Radiance Tiller
Radiance Tiller
A young jaded Aasimar roaming the known world in search of powers not understood by the prevailing society. He hopes to discover his greater purpose, something he's been told since birth that he must have, and to escape the influence of his Guardian Angel.
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Radiant light burns inside him. This light shines from his pupils and the back of his throat, with varying intensity.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
Backstory:
Aasimar born to a fairly humble family, his celestial heritage was apparent from birth. [not sure where it comes from, maybe his parents/ancestors were just particularly devout? Maybe it was a Samuel/Hannah situation, where she pledged her son to the gods?]
They were delighted to have a child so obviously chosen for great things by the gods, and diligently raised him to obey the religious customs and instilled in him a moral code, the importance of doing good and serving others and standing up to evil. He was taught to be uncompromising in what is right and what is wrong - eyes would be on him, so he must take care to uphold these ideals as an example.
As he grew, his innate power began to manifest itself. By the time he was ten, he was regularly hearing from his Angelic Guardian in his dreams, usually accompanied by searing light blazing from his eyes and mouth, which when he awoke - usually suddenly - he found himself unable to control. Rather than excited or comforted, he came to be frightened of these changes. His Angelic Guardian spoke in absolutes and had unreasonable expectations for a child. He seemed impatient, expecting the boy to already be a driving force against evil, and the manifestations of his power were painful.
Around the same time, he developed his powers of healing, which for a time relieved him - he could see that there was something genuinely useful he could offer his village. All too soon however this too became overwhelming, as people expected miracles of him that he was not able to deliver. He could mend cuts and bruises, but food poisoning, fevers, broken bones, and deep wounds were beyond him, and as a few people died under his "care", he realised that if this was to be his destiny, he was woefully unprepared for it.
With his parents' blessing, he secluded himself in the local temple for nearly a decade, devoting himself to service of the gods and expecting that in due course he would develop control over his powers. He threw himself into religious practice, into study of history and magic, but nothing seemed to work. No new abilities blossomed within him, he felt no connection to the gods, and the burning divine compulsion within him only scorched hotter as his Angelic Guardian felt he was squandering his gifts. Visiting clerics and paladins came and went, telling their stories and offering their tutelage, but none were able to unlock anything within him.
Eventually he became convinced that whatever he was looking for, he wasn't going to find in his home village. He set off on a pilgrimage, travelling from outpost to settlement to town to city, stopping at every temple and library he could to search for answers. To his frustration, he was met with disappointment every step of the way. Those of high class treated him as a child and a simpleton, and expressed no surprise when their practices and secrets yielded no change in him. Those of humbler origins looked up to him in a way he had come to find very uncomfortable, and he found he couldn't impose on their hospitality for too long before the same old expectations of miracles and Greater Purpose drove him back onto the road.
A few years into this pilgrimage, he felt lost, frustrated, disillusioned, and generally fed up. Increasingly he felt that the gods must be making a mockery of him. He had no doubt of their existence, he had seen others wield remarkable power, and there was the Angelic Guardian who still visited him - though with less frequency now, as though even he had given up on him. But whatever he did, he could not feel their presence, could not hear their voices, could not manifest their powers. He was marked from birth by the divine for some unknowable purpose, and expected to figure it out himself. He was given a Guardian who reprimanded him for not doing enough, and whose moral absolutism frightened him. He had a power that hurt him, and was too weak to meaningfully help others. All this grew inside him, until he became convinced that if anything was going to help him, it wasn't going to come from the gods.
And it was with this attitude that he went on his last-ditch attempt. He had heard a rumour of an ancient servant of the gods, a keeper and guardian of secrets - certainly long dead by now for even a magical creature couldn't survive for centuries untold. But maybe there was still some scrap of knowledge there that could set him on a path to discover what his purpose really was, what he had done to deserve this curse upon him, and what he could do about it. With no genuine expectation of finding answers, he set off in search of the Lair of the Sphinx.
Sexuality
Hetero; very inexperienced. Has had a few people offer themselves to him, whether from gratitude or just wanting the clout of sleeping with the Gods' Hero, but he's always resisted such advances. Also, he sometimes wakes up in the middle of the night with blazing pain coming out of his mouth and eyes, so that's typically kept him from falling into intimate relationships.
Education
Very well learned about all things magical and divine. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about the Known and Approved religions and magical beliefs. Along the way he's picked up a few bits of "Forbidden Lore" - ravings of madmen, practices of cults, and postulations of very intelligent men with too much time on their hands.
Employment
He can do honest manual labour, but most of his life he has survived of people's eagerness to house a divine servant in their temples and homes.
Failures & Embarrassments
Did you read his backstory?
Mental Trauma
Again, did you read his backstory?
Intellectual Characteristics
A hunger for knowledge and learning. He wants to find out things that will help him, but he does also simply enjoy learning things for the sake of learning them.
Particularly loves learning languages.
Morality & Philosophy
He feels some conflict with the very Lawful Good moral code he was raised with, and the turmoil he has felt trying to live up to that code. He holds to the principles of helping people where he can, and standing up to obvious evil, but increasingly he believes that personal freedom is at least as important as overcoming evil.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To gain control over his innate Aasimar powers.
To escape from the Angelic Guardian's influence.
To oppose evil where I find it.
To find some kind of retribution upon the gods for how they have treated me; or at least make sure nobody else suffers as I have.
Young jaded Aasimar roaming the known world in search of powers not understood by the prevailing society. He hopes to discover his greater purpose, something he's been told since birth that he must have, and to escape the influence of his Guardian Angel.
View Character Profile
Alignment
Neutral Good
Age
23
Children
Gender
Male
Eyes
Brown, with burning pupils
Hair
Dark and fairly short
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pale
Height
5'10"
Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
Session Fourteen
OH BABY WE'RE BACK
Probably just a short one for now but BOY it's good to dust off the Radiance dice
Travelling w. companions during the day, find a lot less trouble on the road HOORAY.
Sorin is quiet, intelligent. Meepo is entranced by Korin.
Reach a river crossing. Meepo has never seen running water before in his life.
After a few days we see a distant twisted tree standing alone in the expanse of the grasslands. Seems to have been struck by lightning a few times. Doesn't seem otherwise remarkable.
Terrain is becoming less flat and more rocky as we progress.
Ten days in, as we head to dusk, spot a STONE CIRCLE a lil ways away.
Very old Druidic magic site. A few ancient scratchings for the moon, the sun, the wind, the earth - general Nature shit.
A number of symbols that seem to be invoking some of these natural effects.
Cast Entangle in the middle of the circle - put some Druid magic in there. Don't really notice anything.
Set up camp a little way away.
During my watch, it begins to rain.
Fuck it, let's go have a lil look at the circle, just in case.
Fuck it let's go step into the middle of the fuckin thing.
Rolled a Natural 1. That's .... probably fine right? Yeah that's f ine. I'm sure that's fine, right? Right. Of course it's fine. It's fine?
PERCENTILE DICE ROLL 52
The rain above me is not hitting me - there's some kind of invisible barrier?? The rain isn't hitting me?? It's following me, tethered to me.
Ah PANTS it's not still there after like a minute.
That was weird.
Write about it in my Book, reflecting on what happened. Reminded of a book I read once that spoke of the wild divine magic of nature itself, that in certain places seems to surge; unexpected minor effects happen.
FINALLY eventually we get to the Big Lake.
Heckin Wimdy day. Big waves on the water. In the distance, can see a large town.
Go into the town, much busier. Bustling. Lots of people.
I Disguise Self, Meepo stealths along behind me.
Stock up on some supplies, some waterproofing for my scrolls, and have a look for an Identify Pearl...
A lovely down-on-her-luck beachcomber has found one apparently. I'm gonna make her fuckin' day.
Take her to a Bank. Set up her kids' college fund.
Gonna camp outside the city but we'll do that later.
Session Thirteen
GUESS WHAT WE'RE BACK
Travel Montaaaage! 3 weeks travel (approx) to the Sphinx
We're mostly gonna travel at night for Meepo's eyes, and we're gonna just make a beeline back to the Sphinx because I don't wanna mess around getting distracted, I wanna get BACK.
Rolling for Random Encounters! First roll: 17
There's only two of us, and we both need lots of sleep. I either need that Invocation or I need Alarm. I wasn't going to take Alarm. But I think I do need it. Damn. Unless my Familiar can take watches for me?
Chatting to Meepo for a while, explaining how Farming and Food and Agriculture work.
Second day, after a lil bit, Meepo stops, hunching low to the ground. Sun is still in the sky, and Meepo is looking right above him.
There's a Giant Eagle swooping overhead.
Sit under a tree for a min, waiting for it to get bored. Eventually it flies away and we carry on walking.
Wisdom check for the night's rest - Natural one! Hooray!
Something bad is going to happen and I'm not looking forward to it.
SHIT I GOT HIT BY A JAVELIN and took 10 piercing damage.
Oh there's just one bugbear on his own, easy.
COMBAT TIME
HE SAVED AGAINST MY HOLD PERSON
MEEPO STABS HIM FOR 5 PIERCING
BUGBY TRIED TO HIT MEEPO BUT MISSED!
Mind sliver hits him another 5
Meepo stabs him another 9
I got hit :( I'm on 7 HP
GOT HIM WITH HOLD PERSON HE'S PARALYSED
Meepo hits it's a CRIT and he's got 7 HP now.
Unleash Radiant Consumption and Consume him Radiantly.
Long Restttt get all the things back.
3rd day of travel.
passes without incident.
Meepo wakes me up partway through the night, Pointing out a couple of wolves a little distance away.
Cast light and Minor Illusion a big ol' bear. The wolves scarper.
