- Aram Raethran – Elf Warrior
- Azula – Tabaxi Bard
- Trinket – Harengon Rogue
- Bronk Thunderaxe – Bugbear Paladin
- Aelith – Triton Druid
- Niele – The Fairy Fighter
- Bergeoff Raethran – Elf Rogue – Not Present
- Sage – Half-Elf Bard – Not Present
- Flint – Human Ranger – Not Present
- Lani – Aasamir Paladin – Not Present
- Silas Heron – Aarakocra Monk – Not Present
- Guest Starring: Yzma – Dragonborn (Gold) – Wizard
We step back a moment to fill in Yzma’s character (as a special guest for this session) –
Yzma, born a Dragonborn with the ancestry of the Golden Dragons, had always wondered about her origins. Somewhere, perhaps thousands upon thousands of years ago, a Golden Dragon had taken human form out of love, and introduced its genetic structure that could one day result in what Yzma had been born – a Dragonborn.
But hundreds of years ago, the Dragons of the World had vanished; both the Chromatic (Evil) as well as the Metallic (Good) Dragons of the World, making the mystery of uncovering her own past that much more difficult.
But the world is changing – twenty years ago, on the newly “discovered” continent of Vareen, people had uncovered ancient and powerful relics. This had caused a large influx of individuals who sought fame, fortune and adventure. But Yzma was someone, perhaps because of her ancient blood line, was interested in Knowledge and Magic. The dangers that were whispered to have come from the continent of Vareen were not worth risking her own life.
That was until several weeks ago, when – without explanation – Chromatic Dragons had resurfaced and seen flying towards Vareen. Reports were coming back that these Chromatic Dragons were flying towards an area known as “The Broken Lands” – the source of most of the horror stories to come out of Vareen. However, Yzma could not resist – if the Chromatic Dragons had returned, perhaps the Metallic Dragons had as well? If nothing else, perhaps she could learn the fate of the Metallic Dragons from the Chromatic Dragons. Convincing a fellow student, and perhaps Yzma’s only friend, a fellow mage – a Tiefling named Gunthar to come with her to Vareen. Gunthar agreed, however, due to the influx of people sailing to Vareen, he was not aboard the same ship – he had booked passage aboard The Sun Chaser, while Yzma had booked passage aboard The Evenstar. She had watched in horror as the Sun Chaser was destroyed by a Kraken. Several people from the Evenstar left the ship to go to the nearby island to look for survivors, but Yzma had not, still trying to process what she’d just witnessed.
The Evenstar continued to sail around the island, for two days, waiting to hear back from the rescue crew – and what Yzma saw on that second day changed her life forever – a Silver Dragon – carrying an Egg – had departed the island!
On the ship, she was able to talk to Gunthar who had come prior to the sight of the Silver Dragon, he had explained some of what had happened on the Island, but he was unaware of anything about a Silver Dragon. When the others returned, after the Silver Dragon had been sighted, they were difficult to get to, being hailed as brave heroes, and even when they got to the Ivory Coast, they were lost in the crowd. She spotted several of them a few days later, chasing a woman who had run out of the town, screaming and clutching to some tome and gave chase.
She encountered an odd creature – one she’d read about in her Arcane teachings, a creature known as a berbalang who introduced himself as “Burlap.” Burlap explained that he knew what she sought – her own past. He explained that he could help her uncover those secrets and help her learn more about the Metallic Dragons – all she had to do was agree to help him be free of his Master, a powerful wizard, full of tomes of knowledge that would prove quite beneficial for Yzma. Knowing that berbalang’s often served powerful wizards, she had no reason to not believe Burlap. She explained she was looking for some adventurers who had passed through here – who have seen a Silver Dragon – and Burlap directed her deeper into the woods known as the Jade Forest and to seek out a cave in the mountain – the home to the Duergar, a vile race of evil dwarves. Yzme encountered three people who were just coming out of the cavern, and confessed to being former slaves of the dwarves (one of them with a broken ankle). They tried to convince Yzme not to go inside, but she knew she needed to – following the loosely drawn map that the escaped slaves provided her, Yzme snuck inside and caught up – just in time to see these heroes somehow, successfully defeat a Basilisk and ascend the very ledge she was standing near…
Flint gestured to the party ascending from the pit and looked at Yzma, “These are my companions.”
