Session 24 - A Fell Ritual
General Summary
Deep in Duvik's Pass Mine the Black Sheep of Eriad, after having spent most of their resources fighting fiends and also Queen Evelynn Bromley's handmaiden in the last session, discussed their next course of action. They checked The Machine on the far side of the room. Fennwick Darkhallow made a thorough investigation of it. Varan Boggs casted shocking grasp on the Machine, which caused electrical arcs and currents to surge through it, which traveled down the cables and down into the spikes that were previously hammered into the ground. The party removed the spikes from the ground, and Varan casted shocking grasp again on the machine, but nothing happened.
The party shifted focus to getting out of the cave. They then noticed the imp (who had dove into the lava at the end of the last session) emerge from the lava on the opposite side of the room. The imp then seemingly disappeared, but they party noticed that it transformed into small spider that crawled through the cracks in the entrance cave in.
The party took the time to dig their way out of the caved-in entrance, utilizing Varan’s summoned dire wolves in the process. While they dug, they noticed the imp had reappeared on the other side of the cave in, and they watched as it flew up the waterfall shaft. They continued digging, and eventually cleared the tunnel to the shaft. They made their way up the shaft to the room with the natural spring. They checked all the rooms in the mine, but did not find anything out of the ordinary. They saw the main entrance to the mine was still blocked by the boulder pushed there by the cyclops previously.
Varan approached the boulder to ritually cast alarm near the boulder, but as he approached, he heard voices on the other side of the boulder. It was a conversation between a higher pitched voice and a deep voice. Varan sent his bat familiar through a small crack between the top of the boulder and ceiling of the entry tunnel. Through the bat’s eyes, Varan saw the imp trying to communicate with the cyclops and the ogres outside. Varan then casted shocking grasp, and attacked the imp with it through his bat familiar. The imp got severely injured, and Varan immediately dismissed the bat after the spell attack. Varan then reconjured the bat familiar just on the other side of the entrance-blocking boulder, but the bat started vomiting, as it suffered the effects of the Puke Rod. An ogre approached the retching bat to stomp on it, but the ogre also reacted negatively to the Puke Rod. Varan quickly dismissed the bat, waited a bit, and reconjured it in an area away from the Puke Rod. While waiting, the cyclops picked up the electrically charred imp, and started carrying it away. Varan then had the bat attack the imp once more, hitting it with another jolt of shocking grasp. The cyclops then swatted the bat familiar, which sent it back to its home plane. Varan relayed all this to the rest of the group. The party then rested for the night in the cave.
The next morning, Solianna Loranan took possession of the potion of growth and also the potion of gaseous form. She drank the portion of gaseous form, and turned into a vapor. In this form, she was able to pass through the cracks between the boulder and the tunnel walls and ceiling. Once outside, she turned back into her normal, solid form, and then drank the potion of growth. As an ogre-sized Solianna, she approached the boulder to move it, but began vomiting; a victim of the Puke Rod. Varan casted dispel magic, and negated the effect of the Puke Rod on Solianna. After she composed herself, she was able to push the boulder out of the way of the mouth of the cave, as she utilized her increased strength due to her enlarged size. The party got the Puke Stick back into the bag of holding, and then followed the set of large footprints (assumed to belong to the cyclops) up the mountain trail.
After a while of following the tracks, the party arrived at a cliff face. They begin debating their next course of action, whether to continue on or head back to their keep. Before they reached a decision, the cyclops began climbing down the cliff face. The cyclops seemed to not notice the party. Fennwich sneak attacked it, by shooting it with an arrow. Immediately after the arrow struck, Varan casted hypnotic pattern on the cyclops, which caused it to enter a dazed state. This caused the cyclops to fall off the side of the cliff, where it slammed into the snowy ground below.
After the cyclops crashed to the ground, the party attacked the cyclops. During the battle, Varan had a wild magic surge, and came to the realization that the universe was created by a giant cosmic explosion. Also during the fight, Ikari unlocked new powers of the Lotus Petal, Solianna was hit with a boulder that the cyclops threw, and Varan polymorphed into a giant ape who threw rocks back at at the cyclops.
