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• Adrian Silverstrength (Human Paladin)
• Morsus Firebeard (Hill Dwarf Cleric) – Departs this session
• Buppido Diinkarazan (Rock Gnome Cleric/Wizard)
• Sephrenia (High Elf Cleric) – Not present this session
• Ragnaroc (Aasimar Warlock) 
• Don Kannin (Half-Elf Ranger)
• Korra (Air Genasi Rogue)

• The caravan makes it’s next stop on its way to Lakefront, in a small forested area, on a well traveled path

• Adrian asks if Korra would like to go for that drink again (although this times he mentions he will exercise caution and not allow his drink to get out of his sight)
• Ragnaroc decides he wants to gamble during this stop – and lays down 1,000 gold for the first round of bets
  • See Session 42 for all the Downtime Event Rules
• Buppido warns Ragnaroc that he as forseen the future and he will lose a lot of gold
  • Ragnaroc’s opponent during the gambling is a Human male rogue by the name of Alyssum Pratense
  • First round is Insight – goes to Alyssum
  • Second Round is Deception – Ragnaroc wins the second round
  • Third Round is Intimidation – which goes to Alyssum
    • One success for Ragnaroc means he loses 500 gold
• As Ragnaroc gets up from the table, a male, half-orc purposely bumps into him – and Ragnaroc can see it’s Grum Thakblood (whom he’d beat previously in Session 42)
  • DM’s Note: This is from one of the Complication roles from Ragnaroc’s gambling session previously
• Ragnaroc looks over to Don and nods in the Half Orc’s direction; Don then slings his bow over his shoulder and comes to stand next to Grum, letting him know he’s being watched
• Ragnaroc sits down for another round of gambling (900 gold), this time betting against a small male goblin by the name of Gavarak Boo’tark (who specializes in acquiring items during his downtime, as he likes to say) – who has told others in the caravan that he’s madly in love with a female halfling he once met, and he’s on a great quest to find her
  • First round goes to: Gavarak
  • Second round goes to: Gavarak
  • Third round goes to: Ragnaroc
    • One success means he loses 450 gold
• Ragnaroc goes another round of gambling (betting 450 of his remaining 500 gold)
  • His main opponent is a female Dwarf by the name of Lady Silverbeard of the Golden Halls, who by appearances, seems to be a bard
    • First round goes to: Lady Silverbeard of the Golden Halls
    • Second round goes to: Lady Silverbeard of the Golden Halls
    • Third round goes to: Ragnaroc wins the third round
      • One victory means losing: 225 gold
• Grum Thakblood then pursues Ragnaroc and spins him around and says, “You’re losing on purpose. I recognize you now – we’ve met before and you owe me for that job that you made me go do where you had me kill those gnolls.”
  • Ragnaroc walks away and Grum shoves him; but when Ragnaroc spins around it’s Don who steps up and pushes Grum
  • Grum draws his great axe, now seeing two people who may be fighting with him (and the Ranger stepping into his business)
  • Buppido sees this going down and walks up, “Wait, what’s this job about?”
  • Grum explains that Ragnaroc was sent by a King to find someone to clean out a castle of gnolls. Ragnaroc declines knowing anything about that. Grum explains all humans smell the same. Buppido sniffs Ragnaroc and smells flowers (the Fay mark he got). Don asks Grum what Ragnaroc’s name is and Grum admits to not knowing his name because he never asked, and never wanted to know – he just wanted to be paid.
  • Buppido explains that Grum would probably be better at earning the money at the gambling table, considering how much money Ragnaroc has lost tonight. Grum explains that he’d rather not kill a coward (Ragnaroc) who can’t even take care of gnolls. He puts away his axe and says, “Let’s settle this at the table.”
  • This is all for 64 gold; and Ragnaroc doesn’t want to pay him
    • First Round: Ragnaroc with a Natural 20
    • Second Round: Grum wins the second round
    • Third Round: Ragnaroc wins the third round
      • Because Ragnaroc won 2 of the 3, it breaks even
      • Grum stands up and growls, “This isn’t over” and storms off
• Having won that round, Ragnaroc thinks about gambling again
• Meanwhile, Korra and Adrian have the discussion they tried to have before
  • Korra and Adrian begin talking about their drinks initially and decide to go for a walk and continue their conversation away from the loud caravan
  • Korra asks Adrian how he came to be with this group
