Session 1 - 27AUG2023
Attendees
- Tim ✅
- Walter ✅
- Erica ✅
- Jin ✅
- Nick ✅
- Alex ❌
Copy/Paste Source: ✅ ❌
Recap to Current Situation
- Group is all together and is located at a town called Raedan in the nation of Acium
- Ther group are at an inn called The Sword and Board run by a retired mercenary
- The group is trying to search for powerful magical artifacts
- Beginning status:
- Long rested with full health
Session Notes
- Erica and Walter are part of a mercenary guild
- Picked up Nick along the road on the way to Raedan
- Jin is along for the ride, but is not very talkative
- Group decides to go to the Council of the Few to learn more about a potential lead on some old ruins
- Council keeper tells group about ruins a couple days walk north of town that was recently discovered
- Promised reward of 10 gold per person with chance for more if valuable artifacts are found
- Group sets out to the ruins
- First day passes uneventfully as they travel through grasslands
- Evening falls and Walter takes first watch and will switch off with Jin
- Walter hears varmint noises during the night, thought he saw a shooting start, switches off with Jin
- Jin sees what looks like a boar moving through the grass
- Jin casts minor illusion to make flames appear near where he saw the boar-like thing
- This causes a yelp to sound out and some cursing in an unkown language (table talk: Goblin language)
- This causes the thing to move away from Jin
- Jin wakes up Nick and and lets him know about what he saw
- Nick runs in the direction of the noise
- Nick catches up to a suspiciously well dressed goblin, causing the creature to fall down and beg forgiveness
- Nick brings the goblin back to the group as they are woken up
- The group confronts the goblin to find out more info
- He claims that he is being paid by Rizz to conduct market research on mercenaries by following them
- Jin threatens the goblin and the goblin fesses up that he is lying, but starts panicking thinking that his mind has been read
- He is actually working for Rizz, but was actually following the group to scavenge the ruins behind the group
- The group allows Cloc to join the group on this trip
- Cloc grants the scout of the group advantage on checking for and disarming traps that we encounter
- Rest of the night happens uneventfully
- Group continues the next day towards the ruins
- On the second day, group comes across a geographical landmark....a small knoll ~4 ft in diameter
- Jin investigates the knoll and notices the ground is softer at one point, when pressure is applied there, the dirt gives way and there are stairs revealed going underground
- Erica creates a fire magically at the base of the stairs, illuminating an antechamber at the base of the stairs in front of stone doors
- Jin decides to push Cloc down the stairs, but Cloc catches himself and he proceeds down and makes it to the bottom safely
- Nick decides to charge down the stairs after Cloc, the rest of the group follows
- The stone door in the room is a giant monolith that appears seamless
- Vases are at either side of the door, containing flowers that appear gray/colorless, but not dried/dead
- Nick checks out the flowers, but as he approaches, his breath is enough to cause the flowers to crumble into ash, with a sulfurous smell
- Jin checks the remains of the flowers for traces of magic, decides that no magic left by the flowers
- Erica investigates the flowers for signs of magical tools, determines that the flowers were dried out completely at a molecular level
- Walter bangs the door to see what happen, rolls a nat 20
- Cracks start to form and the door gives way
- We have solved the door puzzle!
- Jin looks through the door and sees a room made of stone
- The room is 20'x10'
- Along the perimeter of the room, funerary slabs are arranged, 6 in total
- Erica magically creates a bonfire in the room, burning away cobwebs from the room
- Nick pushes the door open
- Cloc tentatively walks into the room, nothing happens and signals that the room is clear
- Walter walks into the room and bangs the door, knocking the door off its hinges
- Nick uses Firbolg Magic to cast Detect Magic
- He sees that there is a faint green light coming from the far side of the closed door
- Green light indicates that it is from the school of Necromancy
- Erica investigates the slabs and finds a switch on the lip of the lid
- She presses the switch and the lid lifts and then slides into the wall
- Inside is a skeleton...that is just a skeleton, not imbued with magic of any kind
- Walter walks up to the skeleton and smashes the skull of the skeleton
- Cloc jumps into the sarcophagus and starts stuffing his pockets with stuff
- After a threat from Erica, he shows the group he has just grabbed a couple rings and finger bones
- The group opens the rest of the 6 sarcophagi, finding four other humanoid skeletons and 20 gold worth of non-magical objects
- Jin threates Cloc into laying down in one of the empty sarcophagi in a burial pose
- Nick lays down in the other empty sarcophagus
- Jin determines that there is not really any mechanical way to trigger the coffin to close
- The group pushes open the door and Erica and Jin peek through
- They see a landing of some kind with stairs that continue down...but can't see walls or a ceiling
- Cloc moves into the next room as Erica moves her bonfire into the next room
- Cloc is scared as he looks back toward the group and the group hears a noise similar to bones cracking
- Cloc says that he sees two heads and starts running back to the group, clinging onto Walter in fear
- Nick casts Hidden Step to sneak into the room unseen
- Once in the room, he sees two skulls in the room looking at the doorway, they do not react as he passes
- Walter decides to try walking into the room, the skulls follow him with their gaze as he walks around
- Erica walks into the room, one skull looks at Erica, one at Walter
- The bonfire and torch is extinguished, but the skulls still follow Erica and Walter with their gaze
- Erica and Walter decide to continue down the stairs to try to get out of the range of vision of the skulls
- After ~60 feet, the skulls reset
- The group makes it through 2 at a time and are on the stairway down further in to the cavern
- Walter and Erica make a glowing rock and Walter throws it down the stairs, watching it tumble down for an additional 100 feet before coming to a rest on a stone floor at the base of the stairs
- The group decides to at least go to the bottom of the stairs to see what is there before deciding whether to head back or not
- At the base of the stairs is a large clearing which has what looks like a stone building 2 stories tall
- The stone seems to be seamless, formed in the shape of the building
- As we proceed into the space, there are more buildings visible, a whole village worth of buildings
- There are no lights in the buildings
- The group decides to short rest near the base of the stairs (1 hour)
- During the short rest, Cloc is shuffling a deck of cards to pass the time
- The group also determines there is a slight air current in the cavern
- The air is cool and humid
- There are suspiciously no living things (insects, newts, etc.) in the cave
- After the short rest, the group decides to check out a building to see what is inside
- The house is made entirely of stone, seamlessly constructed
- Inside are decayed remains of furniture, and some stone furnishings
- Nick racks his brain about history (history check) and is able to recognize that there are a lot of familiar features in the architecture to dwarven structures as well as elven architecture
- However, this stone is melded from a single, seamless stone, like it is grown
- Also, elven architecture is made from natural materials and not stone
- Going further into the village, other buildings are similar in construction and contents
- Proceeding further, an open area like a town square is in the middle with a large dome structure and four large doorways in the sides of the dome building
- Looking through a doorway, Erica sees sarcophagi lining the interior wall of the structure as well as an inverted dome at the summit of the building
- Nick casts detect magic and the entire building is lit up with the green light of Necromancy magic
- The group decides that their investigation is complete and decides to return to the surface
- Nick casts a fog cloud and it prevents the skulls from following the group with their gaze
- Jin decides to try to telepathically speak with a spell, but takes 4 psychic damage instead
- The group moves past the heads and then proceeds further out and make it to the surface