C2 Session 18: Harpies and Crocodiles Report
General Summary
18th of Anarire 1545 Continued
The party is currently locked in combat with a Mummy that seems to be half snake. Brin uses his axe to cut through space and appear next to the Mummy to attack it but sadly misses. Margaret and Ubek remain stunned by the Mummy's words. The sand that failed to restrain Ubek finally falls still as the wards that hurt Margaret when she cast spells beyond a cantrip flair back to life. The Mummy tries to scare Brin with it's glaze but Brin isn't scared of a snake in bandages and nor can it land a hit on Brin with it's fist. Jamal tries to attack the Mummy with his sword but misses. The Mummy utters more Blasphemous words which stuns Brin and Ubek but has no effect on Jamal. Ana is able to land a blast on the mummy but can't shove it away from her friends while Brin and Ubek is stunned and unable to attack. The mummy uses this opportunity to hit Brin with it's fist and downs him. Margaret uses her Sacred flame the mummy and is successful. Darts come flying out of the walls as the wards go dead. Margaret and Ubek all get hit by darts and are poisoned. The mummy tries to focus on Jamal and hit him but misses. Jamal attacks back while healing Brin, but he misses with the attack as Brin comes round. Ana blasts the mummy and also heals Ubek. Thankfully as Brin comes round and no longer stunned, he is able to destory the mummy before collapsing back down to the ground. The mummy turns to dust and the group... is still alive. Exhausted but alive. They do a bit of healing before getting some rest. However, Ana is restless and isn't interested in resting. Margaret looks around with her. Ana sees the four statues, the throne and sarcophagus and A door hidden by an illusion at the back of the room. Afterwards she goes and pokes the dust from the mummy and freaks out when a scarb crawls out of the remains towards her. After that remaining ones hiding in the dust all run away from Ana. Ana starts running around the room after the scarabs trying to blast them all before they escape. Afterwards everyone sits down for a rest. At 3:30pm the group finishes their rest and the poison works out the system of those who were poisoned in the fight. Ana and Ubek go to deal with the sarcophagus to disable the traps and unlock it. They lift off the lid together. Inside is:- An Urn with a snake head
- A pile of gold and platinum
- 5 gems
- 1 scroll case
- 1 potion in a small box
False Urn A punishment to all those who seek to destroy the mummy lord Mohsas. When opened, the Symbol spell will release the death effect. This resets at the dawn of each day.The group grabs everything from the sarcophagus but leave the urn. Ana thinks there could be 15K gold and platinum each and is sure they're rich. Margaret is pretty sure it would be closer to 6K gold and 2K platinum. Afterwards they head for the secret door. It take a few minutes but they get everyone through the illusion. The room inside is a 20 by 20 room with another door on the other side. There is an altar to one side with a large serpent carved on it. There are incense and bones on it currently. Ana and Brin look over the bones on the alter. Ana has no idea but Brin thinks they might be from more of those kingfisher birds that attacked them but a little smaller. Ana realises it might be dedicated to the Awnshegh serpent. After doing a ritual they see the altar is magical. While Ana identities it a failed check nearly resulted in Ubek getting very hurt by a door trap but thankfully Margaret noticed it. They decide to leave until Ana is done.
