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

End of Session 45.​

Whew. Sorry for the lag between updates, Enworlds been giving me a lot of trouble since they started upgrading. It keeps crashing on older versions of Netscape (where I do most of my work, there are no options for upgrade). Ah well. I do have session 46 rough draft and it should be posted this weekend. Due to the combat heavy session it will be short.

Session 46.​

Neth the 27th

There was some debate over where we should Teleport when we left Thousand Fangs. Should we return to Izon to let him know we completed his task, or to the Pathfinders to reequip? Quickly realizing there was no real incentive to letting Izon know we had done his dirty work, we returned to the Pathfinders.

The next morning Juliver asked us about Selennia. Apparently Selennia had told her she was returning to Thousand Fangs with us. We assured her this was not the case and everyone agreed her story and the circumstances of her “imprisonment” were extremely suspicious. None of us were surprised to hear she was missing once more. Selennia (whoever she really is) has probably done her best to return to whomever she serves. We suspect we will meet her again, one way or another.

We returned to Thousand Fangs, well aware that the entire garrison must be aware of our infiltration. We picked up pretty much right where we left off. Opening a pair of grand double doors, we found ourselves on a triangular balcony overlooking a large room that reminds me of an arena. In the middle was a stone building, decorated in the ever present serpent motif with high steps leading up to a a pair of doors. Within the arena we encountered two Greater Cyclops. We quickly defeated these two huge creatures, just as the doors to another balcony opened and a number of Serpent-Folk archers stepped out.

Once we dealt with all the obvious threats, we made our way out to the stone building and entered through the doors. Within we encountered a number of Serpent-Folk, including guards, officers, an Iron Golem and a “Pure” Serpent-Folk, probably a General. He proved quite tough and was able to escape us by Teleporting away. The combat took some time and consumed a significant amount of our resources. We have decided to once again, delay our attempts at rescuing Kline and return to the Pathfinder Camp.

The PC’s Are

Arendel Whisperson – Human Fire Elemental Wizard 15 (Abciximab)
Max “Little” Hammer – Human Fighter/Rogue/Brabarian 10/4/1 (Peteinmaine)
Ka’Azbu - Human Ranger 13 (Dave)
Acemodius and Kay Es – Tiefling Summoner 14 and his Eidolon. (Mundinironhand)
Taraz - Aasimar Oracle of Life 14 (Brent)

So the Hunt for Kline Continues. We’re beginning to have serious doubts he’s even IN Thousand Fangs. We thought, “Dungeon in the Basement” but perhaps he’s being held in a tower at the top like a fairytale princes.

The Pathfinders are giving us flack about the time it’s taking to find him (all the while charging us full price for the items we need). Arendel feels bad about the delay, but it’s not worth trading one (or more) of our lives for his. I offered to Teleport some of the Pathfinders in if they thought they could help. I think our next rest will take us to the General.

We played last night, so I’ll be working on the update. Sorry the schedule is wacky, whatever change Enworld made to its boards seem permanent and I cannot view or post with an older version of Internet Explorer, so now I have to write it, send it home and then find the time at home (where I actually tend to be busier) to post it. I hope it’ll be up next week, With Photos!).

I’m considering posting a copy of the SH at Paizo to get it out there, then cut and paste from home when I can… we’ll see.

Session 47.​

Neth the 28th.

Once more, we returned to Thousand Fangs, arriving in the large arena-like room. This time we exited through the double doors behind the stone building. Within, we saw some of the portcullis that led to the main hall. Behind two sets of curtains we found two serpent themed Iron Golems. The controls for the portcullis were also hidden behind one of the curtains.

Once the Golems were defeated we moved back out into the hall. With no clear understanding of the layout of the building, I’m afraid we have resorted to simple, methodical exploration of the stronghold to find Kline.

Behind the doors we encountered a number of Serpent Folk guards. After we defeated two almost immediately, the other three chose to run of down two separate corridors. We figured following the pair would be better than chasing the one that ran off alone. We caught up to them in a training room filled with Serpent Folk guards.

After dealing with the guards we continued our search, covering a number of unoccupied and uninteresting rooms. We encountered four more Gugs in a cavern-like room and came across a few more of the better equipped, better trained officer caste Serpent Folk. Still no sign of the dungeon, still no sign of Eando Kline.

Neth the 28th (Cont).

We continued to explore the lowest levels, encountering Serpent-Folk officers and guards from time to time. We finally reached an area that was definitely the dungeon area. In addition to scores of imprisoned Morlocks that steadfastly refused to leave their cells once we unlocked them, we found something else of interest. In a backroom dripping with water near a stone lined well, we found the body of Selennia, obviously dead for some time. Whoever we brought back to the Pathfinder camp, was definitely not Selennia.

