The Stranded – Session 04

The ship known as The Evenstar carried its passengers, marking the island where may had died during the Kraken’s attack, and had been aboard The Sun Chaser, so that they could send vessels back to recover the bodies of the dead that could be recovered so that they might have a proper burial and perhaps even be identified, so that families could be told of the tragic loss.

The Evenstar stopped along several small islands trading food and resources, eventually, after two weeks, arriving at the Ivory Coast. Upon immediately arriving at the Ivory Coast, Trinket took to pick pocketing and acquiring some gold easily, as the bustling town of the Ivory Coast is crowded with adventurers, and may people are constantly bumping into one another. Bronk made his way to a General Store and purchased an “unbreakable” mining pick and another 50′ of rope. As he comes out, he sees Trinket up to her old tricks, and quickly grabs her and pulls her into an alley. This, unfortunately, captures the attention of two of the town’s guards who approach this bugbear (notoriously known to be evil more often than not) accosting what appears to be an innocent female Harengon. After some questioning from the human guards, Trinket confirms that she knows the bugbear named Bronk, and the human guards depart – but their focus is on Bronk. Azula finally departs from the ship and finds Trinket and Bronk talking and explains that she has a plan – her plan is that she will tell some story at the Inn to make some money while Trinket tries to pick pocket those listening, and with any luck double their money from donations that Azula earns and extra coin that Trinket pick pockets. Trinket is completely behind the idea. The duo work together and earn even more coin, while Aram watch, shaking his head. Aram gets an order of Dragon Breath, and despite his lithe elven form, he manages the drink quite well, much to the surprise of the tavern keeper. Trinket spots Aram at the bar, and as Aram offers her a drink, Trinket’s sip – turns into finishing the drink, and she passes out on the floor, giggling wildly at the ceiling. Bronk arrives and throws her over his shoulder, and the four go find a tavern and get rooms.

  • Flint remains in the tavern, preferring to drink away the memories that haunt him
  • Aelith visits the docks to learn more information about what’s going on around the Ivory Coast
  • Lani visits the local Church of Florsena, the Goddess of Life
  • Bergeoff begins to work around the area, making contact with the Thieves Guild, while his girlfriend, Sage, feels the call of her Elven side of her blood, to come to the woods, for she has been out to sea for two weeks.
  • Silas pays a visit to the Monk Monastery

During the two weeks that Azula had been aboard The Evenstar, the party had spent time getting to know one another and Aram spoke of creatures in his native woods, that were mischievous dragon-like creatures that often grew to the size of domesticated cats, known as Faerie Dragons. Azula had become enamored by the stories Aram shared about these mysterious creatures and as she walked the streets of the Ivory Coast at night, she’d hoped that she could make a contact to perhaps a black-market that sold these mysterious creatures… she disregarded her own conscious thoughts, about how once, she too had been nothing more than a pet and sold as such… her desire to possesses a Faerie Dragon consumed her every thought… however, despite her best efforts, she made no such contacts, and everyone she asked swore no such black market for the selling or buying of illegal pets existed in the Ivory Coast.

As she was walking back, she was quite surprised to see a drunk Trinket wandering the street. She grabbed Trinket and as they return to the Inn, she could see now Trinket, in her drunken haze, had tied bed sheets together to escape her room on the third floor. Azula returned Trinket to her room, and everyone awoke the following morning.

In the morning, the company spoke to the Inn Keeper, about what he knew about Treasure. He explained everyone always eventually heads to the Broken Lands – because that’s where most of the treasure seems to come from. He explains however, that traveling to the Broken Lands is several weeks away – if not more than a month or two – and not only is the road between the Ivory Coast and the Broken Lands a very, very, very long trek, it is also one that is dangerous, and the roads have marauders, giants, and other horrors that patrol the roads looking for either aspiring adventurers headed for the Broken Lands, or adventurers returning towards the Ivory Coast with treasure, to murder. And if that were not bad enough already, the very lands of the Broken Lands is also one of horror and fear – for once it was a lush forest that Nifika, the goddess of Elves herself, stripped the land of forest, turned it into a barren desert wasteland, but in the process changed the very landscape of the area – where the sand moves like water and creatures swim through the sand as if it were water. Thousands of people have vanished in those ever changing dunes, never to be heard from again…

Azula asked the Inn Keeper if he’d ever seen Faerie Dragons; and while he admitted to never seeing one himself, he’d heard of them and knew they lived in forested areas, typically – and that right outside of the Ivory Coast an extensive forest could be found, and that perhaps one might be there?

Azula convinces the party to help her find a Faerie Dragon. Venturing out into the woods – Azula looks to the north and sees woods, with a mountain range in the distance. To the south she sees sprawling woods. Since the Inn Keeper mentioned that Faerie Dragons lived in the woods – she opted to travel south beyond the Ivory Coast, since there seemed to be more woods to the south. As they entered the woods – Azula found tracks on the ground like she’d never seen – small animal tracks – and she became hopeful that perhaps they’d gotten lucky and found evidence of a Faerie Dragon! However, her excitement betrayed her, as she was not able to be stealthy – and whatever they were pursing had scampered off in the underbrush. This is when Aram revealed that what they were following probably was not a Faerie Dragon since whatever it was never took flight and Faerie Dragons are capable of flight. Slightly discouraged, she asked Trinket to scout ahead. Trinket climbed a tree and began moving further south to scout ahead – it did not take long for the rising sun to reveal something in these woods that stuck out.