Eventually, the group slew the cyclops. On its body, they found a note. After they read the note, they continued up the mountain, scaling the cliff face by utilizing Varan’s giant ape form. Upon reaching the top of the cliff, they found themselves in a large snow plain, surrounded by mountain escarpments on all sides except the cliff behind them. Footprints in the snow lead forward. Far up ahead, they noticed the silhouettes of large figures behind some mounds of snow. The party quietly approached, and saw some old ruins, with the ogres (the same ones from outside the mine entrance), five orcs, two black horses, the one Obsidian Horseman with the goatee, a robed human, Victor Bainbridge, and Queen Evelynn. All were either in-or-surrounding the ruins.
The party debated what to do. Varan and Fennwick discussed a plan of attack. Ikari was opposed to attacks that would harm Queen Evelynn. It was decided to attack, but Ikari wanted nothing to do with that plan and walked away. Fennwick and Solianna, as part of the plan, started heading back down the cliff, as Varan would be going in alone. Varan casted fly, flew high up, and casted fireball down on Bainbridge and his group. Four orcs were immediately vaporized to ash, and the two of the ogres, the robed human, the goateed Obsidian Horseman, and Bainbridge got burned, but survived. Queen Evelynn might have gotten singed, but appeared to shrug off most of the fire despite being in the center of the blast zone.
Varan attemped to fly away. The robed human sent an eldritch blast at Varan, but Varan was able to block it by casting shield. Varan then quickly flew away before any of the enemies below could muster a counter-attack. Varan met back up with the party and told them what happened. Ikari and Varan had a heated debate on the ethics of attacking someone you believe is evil without knowing if he or she is actually evil – especially when it involves a child.
The party traveled back to ruins of Thrallfjord and talked with M'Dok. There, they convinced M’dok to relocate his tribe to the Black Sheep’s Keep. Varan, learned that the note recovered from the cyclops mentioned Lorcan, which is the name of the silver-haired man of Varan’s past. (In earlier giant ape form, Varan’s ape intelligence didn’t make the connection.)
The party rested for the night in Thrallfjord, but in the middle of the night, they heard a loud explosion off in the distance. The party went outside and saw, way off in the distance from the direction from where they had just encountered Bainbridge, the top of a mountain blown off. Smoke, fire, and lava was erupting from the montain. Ikari and Solianna noticed a large object fly up out of the exploded mountain top and quickly out of sight into the cloudy sky, but it was too dark to make out any distinguished shape of the object.
The next morning, the party started back to the keep, with a caravan of kobolds in tow. They traveled throughout the day, and kept a close watch on the sky. By nightfall, they arrived back at the keep. Fennwick discussed plans of a “Puke Rod boiling oil man-trap" with one of the guards. The party then debriefed Phillip Greaves about all that transpired at and around Duvik’s Pass Mine, the skirmish at the ruins in the mountains, and whatever emerged from the exploding mountain.
Varan worked with acclimating the kobolds to thier new home while Fennwick, Solianna, and Ikari went to talk to Sophietta Slatemourne . They gave her the magic items they acquired and asked her to identify them. They then asked her information about demons and about any lore about any creatures that could be raised from mountains.
As they finished up talking to Sophietta, off in the distance, over the mountains, a loud roar was heard.
Fennwick Darkhallow - Level 8
Ikari - Level 8
Solianna Loranan - Level 8
Varan Boggs - Level 8
Fennwick: Don’t worr--well, actually, an hour left? It’ll be around longer than my other one!
DM: The rock is not compacted in. Its just loose rock, so if you guys work at it, you’ll eventually dig your way out basically. So, are you guys doing that?
Varan’s Player: Yes
DM: If so, how many people are doing it
Varan’s Player: My two wolves.
DM: Ok, just your two wolves are going to do it?
Varan’s Player: (quietly) ….and Solianna.
