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! 

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!

Images created in Heroforge

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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Upon a Dark Place: Part 2 Sessions 6-10

 

Halfbuilt in flames! The central stalactite had been knocked down and had fallen across a considerable part of the city. The group left their carts at the entrance and snuck in to see what was happening. They found the Kaismar, this world’s dark elves, capturing townsfolk and giant ogres with baskets on their backs trapping any they found hiding. The townsfolk were given two options, become slaves or die by fire in the pyre of others that had resisted. Many townsfolk resisted which only made the flames burn higher. The group attacked the Kaismar and were able to free the remaining townsfolk. One of the kaismar survived the attack because the creepy dark elf Nor that befriend the party and his “Sister” Nira incapacitated her with a paralysis poison. The party found out the other townsfolk not still in Halfbuilt were taken to New Gracklesnap, a dark dwarf stronghold a few days journey away. Before going after their allies, the party went to check on Lord Halibar and found him quite dead. With the help of both Bastion and Nor, they cast speak with dead, they were able to discern what had happened in the town and each was rewarded for the last mission and each given a note from Lord Halibar as well as a boon and a new ally, his treasury imp, Engire, that could help finance them. Lord Halibar had left each of the characters magic items.  They also found out about the mystical Udaren, a group hiding somewhere in the deep that may have abilities to help the party as well as strange things from each of their backgrounds. Burf turned the body to stone. They also question the drow priestess and found time was of the essence to save the townsfolk that had been taken. Wilbur was also approached by an elderly ratfolk lady that told him about her town, which had been wiped out by a strange man with the ability to control fire. Her son had wounded the man with a strange dagger, which she gave to Wilbur, and then disappeared into the crowd.

On quest of vengeance the party found the raiders had left Black Bettie alone, or at least they found a few kaismar bodies in parts near the farmhouse she was sequestered in. They let her out and with the help of a goblin friend Corvo were able to ride all the way to New Gracklesnap in a few hours by cutting a path through the stone itself. Once there, they noted a small encampment outside town full of Kaismar and prisoners. They snuck in and got many of the prisoners out with clever lies of Corvo and all was going well until the priestess in charge and her night companion, a tiefling sorceress, came out of their shared tent and noticed not only the party but the fleeing prisoners and the light bridges Bastion created as ramps. Using their new found magic items from Lord Halibar they defeated the priestess and a few of her guards and the tiefling left a dire warning with Zamira and disappeared with teleportation magic. They were able to loot the tent and found a chest with strange broken Udaren sun stone. The party made their way back to Halfbuilt and put their heads together to find a new solution to this new problem of homeless Halfbuilt. The druid Burf remembered a cave to the north that had everything needed for a new home but could not remember why it was abandoned. The party made some blood deals by selling their blood to Nor, met with townsfolk and eventually borrowed Toppa the bard to adventure to the north. Nor also looked at Wilbur’s new dagger, finding it was made of some sort of angel bone and with a blood magic spell they learned about the human fire mage and the fire cult he was a part of. The rest of Halfbuilt agreed to give the party a few days head start again and follow in their wake with the other group of heroes working as guards in the process.

The abandoned town was supposedly near the towns of Lowgren and Latiea. The party was not quite as fascinated with the stories of Stormcroak that Toppa was preaching and eventually came across a passed-out traveler face down on the cavern floor. They woke him up and he claimed to be a simple mage named Victor looking to fix the portals of the Deep and had a summoned dragon friend. He looked human and gave them great bits of information about the goings on within the city of New Gracklesnap as well as the Kaisimar capitol city Korshad. After helping him get back on his feet they brought him with to explore some of the tunnels. When they rested, there was a commotion when a strange tentacled man flew past the group on watch and told them to make ready as a group of odd dwarves came down the tunnel yelling about a traitor. When pressed for information the dwarves’ forms twisted into horrible fleshy monster the party quickly went into combat mode and were able to save their newfound friend. After combat, the goblin pressed the tentacle man for payment and was promptly stunned and the man faded into the darkness. The party was also dismayed in their friend Victor, who had done nothing but cower behind his dragon from the monsters, even Toppa helped.

