Caverns of Thracia: Session 5
My players and I decided to move this campaign to Saturdays to better fit schedules for some. This resulted in this week's game having a total of 7 players, a bit more than I could reasonably handle in such a combat-focused game as Caverns.
At the end of last week's session, two players informed me that they would like to drastically change their characters. I decided to have them make new characters, as at least one member would be joining us this session.
In this week's session, we began by quickly teleporting the party members out of the dungeon and back to town (one-way), where they restocked on supplies, sold the few treasures they had, had a few members settle down, and recruited new party members. With this, they set back off towards the dungeon. Upon reaching the dungeon, they pondered on testing a large hole or taking the safer back stairway, eventually deciding to take the stairs. After marching down the stairs, they scaled down to the second level (past the burnt-out bridge) and decided to make their way to the marble hallway they tried before.
The Living Stone Statue that attacked them last time was nowhere to be seen, and the party carefully continued down the hall. They reached the end, opening decorative doors to reveal a sphinx, laying atop an altar. She revealed herself to be Ontussa, a messenger of the gods and watcher of this dungeon. Ontussa demanded payment, and in return gave an answer to any question about this place. The party learned that behind her lay her vast stores of treasure, which she would allow the PCs to enter if they killed for her a lich who lived within the dungeon. They agreed and followed her directions to the lich's chambers...
On the way, the party invaded a gnoll outpost where they killed the gnoll commander, lamentably named Grotch, and failed to catch the remaining gnolls who raised glass beads (similar to those held by a certain party member) and disappeared. An enslaved man who had been cowering in the corner grabbed a bag off of Grotch's corpse and dashed out the door, swiftly followed by the party's new monk.
The monk and party quickly caught up with the slave, who had jumped down a pit and entered a frost and snow-covered hall. The slave, Grassus, explained he worked for the Minotaur King as a bookkeeper and trusted aid, as he had been a slave his whole life, never knowing anything else. Being threatened with death, Grassus lead the party into the frost vault, a place enchanted with cold containing two frozen bodies. One party member decided to stab one, wrenching his blade from her body and discovered she was alive as warm entrails spewed out. The party could not manage to heal her and she quickly died.
Grassus then lead them down a secret staircase to a large room, containing 4 doors on both east and west rooms, and a large altar on the south end. Pointing to each of the western doors, Grassus explained they were portals. One lead to the Ethereal Plane, one to the Minotaur King, and the other two were locked. He demonstrated the use of the portals by holding a glass bead over his head and disappearing.
The PCs then decided to enter, one by one, through the portal. They had enough glass beads for everyone and quickly, all had entered the teleport. On the other end, they appeared one at a time, but not nearly as quick as they had entered. The first to appear found himself surrounded by minotaurs and gnolls, and quickly attempted to teleport back but ended up upon another teleport somewhere unfamiliar. This happened for multiple PCs, until the wizard appeared, polymorphed into a giant ape, and began fighting the creatures waiting for him. He easily dispatched of them, and began exploring the surrounding plains and sparse trees, appearing to be outdoors as the sun hung bright overhead, hidden behind a cover of clouds.
The remaining three other party members appeared over the next few minutes, splitting the party into a group of three that had tried to teleport back (ending up at the Temple of War the sphinx had directed them to) and a group of four that began exploring around the outdoor teleport. The three were assaulted by a group of minotaurs which they dispatched after great difficulty before setting up camp. The other group found a small building built around a magical well which they promptly destroyed, as well as a massive, walled-in tree and a large palace. On the palace roof were lounging harpies and in the courtyard sat a Hydra, flanked by two boiling pools of water. This group decided to test their mettle and confronted the Hydra, which continued growing new heads and doing increasingly more damage until the giant ape was forced back into a wizard and the group was forced to flee.
The session ended there as we had started late and taken much longer to do anything with the large amount of players this session. The next session will likely be run in two separate parties because of the split groups and to reduce length of combats. Perhaps they will try to reconvene, but splitting into two groups permanently would likely be in everyone's best interest.
