Friday 18 May 2018

Ravenloft VI


Raising the Dead (16th May 2018)

The Party
Bernard – Human Cleric
Grumbold – Dwarf Paladin
Malfeseus – Elf Rogue
Meegosh – Gnome Wizard
Millie – Half-Orc Barbarian

The Last Bowl (Day 9 - continued)

After clearing out three rooms of mummies, the rest of the party decided that they needed a rest to recover from the wounds they had taken and to re-sharpen their weapons. I, however, was still full of vim and vigour and ready to continue exploring. Whilst waiting for the rest period to finish, Grumbold and I explored the rest of the cavern and took a look at the arch and room beyond in more detail (but without crossing the threshold).

The bowls that the gaseous forms retreated to after the mummies were defeated were full of what appeared to be blood. The room beyond the arch held a great sarcophagus with two candelabra. Grumbold and I could not work out any more about the room from that distance, so returned to the rest of the party.

The fourth side room offered pretty much the same as the previous three except that the entrance glyph had already been set off. After a short battle, the final mummy expired and its spirit flew to the remainder of the four bowls. However, the effect this time was different. Once the fourth and final bowl was filled with blood they all began to bubble up and overflow, with the blood making straight for the sarcophagus in the room. Smoke escaped from the interior of the sarcophagus and the sound of an enraged being emitted from within. Within the space of a few short breaths, a fifth mummy burst from its tomb. The shout of “I am Kaga Ra” did not fool any of us and we put it down quickly under a hail of fire and sword strokes.

A quick search of the sarcophagus revealed a little treasure in the form of gold coins, a ring and a magical dagger. I warned people not to touch it, but the cleric was drawn to its false beauty. The candelabra, I revealed to my comrades, was a mechanism for opening a false bottom in the tomb of the false Kaga-Ra. Steps led down to another level of this dungeon.

Going Down

At the bottom of the steps was a huge room. Unlike the caverns above, these seemed to be carved neatly from the rock. In the middle of the floor of the room was a mouldering pile of bones. Several beings had met their fate here. There were several doors leading off of the main room but most of these were small cells that contained either dead bodies or had been totally ransacked. The few doors that did not close off a cell needed to be explored, and Millie set off to do just that.

After the door in the north-east corner was kicked off its hinges, a black mist rose from the coffins laid within and amalgamated into over a dozen spectral shapes. I didn’t hang around and shaped a couple of Fireballs that proceeded to destroy most of the denizens of the chamber. Unfortunately, the few that escaped could travel through solid stone and attacked me – well, why wouldn’t they try to be rid of their most potent enemy? I was sorely tested but still managed to save an ailing Brother Bertrand who had succumbed to their touch. Unfortunately, all the commotion attracted the attention of a couple more ghostly beings that wailed so loudly that several of my friends quailed in terror. A terrible battle ensued but we were finally victorious as they retreated back through the wall from which they came.

We all decided to take a short rest again and try to trace where these beings had come from. A short jaunt round behind the steps we had come down revealed their bed chamber and we finally put them to rest. A quick search of their rotten belongings revealed a page of writing with clues as to what had happened when the wailing banshees were living beings, but we could not decipher all of it.

Millie, as restless as ever, decided she wanted to go kick some more doors down. She passed through the double-doors in the main chamber like a hot knife through butter (my, that girl is strong!) and led us around a few short corridors to another bed chamber. The bed had an incorporeal incumbent who reluctantly rose and began to talk to us, revealing that her name was Mama-Ro – a name mentioned on the paper we found in the banshee room. I must admit, I found what she had to say rather boring and set off in search of the cup of tea she had promised us. Unfortunately, she must have had a thing about putting the kettle on in a certain way as she flew into a rage as I entered her kitchen.

I think I was the target of her attacks as she made a bee-line towards me (I wonder why they call it a bee-line? Bees never fly in a straight line). Luckily my trusty magic saved the day as a Gust of Wind kept her away from me and dissipated her to the four corners.

Well, after a quick search of the boudoir and kitchen revealed nothing of interest we headed back to the main chamber in search of the third and final door. Again, Millie did the honours and we all filed along a narrow winding corridor, accompanied by a grinding sound, which led to a room with a large, dark pool of water that had flowing inlets and outlets from north to south. To the left, just before the pool was a set of iron bars that stretched from floor to ceiling that separated us from a chamber full of cogs and spikes. Through the bars we could discern two more entrances (in the south and east) also with floor to ceiling bars. The grinding noises we had heard earlier seemed to emanate from this room.

Thursday 17 May 2018

Ravenloft V

Mummies and mage's owlbears ... oh my! (9th May 2018)

I was unable to make the previous session due to ill health, but Meegosh got back into things this week...

The Party
Bernard – Human Cleric
Grumbold – Dwarf Paladin
Malfeseus – Elf Rogue
Meegosh – Gnome Wizard
Millie – Half-Orc Barbarian



Mages and Owlbears (Day 7)

I was not feeling myself for the last few days, and have missed many a twist and turn in the tale due to the effects of amnesia (as a player I could not attend the session so was faded into the background). However, I finally snapped out of my stupor inside a cavern with my friends talking to a mage, who was doing his best to appear friendly.

After a short discussion with the mad mage, his pet owlbear, Cuddles, turned up at the cavern entrance and proceeded to hem us in. The mage’s mood turned and he somehow managed to cast a mass suggestion on the party without my being able to respond. We all fell under his spell except for Millie who proceeded to attack Cuddles which enraged the mage further although he pleaded for calm. Anyway, long story short, Millie and Gur made short work of Cuddles whilst the rest of us took our frustration out on the mage when we realised we had been duped.

After our adversaries had been despatched, we searched the area for any treasure and clues we could find and were rewarded with four of the Crystal leaves we were tasked to find to get the dimension jumping device back in Pureforge to work, a Wand of Fireballs and a cryptic map. We each took a turn at deciphering the map, and I pocketed the wand as I thought I would be the best qualified to use such an arcane device.

Going Underground (Day 9)

We decided to follow up on the map in the hope that we might find more clues and perhaps a bit more treasure and set off straight away. We travelled in a north-westerly direction for a couple of days and finally arrived at a small, long abandoned village with a well, as depicted on the map, in the centre. Millie led the way, rather more quickly than she hoped, down the well shaft which opened out into a small cavern at the bottom.

We all followed down the rope after her and explored the large cavern we found at the end of a short tunnel. There were four side caverns and a main one with an arch containing four bowls before it. Malfeseus and I managed to decipher three of the four sets of runes above the smaller cavern entrances and upon the main arch above the bowls; Finger of Death, Negative Energy, Disintegrate and something else.

Each of the side caverns had a Glyph of Warding as per the list we deciphered set above them. By various means we set off each glyph and investigated the contents of each room in turn. They all had a sarcophagus within them that upon opening revealed a gaseous form that corporealised into the form of a mummy. Each got progressively harder to kill and more able to control our fears. After each mummy was dispatched, it returned to gaseous form and the spirit fled screaming to one of the bowls around the arch at the entrance to the main sepulchre.

However, after fighting three tough opponents the rest of the party decided that they needed to rest up whilst I explored the arch and bowls.