Session 1a: Thinwhistle
DM: Aaron
PCs:
- Rina (Jen): wood elf druid
- Lambda (Jon): warforged monk
- Nassir (Sam): dragonborn barbarian
- Stout, aka Neru (Rich): gnome paladin
- 22 (Cat): autom druid
***Present in spirit was Finny (Anna): Aarakocra Bard, who remained at base camp due to a last-minute injury (and/or hangover, depending on who you ask)
NPCs:
- Matilda and Bjorn, "guides" (i.e. chaperones) provided by TBEC
- Hunk and Snatu, residents of Thinwhistle
Significant events:
After the entire expeditionary group had travelled inland from Galik by airship, the party walked half a day west where they encountered and befriended the people of Thinwhistle, a village of Kobolds of Unusual Size. The chief and head lore keeper of the village was Snatu (he/him), who explained that the kobolds of this part of Amusa were once a glorious race, more powerful than most of their contemporaries and living in their underground ancestral kingdom, but that they were driven out by a great calamity, the nature of which had long been lost to the the tribe's memory and records. All they had was a tattered mural showing the destruction of a city, with fires raging and corpses littering the scene. Snatu went on to say that the people of Thinwhistle had split off from other tribes long ago, and that the tribes often war amongst each other but that some may know more of the lost history.
The party and a kobold warrior named Hunk (he/him) set out to find two monsters that had been terrorizing the village. They succeeded, in a way, when one of the monsters, a colossal red fire-breather, ambushed the party just as they had encountered three hostile drakes.
A fight ensued that the party won, but not without considerable risk to all their lives. During the struggle, Lambda was badly bitten by the monster and 22 revived him (about which 22 would later report feeling conflicted when they realized that, in 22's words, "Lambda appears to be a raging racist.") Nassir eventually slew the monster, and while the party was cleaning up the drakes, the other colossal monster appeared, a green lightning-breather that the kobolds apparently call "The Eater of Worlds". Though the party had tried to ensure Hunk's well-being, the new monster breathed lightning on Stout, Hunk and 22, and Hunk was knocked unconscious.
Just as Lambda closed with this second monster, Hunk, now stabilized by Stout, came around for long enough to shout "Run!!" upon seeing the beast. Nassir flanked the creature to try to help Lambda disengage, but the monster rendered both of them unconscious with a tail slap and a bite. Once it had eliminated these threats, it turned its attention to feasting on the first monster's carcass, and the party took this opportunity to GTFO.
Stout carried Hunk out, 22 revived Nassir, and Rina revived Lambda, and they all got a few-minute head start before eventually catching the telltale sound of the creature pursuing them through the forest, knocking over trees as it came. After a brief tactical discussion, 22 cast Pass Without Trace on the party, and they were able to evade the creature in the woods and return to Thinwhistle to lick their wounds.
Hunk soon became a liaison between Thinwhistle and the expedition base camp, and the two groups agreed to establish peaceful relations.
Session 1b: The Temple of Loth
DM: Julia
PCs:
- Reedy and Daq (Mercedes): tiefling ranger and drake
- Sabbatical (Talia): tiefling cleric
- Paris Hilton and PPP : human ranger and chihuahua
- Sir Yewvane : Eladrin bard/Paladin
- Therrin: aasamir warlock
NPCs:
- Paul, "guide" (i.e. chaperones) provided by TBEC
Significant events:
Today was our first expedition. Daq and I were joined by Sir Yewvane, Paris, Therrin, and Sabbatical was also there. We headed into the jungle, following our guide from Tempest Brothers, Paul. He is a capable young man, learned, and keen on artifacts and archaeology. I mostly went along for guard duty, which suits me well. As we were going along, Paris made the VERY WISE decision to open her satchel to show up her vermin, a small mastiff called Princess Platinum Paws. I despite it. Also, her satchel emits an alarming amount of light, causing a very loud roar, like one of the creatures that Kompi can summon, but it sounded deeper, larger even. We continued forward.
