Heather Under Moonlight

09/09/26, Tuesday group

yes there is still a saturday group; they killed some holdmen in a trading post.

In the basement of the ruined tower from last time, Nissa slays eight worgs with a fireball. The party then abandons the little sealed secret room (yes there is no door, yes there's good loot in there, good luck with that one nissa c;) and heads up to the observatory. On the way they pass by a little stone Imperial bridge. They correctly surmise that there's a troll underneath and fireball it from maximum range; it charges to contact and gives Sibilwynn a nasty walloping before being torn apart and the body burned.

The small village of eighty people and eight hundred sheep they pass through thereafter is suitably impressed with the party's victory over the wolves and troll that had been menacing them; they mention some 'mountain people' who allegedly had been stealing sheep and stuff from them, but the party declines to investigate and continue on their mission. They purchase some sheepskins for "a silver coin each... no, a gold coin!" to brace themselves against the weather and continue on their mission. This turns out to have been the right choice; they're delayed ascending the mountains by the last heavy snowfall of Autumn, but take no damage because of their extra furs.

At the observatory gate, they speak the secret name - KAZILNEK - of the ice devil slain by the Order of White Sands. Unbeknownst to them, in the stones nearby, an invisible quasit takes flight. Beyond the black stone doors is a huge antechamber with a titanic silver statue and a shifting geometric structure on the ceiling; like white-rimmed black tiles shifting over and under each other. Celebrindel hurls a rock at it and discovers that it's actually like fifty fucking giant centipedes. The party makes their saves for the most part, but Sibilwynn is bitten three times and reduced to 0 HP before the party kills the centipedes with oil. There are two exits from the room, an archway and a door.

Celebrindel examines what's beyond the archway; a room with a fountain full of contaminated water and doors in each wall. Her sword has a bad feeling about the archway, and they decide to try the door, which opens on a corridor terminating in a statue in an alcove covered with more giant centipedes. The party kill the centipedes, check out the statue; it's a hunchbacked woman with a quill and tablet. The tablet has a piece of paper on it with an incomplete sentence:"Swear before the Goddess that you have duly brought the Southern maps, as”

They look right and see a nearly-invisible transparent spiderweb blocking the way, so go left and find another, untrapped door into the fountain room. Off here they find some offices, which contain some maps of the local area, a scrap of a map of this area of the dungeon, and an iron key. Relimi uses the Find Traps ability of the eye of Iactus and finds another such spiderweb over the archway. They take a sample of the polluted water for later use. Beyond the fountain room is a tight squeeze through a collapsed passageway, which could make it difficult to retreat; the party elects to try the way that was blocked with a web. Relimi Dispels it, and it vanishes. Beyond here is a series of other empty rooms; a kitchen with a silver key, a surgery room with a mirror above the door and an impressionistic painting of the empty room, and a barracks-room in a little alcove. As they investigate these, a giant spider that had apparently been hiding this whole time on the ceiling tries to bite Nissa, but is instantly killed in a single round of attacks.

Celebrindel listens at the door of the next room they find and hears soft, genuine laughter beyond. Sibilwynn detects evil on the far side and opens the door; she sees a four-poster bed with silhouettes of four lovers against the white, drawn curtains, and a cabinet with a mirror reflecting a log cabin. Sibilwynn advances to the bed and opens the curtains, finding four shadows; the party wins initiative and Relimi turns them. The party investigates the mirror and touches it with a 10' pole; when it doesn't pass through, they remove the mirror and it returns to being a normal mirror. Behind it is a knothole containing a tiny little golden key.

The party then heads through a locked door into a room with a skeleton, a book with ink spilled on it, and a bunch of wet, damaged books in a cabinet. They pass through this room without event, up a corridor, and listen at the door of a large library; they hear something like two creatures circling with vines dragging on the ground. Someone suggests that it might be an octopus; the party discusses if anyone knows what an octopus is. The thief's sword, which was in the navy, says that it could be someone dragging an octopus on the ground.

Inside is two creatures like enormous brains with ten tentacles each. The party, which opened the door just a crack, shuts it again. After some discussion they gather some rocks and Nissa uses Phantasmal Force to create an illusory ceiling collapse and kill the brain-creatures. They go into the library and gather up the thirty books still intact; Benoit, the hench-cleric, opens one and is blasted with Explosive Runes, knocking him unconscious. After healing him, the party discovers that there's 29 regular books and the spellbook of a 10th-level M-U. That's where we ended the session!

MY THOUGHTS

I'm still thinking about what sites from my campaign would be good to enter for Adventure Site Contest IV. I think it'd be cool to compete this year. A cut-down version of this level was in consideration, but it might have been too empty, and with too many vermin. The empty rooms were good; I think that it has a certain charm to it, a little bit of a creepy vibe. One elf is not a very efficient passive secret door radar - I don't want to say how much stuff the party has missed, but it's not a small amount. Being said, a fun session and everyone had a good time I think. :) good luck next week!