Solianna’s Player: Oh! Oh, just make me be your pack mule, here!
Fennwick’s Player: I assume I get advantage because, he’s in no position, and he doesn’t know I’m there, so sneak attack automatically.
DM: Yeah.
Fennwick’s Player: Ok, you’re going to want to synchronize this?
Varan’s Player: Yeah, so that once he hits it I cast hypnotic pattern on him, and hopefully he falls.
DM: Ok.
*Fennwick’s Player rolls*
Fennwick’s Player: Ooo, not good.
DM: ...and you actually also see Queen Evelynn.
Fennwick’s Player: Is that the little girl?
*beat*
Fennwick’s Player: I’m gonna shoot her between the face.
Varan: I was thinking...what if I do your run-of-the-mill drive-by fireball?
Varan: Is there another exit to this place?
M’dok: Nothing.
Varan: Oh, that’s too bad. Never mind. Because I have a Puke Rod.
Solianna: These poor kobolds...
Varan: I thought we could--
Fennwick: I just thought about it actually. That Puke Rod, if we bury it at the front of our gate at our keep, like on the outside, and just make everybody aware of it, and then use like a backdoor, and that could be a good security.
Varan: Like a ladder.
Fennwick: Like what?
Varan: Like we could have a ladder as the back door.
Fennwick: Yeah. We could have something like a secret exit where we can get in and out of.
Varan: Yeah...
Fennwick: But like the main entrance where an army would come through, we bury the Puke Rod.
Varan: That’s a pretty good idea.
Fennwick: Make like a portcullis so we can close people in with the Puke Rod buried! And then just pelt them with arrows and boiling water! That’s what we’re doing when we get back! We’re building that!
The party shifted focus to getting out of the cave. They then noticed the imp (who had dove into the lava at the end of the last session) emerge from the lava on the opposite side of the room. The imp then seemingly disappeared, but they party noticed that it transformed into small spider that crawled through the cracks in the entrance cave in.
The party took the time to dig their way out of the caved-in entrance, utilizing Varan’s summoned dire wolves in the process. While they dug, they noticed the imp had reappeared on the other side of the cave in, and they watched as it flew up the waterfall shaft. They continued digging, and eventually cleared the tunnel to the shaft. They made their way up the shaft to the room with the natural spring. They checked all the rooms in the mine, but did not find anything out of the ordinary. They saw the main entrance to the mine was still blocked by the boulder pushed there by the cyclops previously.
Varan approached the boulder to ritually cast alarm near the boulder, but as he approached, he heard voices on the other side of the boulder. It was a conversation between a higher pitched voice and a deep voice. Varan sent his bat familiar through a small crack between the top of the boulder and ceiling of the entry tunnel. Through the bat’s eyes, Varan saw the imp trying to communicate with the cyclops and the ogres outside. Varan then casted shocking grasp, and attacked the imp with it through his bat familiar. The imp got severely injured, and Varan immediately dismissed the bat after the spell attack. Varan then reconjured the bat familiar just on the other side of the entrance-blocking boulder, but the bat started vomiting, as it suffered the effects of the Puke Rod. An ogre approached the retching bat to stomp on it, but the ogre also reacted negatively to the Puke Rod. Varan quickly dismissed the bat, waited a bit, and reconjured it in an area away from the Puke Rod. While waiting, the cyclops picked up the electrically charred imp, and started carrying it away. Varan then had the bat attack the imp once more, hitting it with another jolt of shocking grasp. The cyclops then swatted the bat familiar, which sent it back to its home plane. Varan relayed all this to the rest of the group. The party then rested for the night in the cave.