  • Adrian recalls what seems like a distant memory – how he’d grown up with hedonistic “parents” (he never truly knew his real parents, as it was very much a gypsy family where everyone raised everyone’s children as their own) and how some of the people came to follow (Borius Darkstorm and his wife, Elliana Darkstorm) turned out to be a Succubus and Incubus – that a Paladin (Orius Silverstrength) came and destroyed. This inspired Adrian who melded the ways of his parents and the honor he saw in the Paladin into becoming a Paladin for Prenah, the goddess of sexuality. He’d traveled for a long time, and came to take up residence for awhile with some wood elves, who one day found themselves attacked and murdered by an ancient green dragon named Emereth, who killed for the sheer pleasure of killing. When the mayhem was done, Adrian found himself to be the sole survivor.
  • He got on a ship called The Wave Rider headed for the new continent (also where he’d heard Emereth had been seen flying towards) where he met several others. The ship fell victim to what appeared to be a kraken – and Adrian, along with a few others (Dick – a human wizard, Rex – a dragonborn bard, Apostrophe – a goliath cleric, and the only person Korra would have known – the hill dwarf, Morsus). They’d washed ashore on an island to an ancient demon cult – which ended up sinking – and they’d been rescued by another passing ship after almost a week, floating adrift in the ocean
  • Adrian reminisces how all his companions he’d met on the boat are no longer with him
  • He talks about how Dick and Rex fled after some trouble in a temple, how Apostrophe had died – then rose up – and proclaimed to see a vision of a war in the heavens that was coming, and fled to go to the Church, and that Morsus had just left – after witnessing the horrors seen in the heavens – undoubtedly the very war that Apostrophe had seen almost a year ago
  • Korra explains to Adrian – that she is seeking out the Air Elemental Elder that came to the Prime Material Plane – enslaved by the Drow to make the Priestess’ adamantine body
  • She goes on to explain that she’s an Air Genasi – who comes from royalty – and that she, in a very round about way, “ran away” from home – and that her father had never been proud of her carefree attitude towards her royal status; so that when an opening came to seek out the Air Elemental Elder who’d been brought to the Prime Material Plane, she quickly offered to go.
  • Her parents didn’t decline (they had figured, out of sight, out of mine – her carefree ways would stop bringing shame to the family name), and if she returned successful, it would bring great honor to the family.
  • She also learned from a Couatl – a being of pure goodness that looks like a flying snake – named Slyver – warned her it’d been the Dark Elves who’d done this – and that he was able to get her there – but could not maintain the doorway – she would need to find her own way back.
  • She shows her ear-cuff that has feathers and explains it was the only thing she kept from the royal family, and that the feathers are from her personal Skyfox which is bound to her.
• Meanwhile, Buppido hear a voice shouting from somewhere off the path, “Oh no! Oh no! James is gone! I told him not to go in there! But he’s too stubborn!”
  • Buppido approaches the young human, who is out of breath, even as others gather as well. He asks what has happened, and the human explains, “There’s an ancient temple way down the hillside – very far – and very ancient. There’s rumors of treasures there to be found – and all kinds of stories – but I told James not to go in there! Something felt very weird when we got near the entrance. I told him to back away – but James said that he wanted to find at least something!”
  • Buppido asks if he goes down the hill if he can find it – and the human explains that he can – the temple is in the hillside – and in ruins.
  • Buppido heads over to the gambling table where he finds Ragnaroc still at the table, with Don standing by keeping watch
  • Buppido asks Ragnaroc, “Want to regain some of which you’ve lost? I got news about treasure – lots of it – but someone named James is headed there – so we need to move fast because they got a head start on us.”
  • Ragnaroc says it sounds like a trap; and Don says that he’s not shot his bow in awhile, so he is looking for some trouble. Ragnaroc sighs and says he will go.
  • Buppido looks around and sees Sephrenia, who says she will remain behind to guard their wagon (DM Note – Sephrenia wasn’t able to make this session so this was an easy excuse to exclude her for this session)
  • He looks around for Adrian and Korra and doesn’t see them – so he scribbles a note on a parchment about where they’ve headed – and gives it to his familiar to try and find Adrian and Korra to let them know where they’ve gone
    • DM Note – I had Buppido roll a D20 – telling him to roll low – and he rolled a 16. I explained, with all the people at the caravan – it will take the owl 16 minutes to find Adrian and Korra – so they (Bupiddo, Ragnaroc and Don) will arrive at the temple quite some time before Adrian and Korra are aware of their venture
  • The entrance has several circular pillars; a door that looks as if it was once sealed, now cracked open

