2023/04/05: Hunt for the Lord of Nightmares Part 2 Report
General Summary
NOTE: This session report is still under construction.
Knight, Daedalus, Buzz, Terana, Sunderfury, Allen
The party ventured into the Shisui dream realm known as the Caverns and Castles of Darkness. Zaran was pulled away, but Allen had been tromping along with the party in the background so far.
Ahead of the party, after a while of passing through strange landscapes, the party came to a dark cliffside full of caves. At the top was a castle. Lightning flashed behind it every time you look at it.
The naga guide stayed hidden from that viewpoint.
Rickety mine to bottom center. Spiderweb cave to upper left. Screaming skull cavern to upper right, highest up. The eyes of the latter have a subtle glow to them.
Allen did divination via darkness. Said Lord of Nightmares was far below, deep in the dungeon. The spider cave had the most traps.
Terana used her skill as a ranger to check for tracks. Found none, because dream, but the webs and skull seem ominous and untouched. Some people have stumbled through the mine path recently.
The party voted to go through the mine path. A good start, if nothing else. Lots of broken miner gear, some bones, a mine cart track, etc. The human remains indicate that someone butchered and ate most of them like a meat animal.
As they inspected the corpse, they heard a high-pitched cackling echoing through the tunnels. The party considered being scared, but decided it was more annoying instead.
The party activated their various anti-illusion senses and continued on. A wider path to the left, thin to the right, and one continued down to a giant void, with the cart track turning into a ramp up into the void. The giggling sounded from behind them. Knight advised everyone to stay off the track.
Reela Su sniffed around and found no traps, but did smell something small and reptilian.
Suddenly, something grabbed at Terana's leg. She jumped out of the way and saw a three-fingered claw retract back into the ground. When she alerted the party, Reela Su jumped onto Terana's shoulders and Daedalus jumped onto Knight's. The party (except for Knight) started using air walk to become less viable targets.
Knight concentrated to see spirits and life. He saw a small horde of malevolent spirits surrounding the party in the walls, ceiling, and floor. He bided his time, waiting for the next attack to come. As several grouped up beneath Allen. Stabbed through floor. One screamed.
A bunch came out of the walls at the group. Knight killed 12 of them off the bat with sweeping swings. Black, very scaly skin, red eyes, sharp teeth. Knight used Time Stands Still to parry for the group in the same action, while also activating his fear aura in case it affected these little things. (It didn't.)
Terana targeted another 12 individually, taking them to pieces.
The creatures immediately attacking the group had all been taken care of by the two swordspeople, but the pieces disappeared into the walls, and giggling and scuttling continued. Sunderfury, with no targets to attack, closed his eyes and focused on his necklace, trying to find the proper path. It pointed him to the narrow path to the right, and he informed the party and started heading in that direction.
He found that the tunnel was only 5' high and would be getting narrower.
Daedalus started playing his instrument, bolstering defenses. Gain 14 AC, 50 temp hp.
Reela Su wracked her brain, trying to figure something out. Allen realized this was a reference to the movie Gremlins from the '80s. The beings the group were fighting looked like black-colored gremlins. And if that was true, sunlight might kill them. And fire also works.
The party moved to the narrow tunnel. Tunnel is wide enough (10'), but goes down to 4 ft. height and 80 long. Knight checked on the creatures, and now there were about 100 around them. Buzz and Terana headed through the passage, scooting and flying along horizontally while Buzz exploded continuously. (Buzz took off the necklace that also makes the explosions do soulfire damage, since he didn't want to hit Terana with that.) The rest of the party stayed back, preparing for Knight to cut a portal to the other end once Buzz illuminated the other side.
At the other end was a spiraling cavern with a pool of water at the bottom, with gremlins bubbling out. Buzz laughed to Terana and tossed a light grenade. This was followed by a bright flash and a great deal of screaming. Then there was just dust. The party considered this a job well done.
All that was left in the room was six crashed mine carts and a few human bones. Buzz went to inspect the mine carts. They were surprisingly light. Annoying to get out through the path, though. Uneven ground.
Knight tried cut path to room. Didn't work; portal led to pitch black place with moaning. Knight tossed a pebble in and it didn't come back. Knight closed again.
