Upon a Dark Place Part 4: Sessions 16-17

            Some time had passed again both in game and out, the new town the party had started populating with orphans of the Deep was flourishing. The group found out a few of the current events happening around their new town, which still had no name, as well as met a strange fellow named Dr. Adien Puldiver, an archeologist with a map to the location that supposedly held the final resting place of a displaced and possibly murdered god. The party did some thinking on the Shadow Maze and remembered it was theorized the entire area resided on the plane of shadow, was full of undead, and people went missing if they got too close to it. The group instantly decided to help him, he was too knowledgeable to be dangerous. Plus, the other missions seemed boring.

They accompanied the Dr. and his two allies, a quiet human fellow named Anchor with a large sword, and a troll named Thudds. After buying supplies the group hired out their favorite travel beetle, Black Betty, and headed towards the Shadow Maze. On their way they encountered a large multiple pathed chamber with a colossal spider, which they ran from. They also met some dwarven miners and possibly have set up some trade negations with them.  They eventually made it to the entrance of the Shadow Maze, a large gateway of light eating obsidian. They tested it out and the walls devoured any light they put near it. Beyond was strange orange and red brick walls leading to a t-junction. As they entered, they saw the bricks did not eat their light but they could only see thirty feet ahead of them at all times. They made it to the junction and discussed the proper dungeon exploring way to go and were interrupted by a ghost that came out of the western wall, looked at the party, and floated back into the wall. The group chose to go north, traveling for a few hundred more feet before they noticed a strange glimmer. Dr. Puldiver had Thuds remove his own hand and throw it down the hallway and two stone slabs crushed the detached hand. Zamira could see the mechanism that detected them and with Wilbur’s help found a way to disarm it. the group made their way slowly down the rest of the halls searching for traps. They found another corridor lined with cages and saw a strange small skull within one of them. They were attacked by two small ghost like creatures and came out victorious.

They eventually found their way to a book filled chamber with a strange cloaked undead creature. The Grave Thing greeted them and bid them rest and to share news of the outside world. They found out that many great and powerful things were hidden within the Shadow Maze and what they sought was in the next chamber, the remains of the god Delu. The group set off into the next room and found a colossal room with an eighty-foot-tall suit of armor, the supposed remains of a god. The party approached and could see strange fleshy masses moving around in the shadows and were attacked by a small swarm of gibbering mouthers as well as some kind of strange tentacle beast. As the fight was evolving the troll Thudds kept asking Dr. Puldiver if it was time yet, instantly making the party nervous and suspicious. It seemed their allies had a secondary purpose here. As the aberrations were defeated the Puldiver’s Delvers attacked the party. Anchor dismissed his disguise and the party saw his natural form, an ogre mage. Dr. Puldiver revealed himself to be a rakshasa and flew to the top of the statue and attempted to get inside of it. Nimhe targeted him and pursued rapidly. Thudds the troll and Anchor set to work on the rest of the party. 

There was heated combat with magical spheres smashing Anchor, Thudds died hard, his regeneration unable to keep up with the damage placed upon him. The group watched at Dr. Puldiver made his way to the statue’s visor and placed a hand inside. Bright light filled the chamber, flooding out of the Dr.’s eyes and mouth. Nimhe grabbed him and ripped him away from the power and grabbed it herself. The Dr. flew off trying to escape but Nimhe concentrated the light and disintegrated him, the rest of the group watched on in shock as a feline tail dropped to the ground. The shock turned to horror as Nimhe was overflowing with power and eventually the group was able to talk her out of ultimate power. The group remembered they had a strange scroll from earlier on in the game that would allow them to bring back one creature from death. They were standing before the remains of a dead god and attempted something noble, they resurrected the god Delu, the man within the giant statue. The spell took a while and with a flash of light the scroll was consumed and before them was a naked and confused human looking gentleman, the god made flesh. They took him back to the previous chamber and talked with the Grave thing about what had happened. The undead offered to tutor the godling in history and the group took both of them back to their city.

