Session 52: The Green Orb Report

General Summary

Session 52 – Wednesday September 13, 2023 – The Green Orb

4.5 Battle session 5:30 PM to 10:00 PM

The Stone Bearers. Party of 6

It is the 11th day of the month of Nightal (The Drawing Down) in the 50th year of the Age of Enialis (Early December.)

• Abrash – Wood (Desert) Elf, L9 Druid – Jacob Munson
• Ajani– High Elf, L9 Wizard – Nathan Gioconda
• Gazlowe – Goblin, L9 Artificer – Josh Pozsonyi
• Cassidy – Human, L9 Blood hunter – Ryan Armstrong (Remote)
• Isabella – Forest Gnome, L9 Barbarian – Jackie Armstrong
• Juan Peyote – Gnome L9 Paladin – Will Johnson

Created Undead

Cassidy sneezed and Gazlowe disappeared. The 2 bone golems approached from the north and 5 husks (creatures of flesh with no bones) approached from the east. Cassidy killed 3 of the husk creatures with one strike of her chain whip. She then killed the last 2 with a 2nd strike. One of the Bone golems slashed into Cassidy. Juan struck the bone golem and smited it badly hurting the thing. The 2nd golem walked up to Cassidy and badly hurt her with its boney claws. Abrash and Ajani shot spells at the creature but couldn’t hit. Isabella swung hard at the creature landing a critical blow and shattered the bones, destroying it. She then hit the 2nd Golem hard.

Cassidy heard more husks approaching from the East. She struck 2nd golem, critically wounding it. Five more husks squeezed between the bone golem and the wall and all engulfed Cassidy, smothering her. Abrash shot a guiding bolt at the golem but missed again. Juan struck the golem with his hammer and yelling, “By the power of Grey Skull” smited it and it fell into a pile of bones. Ajani shot a fire bolt at the husk minions engulfing Cassidy. It killed one of them, but it also hurt Cassidy. Ajani then telekinetically pushed one of the minions off Cassidy.

Isabella came in with her axe and slashed into one of the minions and Cassidy. One of the minions were killed but Cassidy screamed in pain. Isabella then killed the minion that had been pushed away. Cassidy used her ghost walk ability and walked out of the grappled creatures. Isabella said, “OoH, I forgot you could do that.” Cassidy killed one with her whip and then with a crossbow bolt she killed and pinned the last one to the wall.

There are more down the hall.

Ajani told the others, “I hear voices coming from the east.” Cassidy was badly hurt. Abrash cast a healing spirit and Cassidy was healed a bit. They walked down the hall and came a set of stairs that descended into a large room. In the center of the room was a large green orb, 10’ in diameter that was glowing brightly, illuminating half of the room. Before it stood a semi-translucent figure of a very disheveled looking female elf. The room had a few tables setup and there were backpacks along the wall that hadn’t been used in a very long time. There was also a giant zombie, 2 wraiths, a wight, and 5 shadow minions. The female was the archeologist Kiona, but she was clearly mad and looked semi-ethereal and very creepy. She looked at the party and said, “It’s mine! Get him boys!” Cassidy sneezed again and Gazlowe appeared.

Cassidy shot a bolt at Kiona striking her. Isabella raged and fired her longbow at Kiona and hit her twice, but the arrows didn’t do a lot of damage. Kiona shot a green necrotic ray at Isabella and transferred a bit of Isabella’s life to herself. The wight hit Isabella with a crossbow but her rage helped protect her. The minions surrounded Isabella and drained a bit of her life.

Abrash cast a wall of fire hitting the giant, four minions and one of the wraiths, a wight, and Isabella. The four minions were eliminated and most of the other creatures were resistant to fire. Juan blessed everyone except Isabella. Ajani lit up a cigar and using the smoke he banished the giant. One of the wraiths flew through the fire wall and went up to the party. Gazlowe punched one of the wraiths, bloodying it. Cassidy smacked the wraith hard with her whips and disintegrated it.

Isabella killed the last minion and stepped out of the wall of fire. She then turned to the wight and hit him with her axe bloodying it badly. The wight struck Isabella with his longsword. Abrash dropped the wall of fire so everyone could see what’s going on. He then destroyed the wraith with a guiding bolt. Juan and his Bird focused on the wraith. They both hit and Juan smited the creature leaving it barely conscious. Ajani hit the wraith with a firebolt, and Cassidy helped by eliminating its resistance. Gazlowe finished off the creature with a punch.

Cassidy shot at Kiona but missed. Kiona used her legendary action and a sphere of ethereal arms to restrain Juan and Isabella. Isabella tried to shoot at Kiona but missed. Kiona then floated to Isabella and hit her hard with necrotic damage, transferring the life force back to herself. Abrash hit Kiona with a guiding bolt. Kiona floated all the way to the main group. The Bird scratched Kiona and Juan stabbed her with his lance and then he smited her. Ajani hit Kiona with a psychic lance, but Kiona avoided part of it. Gazlowe hit her twice with his gauntlets. Cassidy landed one hit with her whips on Kiona, leaving her bloodied.

