The Twenty-Fourth Session

May 16, 2020, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

There are 10 days' potency remaining on the apples. Bugfood requests two from Jerry to wear on a bandoleer.

The expedition has Minecrafted its way across the lava floes.

Day 20 (cave day 18): Beyond the Lava Field

Captain Zarada T'Haat remarks to Quartermistress Briza that the group will need good food and good rest. Two hours past the lava fields, the expedition turns a bed in the cave system and finds that good spot to rest.

For dinner that night, Briza pulls hunks of meat and frozen vegetables out of her refrigerated Bag of Holding (a Bag of Colding), and Ockoh makes some excellent stew.

Zeggil, the Aasimar recruit from Sky Diamond Academy, is making the rounds of the expedition, checking in on people. He sits with us, and compliments Jerry on her solution to the lava field. He takes the opportunity to trash-talk the expedition's leaders, saying that they just sat around reading books. He asks what we might find in the Lost City of Storm's Eye, for he does not know. Ryltar replies that he doesn't know, either. Ryltar hasn't read the passage from the book that the expedition's leaders are focused on.

"Word around the cook-pot is that there's an ice-lord in the lands, and we're going to his home," says Zeggil. "He's been alive for hundreds of years."

"A lich, then," says Zelrathi nervously.

"Most of the liches I've heard about aren't easily satiated by hiding away," says Ryltar.

"I'm just saying, Column A plus Column B equals lich", says Zelrathi.

From behind the group, in the shadows of the cave, comes this question: "What's wrong about controlling the undead?" It's Osril. He wears black clothes, with red hair.

"What kind of Faustian bargain did you have to make to wear that kind of clothing?" asks Vurguron.

In reply, Osril describes his grandmother, who's a dean at Sky Diamond Academy. Some people, disliking this response, imply strongly that Zeggil is himself a lich.

The fire-dancers

That night's watches:

1. Nothing stirs.
2. Nothing stirs.
3. Vurguron shudders awake, waking up from a nightmare about "scaly freaks who were invading" his hometown. He goes to the small fire of Ockoh's oosah stand, and there finds Zelrathi and Imbros. Zelrathi deflects Vurguron onto Imbros, and Imbros tasks Vurguron with taking over his watch.

Vurguron walks over to where Imbros was keeping watch, looking down the tunnel. He sees, down the tunnel, a slowly-growing brightness. Zelrathi sees it and tries to figure out who he should report to. He goes to Zarada T'Haat's tent, wakes her, and says it looks like there's torches approaching.

Zarada T'Haat wakes in time for a swarm of fire-dancers to enter the cave.