After a bit of relaxing and rebuilding the group was contacted by one of their guards, it seemed a Kaismir elf had set up a negation table out in one of the corridors leading to town. The group assembled and brought their own table and one of the Udaren golems to carry it. The group placed their table directly in front of the negotiators table and used the golem as a seat. It seemed the Kaismir knew where the new town was and were willing to offer the party a choice, the group could surrender themselves over to the Kaismir for the numerous crimes against them or watch their city burn. The group, not liking to be threatened returned with telling this elf to shove off and die. The negotiations tended to go this way. The elves showed the group the kid from the party’s town they had captured and attempted to use it as leverage, but the group was not swayed. The elf had brought numerous ogres and soldiers with it and was preparing to order them to attack the group when the entire tunnel shook. The party watched in horror as something stitched together from multitudes of corpses came up from behind the elves and ogres. The beast started ripping them to shreds. The negotiator blamed the party for this, but the party only had a faint idea on what this beast was, some sort of Formless agent. The group sent the captured kid and the golem back to town as well to spread warning about the monster. Some of the group moved to help put down the monster while the rest set to killing elves. Two elves made it back towards the town and were captured. Many of the others died to the giant sewn monster. Cecil the goblin barbarian and Bastion the oracle focused on the big monster, Cecil laying into it with his hammer while Bastion tried to plane shift the creature away. The beast seemed to resist the shifting but was taking massive damage and healing itself by absorbing the slain ogres and elves. The negotiator fell to the blades of Zamira and the grapples of Nimhe. Eventually the stitched beast was sent to the positive energy plane by Bastion.

The group went back to town with their two prisoners and locked them up in the town hall. While interrogated one of them mentioned not seeing their spymaster wizard fall during the fray. The group asked if they had a way to contact him and the bolder prisoner told them to take him to the roof. It seemed the wizard had followed them into the city and had been watching the entire time. They arranged to meet with him within a building, Cecil and Zamira watching the prisoners and Bastion and Nimhe going for the negotiation. The wizard walked through the wall and asked if the negotiators could set their weapons aside and he did the same with his casting implements. Over the course of an hour, they negotiated a temporary truce with the elves so they could deal with these Formless monsters that had been attacking everything in the deep. They agreed to team up and also release the two prisoners to the wizard, who was also going to appeal with the Kaismar queen to make the temporary truce possible. Negotations successful, the session ended there. 

We shall see where the roads take us when adventure is had again!

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Upon a Dark Place Part 3: Sessions 11-15

 

The goblins and their constructs set to quick work on the city while the party wandered the town looking for any clues of what had else had happened here. Zamira found an ancient thieves’ guild hiding in plain sight with an odd symbol in a mini temple. Bastion found a temple to his goddess as well as a book of lore about her. The Nimhe found an area of houses build to her standards, and Cecil found an area of forges and some rare metals. The group bartered deals with townsfolk and Engire to finance a few purchases and made a few decisions. The party was going to travel south again to look at Daramander, a city of lamia that lost all of its men after being visited by the patchwork man. They found out someone else was looking for Zamira and might be from her old orphanage. The party also traded in Toppa for Lady Sharn and Tor, knowing their path leads them close to Stormcroak and they have no interest in stopping there. A few characters divulged backgrounds in a way to each other before setting out in to the wild. On their way they heard wolf sized cave crickets and used light to make them flee, right into a giant cavern with oddly shaped holes in the ceiling and strange white filaments hanging down. As crickets touched the filaments they were yanked by filaments and devoured by cave fishers. The group decided to create light and chase the crickets to one side and attempt to flee across the other. The barbarian took off running and the alchemist shot a fisher out of the ceiling as it attempted to grab the barbarian. The force of it caused more cave fishers to fall out of their holes and into the cricket herd. The party then fled and the alchemist guarded them as they made their way across, when it became his time to cross, he shot a cave fisher with another bomb arrow and a pile of burnt and dead fishers fell out the hole and he made his way across the chamber.

They found old almost abandoned dwarven ruins with magical runes and the Burf was able to speak with the door and find out things were inside and not alive. Once inside a golem like creature attacked the party, Burf made the ground under it shifting sands and it almost crushed the Cecil. Once the golem was proved beatable the group noticed another around the corner and Lady Sharn gave Victor a dwarven holy symbol and he caused the remaining stone guardian to return to its alcove. They found an old undead dwarven guardian with a portal and asked him for help and advice, he told them about the formless and showed them the group in a portal. The Formless stood around in a circle in the ruined city of Daramander. The Formless saw the party in the portal scrying device and the guardian panicked and closed it before Bastion could convince the party to jump through. After some consideration the dwarf teleported the party with the portal and the group ended out outside Latiea.