The next morning, Solianna Loranan took possession of the potion of growth and also the potion of gaseous form. She drank the portion of gaseous form, and turned into a vapor. In this form, she was able to pass through the cracks between the boulder and the tunnel walls and ceiling. Once outside, she turned back into her normal, solid form, and then drank the potion of growth. As an ogre-sized Solianna, she approached the boulder to move it, but began vomiting; a victim of the Puke Rod. Varan casted dispel magic, and negated the effect of the Puke Rod on Solianna. After she composed herself, she was able to push the boulder out of the way of the mouth of the cave, as she utilized her increased strength due to her enlarged size. The party got the Puke Stick back into the bag of holding, and then followed the set of large footprints (assumed to belong to the cyclops) up the mountain trail.
After a while of following the tracks, the party arrived at a cliff face. They begin debating their next course of action, whether to continue on or head back to their keep. Before they reached a decision, the cyclops began climbing down the cliff face. The cyclops seemed to not notice the party. Fennwich sneak attacked it, by shooting it with an arrow. Immediately after the arrow struck, Varan casted hypnotic pattern on the cyclops, which caused it to enter a dazed state. This caused the cyclops to fall off the side of the cliff, where it slammed into the snowy ground below.
After the cyclops crashed to the ground, the party attacked the cyclops. During the battle, Varan had a wild magic surge, and came to the realization that the universe was created by a giant cosmic explosion. Also during the fight, Ikari unlocked new powers of the Lotus Petal, Solianna was hit with a boulder that the cyclops threw, and Varan polymorphed into a giant ape who threw rocks back at at the cyclops.
Eventually, the group slew the cyclops. On its body, they found a note. After they read the note, they continued up the mountain, scaling the cliff face by utilizing Varan’s giant ape form. Upon reaching the top of the cliff, they found themselves in a large snow plain, surrounded by mountain escarpments on all sides except the cliff behind them. Footprints in the snow lead forward. Far up ahead, they noticed the silhouettes of large figures behind some mounds of snow. The party quietly approached, and saw some old ruins, with the ogres (the same ones from outside the mine entrance), five orcs, two black horses, the one Obsidian Horseman with the goatee, a robed human, Victor Bainbridge, and Queen Evelynn. All were either in-or-surrounding the ruins.
The party debated what to do. Varan and Fennwick discussed a plan of attack. Ikari was opposed to attacks that would harm Queen Evelynn. It was decided to attack, but Ikari wanted nothing to do with that plan and walked away. Fennwick and Solianna, as part of the plan, started heading back down the cliff, as Varan would be going in alone. Varan casted fly, flew high up, and casted fireball down on Bainbridge and his group. Four orcs were immediately vaporized to ash, and the two of the ogres, the robed human, the goateed Obsidian Horseman, and Bainbridge got burned, but survived. Queen Evelynn might have gotten singed, but appeared to shrug off most of the fire despite being in the center of the blast zone.
Varan attemped to fly away. The robed human sent an eldritch blast at Varan, but Varan was able to block it by casting shield. Varan then quickly flew away before any of the enemies below could muster a counter-attack. Varan met back up with the party and told them what happened. Ikari and Varan had a heated debate on the ethics of attacking someone you believe is evil without knowing if he or she is actually evil – especially when it involves a child.
The party traveled back to ruins of Thrallfjord and talked with M'Dok. There, they convinced M’dok to relocate his tribe to the Black Sheep’s Keep. Varan, learned that the note recovered from the cyclops mentioned Lorcan, which is the name of the silver-haired man of Varan’s past. (In earlier giant ape form, Varan’s ape intelligence didn’t make the connection.)
The party rested for the night in Thrallfjord, but in the middle of the night, they heard a loud explosion off in the distance. The party went outside and saw, way off in the distance from the direction from where they had just encountered Bainbridge, the top of a mountain blown off. Smoke, fire, and lava was erupting from the montain. Ikari and Solianna noticed a large object fly up out of the exploded mountain top and quickly out of sight into the cloudy sky, but it was too dark to make out any distinguished shape of the object.
The next morning, the party started back to the keep, with a caravan of kobolds in tow. They traveled throughout the day, and kept a close watch on the sky. By nightfall, they arrived back at the keep. Fennwick discussed plans of a “Puke Rod boiling oil man-trap" with one of the guards. The party then debriefed Phillip Greaves about all that transpired at and around Duvik’s Pass Mine, the skirmish at the ruins in the mountains, and whatever emerged from the exploding mountain.
