Arendel’s Serpent's Skull Journal. (Complete! 06/25/13, With Pictures!)

Delay of Game

Real life scheduling conflicts have delayed this weeks game until the 1st of August, so there will be no update this week. My apologies to any who may be eagerly awaiting the next installment.

Our regular biweekly schedule should pick up from the 1st (Next game would be August 15th.)

Session 14.​

Arodus the 30th (Cont).

Moving on through the flooded mine, we heard a rapping, as of someone tapping, tapping on the ceiling of the cavern. We were then confronted by two more Salt Wights that dropped from the ceiling into the water below. They were quickly dealt with, but apparently they had loosened the stone of the ceiling as it collapsed upon us as we passed beneath. Taraz healed all of our injuries.

Shortly thereafter we arrived at a fork in the tunnel. We followed the narrower tunnel to an area where we found a large contraption used for crushing rock. Two more Wights rose out of the water and attacked. I sent forth a small glowing bead that burst into a huge ball of fire. Mopping up was simple after that. Within the chamber Max found some rough cut diamonds.

We returned to the main tunnel and continued on. We found ourselves in a large flooded chamber with a huge glowing Blue Orb that looked as though it had been cracked open. It sat upon a small island that was slightly off center within the cavern. The island was connected to the path along the edge by a rickety wooden bridge.

N’Ketchi and I both recognized the Orb as a cursed object that travels the planes, causing no end of trouble wherever it appears. Moving onto the island, Max saw two more Wights within the Orb, one female and one male wielding a heavy pick. It would seem we had found Athyra’s parents. I cast an enchantment to Hasten my allies and I must say, seeing Max hastened was quite the sight. He destroyed one, while Taraz and Kay’Es destroyed the other. On one of the corpses we found a silver locket containing the image of a father and child. On the other, we found a silver key. In an attempt to end the curse of the Orb, Taraz and Max used the heavy pick and Max’s hammer to shatter it. We can only hope the destruction of the Orb ends its curse.

Not too far from there, we found two huge iron doors that brought us out of the mine. We found ourselves beyond the hills. We are pleased to find the mine does pass all the way through as this will save time for the caravan that follows.

Athyra was there waiting for us. We gave her the key and the locket, for which she was very grateful. I tried to explain the concept of the deed and the benefits of ownership of the mine and its lands, but the whole idea was so alien to her way of thinking she simply could not grasp it.

I told her of the Pathfinder caravan coming up behind us and warned her that other, not so friendly people may follow and she should be cautious. She offered to scout ahead of us through a portion of the jungle, using the pathfinder sign as a signal that the area was clear of danger. The same symbol with a line through it would mean danger. We accepted this and thanked her, making it clear she was not to put herself in any danger for our sake. We then rested for the night.


Arodus the 31st.

We traveled, noting the occasional markers left by Athyra. Around noon we came across a gathering of sorts. It would seem merchants and other travelers had made a small “tent city” to offer trade and entertainment to all. Off to one side, a man calling himself Rickets was running a cock fight. I refused to have any part of the barbaric practice, but my fellow adventurers quickly made book on their favorite birds. Taraz and Max won a few coins, but when Kay’Es and Ace lost, Rickets demanded ten times the amount they had bet. He gathered a few cronies and threatened Kay’Es. I tried to draw attention to the fact that Max was part of our group, hoping to intimidate them into backing down, but Max was too busy counting and recounting his winnings, which took longer than one might think.

Once trouble started though, Max was quick on the scene, knocking Rickets out with a single blow. His cronies quickly backed down and the issue was resolved. The crowd was quite disappointed the fight was not drawn out, as there wasn’t even time to place odds. Once it was over, Max went to make peace with the men and Taraz offered to heal Rickets. They accepted the offer of peace but refused the healing.

Before moving on, we mingled and talked with many of the travelers to gain knowledge of what might lie ahead. We heard rumors of a great Gorilla King that rules the northern portion of the Mwangi Expanse and many other tales of creatures and tribes of the area.


Rova the 1st.