Yzma explained to the others who climbed out of the basilisk pit that she’d been on the ship and had seen a Silver Dragon flying off with a Dragon Egg (see Session 03 for more details). Yzma explained that she was looking for information on her ancestry – that on the main continent of Tawaim, there wasn’t much information about the origins of Draconians (especially since Dragons have been missing from the world for thousands of years) and she’d heard about ancient relics appearing on the continent of Vareen – and she’d hoped that perhaps there was ancient tomes on this continent that might have information on Ancient Dragons.
The company speaks to Yzma and explain that they’re here to remove a curse that resides in Azula’s soul. That they’d just slain the basilisk and gotten it’s eye – but now need to get Myconoid Spores that must be given freely to the party (spores given during times of duress would be of no use to remove the curse). The party decides that they don’t want to descend the pit again (because there’s still one more basilisk down there) and decide to go along the western ledge.
Azula tries to heal Niele, but then the slain king’s voice of King Lux Cecidit that shatters her concentration and prevents her from healing the fairy. Aelith manages to heal Niele of her wounds and restore her wings. When Niele’s wings restored, they ask her to fly to the other side of the pit and check out the passage they can see on the other side. Niele returns after a moment and says the room looks to be an armory – full of armor and weapons.
Flint ties a rope to the ledge on their side and decides, he will tie to the rope to his waist and made his way around the ledge. Flint successfully makes it to the other side and ties the other end of the rope there. Niele flies over and joins him on the other side. Trinket decides that she will try to scale across first – and as she gets on the rope, her gripe looses – and she nearly falls (Critical Fail, but Inspiration), but then makes it successfully across. Trinket looks at the room and sees the weapons and armor and pauses – her instinct to loot the room is paused as she looks back across the pit. “Wizard, we need you over here.”
Yzma tries next, and nearly begins to slip, but Neile yells at her to be more careful; but the Wizard, distressed by this (and not physical herself) loses her grip and slips, plummeting down into the basilisk pit. She hits the ground and thuds loudly, as Aram looks down he looks back and the others, “She’s… not moving.”
Bronk mutters, “Well, at least basilisk no hear either.”
Niele flies down and stabilizes her with a medicine check, bandaging her wounds but not able to heal her. In the meantime, Aram climbs across above. Aram looks down and sees Yzma, and in that moment, nearly loses his grip but regains it and makes it to the other side. Azula crosses next, nearly losing her grip at the edge, but successfully makes it across. With everyone else across, Bronk with the rope tied to him, begins to shimmy across and at the ledge, loses his footing and plummets down, but being tied to the rope he swings. Bronk uses this opportunity to lower himself, using stealth to remove his armor so that the basilisk doesn’t hear him (Natural 20!) Bronk attempts to move quietly towards Yzma, Azula begins pointing frantically at the cave and Bronk stops (Azula used her Party Inspiration to undo Bronk’s Stealth failure). At her side, he uses his Paladin ability to cast Cure Wounds on Yzma, whispering the words, and brings Yzma back to health. Yzma awakens, laying at the ground – her eyes focus on this massive bugbear looming over her. Bronk sees her questioning look and whispers, “Long story. Quiet. Basilisk lizard in here. Bad news. We need to be quiet.” While Bronk is able to be quiet, Yzma, still wounded moans in pain and alerts the basilisk. “We need to run now,” Bronk shouts and begins running towards the rope. Yzma gets ahead of him and says, “Let me climb up first!” Yzma’s adrenaline climbs the rope with amazing speed (Natural 20), and Bronk shouts, “Why you no do that the first time?” And Bronk manages to climb up the rope, carrying his armor and gets to the top – but the basilisk grabs the rope and tears it apart. “This is why we go through so much rope,” Bronk sighed.
