2023/08/30: Continued Adventures in Space Report
General Summary
Buzz, Lillith, Johann, Kal'vus, Sunderfury, Zaran
Party carried on through space. A while later, a new encounter came along. Kal'vus was training with his trainees, Lillith was keeping an eye on the Amazons, Zaran was keeping a lookout by sticking his head out a porthole, Johann was interviewing some of the recruits.
The recruits are telling all sorts of horror stories about mind-controlling neogi and illithids raiding human settlements in the asteroid field. Some of them were rescued by pirates and taken to the place the party found them.
The ship happened across a giant mountain of doom floating in space. Giant skull on the top with burning purple flame coming out of the eyes. The party had to fight some giant wraiths that were chasing a guy in evil-looking black plate armor. The party had archers shoot the wraiths a lot. Buzz and Zaran tossed faerie fire and light at the wraiths to see what happened. The evil-looking guy blocked some strange space-warping attack that would have hit the ship, prompting Johann to target him with Know Alignment. The result came back as "Evil", but at almost the same time, he saw that his spell had failed. Something odd (and possibly cursed) was going on there.
Kal'vus destroyed one of the wraiths, and it seemingly turned back into sections of space. Apparently these are space-wraiths of some sort? Buzz annihilated the second wraith with holy damage.
The man in dark armor seemed to be cursed, probably by his sword. He was stuck saying ominous quotes like "There is no escape" and "All who face me despair", and he indicated through gestures that he'd be compelled to attack anyone who got too close. Attempts to disarm him stealthily failed. He indicated that defeating him in combat wouldn't break the curse. He's about 6'8" out of armor and 6'10" in it. He gestured to the mountain, indicating that there was some solution to the curse there. His sword was very distinctive and evil-looking. Johann started sketching it in the midst of gleefully taking more notes.
The party headed to the mountain with Zaran acting as the ferry. Given their choice of entrances, they went for an apparently concealed door. Lillith disarmed a trap and a ward on the door and led the way in, but was promptly grabbed by a trio of wererat skeletons and carried back down the tunnel. Johann summoned a wall of force across the tunnel ahead of them, and the rest of the group cheerfully mauled the things to death.
The party followed the tunnel down to a meat grinder trap zone, which seemed to be the nest and weapon of the skeletal wererats. The party looted the area (including Buzz disassembling the brick walls in search of hiding spots) and found a nice dagger and some keys. Carrying on from there, they found some murderholes/spyholes in the walls, letting them see into a variety of interesting rooms occupied by some varied monsters. Golems, a lich... and in a further room they passed by what were probably vampires or bats in the dark.
The party came across several chests sitting undefended and apparently untrapped. Lillith checked them and found nothing, and she even shot each of them to see if they were mimics. No response. Still suspicious, the party sent Kal'vus forward to open the chests, assuming he'd be best able to survive whatever the catch was.
His reflexes proved that true when the zombie mimics jumped for him.
Kal'vus managed to severely maul the lot of them before they reached him, but it wasn't quite enough to prevent their shattered remnants from surrounding him and mauling him in return. He wasn't dead, but he was bleeding all over. Buzz blasted one of them into nothing with holy magic, and then Johann stepped in and, with the aid of his Girdle of Spartan Strength, punched the two surviving mimics into pieces scattered across the far walls. While he set about recording notes about this new undead phenomenon, Lillith got to healing poor Kal'vus.
There were some loot items scattered amongst the remains. A golden helmet with big dragon wings coming off the sides, a figurine of wondrous power (sizable blue bear), and a black iron circlet.
The party had three possible paths to follow. One left, one right, and one straight forward up a slope. All were apparently natural caverns. The black knight pointed the party straight forward. Kal'vus tried to mark the slope with his sword in case this place tried to get them all lost in a maze of identical cavern passages, but the scratches immediately began to slowly repair themselves. The party shrugged and, with a mix of fascination, bewilderment, and wary frustration, carried on.
Rewards Granted
Character(s) interacted with
Amazons, recruited refugees, and a nameless man in intimidating armor
Kal'vus
Johann Erstklein
Zaran
Lillith
Sunderfury Ironspire
Buzz Gizmo
Report Date
30 Aug 2023
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