Varan worked with acclimating the kobolds to thier new home while Fennwick, Solianna, and Ikari went to talk to Sophietta Slatemourne . They gave her the magic items they acquired and asked her to identify them. They then asked her information about demons and about any lore about any creatures that could be raised from mountains.
As they finished up talking to Sophietta, off in the distance, over the mountains, a loud roar was heard.
Adventurers
AzKhan Thrallfjord - Level 8Fennwick Darkhallow - Level 8
Ikari - Level 8
Solianna Loranan - Level 8
Varan Boggs - Level 8
Quotes
Varan: See Fennwick, I got you a better mount than last time!Fennwick: Don’t worr--well, actually, an hour left? It’ll be around longer than my other one!
DM: The rock is not compacted in. Its just loose rock, so if you guys work at it, you’ll eventually dig your way out basically. So, are you guys doing that?
Varan’s Player: Yes
DM: If so, how many people are doing it
Varan’s Player: My two wolves.
DM: Ok, just your two wolves are going to do it?
Varan’s Player: (quietly) ….and Solianna.
Solianna’s Player: Oh! Oh, just make me be your pack mule, here!
Fennwick’s Player: I assume I get advantage because, he’s in no position, and he doesn’t know I’m there, so sneak attack automatically.
DM: Yeah.
Fennwick’s Player: Ok, you’re going to want to synchronize this?
Varan’s Player: Yeah, so that once he hits it I cast hypnotic pattern on him, and hopefully he falls.
DM: Ok.
*Fennwick’s Player rolls*
Fennwick’s Player: Ooo, not good.
DM: ...and you actually also see Queen Evelynn.
Fennwick’s Player: Is that the little girl?
*beat*
Fennwick’s Player: I’m gonna shoot her between the face.
Varan: I was thinking...what if I do your run-of-the-mill drive-by fireball?
Varan: Is there another exit to this place?
M’dok: Nothing.
Varan: Oh, that’s too bad. Never mind. Because I have a Puke Rod.
Solianna: These poor kobolds...
Varan: I thought we could--
Fennwick: I just thought about it actually. That Puke Rod, if we bury it at the front of our gate at our keep, like on the outside, and just make everybody aware of it, and then use like a backdoor, and that could be a good security.
Varan: Like a ladder.
Fennwick: Like what?
Varan: Like we could have a ladder as the back door.
Fennwick: Yeah. We could have something like a secret exit where we can get in and out of.
Varan: Yeah...
Fennwick: But like the main entrance where an army would come through, we bury the Puke Rod.
Varan: That’s a pretty good idea.
Fennwick: Make like a portcullis so we can close people in with the Puke Rod buried! And then just pelt them with arrows and boiling water! That’s what we’re doing when we get back! We’re building that!
Behind the Screen
Nothing really plot-revealing below, but I hid it behind a "spoilers" veil in case you don't want to see the strings being pulled behind the scenes.
Show spoiler
The cyclops was originally supposed to be with the rest of the baddies at the ruins. When the players started kicking around the idea of not going up the mountain, I sent the cyclops down with a note (a note that didn’t exist until I decided to send the cyclops down) mentioning an on-going ritual (which was planned) to A) let the players know what's going on up on the mountain, and B) goat the players and pique their curiosity so they want to go up the mountain.
I really didn’t expect the party to just walk away and let the bad guys finish up their ritual. That dramatically changed the ending of the session.
I really didn’t expect the party to just walk away and let the bad guys finish up their ritual. That dramatically changed the ending of the session.
Character(s) interacted with
Related Reports
Previous Session:
Session 23 - Duvik's Mine Again
Next Session:
Session 25 - Of Demons and Destruction
Session 23 - Duvik's Mine Again
Next Session:
Session 25 - Of Demons and Destruction
Report Date
06 Feb 2019
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