Session 40: Ghosts in the basement Report

General Summary

Session 40 – Wednesday June 7, 2023 – Ghosts and demons

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

The Stone Bearers. Party of 6

It is the 1st day of the month of Nightal (The Drawing Down) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Early December.)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L7 Druid – Jacob Munson
• Ajani– High Elf, L7 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L6 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Thomas – Human, L7 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L7 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L7 Paladin – Will Johnson

Ghosts

Another ghost came through the wall, pointed its finger at the group and let out a blood curdling scream. Thomas recognized the ghost as an Allip and its howling babble Stunned him, Isabella and Juan. Ajani was sitting back in the ethereal plane reading his books and watching this with some interest when Thomas sneezed, and Ajani was suddenly pulled into the battle. Shocked, he dropped his books and tried to create a chromatic orb but failed miserably.

The party quickly learned that the Allip is resistant to fire but Isabella’s Elven axe badly hurt it. Four more ghosts appeared over the next two rounds and they party learned that cold and thunder were not very effective, but Thomas helped to remove those resistances. Thomas killed the Allip with his glowing Whips. The ghosts tried to reach into the characters hearts but continually failed. Ajani was having a tough time landing a spell. One of the ghosts pulled its skin back revealing a horrifying visage and Thomas and Gazlowe became frightened. Gazlowe with his gauntlets and furry of the small killed one of the ghosts.

Juan smited one of the ghosts wounding it massively. None of the ghosts could land a blow on the party. Thomas finished off the ghost with his whips. Gazlowe and Thomas continued to be terrified of one of the ghosts, so the others focused their fire on it. Ajani finally hit the ghost with his chromatic orb and destroyed it. Thomas finished off the last ghost with his whips.

Looking around

Thomas scoured the area for more ghosts and found none. They found Mad Myrtle’s lab and Gazlowe saw several severed hands in jars. He grabbed one. Ajani grabbed enough parchment and ink to copy 10 spell levels into his spell book. They found 2 vials holy water and enough incense for 2 castings of hypnotic pattern. They also found the collapsed tunnel to the dwarven mine.

Juan found a room with several different alters in it. He then looked for a live mouse to sacrifice. Abrash perceived a mousehole in a door in the SE corner. Juan opened the door, and it was a large wine closet with about 100 bottles of wines from all over the sword coast. He saw a mouse in a nest hiding just below one of the shelves and with his lance he swung at the mouse. The lance didn’t kill the mouse directly, but the collapsing shelves and crashing of about 25 bottles of fine aged wine did. The mouse floated out of the room. Gazlowe screamed in horror as about ¼ of the wine was destroyed. First Gazlowe grabbed 3 vials and filled them with the mixed wine on the floor. He and abrash took another 25 bottles and put them in the bag of holding and then smashed a 2nd shelf, hoping to blame the ghosts. Ajani and Gazlowe split one of the bottles of fine wine.

A Short rest

Thomas was in very bad shape and Ajani was still suffering from Lycanthropy. They left the stronghold and returned to the encampment outside. They found Darnath Stoneheart, the dwarven cleric who, for 90gp, removed the curse from Ajani and for 40gp she healed Thomas. Thomas gave her the necklace of wound closure. She told him that she could recharge it in a week for 250gp or for 500gp she could rush it and be done in a day. Isabella, Abrash and Juan took a shot rest.

Gazlowe found Myrtle and asked her about the hands. She explained that she’s creating a gift for Ogian. She showed him a book of dark necromantic magic (written by Niptu) bound by dried human flesh and written on parchment made of woven tendons and sinew. The book explained much about aberrations including the creation of Beholders and how the Kuo-toa once controlled by Mindflayers can create gods to protect them. There was a chapter on the Gibbering Mouther and how exposure to it can convert humanoids into a gibbering mouther. She finally got to the page about creating a handimation. A ritual created by Niptu that magically uses the blood of a gibbering mouther and 50 hands to create a very “handy” creature.

Gazlowe asked if she could just animate one hand for him. She told him she could use necrotic magic similar to raise dead to create an undead hand that would obey him if he would provide the hand. He agreed and she reset her hand chopper and had him pull the string. Then after a quick spell and sealed with Gazlowe kissing the hand, she gave Gazlowe a crawling claw. She also gave him a potion to regrow his hand. Gazlowe returned the hand in the jar that he stole from her lab in the basement.

Into the Ancient Dwarven Halls.

After about an hour, the dwarves found the Stone bearers and told them the path was clear. The dwarves provided them with a ritual book and told them they need to use the holy water to purify the graves, or they could otherwise find what caused the disturbance of the dead and correct it. The dwarves gave them the password to open the main door into the mines and told them how to open the secret door in the throne room that leads to the tombs.

Nobody knew Dwarven. Juan however, knowing Minotaur, was able to recite the password perfectly. The massive 20’ wide stone door opened to a massive chamber carved out of stone. The dwarven stonework was amazing but the air was stale, and the place was covered in dust. Juan yelled out “Hello” and it echoed throughout the cavernous hall. Abrash heard the skittering of creatures in the shadows. Juan ran forward into the chamber and saw the creatures hiding.

