2025-05-24 - Session 2

Previous session: Session 1 Next session: Session 3

Where Were We?

In caves below the Sinkhole; Clodagh and Laurence were high on mushroom spores from our latest battle...

And Then What Happened?

We follow Clodagh down the passage and find ourselves in the first chamber where we came in. Clodagh giggles. The dead slug thing starts talking to her. She giggles more.

We pause. Cador offers some tea. We debate how to heat it up. No one has a tea pot.

Aoife sees part of a figurine... Sort of elvish, but without pointed ears, androgynous. Aquiline nose. Stubble carved into jawline. Eight-pointed stars. Looks like it's made out of some kind of black marble. It tingles when she touches it. Clodagh picks it up. Seems to be made of the same material as the pendant that Calla gave her, and shimmers when she holds it. Aoife finds some other parts that appear to have been crushed.

Clodagh spins the pendant a bit, and it flares brighter whenever pointed deeper into the cave.

We short rest. Clodagh tries to spend the time studying the Mysterious Pendant. She knows that each school of magic has a color... and because she's high as a kite, she sees a color she's not familiar with. Kind of electric blue, with lightning shards of copper arcing across its surface.

Cador looks around while we rest. Looks like no one else has traveled past this chamber. After the rest, Clodagh and Laurence return to normal.

We follow the glowing of the pendant, back through the passages we explored earlier. It leads us toward a wide chamber we didn't look at before.

We see bones on the ground. Old, ragged tents. A body, torn up, in the center of the room. Some crates, skeletal remains.

The body is dressed in a woven fabric tunic. Eight-pointed stars on a sash. Small tooth marks on the bones. Some little creature emerges from one of the tents?! It looks up at us with big eyes, utters a lisping word, and begins to chant... Three more emerge -- four? Five altogether. We don't recognize the language. They all start chattering. Thalador thinks the cadence is similar to Elvish, but it's different. Laurence recognizes that it repeats, like a song? They sway back and forth and move toward us.

Thalador tries a saying a short Elvish poem. Two of the little beasties advance toward him, clawed hands outstretched. Aoife holds a Starry Wisp.

One of the creatures toddles up to Cador and tries to bite his leg. It gnaws but doesn't manage to do anything. Another does the same thing, biting at Cador's other leg. Ouch! Aoife's spell hits, but it's still up.

Another one tries to bite at Laurence. Two of them bite Thalador. Ouch, and ouch! The druidy-rangery people note that these have Pack Tactics.

Clodagh casts Fog Cloud and fumbles southward out of the cloud.

Laurence gives Cador Bardic Inspiration and uses Vicious Mockery on the creature that Aoife had previously hit.

Cador rages! He squishes the one who had been hit. Using Cleave, he hits the other, ending it.

Thalador casts Divine Favor. He kills one of the creatures with his short sword, and the other with a slash of his scimitar.

Aiofe holds a Starry Wisp. Clodagh drops the Fog Cloud. Aoife's spell goes off, hitting the remaining creature, but not felling it.

Clodagh shoots an arrow at the remaining creature, downing it.

They don't look all that different dead than alive, and their blood is kind of a clear color. Everyone except for Thalador notices they look a little like the figurine.

Examining the body... the robes were once a violet color, stars embroidered with silver thread. While the bottom of the skeleton is missing, it seems like the body would have been seven feet tall or more. Doesn't seem giant-ish. Something too delicate about the bone structure.

We search the chamber. The tents have a strange fabric, almost like a silk, but extremely sturdy, similar to the robes on the skeleton. But there's been much dry rot and decay. Hard to say how long it's been here.

Inside the crate are two more robes, nicely folded. One is electric blue with copper thread; the other is iridescent silver with green thread. The other half of the pendant is in the bottom of the crate. There's also a clay jar. A small bag, cinched shut.

The halves of the pendant click together almost magnetically and it flares with light.

Cador harvests the material from the tents.

We see tracks leading to a tunnel to the north. Elongated boots. We find disintegrating blankets and rotted books in the tents. The language on the spines is similar to what's on the pendant. It almost looks kind of like a refugee camp?

We decide to leave, and check the stinky garbage heap on the way out. On the top layer are purple slug skins -- like the insides have been eaten. There are lots of these. Clodagh uses Mage Hand to sift through it. Clay pots. Fabric scraps. Humanoid remains. Ten-legged spider corpses, about the size of a fist. A couple desiccated bodies of the little toddler-like creatures. Some slug skins seem chewed on, while deeper ones seem to be cut or skinned. Deep in the pile a bar of some kind of metal 1"x1"x6", pewter? but not soft?, has runes carved into it. We also find 5 coins made of a similar metal, each with an eight-pointed star on it.

Thalador and Cador bond over the notion of five coins for five adventurers -- a physical symbol of our fellowship!

Aoife wants to go home. Everyone else wants to camp down here and press onward for adventure. She relents. We retreat to the fountain room to rest and take water. Aoife notices a druidic rune on the stone basin that reads "fresh water". It might actually be what's keeping the water fresh?!

