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Aphonion Tales: Ravenskrag and the Shadowline, a preteen D&D game (lightly edited notes, COMPLETED on 1/20/23)
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<blockquote data-quote="CPaladin" data-source="post: 8487383" data-attributes="member: 7030144"><p>Session 34 (September 4, 2021)</p><p></p><p>7 Ta-Ghast</p><p>The group wakes in the morning, camped near the catobeplas’s corpse. They head on towards the northwest, in search of the vampire or whatever, and they find an area that was recently cleared—perhaps three years ago, though now it’s starting to become overgrown again. In the middle of the clearing, there’s a small stone fort.</p><p></p><p>The fort has a curtain wall, a single tower near its northeast corner, and a single large building in the center. The gates are steel-bound wood, but are not maintained.</p><p></p><p>Aleep casts detect magic, and they creep up to the west wall, planning on scanning inside with detect magic and detect unholiness. The whole complex is not more than 90’ wide east to west and 50’ from north to south. As they approach, three of the group (Merreep, Bartix, and Runor) note that some of the ground is very spongy. They warn the rest of the group. Runor is pretty sure that the area that is not naturally spongy—there’s worked stone in there. He thinks that they’re pit traps that have become overgrown to the point of not working cleanly. The group begins testing ahead of themselves with staves and easily determines where the pit traps are, making their way up clearly.</p><p></p><p>Ashaltir detects evil in the central building but nowhere else. Aleep detects a magic item, also in the central building, and some lingering auras. There is a mix of necromancy and conjuration magic. The evil and the magic seem to be in the same location.</p><p></p><p>The walls of the old fort are only between 12 and 15 feet tall—never really meant to stop a serious siege, but enough to deal with minor threats. The group makes their way around to the north wall, and they now sense another source of magic and evil in the tower. The magic there is just conjuration… but it seems older. Along the north wall, they notice no pit traps—perhaps they’re farther out from the wall.</p><p></p><p>The group decides to go over the wall, on the west side of the building. They scramble up easily. The parapets of the wall remain in good repair, and the courtyard is cobbled—though now there is grass and the like growing through the gaps between the cobblestones. There are some standing horse skeletons near an old cart and carriage. The main gate is barred, and the area around it on the inside has been cleared.</p><p></p><p>They can also see two doorways into the main structure. The main structure is two stories tall and has a well-maintained slate roof, with a shallow incline. If the building has similar doors on the far side, it has many doors for a building that small—the group speculates that some of them might be traps. Merreep and Bartix try to identify which of the entrances have actually been used, looking for signs of use. They then change their minds before approaching and decide to scout the tall tower first.</p><p></p><p>Merreep and Bartix begin sneaking towards the tower, with the rest of the group clustered behind the northern point of the main building, watching their approach. They can see a shiny bauble around the top of the tower—almost like a giant soap bubble. There is no door on the tower, but there is an opening directly onto a staircase that winds its way up towards the bubble. Both of them can hear a very high-pitched sound emanating from the tower. They’re not sure what they’re hearing—it’s a repetitive descending series of notes. They begin cautiously ascending the stone stair case in a spiral around the inside of the tower, to the point where it opens into a larger floor. They felt a slight tingle as they passed through the bubble. Merreep peaks over the top of the platform that the stairs open onto. She sees a crystal ball on a stand, with a huge horn sticking out over the edge of the tower. Chained to the floor, there is a snoring imp—clearly the source of the high-pitched noises. They’re pretty sure he’s supposed to be watching the area with the crystal ball and alerting others with the horn.</p><p></p><p>Merreep and Bartix decide to wait for the imp to awake. After a while, it startles awake. It looks at the crystal ball, grumbles, and then takes out a snack and begins to grumble to himself about having let himself be captured by someone who then made himself undead, forcing him to guard an area for 100 years. He still clearly hasn’t noticed Merreep and Bartix. “Hmm. Something disturbed the grass I see.”</p><p></p><p>He then hears something from the stairs. “I heard that!” He peers in the direction of the stairs. Bartix waves at him.</p><p></p><p>“Ack! They’re already in here! Alarm… Wait, what am I thinking? Hail fair invaders. I will be compelled to blow the horn in a few minutes. There’s no one really to warn, since he became a vampire. But I’ll have to anyway. I don’t suppose you’re here to kill my master and set me free, are you?” They watch him quietly. “Well, I have to blow the horn.” He blasts the horn. “See, nothing. Who are you, anyway? Thieves?”