DND Blog

A place to keep DND session recaps, from various campaigns.

The Fiftieth Session

August 7, 2021, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

The Party finds Thrai's missing Halfling companion, who is full of spiderlings. He dies. Thrai blows up the cave system, which we escape just barely. We name the ensuing depression as Rogo's Lake, after the Halfling. Percival teleports away, and the the rest of the Party begins the trek back to Quadroads. Among the loot is an ominous note messaging Majorie, Jerry's daughter.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. The buried stone
    1. Tunnel Number One
    2. Tunnel Number Two
    3. Tunnel Number Five
    4. Preparing to destroy the big rock
    5. The last spider
  3. Rogo's Lake
  4. Heading Back to Quadroads
    1. The first morning
  5. Next items

Last session

We delved the Spider's Lair and defeated the Flesh Weaver, and then continued exploring. We took a long rest in Percival's Tiny Hut, and healed up some. We went down and down and found a large obsidian pumice sphere, partially carved out, surrounded by humanoid bodies with shards of the pumice embedded in their skulls, no longer moving.

The buried stone

We discuss what to do with the giant obsidian pumice stone.

Thrai pulls out a satchel of oils, and says she has a spell that could destroy most of it. Percival offers his Fireball. But there are worries that the Party's spells might not be sufficient to destroy it.

We think about different ways of affecting it, and recall that Bugfood has vanished portions of obsidian pumice in the past with lightning damage. Time to do SCIENCE!

Ryltar's ice bolt chills the obsidian pumice. Salris' Eldritch Blast shatters a portion of it. Jerry casts Lightning Arrow; the rock shatters somewhat, scattering the electricity.

We realize that pumping energy into the rock makes it expand and shatter, in ways that removing energy (chilling it) doesn't.

Vurguron's Firebolt pockmarks the rock.

There's a significant portion missing in the center of the sphere, like it's roughly hollow. The pumice in the center has been worked out. But there's nothing in there; it's empty. A wedge was carved out to allow access to this, and now Ryltar steps into the carved-out section to see what's there.

Ryltar remembers: When we killed the Flesh Weaver, her center was an eight-pointed star. When she was defeated, the energy blast was intense and potent. But that star was placed in her: did she do it herself, or did something do it to her?

The hole in the center of this house-sized obsidian-pumice sphere is the size of a basketball, roughly. Not big enough to go anywhere. Ryltar continues observing for a bit, and then hops down.

Salris focuses, gathering eldritch energy. A trickle runs down his neck, like a hand. And then he kamehamehas the rock for 5d10 + 5 = 41 force. A three-foot sphere of the rock is gone, and one of his spell slots.

Jerry does 10 bludgeoning with her long hammer; the 10 damage leaves a spiderweb of cracks.

Tunnel Number One

There are six tunnels coming off of this room; we came down one.

The first tunnel on our left is pretty straight, for a bit. We talk about heading down it, but first we want to secure our rear. With time and effort, we remove the remaining obsidian shards from the heads of the corpses.

The corpses' shards are only as interesting as other shards; they're not very worked. There aren't any tools for working them here; they were crudely shaped. Possibly with the crowbars in the room, which Vurguron examines. The crowbars are marked with smithing marks, but not legibly.

So we go down the hall to the left, towards its first bend. Ten feet past the bend, it ends in a small opening in the ground: a dirty hole, with drag marks away from the hole. Salris digs at it a little with Mage Hand and Jerry's shovel, but finds nothing. It was just a 3' hole.

We go back to the stone's room, and then on to the other tunnels.

Tunnel Number Two

A divot in the wall. Nothing of interest there, other than the divot. Same drag marks, which lead down Tunnel Number Five.

Tunnel Number Five

This divot is in the ceiling, and is a tunnel that leads up to the floor above, in the giant pile of obsidian pumice that we saw earlier.

Ryltar concludes that there were bits of obsidian pumice which weren't part of the main sphere, which were being brought up.

The other two tunnels have stone divots in the wall and ceiling.

Preparing to destroy the big rock

Thrai is confident that she can destroy the sphere. And in response to Ryltar's concerns about respectfully interring the bodies, she says that we should do that respectfully outside. THe point of what she's about to do to the sphere is desecration.

We drag all of the bodies to the exit tunnel, and drag as much obsidian as possible to the big rock's room.

Ryltar pulls out the eight-pointed obsidian star — it's not eight-pointed anymore. The star has agglomerated all the obsidian pumice in his bag. It's now eleven-pointed. The exterior points break off as he picks it up, breaking easily. Each time he moves it, it breaks more off, becoming smaller as more chunks break off of it, going down to a tennis ball size.

He pushes the softball-sized piece against a big pumice shard in the pile. The thrust cracks it a little, like a geode.

Inside is a writhing purple-green-black crystal, steeped in the essence of the Far Realms. The colors pulsate and twitch. He puts it back in his bag.