Meepo can't use the magic wand rip. I'll attune to it.
Just keep on travelling. Want to stop at an inn soon-ish.
The DM did a cheeky cackle. Uh Oh.
Come to The Tavernous Wrecks, an inn by the side of the road.
Meepo likes bouncing on the bed. Very nice to sleep on a real bed.
Trying to find travelling companions at the inn. Old man with a smoked fish. A few workers. A weird half-elven(?) couple giving me a look.
SORIN and Korann
Fully lied to him saying that Meepo is a distant cousin called Mephistopheles, with a skin condition that has disfigured him.
Agree to pay 12 silver to travel with them.
Day 6, set off in a PARTY!
KORANN IS LIKE MEEPO. THERE'S FUCKING TWO OF THEM.
Session Twelve
I HAVE NEW DICE!!
New Radiance dice that are Icey and new Meepo dice that are Fiery.
The spoopky music has begun.
Also we are on the Sofa again. And have ice cream and (failed) cookie. It is a good day.
To-Do list from last time:
Rest. Level up?
Talk to Meepo about coming with us. Talk to the boys about what they're gonna do.
Read these books!
Touch the glowing orb.
Give Calcrix the sapphires.
LONG REST
GAIN XP I have 1293 XP now. Meepo has ... an amount of XP (1242) the POINT BEING he is now ABOVE 900 and HITS LEVEL THREE.
14 max HP, and gets Improved Critical.
The Treasures of the Fire Lords is blank - I don't know any spy shit to uncover it. Might want to hang on to it for someone who does.
The Tome of Dragon Lore is full of stuff from people who really like dragons. Reading through it, seems like the majority of it is kind of fluff - poetry, some cool illustrations. The book name-drops a few great dragons, and speaks of the authors' own experience with the greatest of red dragons - the mighty Ashardalon. A tale of this dragon who lorded over an expanse of lush countryside. And then some upstart humans started refusing to pay their dues to the dragon. He grew angry and made demands. They tried to trick him, and he was so enraged that he unleashed a torrent of fire like none has ever seen, permanently scarring the land and creating what is still known today as The Ashen Plain, a barren expanse where nothing grows.
Ashardalon disappeared. Some say in his anger he unleashed so much power that he spent himself, became the very fire and the curse upon the land. Some say he's still hiding somewhere out there, plotting, or perhaps ruling some far off land.
There are some stories of other dragons, but Radiance will get to those another time.
Going to do some journaling - worrying about all the potential threats that I don't understand well enough to fix right now, and all the unknown ones that might be lurking below. I definitely need to increase my knowledge and my understanding, so that next time I can walk away with a clear conscience.
And then go to sleep.
Wis save - 7. So far I'm not rolling great.
Dreams of rationalising the slaughter of snakes, dragons, kobolds, goblins...but these aren't my thoughts. The pattern of these thoughts are all Cadhock. HIs voice runs through - "You have done well." The ashes of the Gulthias tree fills my mind, Belak's corpse, the tree's thralls destroyed, the twig blights reduced back to mere twigs. Even the mephits, evil creatures that do not belong on this plane. "You have done well. There is still work to be done, and you know what will happen if these problems are not addressed"
Wis save - 10.
He feels a thrill of being praised. Conflicted feelings, because this is a solution to his concerns! But he's not satisfied with the simplicity of the solution. What's proposed would be to let go, relinquish control. And he's not here for that.
It becomes quiet again. Quiet like the stillness of a cavernous room. And a silkier voice rumbles and ripples across.
"What have you learned?"
"There are many paths to power. None of them are cheap."
Power whose cost is the freedom and life of others.
Power that you don't work for, you don't wield well.
Power that's in me, I pay the price for, and I am learning to use it.
And I feel the limitations of my knowledge and power. I need to learn more, and grow more power.
That's what I've learned.
I feel smiled upon.
"This is the first thing we all must learn, Radiance. You have power enough to do any of these things you worry about. You have the will, the strength of mind to choose.
"You will never know everything. You could spend a lifetime in those ruins and crypts scattered across the world that you have only just started to imagine. If you remove every threat in every one, how many fewer will you reach?
"This is not a question of good or evil. You have done a good thing, yes. Many good things can be done any day, in any part of this world for there are good and evil everywhere. There is power everywhere. And things always balance out. It is not a question of which path is good and which path is evil. It is a question of which path is yours. And that choice is yours to make.
"When he says you have done well, he means you have done good. I say what I mean. You have done well."
And drift back into sleep.
AND WAKE UP. Meepo is on full health.
Flirt with Calcrix for a bit - flatter her, give her some sapphires, say that if we ever meet again I hope you remember me kindly.
"Thank you for the gifts. I will remember you, Radiance. And I will not eat Meepo, as a token of gratitude.
Is the fire snake longer than her?"
Reassure her that she's much cooler.
Go through to the Orb Room.
Fist-sized crystalline globe. North three are cracked and dark, bottom one issues a soft blue light, with faint tinkling notes.
Armor of Agathys - just in case.
Pick up a cracked one. Maybe a very glassy crystal. Almost completely transparent, if not for the cracks.
Put it back. Go up to the glowing one.
Within 5 ft of the orb - music starts. (OOOH FUNKY SWIRLY MUSIC IN THE ROOM)
WIS SAVE FOR US BOTH Me 14, Meepo 16
Meepo saves. I ... bolt from the room back the way I came, and I can see the white dragon Calcrix is trying her best to squeeze through the door out into the courtyard. And I join her, running, to get as far away as I possibly fucking can.
And then I'm free from it.
With a pissed off dragon.
She seems to not be too mad with me.
Cover my ears, try to go back inside. Fail the save. Nope. Nope. Nope. Get out.
Meepo's gonna try to mess with the orb, since I can't get near it. Hopefully he doesn't die!
He lays out a cloak for it to fall on...hits it with his sword...and gets a Nat 1. It falls onto the stone floor, cracks but doesn't break, and the music gets SO much louder.
Picks it up in a cloak, puts it by the dragon statue in the next room along.
Eh fine, we'll leave that. Close and lock the door, get the boys.
Calcrix thinks the body is a food offering - we give her the dragon door key instead. "Keeper of the keep should keep the keys"
Getting out of here with a body in a wheelbarrow is no mean feat, but we're gonna get it out of here.
Meepo doesn't like the sun. I talk him into it. With poetry.
Haul the wheelbarrow and body up the rope, cut the rope and take it with us.
Oooh the goblin graffiti! It says things like "stay out" "piss off" "get fucked". One elegant one - "any who pass here shall perish >:("
It's coming up to midday. Heading back to Oakhirst.
To Kerowyn HuKreole's shop. Leave the holy bois outside with the wheelbarrow.
She's real sad. I feel bad taking her coin. But not really.
(Holy shit this is a lot of money. This is 125G per ring PER PARTY MEMBER. (Erky is outside so she didn't see him) so we're getting 750 GOLD.)
Bradford isn't from nearby. The ranger didn't have any family. Someone in a Pellor temple might know Bradford.
Go talk to Garon in The Old Boar. He directs me to Mayor Vernor Leng in the town hall. Can be busy, might have better luck talking to the village constable next door.
He'll take me to the constable. Female half-elf, fierce look about her, with a handful of guards loitering.
Felosyal. Tell her about stuff, show her little needle scars on my legs from the twiggies.
Looks like she has a decent force, so that's good. She seems to have taken me seriously.
GOODBYES TO THE GOOD BAIS OOOHHHHH
Then Radiance and Meepo gather the supplies they need, and get back on the road before dark, heading off together to fate unknown.
Session Eleven
Just got all my inventory organised.
Also this is the trial run of Sofa D&D! Pretty coooool.
From last time, TODO list:
Figure out what the Sorcerous power might be.
Go back to Belak's room and fine-tooth that shit (and get the body in the wheelbarrow)
Go over the library fine-tooth.
Explore the other rooms, including down the tunnels.
Go back up, try the key on that locked fish door.
Check out the glowing orb.
Have a rest at some point!
Gonna use those six minutes to run through the place and look at stuff.
Find one octagonal chamber with scorched dead plants and fungus around some familiar-looking holes. Hmmm. Need to investigate those holes at some point.
Find a couple other Arborium places, not really interested in turning them over. Okay, no magic stuff.
Back to the library! Anything cool in here? This place has been turned over already, doesn't seem to be much of value left in here. Feels like the damage happened a long time ago and it's been sifted through more recently since (probably by Belak).
Back to Belak's office! Anything cool in here? Find a book on Druidic Lore about the cycles of life and death - could be valuable. Also he's got stuff hidden in his desk - 365 gp, 4 agate gems 20gp each
Okay that's probably all for these rooms.
The goblins don't give us any trouble. Leave Sharwyn in the iron dragon room, and then it's time to Sneak down the crevasse.
DOWN THE CREVASSE! DM just said "Oh shit it's right there" so that's worrying.
Opens into a 30ft cavern, riddled with these manhole holes. Dim fiery glow shines out of one of the holes.
Let's roll a ball bearing into it! What could go wrong?
OH NOT IT ALL WENT WRONG.
Something SHRIEKS as the ball bearing goes into the hole.
A FIERY SNAKEY BOI EMERGES FROM THE HOLE
We all run away from it. I don't want to fight it, unless the Sphinx tells me to.
Trying to get up the Pit. Erky climbs up first, I shoot the rope up, and then we all go up the rope - and pull Sharwyn up at the end.
Chat to Grennal, she's in charge now and happy about it (for now) Buy the boy's armour off her.
Chat to Ustrayl, she's pretty dismissive, wants Meepo gone.
