Thursday, October 17, 2024

Session 87 – “A real life secret door”

Alternative titles

  • “The quasit-periscope”

  • “I can’t ride humans”

  • “You were almost killed by a pumpkin-beaver”

  • “First, lets kill Chris”

  • “I have an oily bag of oily muffins”

Location(s)

  • Swamp

  • Laserkeep

The party

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Nigel (dwarven fighter)

  • Oriana (dwarven fighter)

XP

  • 26

Treasures

  • None

Summary

  • We saw a green light in the distance

    • Followed the light which lead into the swamp

  • Entered the swamp

    • Avoided various large groups of lizard people and undead

    • Found a ruined keep in the swamp

    • Green light originates from inside the keep

    • Keep christened “Laserkeep”

    • Keep surrounded by swamp and river

      • Two consecutive bridges leading to keep

  • Saw a white light in the distance

    • Approached it but it retreated

  • Approached the first bridge

    • Several figures were there

    • Turned out to be undead

    • The white light had started following us

    • Fought the undead and the white light (a will-o’-whisp like creature)

    • Fight almost ended badly

  • Nigel wanted to see what was under the bridge

    • Nothing was there

    • DM spoiler: We were so lucky!

  • Crossed both bridges and approached the keep

    • Lots of lizard people in the front

    • Retreated to a find a safe place to rest

Thursday, September 5, 2024

Session 86 – “I did not expect the hobgoblin Red Cross”

 Map of the orc cave



Alternative titles

  • “The whitespace saved us”

  • “To be rootly disturbed”

  • “The oversnack problem”

Location(s)

  • Cult cave (upstairs)

  • Orc cave

The party

  • Dan (human ranger)

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Gaorin (human fighter)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Nigel (dwarven fighter)

  • Ryan (half-elven thief)

  • Valis (elven fighter)

XP

  • 111

Treasures

  • 1 copper bowl

  • 2 black gems

Summary

  • We camped in the owlbear cave

    • During the night the roots started to encroach

    • Saw the orcs and gnolls gets wiped out

  • Met up with surviving hobgoblins in ravine

    • Formed an alliance to defeat the source of this evil

  • Returned to the cult cave

    • Started to shoot down the roots protecting the source

    • Eventually started to attack the source directly

    • The source exploded at some point

    • Several of us were unconscious

    • Moved back to the outside

    • The corrupted trees seemed to have withered

    • Hobgoblins left us and returned to their cave

  • Camped again in the owlbear cave

    • Saw the hobgoblins loot the gnoll cave

  • Went to the orc cave to loot it

    • Besides of a trap and some centipedes, the cave was abandoned

Friday, August 23, 2024

Session 85 – “Which turns Siegfried into Digfried”

 


Alternative titles

  • “The triangle of warning”

Location(s)

  • Cult cave (upstairs)

The party

  • Bob (human cleric)

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Oriana (dwarven fighter)

  • Ryan (half-elven thief)

  • Valis (elven fighter)

XP

  • 16

Treasures

  • None

Summary

  • Bob and Ryan reached the ravine

    • Brought Oriana with her

    • She is sister of Kaya

    • Had travelled with the other dwarves we met at the keep

  • Inspected markings in ravine

    • Wanted to destroy them

    • Mostly gone because of weather though

  • Went into cult cave to destroy altar

    • Initially resisted our dwarves

    • After casting Bless onto it, we could destroy it

    • Moved the rubble out of the cave

    • Seemed to have done nothing

  • Encountered another faery which fled

    • Later found a dead faery in the cave near the place we found the first one

  • Camped in the cave near the place we found the first faery

    • Saw some glowing red dust

    • Got attacked by vampire-chicken-thingies at nightmare

    • Relocated camp to abandoned scribes chamber

  • Next day tracked the dust towards the collapsed corridors

    • Somehow couldn’t touch the dust with our hands

    • Excavated the corridor (took some days)

  • Went into the dark tunnel behind

    • Full of tree sap

    • Fought some rats

    • Sap tried to eat Dernard and managed to eat Kaya

    • Is it really sap, or slime?

    • Fired magic missiles at sap which retreated

    • Valis and Ryan scouted ahead

    • Found a room full of roots and sap

      • Seem to cover something (a cocoon?)