Then Ryltar joins our efforts to move obsidian pumice downstairs. He tells Thrai of the remaining big spider, near a stack of obsidian pumice and more cocoons.

The last spider

We decide to attack that spider. It looks wounded, and is protective of the cocoons behind it.

  1. Surprise round!
    1. Ryltar begins by casting Slow.
    2. Salris casts Synaptic Static for 25 necrotic.
  2. Round 1
    1. Thrai runs in and hits the big spider, giving it the ol' bonk for 4d6 = 20 bludgeoning.
    2. Ryltar does his usual Ray of Frost for 15 cold, and its speed is reduced further by 10.One of its egg sacs bursts, dealing 11 poison damage to Thrai.
    3. Salris kills the spider, and two more sacs splat, for 15 to Thrai and Salris.

We have successfully defeated the Brood Guardian Spider. We see cocoons, of which there are four moving. Jerry and Salris go to cut them open:

  1. Oh hey there's a swarm of spiderlings.
    1. Jerry cuts open the first cocoon. It's full of 100 spiderlings. She bludgeons them with the maul for 16 damage, killing many. Then she casts hunter's Mark.
    2. Percival viciously mocks the swarm, dealing 5 damage.
    3. The swarm enters Jerry's space and deals 5 piercing to her.
    4. Thrai attacks the swarm, smashing it away.

We decide to proceed to the next cocoon with more caution.

  1. Cocoon 2
    1. Salris cuts open cocoon number 2!
    2. A small hand grabs Salris' hand! Thrai sees her friend, the hobbit, Rogo. There's a spiral burn running up his arm. And she notices his bulbous abdomen. Rogo is in pain.

Rogo says, "They're trying to get out! Thrai, help me!"

Thrai is not at all happy about this; she tries to save him. Bends down, casts Lesser Restoration, crying. She breaks.

Salris turns him into something that doesn't lay eggs: he is Polymorphed into a tiger. But still the tiger writhes in pain. Thrai objects. Salris casts Calm Emotions on Thrai.

Jerry slits him open with a knife, dealing 11 damage. Vurguron holds Thrai back. Ryltar places the Immovable Rod to hold Rogo in place. A swarm erupts from Rogo's stomach.

  1. Round 1
    1. Salris slashes at the swarm, killing that swarm.
    2. Rogo is unconscious. Percival heals him with third-level Cure Wounds for a bit of health, and he regains consciousness. He's not in a good position; he screams, "Get them out!" They're coming out of his mouth now.
    3. The spiders coming out of his mouth don't do anything, just come out. They used their action to get out. Rogo is downed again.
  2. Round 2.
    1. Jerry pulls two healing potions from her bag to leave them on the floor. Then she moves Hunter's Mark onto the swarm and bludgeons it twice for 27 damage.
    2. Vurguron is still holding Thrai.
    3. The spiders seem to all be out of Rogo's body, in Ryltar's eyes. But that's not all. He grabs Rogo and Dimension Doors to the other side of Thrai, leaving the spiders behind — but Rogo, being downed can't consent — Rogo, currently being dead, comes with — "Well, fuck." There are spiders left behind. "I have solved the problem! Shit."
    4. Salris attacks the spiders. The swarm dies.
    5. Ryltar asks Thrai to stabilize and heal Rogo. She pulls out a small bag, and scatters diamond dust over him, casting Revivify. The dust freezes in place; she prays and prays. The diamond dust dissipates: the spiders ate his insides. And it can't bring back people who have massive wounds.
    6. Thrai pulls out of Vurguron's embrace and takes off running.

Ryltar casts Hold Person on Thrai; she's a cleric. Her emotion overturns the spell.

Jerry stabs cocoon 3 and 4.

Salris, Ryltar, Vurguron run after her. She's beginning to cast a spell: Flame Strike, summoning a vertical column of divine fire, 10 foot radius, 40 feet high. All the remnants of the pumice are already doused with oil.

Whumph.

Vurguron and Thrai maintain their footing against the blast. The walls, floor, and ceiling quake.

The ceiling of the room caves in, towards Thrai.

Upstairs, Jerry and Percival feel a big shudder.

Salris and Ryltar make their way up a level, quickly.

Vurguron runs up to Thrai, pulling at her, saying, "Let's get out of here." He succeeds in persuading her. They now try to outrun a collapsing cav Rock and soil crash down around Thrai and Vurguron. They shield themselves from the falling ceiling.

When Jerry stabbed #3 and #4, two swarms came out. The ground began to shift and move. Jerry stabs each swarm for a little damage, and runs away.

Percival grabs Rogo and Dimension Doors out of sight.

Vurguron is running as fast as he can, thinking about the family he left at home as motivation to run faster. He does succeed in moving ahead, and so does Thrai. Ryltar sees them.