Fish door: Meepo gonna try pick the lock ("Meepo can try!"). NATURAL 18!
THERE'S A METAL KEG WITH PIPES INTO THE FLOOR
I can't open it.
Meepo hits the bung with his Magic Sword and CRITS it.
THINGS ARE COMING OUT OF IT WHAT.
Some kind of steamy icey mephits come out of the thing.
ROLL INITIATIVE
Meepo hits one with his Magic Sword, 9 damage
Mind sliver, 5 damage
Couple of sacred flames, 6 damage, more damage, first one goes DOWN!
A cloud of steam BURSTS from it as it dies.
Nat 1 on my save, 10 for Meepo. Meepo takes no damage (hooray!), I take 5 but I'm fine. The ice mephit takes double damage! Fire!
Ice Mephit breathes Ice on us (big shocker). Dex saves all round, I might get a bit more hurt but I'm not too worried still.
I'm on 15HP, Meepo is on 4.
Stabs with his rapier, 7 piercing.
I stab stab with my daggers, 4 damage - and KILL IT! Explosion damage, I'm on 12 he's on 3.
In the cask: 5 sapphires, and water. Detect magic - the sapphires have fading magic, which might have been tied to how the mephits were here. Take the gems!
And let's go rest.
Next time: Rest. Level up?
Talk to Meepo about coming with us. Talk to the boys about what they're gonna do.
Read these books!
Touch the glowing orb.
Take Meepo down to the Sorcerous Circle and do the thing there.
Give Calcrix the sapphires.
Session Ten
Phoebe tried to start the recap without the dramatic music and that's just not how this works.
OH THERE'S OUR DRAMATIC MUSIC
OH MAN IT MUBST BE TIME TO GO
OH HEY THIS IS EXCITINGGGG
"NEXT TIME I'm gonna want to check if everyone is dead; check if the two zombie guys have become human now that Belak is gone, check if the twig blights are still active, what's happened to the foliage, and then just like, spend some time exploring. Get all the loot. Take Sharwyn's body back to her mum. Go home."
So, first of all, check if everyone is dead: 25 Yes, they are all dead.
They haven't changed, so probably they were just totally lost. Very sad.
Belak's body: A key, 2x heal pots, 2x antitoxin, wand of entangle, - also staff, sickle, brown robe.
Sharwyn's body: signet ring. dagger, robes
Sir Bradford: chainmail armor, shield, longsword Shatterspike (gleaming!)
Can't see any change to the grove - blights might still be a threat.
Okay time to explore!
We are not sneaky. Eh, I'm not sneaky, the Holy Boys are pretty good.
Mostly just seeing more of this natural cavern. Yeah nothing interesting in here - except for active twig blights.
Use Belak's key on that locked door - YES it opens!! What have we got?
A layer of soil covers the floor. TOMES AND SCROLLS and walls and desks and fungus. Bushes and pale saplings grow in the soil. They don't seem like the sort to come alive and attack us.
WHAT'S IN HERE I WANNA KNOW EVERYTHING.
Hundreds of books. Lots of them are kinda dull. Many are published books or twelve years of detailed (boring) agriculture books.
Interesting one! Draconic: "Treasures of the Fire Lords". Open it - Immediately a dex save
Oh fuck that sounds like a lot of dice.
Oh no help me. It's a fucking Glyph of Warding. 24 points of cold damage - I drop unconscious.
I'm brought back up with cure wounds.
OKAY LET'S JUST DO THIS SHORT REST THEN FINE JEEZ
24 HP, spells back, loremaster back.
Meepo is on 5HP
Identify the magic wand: Wand of Entangle. 7 charges, 1 charge to cast Entangle, DC 13. Regains 1d6+1 charges at dawn.
Shatterspike: Requires attunement, +1 to attack and damage. If it hits an object, auto-crit, can choose to deal either bludgeoning or slashing damage.
Gonna cast Detect Magic, have a look around with my Magic Detectin Eyes.
The book seems safe. I find an unknown spell scroll; another one of Protection from Poison (not on my list). Identify the unknown one as Entangle.
Find 2 more spell scrolls in the crumbling library (near the dragon statue)
Scorching ray, Shatter
Among the torn and burnt pages, bindings, and scrolls littered around the library there's a very faint glimmer that I detect, that leads me to a Tome of Dragon Lore, bound in dragon scales. Book itself not magical, but a very faint magic to the SCALES OF THE DRAGON. RED. Fuck that's coooool.
In the Dragon Room: The circular tile and the statue both have Transmutative magical auras. Those runes - Let the sorcerous power illuminate my spirit.
DM is not feeling well so we're gonna pause there. I've still got like, 6 minutes of Detect Magic going?
TODO: Check notes for spell scroll details Spiderclimb, Dragonsbreath, also don't currently have Mage Armor (which I can't use anyway)
Figure out what the Sorcerous power might be.
Go back to Belak's room and fine-tooth that shit (and get the body in the wheelbarrow)
Go over the library fine-tooth.
Explore the other rooms, including down the tunnels.
Go back up, try the key on that locked fish door.
Check out the glowing orb.
Have a rest at some point!
Session Nine
Hey great news I found my character sheet! Also I'm level THREE now and I got TEN new hit points and SECOND LEVEL SPELLS and I replaced Beguiling Influence with Mask of Many Faces and I'm COOL NOW.
COOL DREAM AND THE SPHINX GIVES ME NEW POWERS told you I'm cool now.
OH NO I FORGOT ABOUT THIS I GET MY RADIANT CONSUMPSION AH FUUUCK
Stay focused this will not be easy it will not be painless but you can learn to control it. Focus and learn.
Wake up, show off Disguise Self - look like Sagball. Play around with it a bit, test the limits. Confirm that the dragon and the red circle will kill us.
Ons fucks off, and we're gonna head out to face Belak. I think the plan is for me to go in first looking like Sagball.
First though, let's have a look at this dragon statue thingy.
Runes say "let the sorcerous power illuminate my spirit" Not sure what that means.
Arcana revealed that if I speak the words, something might happen. Not sure which words. Okay. We'll come back to this.
Sagball's body hasn't been moved far as I can tell. Wearing her hat and wielding her scythe I'll press on.
Stealth at the long corridor. Listen at the door, don't hear anything. Disguise Self to look like Sagball, and step into the room.
Twigs and roots piled on the floor. Collapsed southern wall opens into a vast cavern, where I see a Twilight Grove of briars, saplings, and plants. Ruined walls and hollow towers protrude from the briars. Door on the north wall.
Don't feel comfortable having a door at our back, so go first into the north room.
Never mind it is locked.
We'll hide at the edge of the collapsed wall, and peek into the Grove. These trees all look like they should be dead. White, twisted, stunted. I'll walk in. It's prickly underfoot, have to move slowly.
In the distance I spot black branches reaching above the rest. Between me and there a sea of brambles and briars, and at least a handful of small moving figures creeping through - twig blights.
Call the Bois closer in.
OH MAN I REALLY DON'T WANNA REVEAL MYSELF BY FIGHTING JUST YET.
I try to lure them up to me with Minor Illusion and it kind of works but then I trip and fall and they come for ME so it's fight time.
Mind Sliver for 1 point, classiiiiic.
Ah fuck I'm taking STUPID damage already!
Two hit me, Erky fails to hit one, Meepo comes to Fuck Shit Up, and he DOES.
And he DOES AGAIN.
I abandon him.
NO MEEPO GETS HIT AND LOSES FIVE HIT POINTS WHICH IS HALF HIS HIT POINTS FUCK I'M A TERRIBLE FRIEND
It's okay he killed it. He's amazing.
Okay fine let's just go in.
Further in, come to a walled clearing, 20ft high walls. Several plants grow round the perimeter including a few suspicious looking saplings, and the Big Tree is at the centre. An evil, blackened, twisted limbs reach upwards like a skeletal hand. There's a few twig blights, a heavily armoured human male with a shield and a sword, a blonde young woman, and a bearded human male with a staff and a sickle. The humans have black eyes and grey skin the texture of bark.
OKAY WE'RE GOING BALLSY. Just step out. And say, "Well that's mighty impressive, is that the one that makes all the apples?"
"Isn't she a wonder?"
"Must have taken a lot of care to produce such a specimen"
Things are a bit tense, I've got my buddies and he's got his...such as they are.
Have a chat, he's batshit crazy, he thinks he's the father of a new race. The humans are under his control.
Long ago someone staked a vampire. The stake grew into the Gulthias tree.
Talk some bullshit about wanting to get free from Cathock. Belak says I can surrender myself to the Gulthias tree.
The girl doesn't react at all to her brother's ring.
"You know what Belak, anyone who claims to be a higher power is full of shit. You forge your own way in life"
UNLEASH RADIANT CONSUMPTION WITHIN ME.
LET'S FUCKING GO
Radiant damage around me.
Belak casts Barkskin, and commands his minions to "kill them"
Twiggies are COMING FOR ME.
Sharwyn casts Ray of Frost and misses! Wooo.
Meepo hits the fighter.
I cast Mirror Image, hit the girl with Loremaster, and push past the twiggies to get up and close with Belak.
Bankroft casts Sanctuary on me, and I'm now basically unhittable.
I GOT HIT AND NOW I'M DYING.
ERKY BROUGHT ME BACK UP
Belak uses Wand of Entangle on Erky and Bankroft, neither of them make it. He steps away from me, I miss the attack of opportunity.
Twig goes for Meepo, hits him for 3. He's on 2 HP now.
Another Twig goes for me, hits, I'm nearly down AGAIN.
The girl casts Sleep. We all fall asleep, and then at the END of my turn, I wake everyone up with my radiant consumption damage. Twigs are all gone at least.