They made their way past all the secret guards and into the sprawling and bustling city. Quickly they were found by a charming street urchin that offered to give them a tour and seemed to be talking about taking them to a pub. When pressed with intimidation found out the urchin was an actor from the Stone Pub and was well into adulthood. For his deception and his being fearful of the Bastion and Zamira he bought the party drinks at a garden bar. Nimhe ate an alcoholic egg of unknown origin. The bar had had the egg pickled for years and no one was brave or drunk enough to eat it. Nimhe resisted the potential poison and was not seriously injured. The rest of the party drank and followed the alchemist to a bar his brother was working at, there were reunions and the party split up to find entertainment where they could. Burf and Cecil went to the fancy bar and after impressing the jerkish bouncer they threw gold over their shoulders and watched as urchins took out him out. They met a pretty elf man and bought mead from him, paying 600 gold a bottle. When they left, they split up, one going to Stone Pub, the other going to Egg bar. At egg bar Zamira and the Bastion saw a blue tiefling, named Blue, sitting at a table, very drunk talking to himself, they sat with him and got more information than required and were able to bluff and deceive him, borrowing his legal documents getting him to the auction coming up within the next few months. Wilbur and Nimhe both stayed the night at the Stone Pub. Everyone slept off the effects of an adventure well had.

In the morning the group was delivered missives to join the leader of Latiea, Lord Nessim at his estate at the center of town at the top of the Lord’s Step. Our new player was playing Tor, the swashbuckling cat person. The group met with a raven headed man named Nassim, he was the “mayor” and an eccentric collector of artifacts and antiquities in the Deep. They asked him numerous questions about magic items and portals as well as having him research the Formless and the Prophet of Flame. He had a contact on the surface world that might have more information on the strange Udaren sun stone they had found awhile back. The party was able to travel to the surface via the Faulty Portal tavern within Rhadamanthus and gained audience with the Radish man, or Robank of Tower Artifacts. They were met in the tavern by Drogo, a tiefling minion of Robanks’ and he led them to Tower Artifacts. They got a rapid tour of the grand city of Rhadamanthus and eventually got to the tower. Robank gave them the other half of the Udaren sun stone and the party has a direction to find the missing culture, once together there was a illuminated map that appeared on the back side. They also asked about terrible monsters known as the formless and learned about Cull and his offshoots. Robank also gave them huge bits of world history. They also stole a carpet from Nessim via Robank’s portal and with help from Barthog. Once they settled things with Nessim they were given info packets from him about the Prophet of Flame and the Formless. They gathered gear and traveled out into the deep to find the path of the Udaren. Their first step took them to a group of Kobolds that told them about a strange troll. They then went and killed the troll, which was an elder troll, or an ancient one. It was a difficult fight but they had the right tools for the job, fire and more fire.

On their travels they met an odd fey creature living in the tunnels and had traveled with him for a bit. This creature stole their food and was attempting to feed it to rocks in a cavern. When the party attempted to intervene, he became agitated and attacked the party, who were then forced to put him down. Zamira dealt the death blow and noticed something in the entryway of the cave, a large imposing figure made of black stone with gold eyes. Four figures also dropped from the ceiling and greeted the party, Bastion cast daylight and the figures started talking in strange floating symbols and also cast daylight. The figures were golden men standing around 7 feet tall and massively muscled. Realizing there was some odd similarity between these men and Bastion they stood down. Avoiding conflict, the party went back with them to their city where they found there were no women or children, just a giant feast, gold lined buildings, and massive pits of black clay. The Udaren, or the People of Telma as they call themselves, had been fighting the drow for many ages from the shadows, the head priest met with the party and revealed history of his people and asked Bastion where he came from, plot and character development was divulged. The party ate at the feast, a few went without food, thinking it to be poisoned. After attempting to flirt up one of the men folk Nimhe was informed that the Udaren, not having females, might not know what sex was. Her night ruined, Nimhe and her allies stayed the night quietly in town and awoke in the morning within the trials.

