This post continues the series of brief play reports I have been posting on Discord. This does not cover every single session (sometimes, recon and setup is what happens), but it covers our ongoing games.
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| The Garden of Punches |
04/08/2024
News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! On the way to the Garden of Punches to kidnap two proscribed murderers, the company was joined by two shipwrecked adventurers, Cherogh (a Northman “merchant”) and Numa Pompilius (a Cleric). After repelling a skeleton ambush along the coast, they arrived at the Garden – an abandoned coastal village in the shadow of a derelict lighthouse, now a fighting school for several bare-chested wrestlers and pugilists. They introduced themselves to the school's master Settimo the Bone-Breaker, pretending to be looking for prize fighters for an upcoming tournament. The two killers, Tullio and Rubiano were there in the crowd and easily spotted, but not that easily separated from their new comrades. Meanwhile, another castaway, Paprica (a blond barbarian) emerged from a stone hut, and demonstrated his fighting prowess in a wrestling match, first against a lightweight wrestler, then the heavyweight One-Eye, both of whom he defeated – winning an invitation to sign up for the school. Meanwhile, Cherogh approached Tullio, trying to lure him away from the village. Tullio invited him behind the huts to discuss it away from the others, and quickly wrung poor Cherogh's neck, casting his body into the sea.
The Ruined Village
The next day, they sailed back to Pellagris to collect their reward. In port, though, they fell afoul of Umberto Gatto, an over-zealous customs official, who objected heavily to bringing a dragon in town – and just pocketed the bribe they offered him. So the dragon was left with one half of the company, while the others did their business in town, and planned their revenge on the corrupt Umberto. The sleazy bureaucrat was enjoying his evening bath, and on the way back home, he was ambushed and captured. The man, it turns out, was carrying coins, a valuable golden jug, and two priceless gemstones on his person – a small fortune, especially for a petty customs official! Umberto was brought on board and expropriated; lamenting that his life would be forfeit once Stormy Asmodeo, the pirate lord he was working for noticed the loss. Fortunately, the party was just planning on an expedition to the nearby Isle of the Oaks, where he might be marooned. Indeed, he was asked to go on shore in the forests of the island along with the captured dragon, where Jovial Faustulus, parting from the company for a while, sacrificed them both according to the tried traditions of the Druidic faith. The rest of the landing party followed a mysterious trail to a collection of peaks, and there found an exiled nobleman named Cosimo di Lucio of the Purple Hand. Cosimo asked the party's help in saving him, and taking vengeance on his perfidious brother who had had him exiled, and was sending assassins after him even to this island. They left the island with Cosimo on board, and set sail for the city of Borontium to dispose of the gems, purchase equipment, and engage in some high-quality revelry...
Underground Tombs
11/08/2024
News from the fallen Empire of Kassadia! In the city of Borontium, the Cleric Numa Pompilius overheard his companions talking about a strange entrance and possible treasures beneath the abandoned Colantonio Manor, and deciding to beat them to the score, assembled a team of three veteran adventurers (Claude the Coffeemaker, a survivor of Shadow of the City-God, and Targus the Sailor, a survivor of The Forest of Gornate), outfitted with several henchmen. They travelled through pastoral Frabotia to the abandoned villa, finding it occupied by a group of vintners. The entrance was there, and lead deep beneath Colantonio Manor, to a network of caverns which served as both catacombs and a sanctuary from some sort of blasphemous chthonic deity. Augustus the heavy footman and Tomas the porter were killed in two battles with masses of skeletons, but small treasures were also found, and eventually, caverns with built crypts serving as the resting place of the ancient Colantonios. One of these was the mausoleum of Ercole Colantonio, a giant skeleton with an enormous sword, who also killed Filippo the Longing, light footman and Julius the heavy footman in furious battle before he was brought down. His bracers and a gold-bladed gladius +1 (a mere dagger on the giant’s belt) were the main prizes. Further, in a side-cavern, a hecatomb of 40 skeletons guarded treasures detected by a spell from Numa Pompilius, and destroyed to the last using a bottleneck position: coinage, a magic ring, and 15 amber-tipped arrows +2 were captured.
Shafts led even
deeper down, into yet another large cavern with separate family mausoleums.
Here, Targus climbed a roof to look around, and found himself looking down on *
* M i n o s a u r o s * *, a minotaur skeleton with a giant axe and a
triceratops head! The charging beast's roar froze some in terror, and while
some climbed the roof, Jerios the porter was left behind and massacred.
