Session 32: The Forbidden Cavern Conclusion Report

General Summary

Session 32 – Wednesday March 8, 2023 – The Forbidden Cavern Conclusion

4 Hour Role Play/battle session 6:00 PM to 10:00PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 4:

It is the 19th day of the month of Uktar (The Rotting) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Mid November.)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L5 Druid – Jacob Munson
• Ajani– High Elf, L5 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda (School)
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L5 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Thomas – Human, L5 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L5 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Digby – Gnome, L5 Cleric – Dan King (Church)

Clean up and move on to the pit

Abrash stood still in shock and the party started to loot the corpses. The cult fanatic had 350 gp and 200 sp on his person. The cultists each had 100 gp and 50 sp on their person. (Total of 650gp and 350sp.) Thomas began searching down a hallway. The party joined Thomas as they made their way down the passage that took them again to a deep endless pit.

Four stones floated atop a seemingly endless void. The darkness in the pit was almost palpable, as though it went on forever. Faint whispers erupted from the pit, but they didn’t not make a sound. Gazlowe looked into the void and had a new thought implanted in his mind. “I secretly question the being I serve, for I now know a greater power lives in the deep. I wonder if that power deserves my worship.”

Thomas led the party and jumped onto the next platform, Gazlowe immediately followed and landed behind Thomas. Thomas jumped to the next platform but tripped. Gazlowe was able to grab his leg before he fell. Thomas said, “Toss me.” Gazlowe agreed and with guidance from Abrash was able to toss him. They had one more jump to go to a passage that was glowing Blue. Gazlowe was able to toss Thomas to the passageway. Isabella put Abrash on her back and Abrash cast a spell on her making her a bit stronger. She had no problem hopping across the platforms to make it to the northwest passage that was glowing Blue.

The Ancient Shrine

The party walked into the area. A few inches of water filled this secluded portion of the cavern, the faint blue glow of a new set of crystals bouncing off its surface. “Kneel,” the crystals called. “Worship.” The sound of a hymn filled the air. The hymn was entirely unintelligible but clearly a song of worship. “I call you,” the crystals call again. “Be mine, and you shall be eternal.” A monstrous beast stood behind a group of kneeling Drow, menacingly observing them. “Join them” it said to the party. Gazlowe said, “That sounds reasonable.” Isabella said, “What a great idea.” They both reached for a crystal.

Abrash (still on Isabella’s back) used all his might to lean and knock her down. Realizing he had just gave her a spell to make her stronger, he stopped his concentration and was then able to knock her down. Thomas destroyed a crystal that Gazlowe was going for and tried to distract him by pointing out the dirt on his boot. Racked with indecision for a moment his madness increased a bit more. Enduring threats, betrayals, and ambushes throughout his journey, he now holds a deep-seated fear of anyone who is not a close friend, causing him to begin to draw his weapon whenever he meets a new acquaintance.

The party is attacked.

The large Chuul walked over to Abrash to hit him so that he releases Isabella, and a battle broke out. Isabella stood up and critically hit the creature and then a 2nd solid strike. The Drow all stood up with blank looks on their face and rushed the group. Abrash said, they’re confused, don’t kill them. Gazlowe shouted “Strangers!” The Chuul grabbed Thomas and critically hit him. The Chuul then pulled Thomas towards his face and the poison tentacles went into his mouth, poisoning him and knocking him unconscious. The Chuul then dropped Thomas’s lifeless body to the ground. Gazlowe told the Drow not to approach and then punched the Chuul.

Isabella sliced into the Chuul with her axe again. Abrash summoned a monkey and gave it a healing potion to feed to Thomas. Thomas woke up but he was still paralyzed. Three of the Drow hit the Monkey with their hand crossbow bolts. Abrash cast Shatter in the center of the groups, badly hurting 3 of the Drow and killing one. Seeing the Chuul was bloodied she critically hit it again and killed it. The then turned and knocked 2 of the Drow unconscious with the side of her axe. Abrash knocked one of the Drow unconscious and the Monkey knocked the last one unconscious.

