| Current Turn? | No |  | Subject: | Ghost Vaults |
| Campaign: | Greyhawk | | Turn Start Date: | 1/4/597 |
| Adventure: | The Isle of Repose | | Turn End Date: | 1/8/597 |
| Adventure Number: | AAD | | Characters: | Darkthorn, Dyson Teague, Kalin, Lorcan Smythe, Wiley Finch |
| Turn Number: | 1.1 | | Send To: | fivewands@championsoftheempire.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 | 81/81 | /0 | 8 | 2 | 48 | 6 | 0/0 | 3/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Dyson Teague | 0 | 0 | 65/65 | 2/2 | 8 | 3 | 69 | 8 | 0/0 | 1/day | 3/3 | 0/1 | |
| Kalin | 0 | 0 | 64/64 | /0 | 9 | 2 | 37 | 0 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Lorcan Smythe | 0 | 0 | 54/54 | /0 | 8 | 0 | 30 | 0 | 1/1 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Wiley Finch | 0 | 0 | 65/65 | /0 | 10 | 3 | 50 | 10 | 0/0 | 1/day | 2/2 | 1/1 | |
| Barthon Brightwave | 0 | 0 | 64/64 | 10/10 | 8 | 3 | 61 | 10 | 0/0 | 1/day | 4/4 | 3/3 | |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Mage/Psioncist Name | Psionic Pts | Spell Pts | Spell Pool | Miscellaneous Information |
| Lorcan Smythe | / | 15/15 | 13/13 | |
| Wiley Finch | / | 12/11 | 10/10 | |
| | | | |
| Name | Notes |
| Darkthorn | |
| Dyson Teague | |
| Kalin | Cleric Pool (14/19) |
| Lorcan Smythe | |
| Wiley Finch | |
| Barthon | Magic Points (6/13) |
|
5/23/2019 (GM-Steve)
.
GM: Slight change for the ending of the last session since I will be GMing for at least another session or two. First, the lashing that the Sea Ghost took from Pyaray left the ship about a mile offshore and becalmed on a flat sea. Second, one of the crew members searching the ship found a scroll and brought it to Lorcan.
Lorcan opens the scroll and finds explanatory notes in Aerdi and technical details in the magic language of Sorcery. The notes describe a ritual that must be performed on the foredeck of the Sea Ghost in order to open the something called the Ghost Vaults. The group speculates as to what the Ghost Vaults might be but come to no conclusions.
Meanwhile, much of the group is still injured so the remaining healing spells are used, including another hour long Repair Injury ritual. Lorcan spends the time learning the ritual that was in the scroll tube.
Once the healing is done, Lorcan attempts to cast a Mage Wind spell to move the ship back to the dock but something actively interferes with this spell as he is attempting to cast it and he fails. The group wonders if something is interfering with magic spells. Kalin was able to cast his cleric spells just fine. After a bit, Wiley attempts to cast a spell of Opening just to see if there is interference. There is none and the spell works normally. Then Lorcan attempts a different spell, again without interference. They conclude that it is only spells that attempt to move the Sea Ghost that are affected.
Knowing they need to heal, the group spends the night, the next day and the following night resting and recovering. Lorcan starts a Ritual of Preparation in the early hours of the second night and follows it with the Ghost Vaults ritual. The ritual succeeds but there is no immediate effect. However, a quick search of the ship reveals a door that was not there before. It is standing alone in the hold behind the ladder leading up to the main deck. It is a wooden door in a wooden frame but has a bronze handle on one side as well as a bronze dial surrounded by raised bronze numbers from 0 through 8. A triangular arrow on the dial is pointing to the number 0. The dial is of the type that one could grab it and turn it.
Lorcan is out of spell points. Wiley checks for magic and the door is indeed magical (level 2 on a scale of 1 to 3). The group gathers their adventuring gear and informs the captain that they plan to go through the door. Captain Merrick sends his first mate and a couple of sailors to observe. Kalin casts an Augury to determine whether it would be better to open the door with the dial pointing at 0 or 1. The answer comes back that the door will not open with the dial pointed to 0.
Darkthorn attempts to turn the dial but is unable to do so. Lorcan steps up and turns it. Then the group gets set and Darkthorn opens the door. He and Barthon see two zombies in the hallway on the other side. Darkthorn charges in and engages one while Barthon steps in and attacks the other one. Darkthorn notices a third zombie to his right and calls it out.
The battle is quick and decisive. The zombies are a bit tougher than normal, and are wielding battle axes but are still no match for the group.
The group is in a hallway with narrow passages heading off to the north and south and double doors straight ahead. The floors are dirty and covered with bones, muck and slime.
