then Ba'alzamon got his response from Rapsity, and a full party of eight adventurers specially tailored to fight mages appeared via Summon Assault Squad to join the chaos. They killed three red dragons and four iron golems within seconds of arrival.
- An avarial.
- A big norse guy who lopped an iron golem in half with his axe.
- Various others. Then there was the loudest belch anyone would ever hear. It vibrated matter. It vibrated magic. It was Rapsity's Rude Noise, a.k.a. Power Word Belch, and it was magnificent. Kal'vus got into a weapon lock with the sphere that remained of the visible mage. Physics was bending and warping under the blade. And then Zess put five crits into the sphere through melee without a single stray shot. There was a girly scream, and then the sphere imploded and launched Kal'vus away. The fire dragons breathed fire. Hua Tok countered by sucking all the fire in the area into a sphere in his palm. It even pulled Ba'alzamon's hair back in that direction. The fight against the remaining minions seemed to be going well until the moment Ba'alzamon stepped into the next room and saw the enormous ticking time bomb set on top of a building. As the last enemies were finished off, Ba'alzamon set to trying to drain the energy from the bomb. Rapsity offered an evacuation route for those who wanted it. Knight, Kal'vus, and the saurials made a desperate beeline for the vault and managed to rescue all of the tens of thousands of eggs in the few minutes they had, then dove through a portal to the dream realm before the bomb went off. The blast destroyed the city. It destroyed the vault. It blew parts of the cavern roof sky high. It was still far less than it would have been without Ba'alzamon's intervention. (Malakai and Union also helped.) And as dust and rocks rained down on the Great Rift, the giant reptilian monster that had been prowling the ancient city started climbing up out of the crater. Its top half was coming out of the top of the mile-deep canyon before its back legs left the bottom. The evacuees could see it (and the explosion) from Castle Kaelund.
Rewards Granted
3 xp for everybody, 5 for those who are below level 25.
Created Content
Notes
Kitsa does not have a last name. Green eyes. She was a domestic cat. She was owned by a wizard. That was the same wizard who melded the hat to her head. He was absolutely terrible at his job. He's also the reason Kitsa has sapience. She escaped from him because of how bad he was at being a wizard and how many weird side effects he tended to make. The hat she hates is a fluffy white hat with black panda ears.
Ba'alzamon has been at Castle Fallingstar only twice. The Order has sent invulnerable assassins after him and his people in the past. He hates the place.
Malakai has a beard now. Because dwarf things.
The drow hybrid kids seem happy to settle in New Hallownest.
The New Hallownest teleport ward is officially working now.
925,000 damage directly to Ba'alzamon when the bomb went off. It was far less than it would have been if not for his (and Malakai's) efforts.
Kal'vus
Zess
Knight of Darkhome
Kelsey of Kaelund
Ba'alzamon Dreamender
Malakai
Report Date
31 Jan 2025
Primary Location
Secondary Location
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