Dealing with the Crystals

Thomas fought the paralysis and was able to stand up but he was badly wounded. Isabella was able grab a crystal and Gazlowe eventually broke free of Gazlowe and his monkey and he too was able to grab one. They both kneeled holding the crystal over their head in worship. Frustrated, Abrash left them and went to the Drow. He spotted crystals in the Drow’s hands and he destroyed them.

Thomas examined the large stone at the front of the room. He deduced that the room is a shrine and that the stone is older than anything he had ever seen before. So old that time had worn away any distinct features making it impossible to identify. He saw an offering bowl in front of the shrine filled with gold and Silver and he tossed in a copper.

Regroup and get out of this room.

Thomas turned and saw his friends holding a stone over their heads in worship. He took out his crossbow and shot the stones, breaking the trance. Isabella and Gazlowe realized that the crystals had controlled them and knew that they had to leave this dangerous place. But first Gazlowe spotted the offering plate and quickly calculated that it held 50pp, 500gp and 1cp. He scooped up the treasure and then told the others that they all need to get out of this area.

Abrash tied up the Drow and the party tried to figure out how to get everyone out. Abrash threw a stone into the endless pit and, even though he couldn’t see a bottom, he heard the stone hit the muck after about 20 feet. Abrash jumped into the pit taking minimal damage and saw nothing in the pit but darkness. Abrash transformed into a Giant Wolf spider and ferried the four unconscious Drow to the entrance where the left the young female Drow Nimkos who had attacked them before.

Rest

Gazlowe and Isabella both hopped over the platforms to the other side. Thomas jumped with some help from Abrash, made it to the other side. They headed back to the room where Nimkos was, and they rested behind the illusionary stone. As they tried to take a quick nap, they were plagued by horrific visions, the short rest took two hours. Thomas was healed but his necklace of wound closure was consumed. After they woke up, Gazlowe said, “We got to get out of here guys.”

A Barricaded path

The party walked towards the Barricades. Isabella went to rip them down, but they heard someone talking in the distance. The echoes of the cave made it impossible to understand what they were saying. Thomas lit his whip and Abrash cast pass without a trace. The party moved at ¼ speed and were able to make their way quietly and safely around the barricades.

Light filled the area atop the last set of stairs. A rickety bridge spanned a deep pit, leading to a pair of tents across the way. The faint scent of blood rose from the bottom of the pit, a sure sign that many creatures have perished below. Two elven individuals stood as silhouettes in the light, quietly speaking to each other. Stealthily the party went across the bridge one at a time and hid behind the tents.

A Hidden Village

Abrash made out that one Drow was talking down to the other, explaining the proper ways of worship. Thomas snuck into one of the tents. This was clearly the quarters for a single individual. He spotted a statue of Eclivian, but it was scuffed up quite a bit, perhaps maliciously. Thomas shot the Drow that was being lectured to and badly wounded him. Gazlowe shot a fire bolt at the lecturer. The one that was hit walked forward and tried to attack Abrash but missed. The one who was lecturing shouted “Wait! Are you here to rescue us?” Abrash sensed that his sincerity was lacking. However, the Lecturing Drow then slit the throat of the other Drow, killing him. Turning to the party he said, “He was unsavable, please take me with you!”

Abrash told the others “There’s something wrong with this guy.” The Drow said, “It’s the crystals, please don’t kill me!” Isabella was unmoved and attacked him with her axe. Abrash hit him with a fire bolt. The Drow made a subtle hand motion and two Phase Spiders appeared. The first badly wounded Abrash. Thomas hit the Drow with his chain whip and killed him. Gazlowe hit the phase spider twice with his fists, bloodying it. Isabella killed the first Phase Spider, slicing her axe through its face. Thomas hurt the 2nd phase spider with his Chain whip. Gazlowe punched the spider badly bloodying it. The spider passed to the ethereal plane. Thomas had a momentary vision of the spider as it walked away in the Ethereal plane.

Searching the corpses Thomas found an Ioun Stone plus 40pp and 700gp. In the tents they found the two Eclivian Statutes that were damaged. The statues were once worth about 500gp each but now only about 250gp. They also found 10pp and 500gp hidden in the tent. Using his tools Gazlowe fixed up the statues a bit and could probably get about 375 for them.

