Friday, March 20, 2015

Session 10

So, the party, now with their flumph friend, venture forth into the alter room.  There they talk to the drow sorceress that they originally met in the manor so long ago, and is told that she was their last hope out of the ethernal plane.

The party this week had a human druid-ranger, a half-elf wizard, a high-elf wizard, a wood-elf ranger, a half-orc barbarian, a dwarf cleric, and a lightfoot-halfing rogue.  The party was accompanied by a flumph, who went into the alter room and was able to bind with the drow sorceress again.  There, the drow tells them that there was a mind flayer conspiracy, that they might be listened in on, and to follow her voice out of the temple through a hole made in the wall from a previous assault a long time ago.  The druid pressed her for more information, but the drow points out that she is really their only chance out of the ethernal plane.

So, the group moves out, and in the cave they find themselves in a cave chamber with four darkmantles, two gibbering mouths, and a roper all waiting to feed on passing creatures.  Throughout the fight, the darkmaltles were killed as they come, while the party focused on the gibbering mouthers.  The mouthers try to use their stench to blind various party members, only to blind themselves, and one of them was later poisoned by the flumph, who was riding on the druid in spider form for most of the fight.  The roper, deciding it was hungry for chainmail, roped in the cleric with its tendrils and spent most of the fight trying to eat it.

The session went into overtime, so the aftermath of this session was to be determined next week.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Session 9

So, the group, now having found themselves in the ethereal plane, are on their journey to get back to the material plane so that they can be paid.

The party this week was a half-elf sorcerer-fighter, a human druid-ranger, a high-elf wizard, a wood-elf ranger, and a half-orc barbarian.  The group found themselves in a strange keep and are trying to get themselves out of the keep.  So, they start to walk, following the strange voice from the previous session.

As the group walks through the darkening hallways they can hear chatter in undercommon.  No one in the group can speak undercommon and does not understand it.  The group is able to avoid detection as they formulate a plan.  The Sorcerer peeks through to see that the inhabitants inside of the castle were Nothics, normally found in the underdark that like to raid wizard schools.



There was another creature there, but the Sorcerer didn't know what it was.

It was this thing.


The Sorcerer decides to use his forgery kit to write a note to the monsters, reading 'We don't want to hurt anyone, but if you let us pass we will not fight you' repeated in every single language that he knew and everyone in the party knew.  The Druid wild shapes into a spider to spy on the nothics, whom take the notes that is sent to them via spectral hand.  One of them takes the note, shows his friends, than eats it.

Initiative is rolled, with the Druid dropping on a nothic as a surprise round.  With the nothic blocking the hallway, and the druid on the other end, there was much fire and lightening, with burning hands and a flaming sphere taking out the nothics.

Meanwhile the cute tentacle monster (which the group OOC didn't think was so cute) tried to help the druid that was being swarmed by the nothic, having had trasformed from being a spider to human to bear.  The monster, which was a Flumph, but the party doesn't know what it is, was attacking the nothics, and later stabilizes the Druid when he went down.

At the end, the flumph explains (telepathically) that a drow summoned it to lead an adventuring party out of the eathernal plane.  The creature made a request to be near an alter that would help it establish 'communication'.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

Session 8

The group was now ready to learn the true identity of Nerull, the so-called god that the cult worshipped.

Venturing forth this week was a half-elf sorcerer fighter, a human druid-ranger, a high-elf wizard, a wood-elf ranger, a half-orc barbarian, and an elf rogue.  The party made its way into the inner sanctum, following the smell sense of the druid while he was in tiger form from the last session.

In the hallway leading in, they find a cultist that was having second thoughts about the cult.  Course, the group, using the sorcerer and his predictably high charisma score, scared the cultist into dropping his weapons, whom then tells them about the hooded figure that calls himself Nerull, whom speaks like his voice comes from everywhere, and devours his sacrifices.

The party didn't completely trust the cultist and as a result the druid tied him up and gagged him, while sorcerer threaten to kill his friends and families if he tried to help or alert the cult.  With that the druid wild-shapes into a bear, and away they go into the inner sanctum.

The room looked like an arboretum.  There was a raised path along the edges that had a few cultists standing along it.  In the centre was a hooded figure, with a cultist kneeling before him, whom said 'I give myself to you Nerull'.  Nerull then chumped on his head and ate his brains.  The druid and the wizard both figured that they saw tentacle coming from the hood, and it was confirmed to the group they were fighting a Mind Flayer.

Offended at the abjuration the ranger shoots at it, and the battle begins, which the group stumbling across a few darkmantles that were hiding in the ceiling.  The Mind Flayer was poisoned and had taken several hits with arrows, before the duerger npc announced his intentions: to hunt Mind Flayers as vengeance for what the Mind Flayers did to their ancestors so many centuries ago.

