DND Blog

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

The Hundred and Twentieth Session

March 29, 2025, Campaign: As the ground quakes, evil wakes

We return to Quadroads. The Cultists of the Burnt Tree have been wrecking stuff in Quadroads, and we've been asked to help eliminate them. Also one of the Ascendants might be missing. Moon has a thing for Ryltar.

Table of Contents

  1. Last session
  2. The Door and the Dial
  3. Quadroads
  4. Bombers
    1. Ryltar's adventures in the temple
    2. Potions Hunt
    3. Embersia and the Temple of Bahamut
    4. Moon
  5. Next Sessions

Last session

The student from Quadroads who entered the Library was 'guided' into the Battle Room, and then killed there.

Embersia confessed to the theft of the Luckstone from Jerry, and comitted to telling Vurguron about her theft of the shield.

The Party rested, then figured out the "Release, Release" riddle and got out. You have to commit to sharing the information you learn in the Library. One of the Library's defenses is to prevent you from leaving, because if you're hoarding, there's no benefit to you being there.

Outside the Library, Ryltar found Audrey and Ginen bound and blindfolded. Then Dirus et al. began blasting, and battle was joined. A choice Sunburst saved the Party, blinding just about every foe. Jerry was Dominated by a demon, a Yochlol.

Dirius was killed by Ryltar's Psychic Lance. Her shadow lance dissipated. A shadow spread across the sand and disappeared. We Revivifyd Ginen and Embersia. Embersia now has a puncture wound leaking black oil, which does not heal.

The Door and the Dial

We've unbound Audrey and Ginen; Ginen is afflicted by some sort of wasting disease. Upon inspection, it's "Flesh Rot" and is cured by Embersia.

Ryltar loots Dirius' corpse and finds:

Percival pulls Dirius' body into the Magnificent Mansion.

Jerry questions Audrey and Ginen about their experiences. They had been blindfolded and bound, and have no useful information.

Jerry loots the other Drows' corpses, and finds 2500 gold, 30 days' worth of food, enough horses for the Party. We won't be able to teleport the horses out; they might not survive in the desert.

Audrey puts a hand on Ryltar's shoulder, then says, "Curious. Two hands reaching down into the Darkness. I do not see that anymore."

"Whatever cursed force you thought you had, doesn't always have to come to pass. I'm sorry that you got into this in the way that you did."

"I was a prisoner within my own temple; I am a prisoner under Dirius. I am no prisoner anymore."

"And what will you do with that newfound freedom?"

"I do not know."

Jerry appears, leading a pack of horses. "Would you like some horses?"

Audrey would like to travel, and very much likes the idea of not having a desert. She's game for anyplace that's habitable and full of life, but she wants to find who she is. She wants to stay at our inn.

"If you don't see the two hands reaching down into darkness, what do you see?"

"Some things, as you are, not knowing the future may be a benefit."

Inside the Mansion, 98 cooks' worth of meal prep is going on. Jerry tries all the foods: like going to a food court, getting a side dish from every stall. Some are good, some are not.

Ryltar passes the Headband of Comprehend Languages to Jerry as he picks up the Headband of Intellect.

Ginen doesn't know where he wants to go. "There was a time where I knew that. Away from here." So Quadroads it is for him.

As Ryltar walks away, Ginen asks, "Did she get what was coming for her?"

"The greatest tragedy is that she didn't suffer enough," Ryltar says, and Ginen laughs.

We refresh ourselves in the Mansion and take a long rest.

We pose the Drow corpses all reaching towards the door.

Ryltar picks up Dirius, and then we teleport to the Temple of Ioun in Quadroads.

An acolyte rushes up in flustered confusion, and we explain who we are and ask after the Ascendants. The acolyte is gratified to hear that the Library exists, and then rushes off to find the Ascendants.

We send Ginen and Audrey out to the Irregular Inn, and then are besieged by the Temple's folks.

The Temple's leaders take us from the teleportation circle room to the temple's main hall, which has a scorched floor, and then into an office. The Temple's hallways are endless and one-directional, apparently as a defense against rioters.

We are asked what happened, and so Ryltar retells the story. We encountered the demilich, we fought Dirius, we found the Library, we fought the student and Dirius. The priests of Ioun are greatly excited to hear that the Library exists, and more so that the library looks like their temple.

The Cult of the Burning Tree has been laying sieve to the Quadroads, "from within," says one of the priests. "Where is it?" asks one of the priests. We're wary of them, of their voraciousness, and don't tell them. They protest.

"The library is not … safe," says Jerry.

"A friend of ours went there, and didn't tell anyone," says Ryltar, "and I don't know why. While I'd like to take everyone there, I don't know that it's safe to do."

We explain in a roundabout way that the knowledge itself is not necessarily safe. It has denizens, we say, and the priests are hanging on our every word. "They were consumed by their thirst for knowledge," we say, and persuade the priests to back off a bit. They want to know what we learned; we'll discuss it with the Ascendants.

Much has changed in Quadroads. The temple has shut its doors.

They say that the Cult of the Burning Tree need to be quelled in the Quadroads.