• Ragnaroc casts Mage Armor on himself
• Buppido takes the lead with Ragnaroc and Don (with Jackson) behind him

• Inside they can hear a dripping sound, which might not be too surprising – because of a pond far above may be dripping into the cavern; but there is an unusual sense of moisture (all of them except Ragnaroc who rolled a Natural 1). There also seems to be whispering coming from the very walls itself – but it’s not in a language anyone knows – but it seems to weave and twist an image of a terrifying dinosaur into their minds (except Ragnaroc who is oblivious)

• The party knows – that there are stories (and most believe they’re just that – stories) – that before the gods came to this world, this world was ruled by an ancient being named Terrorskew (who was a bestial being all unto itself) and that the world was ruled in chaos by being called “thunder lizards” (now) / “dinosaurs.” These creatures are known to still exist in the most remote areas, and there’s even an island supposedly populated by a massive population of these thunder lizards (of all kinds) – on a large island called The Forbidden Island just north of the main continent of Tawaim.
  • The story of Terrorskew is that the gods came and took a liking to the world, and usurped the world from Terrorskew and reforged it – casting him a forgotten dimension where he plots to return and destroy the very world those gods have come to cherish – on a day that’s been known as The Day of Terrarack – the prophesied “end of the world.”
• Buppido flips one of his gems in hopes that it will point him towards more gems
• Buppido, Ragnaroc and Don enter the room to the north – and see more wall paintings of the dinosaur, that looks extremely faded, and takes getting close to the wall to really see the paintings
• Buppido points to the painting of the giant dinosaur eating flesh; and Buppido asks if Don could kill that – and Don smiles and says, “I have unlimited ammo in this,” as he ignites the energy bow.

• Don asks Jackson to pick up a scent; and Jackson gestures that he is picking up a “human” scent – which the party assumes to be James, who’d run in here before
• The party enters the other room to the south –

• They see the image of a different thunder lizard, faintly painted on this wall – which none of them are able to recognize (Ragnaroc is once again, clueless Critical Fail on the History check)

• Buppido moves east into the next room, and barely manages to to avoid falling into a pit where the tile drops
• Ragnaroc tries to leap over it – however, he is not able to falling in – Buppido tries to grab him but he’s not able to hold him – but the time the party hits the bottom (Ragnaroc takes 21 damage and Buppido takes 17 damage)
• Right about that time – Buppido’s owl finds Adrian and Korra by the pond and with a frustrated look – drops a parchment at their feet that reads, “Follow me for treasure” – the Owl then takes flight and starts heading for the ancient temple down at the base of the hill
• The Owl leads them to Don standing by himself – looking down in a pit. He turns and smiles, glad to see them and gestures towards the pit
• Down in the pit, Ragnaroc asks if Buppido can cast Levitate or something similar to get them out – but Buppido says it will only float 20′ up – and then it’d take some effort to get it to float another 20′ – meaning it’d take three turns to float the disc up and out of the hole
• Buppido tells everyone to use Ragnaroc as a bridge – and this allows Don, Adrian and Korra to cross the pit
• As they enter the room they look around (Adrian gets a Critical Fail for Perception)
• In this room – they see another painting of another thunder lizard.

