Adventure Notes – The Adventurers 66

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  • Adrian pushes the four yellow pieces together – and immediately the sounds of gears churning beneath the floor emanate throughout the entire area to an almost deafening volume; when suddenly there’s one last click! and the four pieces rise and form a large button
  • Buppido presses down on the newly risen button – and the entire floor seems to suddenly plummet at incredible speeds – and it seems to do so for what seems like hours, but is undoubtedly only minutes – before it comes to a stop. A glance around – and a door suddenly opens and the stench of death emanates from the door
  • Staring down the long hall, they see a portal of some kind at the end – but the entire room seems to be littered with bodies – as if hundreds of people died, trapped
Art, as far as I can tell, is by Chris Drysdale (signature letters look the same)
  • Korra looks around and estimates there’s about a hundred dead bodies; and there’s claw marks on the walls as if these people had died of starvation
  • Estimating the hall to be roughly sixty feet, all but Adrian take notice that several of the “dead” seem to have hands that are twitching ever so slightly; Sephrenia whispers to the others that the “dead” may not be so “dead” after all, but rather “undead.”
  • Elon Dusk, who still had the gauntlet with the dwarven hammer attached to it, muttered, “We need to go that way. That’s the way the hammer is pulling my arm.”
  • Buppido explains that he will Ritual Cast the spell Unseen Servant which has a range of 60′ to make it walk down the hall of the undead
  • Korra looks at the walls and notes that they’re made up of rows and rows of bones and skulls
  • She then looks up and notices there is a swirling green energy where the ceiling should be
  • Buppido completes the spell and sees his Unseen Servant through the hall with the (un)dead bodies – none seem to react – and his servant reaches the portal on the far end but can’t seem to activate it
  • Buppido commands it to kick one of the (un)dead, and the dead reacts by lashing out, then slowly lowering its hand
  • “These undead,” Buppido explains confidentially, “are kick activated. As long as we don’t kick them we should be fine.”
  • Buppido considers levitating Sephrenia so she can do Destroy Undead at 30 feet and potentially destroy all of them; but then realizes if some of them are more powerful and forced to flee, they may come charging into the room everyone is standing in
  • Buppido resummons his familiar – an owl (last seen all the way back in Session 56, when it’d been turned to stone thanks to a basilisk)
  • He sends the owl across – and through the owl’s eyes – sees the portal where there are several bodies slumped over a control panel. A zombie awakens and lunges and grabs the spectral owl, and devours it
  • Sephrenia tells Adrian that he should summon his steed, Ms. Claws – the raptor, and that she would ride it back to the button that Buppido had pressed to see if that does anything
  • Adrian summons Ms. Claws – and Sephrenia rides back – presses the buttons – hears the loud whirring sound of gears – then the sound of air – then nothing
  • Sephrenia returns and explains that nothing happened – she steps inside the hall and finally decides to call upon her goddess – she draws her holy symbol, extends her hand and uses a Channel Divinity to Destroy Undead
  • As she expected – many of the undead are destroyed – however, each body that explodes – unexpectedly – releases a green, noxious gas into the air that poisons several of the party members
  • Sephrenia casts Protection from Poison on Adrian, who was poisoned by the gas
  • Sephrenia casts another Channel Divinity to Destroy Undead – and Adrian, Ragnaroc, and Buppido follow her; while Korra and Don hang back
  • More of the undead, just as before, explode as a result – this time, Ragnaroc and Buppido are both poisoned from the noxious, green poison
  • Sephrenia, Adrian, Ragnaroc, and Buppido make it to the shimmering portal – and see that it has a number of intricate designs around it – after briefly studying it, Adrian realizes that the symbols are similar to the symbols that they’d seen at the control panel that originally lowered them down into these depths (back at the start of Session 63)
Welcome to the Star Chamber
  • Buppido sends his Unseen Servant through the portal – but it never returns
  • Sephrenia points out that going forward is truly their only option
  • Korra recommends that everyone grip her 50′ rope while Adrain ties the end of the rope around his waist and proceeds to enter
  • Adrian feels a cold sensation wrap around him as the liquid embraces him; then he sees darkness
    • As the darkness peels back – he finds himself in a massive room, surrounded by gold coins; but more importantly – about 60 feet away – a sphere with wild colors swirling inside of it. Adrian realizes, this is the sphere they’ve come to find. He tugs on the rope – but realizes the rope is now pulled tight. He gives a firm yank on the rope
  • Unaware of what Adrian sees (unable to see him through the liquid portal), the party holds firm to the rope (DM Note – While Adrian was on the other side, to keep up the suspence, I was privately messaging him and him me – so the party literally did not know what was going on)
  • As the party clings to the rope – discussing if they should pull him back, go after him, or continue to hold the rope – there’s another tug on the rope (Yet again, from Adrian, though the party is unaware)
  • This time, the party has a group failure against the attempt to stay – and all agree – that they should just go in – and one by one – leap inside the frost portal
  • They crash into the room and see Adrian still tugging on the rope as each one of them lands on the cavern floor – and each of them notices, in this dark room – only illuminated by the glowing orb – that the floor feels odd
  • Ragnaroc is the one who calls out, “We’re sitting on a mound of gold.” And as they look around, the flickering lights of the orb, barely illuminate what looks to be sand dunes, but in truth, it’s gold coins.