  • Left the cave to return to the hobgoblins

    • Planned to get reinforcements to fight the thing in the cocoon

  • The trees near the ravine started attacked

    • The hobgoblin cave was cut off, couldn’t reach it any more

    • Saw an orc getting dragged away

    • Session ended with a cliffhanger here

 

Tuesday, August 20, 2024

Session 84 – “The ground that eats you”

 


Alternative titles

  • “The triangle of peace”

  • “There is also a triangle of war”

  • “Kayas denial: The dogs are fat”

  • “The trauma is real”

  • “You poked the bear”

  • “My rod stiffens up in the morning”

  • “They die twice”

  • “I’m trying to trick the stone”

  • “Memory lane”

  • “Who let the dogs out?”

  • “4 players, 2 dogs, 9 hobgoblins and 7 gnolls walk into a bar”

  • “Chefsache”

Location(s)

  • The keep

  • Bloated forest (near ravine)

  • Dangerous cave

  • Hobgoblin cave

  • Cult cave (up and downstairs)

The party

  • Dan (human ranger)

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Valis (elven fighter)

XP

  • 162

  • XP for sessions 65, 66, 67, 68, 78 and 79 was handed out

Treasures

  • Bronze goblets (2), shallow bowl and ewer from cult altar room

  • Silver chain from gnoll

  • Silver armbands from gnoll

  • Bag of gems from skeleton in secret passage

Summary

  • Kaya tried to hire dwarves at the keep to rebuild ours

    • We left before we could get an answer

  • Traversed the bloated forest to the ravine

    • Discovered animals (most of them dead) captured by the trees

    • The ground tried to capture one of our dogs

    • Saw a tree burst and lots of sap come out

    • Sap dripped on Dernard, started to itch, washed it off with cooking oil

    • Got attacked by a shadow

  • Went to the dangerous cave to camp there

    • Fought off an undead owlbear

    • Stayed a few nights to recover from the fight

  • Met the hobgoblins

    • They can’t go hunt because of the changed forest

    • Reformed our alliance

    • Planned an expedition with the hobgoblins into the cult cave

    • Got attacked by shadows on the way there that dragged people away

  • Revisited the whole upper cult cave

    • Found a dead faery (Kaya burned it)

    • Kaya tried to trick the evil altar, but wasn’t able to

  • Revisited the lower cult cave

    • Encountered a gelatinous cube

    • Found a secret passage leading to a room full of gnolls

    • Lured the gnolls into an ambush with our hobgoblin allies

    • Still got almost killed

  • Returned to the hobgoblin cave

Tuesday, August 6, 2024

Session 83 – “Rotten bear underwear”

 

Alternative titles

  • “I show you mine, you show me yours”

  • “Dan and the dogs”

  • “Don’t eat the undead soup”

  • “I don’t want them slurping undead bone marrow”

Location(s)

  • Bloated forest (near ravine)

  • The keep

The party

  • Dan (human ranger)

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Gaorin (human fighter)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Nigel (dwarven fighter)

XP

  • 24

Treasures

  • None

Summary

  • Met Gaorin who had followed us from the desert

  • Returned to Shackle keep for a while

  • Went towards the ravine to talk to the hobgoblins

  • Encountered a bunch of bloated trees

    • Trees were twisted and oozed red sap

    • Like the ones we had seen at the ravine

    • But there were much, much more

  • Encountered a group of undead knights of the empire

    • Assumed this somehow related to the spread of the trees

  • During night encountered an undead bear

    • Camped away from the trees, so the undead seem to wander

  • Returned to the keep

    • Wanted to warn them about the trees and things happening at the ravine

    • Still were not allowed to return to the keep, our exile persists

  • Learned what had happened at the keep

    • Keep is still being repaired and extended

    • The old castellan was replaced by Lord Tarquin

    • Captain Valizar is in charge of the safety of the keep

    • The old guard captain is still around

  • Started to make plans what to do next

Friday, August 2, 2024

Session 82 – “He is going to loot himself”

Map of Amon-ra's tomb (level 2)

 

Map of Amon-ra's tomb (level 3)

 

Map of Amon-ra's tomb (level 4)

 

Map of Amon-ra's tomb (level 5)



Alternative titles

  • “Lets go over the edge”

  • “It’s an awesome death! You were killed by a pineapple”

Location(s)

  • Tomb of Amun-ra (levels 2-5)

The party

  • Bob (human cleric)

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Nigel (dwarven fighter)

  • Ryan (half-elven thief)

  • Valis (elven fighter)

XP

  • 189

Treasures

  • 1 staff (magic, transforms into snake)

