Session 37: Planes Puzzle

Investigating the possible portal in the ruined castle.

Stone hall that goes off into the darkness. Pretty steep. Floor maybe 30 feet down.   Thoradin son of Thorlum goes down via rope. It's dark, but Thoradin can see. Hallway likely collapsed and divides into pathways.   He hears water sloshing. Like a tide.   Cernan Aelar follows. Then Stormy Smoking Mountain and Shimmer follow - the rest too.   Can see reflections on surface of each side. Nothing hiding that we can see.   Right hand rule - we go right. We are up to our ankles. Left or right under water. Thoradin will tie off and swim for 50 feet. Swims back. He wasn’t underwater very long. Then he checks the left side.   *we didn’t check if the tide was out or in! - Can’t tell.   Rope plays out and stops. Strong jerk then nothing. Rope is slack - a frayed end. Cut.

Tie rope around Cernan’s waste.

Roll initiative!  

Fight

  We have split the party. Ugh.   All of the sudden Thoradin lands a Cernan’s feet. Thoradin’s conscious and grab’s Cernan and they are trying to get back out away from the area. Thoradin looks ill and covered in icky slime. He washes off as best he can. “It tried to eat me!”   His skin looks worse for wear.   We make a plan. So Cernan and Thoradin guard the other side so the rest of us can go. But… Cernan takes damage. Grappled and sucked in.   We follow. A tentacle frog thing has Cernan.   (14 is a hit, 13 is not)   Daggers and short swords are good underwater weapons!   Both Thoradin and Stormy get eaten then the frog wretched us up and died.   Out of the water.   Landis raises his hands and slams on the ground and gives us 15 HP. Stormy asks is she can hug Landis.   As far as we can tell - the air pocket we are in is solid.   Rashid casts alarm on both sides.   We roast it, eat, and rest. That was a highly magical creature. We take bits from it. Eyes - magical essence. (Frogemoth)  

Next Day

  Stormy shoots a lightning arrow into the water, doesn’t bring anything up.   We all go.   The huge open chamber with a gate. The key - feather? We all brought one.   Gate activates when put feather to it.   Can’t see well through it. Red on other side.   Everyone through.  

Fire plane

All portals active. Look identical.   Right hand rule. Right hand portal.  

New Plane

Gate closes - the gate can be barely made out.   Stormy makes a great drawing of where the gate is. Rock face, dead tree to left and the river. We should be able to find it again. Mountainous area around the meadow.   Cernan hunts around to see if there are discarded gate keys. Not find anything.   Stormy finds animal signs - recognizes some animals and some not. Any big? What we think are GIANT deer imprints.   Every direction is hills. We go higher to scout- half a day upstream.   ahead we see a perfectly round cave - suspicious!   Thoradin - nothing natural made the cave. We wander closer. Is that a sign?   Throw a pebble in not go far. Stream goes past.   (gathered wood and kindling into the bag of holding)   As we get close. Yellow chalk makes outline. Sign says, “TRAP!”   Thoradin throws a rock at the yellow area. (We back up.)   Sounds hollow and wrong for just ground.  

I attack the sand.

— Mark

  Rashid does a puff of wind away from part of the square. Flat stone slab underneath with an edge. The pushes on it with his staff. It tilts, has a balance point. Push down, Thoradin tries to peek in. 20 ft deep hole with spikes.   Stormy says the sign was for intelligent things to keep the dumb things out. They may not be able to see yellow. And we put things back - Cita even puts the chalk lines back.   Continue down the way, cautiously.   More signs more boxes for traps.   Rashid taps ahead and ground solid.   Ahead - nasty vine. Sign “reach go far”   toss a pebble into the middle of the thing. Then toss frogmeat. Vine whips up and snatches it. Carniverous plants.   Up next - pond is perfectly square. dark and mucky. Slimy vines. Sign “No drink”. Bones in the water.   Next, brass and ceramic tile well. Sign. “Ok drink.”   Stormy takes a sample in her water skin (cheap heal potion). Rashid takes a drink. 3 temp hitpoints.   Stormy says “Thank you to whoever wrote the signs.”   Now bear traps all with chalk mark around them. “Many trap!”   Now a porch with braziers with double door in front of us. No sign. Really nice work. Thoradin’s a little impressed.   Built by one and marked by another?  

Occulus's House Door

Cita listens. Sees rope - bell pull. The porch is CLEAN no footprints.   Thoradin investigates the porch to see how it moves. We don’t think anything moves.   8 feet sized doors.   Cita will pull the rope and we tie a rope to her. She stands to the side.   Pulls once - 1 gong.   Shuffling feet - 1 set. Stormy behind Cita.   “We have guests. Welcome” - a crooked little old man. His skin is white and he has antlers.   “Would you come in?” He’ll get us sustenance.   Rashid - “Who is your master and how may we adress you?”   “I am Mr. Wong.” The master will introduce himself.   In a side room, table w/ chairs. Fresh fruit, breads, meat, etc. He’ll get us beverages.   Stormy eats - different spices, but good.   Been a while since had guests.   Name of this land. Mr. Wong lived in the village before serving here. 183, maybe. Do enjoy.   Cita is not drinking or eating.   Mr. Wong returns after a while.   This area is very ornate. Like Castle of Alador isn’t quite as ornate as this place.   “Sometimes he asks for favors. It has been a while since we had guests. 5-6 months.”   We follow him.   Stormy and Rashid ogle the super ornate library. Stuff everywhere. Not kept up as well as it could be. No windows.   Book piles on the rest. Lizard eyeball thing.   He is a beholder. “My name is Occulus.” He’s dallied in magic.   “Do you have any tomes that I might purchase from you?”   He’s not interested in music.   Rashid offers a tome of lore from our world of Verdenhold. He will give Rashid a crystal for it. This is a DONE deal. 150 gp ruby.   Stormy offers to copy the songs of history. He'll think about it.  

The Deal

Occulus has a favor to ask of us. Retrieve a thing of from his family.  

His cousin was destroyed by Thalmos.

did favor - but has crystal globe with copper iridescence.

- it contains information about his family.

A big giant. Not harm him though.

His cousin - was Orobus.

We are looking for a portal to the outlands.  

with one jump you could be there.

We’ll discuss and he immediately goes into the book he just got.   Rashid thinks there’s more going on.   Sworn enemy of a beholder is a beholder.   Some aspect to it - would it be dangerous to him - likely - so dangerous to us.   Thalmos  

3 valleys to the west.

traverse through 2 passes into this valley.

very large creatures. large deer.

why not want to hurt - soft spot.

if we hurt them - then the deal would be broken.

Size of our head - crystal with a copper essence.   No other consequences - then you won’t know where the gate is   Thalmos- he hordes his treasures. We’ll have to take it by cunning.   His is the cabin closest to this side. He lives alone.

has sent others to spy on his location.

He thinks we have what we need.   Any other giant we encounter is fair game.   Pause there.   Stormy thinks there some relation between the beholders and Carrak.   We need spears. We could make spears - Cita said so.