SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: SESSION 6 – INTO THE SINKHOLE, L3, 05/21/19

The Cast:

·         Brother Aron: Human priest of the New God

·         Calista: Ferren rogue

·         Perry Flaxseed: Halfing Hunter

·         Nikolai Petrechko: Human Veteran

After fighting a horde of small monsters that had emerged from the sinkhole, the group spends the rest of the day selling items and shopping for new equipment.  They hear that the Autarch of Kem was hiring bands of monster hunters to go into the sinkhole to find and destroy whatever evil was summoning forth these creatures.  The group spend the night considering their options.  They expected to get rewarded for returning Lord Kornwall, only to find that his family is broke, and all they got for their trouble was a deed to a worthless property hundreds of miles away.

The following day they decide to risk the Sinkhole.  They find that the city had built an elevator and had already lowered the first group of monster hunters into the hole.  After signing several contracts, the group entered the sinkhole.  About halfway down they encounter a strange mist which blocks their sight of the surface.  At the bottom of the sinkhole they find an enormous side passage leading deeper into the earth.

After a few hundred yards the group finds a gigantic cavern filled with red crystals that seem to amplify magical energies.  They also find the first party that entered the sinkhole; all dead.  A creature feasting on one of the party attacks but the heroes manage to kill it without alerting the other monsters deeper in the cave.  They collects few crystals and quietly continue into the cave.  The find a huge summoning circle burned into the cavern floor with the symbol of Ragnora in the center.  At the rear of the cave they find two huge statues depicting the two aspects of the Mother; an alluring one and a horrific one.  They continue into a smaller tunnel and emerge again in a large cavern that has a lake and three structures.

Calista attempts to sneak in but a screaming monster spots her and begins shrieking loudly.  The group attack & kill it quickly, but not before alerting the troglodytes in the smaller two structures.  The troglodytes attack but the heroes fight them to the death and continue on to the bridge that spans the lake to the third structure.  Careful not to fall into the lake that was infested with monstrous worm similar to those encountered in NorEgrets, the group cross the bridge and enter the circular structure.  

Within they find a troglodyte Dark Speaker in the midst of a summoning ritual, and his guard; a monstrous muttering maw.  The troglodyte stops the ritual to cast spells, but the heroes killed him and turned their attentions to the maw, killing it shortly after.    They spend time studying the circular temple, filled with wall paintings of the time of the Witch-King Ashrakal.  It told the tale of the witch-king’s defeat and the subsequent withdrawal of his subjects into the depths of Urth where they prayed to the Dark Gods for guidance.  Their prayers were answered with centuries of exile within the dark caverns.  This cave was discovered and this temple dedicated to the World Mother’s evil aspect, Ragnora, the Mother of Monsters. The summoning chamber was built but the troglodytes had to flee the cave due to a nearby gnome colony that didn’t want the troglodytes in their territory.  A prophesy is written upon the wall foretelling the Rise of Ragnora from her imprisonment upon the fabled lands of Ys.

Having found the source of the monster attacks, the group take their proof and begin their return to the surface.

End of session.

SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: SESSION 5 – THE CITY OF GOLD, L3, 05/14/19

The Cast:

• Brother Aron: Human priest of the New God/crusader
• Calista: Ferren rogue/thief
• Perry Flaxseed: Halfing hunter/fighter
• Nikolai Petrechko: Human veteran/fighter

After leaving the troubled town of Nor Egerts, the heroes convince the sullen Unit One to take them to Kem, the Golden City and that they will accompany him to Lij after they have dropped off Lord Kornwall, and explain why the clockwork was unable to sell the farm machine. 

When the group arrive in Kem, the town is undergoing a holiday celebration for the annual Spring Planting (an Old Faith custom) and the more recent Ascension (a New God holiday celebrating the murder and subsequent ascension of Astrid the Prophet), so the city is abuzz with activity.  Calista can barely keep her hands to herself with all of the people walking openly with purses waiting to be taken.  But the large number of law enforcement officers, called “Coins” in this city, are all over the place, so she tempers her impulses.  The group head towards the Seaside ward and to Lord Kornwall’s family manor where his aunt and uncle reside, but when they knock on the door, a servant answers and states that the manor belongs to another noble family, as the plaque beside the door states.  Lord Kornwall is outraged and confused, but unable to voice it due to his wounds.  The group go to the manor next door and learn from the servant that answers the door that the Kornwall family fell upon hard times when the combination of the orc uprising caused a drastic drop in market prices forcing the Vault to call in many outstanding debts and Lord Kornwall’s own money management problems and bad investments resulted in the family going bankrupt and the Vault foreclosing on their assets.  The servant was unsure of where the Lord and Lady were now.

The heroes decide to go to the Temple Ward so that Brother Aron can check in with the local clergy and they find that the church is engaged in raising funds and culling volunteers to join the Kingdom of God against the orcs of Caecras, who have been amassing at their borders for months and prepare for war. 