  • 1 gem

Summary

  • Level 2

    • Continued to explore the second level of the tomb

    • Eventually found two minotaurs, one got killed, the other one fled

    • Through a hole in the ceiling we managed to climb up to level 3

  • Level 3

    • Found a giant statue with a (fake) gem stone

    • Ryan took the stone and the statue started to scream

    • Fought some undead

    • Discovered a waterfall that healed us (1d10)

    • Explored a bit before returning to the waterfall

    • Found an octagonal room behind the waterfall

      • It had palm trees with strange looking “pineapples”

      • The pineapples exploded

      • Activated four altars (speaking the magic words of the altars “Tur”, “Log”, “Reg” and “Neg”)

      • Reversed gravity and flew up to level 4

  • Level 4

    • Found a huge hall with stairs

    • Walked up the stairs and faced various challenges

      • Two figures we had to fight

      • A wall of fire (we drenched blankets in water and jumped through)

      • Mirror copies or ourselves (Valis was very happy to kill “Nigel”)

      • A giant fist. Ryan jammed it’s mechanism so it couldn’t move

    • Found a room with a waterfall

      • A voice asked us some questions

      • We answered correctly and the waterfall reversed

      • We swam up the waterfall to level 5

  • Level 5

    • Found a room with a reed boat and a painting on a wall

    • In the next room we found a sarcophagus

      • We burned the mummy inside, because we didn’t want to fight it

    • Found a magic staff (turns into a snake)

    • Discovered the painting in the room before was magical and we could walk through

    • There was a flying boat with a gem

    • Using ropes we managed to get to the boat and get the gem

    • Kaya took the staff and the gem; and abandoned us for a while

  • Taking the staff and the gem broke the curse of Amun-ra

    • We were allowed to use the flying boat to return to the pyramid tomb and return to Lake Flake

Monday, July 29, 2024

Session 81 – “Shacklekeep Stories II: This is the most average squirrel there is”

Alternative titles

  • “A little pissing on the smouldering remains of your enemies”

  • “But it is cleric piss”

  • “How big is the squirrel? Squirrel sized!”

Location(s)

  • Squirrel Square

The party

  • Bob (human cleric)

  • Dernard (human magic user)

  • Kaya (dwarven fighter/cleric)

  • Valis (elven fighter)

XP

  • 183

Treasures

  • 3 tiger eye gems

  • 1 sceptre

Summary

  • Valis saw a lady ghost

    • When he told us about her, she was already gone

  • One month later the lady ghost was back

    • We followed her, but got interrupted by a troll

    • So we lost sight again

  • Another month later we saw her again and followed her

    • She lead us to a place with a stone block (an altar?) and four “angel” statues on top of some pedestals

  • Found a sleeping squirrel

    • Kaya placed it on a tree so it wouldn’t get hurt

  • Pedestal 1: Acid pool trap

    • Magic wall you can walk through

    • Shaft going downwards

    • Slimy handholds

    • Pool of water at the bottom with a metal plate at the bottom

    • “Water” is acid

    • Maybe there is a slime monster inside (it might be dead already)

    • Nothing of value could be found

  • Pedestal 2: Locked room trap

    • Small locked room in the pedestals

    • Found a skeleton and some tiger eye gems

    • Kaya got locked in for a moment, but from the outside the door could be opened

    • Took the skeleton with us to give it a proper burial

  • Pedestal 3: Slide trap

    • Four keyholes that didn’t do anything

    • Were just able to open a door

    • At the bottom was another door

    • Touching the floor created a slide

    • Managed to enter the door

    • Found three rooms

      • One was empty

      • One had a sceptre (taken by Valis)

      • One had an almost completely empty vial (taken by Dernard)

    • After taking the things this rooms collapsed

  • Pedestal 4: Another trap?

    • One keyhole

    • Couldn’t pick it, so tried to break it open

    • Weren’t able though and just attacked some displacer beasts

    • Killed one of them before the others fled

    • In the mouth of the statue above was something (a half-sphere with a hole)

    • Maybe there is a trap that would have been triggered by picking the lock?

  • Under the altar: Blade trap with illusions

    • Pushed the altar away

    • Lots of blades, some visible others triggered by unseen wires

    • Saw gold and firelight down

    • Threw a log down to break the blades and wires

    • Dasid went down, but the gold and light was gone, the room was empty

    • It was just an illusion

Session 87 – “A real life secret door”

Alternative titles “The quasit-periscope” “I can’t ride humans” “You were almost killed by a pumpkin-beaver” “First, lets kill Chr...