1. Round 1: a lot of stuff catches fire, and we learn that most people aren't fire-resistant
   1. The fire-dancers crash into the camp like the firey things in this scene. They pass close to Vurguron, dealing a little fire damage to him. (He and Bugfood, being Dragonborn, are resistant.)
   2. Jerry dampens her bedroll in the stream that now runs through the cave.
   3. The swarm moves past Vurguron, moving into the camp proper. A tent catches fire.
   4. Vurguron takes 3 fire damage. He tries to grab a single fire-danger, and succeeds after squashing several, taking 3 more fire damage. In Primordial he says to it, "Take me to your leader!" It replies, "Burn! Burn! Consume!"
   5. Zelrathi, in the middle of the camp, Twinspells Enlarge Person on Salris and Jerry.
   6. Salris targets the swarm with his Hexblade's Curse, and then he deals 28 slashing damage to the swarm, cutting half of the few that he expected to hit.
   7. Dirius emerges from her tent, sees what is happening, and wakes everyone in the now-burning tent. She casts a spell on herself before running into it.
   8. Ryltar awakes to a bright light. He rushes outside to see what he sees: it's the firey fireflies. He casts Chilling Hands on the biggest chunk of swarm he can find. A large number of fireflies sputter out.
   9. The rest of the expedition is now awake; they watch the fire-dancers setting everything flammable on fire.
   10. Bugfood casts Moonbeam on the swarm.
2. Round 2: Ockoh panics. The fire-dancers are vulnerable to cold.
   1. Jerry uses her wet blanket and Hunter's Mark to deal a total of 30 cold damage to the swarm.
   2. The swarm proceeds forward, splitting in two, setting more tent areas and people aflame.
   3. Salris catches fire.
   4. Dirius hauls his tent over to the river, soaking it.
   5. Vurguron is on fire, taking 4 halved fire damage.
   6. Ockoh, seeing all the fire, jumps out of his tent and into his metal cart.
   7. Osril uses some sort of Necromantic magic to kill a portion of the flies.
   8. Zelrathi looks around, trying to determine the best course of action. He slings some spells to reduce the swarm a bit, and then decides to not do any attacks.
   9. Salris hits the swarm twice with his cruelpesh, dealing lots of damage (even though they're Tiny creatures). The swarm dissipates in his area.
   10. Ryltar does some magic to the swarm nearer him.
   11. Bugfood moves Moonbeam to the nearer swarm, for more damage.
   12. Zarada T'Haat, with her hand crossbow, crits the swarm for a little damage: 6.
3. Round 3: Three swarms remain, setting many tents on fire.
   1. Jerry advances to the nearest swarm, attacks twice with the blanket dealing a total of 15 cold damage, and then retreats to the stream to rewet her blanket.
   2. The three remaining swarms move forward into the cavern, killing many people with burning tents. NPCs all.
   3. Briza and Imbros pull out hand crossbows, dealing minimal damage. Driver, the Drow with the bone whip, cracks that whip twice at the swarm.
   4. Vurguron, still on fire, takes 4 damage, and then he attacks the swarm once more, dealing a grand total of 1 cold.
   5. Ockoh continues hiding in his cart.
   6. Zelrathi Eldritch Blasts the swarm, doing very little damage at all.
   7. Salris demonstrates proper Eldritch Blast technique, dealing 15 damage.
   8. Ryltar Chilling Hands the nearest swarmlet, dealing 10 cold damage.
   9. Bugfood moves his Moonbeam to the nearest swarm, dealing 9 damage to a swarmlet with only 2 HP. As a bonus action, he does nothing and ends his turn.
   10. Zarada T'Haat shoots, doing minimum damage.
4. Round 4. Rescue operations begin. Two swarms remain.
   1. With a freshly-wetted blanket, Jerry flips open one of the burning tipi-style tents, exposing the insides for people to escape. There's one dead Drow inside, and some smoldering fire. She takes 4 fire damage, and moves to the next tent, donning the wet blanket as protection.
   2. The two remaining swarms advance, setting three more tents on fire.
   3. Vurguron, still on fire, takes 2 fire damage. Since his knife was previously ineffective, he slashes at the swarm with his sword. He deals 13 slashing to it, and takes 6 fire damage.
   4. Vicar advances to Ockoh's box, and tries to pull him from it. Ockoh resists, afraid of monsters.
   5. Zelrathi tries to help Vicar, but Ockoh isn't listening. He tries using Message, but Ockoh doesn't reply.
   6. Salris attacks twice with Eldritch Blast, dealing a total of 23 damage to the nearest swarm.
   7. Ryltar casts Ray of Frost on the oosah box, trying to chill it to prevent Ockoh from burninating. The next 13 points of fire damage to it will be nullified.
   8. Bugfood moves Moonbeam to the second-to-last swarm, dealing 10 radiant to it.
   9. Zarada T'Haat yells at Ockoh, and Ockoh lets himself out of the box
5. Round 5: Ockoh escapes. The swarm count falls to one.
   1. Jerry flips the next tent open, and finds some Drow meditative mats and burning papers. She uses the wet blanket to put out the papers, and shovels the papers into her Bag of Holding.
   2. The Moonbeam swarm takes 10 radiant damage. The other swarm goes to visit Zelrathi, who tells them to go away. They deal some fire damage to him.
   3. Leatherface cracks his bone whip twice, but not much happens.
   4. Vurguron advances on the smallest swarm and attacks twice, dealing 13 damage.
   5. Ockoh, feeling the burn, escapes from his box. He screams in pain and bolts for the stream. Vicar, similarly burnt, casts Cure Wounds on himself as he follows Ockoh.
   6. Zeggil casts Healing Word on Zelrathi for 5 health.
   7. Zelrathi takes 6 fire damage. He pops a Quickened Eldritch Blast and a Twinned Sacred Flame, not really successfully. He's still on fire.
   8. Salris casts Eldritch Blast once more, dealing 21 to the nearest swarm, killing it.
   9. Ryltar casts Ray of Frost at the last remaining swarm, the one that surrounds Ockoh's oosah box and Zelrathi. He extinguishes the fires and damages the swarm.
   10. Bugfood moves Moonbeam onto the last swarm, dealing 23 radiant to it.
   11. Zarada T'Haat notices that she's on fire, and pats herself out.
6. Round 6: Vurguron finishes off the last swarm, and rescue operations continue.
   1. Jerry doesn't hear any sounds of life from the nearest non-tipped tents, so she starts helping people get extinguished, directing them towards the stream so the expedition can regroup.
   2. The last swarm takes 10 damage from the Moonbeam, and sets a couple more tents on fire.
   3. Vurguron slashes the last swarm, taking 8 fire damage and dealing enough damage to kill it.
   4. Zelrathi, still on fire, takes 16 fire damage. He extinguishes the fire.
   5. Salris starts searching tents, looking for life. It's a tent that was most-recently set on fire, containing the food supply. He tries to collapse the tent, pulling stakes out of the ground, and gets halfway.
   6. Ryltar uses Ray of Frost to begin putting out as many fires as he can, on the tents and people closest. He uses Shape Water to help expedite the process. The water passes straight through some of the people. One of the Half-orcs seems to still be on fire, despite the water being applied.
   7. Bugfood takes Form of Giant Badger and begins shoveling the cave-floor dirt over things that are on fire.
7. Round 7: Now we're just doing cleanup and healing. Ryltar discovers something strange about one of the expedition's Half-orcs.
   1. Jerry flips another tent, extinguishing it, and moves on to the next.
   2. Ockoh continues to stop, drop, and roll, despite not being on fire. Vicar tries to calm him. Zeggil heals Zelrathi for 2 HP.
   3. Zelrathi converts one spell to two sorcery points, and then twins a Cure Wounds to heal some of the expedition.
   4. Salris flips another tent, saving the contents — sleeping mats and personal gear — which he is content with.
   5. Ryltar tries to touch the Half-orc who's still on fire; his hand passes through their skin to feel fur. The person jumps backwards; Ryltar tries to act as if he didn't notice anything and absolutely fails.
   6. Bugfood continues to badgerify the dirt, and extinguishes the last two tents with the assistance of other people in the expedition.