We talk about what the Temple is like: beauty, and the indexing system, and how the books are being written in real time, and the garden and fruits. We do not mention the guards, or the entrance, or the riddles.

We walk out of the temple and into the city of Quadroads.

Quadroads

There is a notable absence of bustle. The crowd is thin; people are moving in small groups together with purpose. So we head there.

The door is open, the sign is repainted and fancier, and the tables have been replaced. The foyer is opened up and beautifully furnished. Zander — that kid we saved — is lying down on the bar, picking his nails. "We're closed right now," he says.

"So when do you open?" asks Ryltar, and Zander falls off the bar. He's really happy to see us.

Salris sticks his head out of the upstairs, and is apparently quite strained with something. We've been gone a while, and the world has gone to shit. Thrai has deputized Salris to hunt down cultists.

Cato has returned home after teaching Zander everything he knows.

The Ioun Ascendant has been meeting with the council for weeks.

One of the Ascendants has gone missing for days.

"We should go talk to Thrai," we say, and there's a large explosion outside.

A cart has exploded.

Bombers

  1. Round 1! Four people are fleeing, 20 feet from an exploded cart 40 feet from our door.
    1. Ryltar hits them with Slow. Only one is slowed.
    2. Percival Mass Suggests that they turn themselves in.
    3. Salris attacks one, breaking the Mass Suggestion.
    4. Embersia casts Guiding Bolt and hits a runner.
    5. One of the Cultists tries to cast Command on Ryltar,
    6. Jerry shoots that Cultist with Ensnaring Strike. The cultist dies. She then runs over to the person who's on fire, and lacking any action, shouts, "STOP DROP AND ROLL" in her most intimidating voice. Critical 31.
  2. Round 2
    1. Ryltar does Shape Water on his waterskin to try to fight the fire. 21 and he gives them a quick bath.
    2. Percival does Wind Wall to extinguish the burning cart and man.
    3. Salris does Cone of Cold on the cart.

The fire is extinguished; we calm the crowd. The cultists make their way to the guardhouse safely and are manacled, and then the suggestion fades.

Thrai is captain of the night guard, but the day guard captain gives us a short briefing:

Ryltar's adventures in the temple

The temple of Denier has a guard, but they let him pass after he explains why he's come: to dig into the visions he had at the tree in the desert.

The priest examines his book, and the scribbles, and tells him that he has been touched by the divine, in a ravaging manner. What has occurred is not something the priest can undo. But what he has lost can be regained through training and study.

The priest is quite encouraged to see the notes on the Infinite Halls, and encourages Ryltar to write.

Potions Hunt

Jerry goes to Goodbarrel Goodmagicks, and the proprietor Sieg (full Orc) stands near the entrance with a flowery apron and an axe. But neither Sieg nor Dee make the potions they sell; we are sent to Glassmore.

Glassmore's Tinctures is run by Red and Kistalyn Glassmore. Red ripped us off in the past; Kistalyn is Zelrathi's old flame. There's a hastily-written "Closed" sign with a note: "Services provided only to Ascendants."

With a 17 she doesn't hear anything, so she knocks and nothing happens. She goes around back and knocks, and an angry voice calls out, "We're closed!" Jerry knocks loudly with her Titan Stone Knuckles and knocks three bricks loose from the wall. The voice is very angry. Jerry climbs up on the roof and starts dropping gold coins down the chimney, eventually dragging from the proprietor that he needs a certain type of bush with red berries and blue-tinted leaves from the forests in the South.

Embersia and the Temple of Bahamut

She asks why the Temples are closed; the guards say that people have been attacking the temples. "Why are you here?" asks the guard, unkindly.

Embersia is admitted with her symbol of the Third House. The temple wants to protect any outreach from the Empire. They take great pride in their defiance of the attackers; their temple is pristine.

Embersia relays opinion from Vurguron:

They say that the Ascendant has said that they're supposed to protect the faith. They have a supply of stuff.

Moon

Ryltar returns to the Temple of Ioun and is admitted. He finds Moon cleaning up a shattered window, and helps her do that. They discuss his travels, her work, and the Mummy Lord. "I hate to — Is it?" she asks him, about the Mummy Lord's death.

Moon thinks that Dirius' death is her fault, because she helped Dirius at Sky Diamond. But Ryltar doesn't, because Dirius made her own decisions.

Moon asks if Ryltar found out anything about the necklace she wears, enforcing her vow of muteness. "If you were free of it, what would you do?" asks Ryltar. "I would go with you," says Moon.

"That is a dangerous thing" says Ryltar.

"I put myself here," says Moon.

"My friends and I have traveled far. We have killed an ancient green dragon. Things are coming to a head and becoming much more dangerous by the day. I'm not sure that following my merry band of misfits is the safe option." But he will work with the Temple of Ioun to make sure that she is happy, and is put to her best use, even if that means she has to stay here.

Does Ryltar's player accept the idea of a romantic engagement with Moon?

Yes.

As the last piece of glass is placed, the fading sunlight obscures the couple's embrace.

Next Sessions

It is the last day of Mirtul, so we're about five months out from the autumn equinox.

Done:

New things to look up:

To do: