Date:
Tothsday 16th Jelenios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Cool, light rain
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Kaliyani scout
2 Off-white runny slimes
Rust-colored jelly-like slime
Unknown man with crossbow
Ecath, Varumani lift operator
2 Bestial Varumani lift assistants
Many shadows
Many vorantes demons
Greater vorantes demon
3 skeletal wights
Nalgi, Varumani hunter
The Plan:
- Cast Seeker and Trace on Klibo
- Find and kill the Bad Neighbors
- Search the nearby area
What Happened:
The Right for Riches company hired Chrysalis to help them hunt down the Bad Neighbors, the group that had ambushed them and forced them to flee.
Using a blood samples from Kerbog Khan's blood bank, Vael cast Seeker on Klibo, the alleged leader of the Bad Neighbors. He saw Klibo and several other people they recognized in a cavern they didn't recognize, as some men in green berets tried to pull a dead body off a meat hook. He followed up the Seeker with a Trace, so he could home in on Klibo's location. From the Beacon, Vael felt like Klibo was below him.
From the Beacon, they used the Rudishva teleporter to teleport to the Bastion, off the bottom of the Great Chasm. Vael felt like Klibo was above him and southeast. Next they teleported to the Rudishva prison area. From there, Vael thought Klibo was about the sample level, and southeast. They teleported again to the Rudishva area where they'd killed the black goo, and Vael said Klibo was down and east. They teleported to the garden island floating in the Great Chasm, and Vael felt Klibo was down and southeast.
After all that teleporting, they decided to just fly down the Chasm. Vael cast Levitation on himself and Walk on Air on everyone except Vallium (who had his Boots of Levitation) and then the group descended until Vael thought they were on the same level as Klibo. At that point they started exploring along the edge of the Great Chasm, starting at the southeast. They found a natural passage into the rock. There was a sloping passage down, which they felt went too deep, so came back up. There was a concealed door heading north. Vael cast Glass Wall and saw a room with some of the small round Vorantes Demons, so they didn't go that way.
Doubling back, they flew up a ledge, where Vael's See Invisible spell spotted a kaliyani hiding on the floor. He didn't respond to anything they said, except by throwing a javelin at Vael. Chrysalis parried it. Vael cast Wall of Lightning around the kaliyani, who tried throwing more javelins through it. Eventually they tired of the kaliyani and Vael cast Shape Air to blow it through the Wall of Lightning, doing damage. Vallium then killed it. They took its fangs, javelins, and silver jewelry.
They went back out to the Great Chasm and kept exploring along the walls, when they were ambushed by three slimes. Two of them were off-white and running, while the other was rust-colored and jelly-like in consistency. Vallium killed two of the slimes, Chrysalis killed the other, and they continued exploring the Chasm. Eventually they found an offshoot of the Chasm to the east, which ended at an arrow slit. Looking within, Vael spotted a man with a crossbow, looking south through a different arrow slit. The man didn't look like a Bad Neighbor, so they decided to keep exploring.
They went south and found a landing, with graffiti on the walls. They read one, which said "The First Adept will
pay for specimens of plants and animals" in Varumani. They heard conversation in Varumani to the south, and went that way and found the bottom terminus of the Varumani Lifts. The operator there was named Ecath. He asked how they got down there without taking the Lift, and they said they flew. Vael asked if he had seen their "friends" and he said he had not. They asked him for information, and he said there was an old temple to the north, and they had better bring good lights if they went east.
They went east. down some stairs, and then through a room with columns down the center and raised areas north and south. The room was brightly lit with orangish Perpetual Light. The raised areas contained eight circles of rose quartz. They powered past the room, ignoring the circles. On the far side, some stairs down led to a statue of Anubis, holding an ebony staff in one hand and a magical golden torch in the other. Beyond the torch's light, the room beyond was pitch black. As they approached the darkness, the light from their Continual Light stones didn't penetrate the darkness. Vael cast Dark Vision on everyone, and then they could see into the darkness. He then grabbed the torch, which welded itself to his hand. It was another one of those cursed blacklight torches. As he took the torch, another one appeared in the statue's hand.
In the darkness they saw some shadows moving around, staying back from the torch. Vallium readied his Ghost Weapon broadsword, while Ioannes cast Affect Spirits on several other weapons. Vallium threw the Returning Javelin at a shadow, wounding it. When the javelin returned, all the shadows fled to the edges of the room.
Deciding they could not just kill all the shadows from range, the group advanced into the darkness. The shadows charged them. The blacklight torch in Vael's hand didn't work in the darkness. A long fight ensued, but the combination of Dark Vision and Affect Spirits negated the shadows' main advantages, and they were defeated. However, as the last shadowsl, some skeletal wights entered the room from the east, along with some vorantes demons from the south. The battle continued, and as the wights and demons fell, some more shadows attacked. Finally, some more of the small vorantes demons poured in, along with one larger vorantes demon. When those were defeated, the attacks stopped.
Vallium led the group back to the light of the statue to rest and recover. While they were there, they heard the call of a varumani from the west. It was Nalgi, one of the hunters, and he was looking for kaliyani. Vael informed him of the kaliyani scout they had killed to the south, and Nalgi offered to buy the kaliyani's fangs and save them a trip to varumani territory.
After Nalgi went back to the Lift, the group decided to temporarily suspend their search for the Bad Neighbors to search and loot the area. They didn't find any more enemies. They did find a dozen rooms, including two secret rooms. There were a bunch of mundane weapons and armor, a couple of suits of magic armor, a magic broadsword that shocked both Vallium and Vael when they picked it up, a magic crossbow missing its string, a pile of gold coins, a few gems, some potions and scrolls, some rugs and furniture, and an odd book called The Honey Project about raising giant bees. They also found a Thothian Teleportation Circle, which Vallium found in their book of teleportation circle addresses, so they could return to it.
After thoroughly looting the area, everyone but Vael went through a Teleportation Rug back to the Beacon, then Vael turned off all his spells, picked up the Rug, and cast Pol's Recall to join them. They had failed to find the Bad Neighbors. However, they had found, cleared, and looted a new area.
GM's Comments:
I think this combat had the most groups of reinforcements since the PCs took down the Forum of Set. It's amusing when the players think they're about to win, but then it's time for More Shadows. It wasn't that hard a combat, though, because of the ability to spam Dark Vision and Affect Spirits. Without those spells, it would have been brutal. (But the shadows didn't want to get too close to the statue, so retreat would have been an option.)
The way I interpret the Trace spell, it gives a direction but not a distance. So it helps a lot to find someone, but doesn't make it completely trivial, if the local terrain is complicated enough.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 21 new locations, 2 XP
- Loot: A decent amount, 1-2 XP depending on how much they sell
- Achievements: 0 XP
- Total: 3-4 XP
Next Week:
No game; GM on vacation.
In Two Weeks:
They're planning to resume their pursuit of the Bad Neighbors.
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