The last fires are out; the group seems to be calming down. The danger has passed.

The female Half-orc rushes over to Ryltar, grabs him, whispers into his ear, "I'll talk to you later," and rushes off. He recognizes this voice. A female voice he's heard recently.

The pressure that Salris has had in his hand, ever since the attack on Westhaven, is burning red-hot. "Ouch", he says, but then the burning releases, spreading up his arm like the warmth of a shot of Everclear. He has invoked the Blessing of Burning Blood, gaining a hearty body, increasing his hit point max by his level, and his HP max increases by and additional 1 every time he levels. And he gets to reroll a melee weapon damage dice once per turn. Salris is up to 59 max HP now.

Sixteen out of the expedition's 60 people have died. A fourth of the expedition, including the Party.

On the leadership of the expedition

Jerry goes to Rover Imbros, who's in charge of the scouts, and asks if the fire-dancers were a known threat of this expedition, and if so, what other threats are known.

Imbros says that their sources of information didn't say anything about the magma or the fire-dancers.

Jerry presses Imbros on this point. Imbros tells Jerry that Dirius is the source of intel for this expedition, with Dirius reading from books in a language that Imbros can't read. Jerry suggests that Imbros go to his employer and ask for a raise.

Imbros stalks off towards Zarada T'Haat, and Jerry follows.

Zarada T'Haat is, in a language that Jerry doesn't know but Zelrathi can Comprehend Languages of, tearing Dirius a new one. Why didn't Dirius tell of this thread? Ryltar recognizes some of the words used in this conversation.

Zelrathi offers to interpret the book, if he can be given a copy.

Dirius explains: What I can explain is what I know, what I can read. The person; the trip we're taking, the person doesn't always write down what they see. It's more feelings, emotions. It takes time to translate.

"To translate?" asks Zelrathi. "I've got magic to do the translating."

Ryltar's insight roll is only a 6. He goes over to Bugfood and reminds Bugfood of the story that they read, once upon a time.

