Arden Vul - Session 4
The party
Skeggi Arnbjorgsson, the Elf Thief
Basil Cydones, Archontean Magic-User, member of the Order of Thoth (player missing this session)
Lucius Virillius, the Archontean Lyan, Hand of the Emperor
Extras
Freydis, the Wiskin Cleric of Thor (hireling)
Bellringer, the goblin sub-chief and his two subordinates
Summary
The date: 2993 AEP, also known as the 8th year of Constans XXV. 1st day of Fourth-month.
We resume moments after Lucius dodged a rubble trap and heard impeding footsteps. He heard them saying something in Archontean and decided on diplomacy. From the east come 6 so-called beastmen, 4-5 foot tall human-animal hybrids (in this party: a few sheep, a goat or two, and a rat), wearing archaic but recognizable Archontean military armor with spears and shields.
Lucius greeted them and told the leader of the group (an older goat-man named Basil) that they are hunting for goblins (a lie, they are working for the goblins to find a missing goblin exploration party) and wondered if they had seen any. The goat told them that they can lead them to where a group of them headed a few days ago, but they won't follow due to the place being haunted.
The beastmen led the party south, passed an empty great hall, to a hallway with the haunted section beyond. The goat sergeant said farewell and went back to his post, leaving two soldiers behind in the great hall.
The Haunted Chamber
The party entered the door at the end of the hall and saw an empty chamber with two doors heading out, north and south.
As the first ranks of the party entered the chamber, several members suddenly felt the icy grasp of fear in their chest. Several ran different directions, fleeing the chamber. Lucius felt to fear, as he was immune to the compulsion, like all Lyans.
After a few moments, everyone remaining in the chamber (Bellringer and Lucius) witnessed their worst fears play out in the center of the chamber. Bellringer stuck fast with fear and his bodily health began to drain. Lucius saw a figure with a hidden face sitting on a grand throne, judging him as a failure.
Lucius grabbed Bellringer and brought him outside the chamber, and went to the south to fetch their cleric, who began to suffer the same effects.
Lucius remained inside the haunted chamber while the rest of the party hung outside. He discovered that whatever the being was who was causing the paralysis didn't effect him, eventually it gave up and returned to a neutral state of etherealness. Lucius quickly determined he couldn't affect the apparition in any concrete way. Their magic-user's new staff seemed to affect it but due to Lucius's unfamiliarity, he was unable to strike it. Fire and water seemed to have no effect either.
Lucius gave up and searched the adjacent rooms, finding some sort of burial chamber to the west and an empty room to the south. North was a closed and stuck door.
Lucius was able to trick the apparition into getting stuck behind the door in the burial chamber. Once the rest of the party entered the haunted chamber, they discovered a 20-foot glyph in the center of the main chamber which seemed to cause the flight response in the party members.
The Cultists
The group headed north, with Lucius leading the way and breaking down the door with his brute strength. Beyond them was a small hallway,. As they entered, they heard someone call out threateningly in Archontean from beyond. A priest in blood red archaic armor and his four guards appeared and the party backed up to let them through once they told them that the source of the danger was locked away.
Insulted by the demeanor of the party, the priest let loose a spell on Lucius as he passed. Lucius shrugged off the effect and the party roused to defend themselves.
In a quick, organized retreat, the bulk of the party fled back out of the main chamber as Lucius let the apparition free from the burial chamber. Lucius and the spectre made quick work of the guards as the cleric fled east to the burial chamber.
As the spirit sucked the lift out of the guards, Lucius followed the cleric, as Skeggi threw darts from the open door. The cleric threw a potion at Lucius, stunning him for a minute, as the cleric tried to take him out with his hammer. Lucius woke up and the two had a heated minute of combat before the spirit came into the room and paralyzed the priest as Lucius executed him.
Lucius gathered the priest's belongings and put on the tattered black cloak he was wearing, which seemed to make him harder to hit. Lucius trapped the spirit in the south room and the party rejoined him. Together they investigated the sarcophagi. The first was finely carved but held nothing. The second previously held a giant centipede that the spirit has drained earlier.
The Sarcophagus
The last sarcophagus had a bronze lid with a horrible visage shaped like it was trying to flee, with large eyeballs painted in red along the outside of the box. The lid was held in place with many heavy nails.
The party began to remove the nails (against the wishes of their wise cleric) and a pale clawed figure burst from the box and attacked the lyan, injuring him slightly but draining his physical health.
The party fled once again and Lucius let loose the apparition again, but this time to no avail. The spectre did not seem interested in the new beast, who continuing to harass the party.
Lucius, realizing his mistake, fled with the rest of the party. He and Freydis slammed the door to the chamber, but not before the beast clawed Lucius one last time, draining him enough to kill him.
Lucius had a minute to react before fading, handing over his backpack with all the party's collected treasure. The party fled back to the north while the two guards approached the dead Lyan. The party could hear a horrible screech come from the hall and the sound of the guards calling for help.
The party fled, making their way back to the secret door that brought them onto this level and fled inside, fleeing the floor back to the goblins warrens below.
My Take
We have our first character death. What a fun session, and sad to be missing a member during it. So much happened. So much playing with toys and seeing how they interacted.
I love a character death that the party feels like was definitely their fault.
There's a lot I can't talk about here since my players read this, but this confluence of events will have several important repercussions and I can't wait for them to come up in play. My calendar will be important here since some things won't happen for days to weeks.
We used Owlbear Rodeo for a lot of this session, which worked out well. We all have used it before and I had the players help in setting up the tokens as I drew the map. It maybe took 10 minutes and really helped in understanding what the hell was happening.
I realized after the session that I've been running the combat a little sloppily. I haven't been sticking to combat the way I meant to, so we'll be using combat aids from the blue bard for the next couple sessions and see if that helps.
I realized during the session that I have a habit of revealing monster names during the tactical sessions, notably when tokens and owlbear rodeo come into play.
That's it for this week! <3