Bankroft hits the enemy spellcasters with Silence.
Bradford misses me (gets past the other two rolls though!)
Erky casts Spiritual Weapon and BRADFORD IS DOWN.
QUICK CHEESECAKE BREAK AND WE'REBACK
Belak casts Cure Wounds on himself. What a selfish dick, not targeting the girl. (In an alternate timeline he cast it on her you see, but that never happened)
A BIG FROG BOI HOPS DOWN FROM THE FUCKING TREE.
Ahhhh shit.
OH HE'S GOING FOR ERKY
OH FUCK ERKY
Sharwyn targets me with Ray of Frost and MISSES me. Wait never mind she can't talk.
Wait neither can Belak. REWIND TIME AGAIN.
His spell failed but he drank a healing potion instead.
Sharwyn tried to cast, can't, won't try that again. She'll throw a KNIFE AT MEEPO NO
OH THANK FUCK SHE MISSES.
I'm gonna drink a healing potion. Gain 8 HP.
Cast Armor of Agathys, gain 10 temporary HP.
I'M CAKED IN ICE AND THERE'S FIRE COMING OUT OF IT.
Bankroft breaks out of Entangle!! BOIIII.
What. A. Boi.
Erky targets the fucking frog with his Spiritual Weapon and I mean, Fair Enough.
Belak tries to hit me and can't.
ERKY GETS SWALLOWED. He's no longer Entangled, he' s just Swallowed.
Sharwyn doesn't even have her dagger anymore!! ONE DAGGER BTICH LMAO.
Can't throw it at me, goes for Bankroft instead, hits him for 6.
I cast Disguise Self to look like Belak - healthier, happier. I roll shit on my Intimidation though so that was kind of a waste.
Broke Entangle concentration though!
BANKROFT INVOKES RADIANCE OF THE DAWN.
THEY ALL FAIL THEIR SAVES.
13 points of Radiant damage anndddd....
SHARWYN IS DOWN
Erky is in a frog.
Belak circles around the tree and suddenly can hear his own breathing.
BIG FROG BITE BANKROFT THE CLERICS ARE GETTING HURT
WE NEED MEEPO BACK
Pump 3HP into Meepo - he back at 5 HP now!
Then pin Belak against the tree.
Bankroft moves to Flank the Frog with Meepo.
Belak uses 2nd level Cure Wounds, and Shout to his Frog.
Frog tries to leave, Meepo hits with OA. 9 piercing damage. Tries to bite me, MISSES.
MEEPO COMES UP AND STABS THE EVER-LOVING SHIT OUT OF THIS FROG.
I can't get Erky out a frog. But I can INTIMIDATE NAT 20 BELAK. "Look around you mate. Everything you've worked for is burning to ash. It doesn't have to end like this."
Bankroft brings Erky out the frog!
Erky casts Sacred Flame at Belak! Erky hits him with his sacred weapon!
AND WE BEAT HIM WOOOOO.
Then I Stab the Gulthias Tree, with my Radiant Consumption flowing through me.
Oh shit it's working, the branches are turning to dust and dying.
I see a red cyst, and pull out an almost-completely-ripe apple-like fruit, with a reddish hue.
Then Erky smashes the shit out of it, and then we burn it.
NEXT TIME I'm gonna want to check if everyone is dead; check if the two zombie guys have become human now that Belak is gone, check if the twig blights are still active, what's happened to the foliage, and then just like, spend some time exploring. Get all the loot. Take Sharwyn's body back to her mum. Go home.
And wow. What a battle.
Session Eight
LAST TIME ON RADIANCE TILLER
We had a To Be Continued moment.
Dragon-carved granite blocks line the walls. A huge marble statue of a rearing red dragon here. Eyesockets are empty but a red glow lingers there, providing reddish light throughout the chamber. Casts an inky shadow behind its wings.
5ft diameter circular tile of dark stone lined with runes lies before the statue.
Meepo and Erkey gonna hide, Radiance and Bankroft on lookout duty in case anyone shows up.
A few tense minutes pass, and then I start to hear not footsteps, but a faint scratching sound, getting closer. Sounds like multiple twig blights.
Cast Armor of Agathys. Rush back, warn the crew. Wait for them to arrive.
THEY ARRIVED. Four twigs. Save from sacred flame, then fail.
Mind sliver on the next one. 1 damage.
Only killed one and they're already at the door! Oh no! Meepo slams it shut.
Reposition a bit, then Meepo re-opens the door to STAB
And KILLS the bugger.
Next one comes through the door and gets BLASTED by Erkey.
Next one comes, Mind sliver, 1 damage again.
It tries to hit me and misses. I try to dagger him twice, and miss both times.
Meepo runs in to finish him off.
And then the DM said nothing for a worryingly long amount of time.
That worked well!
Time to go see if anything else is coming.
My dice say no!
But the DM says yes!
Bugbear swings at me and misses.
Goblin shoots me with an arrow, breaks the ice, and hurts me.
OH NO THIS IS BAD.
OH NO I ROLLED A 1 ON MY INITIATIVE.
And I am Unconscious.
Erkey brings me back up with the last Healing Word! 3HP.
Sacred flames miss. Meepo gets 'em with a caltrop!! Rolls a 1! 4 damage!
I look dead. The goblins rush past but miss their attacks. I hold my action to Mind Sliver the bugbear when she moves past.
She makes the save. And notices me cast. Fuck me.
She's gonna swing for Bankroft - and hits. Bankroft is down. Probably dead by the way she said it.
Erkey Command scroll! Bugbear commanded to Flee!
Meepo hits a gobbo!
THE GOBBOS CAN'T HIT FOR SHIT.
I'm gonna stand up and ICE UP AGAIN all cool like an icy dragon.
"I said ... don't be FUCKING stupid"
Bugbear flees from the Command, I lash out with my dagger on the way, 4 points of damage.
MEEPO KILLS ANOTHER GOBLIN
I follow her down the stairs, and Mind Sliver her and she GOES DOWN FUCK YEAAAAA.
The last gobbo runs, but I kind of catch up to it and threaten it and it doesn't run away.
HOO BOY I THINK WE SURVIVED SOMEHOW.
Okay. Okay. Okay.
Mini panic attack. Fuck off Cadhock. Don't need you right now.
Rising glee and pride that feels very out of place from the fear and anxiety I'm feeling.
The goblins don't like the twig blights.
Oyon the goblin.
Sagball the bugbear! We killed her brother!
She's got some KEYS I'm gonna take those for sure.
Oh shit we forgot the skeletons.
OKAY FINE we'll kill the skeletons too.
We kill the skeletons.
Bankroft is in a wheelbarrow, and we're heading back to a Rest Spot.
Brief interaction with a goblin on the way, who we kind of persuade kind of bribe - lost 1 sp.
Back to the Iron Dragon room, where we'll set up a watch and rest.
Things I want to ask Oyon:
What's with this room?
What's with the Outcast?
Does he have any other kinds of plants? Any surprises?
What kind of powers does he have?
IF we were to rally against him, to eradicate the blights, would the goblins follow us?
We can call him Ons? If we don't want something. His name is Ons. It's Oi! Ons!
Belak wants all things to be like his twigs - he's trying to make animals more plant-like.
The prisoners are still with him, possibly being drugged or brainwashed. "His, now"
If we had a dragon. That would be really funny, it could burn up all the twigs.
Bankroft wakes up, have a wee chat.
And then we finish tonight's session!
OH OH OH
AND
AND
WE GOT LIKE 300 XP
SO
I'M LEVEL THREE BABYYYYYYY FUCK YEAAAA
Session Seven
I cut my finger making dinner so I'm typing withou=t a left index finger so excuse any typos :/
Is roday finally the day Radiance dies? It's long overdue let's be honest.
One can only hope.
I rouse feom my rest and we're ready to explore more of this sunken city.
OH YEAH AND I'M GONNA CONTROL MEEPO THIS TIME
I'm gonna grab a bit of glowing fungus.
I push Meepo in the wheelbarrow, he is a king and should be treated as such.
ONCE AGAIN
THE FIRST ROLL
IS A NTURAL TWENTY
To listen at a door.
Corridor split open by a natural rift, riddled with 2ft holes that smell hot.
Cross, continue to the other side. Carries on, then there's a door.
We'll open it!
SECOND NAT 20 TO KICK IN THE DOOR (it's stuck)
Faded mosaic tiles on the walls. Mostly fallen and shattered. In the centre, iron pedestal shaped like an upright dragon with an empty tray in its mouth.
Gonna pick up some broken mosaic tiles. Nothing else. Pet the dragon nose.
Dead end? Back up to the other door in the original garden room.
Something is snoring on the other side of this door, and something is squelching. Gross.
Long column lined hall, covered in fungus. Many small wooden tables, with a bunch of alchemy/cookery tools.
Bunch of doors leading off, all open.
Snoring coming from th left and squelching from the right.
The squelching is two gobbos treading out grapes. I cast a big spider on the ceiling and scare them.
Casks are full of goblin wine - the Outcast likes it. Three other gobbos asleep, five or so down rhe hall. Some armed but not much muscle.
Belak the Outcast has been here a while, this is his place. He does stuff with plants and magic. He's human. Has a big frog.
Flick them some copper. Bribe and threaten them - spider will follow them every night until he catches them.
Close the door and Radiance whooosh big oof that was stressy.
OKAY PHOEBE PROBABLY STARTED A NEW JOURNAL HERE BUT I DIDN'T SAVE THIS ONE SO WE'RE STILL GOING
It's been a few days and my finger is healed!! You'll be happy to hear! So hopefully not typos!
