Session 31: The Forbidden Cavern pt. 2 Report

General Summary

Session 31 – Wednesday February 22, 2023 – The Eclivian Enclave and the Forbidden Cavern

  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)

Glowing crystals

After killing the cultist and the undead creature the party saw that Thomas faded in and out of the Ethereal plane and Digby and Ajani both disappeared. They also noticed that the entire cavern was covered with a thick mucus, and that mucus inhibited their movement. The cavern was eerily silent with only a few cave sounds every now and then. They heard a faint unearthly hymn echoing from deep within the cavern. They trudged down a long hallway to an intersection which led to the left and to the right. Isabella was drawn to a purple glow in the distance down the eastern path and led the party in that direction.

The faint purple glow seemed to hum with some form of psychic energy. The glow emanated from crystals which seemed to call out, almost begging to be touched. “Freedom,” they called. Their party’s shadows flitted about, creating shapes and figures as easily as clouds. “Free your mind,” the crystals said. Abrash stood unaffected by the Crystals sway. The others felt the compulsion to pick up a crystal. Abrash saw what was going on and reached out to hold Gazlowe back. He could not reach the others.

The effects of the crystals

Isabella picked up a smaller crystal, which was about the size of a baseball. She stared at it murmuring. Gazlowe called out to Isabella to bring him one, but she began to feel very defensive of her crystal. She thought the crystal was her salvation and others wanted to take it away. She walked deeper into the cave, away from Gazlowe very defensively. Isabella gained a new flaw: shadows seem to dance about within her mind, as though something was waiting within them, looking for its chance to attack.

Thomas, too, picked one up and felt the same defensiveness as Isabella, he also felt a growing paranoia. He gazed about looking for enemies, visible or not. Thomas constantly felt as though something malicious had its eyes staring at the back of his head. Gazlowe also called out to Thomas for a crystal. Thomas pulled out his crossbow and told Gazlowe to stay back. Thomas began to intensely examine his crystal.

Seeing Thomas and Isabella acting oddly, Abrash dragged Gazlowe away from the crystals. Abrash realized that Isabella and Thomas were going the other way deeper among the crystals. Fearing that Gazlowe would also fall prey to the crystals’ power, Abrash negotiated with Gazlowe to accept a gem worth 100gp if he didn’t take one of the purple ones. Gazlowe reluctantly agreed and let Abrash lead him back to Thomas and Isabella who were cradling their gems.

Breaking the bond

Abrash, in his own paranoia saw that the crystals were affecting Thomas and Isabella. Thomas took off his backpack to put the crystal in it and Abrash took the opportunity to cast fire bolt at the crystal. The spell hit and destroyed the crystal. Thomas had a brief moment of rage before he realized that the crystal made his thoughts irrational. Thomas realized that Abrash saved him from this madness, and at that moment both he and Gazlowe noticed that Isabella was under the same spell. Thomas whipped the crystal. Gazlowe punched at Isabella’s crystal. Between the two of them Isabella’s crystal was destroyed. At once, she too realized that she was irrationally affected.

Nimkos

Freed from the madness, the party walked down a southern passage away from the purple crystals. After about 30 minutes, they realized that this is passage is the alternate entrance and lead out of the caverns. The turned back, passing by the purple crystals but this time, they avoided picking any up. They traveled to the northwest a bit and saw warm light coming from a passageway. As they entered a large room, they noticed the plants were glowing bathing the area in a warm, orange light. They passed a large stone in a passageway to the east, blocking progress in that direction. Around the bend, a pair of bedrolls lay unfurled. In the bottom of the alcove were two skeletal corpses, their right hands glowing a faint purple. A single Drow stood over the two corpses; her head bowed in apparent reverence.

The party greeted the Drow and she turned, looking a bit dazed and asked if they are there to rescue her. Suspicious, Gazlowe asked if she knew the 4 Tenets of Eclivian. The Drow struggled to recall them, but she did. Gazlowe assumed she was okay, but Thomas and Abrash were unconvinced. She seemed grateful and thanked them for helping to rescue her from the encroaching madness. Then, Abrash realized she’s not being totally truthful. She pointed to the other 2 dead Drow and told the party that they had crystals and were mad and needed to be put down. She introduced herself as Nimkos and led them into the room to have more discussion. Abrash telepathically warned the party.

Thomas, concerned, stayed back as the rest of the party moved into the room. Nimkos was clearly lying and Abrash knew she couldn’t be trusted but they played along and warned her not to attack. She assured them that she wouldn’t attack first. She asked the party who they worshiped. After most responded “Eclivian” she said that they need to be enlightened.

Drider

The stone blocking the eastern passage faded away and a Drider stepped forth surprising Thomas and attacking him. Isabella hit the Drider with an arrow. The Drider pulled a sword and climbed over Thomas separating Thomas from the others and sliced into him. A 2nd Drider came from the east and started attacking Thomas. Thomas tried moving north and came to a bottomless pit. Abrash cast faerie fire on the Drow. The Drow Nimkos tried to cast control spells on Gazlowe but failed. Gazlowe grabbed the wand of Magic Missiles from Isabella and cast all 7 charges at the Drider. The charges hit, bloodying the Drider. The wand crumbled to dust.