Trinket pointed, “Wizard, you do something. I have a bad feeling.”
Yzma examines the floor. “There’s an arcana trap – the Arcana word – Awaken. Hold on,” she waves her hand and whispers the spidery words of magic; the swords and armor glow for a moment, then fade. “The room is safe to enter now,” Yzma explains. “Had we gone in there without the magic word, the armor and weapons would have animated and attacked.”
They look and see two hallways from here – Aram grabs a long sword from the wall.
Aelith ventures down the right hallway, moving quietly. As she moves after a moment she hears a deep guttural voice somewhere ahead. She tries to peer deeper in the darkness, she can see a large figure – but can’t make out what it is. She decides to stealth back to the party to explain what she’d heard – however, she fails to move quietly, and the voice she heard suddenly stops. And then there’s a haunting laughter then silence.
Yzma tells Aram that his dagger that he has is magical – but she can’t tell what it does. Flint looks at the dagger, able to read Dwarvish and explains, “The runes read There and Back Again, whatever that means.”
Aelith warns the party that she heard something down the hall and she’s positive that whatever it was also heard her – as the party tenses – nothing ever comes. Aram mentions he will investigate the right path – and as he begins going down the dark hall, he begins to feel the hall getting colder and colder – before he realizes he’s standing at the edge of this massive pit in the dark – with no way to cross.
He returns to the party and explains there’s a deep, dark, and cold pit ahead. The party discusses it and know that Myconoid dwell in the dark depths of caverns where there’s not much light and plenty of moisture. They conclude that this pit may lead to where the Myconoid might be. They find a solid rock one of their last ropes to. Flint ties a solid knot and throws the other end down the pit. Aram descends and discovers there are hundreds of bones and bodies in the pit. As he looks around he finds two daggers, which, as soon as he picks them up, glow faintly in his hand. Something makes itself aware to him…
Aram tries to ascend the rope, hover, his arms ache and he plummets to the ground, rendering himself unconscious.
The party waits for a moment and Bronk calls out for Aram and gets no response. Bronk looks at the others and then decides that he will descend down next. However, as Bronk begins to climb down, he slips and falls the complete distance. Zorn grabs the rope as Bronk begins to fall, and climbs back up and points down there speaking in Goblin, but no one else can figure out what he’s saying. Azula mutters, “I have dark vision… but I am scared… two people haven’t come back up from there.”
Azula scales down the rope – and the thing that had presented itself to Aram now presents itself to her. Azula manages to medicine check Aram, then moves over to Bronk and medicine checks him as well. Azula looks up from the depths of the pit, nervous. She begins to ascend and despite inspiration being used, Azula plummets into the pits. Niele flies down to apply a medicine check on Azula to stabilize her. Trinket seeing no one coming out of the pit says, “We need some potions. I wonder if there were any in the armory?” And she quickly leaps back toward the armory.
Flint begins to descend down the rope and much like Bronk, immediately loses his grip and plummets down to the bottom of the pit. As Azula’s companions lay bleeding next to hear, she suddenly hears the King’s voice, “… awaken…” And her eyes fly open, the taste of copper in her mouth. She wipes her mouth and sees that it’s blood – the blood of her companions that had been siphoned into her mouth, similar to how the King’s tomb had siphoned their blood before! (See Session 04 for details!)
She suddenly discovered the siphoning of the blood had given her shadowy wings like the King once had and she managed to fly out of the pit – Yzma, stared at Azula, stunned as the shadowy wings turned to wisp. “How did you do that?” Yzma asked.
“Long story,” Azula said. “I have to tell you what’s down there.” (DM Note: Finally! The story can progress! This was a lot of fun, though!) “There is a spirit of a woman who was sacrificed by the Elves – an Elven woman – who said that she needs her husband’s necklace – he was a great warrior – and some foul beast has the necklace that she’d made for him. She wants it back so she might find peace again. But then she can help us.”