The beasts even climbed the walls of the crypt where the defenders hid, killing
Caesar the heavy footman, but being defeated by the surviving PCs, who
also took his great axe and skull. His true crypt – hidden behind a false one –
hid a hoard of golden vessels, gems, and coinage. However, they triggered a
secret button which sounded a gong and sealed the entrance with heavy bars: and
only Numa Pompilius' one-use spell to call on his deity's emissary could get
them out – an unassuming man who opened the barred entrance before taking a
reward of treasure and disappearing. However, the man's final warning to be
careful proved prophetic: * * M i n o s a u r o s * *, revived from death, came
forth from his crypt again, headless: and as the characters ran from the
mausolean caverns, he replaced the skull on his mighty neck, and came roaring
with terrible fury! It was now time to run, and the adventurers fled the
caverns, to emerge back in the idyllic landscape of Frabotia, and return with
their treasures and great deeds to the big city...
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| The Caverns of Minosauros |
15/08/2024
News from the
fallen empire of Kassadia! Following a letter from Numa Pompilius, the leader
of the previous expedition, the main party set out for Colantonio Manor and the
caverns of Minosauros. Descending into the ancient burial passages, most of the
time was spent in exploration, although the worms of the earth – terrible,
segmented creatures with gaping, toothy maws – came to assault the party again
and again. At a magic circle, some sort of conjuration was triggered, and
masses of the horrors came swarming out of the cavern ground, but were driven
back with swords and flaming oil. Then, caverns were re-discovered with
free-standing mausoleums. The mausoleum of Pierluigi Colantonio, “whose
mask is a face, but whose face is a mask”, a juju zombie with a weird lead
mask, was dispatched and some blasphemous religious artifacts collected. There
was less success in the mausoleum of Ataleo Colantonio, whose entrance
ominously read “He who enters here shall share in his grief.” A small trinket
was retrieved from the sarcophagus by fishing it out with a javelin, but then
opening the lid for good to get the coinage triggered a trap, sealing the
entrance with a stone slab! All fled successfully except a henchman, Gracchus
the Mute, who was now trapped within Ataleo’s resting place! A second
inscription was found faintly graven into the side of the structure: “IN PACE
REQUIESCAT”. With that, the company returned to the surface to see what kind of
tools they might retrieve from the manor to help their armed companion...
Outskirts
08/09/2024
News from ULTRAREALITY! The exploration of the City of the Ape-Men continued on the plateau of the Isle of the Dream-Spices. At first, the company stuck to the city outskirts: exploring a ruined palace and defeating two two-headed lions, and Murat the thief climbing up into a ruined tower and discovering it was the nest of strange, intelligent spider-creatures with a somewhat humanoid upper body (but retreating to safety instead of risking a one-on-five confrontation). A half-collapsed cistern was also located, and the giant toads inhabiting it poisoned with a vial of deadly poison. It seems the cistern hid some underwater structure, but this was left for another time.
Striking through
the jungle, a grotto entrance was found, and an idol whose electrum sceptre
shot powerful electric bolts – which was removed from its grasp. But there was
more: a carefully hidden door behind the statue, to... a system of meandering
cave passages. Not far from the entrance was a gruesome display of stuffed
ape-men on pedestals, but soon, a group of more finely dressed and articulate
apes approached, inquiring of the visitors’ purpose, and particularly the “vessel”
they came to this world, which interested them considerably until they learned
it was not a spacecraft. This was, however, an illusion: the company was
ambushed from behind by more of the spider-creatures, who proved to have
telepathic and mental domination abilities. Four were killed in pitched battle
and one subdued, but then killed due to the dangers of their telepathy.
Considering the place too dangerous, a retreat was made to the lions’ palace
for a night's rest. On the way back, though, the tower of the spider-things was
fireballed by Bocephus, bringing the unstable structure down in a
cascade of rocks.
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| The Lower Caverns |
05/09/2024
News from the fallen empire of Kassadia! The Lion Pack continued their explorations of the Caverns of Minosauros beneath Colantonio Manor. First, a quick rescue operation was mounted to rescue Gracchus the Mute, entombed within the crypt of Ataleo Colantonio by a rising stone block trap. A reduce spell turned the stone block smaller; it pivoted forward and crushed Cato the heavy footman to death, but at least Gracchus was freed. The company retreated to the manor, to enjoy food and wine among the vineyard workers.
The next day,
more exploration followed, but most of the locations found were already cleared
by Numa Pompilius’ group. However, a crypt of wights was breached, and miraculously,
the undead put down with turning and lots of holy water. A way down to a lower
level was guarded by a magical spiral glyph. (“Spirals don't mean good things
in the Zylarthen campaign.” “They don't mean good things anywhere else either.”)