We also happened upon the Torture chamber where Kline was being held prisoner. Once we defeated his jailors, we freed him from his bonds at long last. He was eager to leave this place, but when we told him of the imprisoned Morlocks, he spoke of the importance of freeing them and felt he could motivate them to leave this place.

It was obvious the Morlocks put a lot of trust in Kline. His mere presence energized them beyond any expectation. They rushed out of their cells and, in a frenzy, grabbed whatever weapons they could and swarmed to the upper levels of the fortress to find their path to freedom. As the screeching faded in the distance, Kline once again voiced his eagerness to leave this place. There seemed to be some magical ward preventing the use of Teleport in this region, so we made our way up, behind the swarms of Morlocks.

At the top of the stairs, we encountered the General and his retinue once more. This time he had brought along a Mage as well. The Wizard quickly cast a Spell and the General and his Guards were whisked away, Teleported to who-knows-where by the Wizard. Since it was obvious Teleport worked in this region, we quickly followed suit and returned to the Pathfinder Camp.

We brought Kline to Amivor for debriefing then retired to our tents to rest.


Neth the 29th.

In the morning we noted that Amivor, Kline and many other upper level Pathfinders were once again (still?) involved in deep discussions. We told them of our plan to return to Thousand-Fang to “mop up” and all agreed that would be a good idea.

For what we hoped would be the last time, we Teleported back to Thousand-Fang. This time we made our way up to the highest reaches of the fortress looking for the General and his guards. At the highest level, in the room where the red glass windows that acted as the eyes of the Serpent whose body made up Thousand-Fang overlooked Ilmurea, we found them. We quickly rushed in and vanquish our foes.

In the aftermath, we found many things of interest, including many documents. We gathered it all up and returned to the Pathfinder camp.

Upon our return, all those within the command tent expressed an interest in examining the documents we had found. It was decided that we would all reconvene once they were reviewed.


Neth the 30th.

With the information in the documents, as well as Eando Kline’s knowledge, it was determined that not only where the Serpent-Folk preparing to return by raising a long sleeping army, but they would also attempt to rejuvenate their slain god Ydersius. A powerful Serpent-Folk priest had plans to perform a ceremony to “awaken” Ydersius.

Over the next few hours many ideas were cast about as to what our next move should be. It was finally determined that we should follow up on a lead provided by Kline. He had discovered that, way back in the days of Savith, there was a great weapon that was much feared by the Serpent-Folk. He had discovered that the weapon’s last known location was in a place called the Hunter’s Maze, an area in the north-eastern corner of Ilmurea. He mentioned the Morlocks should be able to guide us there. We would set off in the morning.

Aaaand, We’re Back!

I have fallen a bit behind, but should be good to go to wrap up this SH.

We’ve had quite a few sessions since my last update so I’ll be blending them together into a few updates over the next few weeks.

How many? I’m not sure, but I’d like to catch up to where we are so that, in about two weeks, I’ll be able to post the most recent session which will be Session 55. We’re very close to the end!

Great to see you back (albeit not yet on track as it seems )!

Kuthona the 1st.

We returned to the southern Morlock tribe to meet with Udara. She told us the general location of the Hunters Maze, though the region is greatly feared by her people so they would not be providing a guide. She gave us directions and we set off.

On our way, we stopped off to see the Urdefhan Izon to let him know his renegade General had been dealt with. He was pleased and told us we would be able to move freely through his territory. When we told him of the coming resurgence of the Serpent-Folk he seemed rather apathetic, though he said our allies would be given free reign through his territory as well. While continuing our journey north, we discussed adopting an “if you’re not with us you’re against us” attitude in the coming conflict.

Upon reaching the region of the maze, we noticed many small structures made of stone slabs. While surveying the ruined huts, we noted a number of Urdefhan hiding among them. Recalling that Izon had mentioned that a portion of his army had been cut off in the northern region of Ilmurea we attempted to parlay, mentioning that we were “allies” of Izon. They answered with arrows, crying out that their allegiance now belonged to another and would not be returning to Izon’s service.

As we spread out to confront them, another, even greater threat emerged. Out of a slime filled aqueduct rose a Shoggoth. We focused our attention on the great, slimy beast until it was defeated, then returned our attention to the last few Urdefhan.

We noted a fortress upon a high bluff. There were gravel ramps leading up to the northern and southern entrances. We chose to Dimension Door to just outside the northern entrance. There we found a number of Urdefhan and a large pen filled with Morlocks. Once the Urdefhan were dealt with we attempted to free the Morlocks, but once again they rebuffed our attempts to free them. They continued to sit there, even as we walked away leaving the gate wide open.

Entering the fortress we encountered a few traps in the long entrance hall, pits and a Symbol of Fear. Once we made it past them we found ourselves in a room with a gold tiled circle in the center and three other exits. The area was defended by a number of Urdefhan and a Meladaemon. The Daemon gave us a little trouble with its spells, including a Horrid Wilting that affected every one of us, but they were all finally defeated.