• DM Note: The player that controls Don admits that he recognized where these dinosaurs were from – the video game Primal Rage. I was worried none of my players were going to get the reference!
• In this room, Korra hears the words – similar to the others had heard – and she sees a world where dinosaurs ruled – or will rule – as they feast on people
• Buppido brings up that the fall down the trap did hurt him considerably; and as he looks around he doesn’t see Sephrenia – and decides to use his own religion with Healing Word, and Adrian lends a Cure Wounds
• When Buppido casts the Healing Word on himself and Adrian casts Cure Wounds, they have a weird vision and see a human covered in green slime –

• Buppido ties a rope around his waist – in the event there’s more traps – and hands the other end to Adrian – to ideally prevent him from hitting the floor
• Buppido enters the northern room and avoids the darts from the trap – and notices that slime comes out of the walls – and that the room in front of him is full of a black liquid

• Buppido steps into the mud and immediately takes damage; and realizes that it’s the slime known as black pudding

• Adrian is able to pull Buppido out of the black pudding, losing one of the boots to the black pudding.
• Bupiddo moves to the right – and this time – spends time looking for traps – and Buppido points it out to Korra that each step – the alternating stone has a trap on the step (marked yellow)

• Korra tries to disable the first trap – but as her pick catches a gear – she leaps back – as a large green slime drops onto the stair
• The second trap (on the top – where there’s only two), now understanding how it works – is able to disarm the second trap; and she’s able to disable the other top trap stair
• When Korra reaches the bottom stair, she hears a chanting, “Razataun! Razataun!”
• Korra asks if anyone else can hear that – and Buppido and Adrian confirm that they both hear the chanting
• Adrian recalls encountering cultists of Razataun before
• In this room is yet, another dinosaur painting

• Buppido eventually finds a hidden door – and Korra manages to pick the lock and discovers a hidden passage
• Korra looks into the passage – and it looks safe – she asks if the party would like to check out the hidden room; when she looks closer – the floor is slippery and the walls also look like it’s covered in mucus; and both Korra and Adrian retreat out of the room
• Buppido asks if they went further down around the corner; and Korra shakes her head “No”
• Buppido commands the Owl to fly inside; and the room looks glistening – and the room at the end looks empty – as if whatever was here – has been taken
• But then – it becomes clear – as a nearly transparent cube slowly makes its way to the party

• Don looks at his bow and says, “My wrath, my fury” – and hits with an amazing amount of damage – and the body ripples – and continues slowly moving forward
• Ragnaroc hits it twice with Eldritch Blast, dealing significant damage
• Ragnaroc also notices that something is moving in on them from the stairs; the green slime that dropped from the failed trap (green slime) is slowly increasing in size and slowly approaching them
• Adrian fires a crossbow and hits the Gelatinous Cube, and hits – and moves further east, away from the slowly approaching green slime
• Buppido casts Flaming Sphere and aims it towards the Gelatinous Cube which it fails to avoid taking some fire damage
• Korra follows the same idea and using Fire Bolt, hitting the Gelatinous Cube for some good damage
• The Gelatinous Cube makes it to Ragnaroc and hits him for minor damage, and Ragnaroc uses Hellish Rebuke dealing enough damage to kill it
• Don fires and kills the small slime on the stairs
• Korra scouts the stairs that lead up and sees no traps, while Buppido looks at the stairs that lead down – though he’s not completely certain the stairs down are trap free

• The party opts to go the upstairs route since it seems trap-free
• The party sees a woman standing on the far west side of a pool – chanting “Give your body and soul to the great Razataun – surrender your thought – your body – become one!”
• Below on the other side, is what the party can safely assume is James; whose body is consumed by slime
• And within the pool, it’s all forms of slime mingling all together, forming one giant slime

• The party moves into position – to make a surprise attack on the Razataun Priestess