Group went other path. Rotten tools, barrel, reinforced door. Barrel not a trap according to Reela. Reela went to go look at door, with Knight following. Terana and Daedalus opened barrel, then it exploded into zombie fishman thing. It slashed and bit around it, but didn't hit, and then Terana stabbed it. It pretty much evaporated. It left the barrel and a bunch of individual dead rotting fish.
Reela managed to finesse the door. Knight bashed it open as directed, and on the other side were a bunch of undead miners. About 50 ghost miners. Knight called for a light grenade and prepared to try to pull the door closed. Terana readied to stab anything that tried to come out, and Sunderfury prepared to help with the heavy door. Allen tossed the grenade, and Sunderfury and Knight easily dragged the door shut with their great strength. To be on the safe side, Buzz cast ghost grail. Daedalus, still semi-stunned by the sudden fishman, started up tense defensive music as the group waited for the results.
A bunch of the ghosts, but not all of them, came out through the walls. Mining noises came against the other side of the door as more tried that route. Buzz was only saved from vorpal decapitation by the ghost grail. Reela Su let out a yipe and dashed away down the corridor, chased by five of them. Knight took a bleeding wound to the chest, and Daedalus was hobbled. Terana's prepared counterattack cut all 12 she could reach to pieces, leaving only those chasing Reela Su. Knight chased those down in flight form and chopped them apart.
Terana and Sunderfury prepared for any more incoming ghosts and Allen prepared to run. Finally, the grenade went off. The sounds from the other side of the door stopped. Two remaining ghosts did come out of the floor and went for the one making all the noise, the bard. Terana caught the picks on her sword moments before they would have buried themselves in Daedalus's eyes. Then she stepped aside, and Sunderfury stepped in, drew his sword (causing a blinding and deafening flash and thunder), and swung at the ghosts. They proved more resilient than their predecessors, and the one solid hit failed to break the receiving ghost apart.
And then Knight flew back in and chopped both of them in half.
Terana healed up the group, removing the various lingering wounds. Then Reela prepped the door to be opened again and the group headed in to investigate.
On the other side was a very worn armory for the mine. Corroded and rusted tools. Searched the room. Buzz found small glowing rock, Sunderfury found nicely preserved handle, Terana (being extra thorough) found a brick with space behind, with silver dagger with note wrapped around it. Note: "To my dearest beloved..." Rest faded away before could be read. Knight tapped with dream nail, ghosts played out drama of samurai in love with a woman dying before he could get to her.
Group continued down corridor. Two more doors, and then cavern opens out into some room with the sound of something very large breathing. Something lizardy.
Group checked the doors first. Trap on one: tripwire that'll be hit if door is opened. Might need to pull door off hinges to avoid. The other door was untrapped. Sound of dripping in the latter, wind chime tinkling in the former.
Terana kicked open the untrapped door. Half carved, half natural room. Large cauldrons, and dirty laundry on the walls. On far side of room, pulsating green light near the ceiling. Source not immediately visible.
Terana headed inside carefully, alone. Suddenly, every single piece of clothing in the room animated and flew towards her. They formed a ball some 7 feet in height, crushing down on her. Fortunately, Terana's resistant to crushing and strangulation, so while it did hurt, it wasn't immediately lethal.
Knight, concerned about friendly fire, held back to let Buzz respond first. Buzz threw himself on the pile and exploded, but many of the raiments sacrificed themselves for the others, and only 17 of them died. Knight came in dual-wielding to try to bore a hole, but only killed another 15 of the surprisingly elusive undead monsters. Allen threw a couple of Molotov cocktails onto the pile, damaging a bunch of them.
Reela Su suggested that the pile of clothing could fit into one of the cauldrons. Daedalus kept playing his protective song.
Knight pulled another two swords and set upon the pile with increased vigor, killing many of them and using a wind blade strike to push towards one of the cauldrons. Allen, taking weretiger form, pushed at the same time and actually got the pile rolling with great effort. Reela tossed a lightning bolt from her wand into the pile, killing another batch. Daedalus continued playing, staving off death for Terana.
