Session 10MAR23

General Summary

We follow Babyaga's trail and loose her in about an hour.
We come upon two individuals both wounded; one has a dagger and stick, the other armored, axe and sword which is squared off at the tip. The Bard speaks to them; the Cleric heals the Armored one; he was possibly a paladin. The other may be a monk or magic type.
One is speaking Elvin, in a sylvan that is not frequently spoken. Person in armor states name is, Sir Warren; Garrert former Druid impacted with some type of enfeeblement. Cleric cast spell and the injured druid 1 speaking sylvan is now able to speak Common; in the remains of the there were 7 of them and now only the two of them. In the town, a spire with an entrance that went into the hillside. There they saw, a mimic and creatures able to move around in the dark, 15' tall, bipedal. Druid asking if they want to go back; town is about 3 miles away. They want to get as far away from the town as possible; they believe Landrew the alchemist disappeared in the caverns, he has a portable lab. Cleric Linc (lost/killed), they found many magic items and have enough provisions to get back to the coast. They saw many human bones; evidence that the humans were eaten by something/ones. They stated the rest of the town was empty. They suggest to attack in the morning, ambush the monsters as come out; there are larger buildings on the edge of town that could be made defenseable. Name: Paris who was a thief, bag of holding Wizard with a spell book. Bowmen was lost as they were.
The town is close to a river; the river is dead; the chicken house arced away from the town; the town may have had docks. An out building with nets and possible place to repair boats and nets; no nets here now. Cleric takes a bear trap that was planted in front of door of a building. We're able to find five of these bear traps; the traps are poisoned. The witch does a sweep of the town and feels like something is watching her. There is only one entrance to/from the spire. We find a building that is defensible and configure for the night.
The path created by babayaga is creating "old growth" forest; a variety of plant life; could use to make spikes.
We checking the trapped houses for any items we could use to build traps. We find wood pieces and wheel chandelier that is 9' across; heavy rope holding it up. We manage to set up a few traps around the building.
Cleric has book that will increase ability to cast spells; read in Elvin will allow; wizard stating that he could make a cipher that can translate for the cleric. Staff of Five Nature Magics (Cleric has this; attuned) it's a regenerating staff; the longer it is used the more magic you can cast; after using the first level spells you gain higher level spells; Spells are from: Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Spirit.
At night, it is very dark and gets colder into the night. Two hours before sunrise, it get noticeably colder; skeletal creature looking back at the witch; she wakes everyone by screaming "Run!", she may know what the thing is that was staring back at her. Witch eldrich blasts the door and runs outside. A skeleton phases through the back wall; we all try to get out; I was able to grab a weapon, nothing else, then I fail my second roll and run into someone; Granger we both fall to the ground. Cleric cast radiate on skeleton. Druid uses staff Kat casts Flaming Sphere, then uses Misty Step to get out. Wizard runs out and calls to the Lizard and it runs after the Wizard. I was able to cast Expeditious Retreat and leave the building. The cleric tries to call his pony; there is screech and the red glow increases, then the skeleton emerges from the building. Cleric tries to channel and draws the attention of the skeleton. He uses the talking sword and the sword makes the cleric run away. The cleric crosses paths with the lizard who is carrying Granger; the skeleton starts to follow the lizard and Granger, more life energy.
Druid is looking for the wizard and almost steps on him in the woods. The wizard is shaking and states the skeleton is demi-liche and no one in the party can kill it. Cleric is casting another spell; the talking sword keeps telling him to run away. The Bard run back towards Skeleton and plays/cast Vicious Mockery; skeleton is stopped, but then moved toward the Bard; the cleric cast spell and challenges the skeleton. Kat runs into a 15' tall creature with goat legs and claws. She casts Fairy Fire and it's not happy. The creature is a dark fey; Kat casts scorching ray, may have hit it; can see the shadows are moving around, leaves the area and comes back to the building.
The Cleric halfing attacks the skeleton and makes a slice and the sword. I'm able to push the skeleton back using Shield Spell +5; Cleric Halfling attacks the skeleton from behind with the +5 Tryant Killer and dissipates the skeleton. Granger looks like he is still frightened state and confused. I give back everyone's stuff back of the items I managed to pull from the building. Wizard explained the skeleton creature was corrupted by a evil high level entity.