Yzma recalls, through her arcane research, that she knows that an elven woman, who was brutally killed, can rise up as a Banshee. While some are vengeful, others recall their lives as Elves, and simply want what they had in life. The party puts together, based all the bones, that this is where the Duergar throw their dying or weak slaves. Yzma explains this is why this cave is so cold, the presence of the banshee. Trinket comes back and looks around, “Where’s the Ranger?”
Azula looks down.
“He’s down there too?” Trinket sighed.
Yzma decides to climb down down. Azula tries to follow and begins to slip – and at that moment – siphons the blood of her companions (which causes a failed Death Save) – and Azula lands on the ground. Yzma looks at Azula, “You really need to explain yourself. That was horrifying.”
The Banshee rises again, “My name is Esinda Silvermane, please find the necklace of my husband, Edonaris Silvermane, it bares the symbol of two stars and two blades touching each other. We were captured in these mines.”
Yzma asks, “What captured you?”
Esinda pointed to Bronk. Yzma looked. “A bugbear,” she whispered.
“Can you heal my companions?” Azula asked.
“I can no longer touch anything physical,” she whimpers.
“How long have you been down here?” Yzme asks.
Esinda shook her head. “I have no sense of time.”
Niele takes a torch from Flint’s body and tries to light it (double critical fail on an Advantage roll for Survival) – the gas from the decaying bodies ignites causing a burst of flame that briefly ignites the room and reveals another passage from the pit. However, the burst of fire renders Azula unconscious again, as the blood siphon had barely given her any health, and Yzma, being a gold dragon was resistant to the fire.
Aelith goes back to the Armory and begins searching for healing potions despite Trinket not finding any – and manages to find one healing potion. Aelith returns with the one healing potion. They wrap up the potion and throw it down. They give it to Flint who was badly wounded. Yzma spends time, searching through the corpses down in the pit, and finds three additional healing potions. Yzma gives a healing potion to Aram and Bronk to get them back up. She holds the third potion staring at Azula’s unconscious body. “I don’t know if we should give her one,” Yzma explains.
As Aram regains consciousness, he explains, “While I was unconscious… I had a vision of a great elf warrior… he was battling… some kind of… beast or monster… who looked to be made up of different body parts… he ran the monster through – but his blade got stuck… the monster grabbed his neck and snapped it… and it was like watching through the elf’s eyes… as life faded from his eyes… the last thing he saw was a bugbear appear, laughing… and took his necklace…”
Flint and Niele medicine check Azula, and Flint manages to heal her, restoring some of her health, just as carrion crawlers, drawn by all the noise emerge from the cavern in the pit… Trinket watches in horror and the creatures enter the pit below.
It is a long, deadly battle, with so many already hurt, and so many out of spells, Trinket attempts to descend – and like everyone else before her – falls into the pit. Thankfully, with the battle over, the party is able to get her back up with the healing potions they’d found.
Inside the stonework beyond this cavern is much nicer – there are an assortment of desks and tables, as if this were someone’s laboratory or study. They move through the cavern and see a Homunculus.
He wistfully sighs, “Why can’t I hear my master? Why can I not sense him anymore?” Lodged between two books is this four inch creature who looks depressed. Yzma tells everyone to pause – and looks and sees a number of arcane traps on the floor. When Yzma approaches the Homunculus says, “Oh, you’re like my master. Where is my Master?”
“What is your master’s name?” Yzme asked.
“Pumar Stargaze,” the creature replied, “and my name Munk-Ku.”