Zelrathi asks Dirius if he can read the book. Dirius can hold onto the book; Zelrathi only needs to read it. With an 18 on Zelrathi's Charisma check, Dirius replies, "What do you know of ancient languages and what we're after?"

"I don't know what we're after, but I haven't yet a language I don't understand."

Dirius opens the book. The first page is missing. Dirius flips all the way to the last page, and Zelrathi reads:

To deal with a light, thin tunnel. The hole ascends to the end.

"This is the end of the story. The beginning of ours," says Dirius.

"So we're working backwards."

"Yes."

"I thought you said you could read this? It's old Sylvan, but it's still Sylvan. I know a spell that lets me read this," says Zelrathi. Dirius' head cocks. "For example, I don't know Undercommon, but I can understand you clear as day."

"There is your solution," says Zarada T'Haat. "One more person who can review this book may be insightful."

They don't do the reading immediately, but it's agreed that Zelrathi will be allowed to read the book.

The expedition takes a short rest.

Day 21 (cave day 19)

The party levels up.

Salris prepares a spell

Salris asks if anyone has a glass vial. Zelrathi asks why. It's for a spell, says Salris. He needs to collect the blood of one of the humanoids who unfortunately died recently. Zelrathi wants to know why. Zelrathi is opposed to allowing anyone to summon demons, even if they remain under Salris' control.

Ryltar gives Salris a glass vial that he had used to hold ink, and Salris respectfully collects some blood. The blood is only good for 24h, so Salris states his intent to dump the old blood and collect new blood every time we battle a humanoid.

The Disguised Half-orc

Ryltar is pulled aside by that Half-orc. "I didn't expect to see you here," he says.

"You're not supposed to," she says. She takes off her hat, removing a Disguise spell: it's Moon.

"It's good to see you here, among this rabble."

"It's good to be able to talk to you without much interference."

"How are you getting along?"

They do small talk for a while. Neither of them have found anything interesting.

The Drow set up funeral offerings for those who have died. Dirius gives them a eulogy, and send them off to the afterlife, in Lolth's care.

Zarada stands and gives a motivational speech.

We continue into the Underdark.

That night, many people are exhausted.

Day 22-26 (cave day 20-24)

For the next five days, it's a continual trek. We follow the stream created by last week's minecrafting.

The food supply was saved; the expedition is smaller now and goes through less food.

Zelrathi's readings

The book is written backwards. It's a story of the escape from the cave, rather than the journey into the cave.

They skip ahead a few pages to see what might be coming up, and come across the section that describes the lava fields and flying things.

A discovery

Jerry and the scouts come across a what looks like a glowing shrine built into the wall.

Upon closer inspection, it's not a shrine. It's a plume of blueish-white fungus, growing around a section of the base of the wall. The funguses are a dense mass of small mushrooms and lichens.

The fungus grows from a skull and the skeleton from a Dwarvish humanoid. There's a cold presence around the mushrooms and fungus. Some of the expedition pick a couple of the mushrooms to examine them, but drop them because they're too cold to handle. It's frost fungus, which is never seen this deep in the Underdark. It needs moisture and cold, but there's no obvious presence of cold nearby.

Days 27-28 (cave days 25-26)

Two days go by uneventfully, but not without mutinous mutters among the non-Drow contingent, talking about turning around to go back.

Once in a while, Moon will give Ryltar a nod.

Day 29 (cave day 27)

The scouts hear more water ahead; our tunnel is intersected by a river.

Zelrathi is asked to create a cypher to assist in the interpretation of the book, and does so.

Day 30-31 (cave day 28-29)

Two more days pass without incident.

Day 32 (cave day 30): Found

The winding, narrow cave opens into a massive cavern. The stream we'd been following empties into a gigantic underground lake. At the top of the cavern is a soft, grey beacon of light, which illuminates the cavern that our stream feeds into. The cavern deepens off to the left, with the lake stretching off behind a fold in the rock wall.

Directly across from us is the Lost City of Storm's Eye, rising in tiers from the lakefront.

There is much rejoicing.

There is one word that doesn't fit in Zelrathi's cypher: "crimson depths". There's words that he understands, but he doesn't understand how this word fits in the sentence. It's the last part of the book that makes sense.

Next session

The magic apples have dried up. Jerry has been eating the non-magical apples to supplement her rations. There are no apples left.

We get paid twice: 20 gold.

We have arrived at the lost city of Storm's Eye.