We were ambushed by a pack of slavers today. It did not go well for them. We found more markers from Athyra, so we know she is still with us. Though I know she has lived out here for some time and knows of the dangers far better than we do, I can’t help but worry about her.


Rova the 2nd.

We came across a native village today. They were quite happy to see us and offered us food and lodging for the night. Seeing them rush out to greet us made me a little nervous. I fear I’m becoming a bit of a pessimist. They held a feast in our honor. Thankfully, we were not the main course, or even dessert for that matter.

We noticed their Shaman, an older woman, was being very standoffish. She did not approach us until evening as we were settling down into a hut we had been offered for the night. She waited outside the door until we invited her in. She then explained to us that her village has fallen under a curse. Villagers have been disappearing in the night, taken by an evil spirit. She suggested that we might be the ones to help lift the curse and asked that we try. Her plan was quite simple. She would paint the doorway with an unguent that would draw the spirit to our hut and we would attempt to defeat it. I thought a better plan would be to paint the doorway to an empty hut that we could see from our doorway, but she claimed there were no others available.

That night, not one, but two large bear-like creatures attacked our hut. N’Ketchi called them Chemosits. Ace summoned a crocodile that ravaged one of the creatures along with Max while the rest of us focused on the other. It was a tense battle, but we were victorious.


Rova the 3rd.

The Shaman and the rest of the villagers have hailed us as heroes and another great feast was held to break our fast. The Shaman presented us with two gifts. One was a shrunken monkey head that can be used to dispel evil spirits. The other was a map that she claims leads a shipwreck on the Lake of Vanishing Armies that is said to contain ingots of gold. We make ready to move on once more, though I have asked if there is someone skilled enough to make a Chemosit cloak for Max. There is. He will be quite happy with it, I expect.

Trouble

We got out of the mine. It didn't seem like that big a place?....but I guess that the miners probably didn't need a big mine to find salt. Dead miners are saltier than sailors....

We met the girl with less big words than me again. She seems nice. Kay Es lost gambling at a merchant camp, I had to knock someone out for still being willing to threaten the group even if it meant I'd help, that's just insulting.

Then we found a native village. We killed some huge bears. It takes me a few minutes to wake up in the middle of the night...I couldn't hit the broadside of a bear when I first woke up, thankfully the crocodile was on our side. The villagers gave us a shrunken monkey head! Apparently it has a spell in it, and I can't have it until we've used it up, but then it's TOTALLY mine. Also the people of the village told us about an Ape king with flying monkeys!!! Those sound awesome!!! I can't wait to fight one!

Oh well, hopefully soon we can get to more things to fight. Hopefully with better stuff to take!!

Ok. So, I’m running a little late with the end of session report because of my vacation in the great outdoors, but I’m back now…

As Max mentioned, the Mine was resolved pretty quickly. Obviously, it was a short chapter in the adventure, but also (I think) partly due to Sosanso doing a great job keeping the game moving.

The cock fight (with the players running each bird) and encounter with Rickets was a fun aside. I thought it was cool that it was resolved so quickly and easily (no “9th level Commoner” to make the combat worthy of a 5th level party). One hit, showing our (or at least Max’s) strength and the toughs back down. It’s good to let the players feel how they’ve grown in power from time to time.

The Slaver encounter had more of the feel of a random encounter. The village was interesting however and good for a few laughs.The Shaman was standing outside our door and N’Ketchi told us she would not enter without being invited, Arendel quickly just blurted out, “Oh please come in!” Immediately after saying that my OOC brain kicked in and thought, “Oh crap! She’s a Vampire!” Luckily, she wasn’t. Arendel was not a big fan of her plan though. At least it worked out, though Max’s dice weren’t awake for the first three rounds or so of combat.

Oh, and Haste is Awesome.

The game is on for tonight, hope to have the next update by Thursday.

Rova the 3rd (Cont).

We were ambushed by five rogues today. All wore amulets with the mark of Acheakek. It would seem the Red Mantis Assassins have interests in this region. We captured and questioned one, but he had nothing to say to us. Before I could interject, Max strangled the assassin with the chain from his own amulet. I can’t help but feel Acheakek would be pleased at the failed assassin being killed with the chain that bore his symbol. Altogether dreadful, I must say.