• Don spends his time lining up his shot so he does not make a surprise attack round (Critical Fail on Initiative), the others however fire – most of them hit – except Adrian slips in some of the slime, just as he fires his crossbow – and hits Bupiddo for minor damage (Critical Fail on the hit)
• Buppido still manages to do the Fireball spell and does significant damage; he looks to see if she is bleeding; but he notices that a lot of her body actually seems to be composed partially of slime
• Buppido casts Faerie Fire, which the Razataun Priestess avoids (but the pool itself glows, since it fails to get out of the way)
• Adrian fires his crossbow, this time hitting the Razataun Priestess
• James begins running up the stairs, shouting, “Embrace Razataun!” though he’s clearly not of his mind
• The Priestess begins moving towards the party as well, sliding across the pool itself, as if made of ice
• Korra casts Firebolt and hits the Priestess
• Don fires his Starbow after casting Hunter’s Mark on her, and then using Sharpshooter; and she shouts, “We grow!” as she falls into the pool – and the pool reacts wildly
• James never comes up the stairs – so Don and Adrian look at the bottom stairs – and don’t seem to spot any traps (which confirms what Bupiddo confirmed) – and both Don and Adrian also take notice to something else – a weird squishy sound coming from the east – and realize that the slime from the other room has grown exponentially!
• Don heads down the stairs, and finds James – and that his insides had been devoured by the slime that had gone down his throat
• Bupiddo checks for treasure – and is disappointed – that there’s no treasure even on James
• The party realizes the only way out of this is the way they came in – which means – getting through the room that’s now been taken over by the ooze

• The party knows running across is going to cause damage, and it will be considered difficult terrain since the ooze is attempting to grab them
• The party all decide to run across at the same time;
  • Don picks up Jackson and begins bolting across; using his agility, he only takes 1 damage initially, and on the second time he takes 2 points of damage – and unsure if the tile above the trap is also a trap – he decides to Athletics to leap over the trap
  • Ragnaroc runs across and hits him for 6 points of damage initially, then hits him again for 6 more points of damage, and he tries to go to the panel above the trap – only to discover (failed Dexterity Save) – and he plummets down into the deep trap and takes 22 points of damage from the fall (rendering him unconscious)
  • Adrian and Korra leap onto Ms. Claws – so Ms. Claws takes the 3 points of damage, and on her next stop she takes 1 point of damage, then for the trap, having to jump off Ms. Claws so that their weight don’t bring her down. Adrian successfully makes the jump but Korra plummets down taking 16 points of damage from the fall
  • Bupiddo dashes through the ooze, takes 8 damage on the first stop, then takes another 6 points of damage
  • While Korra is down in the pit, she uses her Medicine skill to try and stabilize Ragnaroc who has clearly suffered a grievous wound; but the lack of light makes it difficult
  • Bupiddo throws the rope to Adrian to pull him across; but the slime on Adrian’s hand makes it so the rope slips slightly – so Bupiddo falls (tied to the rope) but doesn’t go all the way down – takes only a few points of damage – before being pulled up
  • Bupiddo grabs a rock and uses the Light spell and throws it down there – Korra grabs a Healing Potion – while it won’t heal him – it would stabilize his wound
  • Korra thinks about Levitate – but that will take 3 rounds – which will mean he will continue Death Saves (he has one success)
  • She uses her Levitate – and uses Healing Word – which stabilizes Ragnaroc to 0, and Korra while levitating gives Ragnaroc a healing potion granting him 17 points of health back. He comes to, and says, “Did we find any treasure yet?” And while the levitation disc slowly goes up, he adds, “I don’t trust that gnome.”
  • As the party comes out, beaten and battered, Adrian turns to Bupiddo, “We need to find the person who sent us down here.”
  • Bupiddo reveals a gem he was able to get from the slime pool, using Mage Hand, and says, “He didn’t like. There was treasure there,” as he pockets the gem again.
  • James’ friend (Derek) comes running towards the party, asking if they found James – and Bupiddo explains, frustrated, “James is dead. There is no treasure down there. It’s some ancient temple. He gave his body and mind to Razataun.”

EVERYONE GETS INSPIRATION FOR TODAY’S SESSION!

TO BE CONTINUED.

DM Note – as mentioned the dinosaurs were from the video game Primal Rage but the artist did two more from the game that were not used – that I figured I’d share –

• The only Primal Rage character I couldn’t find that Nathan had drawn was Talon.