Altar of the Serpent All snakes and snake folk within 5 miles are strengthened by this altar. Sacrifices can be made here to grant other boons for snakes or snake folk or banes for other races. Active bane: Swimming difficulty. Anyone swimming will need to spend double movement for all humanoids. All checks in water at disadvantage.With that done, Ana easily disarms the trap and unlocks the door. Using her magic, she smacks Brin in the back of the head as she then tries to unlock the door when he mockingly praises Peter. With the door unlocked, Ana opens it. For a moment believed it was a sharp drop off but there is actually a bridge going out over the water and slowly descending. She currently can't see the other end. To everyone else they can see a beautiful view of the back of the lake and the forest, but a sharp drop off beyond the door. Ana shares what she can see. Just in case they end up in the water, Ana ritually casts water breathing on the party. Ana uses her alchemy jug to slowly pour water out of the jug to show everyone where the bridge is. Ana tries to look back at where they came out of the pyramid. When she does she see that the room they came out of doesn't look like it exists. Due to being able to see through the illusion Ana can half see the extra room that came out and hung out the back of the pyramid. Like a box attached to the back of the pyramid. By 7pm the party descends down into the forest/jungle space. As they look around, confused on where the bridge ends, Brin notices outside the trees, in a circle around the clump of trees there are runes at the base of the trees. Margaret and Ana look them over. Margaret believes they are wards to prevent anyone without snake blood going back into the centre of tree cluster towards the bridge. No sign of anything to stop them leaving. Non-snake creatures trying to force their way in will receive painful repercussions. Margaret shares with the party that if they leave the circle they cannot enter again without problems. They consider trying to damage them but in the end don't. Instead they travel for half an hour to the North on the way to the next ruins before making map. By 7:45pm, after half an hour of walking the sun is setting. Brin has found a mostly sheltered area to rest in as the clouds are getting darker and starting to spit. Margaret puts up the dome for the group. It's started to rain again and the dome is up before it gets too heavy. Once the dome is up, Margaret will ask Ana for some divine guidance so she can send a message about Peter. The first time she casts the spell, it backfires. Margaret’s face begins to shift and morph into a fearsome form, like a demonic wolf. Ubek and Jamal flee into the jungle. Ubek is crying. Ana chases after Ubek and comforts him while the spell is ended. Brin goes after Jamal who is startled when Brin appears on the other side of the tree he is hiding behind. Eventually the group makes their way back to Margaret for her to try again. Apparently the wolf thing really upset Ubek. He's seen people become wolf people before and had to put them down before everyone became a wolf person. He didn't want to do that to Margaret. They give Margaret space for her to try again and this time she does it without issue. Contacting Ana's friend Lily.
Message to Lily: “Ana would like to get a message to her father to say that Peter is currently compromised. Can’t give details. Thank you.” Reply to Margaret: ”The Golden Flame’s emissaries do not shy from danger. Her father may need more details.”The message is conveyed to Ana and she has to explain that Lily's Title or Codename was Osprey since she kind of looks like one, and Ana's father's Title or Codename was Golden Flame. The group figures out watches before getting some rest for the night.
19th of Anarire 1545
Margaret is up for her watch which ends at 5pm. Jamal keeps her company during this time and everyone else gets up at 6am. Jamal tells the group about some smoke he saw overnight that indicated a fire at some point between showers about the size of a campfire in the North East-ish direction. After having some breakfast from their rations, the group heads off. As they travel, the jungle is getting more and more dense, slowing their travel, but they still can continues at the slower pace. Luna can see the ruins they are heading for which is less then an hours walk away. By 7am, they get to the point of being able to see hints of the ruins. There are rotting buildings obscuring the view of a lot of the buildings, a large tower to the NE that can be seen over stone walls and hits of a stone building in the centre of the rotting buildings. To the West is a river with a sandy bank. The group immediately zeroes in on the tower as having the most potential in the ruins. Brin and Luna see among the rotting buildings, a small, burly goblin, dressed in leaves with a necklace of chipped stone around her neck. She is wearing a mask that loosely resembles a dinosaur and a headdress of feathers that denotes her as a goblin of importance. Brin stops the group and retreats back into the treeline to tell them about the goblin. With the likelihood of more being around, they move in a more covered route to the tower. Brin focuses his ki to help them hide in the shadows. Luna is sent to scope out the tower for goblins. Instead she spies a humanoid bird creature at the top on a perch. There are a lot of skeletons on the ground around the tower. There's a hole in the wall on the ground floor that faces the South.
Brin strides out to the guards, who appear to be heavily bitten by insects, immediately introducing himself. They are defensive at first with this random stranger that just comes out of the forest towards them, and in the end just settle for being suspicious of him. They want to know why Brin is out here and where he is from. His vague answers continue to put them on edge. He asks them about the well and they match his energy with vague and unhelpful answers. In the end Brin gets permission to go and speak with the leader of the camp who is apparently heading a dig here.
Meanwhile Margaret identifies the well.
Wishing Well It gives one random feat to someone who throws in a gold coin until they have finished a long rest. If they tell anyone what they got or what the well does, the magic fades for them.Margaret tosses in a coin and also gains the lucky feat.