They continued on their path until they found a large nexus of chambers and saw a giant slug being eaten by three overly large bugmen. Bastion hit the slug with a daylight rock startling the bugmen and combat ensued. Their allies helped control the battlefield while the party dealt damage quickly enough to drop all three foes in short work, sending bugmen parts all about the cavern. The next challenge the party faced a corridor that crackled as they walked on it. After noticing all the bones, the party saw an obviously trying to hide horrible giant eyed cave beast that blasted them with a spell of confusion. All three of their newer allies started flailing around like madmen and the oracle Bastion almost was bitten in half by Victor’s dragon. The party attacked the beast and made very short work of it. They pressed onward after bandaging their wounds with magic.

After days of traveling, they found the abandoned city and started investigating the buildings finding most of them decrepit they found a house that was impervious to wear and tear but had a dead tentacle faced man husk in an armoire. Cecil saw something either flying through the water fall either on its way in or out of a cave but was not sure. They investigated the town hall and found the vault and a few other magic bits. They crossed a main thoroughfare and four ghosts appeared and started chanting a fell chant. The party started attacking them to no avail as lightning cut across the street hitting a few of them. Victor was knocked out and his dragon disappeared. Nimhe saw something strange when the lighting blasted, it seemed to come from a point in space lined with eyes and teeth. She blindly felt her way around and felt something warm, soft, and fluttery like a thousand eyelids blissfully opening and closing then the grazing of teeth passed by her hands. She grabbed it and attempted to grapple it. As she started compressing, it became visible and left a shell of itself in her grip having teleported away and behind the rest of the group, blasting them with more magic. The group beat the hell out of it and it kept jumping to another clone until Cecil was able to smash its core. They picked themselves up and went to check on Victor, finding the skin on his face mostly featureless and eyes white as pearl. He was a changeling or shadow man. Then Zamira stabbed him in his “god damned throat”, tied him up, and they interrogated him just short of torture. They found out quite a bit about the slave markets and strange creatures known as the formless. They made their way with him in tow to the water fall and into the cave. The cave was full of bones of a staggering number of creatures all with the same part of their skull missing as well as a pedestal with a strange black broken urn covered in eyes and teeth. The goblin smashed it into a fine powder and they left, sealing off the room. They rested and waited until the goblins, mushroom men, and survivors of Halfbuilt arrived.

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Upon a Dark Place: Part 1 Sessions 1-5

 

At the start of 2017 we started playing a game called Upon a Dark Place taking place in the Deep, or my worlds equivalent to the Underdark from Forgotten Realms or the Darklands from Pathfinder. The game world is entirely homebrew and modifications were made to some of the Pathfinder content to make sense story wise, creatures were altered, and bad guys customized. The adventures started around the city of Halfbuilt, a haven for the lost and forgotten of the Deep. 

Our party consisted of Nimhe the lamia grappler, Bastion the aaismar oracle of the heavens, Zamira the tiefling rogue, Cecil the goblin barbarian, Burf the deep gnome druid, and Wilbur the rat person alchemist. We have troubled pasts across the board, people that hate drow slavers, people hiding from past crimes, hiding from strange otherworldly monsters, or seeking revenge for lost family. 

When the adventure began, they were hunting troglodytes that had been attacking trade routes within the Deep. They were suspicious because they were offered more than the normal amount for such a base task. As they began their journey in the tunnels, they were able to catch one of the troglodyte patrols unaware and eradicated the threat before an alarm could be raised. They followed the trail to an old and no longer abandoned dwarven mining outpost and found the leader of the troglodytes as well as their devil spawn brethren. The battle was quick, finding the building full of strange devilish eggs. They crushed most of the eggs and Nimhe ate a few. On their return home, they encountered two friends from town fighting against trolls by the main entrance. They met Stonebreaker, a large sized bug person with an even for him oversized maul. Unlike his fellow bug people, Stonebreaker was severed from his old hive and was a mercenary within Halfbuilt. They made their way to Lord Halibar Nel Daxis Aldrabriane, their employer, to collect their reward which suspiciously seemed like too much money. He had given them a bonus as well as a new mission to accompany a goblin alchemist gunsmith, Torobor, back to her home cave to retrieve his order of firearms and mechanical wonders. They were also asked to drop off a parcel in a town they would be passing through to a friend of his, they did not ask any questions about this friend. The group grabbed supplies they knew they might need as well as things they just wanted to spend money on while wandering town. They met an enormous riding beetle named Black Bettie as well as bought pickles. They purchased much smaller riding beetles and sojourned into the Deep. There was much attempted flirtation with their new goblin boss, and she ignored most of it. She had two metal men constructs as well, her people were oddly gifted with magical science they used to create helpers for their various dangerous experiments with the dark powder that fueled their guns.