We make camp. Thalador heals up with Lay on Hands. Inside the pouch, Clodagh finds ten more of those coins. Inside the clay pot we find spider eggs. We take a long rest.

Date: Oathday, 2 Thawtide, 3100

Clodagh studies the completed pendant for a couple of hours. Fine, hairline etchings draw her in... they look almost three dimensional. The rune shifts?? Becoming "five dimensional"?? She sees things in a way she's never seen before.

We see Clodagh looking at the rune. After 30 minutes of staring, her eyes glow blue... She experiences that she's walking a path in the shape of the rune, and hears voices in her head, whispering in a language she's never heard. It begins to show her other runes. She gets a sense of what they are and what they do, as if they are imprinting on her. Eventually she snaps out of it. The pendant is the rune for "key".

We head back to the wide room. No fresh prints (of Bel Air or otherwise). We pick the north tunnel. We pass a side passage leading to another chamber and press on. The passage ends abruptly, but the pendant flares... when Clodagh touches it to the wall, it opens into another chamber.

We emerge into an enormous cavern. There's some kind of castle wall with towers. An octagonal keep. Along the wall are blue-flamed torches. Made of the same material as the figurine and pendant. Clodagh thinks the runes are some kind of protection.

Clodagh approaches the door. The pulls and doorknob are about 18 inches higher than where they would be for human structures. There's a hole about the size of her pendant. Clodagh inserts her pendant and the doors swing open soundlessly. The runes on the doors dim.

Within we see an old, broken-down fountain. More tattered tents. Lots of them. Some kind of ivy-like greenery, wrapped around something, like a cocoon. We pass through into the courtyard. Aoife thinks it might be magic that is protecting or preserving something... or someone. As she passes it, it moves... the leaves, reacting to her presence... loosening? Clodagh touches it with her Mage Hand, and it's like the vines just absorb it. Aoife reaches out; her holy symbol warms, and the vines unravel, revealing a body that she recognizes. An old man, dressed in druidic robes, bearing the clasp of the archdruid on his cloak. This is Cathbad. She met him once. He's hundreds of years old. Looks like he's laying in repose. His left leg is at a strange angle. Blood underneath him. He does not appear to be alive. Aoife hasn't seen him in nearly a decade. He had stepped down to go "be among the wilds". He has a journal clasped beneath his hands. It's written in the old language of the druids. He's got a wound on his side that looks like it was from necrotic damage. As Aoife takes the journal, the vines claim the body, and nothing is left save his sickle, staff, and clasp.

We scout the yard clockwise, investigating the tents as we go. The tents are empty -- save for basic supplies like bedrolls, cots, etc. Looks like people were seeking shelter here from something. Thick layer of dust. No bodies. Occasional personal effects, like a child's doll with an eight-pointed star. We find more of those coins. Rope. Harnesses.

We find some kind of house or building... Cador scuffs the ground and hears a scream like a horse that's broken its leg in mid-run. From within the structure. It screams once, then stops. We hear something like the clopping of horse hooves. Coming out of the building we see a clydesdale-sized horse, jet black, glowing, no eyes. It moves its head back and forth, listening. It sniffs the air.

Laurence tries to Message it. Cador throws a rock far down the yard. It gallops away quickly, beating the heck out of a tent. We roll initiative.

Laurences uses Message again to try to disorient it. It circles around, confused.

Thalador shoots an arrow... but misses. It rushes him. It bares its teeth, revealing huge incisors. Its hooves are more like claws. It hits Thalador, and then bites him -- dropping him!

Clodagh casts Hunter's Mark on it. She misses with an arrow and ducks behind a tent.

Aoife uses Druidcraft to create a sound to distract it. It stops trying to eat Thalador and looks like it's going to move in that direction. She casts Healing Word on Thalador.

Cador rushes up, raging, and attacks with Thwack, hitting it. It turns to face him. He keeps shouting at it.

Laurence uses Vicious Mockery, but it's not effective. He gives Thalador a Bardic Inspiration.

Thalador casts Divine Favor, then hits with his shortsword and scimitar. The beast is still up.

The horse thing rears up to attack Cador. It misses with its hooves but hits with a bite. Laurence uses Silvery Barbs to make it not crit. He gives advantage to Cador.

Clodagh hits with an arrow from her longbow. It looks particularly angry now.

Aoife crits with a Starry Wisp! It's starting to look not so good.

Cador crits with Thwack!

Laurence misses with an arrow from his shortbow.

Thalador takes it down with his shortsword and gives it a slice with his scimitar for good measure. Cador takes its head off with his axe. Instead of spurting blood, a magma-like ichor emerged, burning the corpse of the beast. It smells... bad.

We level up!

The stable is properly ruined. We find ropes, horse gear, broken-down chariots. We suspect the horse is why we aren't finding any remains.

Plans for Next Time

Explore the keep. Bring back Cathbad's effects.