Brin goes to the tent where he is directed to. When he's allowed in and told to be quick, he asks her all about her expedition and wants to do a knowledge exchange about the area. He points out a few of the places his group has been to and what they have found there. This includes the harpies, the pyramid with the mummy and the treant locations. The leader is drawing throughout their interaction. She shares a bit of information about the site and a cult in the area. They worship the Basilisk (awnshegh) and are looking to try and make a mate for the awnshegh. The leader doesn't really care about the cultist and just wants to look at the ruins, but they make it too dangerous. They have even attacked this camp. They seem to be made of stone, these warriors and still move. Not the traditional turn to stone that a basilisk seems to do to people. Brin suggests the camp come with them to shoo the cultists off together, but the leader doesn't seem to want to leave their current dig. She won't send all her guards or fighters to do such a thing as she doesn't want someone to take this current spot. Brin says he'll talk to his people as he insists the leader talk to her people before he leaves.
He returns to the group and tells the group what he learned. Margaret asks Ana about her dad trying to kill the basilisk. When they agree that they want to check it out, Margaret tries to get Brin to throw in a coin but he is very flippant about the whole thing. Jamal and Ubek do so and get the Defensive Duelist and Slasher feats. In the end they are able to peer pressure Brin into doing it and he gets the durable feat. Brin mentions to the girls about the bug bites for the guards and if they can help them while he goes back to talk to the leader.
The guards are indeed covered in insect bites but they explain they upset a few nests while escorting the group out here and it is not that bad. Just taking a while to heal. They discuss it a little while waiting for Brin.
Brin goes back to find the leader exactly where he left her just minutes before. She is still drawing her maps and so he leaves to rejoin his group. They discuss the fact they don't want to just wait around all day, so Margaret tries to go and talk to her.
Margaret speaks with the leader and learns that the basilisk has been worshipped for a long time. The cultists are new as they have rediscovered this place of worship. They have found large stone eggs in their excavations so far. This has caused the cultists to target the excavation site to retrieve the eggs. She is willing to lend them a few mercenaries but is not willing to put her researches and team at risk to go there. There are three in total. Two are expecting compensation for the more dangerous work and the other is just looking for a fight and to explore. Margaret negotiates that they would get a share of treasure instead of up front payment. She summons the three mercenaries to introduce them. A half elf named Jeriam who looks to be a good scout. A tiefling named Ixandra who looks to be after knowledge . And a blue dragonborn named Tarhun who is looking to explore and fight. While talking with them Margaret convinces them to take the risk and travel with them and get paid in shares. Margaret takes them out and introduces them to the group.
Heading out, Jeriam helps Brin with navigating. At 1:30pm they manage to find the temple in question. They eat on the way and talk a little, trying to get to know the mercenaries. They are solo hires that never met one another before this week. As they approach the bridge, they can see someone has made it out of canvas. As a result it is difficult to traverse as a group. They will need to go one at a time and carefully. Brin goes first across the bridge and makes it to the other side without issue. Margaret goes after and also makes it to the other side. She almost bounces off, but a bit of warmth and internal guidance helps her to right her balance and make it to the other side. She notices a lot of logs in the river that don't move with the stream and suspects they are crocodiles. She warns the others. Ana follows and also has to rely on the guidance she has received for the day to help her do so safely. Jamal and Ubek also make it over without issue. Jeriam is the first of the mercenaries to fall in, which causes the crocodiles to spring into action due to their next meal falling in. There are ten crocodiles with one of them being much larger then the others and white. Ixandra pulls out her crossbow to take a shot at a crocodile while advising Jeriam to swim mighty quickly before carefully starting to make her way across the bridge. Ana immediately starts blasting the crocodiles and easily kills one. One of the crocodiles makes it's way onto the bank with Margaret and tries to bite her but she throws up a quick shield to protect herself. Ubek runs to her defense to attack the crocodile with his rapier. Jeriam swims to the bank where Tarhun is waiting to pull him up. Afterwards Jeriam pulls out a crossbow and readies himself to fire it at anyone that approaches him. This is immediately triggered by the alpha that climbs up to the bank and lets out a mighty roar which cause Ubek, Jamal, Ixandra, and Tarhun to become frightened. Even though Jeriam is not scared of the creature, it does cause him to miss. Meanwhile on the other side of the river a crocodile runs out of the water and up to Ana and Brin. Jamal