The Mind Flayer almost ate the barbarian at the end, but it was taken out by the wizard.  As the Mind Flayer dies the temple around them changes, and the group finds themselves in a strange, stone and metal room, with this blue mist everywhere.  The cultists and their duerger friend was gone (along with the nets the druid used to restrain the cultist from the hallway).  The group then hear a voice.  It tells them "If you want to make it out of the material plane, follow my voice."

The group recognized it as the voice of the drow from session 3.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Session 7

Sorry for this being as late as it was.

So, the group, having fought their way through the odd looking constructs that inhabit the temple they were in, the party continues onwards, resting up in the room.  They find themselves inside of a barracks where some of the culties were sound asleep.

The party this week consisted of a human druid-ranger, a half-elf sorcerer-fighter, a high-elf wizard, and a high-elf ranger.  The sorcerer decided to steal their weapons so that they can't really fight when they woke up to find the group in their room.  The group quickly take out two of the three sleeping cultists before the third, on his turn, begged for mercy.  It was the ranger's turn, and he decided to kill him anyways.

The group then moved into the next room.  There, they find this thing:


It was in a laboratory, surrounded by quadrones flying around acting as sentry, while the pentadrone was cutting up an unconscious cultist.  The group then went for the pentadrone, taking it out right away before it could attack, while the group made short order of the quadrones.

The group heal the victim cultist, who tells them that the cultists are being experimented on by these, for the so called 'Nerule'.  The druid, in tiger form, was smelling something that was neither human or modron and pinpointed it to an area in the temple.

The group seemed to really like this monster, with the ranger having a ptsd moment from where they had to fight darkmantles, as he kept crying 'Darkmantle!" while shooting the pentadrone.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Session 6

The party kept going on their journey to figure out the mystery of this cult of 'Nerull'.  Now that the party has leveled now to three, so the party is stronger and more ready to fight the monsters deeper down.

The party consists of a half-elf sorcerer-fighter, a human druid-ranger, a half-elf warlock, a high-elf wizard and a wood-elf ranger.  The party first comes across a strange metal wall that at the end of a cavern.  The warlock works out that the wall was a door that slide open, and that there was a pressure plate that controlled it.  The sorcerer tossed a rock at the plate to hold it down, and the door opened.  The party walked through to find a monodrone.  The parties reaction to it was much like their reaction in Session 4 to the darkmantles.


So, the party fought a few of these, and some duodrones.  The duodrones did the fighting while the monodrones were doing something with a reactor.  When the party dispatched them, it was discovered that monodrones were going to blow the reactor up to stop the party from venturing further.  They walked into the next room, where they find a bunch of monodrones.  The creatures ignore the party.

However, in a pile something speaks in undercommon.  After a short pause as no one in the party understood undercommon it speaks in dwarven, saying "Came for Nerull?"  The sorcerer conversed with Icard Bonecrusher, a duerger that came looking to kill Nerull, whom he claims is in fact a 'Illithid'.  Party didn't know what that was...

Now, they went into the next room with their new 'friend' (the party is very weary of this npc, whom is a few corndogs shy of a picnic), and failing a stealth check has them fighting a tridrone.  The monodrones in the room ignored the party.  The duerger advised that the party take out the monodrones, however the druid had qualms about killing creatures that aren't provoking them in anyway.  In the end the druid netted and restraint them, before they ventured into the next room.

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Session 5

So the party carries onward and forward into the cave on their mission to figure out what was happening to the dead and missing workers in the mine.

The party this week had a wood elf ranger, a high-elf wizard, a half-elf sorcerer, a half-elf warlock, and a human druid.  As the party walks down the caves they come across a dead person.  The person, a human, was dead, dressed like a miner with a pickaxe.  The worker was covered in tattoos and carvings.  A religion check from the sorcerer verifies that the markings are not related to any god.  Other then that the party can't figure anything else about the body, and as the druid kept failing knowledge checks the sorcerer casted light on his nose.

The party ventures forward, where the warlock alerts a group of cultists whom were patrolling the area.  They charge the party, screaming out in the name of Nerull, god of death, and the party cut them down fast.  Looking at the bodies verify further that, despite the Nerull mentions, there was nothing about Nerull.

Course, with them down, the group venture forth into the cave further, wanting to know what was going on.

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Session 4 Summary

This was the start of the mission of the party to find out what happened to the missing and dead men in the abandon mine shaft.  Course, going in they would be beseeched by the creatures that are in the mine shaft.

The party consisted of a half-elf sorcerer that doesn't cast spells, a half-elf warlock with an imp familiar, two high-elf wizards, a wood-elf ranger, a human druid, and a silver-dragonborn paladin.  It was a busy day.  So much so there were a couple of monsters that I wouldn't have played otherwise.