It didn’t take too long to find ourselves at a clearing and a large temple. It didn’t look in too much disrepair, but aged. Ornate and beautiful, almost—an odd glisten to it. We entered and in the first room, there were so many large spiders. They were the size of wolves. One of them bit me, but it didn’t take very much effort to pin down and kill the others, especially with Daq’sassistance. I was still inspecting the room when Sabbatical attempted to simply move ahead before we inspected that everyone was alright to do so. She can be very single minded at times. I grabbed her, pulling her back and having Daq block the door while we waited for the others. Once we were ALL ready, we moved ahead.
The next room of the temple contained a large statue of the deity this temple was dedicated to, a stunningly beautiful representation of the goddess, Loth, who is part woman, part spider. Her magical spiders, much larger and mystic, attacked us and their webs were also mystifying. We destroyed them all with a near ease, which was unsettling because it seemed too easy. Despite their size and arcane ability, it was not very difficult to kill them all. Upon inspection of the statue of Loth, she has her palm extended, awaiting an offering. I took one of my sapphire earrings out and rested it in her hand, but nothing happened. Clearly, my offer was not enough.
One of our party remembered that Loth’s temples often are entrances to the Underdark, but we did not see such an entrance, so we continued our trek. While the others were healing and maintaining themselves from the fight, I snuck away into the next hall, very careful. I noticed pools of black ichor with spider legs reaching out from inside, just swaying slightly. When I approached and was within their range, they snapped at me and attempted to hit, but it did not work because I am quick to dodge.
I retrieved the others, warning them of the legs in the black ooze and we slowly made our way, careful to destroy the legs before we moved further into the temple. We reached the final two rooms and as we approached what seemed to be the end of the temple’s layout, we found ourselves face to face with an odd bundling of the spider’s web. Obviously victims of the large creature that had been awaiting us inside our final destination for our mission.
As soon as Yewvane stepped into the final room of the temple, a monstrosity that I could not distinguish between bat, ichor, and spider, descended from the ceiling and attached. Yewvane tried to close the door to it so if could not see and attack us, but instead, it sent the door crashing into him and allowing it to begin to creep inside.
We would attack the creature, it would them force us into a state of mind that didn’t allow us to attack it until we’d attacked something else inside, so we rotated between attacking the legs of ichor that had regrown with the creature’s appearance, andattacked the Haunter of the Dark itself. Sabbatical ran around the room in mad dashes, lighting everything in her path ablaze while Paris brought our her mangy toy dog and it stayed with the large creature, attacking it. Paris, Therrin and I shot bolts, arrows, and blasts at it until it finally dissolved into it’s own ether.
Stepping around the disgust and filth, we made our way into the final room and I opened the web sac. Inside were many corpses, animals, humanoid, creature alike, some coins were found on the bodies, as well as a cloak that Sabbatical identified as being one of Protection, boosting my armor. It shimmers like Daq’s black scales. Also inside was a large deep red garnet, cut ornated into 12 smooth and perfect planes. I was tempted, for just a moment, to put it into my own bag, but realized how foolish it would be after a moment.
We look it back to the statue of Loth and placed it in the goddess’ hand. Behind her, a grating sound of stone on stone occurred and when we looked into the path that opened, it was a dark, deeply angled, descending staircase. We could only assume to where this would lead, the Underdark.
Sabbatical, ever one to see how far she can push people into submission, bullied poor Paul into standing on the other side of the door and seeing if there was a mechanism that would allow him to get back inside the temple from the entrance to the underdark. Yewvane wouldn’t let Paul go alone, so they both stepped through and Sabbatical removed the gemstone from Loth’s hand. The doors closed and for a faint moment, I thought perhaps she might leave them there, but she did not, so when they returned into the temple with us, they told us that once inside the stairwell, they did not see another way to open the door from the inside.
Paul has taken possession of the gemstone for now and will himself and Arcane lead missions out to see what we can learn about the Underdark inside Loth’s temple entrance. - From the Journal of Reedy