The heroes ask around for news about the Kornwall family and find one who says that a year or so ago the family lost everything and had to move to the West Ward, which is the most poverty-stricken part of Kem.  An address is given and the group head down to that area and find the brownstone that the Kornwalls moved to.  Lady Kornwall answers, looking disheveled but still bears a posture of nobility.  She embraces her nephew and invites them into her small apartment.  She explains what happened and how her husband, Lord Edmund Kornwall killed himself after the Vault seized their assets, forcing her to move to this place with little but the clothes on her back.  Kornwall writes a note that he promised a reward to the heroes for saving him from Caecras and the Lady said she would honor that.  She goes and retrieves a scroll and hands it to them stating that it was the only family asset that the Vault did not seize; the deed to a seaside property several hundred miles to the south that has been in the family for a long time.  She gives the deed over to them and the group accepts it gratefully.  They leave the Kornwalls and go find an inn in which to stay the night in town.

That night, as the celebrations around town continue, Calista decides to head over to the Trade Ward to explore and she finds a gambling hall that looks familiar, having remembered her mentor, Shalljo, spending time there when he brought her to Kem many years ago.  She was not allowed to enter then, being so young, but she entered now and searched the hall filled with rich business men and women throwing their money away on the various games of chance, but did not see anyone she recognized. Then she spots a well-dressed man on a balcony overseeing the hall and decides to go talk to him.  She is stopped by a bouncer, but the balcony man lets her up and soon she is engaged in conversation with the proprietor of the establishment, Blaine.  The two engage in small talk and Calista gets around asking about Shalljo.  Blaine says he remembers the man, but has not seen him in quite a while.  Calista also mentions the “Gray Man” and Blaine tells her that the Gray Man is an assassin that works for the Black Hand; the preeminent assassin’s guild in Rul, and probably the world. He says the guild is based out of Pruul, also known as the City of Death, and advises her to stay away from the Gray Man.  Some more small talk and flirting, but Blaine seems distracted as he keeps checking his pocket watch, and excuses himself.  Callista leaves the gambling hall.

Nikolai spends the evening walking through the Temple Ward, watching the various festivities, having left Brother Aron, Perry, Gordy and Weezer back at the inn.  As the evening’s fireworks celebration reaches its peak, a series of massive explosions throughout the Trade Ward rocks the city, announcing the arrival of the infamous Anarchist; a terrorist the group had been hearing about since they arrived, who has plagued the city for months, claiming to be a champion of the people and urging them to rise up against their oppressors.  But his actions are more in line with a terrorist, which is what the local authorities have been calling him.

On the rooftop of the Temple of the Seer, the form of the Anarchist is illuminated and his voice somehow amplified, which booms across the city, once again citing the evils of the Vault and the government, denouncing the new Orc Emperor and claiming that a Reckoning is coming. Then, as quickly as he appeared, he vanishes.  The Coins pour in from all parts of the ward to the temple and search it for the Anarchist, taking many priests in for questioning. 

Nikolai makes his way through the panicking crowds back to the inn.

Callista, having made her way back to the Temple Ward, heard the Anarchist and noticed a similarity to Blaine’s voice.  She, too, returns to the inn.  The group reunites and after things calm down, decide to rest for the night.

The following day, during the breaking of their nightly fast, the group feel a familiar tremor, which soon grows into a violent quake, shaking the building around them.  A deafening roar erupts from the Seer’s Park and the entire city witnesses an enormous, 100 ft tall monster emerge from a newly formed sinkhole that almost entirely engulfs the park.  The horrid, tentacle monster makes its way across the city, destroying buildings and crushing dozens of hapless citizens before finally entering the bay and disappearing into the sea.  However, swarms of smaller monsters erupt from the sinkhole and attack everything in sight.  The heroes gear up and go into the streets to fight the monsters.  They manage to kill several when the Coins arrive and help wipe out the rest from the area before moving on to the next ward.  The day is spent cleansing the town of monsters and securing the sinkhole.  The Autarch announces a expedition into the sinkhole to stop whatever is producing the monsters and close up the hole, and seeks Monster Hunters to join the expedition.  The heroes consider this offer.

End of session.

SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: SESSION 4 – THE TOWN OF NOR EGERTS. L2, 05/07/19

The Cast:

• Brother Aron: Human priest of the New God
• Calista: Ferren rogue
• Perry Flaxseed: Halfing Hunter
• Nikolai Petrechko: Human Veteran

The heroes travel many more days until they finally reach signs upon the King’s Road that point towards civilization.  They eventually encounter a strange scene as a band of goblins are surrounding a group of wagons with a cloaked clockwork man defending them with three large clockwork spiders.  The group decide to intervene and a fight breaks out with the goblins. The group is successful in killing a few and driving the rest off.  They learn the clockwork man is called Unit One or U-1 and he is delivering a farming machine to the nearby village of Nor Egerts for his master Ronson the Artificer.  They all climb aboard the strange, self-propelled wagons and head off towards the village.