  • Just then a massive mummy bursts from one of the mounds, booming, “Foolish mortals! You’ve freed those I have punished! And for that you must pay!”
Ankarin has risen
  • DM Note: Adrian recognized the mummy image being from Darkstalkers. As I’ve made all kinds of references to other things throughout my D&D game world, I figured it’d be fun to introduce characters based on Darkstalkers as well. They’ve made 3 appearances prior to this – with Morgan in Session 62, Lord Raptor in the Discovery Session 19, and Rikuo in Servants of the Wizard Session 15)
  • Korra fires off a Fire Bolt – believing the bandages should easily catch on fire – but the fire bolt misses as his bandages unravel (She simply missed, I flavored it as the bandages unraveling for the visual)
  • Sephrenia realizes that all of her Channel Divinity had been used up fighting the zombies in the previous hall; she decides to rely on using Spiritual Guardians
  • However, he rolls a Natural 20 on his save
  • Adrian casts Protection from Good and Evil sensing that this Mummy Lord is clearly one of the undead
  • Buppido launches a flaming sphere his way – but the mummy lord seems resistant
  • Ankarin sees Elon Dusk and realizes why the hammer is here – and targets him; which hits and wraps around Elon Dusk and begins constricting him
  • Ragnaroc fires two Eldritch Blasts, both of which hit
  • Korra seeing Elon in trouble she throws her dagger – and hits – Ankarin with a Natural 20! And then a moment later, teleports to the dagger.
Finally she attuned to the dagger
  • Sephrenia realizes that usually clerics of life have dealt with mummies by locking them into a room and igniting the room
  • Sephrenia attempts to cast Dispel Magic – and (flavoring this) – she sees a crackling line of energy that traces from the back of the mummy to the glowing sphere; she tells the party that he’s using the sphere to make him resistant to all of the magic being thrown at him
  • Adrian casts Sanctuary on Elon Dusk who is still wrapped up
  • Adrian casts Channel Divinity – Turn the Unholy, but Ankarin resists
  • Buppido casts Polymorph and turns Ankarin into a small turtle by using his portent ability
  • However, when Korra pulls out her Dagger of Misty Step (which had still been in the mummy lord since it’d been thrown) – it breaks the polymorph spell – and Ankarin begins to take form again (I flavored this that he returned to form slowly as to not burn a high level spell – more on this in a moment…)
  • Elon Dusk, having been wrapped before the polymorph is trapped inside of a separate turtle shell
  • Restored to full height – Ankarin is furious and knows now there’s no more time for games – he stares at Elon Dusk – and despite Sanctuary – is able to get through the spell and uses his Pharaoh’s Curse –
  • Elon Dusk’s eyes go blank – and a mist escapes from his lips and quickly departs – and he collapses to the ground… lifeless.
    • Pharaoh’s Curse (Costs 2 Actions). Ankarin can choose to gaze at someone and peer into their soul and their heart and bestow the Pharaoh’s Curse, which forces the target to make a savings throw of Ankarin’s choosing at Disadvantage. Should they fail, the target takes 10d10 damage and half should they succeed. If someone is brought to 0 hp from this attack, their soul is revoked – and only Wish or True Resurrection can return the soul to the body.