The Trials started with a massive lake filled with small islands and acid. The acrid smell was almost unbearable, burning their noses. The group noticed a small wooden boat that seemed immune to the acid’s effect but decided to take Bastion’s conjured moonlit bridges, a boon from his oracle of the heaven’s patron. They crossed the bridges, seeing that the acid was alive and attempting to reach around the bridges and pull them under. The group was able to mostly ignore the acid pseudopods, making it to the central island and found a small teleportation circle that took them to the next challenge. They found themselves in a dark room with a large twenty foot tall and wide stone in the center. The stone animated as a huge elemental which attacked the party. Teamwork saved the day, a rare gem was found inside the beast, which teleported them into another room.

The next challenge was a circular room with two cloaked figures sitting in the center. The figures, when they stood, stood over ten foot tall with gaunt skeletal bodies with terrible hollow faces. The creatures, bodaks, attempted to use their undead abilities to drain the life out of the party, but were quickly put down. The last challenge found them in a large chamber with something flapping in the dark. A large two headed skeletal bat monster started its assault. The monster flew around the chamber and breathed fire down upon them. With a series of lucky rolls and demon bat riding the day was won. Again the world shifted and they were standing in a room without any exits with a sacrificial stone slab, a corpse, and a strange glowing liquid filled bowl. The group all drank from the bowl and gained the blessing of Telma.

After the passing of many moons, two or three weeks in game or over a year in the real world, we had an adventure meeting with dire foes and rescued friends. Both Nimhe and Cecil were eager to head to the auction, knowing that their families were being held and sold by the dark dwarves. The party and their ward, Victor the changeling with the perforated neck wound, made their way with their disguises and ill-gotten passes into New Gracklesnap. They quickly saw where the auction was going to be taking place and made their way through the crowds of people making their way across the city. A few of the party noticed the drow slavers moving large flying cages towards the center of town. They also saw a rune scarred copper dragon being led in chains to the holding grounds as well. Bastion made a bridge of light and Zamira, having secured the plans and looking the most regal went up to Blue, the tiefling she had stolen the invites from. Blue, not realizing this was a farce let her see the slaves early, only costing her one thousand gold. She passed a masked drow woman on the way down and saw there were golems protecting the eight cages, each holding about twenty people, a tiefling that seemed familiar, and the dragon. Zamira also found lamia and barbarians matching the people Nimhe and Cecil were looking for.

The party went to the tavern lodgings provided by their free passes and found their room to be quite a bit comfier than expected. They discussed options for a break out, none of them good. Victor showed up to help them, spying, buying items, and sewing confusion were easy tasks for him. While he was out a noble from Stormcroak showed up to talk to Lady A, Zamira’s fake identity. The party panicked trying to figure out what to do with him. He noticed her looking at the slaves and told her to buy light, he intended to get a deal on the unpurchased slaves. He left, bumping into Victor in the hallway. Party chose to attack as soon as possible. Victor helped with additional discord and they noticed the queen of the kaismar elves show up to appraise the slaves. They had to move fast. Something in the city exploded and the guards went to see what happened, the party ran, invisibly with Victors help, and found their way back to the cages. Nimhe unlocked the muzzle styled mask on the dragon’s face and claws. Victor summoned a swarm of rust monsters to eat away the fronts of the cages, the tiefling, revealed to be Drogo again blew up a few guards, the dragon wrestled and body slammed the golems. The party gave Cecil’s barbarians that knew weapons, Nimhe reunited with her mother, and in the chaos a hole broke over the center of the city. A large serpent made of lamia sewn and fused together started breaking its way through the city. The group took their newly freed friends and fled the city. They were stopped at the main gate by a strange Patchwork Man. Bastion brought out his biggest spells to combat this menacing creature from his past. The Patchwork Man used magic to wall off the army of prisoners and battled with the party. His magics were terrifying and eventually they destroyed his form, seeing a mote of light flee from them and come to rest in the giant lamia beast. They fled the city and heard both Drogo and Zamira shouted in rage from somewhere in the city. They made it to a safe place and from headed to the teleporter dwarf wizard. with his help they were able to get the survivors and family back to their town to safety.

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