We also came across the body of a native that had been killed by a large predator. N’Ketchi could not identify the tribe. We buried him and said a few words over his grave.


Rova the 4th.

We have entered the plains region now, headed almost due east toward Kalabuto. We came across another corpse being ravaged by two Cockatrice. We were able to kill them quickly before any of us were affected by their petrifying touch. The body was that of a Half-Orc with a tattoo that is common among pirates from the Shackles. I can’t help but wonder what a pirate might be doing out here in the middle of the plains. It did bring to mind our former companion and fellow survivor Aerys however.

Late in the day, we came across one of Athyra’s marks warning us of danger. We backtracked and spent the night. As we we’re settling down, we were attacked by a large lion. I wonder if this is the creature that killed the tribesman we found. Perhaps it had been stalking us for some time.


Rova the 5th.

Beyond Athyra’s mark we found a region infested with Ankhegs. Their acidic saliva and their ability to burrow made it a challenging encounter. We also came across the body of an agent of the Sargavan government being mauled by a tiger. We defeated the creature and noted that the Sargavan government probably hasn’t lost its interest in our project.


Rova the 6th.

N’ketchi tells us we are about two to three days from Kalabuto. We were attacked by large vultures. We left their bodies as food for the smaller ones.


Rova the 7th.

Though it was an uneventful day, I look forward to my return to civilization, even if just for a short time.


Rova the 8th.

We came across a burnt tree with the bodies of Colonials hanging from the branches and also scattered around the trunk of the tree. N’Ketchi felt great evil from the area and the dead started to twitch and rise. A fireball did a fair job at clearing the way. I am a little concerned at this obvious display of hatred by the local citizens.

Late in the evening we finally arrived at Kalabuto. Before leaving Eleder, Amivor had told us of our contact, a Dwarf named Cheiton. We were to meet him at a local Tavern. We found him and verified his identity by a tattoo on his arm marking him as a former slave. He informed us we could stay at his house for the evening and warned us to keep a low profile. We will do our best, but we do have gear to sell and equipment to buy.

Arendel?
I think I'm too tall to keep a low profile....what do I do?

Arendel: “It’s OK Max, I’m short enough to lie low. You can hide behind me.”

{Max rolls Stealth}

A very combat intensive session. We were moving quickly, but that was due to the fact that it was also a Player Light session. We had 2 players and a DM for this session. Luckily we had Ace’s Character Sheet (Complete w/ Kay’Es), though I think we would rather have had the Oracle’s Character Sheet. Luckily N'Ketchi took up the slack as the healer. There have been some pretty significant life changes with a few of our players, so we may have to shuffle our game day around and/or add some new players. We’ll see how it all works out.

In any event we did a lot of traveling and finally made it to Kalabuto! Now to sell, restock and get on with our journey. Which reminds me, I gotta get the list together so hopefully we can do the buy/sell thing by e-mail…

Session 16.​

Rova the 9th.

We were busy this morning buying and selling equipment and materials. We bumped into Chumba today in the market. She has joined back with us for a time. At one point we were approached by a small girl named Edju selling dolls made from corn husks. Max bought a couple for a silver coin (five times more than she was asking).

That night we were attacked by assassins in Cheiton’s home! I awoke to find an intruder trying to stab me with a poisoned short sword. Luckily, I had heard him opening the window and was not completely caught off guard. I turned invisible and, when my opponent left the room, followed him out into the main hallway. There, I found each of my companions under attack as well. To balance the odds I cast Haste upon all of my allies.

As the tide started to turn, the few remaining assassins tried to flee. N’Ketchi pursued one down the stairs while Max followed another right out the second floor window. I could tell by the sound he didn’t land well, so I ran to Chumba and cast Fly upon her. Though they didn’t realize it yet, our opponents were doomed. With a Hasted Max and a Raging, Hasted and Flying Chumba after them, there was no chance of escape. Upon their bodies we found pendants marking them as agents of the Aspis Consortium. It seems our enemies are keeping at least one step ahead of us.