So, they go in to find some bats and spiders, and they are hungry of course.  Nature checks verify that the bats are bats, and the spiders are spiders, though the sorcerer rolled a 20 on that, so I kindly told him one of the spiders were kinda blue.  The player of the sorcerer memorized the monster manual, so he got unnerved, as he deduced, rightly, that it was a phase spider.  So the players tried to get the spider first, with the druid, having wild-shaped into a giant spider, restraint the phase spider.  The phase spider survived to its turn to ethereal jaunt its way out of the material realm and into safety.  Course, this did not sit well with the players.

So, the players were focusing on bats and spiders, quickly taking them out, however a surprise was hinted when a percentage check revealed to the druid, still in spider form and therefore knows when there is something on the webbing, that there was a surprise on the ceiling of the cave.  The party panicked and assumed it was more phase spiders.  Course, the paladin starts to advance, and a failed perception check had something come moving off of the ceiling, and was able to attack on AC, thus wrapping itself around the paladin's head, blinding and suffocating him.  So the paladin resorted to using his breath attack as he is dragonborn.

The sorcerer wanted to know what that was, and was made to roll arcana as it wasn't a natural creature.  He rolled a 20.  So I told him it was a Darkmantle, and showed the party what it looked like from the monster manual.  This was the monster they saw:

So, the party straight up shit themselves, forgetting about the phase spider that was still somewhere in the ethereal plane, and were determined to kill the Darkmantle, and then two other ones that came from the ceiling, attaching themselves to one of the wizards and the sorcerer.  The party, in a panic, were shooting and casting spells on them before the three party member started suffocating.  There were a lot of "Are you wearing a helmet...?  Don't care, that thing is ugly!  Kill it with fire!"

Lastly, the phase spider materialized behind the warlock, as the warlock spent the entire encounter hiding in the back letting his imp doing the fighting.  The other wizard (the one that wasn't attacked by the Darkmantles) saves the warlock.

So, with the monsters down, the adventures can carry on with their investigation.

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Session 3 Synapse

So, the party follow the owl into the next room. The party, consisting this week of a human druid, a half-elf sorceror, a half-elf warlock with an imp familiar, and a paladan (not sure of the race, I think it was human), listened at the door, noting the sounds, including someone screaming orders in Common. The sorceror opens the door a crack to see that there are rats everywhere, and at the centre of the madness is a wererat. At the end of the room is magical darkness. The imp, who is invisible, sneaks in, and sees through the magical darkness with demon sight, and finds two thrones, one with that owl sitting on it, and the other being occupied by a drow sorceror.

With that the druid, now in bear form, bursts in and starts to attack. The warlock gets his familiar to attack some rats as does the paladin. The sorceror goes on to using a crossbow to fight some rats. Course the wererat is biting, then pulling out a sword to attack mostly the paladin and the druid. In the end, when the wererat is fallen, he shrieks in his dying breath "You said you were going to save me.". Before reverting into a human.

As this happens, remaining rats scury away, and the magical darkness fades to revel the drow and the owl (warlock was all like " by the way guys..."). It is noted that sue is wearing the crest of the Order of the Ori, an organization trying to rid the world of corruption and strife. The drow comes out of trance and says into them thus:

"I see you past the test, not bad for short notice, given the circumstances. I must thank you for ridding the world of one more wererat. Now the magical seal in that one room should be gone. Your employer should be waiting there with your pay. Good day."

With that she and her owl dimension door out of the manor.

The group go into the room to talk to the employer, an elf who introduces herself as Ailef Alsome, region baroness. She further tells them of a plight in a network of abandoned mines that were being retrofitted as a sewer system. The workers in there are either going missing or turning up dead with the rune of Knarule carved into them. The quarry foreman is refusing to send anymore people into the mines until the issue has been dealt with.

Course, a halting measager bolts in to inform Ailith of a failed business preposition. At which the elf tries to leave.

Course, the druid asks "there are many displaced due to your king, holed up in mountains, freezing to dead. Surely you could spare space in your manor for them, could you not?"

Ailith replies "Even if I did, there isn't the space for everyone."

The druid presses on , "but you could have some people in, surely that is better than no one. I mean, your manor is huge."

"Let me see what I can do," she replies, "now, if you excuse me, I have business to attend to, business that will better all the displaced.". Then walks away.

The group spends the night at the tavern cave. As they leave they see Ailith talking to the barkeep. They have a heated discussion regarding Ailith renting out part of her manor to the dwarf, and the drawf refusing because Ailith is a baroness of the same king that displaced Everholm. During this the paladin gets a drink to closely easdrop while the sorceror sits at a distance , the warlock sending his imp to investigate, and the druid shape changing into a cat for a better look.

