Upon a Dark Place Session 18

 

Our session started with a bit of catch up, out heroes had been dealing with the stress of one of their number waking up with nightmares the last few weeks. In his constant dream, Bastion found himself drifting through dirt and stone to a strange cathedral or temple of Ochranna, the goddess he followed. In the darkness of the rock buried structure, he could see in the shadowed recess of the building a strange shape above a void. Strange clicking, resembling chanting was drowned out by the sounds of a oversized beating heart. His vision found the shape in the back of the space and saw it was indeed a giant heart thumping. The chanting and the beating stopped and multiple long spindly legs tore open a seam. This is where Bastion would wake screaming each night.

Bastion was not the only one with subplots rising! Cecil had dreams of oversized dog headed men fighting against a man standing taller than the trees and swinging laughing sword. Wilbur had received word from his brother in Lateia that refugees from other settlements have been arriving, having been driven from their homes by a mysterious group wielding alchemical blue fire. Nimhe had been hearing rumors of a group of gold skinned female warrior humanoids in the south eastern region of the Deep that had been hunting drow. Zamira had been hearing whispers in the wind of Cypher, which seemed to somehow be tied to her dagger and strange siblings. She had also gotten a letter from Drogo, who also had a dagger and was a half-brother to Zamira, telling her he was fine.

We established the group all had housing near each other in the town, for notification purposes it would be easier to find them all in the same place versus sending messengers all over the place. (Nimhe also had another house for privacy and quiet.) We also learned that Bastion lives on Zamira’s couch. In the morning in question Bastion’s screams woke the whole group. Bastion and Zamira talked about the dream a bit, Wilbur hearing from under the building from where he built his underground warren and both Cecil and Nimhe were within earshot as well. Bastion also noticed Eldzar patiently waiting out on the street to be noticed by the group.

Eldzar Salaran, their Kaismir drow elf ally, had a lead to a site that had ties to their common foe, the Formless. It seemed there was some guardians since scouts had gone missing. Bastion asked if it was a church or holy site and surprised Eldzar, who confirmed it was an old temple from the surface brought low ages ago. The only thing they lacked was the exact location. Cue Zamira remembering a strange compass or locket she took of the Puldiver’s Delvers a few months back. By focusing on a location or item the locket can work as a Wayfinder to the item. Useful, they decided also to go to the portal Dwarf for faster travel anyways, the location was on the other side of Halfbuilt, which would take a few weeks to get to otherwise.

Bastion tried to think of any information he could from the dream to give the group clues about what they were dealing with. It had something to do with chittering and something spider like, which seemed to be not something they wanted to deal with. As he attempted to identify the chittering Stonebreaker walked by whistling, or what a bug man would do for whistling, chittering. They called over Stonebreaker to ask him questions about his people and if he knew of this chapel place. He told the group that his people operated with a hive mind. The leader would direct the troops around the caves looking for food and war. Stonebreaker left the hive after getting injured in his head, losing his connection to the colony. He also informed them that his people are really strong but eschew the use of armor, so are pretty easy to hit. The group thanked him for his time and he went back off to guard duty. They planned, had plenty of potions, and grabbed some riding beetles. Still not trusting Eldzar, Cecil rode tandem beetle with him. Bastion led the way with the wayfinder, also he remembered how to get to the Portal Dwarf from there.

After a few hours out of town Bastion noticed a strange hole hastily dug in the ground and a patch of fabric on the cavern wall that did not even match the stonework. Nimhe tossed a pebble at the square, they heard a squeak, and the entire crew descended on the unconscious Kobold bleeding from a head wound. Cecil stole a few gems that had spilled out of its bag and Nimhe quickly administered a healing potion while cradling the kobold in her coils, tenderly. The kobold opened his eyes to a doting group and said hi. The group, feeling terrible they almost ended this tiny creature told him to be careful, someone had attacked him and they were lucky to find him on the edge of death. He told them he was digging up gems, which were rumored to be in the area. Cecil also put the gems he took back, feeling sorry for the little guy, small even by goblin standards. They asked if he knew of the chapel or Ochranna, and he had infomed them he knew neither of those words. The group returned anything they took from the poor lad and sent him off to their city, Cecil telling him to say that he sent him to find safety in the city.

The group continued on, rested for a night, and made it to the Portal Dwarf to be sent off hopefully to the location needed. they passed the familiar golems and entreated with the Portal Dwarf for his skills. Not having the best way of explaining exactly where they needed to go Bastion stepped forward and the Dwarf placed his hands on Bastion’s temples and looked into his mind, seeing their target. He made his portal and the group could see the giant buried temple and a few large sized bug men scurrying around the entrance. He would be able to get them there, and the bartering began. The group wanted him to send a few of his golems along, but he could not send them away like that, they would break apart, since they can not be far from him. Instead, they looked through his portal and he created giant hands of force and squished two of the bugmen together. The group jumped in after and found themselves about fifty feet from the chapel doors, one bug man on the move and possibly more within. The group savagely descended on the remaining bug man and his two allies that came from within the temple. They could here slow clapping from within the structure.