At the name of Purnar Stargaze, Yzma looks at the others, trying to hide the horror that creeps upon her Draconian features. Purnar was – is? – a powerful human mage who was said to be one of the most powerful of the mages – however, as old age began to seep through his body, Purnar grew fearful of death and that all of his vast knowledge and power would be lost – he believed that the gods were envious – and that he deserved to outlive everyone – and so he did the one thing that is forbidden among those who practice magic – he began to delve into Necromancy and how to extend his own life. When the news of artifacts surfaced in Vareen, he took everything he deemed valuable with him and set sail for Vareen – he was said to have vanished after arriving at the Ivory Coast, his final fate a complete mystery.
Yzma realizes that the pit near this study was no coincidence – he was no doubt in league with these Duergar, to study the dead and the dying, to extend his own life.
Munk-Ku reveals that it’s been weeks since he last saw his master. Munk-Ku then asks, “Will you take Munk-Ku? Travel with you? See if I can find my master.”
Yzma looks at Azula then back to Munk-Ku. “Your master practiced much in the dark arts. What do you know about possession?”
“Munk-Ku watched his master for many years! Much do I know about the dealings of spirits! Once, my master trapped many spirits inside one flesh body, made it a guardian, he did!” Munk-Ku answered.
“Was that the crawlers?” Yzma asked.
“No,” Munk-Ku replied. “He use those as pets to clean up the dead when they get stinky.” He pauses. “Oh, I see. You ask about spirit because of her.” He points to Azula. “The King grows closer. But for me to help you, you must help me.”
“Sure,” Yzma replied. “What is it?”
“Spell called Find Familiar,” Munk-Ku replies, “to bind me to you and be free of this place. I am bound by my Master’s last command to remain here.”
“Can we rest here?” Yzma asks.
“Yes, it’s safe,” Munk-Ku replies.
As they rest, Aram takes first watch and hears bodies being thrown into the pit from the Duergar. After his watch, Yzma picks up the next watch. She too hears the bodies of the dead and dying slaves thrown into the Pit of Despair. As she hears the disgusting sounds of bodies breaking upon impact, she thinks back to what Munk-Ku said about how Purnar shoved several souls into a single, flesh like body – and then she thinks back to the story Aram told – the vision he’d had while he was unconscious at the bottom of the Pit of Despair – how a great Elven Warrior had fought a flesh monster. She wondered if those two were one and the same…
The following morning Yzma casts Find Familiar and binds Monk-Ku to her. And Munk-Ku explains now free of his old master, he can answer any question – including questions he previously could not answer because of his bind. Munk-Ku explains (when asked about the flesh monster) that his master experimented and made it a guardian – now it resides with gnolls further down the cave. He goes on to explain now that he’s free of his master’s will, he shares that the password to control the flesh guardian is, “Al-kaz-zune.” Yzme asks about a Bugbear, and Munk-Ku explains that it is the “Chief” of the gnolls and deals with bringing slaves to the Duergar to have. When asked about the necklace, Munk-Ku admits seeing one that the bugbear probably displayed, claiming to have slain a great elf warrior (This, naturally is a lie from the bugbear – the flesh golem was the one who killed the Elf Warrior).
They continue down the cave, refreshed and come upon a large cavern where they see several gnolls beating on a gnome. The party looks and sees the flesh golem also in this room – and the party decides that they can’t save the gnome and need to sneak by.
Choosing stealth, Niele gasps at the sight – which reveals the fairy’s attention. Everyone else has remained in the shadows. The gnolls leave the bloodied gnome and go for the new target, choosing to go after her. Bronk looks at Munk-Ku, “If I say the magic word will the flesh monster attack?”
Munk-Ku shrugged, “Makes sense to me.”
As the battle begins, everyone else jumps into the fight to help Niele, Bronk yells, “Al-kaz-zune!” However the flesh golem doesn’t react. Munk-Ku laughs, “Well, you need to know magic!” Bronk muttered. The battle rages, it is bloody and messy, and in the end, Flint delivers the killing blow on the last gnoll as the party stares at the corpses of the gnolls, and glances into the cavern to see the bloody gnome, moaning… and the flesh golem with a sword embedded in his chest….