Buzz summoned a ribbed ramp of stone into the nearest cauldron, a target for the ball to roll towards. Knight abandoned the effort to cut a way through and joined in the pushing, aided by the large size granted by one of his swords. Reela Su tossed another lightning bolt in and Allen kept pushing. And then, working together, Allen and Knight pushed the ball over the edge and plunged it into whatever soapy liquid was inside. Terana, in the middle, felt the raiments beginning to lose their grip.
Suddenly turning ethereal, Terana rose from the cauldron, the raiments dissipating inside. The more experienced members of the party started praying to the sky that Humphery not smite them for letting Terana die. Terana, only a few seconds later, returned to material form, and promptly hugged Daedalus and swung him around, thanking him for helping her stay alive. (And then she thanked the rest of them.)
The cauldrons, it turned out, were filled with soapy water with the effect of random potions. The source of the green light was a malformed semi-goblinoid head, apparently "Galbroz's (sp?) head of animation", a cursed item. It animates evil monsters and items in the area. It doesn't discern friend from foe.
It turns out the other potions in the cauldrons were a random polymorph potion, random race change, and a random color change potion. Terana was very glad she fell in the etherealness potion. All of the potions except the etherealness are permanent. Everyone took 10 vials of their choice.
Meanwhile, Sunderfury had succeeded in cleanly removing the trapped door. Inside the room was what appeared to be some sort of alchemical processing plant. Buzz summoned a poison clone and sent it in. A jade skull rose from a corner and destroyed the clone instantly. Buzz and Terana immediately recognized this as a demilich.
Terana, sworn to destroy any undead she comes across, started doing a variety of things with Lume and her other swords. She put on four extra arms and pulled out four extra swords, then went in. Buzz followed her in. The rest of the party stayed outside, with Allen picking Daedalus up by the scruff of his neck when the brave little goblin tried to follow the first two into soultrapping range.
(Knight joined them after it was clarified that the main danger was soultrapping, and he's immune to soul stealing as long as he's holding his soulblade.)
Buffed up, the three combatants entered the room. Knight found the demilich in the spot where it had dropped down behind cover. He activated Time Stands Still and the kote of striking, lashing out with a barrage of attacks. No damage was done, but each strike caused the appearance of the skull to shift, bouncing between different varieties of skulls, from oni to human to featureless gem and back. The demilich started doing its best to swear at him in confusion. (Note: This was not a defense mechanism. The dream nail was, somehow, hitting the randomize button on both the demilich's appearance and abilities.)
Then Terana came in, and she was on a mission. On top of the whole pile of varied sword strikes, she tossed in a ray of salvation for good measure. Partway through, an invisible defensive shield shattered. Most of the remaining attacks still did no damage, but Lume was making a zapping sound on hit. And then the ray hit it and the skull lit up, with light pouring from its eyes.
And then Buzz laid his hand gently on its head, holding his holy symbol in his other hand, and channeled a phoenix gate into it. "Go and find peace in the afterlife."
The demilich gained a flaming crown, and a body of green flame began to form beneath him, floating in the air. Dark green robes, flesh, wicked looking dark green tattoos of runes that are also snakes. When it finished, standing there was an archsorcerer guy with long black hair. "Sexy villain" type. With a flick of his fingers, he summoned a jade green staff to his hand.
Fairly powerful sorcerer who dabbled in this and that.
Got a little too deep in nightmare, became a sort of lord of nightmares.
Was defeated by the current Lord of Nightmares and was turned into a trap.
He has some knowledge of the Lord's more recent defensive upgrades. He can point out potential weaknesses.
He's only seen something like the DM Nail once before, and it was a sceptre that could aid one's control over the dream realm.
Was called LoN for over 1000 years. Before that he was a royal advisor. Teremech.
The big lizard at the end of the tunnel is a greater basilisk. Highly magically modified. Somewhat impressive, but still a slave of the bad guy.
The secret of using the sword to harm the LoN not so much to damage him as to contest his control over the local dreamspace. He can alter reality in his local area. The DM Nail is great for hitting things, but it should be able to alter things in a larger area. Teremech can train Knight in that.
Rewards Granted
2 xp
Notes
Allen is a 10th level wizard who is also a weretiger.
Sunderfury about 6', 250 lbs in standard human form.
Deadalus
Sunderfury Ironspire
Buzz Gizmo
Terana DelGarrod
Knight of Darkhome
Allen
Report Date
05 Apr 2023
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