</p><p></p><p>“No, we’re not thieves.”</p><p></p><p>“Too bad. Thieves have tools and might be able to free me… But hurry up and kill my master. It’s daytime and he’ll be asleep!”</p><p></p><p>Bartix and Merreep decide to bring the rest of the group up, much to the imp’s encouragement.</p><p></p><p>They ask the imp about the bubble. “It’s from the crystal ball. It lets me see 500 feet in any direction. Not sure what the point is, since there are no guards to call. Sorry about the horn blast, by the way.”</p><p></p><p>“Can you see inside the building? Can we see in the building?”</p><p></p><p>“I don’t see why not.” He makes a sigil. “That’s how you can control it.”</p><p></p><p>They carefully study the inside of the building. The main story is all one room, with a secret door in on the south face of the building—where no obvious door existed. All of the obvious doors in are fake, with bare stone on the inside. The upper story has two large rooms. There is an incorporeal undead moving around in the cellar—probably a wraith—and a corporeal undead, definitely not a vampire or a zombie but unclear what, moving around as well, on the second floor. There’s also a casket in the well-appointed cellar, along with various alchemical tools and apparatus.</p><p></p><p>The group decides to rush into the cellar after finding the secret door, and to then kill the wraith first, hoping to finish it off before the corporeal undead can close on them. Ashaltir and Bartix take the lead, because Bartix has a magic weapon and Ashaltir can make her sword holy. Bartix and Ashaltir attack first. Bartix hits it with his magic dagger, doing 8 points of damage. Ashaltir smites for 16 and then 27. A moment before the wraith would have gone, Aleep casts Magic Missile as a fourth level spell, finishing it off.</p><p></p><p>Runor, Ulgorio, and Mereep see a mumia, a partially mummified undead, closing with them. It can’t reach them, but it does gaze at Runor, forcing a Wisdom save. Runor saves easily. Ulgorio casts cloud of daggers, enveloping the mumia and doing 13 points of damage. Runor casts spirit guardians. The mumia takes 15 damage as it pushes forward through the guardians and attacks Ulgorio, hitting him hard and doing necrotic damage as well. Mereep strikes it in response, doing 11 damage.</p><p></p><p>Ulgorio stabs it with his rapier, doing 10 damage and dropping the foe to a heap of rotting flesh.</p><p></p><p>At this point, the group easily pries open the vampire’s coffin and Bartix stakes it and destroys it. The body crumbles to dust.</p><p></p><p>The group finds a large crystal bowl filled with water that emanates magic—a little necromancy, but mostly conjuration.</p><p>[End session 34]</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="CPaladin, post: 8487383, member: 7030144"] Session 34 (September 4, 2021) 7 Ta-Ghast The group wakes in the morning, camped near the catobeplas’s corpse. They head on towards the northwest, in search of the vampire or whatever, and they find an area that was recently cleared—perhaps three years ago, though now it’s starting to become overgrown again. In the middle of the clearing, there’s a small stone fort. The fort has a curtain wall, a single tower near its northeast corner, and a single large building in the center. The gates are steel-bound wood, but are not maintained. Aleep casts detect magic, and they creep up to the west wall, planning on scanning inside with detect magic and detect unholiness. The whole complex is not more than 90’ wide east to west and 50’ from north to south. As they approach, three of the group (Merreep, Bartix, and Runor) note that some of the ground is very spongy. They warn the rest of the group. Runor is pretty sure that the area that is not naturally spongy—there’s worked stone in there. He thinks that they’re pit traps that have become overgrown to the point of not working cleanly. The group begins testing ahead of themselves with staves and easily determines where the pit traps are, making their way up clearly. Ashaltir detects evil in the central building but nowhere else. Aleep detects a magic item, also in the central building, and some lingering auras. There is a mix of necromancy and conjuration magic. The evil and the magic seem to be in the same location. The walls of the old fort are only between 12 and 15 feet tall—never really meant to stop a serious siege, but enough to deal with minor threats. The group makes their way around to the north wall, and they now sense another source of magic and evil in the tower. The magic there is just conjuration… but it seems older. Along the north wall, they notice no pit traps—perhaps they’re farther out from the wall. The group decides to go over the wall, on the west side of the building. They scramble up easily. The parapets of the wall remain in good repair, and the courtyard is cobbled—though now there is grass and the like growing through the gaps between the cobblestones. There are some standing horse skeletons near an old cart and carriage. The main gate is barred, and the area around