The Crystal Dominion - Session 02 Summary

[avisarr]

The Crystal Dominion - Session 2 Summary

The party had just infiltrated the island prison of Guldremor by sneaking in through the sea caves beneath the prison. They had encountered a magical marker, one of several markers that formed a perimeter. By taking and modifying one of these markers, Alan, the arcanologist, was able to create a portable device for the group that would let them use magic within the perimeter without alerting the wizard employed by the prison.

The party had just finished slaying three sewer zombies in the first cave. After the battle, Eiran, the elven ranger, saw a glow in the tunnel ahead.

The party cautiously advanced, waist deep in cold sea water, through the dark tunnel. They soon found a body floating in the water. They examined the body and found it was little more than a skeleton with bits of rotten and waterlogged flesh clinging to the bone. Its armor and weapons were damaged and it had recently been in a fight. The party found four potion bottles on the corpse. One was broken and leaking. The glowing liquid inside this broken bottle was what the party had seen in the darkness. Droplets of glowing liquid floated in the sea water forming a trail of sorts that shined in the darkness down the tunnel.

As the party examined the body, they heard something further down the tunnel. According to their map, the sound was coming from the large cavern up ahead which was at the bottom of the main garbage shaft.

The party advanced to the opening of the next cave and peered into the cavern which was dimly lit. It was a large natural cavern. In the center of the cavern was a tremendous mound of rotting garbage and filth. In the ceiling, directly above the garbage pile, was a large circular shaft (this coincided with their map, which indicated this was the main garbage shaft from the prison above). A web of fibrous tendrils was stretched across almost half of the cavern from wall to wall and ceiling to floor. The strands of this web were thick and fleshy, pink and pulsating and moving as if alive.

Standing near the far side of the cavern where three animated skeletons, waist deep in water and clutching rusted broadswords and shields. They seemed to be standing guard.

Caught up in the web of fleshy tendrils were three corpses, recently killed. The tendrils pierced the armor of the victims and many small tendrils connected to the flesh of the corpses. It became clear that the web was some kind of creature and it was feeding on the corpses. Based on what was left of the corpses and their equipment, the party was quickly able to determine that these unfortunate victims were what was left of the previous mission.

A voice from the darkness called out to them identifying himself as Ebon, one of the previous group. Ebon confirmed the group's suspicions. He said that his party had been wiped out and he was the sole survivor. He had been trapped in this cavern for more than a day with no way past the web creature. The party decided it would be useful to have an extra sword with them. They assumed they could defeat the three skeleton guards, but they were unsure about the fibrous web creature which none of them had encountered before. They didn't see a way to get past the creature.

N'sahd ending up using an Alter Self spell change himself into the likeness of one of the skeletons. The fibrous web creature seemed to be ignoring the skeletons (possibly because they had nothing for it to feed on) and they, in turn, were ignoring the creature.

N'sahd, in his undead form, then walked into the garbage cave. His disguise worked. The web creature and the skeletons ignore him. He found Ebon hiding in a small side cave, wounded and bleeding.

He hoisted Ebon over one shoulder and carried him out. Ebon pretended to be limp and dead. The web creature and skeletons continued to hold their positions.

N'sahd, still in the form of a skeleton, was also able to approach the three corpses in the web and loot them. He was careful not to disentangle them from the web or disturb the creature.

From the three corpses, the party retrieved several magic items. Ebon was able to identify most of them. He had, after all, been adventuring with the other team and had seen many of these items used.

• Several potions – water breathing, healing, gaseous form, seashape
• A bottle of "instant tree" seeds that create a tree on impact when thrown
• An enchanted ear ring that boosts hearing sensitivity
• A bunch of enchanted arrows – ice arrows, stun arrows and one fireball arrow.
• The enchanted mirror that allowed communication back to the Swordtongue Guild.

After gathering the items, they introduced themselves to Ebon and Ebon told them the details of the fate of the previous team. The previous team had encountered MANY foul beasts lurking in the sea caves (the wizard employed by the prison was apparently found of summoning or creating nasties and dropping them into the sea caves below with some kind of mind control to turn them into guards for the prison). The previous party had cleared the caves almost entirely out. However, they were overwhelmed by the fibrous web-like creature which killed all but Ebon.