Meepo and I sneak into the north room with the sleepy gobbos. Rough barracks, 16 pallets of matted fur, two of which are currently occupied with sleeping gobbos - one on his own, two snuggled up.
Can't see any weapons, so sneak back out and try to wedge the door blocked.
Two active gobbos to the north, repairing something. 3 gobbos doing something nasty to the south - sounds like a giant rat being tortured. Far east doors, don't hear anything.
Don't really want to fight them all? That seems like a bad idea? So let's try to sneak past.
Far north is weapon storage with another door, far south is empty? With a caved in wall?
The cave-in joins up to the rift from earlier so now we have a way around.
I REALLY wanna follow the rift further south but Bankroft suggests our quest lies to the north, and we've made ourselves known so we're on a timer now. So we go north.
Find our way into a big room, with lots of cool dragon carvings on the wall. Lots of soil and compost, with feeble plants and glowing fungus. Looks like another garden area.
Door to the north, something walking around up there.
Gonna wait a minute by the door, and if it comes through we'll AMBUSH it.
OH NO SOMETHING CAME THROUGH NOW I GOTTA GO THROUGH WITH THIS.
UNLOAD on this BUGBEAR and then try to get her to surrender. She looks like she's a gardener - I feel a little bad but fuck it, she's got a fuck off sickle glaive and she's gonna warn Belak.
She RUNS. I'm gonna chase after her.
She's looking *hurt* but not dead yet and I don't want her to get away and I don't really want to have to kill her? If I don't have to?
Oh no she has skeleton friends. Fuck it, it's a fight.
SKELETONS AND A TWIG AND SHE TOOK A HEALING POTION.
Still trying to threaten her, but I am surrounded.
Oh but! Erkey has Turn Undead! Two of them ran!
NO THE SKELETON HIT MEEPO HE ONLY HAS TEN HIT POINTS
MEEPO ONLY HAS 4 NOW!
The lady ran, I missed her. Skeleton succeeded it's Int save!! Rude!
MEEPO IS DOWN
Twig jabs at me, and hits me for 5 damage. 12 HP.
I'm really not liking how this is going??
Healing hands on Meepo! He's back up!
I got Crit Hit with a shovel and now both Meepo and I only have two hit points. Fuuuck.
YAAAAS MEEPO KILLED THE SKELETON
Bankroft blasts the blight.
WE'RE TAKING CHASE AFTER THE GARDENER
IT'S A LONG CHASE.
MEEPO'S SECOND WIND HEALS HIM BACK UP TO FULL.
We're at the end of a long corridor, not seen anyone in the many chambers we've run through. Long corridors are defensible.
OH NO GOBLINS
We're all waiting with ranged attacks ready. Meepo rolls two 19s at disadvantage, and a 4 on the d4, kills one goblin.
Bankroft heals me back up to 10.
These goblins just got two nat 20s. Erkey is very hurt, Meepo is on 4HP.
We're getting skewered, it's time to run.
I am on 7 HP
MEEPO KILLS ANOTHER ONE.
I cast minor illusion to make a spooky scary spectral figure fill the corridor, and the goblins get scared of it and run.
So we run the other way.
We're all hurt up this is real bad, we need to find a defensible location and REST.
We'll wait in the strange chamber, someone will keep watch down the corridor, and if after like ten minutes it seems like we got away with it, we'll try and find a quiet place to rest up.
And that's all for this one! The dice were really NOT with us. I'm kinda pissed. But that's how D&D goes ya know.
Session Six
So to start off with we're unpacking and I don't have my paper sheet and the one on World Anvil says my max HP is 2 so I guess I'm gonna have to be REAL careful this time!
My wife is real pretty and I love her so much and I'm so excited for this.
First roll (wis save in my dreams) Nat 20. This bodes well.
MEEPO IS COMING WITH US. Gonna try and get him kitted out a bit - armor, spear, buckler. Not a spear, those are Str based. Let's get him a lil sword. A pig-sticker.
I pay 15gp for his rapier to the goblins. It is called the BoarStick.
Down below is the Twilight Grove, where That Guy Belak tends his enchanted garden and has a Gulthias Tree (whispered). He has the remaining humans down there (minus the boy) so only the girl and the other guy down there with Belak.
Attach together with rope and try to climb down into the shaft.
I rolled a natural one.
This is an 80ft drop.
That's 8d6. That's an average of 4x7=28 damage. If that rolls high, it's enough to fully kill me.
I fucking hate climbing things.
We are not good at climbing things.
I can't beat a DC5 climb check.
We're never getting out of here.
OKAY WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO NOW?
Luminscent fungus giving violet light clings to the walls and ceilings of this wide cavern. The air is damp and chilly, with odours of loam and decay. A layer of earth mixed with rotting vegetation and the remains of cave animals covers the floor. Several varieties of mushrooms and fungi grow on the detritus as well as a few saplings. Also with a rusted wheelbarrow and some shovels are two robed skeletons attending the garden.
ANDOHSHITROLL INITIATIVE
The skeletons seem content to keep gardening, but a bunch of Twig Blights rush us!
3 points dmg - I'm on 14.
There are five of these fuckers.
Bankroft hits with sacred flame. MEEPO CRITS WITH THE BOARSTICK and PULVERISES that bitch. My mind sliver takes out another one. Erky gets a good high-damage sacred flame on a fourth and kills it! We are tearing them apart.
And thennnn the skeletons get involved. Booo.
They both miss me, and I even push one over! I'm such a bad. ass.
Nothing more dies this round but we're working away at a skeleton.
One of the skeles hits me and I get 1 point of bludgeoning damage. I'm on 13.
Bankfroft kills the blight that's been blighting him.
Meepo kills the last one now it's just skeletons.
I get hit again. I'm now on 9.
Mind Sliver finally kills the one I've been focusing on. Drops his shovel and collapses in a pile of bones.
And Erky kills the last one.
Phew.
Looking through the muck, and wouldn't you know it, we disturb something else!
An Angry-looking Bugbear, accompanied with two giant rats. Fuuuck.
It's okay his name is BallSag soooo how bad can he be?
Meepo runs into battle like the little shit he is.
He immediately gets SMACKED to the side and nearly killed.
We tried Diplomacy but it didn't go so well oops.
He hits me and I go down. I am unconscious.
Fail one death save.
Bankroft brings me back up - to 3. Fuck me.
A full round, then a rat knocks me down again. For fuck sake.
Succeed one death save.
Bankroft brings me back up - to 10 this time. Much better.
Agathys up, and I'm Grandstanding again.
Ballsag misses me but then the fucking RAT uses it all up!
And then the other one bites me and I'm on 7HP now.
Ballsag saves against the Mind Spike so that's a lot less cool.
Bankroft reduces the rats to ASH with his channel divinity.
AND THEN MEEPO GETS THE KILL BECAUSE HE'S A KING.
Head up to see where Ballsag came from. Oh he living Nasty. He had 11cp and 6sp. I'll give them to Meepo. And a crown of antlers. What a weirdo.
There's a windy tunnel that seems like it'll go to the Underdark. Suspicious. Seems like he hunts in the Underdark. That's hardcore. He has a Box hidden in his bed. With 241sp and 54gp.
Reassure Meepo that I don't think he's a simpleton and that I'm not keeping him along as bait and he's actually a valued member of the party. He seems to buy it.
I think we'll take a short rest here. 7 +6 = 13. + 5 = 17. Back up to full, both hit dice used. Spell slot back, Loremaster back.
Session Five
IT'S BEEN A WHILE
BUT HERE WE GO
GONNA KILL A TROLL AND STUFF
MEEPOOOOOOOO
As a reminder the important people are:
Cadhock (Fuck off Cadhock)
Grennal (goblin boss)
Ustral (Kobold boss) (totally into me though she won't admit it)
Calcrix (White dragon wyrmling) (totally into her and I will definitely admit it)
The Outcast Belak (don't know much about him!)
Ashardalon - legendary dragon, not around?
Bankroft - yes I will keep spelling it with a k because I don't respect him.
Erky - I've decided to start spelling his name "correctly" because I do respect him.
And ME your hero, Radiance Tiller, Guy With An AC Of 13 Who Thinks He's A Tank And Keeps Getting This Proven Wrong But Will He Learn? Probably Not Lol.
Retcon from last time: the troll is not trying to knock down the door.
Also metagaming: This Troll is a lot easier than the CR5 trolls that we're used to. We got it badly hurt last time.
Unless it's healed since it was awoken.
OH BOY THAT SOUNDS LIKE OMINOUS DUNGEON MUSIC
TIME TO GO?
I THINK SO.
We're gonna try and get more oil to hopefully set it on fire.
Kobolds don't really sell stuff but the gobbos might!
Buy some oil and flasks from the goblin.
And a ladder for 24 cp.
This Gobbo is called Belledoug.
Gonna leave the ladder behind and GO FIGHT A TROLL maybe.
We are NOT quiet. 9 7 7 5. I'm the 5.
DM is kind, we get to roll again. 14 this time, much better.
"Stars"
It's in the coffin, asleep. Oil in the pit. Ball bearings on our end.
Minor illusion of skeletal priests standing around the coffin. And then throw the flask of oil into the coffin.
INITATIVE
Meepo sets the pit on fire. I chuck oil into the coffin. This thing is awake.
And I drink the potion of fire breathing.
Bless'd
IT COMES OUT IT LOOKS BIGGER.
Meepo misses
Bankroft does some channel divinity shit and deals radiant damage to it!
Meepo misses, bless him.
Hex'd. Miss with the thingy, the crossbow. We're all rolling shit.