it on the inside has been cleared. They can also see two doorways into the main structure. The main structure is two stories tall and has a well-maintained slate roof, with a shallow incline. If the building has similar doors on the far side, it has many doors for a building that small—the group speculates that some of them might be traps. Merreep and Bartix try to identify which of the entrances have actually been used, looking for signs of use. They then change their minds before approaching and decide to scout the tall tower first. Merreep and Bartix begin sneaking towards the tower, with the rest of the group clustered behind the northern point of the main building, watching their approach. They can see a shiny bauble around the top of the tower—almost like a giant soap bubble. There is no door on the tower, but there is an opening directly onto a staircase that winds its way up towards the bubble. Both of them can hear a very high-pitched sound emanating from the tower. They’re not sure what they’re hearing—it’s a repetitive descending series of notes. They begin cautiously ascending the stone stair case in a spiral around the inside of the tower, to the point where it opens into a larger floor. They felt a slight tingle as they passed through the bubble. Merreep peaks over the top of the platform that the stairs open onto. She sees a crystal ball on a stand, with a huge horn sticking out over the edge of the tower. Chained to the floor, there is a snoring imp—clearly the source of the high-pitched noises. They’re pretty sure he’s supposed to be watching the area with the crystal ball and alerting others with the horn. Merreep and Bartix decide to wait for the imp to awake. After a while, it startles awake. It looks at the crystal ball, grumbles, and then takes out a snack and begins to grumble to himself about having let himself be captured by someone who then made himself undead, forcing him to guard an area for 100 years. He still clearly hasn’t noticed Merreep and Bartix. “Hmm. Something disturbed the grass I see.” He then hears something from the stairs. “I heard that!” He peers in the direction of the stairs. Bartix waves at him. “Ack! They’re already in here! Alarm… Wait, what am I thinking? Hail fair invaders. I will be compelled to blow the horn in a few minutes. There’s no one really to warn, since he became a vampire. But I’ll have to anyway. I don’t suppose you’re here to kill my master and set me free, are you?” They watch him quietly. “Well, I have to blow the horn.” He blasts the horn. “See, nothing. Who are you, anyway? Thieves?” “No, we’re not thieves.” “Too bad. Thieves have tools and might be able to free me… But hurry up and kill my master. It’s daytime and he’ll be asleep!” Bartix and Merreep decide to bring the rest of the group up, much to the imp’s encouragement. They ask the imp about the bubble. “It’s from the crystal ball. It lets me see 500 feet in any direction. Not sure what the point is, since there are no guards to call. Sorry about the horn blast, by the way.” “Can you see inside the building? Can we see in the building?” “I don’t see why not.” He makes a sigil. “That’s how you can control it.” They carefully study the inside of the building. The main story is all one room, with a secret door in on the south face of the building—where no obvious door existed. All of the obvious doors in are fake, with bare stone on the inside. The upper story has two large rooms. There is an incorporeal undead moving around in the cellar—probably a wraith—and a corporeal undead, definitely not a vampire or a zombie but unclear what, moving around as well, on the second floor. There’s also a casket in the well-appointed cellar, along with various alchemical tools and apparatus. The group decides to rush into the cellar after finding the secret door, and to then kill the wraith first, hoping to finish it off before the corporeal undead can close on them. Ashaltir and Bartix take the lead, because Bartix has a magic weapon and Ashaltir can make her sword holy. Bartix and Ashaltir attack first. Bartix hits it with his magic dagger, doing 8 points of damage. Ashaltir smites for 16 and then 27. A moment before the wraith would have gone, Aleep casts Magic Missile as a fourth level spell, finishing it off. Runor, Ulgorio, and Mereep see a mumia, a partially mummified undead, closing with them. It can’t reach them, but it does gaze at Runor, forcing a Wisdom save. Runor saves easily. Ulgorio casts cloud of daggers, enveloping the mumia and doing 13 points of damage. Runor casts spirit guardians. The mumia takes 15 damage as it pushes forward through the guardians and attacks Ulgorio, hitting him hard and doing necrotic damage as well. Mereep strikes it in response, doing 11 damage. Ulgorio stabs it with his rapier, doing 10 damage and dropping the foe to a heap of rotting flesh. At this point, the group easily pries open the vampire’s coffin and Bartix stakes it and destroys it. The body crumbles to dust. The group finds a large crystal bowl filled with water that emanates magic—a little necromancy, but mostly conjuration. [End session 34] [/QUOTE]
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