The group headed back to the first cavern which had the small shaft in the ceiling. Judging by the smell, it was clear that this was some type of head or midden – a pipe for human excrement and such. Peering up the pipe, it seemed that it connected to multiple levels.

They decided that this pipe was their best option for entering the prison. After some discussion, they decided to scale the pipe up to the sixth floor where their map indicated that the main offices were. They hoped to find some kind of prisoner manifest that would indicate what cell Baldorin was in.

The climb was difficult. RedEye led the way, scaling the pipe and hauling up rope after him for the others to use. RedEye found a locked grate in between each floor. Some of these he disabled with lock picking tools, but some were badly rusted and he was forced to use the last of his acid on them. Several of the party members vomited from the stench. After a difficult two hour climb, all of them were standing in the head room on the sixth floor. They were, however, covered in excrement, vomit and other foulness and smelled terrible. N'Sahd used several cantrip spells to clean them up.

RedEye used the group's scroll of invisibility to cast invisibility on himself. He then proceeded to walk through level 6 toward the main office. On the way, he passed a young human male in robes and leather. A wizard perhaps. The wizard did not sense RedEye as the two passed each other. RedEye continued on toward the office.

The wizard was heading toward the midden to relieve himself. When he got there he was quickly and silently killed by the rest of the party. They rolled the body. Alan found an amulet with a methkari crystal in it around the neck of the wizard. He studied it and determined that this device allowed this wizard to cast spells within the perimeter without setting off any alarms. It functioned basically as his modified perimeter marker. He gave the amulet to N'sahd.

Meanwhile, RedEye reached the office and listened outside the door and heard two voices speaking softly. He waited patiently and finally someone exited the room. With a quick maneuver, he dashed through the door before it closed, silently and invisibly. He found himself in an office with many bookcases, scrolls and a large reading table. A large half-orc in armor was reading at the table.

RedEye scanned the books and scrolls looking for something that might list the prisoners. After a short time he came across a slim book with a title reading "Monthly Ledger and Manifest".

Redeye quietly approached the half-orc and threw one of his alchemical "sleep grenades" (a small glass sphere with a sleep powder inside). The glass sphere shattered and a cloud of gas erupted in front of the orc. The orc staggered back, surprised, but quickly regained his footing. Redeye, having attacked with the glass sphere, was suddenly visible. The orc sensing someone behind him, whirled about with cat-like grace and assumed a combat stance. With a flick of his wrists, blades extended from his armor gauntlets. In a flash, the gauntlets lashed out and RedEye staggered back with two bloody wounds in his chest. Unprepared for the ferociousness of the attack, RedEye retreated quickly trying to think of what to do. He took out the sleeping potion (one of the potions that the grouped had retrieved off of the floating body in the sea caves below) and hurled it at the foot of the orc. The bottle shattered and instantly a cloud of noxious green vapor exploded. RedEye hurled himself across the reading table and rolled to the far side of the office. The orc was engulfed in the green cloud. He staggered out of it towards RedEye but was quickly overcome by the vapors and collapses in a heavy heap.

RedEye grabbed the book he had identified earlier and returned to the group hiding in the midden. The group skimmed the pages of the book and found a section on prisoner cell assignment. They found that Baldorin was assigned to Level 3, Cell 17.

N'sahd used a cantrip to clean the blood off of the robes of the wizard whom they had just killed. He and Ebon then headed back to the office to take care of cleaning up the mess RedEye had made. Half way to the office, they came upon another young human male walking in the hallway. The person was another human male in his late 20s. He was deeply engrossed in a book. Ebon hid in shadows. N'sahd pulled the hood of his stolen clothes up and continued on, acting as if he belonged there. The bluff worked. The young man barely looked up from his book and only mumbled a greeting. The two passed in the shadowy hallway and continued on their way.

Upon reaching the office, N'sahd and Ebon found the sleep cloud had dissipated. The orc was asleep on the floor. They cut his throat and then positioned him as if he had fallen asleep while reading.

N'sahd and Ebon headed back toward the midden to rejoin the rest of the group.

And so ends Session 2.