Five Wands - Turn 1.2

Spelljammer	Cult of the Black Earth
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Current Turn?	Yes	Subject:	Underworld
Campaign:	Greyhawk	Turn Start Date:	11/5/597
Adventure:	Cult of the Black Earth	Turn End Date:	11/18/597
Adventure Number:	AAL	Characters:	Barthon Brightwave, Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Wiley Finch
Turn Number:	1.2	Send To:	fivewands@championsoftheempire.com; dntimm@gmail.com; mghaught@gmail.com
Greyhawk Campaign?	Yes	Combat Turn?	No

Name	Lethal	NL	Current	END	PROT	LOW	DEF	ROF	Flash	Heal	Luck Pts	Fate Pts
Darkthorn	0	0	110/110	/0	11	3	78	10	0/0	4/day	2/2	1/1
Dyson Teague	0	0	95/95	2/2	12	4	106	20	0/0	1/day	3/3	2/2
Kalin	1	0	73/74	/0	10	3	79	0	0/0	1/day	2/2	1/1
Lorcan Smythe	18	0	51/69	8/8	10	1	30	0	1/1	1/day	2/2	1/1
Wiley Finch	22	0	68/90	/0	11	4	87	22	0/0	1/day	1/2	1/1
Barthon Brightwave	0	0	84/84	14/14	11	4	90	22	0/0	1/day	4/4	2/3
Aeryl Razorfin	43	0	45/88	4/8	7	4	56	8	0/0	2/day	4/4	1/1
Grick	0	0	46/46	/0	3	0	40	4	/0	1/day	/2	/1

Mage/Psioncist Name	Psionic Pts	Spell Pts	Spell Pool	Miscellaneous Information
Lorcan Smythe	5/6	18/19	19/19
Wiley Finch	/	23/25	11/11
Kalin	13/14	/	/
Darkthorn	7/9	/	/

Name	Notes
Darkthorn	Ranger Pool (29/29), 25% Damage Reduction (all damage types), Lesser Enchantment, Mental Perception, Protection from Evil.
Dyson Teague	Lesser Enchantment
Kalin	Cleric Pool (25/29), Lesser Enchantment
Lorcan Smythe	Lesser Enchantment, Detect Magic
Wiley Finch	25% DR Elemental, ~~Familiar-Cristo~~, Lesser Enchantment
Barthon	Magic Points (19/19), Lesser Enchantment
Aeryl	Lesser Enchantment
Grick	Lesser Enchantment

04/04/2024 (GM-Jason)

Following the trail of the drow noblewoman. Travel for the rest of the day. Set up camp in a side nook and ignore the waypoint.

Travel half a day and come to a walled-off passage with a smaller passage leading off to the left. "Thanarim Checkpoint".

Another 15 minutes and Barthon reports something up ahead. (Barthon and Aeryl are our forward scouts because they are both elves with infravision).

Wiley casts Wizard Eye. There are drow guards, spider and a female drow leader.

We are heading towards Venomspire. We are asked to pay passage of 40 gold, but Kalin brings it down to 30, which is still too high.

The next few days pass uneventfully. Then Barthon sees light up ahead. Wiley scouts with a Wizard Eye. It is a caravan coming in our direction. Draft animals are spider-like critters. The caravan is run by dark gnomes, who are generally of good alignment. Venomspire is about 2 days ahead. The inn is welcoming but stay away from Lloth's Temple and Astolen's Tower. The town is in a large cavern about 100 yards across. It is bisected by a lava river with bridges over it. There are four exits from the cavern.

The right amount to have been charged at the checkpoint should have been 5 to 10 silver each. We ask them to make a quick map and they agree.

GM: Jason awarded 1500 EXP for the night.

04/11/2023 (GM-Jason)

Enroute Venomspire.

2 days pass uneventfully. We pass another checkpoint. Small building of mushroom wood. 75% drow, then evil dwarfs and dark gnomes. We also see a human. Village is a few hundred people.

We head to the inn and book a large room for the group.

There is one other main exit from this cavern. There are 2 other exits that lead to farming caverns.

We ask about the woman - the Dark Lady - whose name is Enari. 2 days to the west is a branch and breaks off to the right and her residence is that way. She lives in a cavern. No one seems to know her well. She generally has a negative reputation among the residents of the underworld because she is apparently no ruthless enough.

We visit the herbalist. We commission the herbalist to make some magic potions. He can make a Cinnabar Eye Cusp potion allowing underworld vision for 24 hours. Base cost of 150 sp.

He can also make a Stone Burner potion (can burn up to 200 cu.ft. of stone) Base cost of 300 sp.

We spend a couple of days while the herbalist makes all of the potions we asked him to make.

We depart Venomspire heading west.

On the second day, we come across 2 passages to the left which we ignore and later we come to a passage to the right. Darkthorn sees recent tracks of a spider creature. We take the branch and travel for a couple of hours and Barthon sees some light up ahead.