We determined the circle was magical, though we could not figure out exactly what it did. We decided to avoid it and adopted Taraz’s plan of “always go left” to explore the maze. Many of the halls were roughly circular in shape, cut through the natural stone as if by a worm. We noted the walls were etched with runes and mocking words and phrases written in Aklo.

As we made our way through, an Urdefhan archer pestered us a bit. Sniping at us from the dark and then running off. We chose not to pursue in case he was trying to lead us into an ambush. Sure enough we came across a small stone room with what appeared to be Serpent-Folk standing at parade rest upon stone altars. It turns out they were illusions and, contained within each was an Urdefhan soldier.

Our next encounter was with a group of Urdefhan guarding a glowing magical Gate. Aiding them in their defense was another Meladaemon. Once they were defeated, we turned our attention to the Gate. We quickly determined it was linked to Abaddon, the bleak plane where Daemons reside. We figured that must be where the Urdefhan are getting their Daemon defenders and set upon determining a way to close, or at least disable the Gate.

We discovered that once a creature was summoned through the Gate, it would shut down for some time until some dark right was performed to reactivate it. We decided it was the best option and Ace (Our Summoner after all) pulled through a number of Piscodaemons. The Gate closed as they stepped through to our plane and once they were dealt with, we moved on.

We soon came across another room that contained a number of small non-magical artifacts and weapons, all obviously quite ancient. They were held in a large display case protected by a Forcecage. As it is not unheard of for even mundane objects to become powerful under the right circumstances, I Disintegrated the Forcecage and we gathered the items.

In the next room we found ourselves confronted by the new Urdefhan leader and the rest of his forces. To our dismay, they had an Astrodaemon as an ally. As Max rushed in to deal with the Urdefhan the Astrodaemon ran up to me and grabbed me within its powerful jaws. I was able to escape the creature’s jaws with magic, but even turning Invisible did not turn its attention from me and he soon grabbed me again. I escaped once more with my last Dimension Door only to see it then grab Taraz who was unable to escape it jaws.

We all watched in horror as the creature drew out and then consumed Taraz’s soul. With a flourish, the creature threw Taraz’s dead body to the floor. Finding a sense of determination in our anger we brought all our resources toward the defeat of this creature. Gravely wounded by our assault, it soon fled, Teleporting off somewhere safe from our ire.

Luckily we still had a scroll of Raise Dead we had found long ago back on the Shiv. Ace was able to use it to return Taraz to life. Thankfully the creature did not consume his soul completely. He was drained from the experience, but his restorative prayers soon had him back to his old self once again. Our resources spent, we returned to the Pathfinder Camp to rest and reequip.

Azkorra said:

Great to see you back (albeit not yet on track as it seems )!

Click to expand...

Thanks for the "Welcome Back", I should have two more updates early next week. That will put us up to date.

Kuthona the 2nd.

With all of us in fighting form once more, we returned to the Maze. We soon came across another room with a gold star etched within a circle on the floor. Of course no room would be complete without a hoard of Urdefhan to defend it. Once they were dealt with, we determined the star to be a Teleportation Circle. Since we could not determine where it went, we moved on.

The next room of interest was quite large. In one corner there was a raised dais. The whole area was filled with some type of magical field and within that field was a Cyclops that was impaling a humanoid woman with a sword. Both were unmoving as if frozen in time. Which, it seemed, they were.

I determined they were caught within a Stasis Field of some type and judging from the Cyclops’s ancient Azlanti attire, they had apparently been trapped within the field for quite some time. I dispelled the field and Taraz quickly rushed in to heal the fallen woman as she fell from the creature’s blade. The Cyclops seemed confused as he took in our appearance and commented that we did not look like Serpents. The Cyclops pointed his blade at Taraz as he approached the woman, and told him to stay back and let the Serpent-Folk die. Recalling that Ieana, the “woman” from the Jenevire who led Captain Kovak astray was, in truth, a Serpent-Folk, I called out to Taraz to stay his healing hands.

After much discussion we determined that the Cyclops was named Aveshai and he had once been a General in Savith’s army and fought against the Serpent-Folk. As the conversation continued we slowly began to accept the idea that this weapon we were looking for just might be the General standing before us.

We explained that, in his time, Savith had defeated Ydersius but died shortly thereafter and was currently entombed in the ruined city of Saventh-Yhi. Once we explained that the Serpent-Folk were attempting to return and awaken Ydersius he expressed an eagerness to assist us, but first wanted to see the city for himself and visit the tomb of Savith to pay his respects. Certainly a reasonable request.

We gathered what we could and Teleported to the surface. We quickly introduced him to Amivor and Kline. Kline enthusiastically agreed that he was the weapon we sought. It was determined we would have a meeting in the morning, giving General Aveshai the rest of the day to give his respects to Savith.