At the end of last week's session, two players informed me that they would like to drastically change their characters. I decided to have them make new characters, as at least one member would be joining us this session.
In this week's session, we began by quickly teleporting the party members out of the dungeon and back to town (one-way), where they restocked on supplies, sold the few treasures they had, had a few members settle down, and recruited new party members. With this, they set back off towards the dungeon. Upon reaching the dungeon, they pondered on testing a large hole or taking the safer back stairway, eventually deciding to take the stairs. After marching down the stairs, they scaled down to the second level (past the burnt-out bridge) and decided to make their way to the marble hallway they tried before.
The Living Stone Statue that attacked them last time was nowhere to be seen, and the party carefully continued down the hall. They reached the end, opening decorative doors to reveal a sphinx, laying atop an altar. She revealed herself to be Ontussa, a messenger of the gods and watcher of this dungeon. Ontussa demanded payment, and in return gave an answer to any question about this place. The party learned that behind her lay her vast stores of treasure, which she would allow the PCs to enter if they killed for her a lich who lived within the dungeon. They agreed and followed her directions to the lich's chambers...
On the way, the party invaded a gnoll outpost where they killed the gnoll commander, lamentably named Grotch, and failed to catch the remaining gnolls who raised glass beads (similar to those held by a certain party member) and disappeared. An enslaved man who had been cowering in the corner grabbed a bag off of Grotch's corpse and dashed out the door, swiftly followed by the party's new monk.
The monk and party quickly caught up with the slave, who had jumped down a pit and entered a frost and snow-covered hall. The slave, Grassus, explained he worked for the Minotaur King as a bookkeeper and trusted aid, as he had been a slave his whole life, never knowing anything else. Being threatened with death, Grassus lead the party into the frost vault, a place enchanted with cold containing two frozen bodies. One party member decided to stab one, wrenching his blade from her body and discovered she was alive as warm entrails spewed out. The party could not manage to heal her and she quickly died.
Grassus then lead them down a secret staircase to a large room, containing 4 doors on both east and west rooms, and a large altar on the south end. Pointing to each of the western doors, Grassus explained they were portals. One lead to the Ethereal Plane, one to the Minotaur King, and the other two were locked. He demonstrated the use of the portals by holding a glass bead over his head and disappearing.
The PCs then decided to enter, one by one, through the portal. They had enough glass beads for everyone and quickly, all had entered the teleport. On the other end, they appeared one at a time, but not nearly as quick as they had entered. The first to appear found himself surrounded by minotaurs and gnolls, and quickly attempted to teleport back but ended up upon another teleport somewhere unfamiliar. This happened for multiple PCs, until the wizard appeared, polymorphed into a giant ape, and began fighting the creatures waiting for him. He easily dispatched of them, and began exploring the surrounding plains and sparse trees, appearing to be outdoors as the sun hung bright overhead, hidden behind a cover of clouds.
The remaining three other party members appeared over the next few minutes, splitting the party into a group of three that had tried to teleport back (ending up at the Temple of War the sphinx had directed them to) and a group of four that began exploring around the outdoor teleport. The three were assaulted by a group of minotaurs which they dispatched after great difficulty before setting up camp. The other group found a small building built around a magical well which they promptly destroyed, as well as a massive, walled-in tree and a large palace. On the palace roof were lounging harpies and in the courtyard sat a Hydra, flanked by two boiling pools of water. This group decided to test their mettle and confronted the Hydra, which continued growing new heads and doing increasingly more damage until the giant ape was forced back into a wizard and the group was forced to flee.
The session ended there as we had started late and taken much longer to do anything with the large amount of players this session. The next session will likely be run in two separate parties because of the split groups and to reduce length of combats. Perhaps they will try to reconvene, but splitting into two groups permanently would likely be in everyone's best interest.
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