Rova the 10th.

We left early in the morning from Kalabuto. We thought it best to move on quickly after the attack in Cheiton’s home. Since we will pass the Lake of Vanishing Armies, we have decided to put the treasure map we got from the Shaman to good use.


Rova the 11th.

No encounters today. We arrived at the lake late in the afternoon. Small settlements of local fishermen are scattered around the lake. We spoke to a few of the locals and they warned us of a creature they called “Aomak”, the Monster of the Lake. We made arrangements for one of the fishermen to bring us to the site marked on our map early the next morning.


Rova the 12th.

As we rowed out to the area marked on the map, it occurred to me we should have paid some of the locals to chum the water somewhere far from here. When we arrived at the site, N’Ketchi cast Water Breathing upon all of us and reminded us we only had three hours to explore underwater. Luckily, the fisherman’s familiarity with the region was a great boon as he had brought us to a point almost on top of the wreck. We quickly discovered that Aomak had decided to make his home in this wreck. Faced with the challenges of fighting under water, Max and Chumba decided to use daggers instead of their signature weapons. They were still quite effective. I made good use of Magic Missile as it is quite difficult to use magical fire underwater. On the wreck we found an iron chest filled with gold.


Rova the 13th.

Back on the trail toward where we hope to find Tazion. Nothing of interest to report so far.


Rova the 14th.

We came across a river junction today where we were attacked by natives. I had hoped we would avoid conflict with the natives, but as they opened fire with their bows, we were forced to defend ourselves.


Rova the 15th.

We approach the screaming Jungle. The loud monkeys populating the tree tops screech incessantly. I hope they stop at night or we will never rest within the bounds of this place.


Rova the 16th.

The monkeys were getting on my nerves, but now I think I have reached a point where it is just background noise. I expect the rest of the world will seem quite silent once we leave this region.


Rova the 17th.

A group of Lizard-Folk attacked us today. They spooked a Hippopotamus and it charged toward us. The Lizard-Folk didn’t live long enough to see the results of their work, as they quickly perished in my retaliatory Fireball. Max and Chumba quickly defeated the poor Hippo.

We ran into a group of local Shaman in the early evening. They seemed to recognize N’Ketchi and also bore the mark of Gozreh. We visited for a short time and then moved on, as we always travel for a few hours after sundown to make up for the time we rest during the hottest part of the day.

The 3 PCs are as follows:

Arendel Whisperson – Human Fire Elemental Wizard 6 (Abciximab)
Max “Little” Hammer – Human Fighter/Rogue 3/3 (Peteinmaine)
Chumba Wumba – Human Barbarian 5 (Gretchen)
N’Ketchi – Human Cleric 6 (NPC)

A lot of Race, not much Ruin…

We are down a few players (the group may see some significant changes in the roster soon), but Chumba was able to put in a brief appearance. Ace should be back next time, Taraz… is in limbo at the moment.

It was supposed to be a quick stop in Kalabuto to sell loot and restock our supplies and then set off once more. It went almost as planned.

Attacked by Assassins in our sleep, those Scoundrels! My first use of Fly was very effective. I don’t think I had mentioned my new spells at that point, so it was a pleasant surprise for our team (Not so much for Team Assassin). Our Fort Save crew was not rolling very well that night, though it doesn’t come across in the Journal. Both Max and Chumba failed at least one (I think Chumba actually failed 2, prompting Arendel to spend a full round action to administer an Antitoxin) Fort save during this encounter, while the Fort impared Wizard actually made his (Though, admittedly, I was on the defensive for pretty much the whole fight, suffering just the one attack in the opening round).

Having received the message loud and clear, we took off the next morning. Yet another Treasure Hunt. Wow, that makes 2 in my long RPG experience and both are in the same AP. We were concerned about losing a day, but in the end I think we all agreed it was worth it.

The trip through the screaming jungle so far is… different (Screaming Monkeys anyone?). Then an encounter with Lizard-Folk and an irate hippo to top it off. The remaining portion of our journey will be just as… unique, I expect.