NEVER MIND MEEPO GOT A CRIT WITH HIS CALTROP SLING
I hit with my crossbow, and then run up to the pit edge to try and breathe fire on him. 4 d 6 fire!!!
11 PLUS 5 for the oil, 16 fire damage!
It didn't hit me. Good old Sanctuary.
RUN. GET HIT. AGATHYS HITS HIM. FIRE HITS HIM. I SHOOT HIM. HE'S ALL FUCKED UP.
HE DIES FROM HIS BURNING DAMAGE YASSSSS
Empty the last burning on him, incinerate him, and go get my ladder.
Upon the body I find: A shiny beautiful ceremonial dagger (oooh two silver rings; silver amulet
In the sarcophagus: 220 sp, 50 gp, 4 scrolls: Command, Cure wounds (2nd level), Inflict wounds (2nd level), Guiding bolt (2nd level).
Give 30sp and a silver amulet to Calcrix. Report back to Ustral, and call it a day there.
Session Four
For Phoebe this is session five but I put three and four together cos we did them on the same day.
There's no cool music yet.
Oh wait now there is.
Send Meepo off to talk to Ustral, and then we'll go try to get into the locked dragon room. Calcrix has built herself a little nest in her new room. Give her a couple of peridot dragons. She seems to like it.
Check the Dragon door for traps. Seems okay. Put in the key and oh my gosh it opensss.
This place has been locked up for aaages. Dusty. Dust everywhere. There's three alcoves on the north and one on the south. Each contains a stone pedestal with fist-sized crystalline globes on them. The north ones are cracked and dark but the bottom one is glowing with faint tinkling notes.
Door west, not locked or trapped. Going to touch a cracked globe. Nothing happens. Looks like it cracked from the inside out - some kind of power surge?
There was a dragon rearing up on the door. Are these scrying? Communication? Some kind of weapon?
The next room has a trap plate on the floor, I'll disable it with some crossbow bolts.
Next door. Big empty hall. Dust covers it like a layer of grey snow. Rounded northern end with a ten foot tall sculpture of a coiled dragon, carved from red-veined white marble.
Find nothing in the room. As soon as a I get within five feet of the dragon, it begins to speak.
We come at night without being fetched. We disappear by day without being stolen. What are we?
Stars.
A HIDDEN DOOR pivots into the room.
It was speaking in common which seems odd to me. Introduce myself and ask it what it is. No response. Ask about the globes in the other room. No response.
Before going I reach out and touch it. After a moment, the secret door closes.
Okay, this door closes after about a minute.
We're gonna try to prop open the door with a rock but we're all weak as shit. Use a smaller rock Radiance.
Looking through, there's another dusty hall, with alcoves. At the far end a stone archway opens into a wide room from which a greenish light glows. A dark pit is situated before the archway.
Every alcove except the southwest one contains a humanoid elven figure in plate armor, carved in the same marble as the dragon statue. The dust has been disturbed in here, tracks which seem to start in the southwest corner.
The tracks seem to have been made by kobolds. From empty alcove to the pit. Doesn't seem to be anything in the alcove. Whatever came from here just apparated I guess.
Save that for later.
Looking through the archway, there's a room with violet marble tiles on the floor and walls, though all cracked or broken. Greenish light comes from the corners of the room. Centre of the room lies a marble sarcophagus, easily nine feet long, carved with dragon imagery, head of the sarcophagus resembles a dragon's head.
Look around the room, nothing I notice on the statues but Bankroft finds a secret door!
A tiny chamber with RUNES on the southern wall. No traps. Draconic runes say "A dragon priest entombed alive for transgressions of the Law still retains the honour of his position" - there were five priests in the sarcophagi, not six. Maybe there's a reason he wasn't entombed with the rest of them?
His position was behind this wall? Or the opposite one?
Position means station or role, not literal position.
There are iron clasps locking down the lid of the sarcophagus. As if something was being kept in there against its will.
I wonder if I can enlist a dragon to help me?
How did people get in or out? There's a bloody (figuratively) great pit in the way, how did they seal away that thing?
Are they still in here?
Shit I think those statues are the Defenders of this thing or whatever. Petrified in some way.
OH FUCK SOMETHING'S JUST ATTACKED ME AS I CLIMB OUT OF THIS PIT.
Con save? NAT ONE? THIS SUDDENLY GOT REALLY BAD.
I'm down 11 hit points AND poisoned.
There's a teeny tiny little bean in here! Some kind of imp-looking fuck. It scratched me and HURT me OW.
ARMOR OF AGATHYS IS UP.
Hey maybe this is what made those footsteps.
Laughs and "you broke my binding! My watch over the Dragon Priest is over!"
Urkey healing words me.
"I broke your binding, you owe me a favour" but no answer.
Pick up a torch, cast Detect Magic. The torch is magical, green fires.
Some kind of magic inside the sarcophagus. A few wee things.
There's something magical near the ceiling on the other side. This fucker is on the ceiling and I can't get to it.
None of the statues except the dragon are magical. The cracked orbs are empty, the bottom one glows with Enchantment.
The little guy doesn't want to talk, so I'm gonna SHOOT it.
And amazingly, I hit!
Oh shit I think I killed him! I just pissed off my first demon.
Put lit torches in the other sconces.
There are six rusted iron latches holding down the sarcohagus' lid. Carved with intricate dragon imagery. To get this open I'd need to break all the latches.
Bankroft busts one open with a nat 20.
We get them all open. I send the boys back across the pit and get ready.
Dirty 19 to push this thing open.
There is a TROLL in this coffin. Dressed in rotted finery. Jewellery and rings adorned with tiny silver dragons. Its body is shrunken and elongated. Long thick ropy black hair. Beady black eyes flash open and it snarls.
Oh. Shit.
I turn to run. It claws at me and breaks the Armor. I leap across the pit and MAKE IT across!
Mind Spike
Sacred Flame
It's coming for us.
Clears the pit. The boys disengage and run, I stand my ground and STAB it twice with daggers. It's taken about 20 damage so far.
I know that it's going to keep healing. I know I can't kill this thing.
I try to push it into the pit. I do NOT succeed.
I get to the door. Bankroft pulls me through. As he does it slashes me, and I go down.
Urkey kicks the door shut. The Troll is trying to batter down the door.
Bankroft heals me back up to 8.
We're going to warn people and rest and deal with our mess in the morning.
Calcrix thinks she can take it. Meepo says he should have been there. Ustral exchanges the fire breathing potion for two more dragon statues.
And we'll long rest.
Session Three
HERE WE GO BOIS
Should I sit and rest for a day? Absolutely.
Am I going to? Prolly not lmao.
Oh yeah btw last night I had a DREAM and Cadhock appeared to me and was like "you shouldn't be with these evil creatures" and I woke up with images of gobbos and bolds killing each other and fire in my eyes, so I guess so much for that plan.
Meepo is showing me around a lil bit.
There's some goblin prisoners, who I'm gonna interrogate a bit. Asking who the Outcast is, and what the goblins want.
Durn is very hairy - a hobgoblin, took over the tribe. Probably the one to focus on.
Grennal is not in charge anymore - presumably a goblin.
Boogli is this goblin's name. Gave him some meat, told him I'm called The Skinwearer, and walked away.
The writing on that first chamber with the dead goblins was Ashardalon - the dragon that legend says burned everything down.
Tried to hit the fish door and chipped off a bit of stone.
The stuff on the altar behind Ustral are three scrolls, a flask, a feather, bits and bobs.
Put up detect magic, the dragon door is magic and there's something in the circular tower?
Have a look around, and find a SECRET DOOR! Take a point of damage from a trap, but it opens.
Inside there's three skeletons, apparently of long-dead archers. These are medium humanoids, this isn't kobold or goblin this is old shit.
Throw a dagger to see if they're alive. No movement.
Step into the room, and fire blazes in two eye sockets and they stand up. INITIATIVE TIME BABY
They both miss me, and I hit one with a club but do fuck all damage.
Bankroft fudges his sacred flame, but Meepo STRAIGHT UP KILLS ONE with a sling.
We've had six turns and nobody has hit anything, so many crit fails, this is ridiculous.
Bankroft flames it, but then it hits me with a sword and I go. down.
This is ridiculous.
FIRST DEATH SAVE.
I'M BACK UP WITH 6 HP
I'M BACK DOWN TO 1
MEEPO KILLS THE SECOND ONE TOO!
Looks like these three died when the Calamity struck this place. There was probably some Big Magical Thing that took these guys out and left them in suspended undeath.
Looking in the room I find: 26 silver, 20 gold, 60 arrows, and three "Special" arrows and a bone shortbow.
We're gonna pretend to go, but actually take a long rest.
The arrows are +1 arrows. I don't have a bow. But I do heal up to max! wooooo
While resting, I feel joy! Feels like Cadhock is pleased. Good for him.
OKAY LET'S GO.
Okay, open the door without the bell. There's a room with caltrops and a low wall, on the other side of the wall? Goblins.
I give them a dead rat, roll a nat 20 on persuasion, and ask to speak to Grennal. Turns out she's a she!
Shows up with a few more gobbos. This is now more than I can comfortably kill.
They seem impressed that I've killed the big rat. Meepo is gonna hide.
If I kill Durn, I can have the dragon. They'll send "The little one" with me.
Meepo gonna stay behind and wait cos he's a good boy.
Into the goblin camp, they're very proud that they're bandits. They have a few prisoners, three kobolds and a gnome in a very small cage. Urkey Timbers. He was ambushed, his deity has kept him going. Cleric, at least level 2.
We work at the cage for a while and manage to get him out.
Apparently there's THREE hobgoblins to deal with. Going to try and sneak in on them.
Cast AofA on myself.
Grab a burning torch.