Thrai has a sense of accomplishment and destruction. She does not care whether she lives or dies at this time; her motivation to come here is gone from her. Vurguron is pushing her up the exit tunnel.

Salris was the first up the tunnel; he left a rope. Ryltar realizes he left his Immovable Rod behind. Salris Misty Steps 30 feet straight up, dropping the rope. Ryltar takes his climbing potion, grabs the rope, and goes up.

Vurguron and Thrai climb; Jerry is the last up. Salris went straight up, and begins to fall. Ryltar does some thinking with Dimension Door and Salris crashes to the ground at the top of the tunnel, next to Percival and Rogo. He is very thankful.

There's still some daylight left in the day, and the variant spiders are fleeing through the webs. Jerry and Salris see a sinkhole behind the Party, gradually expanding.

We navigate the spiderwebs out. Jerry's woodscraft and memory of the maze let the Party escape the expanding wave of collapsing trees. A final tree falls, and we see a crater has formed behind us. We see the Phase Spiders shifting out of the plane as they run away. And at least one spider is being ridden by a skeleton, off to the north, just standing at the edge of the crater. It turns and rides off into the woods to the north.

We also see a pseudopod brute get collapsed under a tree. It dies under Ryltar and Salris' cantrips.

Rogo's Lake

Thrai kneels at the edge of the crater. We discuss what to do with the body: resurrection or something else. She shakes her head. "He told me." He would want to be buried here, on the shore of Rogo's Lake. Thrai digs a grave, assisted by people. She sends him off with the honors of her faith.

Salris makes a sign: "Rogo's Lake".

Thrai looks up, and we hear a soft rumble of thunder. It begins to rain.

Ryltar uses the subtle metamagic to subtly cast Fairy Fire to make the rain look nice.

We put on our rain gear, and begin the trek back to Quadroads. Percival says, "G'day", explains that he's going home because he only goes places from time time, and vanishes. His belt lights up as he fades out of sight.

Heading Back to Quadroads

The gentle rain seemingly washes away the anxiety that befell us on the road. We travel a day. Thrai leads, northwest, back to the road. A day's travel passes; we forage along the way. Beneath the spiderwebs is a significant amount of pre-caught game.

That night, we take watches.

Salris examines the Abracadabrus, but does not attune: it's a wooden cube, 18 inches to a side, covered in jewels. Each side has a different color and shape of lid. He puts a hand on one side and thinks about a Scroll of Identify. He opens the hatch, and there's a blank scroll in it. One charge has been expended.

Salris also checks the Robe of Useful Items. He pulls a patch off, and it reveals a sack. There are 23 patches left:

Salris also checks the Cloak of Arachnida. It's finely made of black silk, and confers resistance to poison, climb speed equal to walk speed, climb on ceiling, can't be caught in webs, and can move through webs as if they're difficult terrain. Does require attunement. Can use an action to cast Web, filling twice the normal area, once per dawn.

Salris also discovers that the goggles are basically mundane night vision goggles, not requiring attunement.

During his watch, when everyone else is asleep or meditating, Salris quietly slides 125 gold into each person's bag, including Thrai.

Ryltar spends his watch contemplating the crystal, trying to find any knowledge about it. With a 4, he learns: This warped crystal is steeped with the essence of the Farm Realms. It can be attached to small jewelry or other items. It can be attuned to, tapping into the magics of the Far Realms.

The first morning

In the morning, Salris tells everyone about the stuff. Vurguron takes the mundane NVGs. Jerry takes the Abracadabrus for her bag of holding, and attunes the Cloak of Arachnida.

Salris pulls a 20-foot wooden ladder from the Cloak of Useful Items. He carves it into a lockpick, and tries to open the locked scrollcase. He sees that the top of the case can now move, ever so slightly. With Vurguron's crowbar, he pries open the case: he hears paper dissolve. Closes it real fast.

Ryltar makes a key from Shape Water, and tries to use that to unlock it. Instead, he decides to break the lock with ice. It does break the lock. But the case does not open. At the bottom of the case, acid drops out of the case.

Salris pries the case open and dumps its contents out. He doesn't get any acid on him, but the parchment is mostly destroyed. And something else rolls out: Salris picks it up to see a metal ring with two dragon claws grasping each other.

The scroll, on further inspection, is in a language that Ryltar doesn't read. It was carried by the black Dragonborn. Vurguron determines that the scroll's language is encrypted using a spell of Draconic affiliation. It's magically encoded to prevent reading. Also in the case is a second parchment, which has the remnants of words:

in Majorie trouble

The remains of the note.

The words fade away.

Jerry recalls she's seen this before: invisible handwriting. It reminds her of the note that said, "Kerjes is watching, waiting," which she received in Quadroads.

Next items

Return to Quadroads, make our report, get money, determine what to do next.

Is Kerjes going after us now? Or our families?

Majorie, last seen joining the West Haven Guard, heading north to the desert.

Other stuff: