Another couple of weeks, another session. The player of the Wizard PC missed the session, but a good time was still had by all. We played for six hours.
For prep, I decided to finally try adapting some dungeons (via the Dungeon magazine). Most things I looked at seemed a little shallow, so I finally took the top 3, altered them to fit my campaign, and tied them to one another. The first that the players are going to be dealing with is Sleeper in the Tomb of Dreams, followed by Lord of the White Field, and finished with The Last Breaths of Ashenport. Not that my players know I'm using them, but still. I've modified all of it to varying degrees, but it's all recognizable, in my opinion. Anyway, on to the session:
[sblock]I started off the session by giving each player a minor quest (a first for my new player). The Warpriest's was to make progress towards connecting with the church of The Raven Queen; the Fighter's was to make progress towards returning the body of the dwarven prince; the Scout's was to make a new friend, as well as keep in touch with old friends.
I also asked each player to come up with a major quest (and had given them a heads up on this at least a week in advance), which was a first for them setting their own quests. The Warpriest wants to obtain the Second Truth before Vecna gets his hands on it; the Fighter wants to get accepted back into his clan, or otherwise clear his name; the Scout wants to find the location of some mind flayers in the Underdark. Sounds like good times, to me
With that, we started the session. The PCs picked up in the Monastery of Kord, and they talked logistics for a little bit (splitting dragon treasure, spending party fund on restocking potions via the Mage's Brew Potion ritual, etc.). They then talked about what their next goal was. The Fighter wanted to return the dwarven prince to his clan, and a successful History check via the Mage revealed that it stood across the sea to the north. The player of the Scout commented that where there are dwarves in the mountains, there might be a way into the Underdark, and he had no problem with that. The Mage and Warpriest signed off, and the party decided to make their way to the Cloudforge clan.
With their decision made, the talked to Atha (the Master of the monastery), and made several donations (a couple of 100 gp gems, a lot of weapons / armor the Fighter was carrying, and the Scout gave 100 gold in order to be trained in the art of balancing [Reliable Balance Martial Practice]). Atha arranged for a wagon and mule (named Kur) to be provided for the PCs (obtained from a local farmer), so that they can carry the dwarven prince's body in his casket. He also let them utilize a magic item that lets them convert coins to platinum (a Pouch of Platinum); though they expressed interest in it, he said it wasn't for sell, but that he might sell it to them later if they had enough money (though that they could come to the monastery to use it for free until then). The Scout also spent a day crafting mundane hide armor out of the white dragon scales he collected, and while he wants to use it, he's opting for the practical use of his Battle Harness for now.
Speaking of, the Mage made a successful History on the dwarven clan. She recognized the casket as dwarven make, meaning that it had gone with the prince before he had been killed. She relayed that dwarven royalty will usually take caskets with them if they feel like they may not make it back from a dangerous task, so whatever caused his death was likely predicted. The PCs also wondered if the ancestral dwarven armor the Fighter is wearing belongs to the prince, and if it'll be a problem when the Fighter returns it (since he's an exile). The plan is now for him to return the prince, communicate that he won the armor in combat, but offer it to the clan if it belonged to them.
With their goals in place, they took off from the monastery. They started their journey towards Hampstead, the city they identified as having the closest port. They first had to cross through the Warwood, though. Since they were crossing the forest with a wagon, they stayed on the path, even though they had heard rumors of brigands and supernatural forces in the Warwood as of late.
It took them about two weeks to reach the Warwood. The fight night in, I had the Warpriest roll an Insight check during his sleep. He succeeded against a Moderate DC, and he had a vivid dream. In it, he could see lifeless eyes watching him, but he knew they weren't undead eyes. He knew that both he and the eyes were somewhere oppressive in the dream, and that it was dark. He told the party of the dream when he woke, and while they speculated, they had no real leads, and pressed on.
After a few days, they heard the sounds of people in wagons and on foot, and so the Scout hid in case he needed to ambush, as did the Mage (with a cantrip to substitute Arcana for Stealth). Soon, a group of about forty priests of The Raven Queen approached. The Warpriest approached happily, and the leader, Sister Naenia, untensed when she saw his holy symbol. The Scout and Mage came out of hiding, and recognition struck Naenia's face, and she correctly guessed that this was the same group that "ended winter" in an area recently by killing a dragon.
They asked her what she was doing, and she explained that she was bringing Sir Malagant's remains to the site of where he died in battle, as her church, Winter's Watch, was instructed to do 100 years ago by Achreisis, the Exarch of The Raven Queen. She told of how Sir Malagant was a just Paladin of The Raven Queen, and how he led an army to stop the army of the Sleeper, and though he was mortally wounded in combat, he ended the Sleeper's goal of conquering the area by cleaving his sword into the Sleeper's head, severing its horn from it. She was now bringing the horn of the Sleeper and Sir Malagant's remains to the site where she planned to perform certain rites. She asked the Warpriest for help, as none of them were combatants, and he agreed to escort them (especially since she needed to see this done before dawn).
During the conversation, the Mage had frowned. The Warpriest spoke with the Mage privately, and the Mage revealed that the history of Winter's Watch mostly matched what she knew (she didn't know about any command from Achreisis), but that to her knowledge, Sir Malagant was fairly evil and oppressive, even if he did keep his word. The Warpriest became suspicious, and looked for any marking of life or death on anyone present, and was surprised to see no priest of The Raven Queen marked either way. He sent the Mage to let the others know to be on edge, and she did so.
In the meantime, the Fighter and Scout, in the back of the group that was traveling to Sir Malagant's spot, had eyed some suspicious-looking people on a wagon. Their hoods were down, and their cloaks were brown, rather than black (though they still carried the mark of The Raven Queen). When asked about it, they were told that the three adult-sized people in the wagon were augurs, and did not like to look around, or else they would become overwhelmed by the images they saw. The child in the wagon was someone they had found, a girl named Sybil, and she was also an augur. She also tried to stay out of the sun, as she was an albino.
The PCs escorted the group for a while, but it was no more than a couple of hours before brigands appeared from the woods, attacking them. They fought on both ends of the caravan (the Mage and Warpriest up front, the Fighter and Scout in the back). Some of the brigands just killed indiscriminately, and made no move to the PCs (meaning they were killing priests every round). Others focused on the PCs. One moved directly for the wagon with Sir Malagant's remains, and started to kill everyone on the wagon. On the second round, a tiefling being carried by primal spirits in the shape of eagles (which the Mage identified as a ritual) flew in directly to Sir Malagant's coffin and opened it. On round 3, he threw the body of his shoulder, lifted a horn in his other hand, and flew away. The Scout chased him, even getting a crit in on him, but was eventually caught up on some trees (he failed an Athletics to move quickly through the rough terrain), and the tiefling escaped.
In the meantime, the other PCs finished off the NPCs. A few things to note about the combat. Throughout the combat, the dwarf kept feeling intensified feelings of battle; failure when innocents would die to the brigands, elation when he would land a blow, etc. Also, the first time the Warpriest killed someone, he noticed that they had been marked for death. A quick glance revealed that Sister Naenia was marked to live, but he couldn't see it before (this disturbed him). Additionally, the Scout heard indistinct whispers come and fade (this struck quite a chord with the player, concerning him greatly). They also found a Lesser Cloaked Shortsword on a Tiefling Rogue that had been attacking the Warpriest and Mage, and they gave it to the Scout (which isn't a bad match with his Hidden Rapier).
Both a human mage and warrior were left alive for questioning. The mage was successfully intimidated by the Fighter, and she revealed that they were just a distraction for Volkanth, who wanted Sir Malagant's body back "at the Sleeper's Tomb, the Tomb of Dreams." She mentioned the Sleeper, but soon stopped talking, and they put her down (she was marked for death by The Raven Queen). They questioned the warrior, and he was vulgarly defiant from the start, and the Scout and Fighter moved him into the forest to torture or interrogate him. The Fighter broke his leg so he couldn't run, but before any (more) torture occurred, the Fighter was overwhelmed with hesitation, and felt a strong urge to bring a weapon to the warrior (I told the player that he could make whatever decision he wanted, just that he felt the urge and sudden hesitation). The Scout suggested a duel between the Fighter and warrior, but the Fighter thought the urges might be coming from the Warrior somehow, as if to control his mind, and so he decided just to put the warrior down.
In the meantime, Sister Naenia was doing her best to keep control of the panicked priests, as well as hold in her own panic now that Sir Malagant's remains were missing. The Warpriest moved to her, and began to berate her for not helping heal during the combat. She got defensive and said The Raven Queen hadn't blessed her in that way. The Warpriest didn't relent, and she yelled at him to shut up. He began to threaten her, she told him to do something if he was going to, and then the Warpriest moved into the forest to look for a blood trail from the wounded tiefling.
In the meantime, the other PCs moved to talk with Sister Naenia. They agreed to look for Sir Malagant's remains and return before dawn (it was about 6pm). She asked that one of the PCs swear to The Raven Queen that they return the remains and the horn, and the Fighter refused (he didn't want to as a Paladin of Kord), though the wilden Scout agreed (he likes The Raven Queen and her tie to winter). She said "fate be with you", and I gave the player a slip of paper with the same title, as the following: "Trigger: you are dropped in combat while in the presence of what you've sworn to obtain. Effect: ???" The player is nervous about using it, but is holding onto the slip of paper for now.
The PCs left the Scout's owlbear companion (Fey Beast Tamer theme) with the group with orders to look scary (since he can't really act on his own, and will likely retreat into the Feywild if attacked). Before they left, the little girl augur moved to the wilden Scout, and whispered "those who dream beneath the stars see the dreams of that which waits beyond them," and told him to tell "the other of your kind", and pointed to the forest where the Warpriest had gone. They met up with the Warpriest in the forest (where the Wilden passed on the girl's words), and began tracking the tiefling via his blood.
About two hours in, they were attacked by undead (and barely noticed them hiding in time). They fought a somewhat withered Spirit Devourer (leveled down to level 6, since it had not fed in some time), as well as two ghouls. The Spirit Devourer opened combat by dumping an old, withered body onto the ground, and then sucking the Scout into its ribcage, where it started to drain his soul. The Fighter marked the devourer (multiclass Paladin power), getting in some radiant damage over a few turns (which helped whoever was inside
make saves to escape). The ghouls were more annoying than dangerous (I rolled low, but they did grab the Fighter, keeping him from engaging the devourer, finally breaking the mark). Eventually the party won, though the Scout was 'eaten' twice (and dropped twice), and the Warpriest was 'eaten' once (though his 5 necrotic resistance helped save him 20 damage... I think it's from the Death Domain).
Afterwards, they continued on for about an hour, making it to a large mountain across from a frozen stream. Successful Perception checks let them notice bodies under the water, one of which the Warpriest identified as a ghoul. They moved downstream, crossing without incident. They also smelled pipe smoke, and sent the Scout and Mage ahead (she used a cantrip for Stealth again). They found a sleeping human with a crossbow, and they quietly decided to kill him. I told the Scout player a successful Stealth would get him to the human and I'd make him a minion (1 hit kill while he's unaware), but a failed check would wake him up. He made it, so he succeeded in sneaking up and killing the human. They continued on, and saw a group of 4 humans standing around talking about how waiting for an ambush was boring (one was smoking a pipe), as well as a tiefling on the other side of the hill. A couple more successful checks, and they were minionized, and the Mage took out all four humans with a Darkening Flame spell, while the Scout dispatched the tiefling with an arrow.
While I was expecting that to be a combat (along with the ghoul), I didn't stop them from essentially bypassing it with good skill checks and some planning (keeping the noisy Warpriest and Fighter away, striking the four humans and the tielfing simultaneously, avoid the ghoul completely). They looked around for more, but didn't find anyone else. On top of the hill was an opening in the shape of a face with eyes (opening was in the mouth, and it was dark down), and at the bottom was a larger entrance in the shape of a face without eyes. They debated for a bit, but decided to go in the bottom entrance.
Inside was a large, domed room with a hole in the top (in the shape of a mouth). Directly beneath the hole were spikes in the shape of the white of an eye, with three sickle-shaped grooves in the ground leading to grates. The grooves were blood-stained, making the PCs assume that people have been thrown down the hole onto the spikes, where they blood is drained into the vents. There was also a tall door deeper into the cave.
On the ceiling, stars were painted, forming a star chart and calendar of sorts (a Nature or Arcana picked up on this and the following). The calendar would be used to track something right before winter (which is what time of year it is in game, which the Scout player noticed). They also noticed that there were 13 extra stars on the ceiling (compared to the sky) in an unknown constellation, and that those stars were likely going to be lit up through the roof tonight.
