DND Blog

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

The One Hundred and Eleventh Session

November 9, 2024, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

In the Red Wastes, we spend some time travleing. Dirius and Ryltar do their questioning.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. Day 4
    1. The questions
  3. Day Five
  4. Day Six
  5. Next up …
  6. Next session

Last session

We tied up all the plot arcs in the South Haven, leaving Vurguron to his House and his people.

Then we picked up a female bronze Dragonborn Paladin named Embersia, who will travel with us as the emissary of Vurguron.

And now we've caught up with the Harbingers of Discovery, who have set off across the desert, following the Water Line, looking for the lost library, the Arcadia Infinatum, where many secrets may be held.

There was an incident with an elephant and a swarm of locusts. We have opened Percy's Magnificent Mansion to the expedition for shelter, food, and other stuff.

Day 4

Today we will hit another feature of the Water Line. It turns out to be a sizable oasis, 150 feet to a side, and a stone perimeter fence runs 30-50 feet beyond it.

We set up in the Magnificent Mansion, and we bring in Flumbo the elephant as well.

The Drow officers set up in one corner of the mansion's courtyard dome. Percival goes over to them, offering to exchange a list of his abilities with any person who shows him the same. Of any who write down anything, only three write down anything with impact. One officer gives Percival exactly what he wanted: a list of all spells and special abilities know. Percival says that this is

Percival asks her what her "type" is, and has one of the Mansion's servants servants take that form, and serve her dinner. But She says, "I already have her servants."

Percival sits very close to her, and invites her to whisper to him. "Please don't be embarrassed. I want to hear what you really have to say."

She's interested in a harem of men worshipping her. So Percival calls in his servants as a Chippendale troupe, in jeans and bowties and cuffs, to serve her.

This is now a full-service establishment.

The questions

Dirius requests Ryltar. He shows up in his normal clothes, looking somewhat like Wint.

D: Do you believe we can find the Arcadia Infinatum?

R: Of course.

D: And if this expedition is all for naught, what shall you do?

R: To be honest, I haven't thought about what we would do next. We have a lot of people pulling us in different directions. I suspect we would go back and check in on Vurguron, depending on how long we've been out here. The Deans of the Sky Diamond Academy have called us in from time to time.

Dirius yields him the floor.

R: Do you expect to find magic items at the Arcadia Infinatum, or just knowledge?

D: The Arcadia Infinatum is a collection of items, reflecting Ioun's understanding. Items can reflect items. I would not be surprised if items were there.

R: What are the rules for items we find there? Are we playing "Finder's Skeepers?" Or are you keeping everyhing we find?

D: Everything we find is to be collected, categorized, displayed. What we do is not for individuals, but for the world at large. Collecting knowledge, to protect the right people.

R: Sometimes personal power is what you need to protect the world at large.

D: (smile) Oh yes.

R: If we find an item of significant power and ability, can we keep it for our own use, if we promise to turn it over later, or will we be forced to hand it over immediately?

D: I think we both know the answer to that question. (knowing nod)

Ryltar steps out of her tent.

Percival is waiting there. "You should ask her what her 'type' is."

Behind Percival stands a line of ten servants, in a line that shades from looking somewhat like Ryltar to looking very like Ryltar.

"I'm not going to do that," says Ryltar.

Day Five

In the distance, there is some movement coming towards the column. We see this and call the column to a stop.

The movement is another group of travelers on the Water Line, headed the opposite way. We're about 100 strong; there's about 17 in their group. They have a lot of camels with heavy packs. They appear to be traders. Ryltar Detects Magic and sees that the leader has several scrolls on his person. He approaches and inquires.

The leader is immediately cautious. "It is for emergencies." They're scrolls for creating water. Jerry thinks we don't need any.

That night, Dirius summons Ryltar again. She never summons him personally; she always sends a runner.

That night, Dirius has set up a chessboard, and offers Ryltar the white side. When playing chess with a Drow, black goes first. She moves a piece, and asks, "How is the Ice Heart of Winter treating you?"

"It has grown in power since I found the artifact. It seems whatever source of cold is in my heart is not too different from that which resides in the wand." Insight: 6

Dirius gestures for him to move, and ask his question.

Dirius: "Do you know of its significance?"

Ryltar: "I know a decent amount of history about the wand and its previous owner. Perhaps I don't know the full story, though."