  • Sephrenia attempts to cast Banishment but the furious mummy lord, Ankarin is able to resist (Successful savings throw)
  • Adrian strikes Ankarin and hits – and expends a Divine Smite into the Mummy Lord, who roars in fury
  • Buppido launches a Flaming Sphere, but Ankarin – despite being an old mummy lord is quite dexterous (Natural 20)
  • Ragnaroc pulls out the Scroll of Soul Displacement (Remember all the way back in Session 38, kids?) – and reads the words – sacrificing his soul into damnation – and pulling Elon Dusk’s soul back into his body!
    • DM Note: So the player who controls Ragnaroc had approached me about playing an Artificer – and that was a class I’d never had in any of my games; I never thought they fit the over all theme of my games. However, as I knew they were heading for an area full of ancient Egyptian-like pyramids, I thought someone like an artificer might exist there; especially when they approached me with the idea of the character concept – an eccentric Tiefling Artificer obsessed with the stars… named, you might have guessed – Elon Dusk. Now this was many months after Session 38 – but as we discussed how to do it, we thought how fun it might be that this person they all considered a murderer – see Session 44, would go on to be the ‘hero’ who sacrificed himself. So Elon Dusk’s “demise” was planned for this session as well as Ragnaroc’s ultimate sacrifice! This is a plan that was – according to the recording notes – two and a half years in the making! This is why I was worried when Buppido had polymorphed Ankarin – but in all my excitement, I forgot I’d planned for that potential and given Ankarin the Legendary Action to 3 times per day – pass a savings throw he failed – but it still worked out! When I began DMing for this group, all but the player who had played Morsus/Buppido were brand new to D&D – so originally, only spells from the Player’s Handbook were available – so I’d made it a ‘quest’ to “unlock” the magic in the world which had been imprisoned within the magical sphere – and knew by the time we’d gotten here, the players would have been playing for quite a bit of time and had a feel for their characters, and spells so I wanted to open it all up to them – and this was a fun way to do that – and I tied to it existing lore in my world to an ancient elf named Ashen’Var who had been known to imprison magic and dragons in spheres to siphon their magic… and Ashen’Var was tied to the Ilyx Forest – which as a result of the war, was sundered to barren wastelands – see this page for more)
  • Elon Dusk, with life renewed, sees he’s landed close to the glowing sphere – and raises the dwarven hammer, and with all of his might – brings it crashing down
  • Magic unlocks throughout the world – and severs Ankarin’s tie to the sphere!
  • Ankarin pummels Buppido with his wrap attack – then attempts to Dreadful Gaze, he is however next to Adrian which gives him enough of a bonus to avoid its effects
  • Elon (now being controlled by the player who had played Ragnaroc) casts Lightning Bolt and takes extensive damage
  • Sephrenia, knowing that Ankarin has been severed from the sphere – decides to cast Burning Hands – most of her party members avoid it – but Buppido and Elon take fire damage
  • Adrian manages to hit Ankarin – and expends another smite into the hit, dealing more damage
  • Buppido manages to keep his concentration and continues his Flaming Sphere which now is doing double damage
  • Ankarin slams Buppido against the ground twice, doing more damage to Bupiddo
  • Buppido fires off a Fire Bolt, but because being engaged with Ankarin – it’s at disadvantage and fails to hit
  • Elon tries another Lightning Bolt, but Ankarin rolls a Natural 20
  • DM Note: Because the main part of the fight was truly over, and Ankarin barely had any health left – and it had been getting late – I had the party do a “heroic group attack” where they all lunged at him at once…
  • Ankarin lets out a final scream and unravels, never to rise again – the four ghosts whom he’d banished (Red, Pink, Blue, and Orange) are briefly seen – and they escort Ankarin’s soul to damnation
  • Buppido notes there is a small ankh on the ground and quickly pockets it – and feels it tug towards the wall – Adrian spots this and looks at Buppido who looks at him innocently
  • Adrian picks up Buppido and drags him to the wall – where the ankh flies out of Buppido’s hands and clicks into the wall and reveals a secret passage. The passage opens up to a much larger room – and torches ignite magically – showing the party that the room they’d been fighting in was definitely covered in gold coins, amassed during Ankarin’s life hundreds of years ago and buried here with him – 30,000 gold
  • And a door opens – showing them there’s the barren lands
  • The party realizes that they now have a base

DM Note – With the “magic unlocked” the players could now “respec” their characters – which means they have to remain the same class – but the “sub class tier” they picked can now be changed. As well as new spells can now be memorized.