Dyson examines the doors and finds no traps. Then he and Darkthorn each open one of the double doors, revealing a large temple and half a dozen or more zombies. The zombies turn to look at the group but do not shuffle forward to attack. Like the first three, all are armed with battle axes. The group charges in while Kalin turns six of the zombies.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
5/30/2019 (GM-Steve)
The battle continued. Lorcan and Wiley manage to back into the room and Lorcan puts up a Solid Fog in the hallway trapping a half dozen of the zombies. But back in the main room, another half dozen appear from the front end of the dirty temple. One of the new zombies moves a bit faster than the others and wields an axe so black that it looks like a hole in space. This zombie moves up on Dyson. Darkthorn destroys his foe and moves over to help Dyson when Dyson is about to fall (4 HP left). Darkthorn does a lot of damage to the creature but the creature attacks back. It is not long before Dyson, Darkthorn and Lorcan are all in single digits for HP (Dyson at 4, Lorcan at 2 and Darkthorn at 1). The creature is badly wounded. Darkthorn goes fully defensive and manages to avoid a hit that would likely have killed him. Then Barthon gets in a telling critical (the creature had already used its only LUCK point) and finally destroys the creature. Dyson, Barthon and Darkthorn had all noticed that the creature had been regenerating during the battle but it is not until Barthon drops him that they realize that it was only when the creature hit with the black battle axe.
The rest of the zombies in the temple are defeated just as two of them in the hall finally break free of the Solid Fog. Barthon and Wiley are there to meet them. Darkthorn manages to cast a CLW on himself followed by a Potion of Healing, while Lorcan also uses a Potion of Healing and Dyson uses a Potion of Extra Healing. Darkthorn heads towards the forward end of the dirty temple and finds a door. It is standing open. He moves up to it and hears zombies approaching. The door is narrow enough that he is easily able to defend it and keep the zombies (these are the ones that Kalin turned earlier) from entering. The battle ends not long afterwards.
As the group looks around the temple, Kalin recognizes it as something called an Unbounded Temple. If a special ritual is performed, the temple can be dedicated to a new god. Kalin can see that it is currently dedicated to an evil god that is not Pyaray but a god that is of the same general mythos. Kalin also knows that before the ritual can be performed, he will need to give the temple a good cleaning and repair the broken pews and other furnishings.
On the filthy altar is a dirty chalice that Wiley recognizes as a Chalice of Humility. He recalls that if it is filled with good wine that is then imbibed, it will have some beneficial effect on the drinker. However, he and Kalin believe that the chalice is somehow related to the temple, which is currently dedicated to an evil god, so decide to leave it for now until Kalin has a chance to rededicate the temple to Pelor.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
6/6/2019 (GM-Steve)
The group searches the Ghost Vault and finds it mostly to be very dirty. However, they find a couple of things of note. One is a scroll tube in the cleric office that, at first glance, looks identical to the scroll that Lorcan read that revealed the door to the Ghost Vault. The second is a crystal ball. When Lorcan examines it with Power Perception he surmises that it is not a true crystal ball and characterizes it as a "lesser crystal ball".
The group departs the vault carrying the scroll and crystal ball with them. However, when they try to exit, the crystal ball disappears from Wiley's hands. Once back on the ship, the group tries to open the door again. Lorcan is able to open it but neither Kalin nor Darkthorn, who also try, are able to. The rest of the group tries and Wiley finds that he can open the door. The group wonders if the opener has to be a mage but Lorcan also puts forward the idea that maybe it has something to do with the Crystal Ball. The group returns to find the Crystal Ball where they left it. This time Kalin carries it out. Again it disappears but Kalin is now able to open the door to the vault. The group returns and this time Darkthorn carries it out, but everyone else touches it. The ball disappears again but now everyone is able to open the door. Clearly anyone who touches the crystal ball is able to open the door.
The group attempts to get back to the island by tacking back and forth in the slight wind but succeeds only in getting further and further from the island. Lorcan attempts a Mage Wind but it is again interfered with and fails. The group decides to return to Deep Port and report back to the man who had hired them. They give Captain Merrick orders to turn the ship and head back to Deep Port.
When Lorcan is able to study the new scroll more carefully he notes that it differs slightly from the first scroll. As with the first scroll, it must be cast on the foredeck of the Sea Ghost and requires melted gold but this ritual also requires the blood of a hill giant that was killed by the hand of the caster.
The following morning, Lorcan heads back to the room with the Crystal Ball to cast a Ritual of Identification, preceded by a 10 hour Ritual of Preparation. His goal is to identify first the black axe and then the crystal ball but he is only able to identify the axe, which he learns is a Death Axe (c.f., Magic Items). There is nothing evil about it so Darkthorn takes it to use as his weapon.
The Sea Ghost arrives in Deep Port in the evening and the group is able to sense additional tension in the air. Kalin asks one of the dockhands what is going on and he replies that he heard that a bunch of ogres attacked and destroyed the village of High River. The group presses for additional details but the man has none. They continue to press for more information that the man does not have and he eventually turns and storms off.
While Dyson and Kalin don't think that the news has any direct bearing on the group and the Sea Ghost, Wiley suspects otherwise. The group decides to find a tavern to get more information but Wiley says he will stay behind to guard the ship. Darkthorn stays with him.