An ancient graveyard in the middle of the woods.

More curious still – was the small humanoid figure she spotted with a shovel that would dig at some graves for a moment before moving on. It had been a lone goblin. She quickly returned to the company to report what she’d found. The company decided to openly approach the goblin so not to frighten him. Bronk was able to use the Orc Tongue that he natively spoke to speak with the goblin who revealed he’d found an ancient treasure map – but could not find the treasure. Bronk convinced the goblin to let his companion, Trinket, look at the map who was an expert at “treasure maps.”

Trinket examines the map – and quickly deciphers that there’s Thieves Cant used on the map – it’s a very, very, very old dialect of the secret language – but she’s able to decipher that the “X” on the maps are not treasure locations, but rather traps. The true treasure, according the dialect on the map is behind the door of a Mausoleum. Trinket narrows down which one it is – and Bronk attempts to open the door – and at the very last moment, Trinket hears a click and a trap detonates – catching Bronk in the explosion, damaging him. But now, at least, one might say, at least the door is open. Peering inside, the Mausoleum has stairs that seem to plunge endlessly into darkness. Trinket pulls out her lantern and lights it and begins to lead the way into the tomb, followed by Bronk who clutches his battle axe, followed by Aram who grips his Great Sword, followed by Azula, whose claws are reflexively out, who is then followed by their new goblin companion, Zorrin.

As the company makes their way down, the stairs, the deeper the company goes become more and more brittle. As Trinket holds her lantern about, she takes note that the walls are decorated in runes that she can not decypher.

As they venture deeper and deeper into the seemingly never ending darkness, Aram loses his footing, falling forward into Bronk, who then falls forward into Trinket. All three of them begin to plummet down the stairs, the narrow halls making it difficult to get themselves up right, they strike the stairs, the wall, and even slam into one another – and by the time they come to a halt, Trinket’s lantern has plunged way beyond sight, the oil splashing all over the stairs as it bounced out of view, the flame extinguished; Bronk, who took several hits to the head on the stairs finds himself quite bloody, and Aram is hurt as well, though not as badly as Bronk. As Azula rushes forward, casting Dancing Lights to create light – she is horrified to see that not only is Bronk quite bloody from the ordeal – but his blood now flowed up the wall and into the runes!

Her eyes traced the blood flowing up through the runes – and noticed they were all drawn to an angelic looking figure on the wall…

Azula was ready to turn and leave this tomb – when suddenly she noticed the door they’d entered… was gone.

All that remained there was a starless void. Azula looked and touched the blood figure of the angel – and saw a vision of what appeared to be a king on some ancient battle field, fighting off thousands of enemies that were coming down on him – and just as spears pierced his body – this once holy man called upon the darkest of forces so that he might live long enough to slay his enemies – and his prayer was answered as he was bestowed dark, necrotic wings that turned his enemies to ash, before he finally fell, with his last enemy slain, his spirit condemned…

She turned to the others and expressed her dislike of their current situation. She tried to heal Bronk – but the result was the blood in the walls suddenly becoming illuminated. Azula then healed Trinket and Aram, then tried to heal Bronk, which succeeded this time – but at the cost of several of her spell slots.

The company agreed the only thing they could do now was press forward and see if there was treasure down here and if there was another way out. Bronk gave Trinket a torch and apologized for colliding into her (explaining it’d been Aram’s fault). Trinket took the lead once more and eventually took notice further down – that five stairs – their shadows did not behave normally. When she moved the torch, the shadows of five of the stairs did not move. She reached into her pouch and threw a ball baring which bounced on several stairs – but once it reached the unusual stairs – the ball bearing simply disappeared into the stairs. She turned around and explained that there appeared to be an illusionary trap. With little effort, as a Harengon, she jumped over the illusionary trap. Bronk thought that throwing a rope to her in case he didn’t make it, she might – despite her lack of strength and his weight (considering his towering size and heavy armor) that she might be able to pull him if he didn’t make it – however, as if the tomb responded – as he threw the rope – it was almost immediately pulled into the trap (Note: this was actually a critical fail roll, being flavored). Bronk tried to hold on but some force seemed to be pulling extremely hard on it, so he released the rope. He jumped, followed by Aram, Azula and their new goblin companions, Zorrin.

Proceeding further, the stairs opened to a cavern with a passage ahead. This time Bronk took the lead, taking a torch to move through the cavern –

However, Bronk suddenly disappears into darkness – the light of his torch, seemingly snuffed. Unaware to the others, Bronk has fallen victim to a Dark Mantle, who used its magical darkness

The company eventually defeats the Dark Mantle, but not before Gronk is wounded again. Proceeding forward – they see a long hall – where several traps have been sprung and corpses lie trapped in various spears and spikes.