They entered, looking around in the darkness for the source of the clapping, attempting to look intimidating in the process. The clapping died away, being replaced by the sound of thousands of bugs chittering coming from below. The main stretch of the temple was a raised central bridge like structure with a dias on the far end, and in the furthest alcove was where the giant heart should be, but instead of beating, it was now still. The group approached and started across the platform as a huge sized spider with a human body sticking out where the face should have been pulled itself over the side of the bridge and attacked. The group spent the first-round buffing each other with magic and advancing into attack formations on the spider woman thing, sensing there was immense danger. The spider bit Cecil, stripping the enlarge spell from Wilbur and the Wrathful Mantle from Bastion, using them to great effect against the surrounding party. From the darkness where the heart hung a large form entered the fray. It was the largest bugman the party had ever seen, with fire and magic coursing through his chitinous form, he stood over twenty feet tall and breathed out a cone of flame on the party. Zamira and Nimhe took offence at that and teamed up on him whilst the others worked on the spider. Eldzar Salaran took this time to invisibly move to a more advantageous position and toss chain lighting into the foes, seeking to not die at their many hands. Wilbur had upgraded his bombs and used them to great effect on the spider. After a few close calls and Nimhe almost getting swallowed by the immense bug man, the day was won.

In the aftermath the party investigated a strange pool of liquid metal and Bastion was compelled to stick his hands in, seeing visions from his goddess telling him to do so. He took the metal and threw it into the alcove, the metal multiplying and filling the chamber with light and covering up the multitude of terrible holes in the lower part of the chamber dug out by the bugmen. The metal also formed an anvil, still molten, but ready for use. Something else appeared, but we will get to that next time.

Boneyard Haul

 

Greetings everyone! A new set of miniatures has come out from Wizkids Minis… Icon of the Realms set 18 BONEYARD! This is a set of mostly undead monsters with a few random demons and monsters thrown in as well. This will be a shorter post than most but I wanted to share the cool stuff that has come out. I bought 4 boxes against my better judgment. 

Box 1

First we have a Ghast, an advanced type of ghoul with a stench aura affecting each creature within five feet of it as well as granting fellow ghouls within thirty feet advantage on being turned. They are stronger and way more dangerous than a normal ghoul. Then we have our Avatar of Death, summoned when the Skull card is pulled from the Deck of Many Things. Of course, it can also be used as any floaty undead monster as well. Our next mini is the Ochre Jelly, a large ooze creature with the ability to split into two jellies the moment is takes certain kinds of damage. Oozes have been thorns in players sides for years and this is a pretty cool sculpt for one. Ochre Jelly dissolve flesh but leave everything else, other oozes destroy metals, stone, or wood along with flesh. Finally, we have our Skeletal Gnome, or as the bottom states, Skeleton. Undead are terrifying enough, but small undead at times are worse.

Box 2

Ogre Zombie! Our second box started off big. Ogres are always an easy foe for parties to fight, they are strong and resilient, but all their other statistics are lack luster. Make them undead and they gain the ability known as undead fortitude, which allows them to stay standing and fighting unless they fail a saving throw. One ogre zombie can be an issue, multiple ogre zombies a nightmare. Our second miniature was a Death Slaad, a chaotic evil extraplanar frog monster that lay eggs in their enemies to make more slaad. The stronger ones are shape changers, spell casters, and very dangerous. Our next miniature appeared within the pages of the Curse of Strahd adventure, as well as older editions, the Phantom Warrior usually is honor bound to a task. The example they give in the stat block is guarding a wall that it protected in life until another guard can be found. You could even use these as parts of a ghost army, mine might show up as a wraith king unleashed by necromancer when a party failed to stop him. our last miniature was the Demilich. When a lich lives to long and fails to add souls to its phylactery it potentially becomes a demilich. It will normally appear as a floating skull with jeweled teeth and eyes. It has an entire suite of abilities meant to reduce a party to tears by negating their healing, knocking characters down to zero hit points with an action. Variants and older editions had demiliches trapping people within their gemstone teeth. Tough fights. 

Box 3

First mini out of the box was a skeletal archer, again just labeled Skeleton. I really like having skeletal archers in my armies of undeath, luckily, they added them as a common miniature in this set. The sculpt is much better than many of the older models. The next miniature is the Dread Warrior, which appeared in the Dead In Thay adventure which was printed again in the Tales from the Yawning Portal book. Dread Warriors are made by evil wizards to use as spies. Again, they can work as any ghostly undead you are using in your game. Next we had another Ochre Jelly, luckily I also like oozes. Finally we had a goliath zombie, I like that they are branching out in this set and adding in more types of zombies than the standard human looking zombies.

Box 4

Our last box today had two repeats, both the Avatar of Death and the Skeletal Archer, which just adds to my undead horde to vex my players. Our third mini was the Otyugh, one of my all-time favorite monsters. they usually live within garbage piles and unlike many of the monsters can be reasoned with. They are great ambush monsters for when your party fall down a garbage chute, end up in the sewers, or just living in a mad wizard’s lair. Last is our Sword Wraith Warrior, one of the cool transparent miniatures in the set. Sword Wraiths are more melee specialist undead obsessed with honor, the commanders can summon warriors to fight with them. They are less wraith like and more like the wights, since they are corporeal and can’t fly through walls.

This has been a fun set so far and there are so many other miniatures out there to find. Out of the 45 miniatures we have pulled 13, with sets like this repeats still are cool. There are two special miniatures, both a blue and a green Dracolich, which are evil undead dragons, and they are massive. This set also features huge miniature, I did not pull any yet, as well as some absolutely terrifying monsters that will go great in an horror based campaigns you run. This set feels like they are priming us for the next hardcover Dungeons and Dragons book Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, which returns us to the mist shrouded lands of Ravenloft and will highlight a few other Domains of Dread. I am excited for new class options and new monsters. it will be interesting to see how much is a rehashing of the older Ravenloft material from the late eighties through the nineties.  

 

Hope you all enjoyed! The Boneyard miniatures sets should have hit most of your local game stores!