At a nearby tavern, the group learns that indeed an outlying village was sacked by a very large marauding horde of ogres and trolls as well as a few hill giants. The entire village was destroyed and all of the villagers who were not killed attempting to repulse the attack were captured and taken by the large barbarians. Only a few of the villagers managed to escape down river to the next village (Thief River Falls) to tell the story. The group learns that the baron is sending troops up the river to augment the defenders of Thief River Falls in case of another attack. He is also sending additional troops to another outlying village in the north that borders the hills and mountains on the northern extremes of the baronry. Finally, they learn that the baron is looking for adventurers who are willing to travel to High River and from there, backtrack the ogres to their lair.
While Kalin, Lorcan, Dyson and Barthon are at the tavern, the Sea Ghost receives a visitor. It is the man who hired them to take the body of his sister to the Isle of Repose. Wiley reports to him that they reached the dock and talked to the caretaker there. The caretaker told them that the sister was not on his list but agreed that they had the right passes to be there. However the group was attacked while speaking to the man and one of the attackers was a very large sea creature (it was actually Pyaray, an evil sea god but Wiley does not tell the man this). When the battle was over, the Sea Ghost was a mile out to sea and unable to return to the island. The man is not surprised and says he would like the group to try again but now is not the time. He takes the coffin with him and departs telling Wiley he will see the group in the morning.
The group spends the night on the ship. In the morning they spend a little time finding some people to begin cleaning the temple in the Ghost Vault. Darkthorn stays behind with them to escort them into the vault and prevent them from touching the crystal ball (which would then allow them to enter on their own. The rest of the group goes to see the man who hired them.
The man has nothing new to add and again says that it may be some time before the time is right for the group to again attempt the Isle of Repose. He must wait for a key person to return to Deep Port. When the group mentions that they plan to hire themselves out to the baron to backtrack the ogres who attacked High River, the man is supportive and tells them to stop by when they get back to Deep Port.
It takes the group an hour before they are able to find the right person to talk to about hiring on to backtrack the ogres. He is a military officer who tells them the gist of it. The basic goal is to find out where the ogres, trolls and giants are located and where they have taken the townspeople. If the group is able to get more information, such as military strength, specifics on the location, guard posts, etc., the reward will be higher. The group agrees to do the job and the man asks for qualifications. He is satisfied with the group and says the first boat heading to High River leaves in three hours. The next one will be the following morning. The group decides to take the one in three hours.
They spend the time restocking their supplies. They are aboard the boat - really more of a barge - in plenty of time and the vessel sets sail upriver. It takes about 20 hours to reach Thief River Falls. Also on the boat are a contingent of soldiers who will reinforce the defenders of Thief River Falls.
The group disembarks at Thief River Falls after a very wet 20 hours on the open boat. The rain finally abates as the group departs the village enroute the destroyed city of High River. The trail is very wet and the tributaries the feed into Mid River are roaring. The first crossing they come to is very treacherous. Lorcan casts Water Walking on Darkthorn to cross and tie a rope to a tree on the far side but even with water walking, it is difficult (like trying to walk across, rather than with, a moving treadmill). Dyson follows Darkthorn but, as the two are trying to run across the water, Lorcan calls out to Dyson, "I didn't cast a Water Walking spell on you!"
Dyson, who was running on top of the water, stops and looks confused for he was convinced that Lorcan also cast a Water Walking on him. When he stops, he immediately sinks and falls into the fast rushing current. He grabs hold of a branch and pulls himself back to safety. "If you didn't cast a spell on me, how come I was running on top of the water," Dyson asks Lorcan. After some discussion, they conclude (correctly) that Dyson's magical Boots of Speed gained a new ability that allows him to run across the surface of water but, if he slows down or stops, he will sink.
Darkthorn gets the rope tied and the group makes it across though a couple of people get pretty wet.
There are other tributaries to cross but none as bad as the first. Nevertheless, the wet and muddy conditions slow down the group such that they only make it about half way to High River and are forced to camp for the night. Darkthorn makes an adequate shelter with the help of Lorcan's tent, the Folding Boat and some dry cantrips provided by the mages in the group.
Darkthorn also managed to forage enough food to feed the group.
In the morning, the group continues towards High River. The rain starts up again, heavy at times. Nevertheless, the group reaches the edge of the jungle in the late afternoon. Wiley casts Walking Unseen on Darkthorn while Dyson dons his Ring of Invisibility and the two head up the hill to the walled village overlooking the jungle. Copses of trees of visible on the hillside. Beyond the hills, mountains rise up but are barely visible in the rain.
The two scouts reach the village and begin scouting. It has been largely razed and burned. At about the same time that both Dyson and Darkthorn see a man standing amidst the rubble of a building, taking shelter against the rain, the man seems to see them, despite the Walking Unseen spell on Darkthorn and the Invisibility on Dyson. As the two get closer, it is clear that the man sees Dyson but does not seem to notice Darkthorn. Dyson talks to the man for a bit but quickly determines that the man is suffering from PTSD-like shock and is unable to stay focused on Dyson's questions. He is clearly a survivor of the attack against the village.
Darkthorn heads to the edge of the village and waves a white cloth to signal the rest of the group to come up. Nightfall comes as the adventurers regroup in the destroyed village. It is still raining.
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
6/27/2019 (GM-Steve)
GM: This is where we stopped for the night.
|
|