Trinket tries to determine where the pressure plates are but this ancient tomb has not seen any recent movement and the dust has settled on the various stones, making it impossible to tell where the pressure plates might be. (Note this was due to a critical fail) Bronk convinces Zirron to run across – and the goblin successfully does so. The company determines that the small goblin probably doesn’t weigh enough to trigger the pressure plates. The company returns back to the cave, gathering the carcass of the Dark Mantle, they begin to roll it down the hall, triggering the traps ahead of them, until at one point the Dark Mantle’s deceased body is so eviscerated by the various traps, that there is nothing left to roll ahead of them. Aram tries to use one of the corpses that had died on the trap – to discover it was a Ghoul that torn in his arm, then into Azula’s arm, before it was defeated.Trinket seeing there’s still about thirty five feet, rolls some more of her ball bearings – which roll about ten feet and all roughly stop in the same area. Bronk tried to use his unbreakable pick to shatter the stone (Note: I gave him advantage because I liked the idea – and he rolled a DOUBLE CRITICAL FAIL!!) and the pick shattered, leaving Bronk holding just the wooden handle.

Just beyond was a cryptic where the blood lines all ran to. Azula tried to move forward and suddenly succumbed to the shadow – after much effort the company was able to pull her back – and Aram struck her four times with a frying pan to knock her unconscious. When she regained consciousness she was herself again. Gronk and Aram move forward – and discovered the ball bearings had stopped because two of the pressure plates were not stone – but rather powerful magnets that pulled their weapons out of their hands – and had so much force, that Bronk had to remove his armor before he was pulled to the ground – then, what had happened to Azula happened to Bronk and Aram – they too succumbed to the shadow and began trying to attack Azula and Trinket. More effort was done getting Bronk and Aram back, and once crossed over back to the other side of the magnetic stones, Aram and Bronk regained their senses. Trinket tried to cross over, since her blood had not ever spilled into the wall – but the magnetic stones pulled her weapons away. She was able to reach the tomb, and using Zirron’s shovel, tried to pry the tomb open, believing the evil here was some form of vampire – however, upon touching the tomb, she succumbed to the darkness and the party had great effort getting her back and back to her senses by lassoing her and pulling her back over. The party moved back into the cave and took a long rest where Azula had further visions of the fallen king, so her night of sleep was restless (she regained spell slots but only one half of the health she would have normally regained).

Eventually Azula makes her way to the tomb, and discovers that the tomb is now open. As she looks inside she sees mounds of gold. Believing it might be an illusion, she shoves the sharpened broken shovel piece into the gold – but there is nothing here but gold. But then she sees him – the fallen king – a spirit like figure floating with shadowy wings – he extended his hand to her and explained he’d been waiting for her – and that he could give her anything she wanted – and peered into her heart and mind and created a vision of a Faerie Dragon – she declined and suddenly the tomb began to collapse. Bronk had enough time to grab his armor, Aram managed to grab his sword, both taking great feats of strength; Trinket tried to pry one of her daggers, but lacked the strength to do so. The company fled through the cavern, through the trapped room, up the stairs, and upon reaching the illusion trap floor – Aram and Bronk failed – falling into the trap – Azula and Trinket continued, clearing the trap – and discovering that not only had Bronk and Aram teleported to the top – flying out of the starless door way – and tumbling down the stairs – their blood feeding the walls again – but they were bound in the very rope Bronk had lost in the trap! Azula reached the top of the stairs – and suddenly the door way revealed itself to her once again – and the company escaped into the graveyard – now it was dark as night outside, when it’d been daylight when they’d entered. They’d rested in the cavern – and judged, if they had timed everything correctly – it should be early dawn. But it was not. It was, by the look of the moon, at least midnight.

The company returned to the Ivory Coast. It was at the shop where Bronk had bought his unbreakable pick (which he’d shattered on the magnetic floor) that he got his refund – but he and Aram suddenly took notice to Azula’s shadow – it had something very unusual to it – it had the shadow of a skeletal wing! They had gone to the Church of Florsenda who explained that the spirit she released was an ancient spirit that has old stories about the King who was once loved and respected and fell to shadow… she explained that the shadow may be using her body as a vessel to reach some unknown task but she would look into what could be done.

Later, at another tavern, Aram found his brother, Bergeoff, who explained that Sage hasn’t been seen in three weeks – and neither had any of them (them being Aram, Azula, Trinket and Bronk). They’d all been missing for three weeks!

To Be Continued?

Fun Note: The runes absorbing the blood of the characters when they became bloodied was improvised… just to add a creepy effect to it. Originally the creature in the tomb what going to be a Ghast, which could effect normal characters and elves, since Aram was in the party… but seeing how the party was creeped out by the runes, the blood, how it acted, in the end I changed it to a spirit/ghost as I continued to improvise the story with the visions Azula was getting… was a very fun thing to do because now it’s provided me with more story rather than just being a big fight that they win (ideally) in the end.