Garbage pile

The party left the area, walking again over the bridge one at a time. They headed south and saw a large area of garbage. The garbage filled the room that was about 35 feet long and 25 feet wide. At at quick glance, it all looked to be putrescible garbage, but curiosity drove them to look for clues. Gazlowe suggested that he set it on fire. Isabella backed up and ran and jumped as far as she could over the pile. She landed on top, and the pile shifted. As it shifted, Abrash recalled the last pile of trash they searched, and then he saw an Otyugh’s arm reach out and smack Isabella. She became grappled and restrained as she struck the creature with her axe.

Thomas climbed the pile and hit it once with his chain whip. The creature bit into Isabella and poisoned her with its diseased teeth. It then used Isabella as a club to bludgeon Thomas, stunning him. Gazlowe, very low on resources shot a fire bolt at the Otyugh. Abrash summoned his beast of the air that attacked the creature bloodying it. Isabella struck it with her axe twice, the 2nd time hitting it critically. The 2nd strike hit it in the face, spreading blood and guts all over Thomas.

Thomas was able to shake off the stun. He and Gazlowe began searching the pile but found nothing of any interest. Abrash pulled out his jar of Keoghtom's Ointment and healed Isabella of her disease. He looked at his jar and saw there was only 1 dose left. Gazlowe told Isabella how bad she smelled and gave her a new invention he made. He called it De-odorant. Thomas told the party, “We still have Drow to find.”

A Dark creepy passage

The party looked at the map that Abrash had been making and saw that only one passageway remained. They headed in that direction. As they delved into that area, the mucous that coats the cavern became stickier, as though it has begun to take hold of its surroundings. Peering into the darkness, it became clear: heavy webbing covered the walls of this tunnel. The webs sagged under the weight of the mucous but did not break. The party’s movement became harder. Every step was like lifting a mountain, held back by the web and held down by the mucous. Shadowy figures moved in the dark, seemingly unimpeded by the webs.

Thomas tried different forms of damage to break the webbings but inexplicably, they were not easily broken as normal webbing. Radiant damage didn’t easily break them nor did flame. The mucous that covered this place somehow made the webbing non-flammable. Gazlowe took a minute to extract some muck and put it into a vial. Their pace was slowed immensely; they were moving about ¼ speed. Abrash turned into a giant Wolf spider to move a bit quicker and to scout ahead.

More Drow

Abrash saw that there were 5 Drow muttering incoherently to each other within a cave. The cave sloped upwards and there was a hole in the floor that sloped down. The Drow were on the platform just above the hole in the floor. The party came around the bend and saw that the Drow were able to walk through the mucky webs unimpeded. Thomas looked at their feet but saw nothing unusual. Through the incoherent babble every once in a while, they were able to discern the word “Acheros.” As a spider Abrash stood on the webs to sense any other creatures but he sensed nothing other than the Drow he saw.

One of the Drow turned to the party and apologized for his brethren. He told them that they do not yet understand the new consciousness that has been given to them. He asked the party if their mind has been opened to Acheros. Thomas had enough and pulled out his crossbow. Abrash sensed something else on the web now, deep within the sloping pit and warned Gazlowe of it. Abrash’s beast flew by one of the Drow and badly wounded it. Gazlowe poured Grease down the sloping pit.

The Drow moved to attack so Isabella knocked out one of the Drow a shot from her bow. A Drider, within the pit partially emerged and told  the Drow, “Take them alive as a tribute to our Master.” One of the Drow hit Abrash the spider with his crossbow and another hit Isabella. Thomas applied poison to 3 of his crossbow bolts. Gazlowe cast Thunderwave, killing the leader of the Drow, hurting a second and knocking him down the sloping pit where the Drider was coming from. Isabella killed one of the Drow. Another Drow slipped on Gazlowe’s grease and slid down the pit.

The Drider took 3 shots at the party hitting Isabella and Thomas, and then made a critical hit against Abrash. Abrash reverted back to a Druid (with only 2 hitpoints remaining), fell 15 feet to the ground and was knocked unconscious by the fall. Thomas critically hit the Drider with his poisoned bolt bloodying him. Gazlowe struck another Drow and knocked this Drow unconscious. The Drider, badly wounded scurried back into his pit.

The party decided what to do next….

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

12 Mar 2023