02/09/2026, tuesday group
it's been a long time lol. In brief:
- the party finished clearing out the first dungeon, by the lake. They slew the cult of Jubilex that dwelled in there, then found two secret areas; one was lightly defended and had apparently sacrificial slabs carved with runes, one had a demon's head in a vat of acid and guarded by a squad of wights. The party killed everything and has started moving friends and allies in there.
- A new player, and with her a PC, was added permanently to the roster! Everyone say hi to Aminadab, elf fighter/magic-user.
- They defeated the Needle in a final battle! The party moved through the place, coming upon a gnoll prisoner tied to a stake in a cave - but this was a trap, and the other prisoners had been liquidated to make shadows! The party fought valiantly, turning the shadows and shutting the door to prevent a gnoll shaveback from killing them with a fireball. After this, they opened a grand door the shaveback and his bodyguard were protecting, but found that behind it was a blank wall etched with a Symbol of Pain! Debilitated by the magical agony, the party nonetheless found a secret door; in the combat that followed with the elite guard and the high-level gnoll wizard (7th!) within, the whole party but Relimi (the cleric) and Aminadab (the new 1st-level fighter/m-u) were routed by a Fear spell. Relimi held the line against the gnoll elites while her elf friend blasted them with a Wand of Paralyzation until the very last one was left, and the demon teleported onto their rear. The survivors charged, and there was a battle in the room, and Relimi slew the demon in the same instant as it and the gnoll ripped her bodily apart - but Aminadab killed the last of the manes and stood firm while the surviving gnoll elite fled, winning a great victory and earning a lot of XP.
- After this, the party took a town session and ventured North to help the nomadic Cult of the Children of the Horned God hunt out a sorceress and her band of brigands in the service of Yeenoghu, and they did so by filling the castle they resided in with Brown Mold. The sorceress, her apprentice, and a small bodyguard escaped with their lives, while the party discovered her foul formulation for creating Trolls, a corruption and theft of the true flesh-warping power of the demons.
This session they decide to go find whatever it was the sorceress's men were poking around for in the mountains, and they do; an ancient observatory sealed contingent on the 'secret knowledge of the Order of White Sand' or the seal of the Mountain Prince of Hettland. After a bit of looking through their notes, they go back to Ambell and ask the wizard there if he knows about the Order; he tells them that some books came up on the market a few weeks ago about them, and that they were purchased by a man from Getford. The party goes to Getford, finds the sage, persuades him through bribery to let them check out the books, and learn the true name of an Ice Devil, Kazilnek. On the way back to the mountain, they find a little tower with a dungeon beneath (a dysonlogos map i ripped and never keyed, which I hastily decide is the former hideout of the sorceress where she worked on the troll formula.) Exploring the basement underneath they kill two trolls and some skeletons, steal a golden necklace set with jade from a frozen corpse, and spend a lot of time looking for secret doors. The search reveals a hollow space in a corridor, which the party can't figure out how to get into, and a secret panel that's been sealed up with wax emitting a foul scent. Celebrindel, the thief, softens the wax and then pulls the panel free from a safe distance with string, releasing a foul smoke. Inside the room is black muck melted onto the floor, some alchemical glassware, and a rope ladder down into some caves with worgs. That's where we ended the session.