We sleep, then explore the town. Cleric tries to consecrate the spire area and it feels like someone is following us around; Cleric Halfling says show yourself, a 6' tall tiger, looks like Shera Khan, but it's hands are backward; it's smoking a long pipe and blows a perfect smoke ring at the Cleric Halfling. Cleric Halfling the tiger offers food, but the creature wants something else, more meaty. Cleric Halflingis having a conversation with the tiger creature. The Bard shows up and starts talking with tiger-thing; "Singe" is his name. The Bard and  explain a little about what we're doing here. There's a debate about who asked for whom and the Singe makes an offer; we find an item and he'll let us go. Singe points to the entrance to the cavern; Bard ask what the item is: platinum, 30lb statue and warns there's a lot of dead people and an ogre or two. Bard and Cleric Halfling state we'll need a little more fire power. An hour-glass appears, Singe hands it to the Cleric Halfling, and states you have 24 hours of being stronger, when this empties and to bring back what he wants. We ask if there is another way to get into the caverns. Singe pulls out a brass key with an emerald that opens a door servants' door. Singe boosts the Cleric Halfing level to something higher. We take more rest to regain spells back; takes us to mid-morning.
We go through the spire building and see evidence of a fight in the courtyard. Looking through the emerald on the key see a staircase that goes up; we can see the steps, go up to a plain door and step through. We are able to see without the emeralds. The corridor is well used; various types of meats which poorly salted, powders, ropes, tools, parts for making barrels; there are smaller barrels ~3 gallon size.
We smell cooking smoke and see an used area where people are eating and gather.
A woman with tusks and scaly skin comes the heavy curtain and is surprised to see us; Cleric Halfling casts Command and states 'quiet'. I closed the curtains behind her. The wizard commands the lizard to kill the woman and hide her in a room; she has two keys; one iron and the other is brass; metal band around her neck; possible slave; hide her body. Granger motions there are two more people coming. The second person; buggy eyes; nostril cavity, tusks, predatory; black nails; leathery skin darker, hands rotate more than normal, ~360 degrees; spartan warrior without the metal; three primary toes; dew claw; 300lbs, very muscular; sounds like their are speaking orge; the first guy is looks human and is giving orders to the taller one.
Inspecting the box the was left; wicker woven box, size of a cigar box; it is damp; treated plant that Elves grow on the side; narcotic grown on the sly; orally taken; take two of the boxes. There is a working sextant; well made. Paper and inks; rough paper Many bobbles made of brass wrap with platinum; I take a good handful of them. Astrolab about 5" across; there are 8, take all of them; Cartography papers and pens; Druid taking Granger stating someone coming; Two arms each; insect eyes; picks up large crate with ore easily; it's antennae go straight up as it stops in front of the room we left the body, but it's called away and comes back stops at the door, but then is called back beyond the curtain. There is oil soaked coal; Advi takes a 20lb bag worth of the oil-soaked coal. Druid seeing a large number of the noseless creatures who appear to be mining in the area, dumping dirt down a large hole in the middle of the floor.
Druid suggestion to look through different gem for secret passageways; no passageways are seen.
A gong goes off; and most of creatures set down tools and they all appear to be leaving. There are various passages; Bard rolls ball bearing down a few to find which passages goes down. The hole goes down 80' and has scaffolding and wheel barrels and dim lighting. We go down one of the passages; which goes down fairly steep. We get to an area where the area is being excavated with statues being uncovered; one looks like a camel, another looks like a cat; the statue are about 20 tons each; in groups of 2 and there are 8 groups of two; the pairs are different animals; a religion that lost against Anubis; goat/cat, jackal/horse, scorpion/snake, raptor(falcon)/eight eyes like the creature earlier, lab dog/tiger, alligator/hog-boar, bear/mule, male/female(human stone they are made of is not natural to this area.
In the middle, much more detailed items; papers depicting crystals and diagrams of the positioning; 3' square with ~20lb crystals on the chessboard; obviously religious in nature; quarts-like crystal; placing crystal in one of the patterns on the paper. Druid checks for energy; red ones have energy, the other none.
Some creatures sneak up on us, and the fight begins; I cast shield; cleric cast radiant; Bard casts Shatter in the middle of the group; the scaffolding collapses; one saves; the rest fall and bellow from below which echoes throughout the cavern; Druid cast Fire from the staff, three circular fire rings erupt around and starts the creature and everything around us on fire; Ranger fires two arrow one misses the other hits; Kat casts Ice Knife; There is droning bellowing coming from down below; Advi goes down the scaffolding to get away from the fire and down to the sound; Cleric casts Spiritual Weapon (two handed maul) and casts Sacred Flame; bug creature was killed by the Kat's Ice Knife blast; The Witch goes into a hallway about 20' up; we can climb up to the hallway; the lizard throws the wizard into the hallway and throws Granger into the hallway; Bard Misty Steps to hallway; Wizard cast chained lightning, but no one is killed, they swarm the lizard and kill him; Wizard cast Poisonous Cloud; we get into a room and spike the door...

Rewards Granted

Exp:

- 1500 exp for everyone
- 250 exp Lenise and Kip from the week we missed

Report Date

10 Mar 2023