Session 17.​

Rova the 18th.

Today we encountered another group of four Aspis Consortium Agents. I can only assume they are scouring the jungle in an attempt to eliminate us, given their actions in Kalabuto. As long as we have Max around, I think they’ll really need to up their recruiting standards.

Later in the day we encountered four aggressive gorillas. One ran off once its three companions were slain. We let it go, as we were not too concerned with hunting down wild animals.


Rova the 19th.

I must record a rather odd occurrence. At first we thought we were being attacked by yet another gorilla, or perhaps even the same one that got away yesterday. When we killed it, a Shadow Demon leapt out of the animal and attacked us. It would seem the poor gorilla was possessed by this demon.

There was a little confusion as we tried to adjust to this new development. I somehow ended up at the bottom of a pit that was magically created by Ace. Max called down, reminding me of the Shrunken Monkey Head we had received from the female Shaman that I still carried. I activated its Dispel Evil ability and cast Fly upon myself. Flying up out of the pit, I approached the foul creature and touched it to discharge the spell. In a foul cloud of smoke the creature disappeared, instantly returned to its own plane by the power of the shrunken monkey head. (There's a phrase I never imagined I would write.)

Max reminded me that he wanted the now non-magical shrunken monkey head. I have my suspicions that his eagerness to own this little oddity was part of the reason he encouraged me to use it. Not that its use wasn’t appropriate to the situation of course, it was just a little surprising that Max, of all people, remembered what its powers were in the first place. There was also some speculation about whether the Shadow Demon might have been another trap laid by our enemies.


Rova the 20th.

More travel, no trouble. The howling monkeys have become just a bunch of background noise to us.


Rova the 21st.

I’m not sure which days are worse, the days we run into hostile creatures or the days we don’t. We continue our slog through the jungle.


Rova the 22nd.

N’Ketchi “entertained” us with a story today. He told us of two races of creatures that live in this area, the Biloko and the Eloko. Savage little humanoids that hunt and eat anything, or anyone, they can catch and kill. Apparently they are small bipedal creatures that can grow to giant sized in an instant. They paint their bodies with red clay and their faces as skulls with white paint. N’Ketchi tells us they often lure their victims with a magical bell that enchants any who hear it and draws them toward the source.


Rova the 23rd.

This morning we passed a trail where, judging from the tracks, a native was tracking a boar. We moved on.

Around midday we were engulfed in a swarm of horrid little insects called Bot Flies. As our weapons were of no use against them, the members of our party scattered. Max went so far as to run into the swift moving river to avoid them. We warned him of the possibility of Candiru Fish and I think he may have started to doubt the degree of safety the river was providing him.

Luckily my magical fire was quite effective against the swarm of flies and it was quickly disbursed. Max emerged from the water unscathed and immediately started an earnest conversation with N’Ketchi about precautions the locals might take against the Candiru.

Later in the day, we ran into a large tiger. Though it savaged Max when it sprung out of the brush, I think the encounter with the Bot Flies actually bothered him more. After the encounter, N’Ketchi healed him back to peak fighting form.

That evening we heard the sound of bells a short distance away in the jungle. There was just the one occurrence and nothing entered our camp.


Rova the 24th.

We heard the bells again this morning, but once again, nothing approached.

We also encountered another swarm of Bot Flies. This time, poor Max was infested with the little egg laying creatures. Once again, I burned the swarm away, but N’Ketchi had to cure Max’s infestation.

This evening we heard the bells once more and this time Max was enchanted. We decided now was as good a time as any to confront these troublesome little creatures. We watched as Max approached the source of the sound with a glassy look on his face. I almost felt sorry for the little buggers as they were only drawing in their own doom. I spotted one trying to sneak up behind us and, as we sprang into action, he grew to three times his normal size.

Max broke free of his enchantment as two more Eloko sprang forth, grew large and then attacked him. We made short work of them. Hopefully no more of them will bother us as we continue our travels. We recovered a rusty iron bell from one of them. Max has decided to keep it as a souvenir.