Session 17: Niptu's Temple Number 1 Report

General Summary

Session 17 – Wednesday November 3, 2022 – The first Temple of Niptu

4 Hour Puzzle/Battle session 5:30 PM to 10:00PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 6:

It is the 28tht day of the month of Marpenoth (Leaffall) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Late October.)

• Abrash – Wood (Dessert) Elf, L4 Druid – Jacob Munson
• Ajani– High Elf, L4 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L4 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Thomas – Human, L4 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L4 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Cedrik – Human, L4 Bard – Dan King
• Gurthen – Dwarf, L4 Paladin – Spencer Armstrong (School)

Knuckles

Ajani and Cedrik came out of the woods discussing how to pay off Ajani’s student loans and they joined the rest party. The party introduced Knuckles the guard to Ajani and told Ajani that Knuckles will lead them to the Shield of Niptu’s stronghold. Ajani cast detect thoughts on him and asked him questions regarding the location of the stronghold. The party continued to ask questions while Ajani delved deeper into his mind. In the end Ajani got a clear picture of what the Stronghold looks like and they determined the direction and distance to the stronghold. They agreed to keep him tied up

Necrotic Ticks

The party started gathering firewood and setup camp at the door to the temple. Isabella felt something on her leg and saw a Tick the size of a softball climbing up. She freaked out a bit, but then it bit her and she kind of liked it. Thomas shot at it but missed. Abrash was able to take a dagger and peeled it off her leg. Isabella wanted him to put it back on her, but she didn’t’. Fascinated by it, Abrash started studying it and killed it. The blood was black, and Thomas also studied it.

The party then looked for other ticks on the forest floor and trees. They didn’t see any but as a precaution they built a very large fire. The Elves took turns on watch as the party rested. Ajani took the last watch but he didn’t see the tick on the prisoner Knuckles get larger and larger during the night. In the morning they found a grey skinned Knuckles face down on the ground with a tick about the size of a baby’s head on his back. Thomas walked up to the Knuckles now a tied up Zombie, and killed him. Cedrik took out his dagger and stabbed into the engorged tick. Black blood squirted all over.

The Temple opens

The door to the temple shook and slowly dropped into the ground. Inside the room there was a solid shiny metallic door. The door had a sign upon it written in Common, Sylvian, Dwarvish and Undercommon, that read: “It takes team work to make the dream work. (R. Niptu.) You have one hour.” Gazlowe tried to pick the lock of the door but failed. Others tried frantically to break down the door. Eventually Abrash and Isabella using a crowbar were able to open the door.

Board Passage

The door opened to a long room with a pit that extended the entire width of the floor and was about 40' long. The Pit was 20' deep and the bottom looked to be covered with a very large number of sharp spikes dripping with a dark substance. Over the Pit were bridges of boards. The Boards were every 1 ft. There was a sign on the wall, written in Common, Sylvian, Dwarvish and Undercommon with the words: “You get by with a little help from thy friends. (R. Niptu.) Know thy Strengths or you may become stranded.”

Gazlowe, Thomas and Ajani tied a rope to themselves and started to cross the pit each stepping on the first board before them. As they moved the 2nd board, the first board fell. They realized that if they stepped on every board the others would have no way to cross. They also quicky realized they will need to leave boards to return. They tried to jump from board to board but went cautiously. Every jump they made the board they were previously on disappeared. There were several missed jumps, but they were able to grab ahold of the board without falling into the pit.

After the first 3 passed the next 3 looked at a pathway that looked more perilous. They went following a similar pattern, but it was a bit more difficult. Isabella made it across with no issues and helped Cedrik who didn’t quite make one of his jumps and was hanging onto a board. Abrash decided to save his wildshape in case he needed it later and then continually cast guidance as he jumped from board to board. In the end everyone made it across safely, but they also spent 20 minutes to get there, and the return looked like it was going to be a much tougher challenge.

Black pudding

They went into the next room that seemed unusually clean. There was a large wheel on the Eastern wall next to a solid door. They started spinning the wheel and the door raised very slowly. However, the wheel also opened a 2nd door in the ceiling. Thomas saw the ceiling door open and then saw a huge glob of black pudding drip to the floor. It rose up and the party attacked it. Everyone was able to easily hit the target. Those who shot arrows or bolts lost them in the ooze. Ajani’s ray of frost was ineffective. Gazlowe punched the ooze with his gauntlet. The gauntlet was covered with ooze that corroded it a bit resulting in a less effective gauntlet. Cedrik's cutting words consistently hit causing the Black Pudding to always have disadvantage and as a result it was never able to effectively strike the party. Isabella used her flail, and it too became corroded and less effective.

Abrash summoned an air spirit beast that consistently struck the ooze. Each hit of course weakened the beak of the beast. Ajani cast Mind sliver on the Ooze and Cedrik continued with his cutting words. Gazlowe hit with a few firebolts, and his homunculus was able to continually hit. In the end it was Abrash’s summoned bird that made the killing blow but afterwards, its beak was considerably damaged by the acid of the ooze.

Getting buzzed

They squeezed under to raised door and went into a smaller room to the west. A Large Adamantine door blocked a passage to the South. There was a lever in the Northeast corner of the room. Written in Common, Sylvian, Dwarvish and Undercommon were the words: “A Braided cord is stronger than a single thread. Gather ye thy friends. For once the door is shut, they shall no longer be able to provide aid.” They all were in the room and Thomas pulled the lever.