Peek into a circular room. Sickly light shining up from underneath, torches round the outside. Sickly vines grow from below. Stone throne with an iron chest, and a sapling growing in a stone pot next to the throne. Durn's on the throne.
We're gonna try to cantrip one, then throw oil and fire on Durn, and just hope for the best.
OKAY IN WE GO
MY MIND SPIKE FAILS BUT THE SACRED FLAMES BURN UP ONE OF EM
AAAA I'M AFRAID
MISS WITH THE OIL
DAGGER HITS THE OTHER ONE
BANKROFT GETS THE FIRE LIT WHAT A MADMAN
Erkey sanctuaries me.
DURN IS BURNING AND CAN'T HIT ME WITH SANCTUARY. The other hobgob opens the door and shouts something and then attacks Urkey BUT CAN'T WITH SANCTUARY. Can't hit me, and misses Bankroft.
Okay my turn. Move against the wall, Mind spike the hurt one. Bankroft finishes him with sacred flame.
ONLY DURN LEFT THE BIG ONE.
A twig blight comes to hit me! But nobody can get past the sanctuary defenses.
This goes on for a while, then Durn starts running after Bankroft.
Mind spike hits. Sacred flame hits. It goes on like this for a bit.
AND THEN BANKROFT DEALS THE FINISHING BLOW.
And then we deal with the twig blight.
Encourage Bankroft. A moment of peace to look around. Durn has two vials of anti-toxin. The vines are thick and pale, white and grey. Look like I could climb down them into the shaft. Durn has a signet ring on his finger - like one of the twins'. Presumably the brother's, from the fit. Also has a key, presumably for the iron chest.
40gp silver earrings with moonstones, and 50gp necklace silver with moonstone. The splint armor on Durn also has the HuKreol family crest.
Inside the chest then, 231 gp, 2 onyx gems worth about 30gp.
Urkey says they captured three adventurers about a month ago, and The Outcast is called Belak - remember that the Innkeeper told me about a guy called Belak who had a giant frog about 12 years ago, who was asking about The Citadel.
FUCK. DURN WAS BRAGGING ABOUT THE LOOK ON HER FACE WHEN HE KILLED HIM WHAT IF THE "HER" WAS KERWYN'S DAUGHTER? SHE COULD STILL BE ALIVE.
Okay first thing first is to talk to Grennal. Ooh the goblins have glowing fungi. There's DOZENS of goblins in here. They have a TROVE of bandited goods. Grennal is happy to see Durn is dead.
In the Twilight grove below there is a wicked old human called Belak, a spellcaster who tends an enchanted garden and harvests fruit from the Gulthias Tree. Corrupted plant evil. They only ever whisper "Gluthias tree".
Midsummer fruit restores vigor to those who eat it, Midwinter fruit steals the same. Belak lets the goblins sell the fruit. She doesn't know what he gets out of that. Twig blights live around the tree, sometimes go out and kill things.
They captured three humans. Belak wanted them, he wants all the living human prisoners, but in anger Durn killed the boy, so only the girl and Sir Bradford went down. Belak seems content to live with his plants.
Grennal doesn't seem to want diplomacy. She drives a hard bargain too.
Don't achieve much. Buy passage through the tunnels with 100gold. So much for all the Durn loot.
If the dragon kills another goblin, it's my head. She seems to be willing to give me the dragon.
Dragon room: Mounted and stuffed animal heads adorn the walls. Cattle, rats, and other not particularly impressive specimens. A few kobold heads. Trashed furniture around the room. In the middle there's a rusty iron spike trailing a broken chain. Patches of frost on the walls and floor.
OH SHIT THAT'S A DRAGON THAT'S SO COOL.
Feels like I shouldn't mention Meepo.
I am flirting with a dragon and bribing it and flattering it and it seems to be working? This is the most aroused I've been in weeks.
Scroll case, Khundrukr in Dwarvish on the outside. Old worn parchment inside, with a short message in Dwarvish. "The remaining few...by order of Durgeddin the Black we have created a Dwarven ... redoubt. None shall find us. However...."
Dragon girl doesn't want this, I can keep it.
Lead her back to the Kobolds without incident, she's in her new room and seems to enjoy it.
Ustrayl doesn't want to talk to Grennal any more than Grennal wants to talk to Ustral.
Spell scrolls: Spiderclimb, Dragonsbreath, Mage armor. Potion is Elixir of Vitality.
I'll take spiderclimb and dragonsbreath, and I'll swap the Vitality potion for the Fire Breathing Potion.
I have an All Access Pass, and THE KEY.
They have a tunnel to the Underdark. It's how they got in, and they go hunting there.
OH HEY I GET ENOUGH XP TO LEVEL UP. Long Rest timeeee.
I have a DREAM where my Sphinx shows up and wants to know what I've learned and what I'll do next. Talking it out with him, I decide on Rune Keeper and Beguiling Influence. I ask him about the locked skeleton door and he says "Are you not a holy man?" so I think I'm gonna ask the cleric to Turn the Undead on it.
He's gonna do it! The door glows ghostly blue and SWINGS OPEN MUTHAFUCKAAAA
I send Bankroft to get Meepo.
There's five dusty sarcophagi standing on end. An altar with dragons carved into black obsidian is set into the west wall. A single candle burns brightly on the altar.
Detect magic, the candle is magical, that's how it's still burning. Two items on the altar are both magical. Quite small though.
I'm going in.
Each coffin resembles a noble elf-like humanoid in ceremonial robes. The items are a small whistle and a crystal flask.
There's also a Secret Compartment with 6 peridot jewels carved in the likeness of a dragon, worth about 10 gold each.
I place two jewels on the altar and TAKE THE SHINIES and THREE COFFINS OPEN ROLL INITIATIVE.
Okay, Armor of Agathys, Meepo slings a caltrop, Erky casts Sanctuary.
I run past three of them, two miss, one hits me, takes out the AoA but I get out the room relatively unscathed.
We just had a full round and nobody, friend or foe, has taken any damage.
I tried to talk reason to them, but they're not in the mood to listen. I can't close the fucking door.
We are taking our time here. Whittle them down with rocks and sacred fire.
One of them hit me whaaaat except he DIDN'T because I have LOREMASTER.
Only one left. Meepo gets a nat 20. Does 8 points of Rock damage with a 1 on the die.
I got cocky and tried to hit it. And we had a full round of everything missing including the skeleton. What is this fucking game.
I finished it off with Mind Sliver.
Short rest. The flask is a potion of fire resistance.
The whistle looks like a tiny curled up dragon which is fucking cute. Made of crystal. Name in Dwarvish Nightcaller. I don't get all the details but pretty sure that it might allow me to do something like animating the dead holyyyyy shiiiiiit. I'm gonna pocket that until I can properly identify it.
The next thing I want to do is visit Calcrix, give her some peridot gems, and go into the Dragon Room.
Session Two
The cool music starts
Radiance has blood on his nose from being bitten by a rat.
It's okay though, Bankroft totally fixed him.
Also there's a circle of stones on the ground which I didn't notice last time.
START HEADING DOWN THE STAIRS INTO THE DARKNESS JUST AS THE MUSIC GETS REALLY COOL
A fortress emerges, a subterranean citadel, long forgotten. Cracked crenulations and leaning towers. All is quiet.
A breeze from below! Smells of dust and rot.
Open onto a courtyard, top of a battlement. We're on the roof. No clue how deep it goes.
There's a tower to the west.
There's some kind of hidden thing in the floor, gonna hit it with my stick!
Also there's a door infront of me but nobody is answering when I call out.
Try to hit the thing in the floor. No good. Try to Investigate it. 23 babyyyy let's see what this issss.
It's a pit trap with a few skeletons and a goblin corpse and a giant rat!
Ignore that, move on, try to open the door.
No problems, opens fine.
4 dead goblins inside! Slain in combat. Been dead for a while, not recent. Not been dragged away to be buried, but seem to have been looted.
Tower goes up but there's no doors or stairs up.
BEHIND ONE OF THE DEAD GOBLINS THERE'S DRACONIC RUNES. This isn't graffiti, this is OLD. I don't speak draconic rip.
Seems like folk haven't been here recently.
Two doors, NW and SW. Coin toss says we go NW.
NW is a corridor. I'll check SW.
SW is a ruined hall. There's rubble to the south, and a stone door to the west. There's a rearing dragon on the door, with a keyhole in the mouth.
Investigate the rubble. BITTEN BY A GIANT RAT IT DOES 6 POINTS OF DAMAGE FUCK.
Stab with a dagger, and hit with my torch and it DIES FUCK YOU RAT.
Back to the corridor. Three doors, L, F, R
Leftmost door, carved with fish. is locked. I can't open locked doors.
Try the Right door. Opens to an empty room. Nothing really of note. I'll leave that.
Front door time!
Crudely executed symbols and glyphs in bright green dye decorate this chamber. A large pit shows evidence of a recent fire. Metallic cage in the middle wall with a big hole, stands empty. Wooden bench with a green cloth, and several small objects.
Bedroll on the far wall with WHIMPERING.
Talk to the Whimperer, and a red face peeks up from the bedroll. WHO IS IT THE SUSPENSE.
IT'S A LITTLE KOBOLD BUDDY. He's called Meepo.
The wretched goblins stole Calcrix, your dragon. Ustral is their leader.
Promise to be nice to the kobolds.
The symbols are crude draconic. In the cage there are some white scales. Look like the scales of a White Dragon Wyrmling. That's INSANE. Ima take a scale.
Meepo is gonna take us to meet Ustral.
Guides us through some corridors into a big open hall, lined with columns carved with dragons. East to west.