Larth Ulthes Velznach broke the glyph, and narrowly avoided being sucked into
nilspace. The lower level was a system of caverns, leading to a lightless lake
and a grotto with a talking crystal skull, the family's forefather, Lucius
Manilius Colantonius. The skull believed the company to be his distant
descendants, and after generous gifts, told how Colantonius Minosauros
could be put to rest by cleansing his sarcophagus. With this knowledge, the
company could ambush the beast, who was killed without casualties. In a hidden
true tomb (missed by Numa's group), his sarcophagus was cleansed with holy
water and a bless spell, and a bounty of coins, gems, and golden dishes
plundered. Returning to the surface, the company walked into a predictable
ambush: Heraclio the Vintner and his men were there, demanding the loot!
But Trupo Gizmegas was ready, enshrouding the place with magical fog, and in
the confusion, they fled, hearing Heraclio’s curses from far behind.
The Subterranean Lake
15/09/2024
The next adventure followed after downtime in Pellagris, where Trupo brewed a potion of spider climbing, and Axem Borbatuk created extra holy water. The Lion Pack returned to Colantonio Manor, now deserted by the vintner-bandits. Exploration continued on the cavern level, around the lightless lake. On its south were caverns with a fungal infestation, carefully avoided. In the lake's middle rose a small island with a circle of standing stones. On the shores, the characters were attacked by heavy, sacklike creatures hanging from the ceiling, but they were defeated with missile fire. A grapnel with rope was thrown to the island, enough to shimmy across. After slaying more hanging creatures, the standing stones proved to be not druidic, but some sort of evil chthonic ritual site with bas-reliefs describing live burial. Deciding not to bother this unhallowed ground, they retreated, but Trupo, who fell into the lake, was almost torn apart by lurking zombies.
Escape From the Shadow-Sluts
To the north was a hall of deep shadows and closed pits, as well as a dark statue with an inscription reading “SINISTRO”. This was also avoided. The company eventually came back to the cavern of the mausoleums. The mausoleum of “VOPISCVS TITINIVS COLANTONIVS: CONCVBINATOR, TRIVMPHATOR, DECIMATOR” was guarded by a satyr's head, and the door was opened from a distance with a rope, avoiding a magical trap. The tomb seemed uninhabited at first, but the Lion Pack got surrounded by the wraith of Vopiscus Titinius and his shadowy concubines. The undead aristocrat was slain by Arden Oakbark’s flame blade, but poor Gracchus the Mute was claimed by the shadow sluts as their plaything. The characters ran, the shadows, temporarily held at bay with oil fire – but the day was saved by Trupo, who could quickly ascend a vertical shaft with the potion of spider climbing and lower a rope for the others. The company left behind the manor with minor treasure, swearing not to return until accumulating more power!
Quotes:
Arden Oakbark:
“I can sacrifice either 400 gp, or you.”
Diomedes to
Arden Oakbark, laden down with one of the weighty hanging creatures still
clinging to him in death: “You are a druid after all, in symbiosis with
nature.”
Arden:
“Windowless… Just because it is a crypt, it could have windows.”
Diomedes, after
escaping in shameful defeat from the mausoleum of Vopiscus Titinius: “Well,
lads, I didn’t think I would feel nostalgic for the Minosauros.”
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| The Sealed Library |
15/09/2024
News from ULTRAREALITY! Exploration of the city ruins continued under generous rainfall. The first destination was a round, domed building, which proved to be a temple with the idol of a speaking statue calling herself GODDESS. GODDESS spoke of the city's warring apes, one of whose factions were evil conquerors, and two on the good side - and she tasked the company to help these "good" apes to bring peace to the city. This was promised, but doubts lingered about the voice's divinity. Next, the hill to the west, where stood an abandoned, crumbling library. The entrance was walled up; Murat, exploring the rooftops, found a crack in a cupola, but also a nest of giant spiders, whom they didn't wish to fight for now.
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| Deeper into the City |
Instead,
they descended back to the city centre. A swarm of flying manta rays ambushed
them from the top chamber of a crumbling pyramid. This structure proved to hold
buried treasures, as well as a polished golden mirror with astronomical
diagrams, and tablets with some sort of complex calculations, and a warning
they would have to be taken at the zenith, close to the sky. Further on was a
derelict palace that was still inhabited by elegantly-dressed nobles among rot
and ruin; they introduced themselves as members of the ruling clan, but their
behaviour was very odd: the company took a quick farewell. They surmised it
would be best to talk to the friendly ape-men, one of whom they suspected to
reside in a lone tower on a hill on the city's eastern outskirts. This place
proved uninhabited, so camp was made while supplies ran dangerously low. The
following day, a bold decision was taken to scout out one of the buildings with
a heavy presence of ape-men. Lilith decided to introduce herself as an
incarnation of GODDESS (as the trick had worked before); but this time, the
apes denounced them as imposters, sending a hunting party after the fleeing
adventurers. These foes were slain, and the explorers decided to return to the
Viridian Star to rest and replenish their supplies...