Demon minions

Thomas sensed the demonic presence. There were 8 Demon Spitlings hiding behind pillars. Thomas saw the demons and warned the party, that if someone goes down, these creatures could consume your soul. Juan and Gazlowe didn’t believe that would be an issue and Thomas was stunned by their response.


Isabella ran forward and killed two of the little demon creatures. From the darkness another demon, a Babau, walked up to Isabella and gazed at her, sapping her strength and then he slashed her with his claw. Abrash cast spike growth on 4 of the creatures. All the demons flew out of the spike growth and 2 attacked Isabella but missed. Another Babau appeared from the shadows behind the spiked growth and dispelled it. It went up to Abrash and struck him with his claws. Ajani still struggled with hitting the creatures with his spells but pushed the one Babau 5’ away from Isabella.

Gazlowe looked at the spear in the Babau’s hand and considered casting heat metal, but the spear was made of a carbon fiber so it wouldn’t work. Instead, Gazlowe killed 3 of the minions with a magic missile. Juan struck the demon Babau hard with his whip and told it, “Kneel before your master.” The demon glanced behind him and looked around and said, “He’s not here yet.”

Isabella killed two minions and then sliced into the Babau and was able to shake off her weakened condition. The Babau (upset at the wizard for pushing him back telekinetically) weakened Ajaini and then slashed Isabella. The other Babau slashed into Abrash. Ajani finally landed a chromatic orb on the creature, but it absorbed ½ of the cold damage. They all continued to exchange blows. Abrash realized his spells did little damage, so he summoned a fey spirit. The fey’s sword did no slashing damage but it did do some force damage. But after one attack the Babau simply dispelled the spirit.

Finally, Juan critically hit one of the Babaus and simultaneously smited it and decimated the creature. Everyone was able to lay into the other one and Thomas finished it off. Just before it dissolved into ichor, Gazlowe grabbed the carbon fiber spear. They then played kick the minion until it died.

The Throne room

The party lit up the sconces around the place. It was massive. There were several doors to the east, a massive door to the south and the throne room to the west. Gazlowe assumed there would be a treasure room somewhere that could be looted. He asked the group to help him figure it out and they all worked together investigating, analyzing, recalling history, examining the feng shui, licking the floor etc. They concluded that this level is the living quarters, meeting rooms etc. and the best chance for treasure would probably be in the tombs below the throne room.

They then went to the throne room and Gazlowe tried to open the throne but because of his missing hand he couldn’t do half of the requirement. He asked for someone to move his hand, but the others simply told him to move so they could do it. After much arguing, Juan simply sat on Gazlowe’s lap and followed the proper process and the throne moved revealing a passage.

Exploring the tombs

Thomas tried to keep everyone quiet, but the others were very loud. They came to a 4-way intersection and went left. They found a hall of 5 coffins. They discovered that 2 of the tombs were open. The first one was clearly disturbed as if some clothing was removed from the body. Ajani cast comprehend languages and read the epitaph and discovered that this was a dwarven prince.

Curious, Gazlowe opened an adjacent tomb carefully. They saw that the body wore a magical studded leather armor. For now, they agreed to leave it although they have enough holy water to steal and then put the body at peace. They walked through the halls and found other members of the line of the Dwarven royal family. They found 2 more sarcophagi that were disturbed, and items stolen. They found the queen’s tomb interestingly undisturbed. Opening it Gazlowe saw an elaborate Neck Collar probably worth 1,500 gp. Again, they agreed not to disturb it yet.

They went back to the main hall and continued south. They came to a pair of massive statues of dwarves holding goblets up in the air. Gazlowe examined the base and found a clockwork mechanism switch. He flicked the switch and the massive statues moved in a smooth but incredibly loud mechanical manner. They herd the rumbling as if the tunnels were collapsing but it was just the two statues swinging their goblets to each other and saying in a thunderous voice the dwarven equivalent of “Victory!”

Going deeper they realized that the first tombs were consider “lesser” rulers. They found a room that was much more elaborate with a single more elaborate sarcophagus in the middle. It too had been smashed open and the body raided.

A mysterious mist

Thomas led the party further south and found an arcane mist floating in the air. He recalled his Arcane Lore and realized that a very powerful magic spell was cast that tore open the boundary between this plane and the Abyss. The tear seemed closed at the moment, but the lingering effects were present. Something had come through. The other demons for sure came through here but they knew there was something else, much more powerful. Gazlowe mentioned that Myrtle had some weird abyssal books and other fiendish things. He said it might be related or not. Juan commented, “Can’t some people just have their hobbies?”

They followed the trail of mist to the east and back to the north again. They heard the sounds of battle in the north and tried to be quite as they walked in that direction. After walking about 60 feet, they saw a huge demon sucking the soul out of a Goblin. The towering demon had a stack of crowns upon his hideous head. His Gaudy robe of platinum thread and jewels hung open and a constant stream of drool trickled down his bare chest. His eyes grew brighter as he consumed the soul of the goblin and he appeared to gain strength from it as his muscles visibly grew. He had demon minions at his feet dancing around.

Thomas had heard of the category 6 demon general named “Aurumvas.” Covetous is too soft a word to describe Aurumvas’s avarice. The demon sniffed the air and turned to the Stone bearers. He looked at them with a gleam in his brilliant green eyes. He said, “I smell magic items” as he looked at the party with greed that was far beyond that of even Gazlowe.

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

14 Jun 2023