tries to ignore the large scary alpha by attacking the crocodile that tried to eat Margaret and hurting it with him magic. As a result another crocodile come up behind Jamal and bites down on his leg. On Jeriam, Ixandra and Tarhun's side of the river to the South, a crocodile surges towards Tarhun and bites down on his arm before dragging him into the river. It is quickly joined by another and is ready to play tug of war with Tarhun very soon. Tarhun deals with this the only way he knows how. By booping it on the snoot with his mace. Another gets a hold of Jeriam with the intension of dragging him into the river but had to travel a long way to get to him. Jeriam has no intention of going back in the river. So he pulled out his shortsword and is able to hurt it. Ixandra is terrified and drops all pretences of helping the others as she flees across the bridge to join the Northern party which has greater numbers. The rest of the party is on the Northern side of the river. Brin quickly kills a crocodile with his axe that had hold of Jamal and punches the other one threatening him and Ana. Another crocodile quickly replaces the dead one. Margaret calls down the power of the moon to kill the one that Brin punched before taking out her stuffed owl that looks like Luna. Luna flies over to take the stuffed owl and gives it to Ubek. Another crocodile makes it's way to the bank near Ubek. Ana focuses on trying to help Tarhun out of his predicament. She is able to kill the one that has a hold of him and healing him a little. One of the crocodiles tries to bite Margaret but she uses the moon to influence her fate and cause it to miss as it empowers Jamal. Ubek immediately kills this crocodile that attacks Margaret and overcomes him fear of the large crocodile. Meanwhile, on the Southern side, the alpha comes up behind Jeriam and takes a large chunk out of him that causes him to immediately go unconscious. The alpha starts to drag him towards the water. This causes Ana to be sick at the sight of it. The crocodile that did have hold of Jeriam makes it's way to Tarhun to try and steal that food from another crocodile since the alpha took his. While Tarhun fends off the one with him that tries and fails to bite him. He can't seem to hit it but at least it hasn't bitten him yet. Jamal sees this and gives Brin the ability to fly over and quickly help their new travelling companion. Brin disengages before flying over to try and save Jeriam. He is able to stun it with his axe. Jeriam is clinging to life. Unfortunately on the Northern side a crocodile gets a hold of Ixandra and starts to drag her into the river as she screams. She stabs it twice in quick succession but it remains a live and with a firm hold on her. Margaret recovers her magic before taking on crocodile features with her magic before starting to swim across the river. A crocodile tries and fails to attack Ubek. Ana tries to help Ubek and does blast a crocodile but is struggling with how ill she is feeling. Luna takes the stuffed toy from Ubek and gives it to Jamal. Jamal casts healing word at Jeriam to help him come round and sends his magic at the Alpha to try and help Brin in the fight. This helps him to overcome his fear. To the South side of the river and in the river itself, Tarhun is grabbed by one of the crocodiles surrounding him. Brin continues to attack the alpha and keeps it stunned. On the other side of the bridge but also in the water, Ixandra is pulled deeper into the water as the crocodile continues to bite her. Ixandra and Tarhun try to attack the crocodiles holding them but the current makes it too difficult. Swimming past both of the conflicts in the water, Margaret makes it to the Southern bank and calls down the moon's magic on the pair attacking Tarhun. This takes down one and injures the other. She also takes the time to pull back some of her magic to herself. Jeriam manages to crawl out of the stunned alpha's mouth and stabs it twice while it's stunned. On the North side Ana manages to recover enough to send blasts at the crocodile attacking Ixandra and nearly kills it. Jamal backs her up and takes care of it by finishing it off. Ixandra swims back to the North shore. Ubek fires an arrow at the last crocoddile holding Tarhun and misses. On the Southern side Brin keeps the alpha stunned before killing it. He immediately flies over the water to go and help Tarhun. However Tarhun takes the crocodile down himself. Margaret's new animal nature gets the better of her as she hits the alpha after it has gone down. She digs out the heart and bites it. This causes her to absorb its bloodline and it overtakes the one she already had. She takes a moment to shake off the magics influence on her before sighing. The group all heads to the North shore. Brin helps by flying people over. Margaret takes the time to wash out her mouth by the river before they move into the tree line and find a place to take a moment to rest. This finishes at 2:30pm. Afterwards Brin leads them in going around the perimeter and ensuring the other way in, is through the front door. He uses his ki to muffle their moments and to help them avoid leaving a trace of their presence. There is a separate building around the back with food and supplies, but they cannot use it to get into the main building of the ruins. They circle round to the front and carefully make their way towards the entrance in a flanking manner.
Notes