Three kobold guards on the east side, little throne to the west side made of bits of masonry. Old altar behind it with a rearing dragon carved into it, and a metallic key held in the dragon's open jaws. Ustral (she) is sat on the throne.
The kobolds and gobbos don't get on well. She wants the dragon back and will reward me.
There's an Outcast who lives below. He grows the fruit, gives it to the goblins. They're his servants.
Meepo is Calcrix's caretaker, which would explain where all his scars came from.
This is a holy place, and dragons were worshipped here long ago.
We'll take a long rest with Meepo before heading out.
Dragon's been gone for about a week.
Head back to the village, leaving my book of lore with Ustral.
The citadel, legends say it was an old old dragon cult a long time ago. There was apparently a dragon who rampaged and fucked up the land creating the Ashen Plane. Dragon called Ashardalon. Nobody seems to know about the Outcast.
Stock up on supplies, chat with Kerywyn, and then head back out!
I CANT GET DOWN A FUCKING ROPE AND I LOST HALF MY HIT POINTS GETTING DOWN THE ROPE.
Bankroft helps me out.
Meepo is glad to see us. Ustral reminds me that kobolds are Heirs of Dragons (lmao)
Let's go find a dragon!
_____________________
Meepo takes us eastward through the citadel to a back way into the Goblin Territory.
About a month ago a group of humans came this way - the party from before.
Through to a damaged room with a damaged fountain, with a diving dragon. Don't see much in the fountain. Door opposite, with skeletal dragons carved onto the door. Carvings over the top in Draconic, Meepo says they say "Rebuke the dead, open the way"
THIS DOOR WAS TRAPPED a scythe comes out of the ceiling and SLASHES me.
It's locked, unnaturally cold around it. Some kind of enchantment but I can't figure it out. Bookmark for later.
Further up to a musky smelling hallway, with six doors. At the end of this hallway there's another room with another fountain!
Doors open to small cells. There are abandoned rat nests in them ew.
THE NEXT SET OF DOORS HAVE RATS IN THEM BANKROFT GOT BIT WE'RE IN A FIGHT WITH RATS FUCKING AGAIN
Shot it, whipped it, sacred flamed it, it died.
Shinies in the nests!! Moneyyyy. and a cute lil gem.
The cobblestone floor further up (fountain room) contains two trapdoors, blocked open by iron spikes woww. Rotten stench pervades the room. 20ft deep pit in the trapdoors. Looks more like a trap than a passageway. Smell seems to be coming from the door to the left.
This fountain has suspicious tubes in the mouth and a rusted iron canister, and some very faded runes that say: Let there be death. Seems ominous.
Go back to the other fountain, no tubes on that one. This one says "Let there be fire"
Meepo says it in Draconic and REDDISH LIQUID SPILLS OUT OF THE FOUNTAIN'S MOUTH.
This shit is some kind of POTION. Not totally sure what it is though.
Meepo is a lil cutie, a human human man.
Next door, sounds like a rat on the other side so I KICK OPEN THE DOOR AND JUMP BACK
It smells in there, and there's loads of disgusting dead shit on the floor. A vile nest.
Two giant rats surrounding one particularly swollen diseased giant rat - this one is human-sized.
Regular rat misses me, Big Mama hits me, I fail Con save and I have a DISEASE!
CAST ARMOR OF AGATHYS
I GOT ALL BIT UP
MEEPO IS DOWN BUT HE'S NOT OUT
I KILLED ALL THREE OF THEM I'M GREAT
FIX MEEPO WITH HEALING HANDS BUT BANKROFT IS THE MVP REALLY HE KEPT ME ALIVE
Okay there's two gobbos and a kobold and the dead ranger in the rat den.
I find 312 silver, 68 gold, and 3 gems worth about 25 gems. Several items on the ranger's corpse - studded leather armor, five daggers, a longbow, a backpack with a waterskin, one day's rations, a bedroll, a tinderbox, and three torches. A quiver with six arrows, a potion of healing, and a pouch with 16gp. And a gold ring on his finger, engraved with his name, worth about 10 gold.
Try to rest. My disease is stopping me from getting any hit points back. My leg is looking infected from where the big one bit me. Oh and the potion is Fire Breathing.
Ask Ustal if they have any healers, Kobold medicine man comes to have a look at me. Gets a natty twenny because he's a KING. I am no longer diseased biaaaatch.
But my HPmax is 7 until my next long rest.
This ain't so good huh? Well let's see how things go.
Session One
The cool music starts.
Radiance awakens. He looks sexy. But not like he's putting effort into it.
Except for all the bandages covering his face. Don't worry though. They're cosmetic.
The sphinx has given me a quest to solve a mystery, to prove myself. Promise that if I can solve it and return, the power that I seek will be granted to me.
A small boon has been given, proving the power this being possesses.
Oakhirst! Where I'm going. And I have Bankroft, an Acolyte companion who is guiding me.
Oakhirst is a village. Not much to it, except that it holds a mystery oooo.
Mysterious ruins nearby. Convinced Bankroft that it's important and should be kept secret.
There is a tribe of goblins infesting the ruins!! Once a year on Midsummer they sell one piece of fruit to the highest bidder in Oakhirst. Been doing this for 12 years.
Goes for about 50gp.
Apparently it's an Apple of Perfect Hue. Heals those who suffer from any disease or ailment.
Sometimes they try to plant the seeds, but as soon as they start to grow the saplings are stolen, presumably by the gobbos.
I am tasked with finding out how the goblins found this wonder, how they steal the saplings - and it might be cool to find the tree!
It is late spring. Verdant, trees very green. Hot, almost oppressively so.
Bankroft keeps offering to remove the bandages, but it's "part of the trial I must bear"
Want to find someone who knows something about the goblins.
The Inn in Oakhirst - the Old Boar. (I made a joke that the priest at my temple had that nickname but I think Phoebe took that seriously)
Garon, the tavernkeep. Seems nice.
Have a drink.
Asking around, to get the local perspective about the goblins, and find out what is true, and if anyone needs some help with things.
Old man with a pipe doesn't think much of it. Thinks people are foolish to spend so much on goblin trash.
He's coughing, I cast light on a penny and press it to him, to make him think I've helped him.
Old Martha, a washerwoman was so excited to get the fruit. She got the bad fruit and it KILLED her.
IN WINTER THE FRUIT IS BAD! It's white in winter and it's bad. Even if you touch.
Rurik, a dwarf at the bar.
A group has been in before about a month ago to try to fight the goblins. They never came back.
Two regular folk, brother and sister Talgyn and Sharwyn - HuKreole siblings, grew up around here. Had a weird fellow with them, Sir Bradford, holy fellow. And Caracas, a quiet one.
There's something Out There at nighttime that makes it unsafe. Not the goblins. Something from the ruins. People head out and find them in the morning full of puncture wounds.
Last guy who was expressing interest in the ruin was Bellak, a grim guy, not friendly but a lot of questions. Not a local, had a big frog.
Go to sleep. BUT FIRST. Sneak out, to see what kind of perimeter this place keeps. Bankroft is such a Good Holy Boy.
There's a general store, a smithy, a Village Hall, a few disinterested looking guards. There's a shrine to Pellor.
Meditate for a bit. The Light inside me starts to burn, I feel anger swelling within me and an image flashes across my mind of scorched corpses of goblins, before I push it away and calm myself. "We're not going down that route then"
Back to the inn and go to sleep.
MY ANGEL is called Cadhock - Cathock, Irish dh sound.
Bankfroft is not a fighter. He's also a coward and not reliable in a fight, but he can heal and I need him.
What I know about goblins: Evil, green, smaller than orcs, greedy, travel in packs, cowardly, ambush people. Bad. Stinky. Probably eat people. Not very intelligent.
Radiance is awkward around women.
Kerowyn HuKreole, the shopkeep. Matronly mum. Not convinced her kids are dead. Not a fan of Pellor! Because of the guy.
She wants me to find her kids. They each have a ring, of the family crest. If I can bring her the rings, she'll make it worth my while. 125 gp for each ring. Double if they're okay.
Buy some stuff from her - ball bearings, oil, rope, 5 torches and a tinderbox.
I want Distraction Meat from the butcher, a Fine Offering for the gobbos. Half a pound of Fine Meat.
There's a Gnome Priest. I didn't meet her, Bankroft did.
Leave my gold and crossbow with the inkeep.
And off to find a ruin!
Travel about 7 miles through dusty and desolate landscape. Come to the opening of a narrow ravine. The road runs alongside the ravine. There's some fallen pillars which I'll approach.
They're fallen, only two standing upright. Damage and graffiti.
Similar pillars on the other side of the ravine, something tore this place apart.
These pillars are really fuckin old. Not elf old, but still fuckin old. This was probably some kind of small citadel, the entrance to something much larger, but I don't see anything above ground.
The graffiti use dwarven script, but I don't recognise the words. This is goblin.
Edge of the ravine, there's a rope hanging attached to a pillar. A ledge about 50ft down, some footholds in the wall.
It's weird how dry it is here. I don't know what caused that though.
Descend to the ledge (nat 19 on Athletics for a total 18)
Sandy ledge overlooks a gulf of darkness to the west. There's rough stairs zigzagging down, descending into darkness.
There's a scuffle behind me, I turn around and HOLY SHIT it's time to roll initiative!
There's a giant rat.
IT BITES ME ON THE SHNOZZ.
I Mind Spike it.
BANKROFT NEARLY FALLS DOWN THE ROPE
I PUNT THE RAT INTO THE RAVINE and it DIES probably.
Bankroft gets down safely and heals me back to full. No sign of more rats.
We prepare to head down into the darknesse!
Comments