During the conversation, Ailith hands the dwarf something wrapped in cloth, which the dwarf peeks at. The imp notes that inside then cloth was the crest of the order of the Ori. The dwarf hands it back to Ailith and tells her " I'll think about it." As Ailith walks away.

Session 2 Rundown

Sorry about the delay, you know, life and that. Anyways the summary.

So, the party session 2 consisted of a wood elf ranger, a high elf wizard, a half-elf sorceror pretending to be a ranger, and a human druid. This session the party was continuing the clearing out of the manor of that elf lady. In the room that looks like the foyer the party comes upon a room full of rats. The rats were with four mephits: a magma one, a dust one, a mud one, and a steam one. There was the front door, which was sealed somehow, another entrance that had a magic barrier on it, and a door leading to the next room.

Right away the dust mephit blinds the druid, whom was in wolf form at the time. Later a mud mephit restraints the druid, both conditions last an in game minute (so 10 rounds). The rats and mephit pummel the druid, as the druid was tanking at the front. Course, the sorceror casted sleep at one point to put some of them to sleep, for them to be awaken on the next rat turn.

The druid reverts back to true form to cast some are, which renders all the remaining rats to 1 HP, and the party deals with them easily, with the wizard casting aoe of his own.

At the end the party notices an owl spying on them. Efforts to capture it failed as the party watch it fly into the next room.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Session 1 Summary

The town of Everholm had been invaded by the kingdom further out, and the city-state was taken over, and the residents of the town where forced out.  The campaign begins at a guard outpost that is being used as a refugee camp, with a cave that is being used as a makeshift tavern.  The cave had a few run down tables and stools laying about, with a makeshift counter on the corner where the kegs were.  The counter was being manned by a dwarf barmaid.  The cave was lit up with illuminated fungus.

The party this session consisted of a human druid, a shape-shifting hermit on a mission to save/protect the earth and its denizen, a half-elf dragon-sorcerer with the pretence of being a ranger/hunter who has been on his own since his home burned down and earns his living as a con-man, and a half-elf warlock with an imp summoning who is a known spy in the criminal underworld.  The druid sat by himself, sipping his ale in the corner, eyeing the patrons as they came and went.  The sorcerer was hustling various 'assholes' in the tavern with a dice game... that had loaded dice.  The warlock was sitting with his imp, surveying the patrons for anyone of suspicion.

A elf races in with a wide look in her eyes.  "I will... I have..." she shuddered before saying "I have a ... rat infestation in my manor... I bought the manor site unseen, and there are rats.  I will give 50GP each to anyone interested in removing the infestation."

The druid sees that she is lying, mostly about the 'rats', and can further see that she is wearing the insignia of the king that displayed the citizens of Everholm.  Suspicious, he transforms into a cat and follows her out, followed by the sorcerer who happily volunteered, and the warlock who after falling a stealth check to simply follow behind her, states that he will follow.

These get weirder when the elf tells them that the manor, which is a castle-like dwelling nearby the guard outpost, would have to be entered from a side entrance as the front door is barracked shut.  The sorcerer presses her to admit that there wasn't simply rats in this place, and the druid peers into a window to see a humanoid-looking rat.  After the elf promises the party to give them an extra 10GP each if they clear out the entire manor of vermin the party goes on in.

The first room had larger rats and a strange creature known as a mephit, that the sorcorer knows are usually summoned by wizards.  After fighting these things, with the party thinking the smoke mephit was more than it was, the group collects themselves before venturing into a treasure room, with coins scattered all over the place, and the head of a blue dragon on display.  The warlock decides to roll in the money, where he then narrowly avoids being smothered by a rug of smothering.  The parry then has to fight the treasure room defence system consisting of two animated armours, two flying swords, and a rug of smothering.  After that they verify that there is no more traps in the treasure room, the party pockets some of them, while wondering where they got the stuff.

The druid can see through the crack under the door leading to the next room and can see more rats, and four more mephits on the other side.  The group takes a short rest inside the treasure room.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Order of the Ori revisited

Due to lack of interest the campaign didn't initially go through.  However, things have changed, and as a result the campaign can go through.

Now, there are some differences in this iteration than from before.

One, the campaign is going to be in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition, so the resources that are currently available for it are there.  Next, a venue has been secured for the time being.  The Dungeon Master in the who runs the Wednesday's pick-up group at the local gaming supply shop wanted to take a break from DMing, so I offered to DM the group.  So it couldn't be any more 'come on down!' on that front.

So, if you live in Barrie, Ontario and are looking for a group, come by the Sir Games Alot, located in the lower floor of the Bayfield Mall with a level 2 5th edition character sheet on Wednesday at 7:00PM, and from there we shall go!

Don't live anywhere near Barrie?  Yeah, you can always read along at some of the adventures that are to transpire!