They also noticed some images on the four walls. The first wall had images of the Sleeper (he was labeled), who appeared as a cloaked man with tiefling horns and a maul on a horse, overlooking a cliff. The second wall was the Sleeper, still mounted, forcing people or rallying them to arm themselves. The third wall was the Sleeper, still mounted, engaging in battle with his forces against humans, elves, and dwarves. The final wall was the sleeper, not mounted, engaging in battle with a man in chain armor engraved with wailing ghosts and the symbol of The Raven Queen; the Sleeper is hitting the knight in the head, while the knight is stabbing the Sleeper in the stomach, done in such a way that it depicted both of their deaths (successful Insight check). The PCs picked up on this not matching the description of what Sister Naenia described, where Sir Malagant had killed the Sleeper by cleaving through his horn into his skull. Writing also appeared on all four walls, and said, in total, "Where did He come from? Our dreams. Why did He come?" (wall one), “We called. From our sleep came the Sleeper.” (wall two), “He opened our dreaming eyes by shutting our waking ones.” (wall three), and finally “His defeat was but another sleep, and waking Him our dream.” (wall four). Lastly, maul head in the images gave off a faint light, and were obviously dark stones embedded into the walls (the rest of the images were carved).
The players reflected on all of this some, talked a bit, and moved on to the next room (the last one for the night). When they turned to leave, though, the Scout could swear he heard brief whispering again. They entered the next room, where they saw many bunks, some chests, and another tall door. At the end of the room they saw some stables for a couple of horses, and a larger, older, dustier chest. The Scout moved to the stables while the Warpriest checked the chests, where he found 305 gold worth of jewelry in the small chests. In the large dusty chest (which had a rusted, useless lock that might've once been magical), he found a cloak with tiefling horns, which the players think might belong to the Sleeper (and that he might not even be a tiefling, which they had assumed he was).
At the stables, the Scout saw one was well-kept and empty, and that the other was old and covered in dust and cobwebs. In it stood the skeletal remains of the horse, standing upright on a platform. When he looked upon it, the whispers rose again, this time growing louder and louder. The Scout grasped at his ears, and the Warpriest moved to look at the stables, and spotted the horse. At the same moment the Warpriest looked at the horse, the whisper stopped for the Scout, and I handed him the Whispers From Beyond alternative reward (he now hears whispers whenever he rolls a Perception check, as they aid him, as well as when enemies move up to him). The Warpriest saw a mark of The Raven Queen on the horse, as both he and the Scout realized it was undead, but the Warpriest didn't recognize it as a mark of life or death, though he knew that it somehow related to life and death. The rest of the party was thrown off by this, but the Warpriest moved into the stables, and spotted a saddle behind the horse, also on a platform. He moved to put it on the horse, and it let him, then turned to him, bowing. I gave him the stats for the Sleeper's Skeletal Horse, which he now has as a mount. He rolled an Arcana to detect magic, and noticed it had two magical items (Ghost Bridle and Zepher Horseshoes, letting the horse and rider become insubstantial 1/day, and also run across water at will).
He was pretty happy (and decided to go with the interpretation of "if it's not marked for life or death, it's a tool for both" until he sees a reason to change his mind), and he rode it to the door. The dwarf moved to open it, and upon touching it, I rolled an attack against everyone's Will, hitting the Fighter, the Warpriest, and the Mage, dropping them into a deep, dreaming sleep. The Scout could see all three immediately begin to squirm, as if from terrible nightmares. I called session here, but promised we'd start next session with a skill challenge.[/sblock]
Anyways, considering we got six hours in, it felt pretty packed, and we're making good progress. They just barely leveled up (now level six), and the player of the Warpriest has been leveling up the whole time I've been writing this (pouring over power and feats, as he's pretty excited after our session). It was good times, and I'm looking forward to playing again in another two weeks.
Also, the Scout's connection to the Far Realm just increased (with Whispers From Beyond), which fits really well with his feat choice for level 6 (Wild Talent Master). Funny how the timing on these things work out. It's certainly interesting borrowing heavily now (both in monsters and in dungeons, even if I'm heavily modifying a lot of things). Anyway, hope things aren't too boring for you readers. Thanks for all the advice and encouragement.