They passed sites where struggle was apparent and made camp in an easily defendable spot. After sharing stories around the cooking fire, they were attacks by large bug men that grew huge when shot at. These Trox seemed infected by some foul abyssal power. The party made quick work of the monsters, took a power nap, and broke camp after. They passed tunnels that looked carved out by giant worms and eventually found a large sized city with giant open adamantine doors. The city was empty of people and a large surface folk castle sat on a stone shelf above the common folk dwellings. The empty city was silent except for the sounds the party made as well as a distant irregular clicking sound. They investigated the castle and found a gargantuan purple and black scaled dragon slain on a throne and decided it was time to leave, only to be stopped by a weird floating man. He was wearing a dark verdant green cloak and introduced himself as Pullman. They attempted to cast magical spells at him but he countered with swarms of beetles, so they ran. As they fled, they made tactical decisions on routes and obstacles and made their way out of the city and back into the tunnels, sealing the exit with stone magics. Further and a few miles down the corridors they found themselves on a stone bridge crossing a deep chasm. As they started across, they heard odd strange warbling sounds and saw stone squids flying in the darkness. The squids and their master, a strange flying cloak like beast attacked the party and made off with one of their riding beetles. The party killed the monsters and broke the bridge in the process but were able to make it across before most of it fell into the abyss.

They finally made it to the goblin city of Noragast and spend three days resting and preparing for the return journey which would have to be a new route, the old one full of bugs and a broken bridge. Cecil and Wilbur worked on a new mount for Cecil, since monsters stole his riding beetle, the artisans of Noragast were more than happy to help. Together they made what looked like a stone and metal spider that would listen to Cecil’s commands and had some sort of hidden feature as well. While there they made friends with the goblins and recruited them to come to Halfbuilt and the empty city they saw on the way there. The goblins were on the lookout for a new home and agreed to come along, but a few days behind. The party and their escort of carts and a few more goblins made their way back to Halfbuilt. 

The group found a mushroom enclave with friendly mushroom men, but part of the party of skeptical of their alliances, where the others embraced them and welcomed them to come along. One party member, Bastion, did try to purify food on a mushroom child till he was convinced that might be a bad idea. Deeper into the darkness they found a group of slaver dwarves with some of their Halfbuilt allies in chains and combat ensued. They found a map maker gnome as well as another lamia that told a tale of a patchwork man trading items with her clan and shortly after all the men died. The party was joined by the now free Toppa, Lady Shar, and Tor. Their small army came to a large terrible smelling chamber with pools of not jade, but acid. About halfway across the chamber there was a triggered rockslide blocking the exit and gunshots as a rival gang of gunslingers attacked the party. The rockslide also woke the acid hydra sleeping in one of the pools. Chaos ensued, the rivals gun slingers were devoured, and eventually the acid spraying beast was put down. They cleared away the rocks and made their way back to Halfbuilt only to find it in ruins, still burning.

As a bonus chapter, session 5 was a flashback session, as to playing with a few players missing and wanting to save the big reveals and drama for the full group. The party encountered a group of Kobolds in the caverns being forced into labor by Ogres and their cruel secret master. The Kobolds were chained up to ogre task masters and forced to mine within a series of tunnels. The party did not like this arrangement and defeated the ogres, making sure not to hit the kobolds in the process. Eventually the ogre's boss showed up, a Gauntlin giant. Gauntlin are giants in my world that were cursed by a god to be forever hungry, they are just as strong as normal giants but thin, emaciated, and terrifying. This gauntlin also was missing an eye. The party made quick work of the giant and it's minions, freeing the kobolds. As a reward the kobolds gave the group a bag of holding as well as a token of respect they could show to other kobolds they found in the wild to show they were allies, not enemies. 