The orb is beautiful.

Isabella walked up to the orb and examined it. The orb entranced her and started to drain her life. She only took 1 point of necrotic damage, but it was permanent, and she continued to stare at the orb. Kiona flew through Cassidy, Ajani and Abrash hurting each of them. As she left Cassidy’s space, Cassidy hit her with her whip. Kiona reached out to Abrash to extract his life from him, and Gazlowe tried to distract her by yelling out, “Hey lady, we’re touching your orb over here!” She was able to hurt Abrash and then she shot a necrotic bolt at Gazlowe.

Juan badly hurt Kiona with his lance and another smite. Ajani yells out “fore” as he shot a chromatic orb at Kiona, with the blessing of Juan and a cosmic weal from Abrash, his orb hit, obliterating the spiritual form of Kiona. Her face melted as she screamed “What a world! What a world!” Abrash said, “Good job!”

Gazlowe walked up to Isabella to shake her out of her trance, but he too fell under its spell, taking 1 hp of permanent damage. Juan hit them both with the blunt end of his lance, shaking them out of the trance. Juan didn’t seem to be affected by the orb, so he walked up to it and licked it. He lost 4 HP permanently as his skin started to dry. Gazlowe, Isabella and Juan reflected briefly upon what they heard while connected with the orb. They had all learned how to cast “Chill Touch.”

He's baaaaack.

The party was all focused on the orb and had forgotten about the giant zombie. Suddenly, the creature reentered, surprising the party. It charged. The giant breathed a poison breath upon Cassidy, Ajani, Abrash and Gazlowe. Cassidy hit it hard with her whips. The radiant damage from her whips bloodied the creature badly. Isabella hit him twice with her great axe and brought him down. Finally, they could look at the loot!

Items found.

The party walked around the room and found backpacks and other items (listed in Treasure found below.) These were all the things her expedition had found or carried with them. There wasn’t a lot of gold (only 66gp) and most of the items were standard dungeon exploring items, but they did get a few healing potions. They also found a 150gp Onyx stone and a dwarf skull gilded with 300gp worth of gold and 2 scrolls of Create Undead. The most interesting thing of course was the Journal of Kiona. (Kiona's Journal )

They learned that Abby was actually Niptu’s fiancé, and the green orb hit her with a powerful necrotic spell right when the spell plague hit. Niptu was unable to save her, so he put her brain into a clockwork device that Abby had invented but Abby’s memory had been damaged. This event led to Niptu going mad and discovering how to use magic without the weave.

What to do with the Orb

Ajani place a blanket over the orb without looking directly at it and read the journal to the party. They noted that the handwriting got worse and worse toward the end of the journal and the very end seemed to be written in blood. Cassidy walked up to the orb and lifted the blanket and put her hand on it to try to understand the lore of this device. She too lost 2 HP permanently as necrotic energy sapped a little of her life away. Her vision was limited a bit be she quickly learned several things.

First, the allure of power was strong, and Cassidy was just barely able to avoid being sucked into it. She immediately understood how to cast Chill Touch and knew that if she continued contact, she would eventually learn all the secrets of necrotic magic, but it would cost her life and her soul. The device was a new way to create an incorporeal lich. Cassidy relayed that this thing teaches the secrets to undeath but it consumes souls in the process and therefore must be destroyed. She then hit it hard cracking the exterior shell.

The others yelled, “Wait!” Isabella wanted to join Cassidy in destroying the thing but was tripped up by Juan’s lance. Abrash tried to cast thorn whip, but his internal conflict caused him to fail. Ajani told the others that it should be destroyed. Gazlowe pleaded with Cassidy that perhaps this thing could save Abby. Abrash agreed that they should at least discuss this first. The party discussed this for a bit, but Cassidy didn’t want to move away from the orb. Gazlowe asked Abby if she had any recollection of this.

The breaking of the orb

Abby agreed that the device is clearly unnatural and suggested that it could be disabled but not destroyed so it could be examined. Cassidy insisted it be destroyed. The party agreed to gently try to break it a little at a time until is opened or perhaps stopped glowing. Cassidy tried punching but couldn’t land a solid blow. Isabella swung hard and immediately broke through the shell perhaps a bit harder than they wanted but it was effective. The orb split open, and the glowing stopped.

As soon as it split open the party heard screams emanate from the orb as if 100 souls were release from the orb. Looking into the orb they saw that the device was a very complicated amalgamation of clockwork mechanisms, arcane runes, and various vials of blood. Gazlowe, Cassidy, Abrash and Ajani all saw different aspects of their respective arcane arts represented inside the orb.