They arrive in the village after dark and find several people in town milling about, going to and from building and several near what appears to be a tavern.  When the wagons pull up the town folk take an interest and begin chatting with the group.  The people seem friendly enough but strangely mannered.  In fact, some are outright odd as the group spies highly inappropriate acts being engaged in the open and between unlikely people.  They also spot some urinating and/or defecating in the open, expressing no shame or embarrassment at all.  Some of them enter the tavern where they again find highly inappropriate behavior. 

They leave the tavern and see Unit One hail them.  When they go over to the clockwork they find him engaged in discussion with a woman who claims to be the town’s Wisdom.  Speaking on behalf of the town Elder, she says he will not engage with the clockwork man due to his own prejudices against such beings, so Unit One asks the heroes to see the elder about the farming machine he ordered and collect payment.  All but Calista went to see the elder, as the rogue was wandering the town in cat form seeing what she could see, which were oddities after oddities.  Homes being lived in but not having been cleaned in months, people relieving themselves in public, others having sexual relations in plain sight, still others molesting animals.  The entire group surmises that there is something wrong with the people of this town. 

Meanwhile, the rest of the group are taken to the rear side of the Elder’s manor by the Wisdom, where he was supposedly gardening, but they find him in a shed and are horrified by the sight.  The elder’s body is bloated beyond mortal capacity, filling the entire shed.  His skin swam with creatures wriggling around just underneath.  The shed stank of urine and feces and something even worse and indescribable. The elder, seemingly unperturbed by his condition, says that payment shall be rendered but not before he collects his payment from them.  Confused, the heroes ask why they should render payment, and the elder states that it is payment for the Mother, of course.  She requires the payment of children for anyone new that enters town.  Gordy, having tagged along with the group, hides behind Brother Aron, cowering in fear.  The elder demands the child be given over and the Wisdom attempts to grab him.  A fight breaks out, with both the Wisdom and the Elder casting vile spells, one of which causes Brother Aron’s manhood to rot off and nearly killing him. 

Calista, on a nearby rooftop, sees the town folk moving in unison towards the elder’s garden as if summoned by some unseen and unheard message.  She also sees a swarm of worm-like creatures emerge from a nearby copse of woods and slither towards her companions.  She resumes human form and joins them as the group plans their escape. 

Using an alchemy weapon created by Weezer, they throw it into the shed and it explodes in a plume of dragonfire, consuming the shed and eating away at the elder.  The town folk all scream in unison with the elder, as though sharing his pain.  The group leaves the garden, gather Unit One and the wagons, and start to leave, until they realize that Lord Kornwall is missing.  He is spotted running down an alley, screaming in pain as one of the worm creatures attempted to enter his body through his wounds.  The group save Kornwall, removing the worm and they return to the wagons.  That’s when they notice another shack with the same reek as the elder’s shed, so the heroes fire flaming arrows into it and that shed also goes up in flames. 

The group use the self-propelled wagons to leave Nor Egerts and resume their journey to the City of Gold.

End of session.

SOTDL CAMPAIGN DIARY: SESSION 3 – THE HUNTSMAN’S ISLE, L1, 04/30/19

The Cast:

• Brother Aron: Human priest of the New God
• Calista: Ferren rogue
• Perry Flaxseed: Halfing Hunter
• Nikolai Petrechko: Human Veteran

The group leave the catacombs below the mounds and find that Lord Kornwall has grievous wounds.  They rush him to the care of Mother Sabra, who saves him but unable to do anything about his missing tongue and his ass, which was destroyed and left gaping.

The group rest through the night and then decide to return to the mounds to find a way to get rid of the Eitr pool, but when the get there they find many monsters in the area.  They sneak into one of the mounds to avoid being attacked and only then they just barely escaped.  Within the mounds they find more of the grey skinned creatures in the catacomb where the central chamber is and the large symbol of the Mother of Monsters.  They fight the troglodytes, but shortly after the fight begins a robed troglodyte emerges and begins casting spells.  This troglodyte casts a forbidden spell upon Brother Aron, wounding him grievously as well, causing his manhood to rot off his body.  Brother Aron falls, and Calista is chased into another chamber where she too falls and is dragged off by a troglodyte that intends to mate with her.  Nikolai and Perry manage to kill the remaining troglodytes and the spell-casting troglodyte disappears into the darkness.  They find Calista and kill the troglodyte that was trying to assault her, then the group destroys the ritual and the symbol.  They then loot the Baron’s family tomb.

Upon emerging from the catacombs, they find the Eitr pool and monsters gone.  They return to the keep, rest and the following day Mother Sabra announces that she and most of the others that traveled with them were staying on the island.  The group leave some jewels for them to trade for money and then a few days later, they depart with the wounded Lord Kornwall and Brother Aron, headed for Kem, the City of Gold.

End of session.