Isabella tried to hit the Drider, but its skin was too tough. The Drider hit Thomas and he fell unconscious. His Necklace of Health glowed and stabilized him. Abrash hit the Drider with a guiding bolt. Isabella sliced into the Drider twice and it began to scurry away. Both Gazlowe and Isabella took a swing at it as it ran away and killed it. The 2nd Drider struck Gazlowe. Frustrated with Gazlowe, Nimkos hit him with a powerful guiding bolt and knocked him out. Isabella opened Gazlowe’s front panel and poured a healing potion in his mouth. The Drider bit Isabella as Gazlowe’s armor started to reboot.

Abrash hit the Drider with a poison spray but Nimkos healed the Drider with a healing word. Gazlowe stood up and hit the Drider with his gauntlets. Isabella hit the Drider with her axe a couple times. Then the Drider focused his attacks on her. Abrash hit the Drider with his fire bolt and Gazlowe punched it twice, badly wounding it. Gazlowe looked for Thomas and saw him lying on the ground. Isabella finished off the Drider with two hits from her axe and then she hit Nimkos.

Nimkos and Gazlowe’s flaw

Gazlowe gave Thomas a healing potion. Isabella hit Nimkos with her axe twice and tried to get Nimkos to stand down. Nimkos replied, “You don’t understand the power!” Thomas fired a bolt at Nimkos and he branded her. Abrash knocked her unconscious but purposely did not kill her. Gazlowe immediately searched the young Drow’s body. He found 500gp and 4 potions of healing.

Gazlowe then searched the two bodies and found a purple crystal. Immediately he became obsessed with it and hid it on his person. He took on a new flaw: He began to question whether he is ever truly prepared for what the day may hold. His newfound fear will compel him to inspect his weapons and armor for the most minor of defects every morning. Throughout the day, he will periodically feel the need to repeat this inspection.

The party debated what to do with Nimkos. Seeing how badly hurt they were, they realized they needed a quick nap to heal. Abrash tied up Nimkos. As the party rested, they had dark dreams. Isabella was badly affected, and it took her two hours to rest. The party let her rest for two hours. Isabella dreamed of heffalumps and woozles. She awoke frightened but rested. Gazlowe meticulously inspected and repaired his armor.

Taking Nimkos to the entrance

The party debated on killing Nimkos or taking her back to the others. Abrash insisted that she could be saved so the party relented and decided to take her unconscious and tied up body to the entrance and leave her there. Gazlowe and Thomas took her past the crystals while Abrash and Isabella played some checkers.

On the way to drop off Nimkos, 2 cultists stopped Gazlowe and Thomas. Gazlowe said, “Hail Bethec!” and the cultists attacked. Two phase spiders phased out of the ethereal plane and joined the attack. Thomas killed the first cultist with his whip and struck the phase spider with his 2nd attack. Isabella heard the battle and she and Abrash started to run towards the commotion. Gazlowe hit the spider with an alchemist fire. Thomas hit the phase spider with his whip twice and killed it. Isabella hit the cultist with a shot from her bow.

Abrash used non-lethal force to knock down the cultists. Gazlowe walked up, saw him breathing and smashed his head with his gauntlets. The 2nd phase spider critically hit Gazlowe and wounded him badly. Thomas hit the spider with his whip. Isabella moved forward and took two shots with her bow. Gazlowe clasped his hands together and brought them down firmly on the spider’s head killing it. With the threat dealt with, Thomas extracted 2 vials of phase spider poison and Abrash gave Gazlowe 20 Good berries. Gazlowe looked at the various possible paths and chose to go north.

Red crystals

The call of the purple crystals began to grow faint. As their voice faded, the party noticed a moment of silence. It was quickly broken, as a new whisper came from the west, and a faint red glow could be seen to the north. Thomas led the party to the northern red glow. As they drew closer, the red light hummed, calling out. “Power,” “You can have power.” The crystals felt almost alive, as though they had a soul. “Take it,” they said. The light from the crystals dimly lit a large, nearly empty room. Bathing in the red light, almost seeming to enjoy it, was a monstrous, Lobster-like creature. It was surrounded by four humans in long robes staring into the red light and enjoying it even more than the monster. The entire party was able to resist the calling of the crystals.

One of the humans in a more splendid robes than the others noticed the party but did nothing other than watch them. None of the humans or creature attacked. Gazlowe suggested that he destroy the crystal and Abrash tried to suggest passive action. Gazlowe decided to attack. Gazlowe cast Shatter on the crystal, and it exploded. Shards of red crystal torn into the soft, unsuspecting flesh of the cultists killing 3 of them instantly. Only the lead cultist (badly hurt) and the Chull remained standing. The priest made Gazlowe and Isabella grovel.

Abrash was in shock as he realized Gazlowe caused the unprovoked death of three people in a violent explosion. Thomas hit the Chuul with his whip. The Chuul tried to grab Thomas but missed. The priest cast spiritual weapon and attacked Gazlowe and then threw a dagger into Thomas. Thomas threw the dagger back into the priest and then hit him with a crossbow bolt, killing him. The Chuul screamed and went to attack Gazlowe, but Thomas made the Chuul miss. Isabella stood up and hit the Chuul with an arrow. Abrash came to his party’s aid and hit the creature with a 2nd level Guiding bolt.

Gazlowe hit the creature with his gauntlets. The creature turned and grappled him, but Gazlowe avoided the poisonous tentacles trying to lick his face. Isabella sliced into the creature with her axe blooding it. Abrash hit Gazlowe with his thorn whip and was able to yank Gazlowe out of the Chuul’s grapple. Gazlowe struck the creature with magic missiles. Thomas dealt the final blow with his chain whip.