Dirius thinks. Ryltar, with a 14 Insight, thinks she's disappointed. Maybe she was expecting more. He continues speaking. "I know Wint was a man who lived a long time ago, sometime before the world was rewritten, I suppose. I know he was married."

"Lily."

"Yes. I believe we met her."

"Where did you meet her?"

"In a forest to the west of Setton. There's a grove of corrupted trees and corrupted beasts, and I believe we met her there."

Dirius pulls out a parchment, and scratches a few words on it. She makes her move, and now it's Ryltar's turn. He makes a move of his own.

"What do you know of the Ice Heart of Winter, or of Wint? Your choice."

"I read his library. I was the one to compile it. You were there. A mage, a mage of ice, curious about the world around him, detached from his lover. More devoted to his craft and its mystery than personal connections. A sense of forboding. A little glimpse of history compiled within one man." She moves.

Ryltar thinks a while, as he looks at the board. All her moves have been to advance, not to defend. Ryltar takes a knight as she moves more pieces, pressing him. She is willing to lose more pieces in order to develop the board.

Ryltar: "Do you know how Wint died?"

Dirius: "No."

She moves to check him.

Ryltar defends with a pawn.

She overwhelms him, and he is checkmated.

Ryltar looks at the board, with all of these pieces, where it is already lost, he asks: "Do you follow Ioun?"

"I do not follow those who have forgotten the world."

Ryltar rolls another 6 Insight, and says, "I really am bad at chess." He leaves his Queen standing in checkmate (Drow chess, remember?) and leaves the room. He remembers the vision upon the mountain, of her throwing away her symbol of Lolth.

Ryltar explains the events of the evening to Percival, as well as explaining the Mountain. They message Zelrathi to check in on him; he's still talking to his patron.

Jerry spends the evening teaching the soldiers new card games.

Embersia reads her scripts.

Day Six

We come upon a rocky portion of the desert, where there are massive rocky outcrops among the red sands. There's a small basin in the mountains, not a perfect circle, but a natural bowl within the outcroppings. The water in the well is murky, but can be cleaned.

Sizeable expeditions don't normally travel through the Water Line, so there hasn't been a real need to expand the outcropping. But once we start pushing people through into the Magnificent Mansion, it's much less crowded.

Each night, to a slight degree, Percival has started increasing the amount of aphrodisiac perfume in Dirius' room: lilac and sandalwood. He's also reducing the lighting a little: moodlighting.

It is later than usual when Dirius summons Ryltar. He has a 10 Perception roll and doesn't notice the subtle music, let alone the scent and lights. Dirius is still wearing her usual uniform of high collar, silver circlet, and other rugged-yet-regal attire. Before he entered, he cast Detect Magic. He sees that her circlet is magical, as is a waist pouch containing many magical items. She's going over notes and charts.

Ryltar strolls into the room and looks around thoughtfully, noticing nothing. He approaches her.

She's looking at a map of the desert, which has many markings. She acknowledges his present.

"Late call this evening. Have you had a breakthrough in what we're looking for?"

She smiles and says, "I'm to ask the first questions."

"I await them."

She offers him a stack of notes. "Go over these notes. Is there anything to add to them?" They're stylized representations of various landmarks and features within the desert that serve as markers for people making their way to the Arcadia Infinatum. There are many suggested lines, and a path marked going eastward off he waterline after ten days. It winds its way into a larger rock formation, and marks different ways into that formation.

Ryltar has the notes from Galladan's explorations into the desert in search of this library.

Ryltar adds marks of danger to her map, marking the places that have already been searched. Dirius reads from the journal.

"Where did you get that?" she asks.

"There was a dean of history at Sky Diamond Academy, who perished. This was one of his works."

"Galladan, who flaunted his notes to me." She pauses. "I do consider it favorable that you trust me in this venture, even though we have such troubled history." Not a question!

"It's good to have a meeting of the minds."

"We left in such a tumultous time."

"It does feel like that's most of the times these days."

"What would you do if you were to return to the Quadroads, to try to quiet the riots that are going on?"

"I don't know if it's our party's job to quell the riots. I think that it's very much the temples' jobs. And no one in our group other than Percival would do a good job of stopping a riot."

Next up …

[insert Percival's notes]

Next session