We see a wondrous cavern. Mushrooms, glowing crystals, glowing beetles. 80 foot tall purple mushroom. Dense crystals above the mushroom. Drow woman (except blue eyes) with leathery wings on top of the mushrooms standing there looking around.

Wiley casts a Wizard Eye to look around. There is a ruined building with a dinner table filled with food.

Everything is magical at level 8 except for the purple worm, the woman and the ogre. The woman is magical but not has high. She was given this cavern by a great demon lord.

We depart, spooked by the actions of the woman. We retreat down the passage aways and Kalin casts a Divination spell. However, the answer from his god is, "This plane is closed off to me. I cannot give you guidance." This seems to infer that the woman's cavern is a separate plane of existence.

We decide to head back with the idea that Dyson, Wiley, Barthon and Grick will go in and party. They try to learn more but she says she won't talk unless at least a couple more people come in. Lorcan and Aeryl decide to go (Kalin has a Group Mind up with Barthon, Dyson and Wiley while Dyson and Barthon have a Mind Link between them).

A couple of hours pass and the Group Mind ends. Four more hours pass. Darkthorn and Kalin are still out in the corridor. Over the course of the next day, each of the partiers wander off and find a place to sleep. Enari takes an interest in Lorcan.

GM: Jason awarded 2000 EXP for the night.

04/18/2023 (GM-Jason)

Darkthorn and Kalin go in and find everyone except Lorcan. They carry them out of the cavern where they continue to sleep. Kalin cast a Restore Consciousness on Aeryl and ask him what happened. He says that Lorcan went off to the big purple mushroom with Enari.

We wait around for an hour but Lorcan does not show up.

We continue waiting around for another 12 hours.

After another 6 hours we begin to see other party participants waking up and getting something to eat or otherwise moving around.

Lorcan wakes up an hour later (although we don't know this.).

Lorcan finally comes out of the cavern and meets us.

A couple hours later, we go back to learn more about

Troubles in the area down here. We've been keeping an eye on them, keeping tabs on them. There is something going on. Trying to determine if cults are working together or working independently of each other.

There is obviously a greater force manipulating things. The cults started in the underworld but moved back to the surface about a year ago. There are underdark drow involved in the movement. Her surface contact is her source. He is a member of the cult. Enari uses him for information. He is not supposed to report to her but she convinced him to share information. His real superior is Gruminck the Renegade. He is a dwarf. His skin is dull gold in color. Something happened to him to cause this.

Tetheryan reports to Gruminck but he also has 2 men that work for him (Guminck) - Oreioth (human) and Wiggan Metalbee (halfling). Another name to keep in mind is Ghald (sahuagin). He spends most of his time in the Inland Sea or that vicinity. Gruminck is normally found on the surface in the town of Yartar (north and east of Red Larch). HQ of the Cult of the Black Earth can be found in the Dassarin Hills. Cult of the Crushing Wave is near the Vale of the Dancing Waters. Cult of the Eternal Flame is also in the Dessarin Hills to the far east. Cult of the Howling Wind is between the Sumber Hills and the High Forest.

Enari gives us a detailed map of the Underdark.

This is not being led by the Temple of Elemental Evil. Enari thinks we might have our best luck seeking out Ghald to see what we can learn. Best bet is to head to the city of Lloth's Altar to see if we can find him, or information on where he might be. If we go to Lloth's Altar, we should look up Shoalar Quanderil. He is a Genosi (half elemental being) and a dealer in information. He is irredeemably evil. He has a ship that he sails the Inland Sea with. He may be a member of the Cult of the Crushing Wave (though she is not 100% sure).

We spend another night and head out in the morning. It looks to be about a 300 mile or more trip.

We travel for a day and eventually come to an area where there is light ahead. We find a cave with a pool of fresh water. Another side passage leads to a larger, lit cavern with multiple exits and a gnome merchant with a merchant wagon pulled by lizards. He looks like he is expecting us (Wiley sees him through the Wizard Eye). On the wagon is a sign that says Fiddlepixes Potions and Balms. The Wizard Eye indicates 2 main passages leaving the cavern.

His wagon has a broken wheel. Darkthorn offers to fix it for him (no one else in the group has any Woodcraft skill). Darkthorn rolls Near Success so repairs the wheel hopefully long enough to reach Lloth's Altar, which is where both he and us are heading for. In return, he gives each person a potion of healing.

We spend the night. On Lorcan's watch, he is attacked by a rock falling on him. Dyson is also on watch and does not see it. Others awaken from Lorcan's shouting.

GM: This is where we stop for the night.

GM: Jason awarded 1600 EXP for the night.

05/02/2023 (GM-Jason)

NOTE: We should definitely have our alchemists look at the potions of healing given to us by the gnome.

It quickly becomes apparent that we are being attacked by the fungi itself when Darkthorn uses a mental point and sees mental energy all around. We flee the cavern. Dyson and Barthon go back for our equipment.

We move on for a bit and set up camp again. But then we get attacked again. They are mental attacks that make you feel like you were hit with a large rock.