    Stay tuned for more tales!

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Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus Miniature Unboxing

In September of 2019 Wizards of the Coast put out the hardcover adventure Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus. The adventure pits the characters against a plot threatening the Forgotten Realms. Someone is pulling entire cities into Avernus, the first level of hell, and it is up to the party to put a stop to this. The players must contend with roving gangs of death machine riding demons and devils, strange monsters, displaced angels, and morality. The adventure also features the endless war between not only good and evil, but also evil and other evil. The Blood War is fought on Avernus, an endless struggle between the demons of the Abyss and the devils of Hell.

The miniature set for the adventure came with an assortment of demons, devils, and other odd creatures, most of which have some relevance to the story. This set also contained new sculpts on classic monsters and sculpts of monsters from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. There are forty five miniatures in the set and one premium Infernal War Machine. The boxes each have four miniatures: one large, usually two medium sized, and one small. There were only two miniatures in the brick I opened that needed maintenance, one bent halberd and one demon with a mighty lean, both of which are easy enough to fix. For fixing bent miniatures I heat up a measuring cup of water in the microwave for about a minute, carefully dip the bent part in the hot water, reshape, and then quench the entire miniature in cold water afterwards. 

Our first box contained Reya Mantlemorn, a maw demon, a glabrezu demon, and Mad Maggie. Reya is a non player character or NPC the party meets in the adventure and can be used for a character figure for one of the players. The maw demon is a minor demon from the book Volo’s Guide to Monsters and is one of a few new demons in that title. They appeared back in older editions as well, I still have mine from the old Dungeons and Dragons Dragoneye miniature set from the early 2000’s. It also was a part of the metal Chainmail miniatures game that came before the plastic line. The glabrezu is a higher-level demon that uses not only its muscle but its mind to tempt mortals. The miniature is dead on to the illustration in the Monster Manual and over the editions has been made both as large miniatures, like the one above, as well as huge sized.  That brings us to Mad Maggie, she is another NPC in the adventure for the party to encounter. She runs a gang of hell machine riding monsters and is fantastic, she can be used as a hag miniature to fit any theme. 

Our second box contained a babau demon, Yeenoghu’s Barlgura demon, a merregon devil, and Yeenoghu’s quasit demon. The babau demon appeared in Volo’s Guide to Monsters and is one of two versions of the miniature in this set, the other has a spear. They have a gaze attack that can weaken their opponents. Now some of the miniatures in this set are demons with the prefix of Yeenoghu, meaning they are demons in service to the demon lord Yeenoghu, patron of the gnolls, a culture of hyena men that raid and pillage the material plane of Dungeons and Dragons. Because Yeenoghu has minions loyal to him and basking in his power, they have taken on bits of his likeness. The barlgura is the first in this unboxing. The barlgura normally looks like a large red furred ape monster, but here are more hyena like. This will work perfectly as a large sized wolfman monster in my world, so I am happy. Next is the merregon devil, forged from the souls of soldiers, these devils serve in the army of hell against all threats. They also have a creepy baby face sculpted into their mask. Last is the Yeenoghu’s quasit demon, these are one of the weakest demons, but can be pesky to fight because of their innate magical abilities. 

Box three had a lemure devil, Yeenoghu’s Hezrou demon, Scarla Truestrike, and a merrenoloth yugoloth. Lemure are the souls of mortals cursed to hell and are the weakest devil. They are usually faced in swarms serving some stronger master.  Next is the Yeenoghu’s Hezrou demon. These demons, like the other Yeenoghu demons have a historical look that has been altered for this adventure. Normally they look like large humanoid toads that emit a terrible smell and serve as soldiers in the battles of the abyss. Again, I love the hyena twist on this sculpt. The body looks like it is rotting away with bones sticking out of it’s form.  Next is Scarla Truestrike, her sculpt is based on the Kensei monk artwork from Xanathar’s Guide to Everything and can be used for either a halfling or gnome for any character or NPC. The last is the first yugoloth in the set. The yugoloth are a species of demon or devil like creatures that are neutral evil aligned mercenaries that will serve anyone if the price is right, which makes them very popular during the Blood War and they fight on both sides. The merrenoloth run the ferries on the river Styx and can make a boat they captain almost unsinkable. 