The door in the West lowered into place with a loud "click." The adamantine door to the south was lowered into the floor revealing an adamantine portcullis blocking the southern passageway. Everyone saw the text on the wall had changed. It now read: “Work together and work quickly. For thou hast 1 minute before death arrives for one.” Thomas noticed that a thick and very pungently sweet aromatic sap excreted from the lever and got on his hand. In an instant it was dried but the smell was very strong. There was a buzzing heard in the distance and a small opening was seen in the ceiling.

Looking through the portcullis they saw a long narrow room. At the far end was a passageway that headed East. There was also a target. 10 feet from the portcullis was a wheel and about 15 feet on the opposite wall was a lever. The party did work together with Thomas hitting the target with his crossbow bolt and several mage hands pulling the lever and turning the wheel. But they weren’t quite fast enough.

As they spun the wheel a 3rd time with their mage hands, 4 things happened. First a swarm of bees entered into the room. 2nd the Adamantine portcullis was opened. 3rd, Thomas dashed down the hallway and 4th, the hatch in the ceiling where the bees came from closed. Ajani hit the swarm with his ray of frost, hurting them and slowing them down. Gazlowe took out a bunch with his gauntlets as did Cedrik with his boomerang and Isabella with her great axe. Abrash used his poison spray. Bitey took out the last bee.

Faces on the walls

Thomas was standing at the end of a small room. They looked at the room, it was about 20 X 15 with twelve 5’ square tiles covering the floor. The Walls were covered with a fresco of many faces, each with their lips pursed as if they're whistling with a dark hole in the center where the sound would come out. At the far end was a very narrow passage. Thomas squeezed through and made it into the next room. The others noticed that the floor was all pressure plates and the holes in the mouths were about the size perfect for darts. Seeing Thomas made it safely, they all walked across with each step making a clicking sound as they stepped on the tiles. Nothing happened and they passed into the next room.

Pools

They entered a square 25’ X 25’ room. In the center was a circular pool with a 15’ diameter. There was an unusually brightly glowing torch in a sconce on one wall. On the northern wall was a very narrow window. Peering through the window they saw another room just like this except it had no torch and there was a door in it that headed East. There was a sign on the wall that read: “Don't quench thine light. Magic in the pool is not lost forever. But quench the torch and what you seek shan't revealed.”

Cedrik cast mage hand and with it dipped his lit driftglobe into the pool. The mage hand disappeared, the driftglobe went dark and then disappeared. Everyone began examining the various items in the room. Thomas submerged himself in the pool and emerged in the room to the north where he found a driftglobe in that pool. The others saw and followed suit. All the active magic was dispelled including Abrash’s summoned beast.

Once on the other side they went through the door to the east. They found a reading room but there was no text. There was a sconce on the wall where a torch could be put. Lighting a torch and putting it in the sconce did little more than illuminate the room. They did see a sign that read: “Read and record but mind your time. Put the torch back, lest your stay be permanent.” They then realized they needed to somehow bring the other torch over here without taking it through the pool. After some time trying various things, Gazlowe eventually noticed a door outline between the two pool rooms. Pointing it out to Thomas on the other side, Thomas was able to push the door open.

Reading room

With the doors open, they grabbed the torch from the pool room and brought it into the reading room. Placing it into the sconce, the magical torch lit up writing all over the walls. The writing included processes to create some of Niptu’s magical components, but it didn’t include everything they needed to know. Clearly there would be more to learn. They also found a small map of a river with the writing: “You have 2 days to make it here.” They recognized according to the scale, that would be a 3 day walk along the river that was just outside this temple.

With only 25 minutes remaining they worked quickly to copy down the writing and the arcane runes as best as they could. Gazlowe found a bare spot on the wall and wrote, “Gazlowe was here.” With less than 10 minutes remaining, they returned the torch to the place they found it and heard loud clicks and the whirring of gears. They headed back out through the room with the pressure plates hearing multiple clicks on each step but taking no damage. Abby surmised, “Perhaps the poison darts have been depleted.” They found the doors all open and made it back to the pit covered by a scattering of a few boards. There weren’t enough boards for everyone, so Abrash turned into a spider and crawled across the walls. The others made it relatively unscathed.

Outside the temple

The party knew they could run to the next temple, but they would be exhausted by the time they made it there. They decided to take some time to build a raft. The party worked very well together and made a very high-quality raft in a very short time. Once the raft was complete, they launched into the stream. Their navigation skills sending the raft down the river were not quite as good…

What’s Next:

• Go to Niptu Shrine #2 to learn about Niptu’s magic
• Meet Victor Rathmore at Blackmoor’s on 23rd (date missed) to return gem and hand over Revalor
• Gazlowe to find out about Adventurer’s guild
• Find out about the Red and White Ladies and report back to The Lord’s Alliance.
• Find out about mysterious slave trade in the High Forest.
• Locate the Shield of Niptu and find where they’re hiding Niptu’s Body
• Disintegrate Niptu’s Body and let Revalor Miadi know. Revalor is hiding with family at cottage along the Delimbiyr River between Zelbross and Loudwater.
• Train the Hellhound Johny Cash
• Purchase the Firestone Keep and rebuild it.
• Gazlowe not happy with helm purchase
• Party to utilize the herbs Abrash and Ajani found.
• Gazlowe to make a permanent mayonnaiser for Flicktongue
• Restore Abrash and Ajani’s homeland.

Campaign

The Forest

Protagonists

Thomas Elliot

Abrash Asim

Chaotic Good Moon Wood Elf (Folk Hero)
Druid 1

9 / 9 HP

STR
7

DEX
10

CON
13

INT
8

WIS
19

CHA
14

Report Date

04 Nov 2022