A partial restoration of Abby

Gazlowe asked Abby about it and Abby had a sudden recollection of memory, she also had a different feeling, as if her soul had been restored to her. She told them that she remembered a device like this, but this isn’t all her design. This is her design that had been modified to make it more powerful and more dangerous.

Gazlowe and Abby looked inside the thing for possible components that could be extracted. Ajani cast encode thoughts before they touched anything so he could have a detailed memory of exactly what this thing looked like before they took it apart. Thomas collected a couple of the blood vials and Gazlowe removed some components that looked interesting or useful.

A rest

Abrash recalled that the journal said that this area was safe from other undead entering and suggested they take a nap. Gazlowe pointed out that it’s too early in the day for a long rest but it is lunchtime and a short rest would be good. Some wanted to just spend the whole day here but Gazlowe remined them of their job to find Isabella’s shadow.

The party took a short rest. Abrash talked to Juan about Bird and asked if he wanted to make Bird more intelligent. Abrash offered to do it for free and told them that he just needs about 8 hours to cast it so if the party had some down time, he could take care if it for him. Abrash preferred if they did it during a long rest but gave him another 4 hours to regain his strength.

A Library

After the short rest, the party got up and encouraged each other to move on. They knew the Shadow Lurker who had stolen Isabella’s shadow was within the dwarven part of the caverns, but they’d pretty much have to go room by room looking for it and as such they may face many undead. They knew from Kiona’s Journal that all would not attack them, so they pressed on till they came to a closed door.

They looked for runes and traps but found none. The door opened out into the hall, and the walls plus additional shelves traversing east to west. Ajani glanced at the shelves expecting to see decay and dust but noticed that some of the books were certainly very old, they were well kept, and some were even relatively newer.

At the far western end they saw another room with dwarves dressed in robes sitting at tables writing diligently. The dwarves didn’t appear to be undead. Juan used his ability to detect undead, but these dwarves didn’t register. Isabella suggested they ask for directions, Ajani said, “Are you sure you want to talk to them? Juan said, “Hello, have you seen any shadows about?” One of the dwarves wearing a very nice robe came toward the saying “Shhhhh!”

The dwarf approached and quietly introduced himself as Brother Doldruil Stoneborn and asked, “How can I be of assistance?” Ajani asked, “What is going on here?” The dwarf responded, “We are journalists of Dwarven history.” Juan started to interrupt but Ajani continued, “Why are you doing this? Who is forcing you?” The Dwarf seemed to be taken back and simply said that this was their job.

Ajani asked, “Aren’t you concerned with all the scary things around?” The Dwarf replied, “Passages to the Underdark? Yes, they can be quite disconcerting but excuse me I need to get back to work.”

Pushing them too self-realization

Gazlowe said, “You realize all your dwarf brethren have been turned undead.” The dwarf stopped, his complexion a little paler. Gazlowe went on, “Have you stepped outside of the library recently, like in the past thousand years?” The dwarf started chanting, “No! No!” All the other dwarves behind them started chanting the same. The Dwarf before them started looking paler, the skin started to fade revealing rotten flesh. Juan’s undead sensor finally went off and he said, “I’m getting a ping.” The dwarven fane spirits (all 7 of them) moved forward to attack.

Cassidy was quick to respond and struck Doldruil with her whips, badly wounding the spirit. One of the spirits moved forward to hit Ajani but Ajani cast shield and prevented the hit. Another hit Cassidy with its fist. Gazlowe yelled, “Cover your ears” as he cast shatter on 4 of the creatures. The creatures seemed to be resistant to thunder but Cassidy removed the resistance of Dolduril and he was shattered out of existence. Abrash used his starry form and shot a mote at one of the spirits.

Isabella charged forth and struck one with her axe bloodying it. The other spirits charged forward. Ajani telekinetically pushed one the spirits out of his space and hit it with a firebolt, but the creature was resistant. Bird hit one of the creatures and Juan followed up with two hits from his lance…

Rewards Granted

Treasure found

From Kiona and her party

• A dungeoneer's pack (no rations)
• An explorer's pack (no rations)
• A Scholar's pack (no rations)
• A Burglar’s pack (no rations)
• A Priest's pack (no rations)
• 66 gp
• one clay pot filled with grave dirt
• one clay pot filled with brackish water
• one 150 gp black onyx stone
• Two Spell scrolls Create Undead (6th level)
• one dwarf skull gilded with 300 gp worth of gold
• 1 Greater healing potion
• 3 regular healing potions.
• A Journal -> Kiona's Journal 
• A Glowing green sphere, 10' in diameter that has a necrotic aura. Broken and some parts extracted.

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

17 Sep 2023