Box four was heavy. It contained the abyssal chicken, the legion spined devil, the legion pit fiend, and Barnabus the flameskull. Abyssal chickens are new creatures from the adventure, they are from the abyss and have migrated to the hells as well.  It can also be used to represent a wizards familiar if you are lacking a miniature for one. The next miniature is the first legion creature. Legion refers to the legions of hell, the monsters with this prefix are new sculpts and versions of monsters that have already appeared in the lore of Dungeons and Dragons but with a new art twist. They all have a very Guillermo del Toro/Hellboy feel to them with the masks and chains. The spined devil is stronger than an imp and for me has always filled the same purpose in adventures: tiny flying nuisance to vex the party. This sculpt has a shield. The next miniature is one of my favorites, the legion pit fiend. Normally we see the pit fiends as large red devils with rippling scaled muscles. Here we have a pale blue, almost white, bloated armored creature. I love it. Pit fiends are the strongest of devils outside the archdevils and serve as great end of campaign foes. The last miniature is Barnabus the flame skull. It is an odd sculpt with a very simple, almost cartoonish mockery of a face painted on. He serves Mad Maggie and has all the normal powers associated for a flame skull. 

Box five contained Sylvira Savikas, a nupperibo devil, a legion horned devil, and a legion imp. Sylvira is another NPC the party meets on the journey and can be used for any tiefling character as a miniature. The nupperibo are gross bloated devils that either have failed to climb the hierarchy of devils or where slothful in life to the point of ruin. Their eyes have been sewn shut and they are surrounded by swarms of insects that can damage their foes. They appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Another favorite, the legion horned devil, can be an intimidating boss battle for players as well as just a cool miniature in general. This box ended with the legion imp, a small flying creature overladen with a basket of flames. This sculpt is different from the other imps out there and can serve as a great warlock familiar. 

Box six contained a Babau demon with a spear, Yeenoghu’s dretch, a legion barbed devil, and an armanite demon. The babau demon is the same sculpt as the earlier one but with a spear in its left hand. The Yeenoghu dretch is just like the other demon lord blessed demons, having a canine appearance.  They are on the lower end of the demon spectrum. The legion barbed devil is covered in spikes and carries two cleavers. It can hurt creatures that are grappling it and has the ability to do a tail attack. The last miniature is the armanite demon, which looks like a mutant centaur, equine body, tail spike, and creepy horned face. It can also throw lightning. There is another version that has the lightning in its hand. It is also from Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 

Box seven contained a bulezau demon, a legion spined devil with a trident, a lemure devil, and a yagnoloth yugoloth. The bulezau demon is ridden with disease and can damage its foes in close proximity with its mere presense as well as its wicked sickness riddled tail. It appears in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. The legion spined devil is like its sibling above but has a trident. The lemure is a repeat. The strange miniature left is a yagnoloth yugoloth, it has bat wing ears, a beefy arm, and a book on its loincloth. They lead other yugoloth into battle and sign contracts. It also appeared in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. 

Box eight contained another Yeenoghu’s dretch, Falaster Fisk, a legion barbed devil with fire effect, and a legion ice devil. The dretch was the second repeat in the boxes I opened. Falaster Fisk is another NPC from the adventure but can be used by both playersor dungeon masters as a spell caster or cultist. The legion barbed devil has a ball of fire it can toss at its foes, otherwise it is similar to its sibling above. The legion ice devil has a gladiator style armor, which I think is pretty cool.

Of the forty five miniatures available in this set, I was able to get thirty awesome miniatures with two repeats in one brick. This has been one of my favorite sets and I have bought a few boxes here and there as well as a few singles. I am still waiting to pick up the premium figure, the Infernal War Machine, but I will pick it up and hopefully do a post as well.

Even if you don’t end up running the Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus adventure these miniatures can be used in any adventure and role playing game. I intermix my miniatures from both Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons 

Thanks for checking out my haul. The lore and information has been gathered from the awesome book, Baldur’s Gate: Descent into Avernus, Volos Guide to Monsters, and Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes. Photos were taken by me. Miniatures made by Wizkids. Check your local game stores for curbside delivery and more information. 

Special edition of the adventure game store exclusive