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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9826174" data-attributes="member: 27780">Everyone was present. After the sniper caught everyone else up with his solo adventures, they decided not to go that route again straight away, but finish exploring the other corridors in this section that they'd missed first time around. Firstly, they headed back to the crossroads of area 4 and opened the one door they hadn't checked out yet, leading to area 7. There they found the 6 heavily mortared tombs and debated about what might be in them. Should they bother opening them, or would it be more pointless dangers that brought them no closer to finishing the adventure. Eventually they decided why not and cracked one open. Inside, they found an obviously extremely starved undead illithid that quite justifiably had "braaaaiiiins" as the only thing on its mind. They swiftly destroyed its body and tried another one, with the same result. Before opening a third one, they decided to try something a little different. If the priestess gave the creature inside a solid dose of negative energy, maybe that would be a good enough substitute for the ol' grey matter to make it rational enough to get some information out of. Since that's exactly the kind of creative thinking I want to reward, this did indeed reduce it to dazed and confused, memory blurred by the passing of the centuries, but temporarily non-aggressive. Asking it how it got here confirmed that the fungus lord had captured it and sealed it away here because it couldn't infect undead. When taken back to room 4 and asked about the significance of the animal-headed statues, it said that they were of the old gods, that had stopped answering prayers long ago, even before the sun was reddened. This prompted the priestess to ask about the piping sound she had heard when trying to contact her goddess, which prompted a look of familiarity and it acknowledged that yes, the great formless one who slumbers at the centre of the universe is indeed one of the beings the illithid worship. This in turn prompted a more metaphysical follow-up from the sniper: Do their gods derive power from being worshipped? Before it even answered in the negative, they could tell from it's expression that it found the question a bizarre one, showing once again that things were different here, and the inhabitants of this reality would find their one just as strange. The gods here are indeed vast and terrifying beings that are mostly indifferent to those that worship them, and definitely exist regardless of whether you believe in them or not. They then asked if it knew of the gith on this world. This was another question which made it look at them like they'd asked something obvious, as it answered that yes, they had kept many breeds of gith here. (making our githyanki PC grit his teeth to suppress the building rage as the picture of what life must have been like here before the fungus arrived became clearer.) Next thing they asked was about the animal-headed gods feasting in room 12. This was basic symbolism of the aspiration to become as the gods, wild and free and beyond good and evil. By this point the illithid was starting to become less sleepy from all the questioning and asked a question of its own: How did they defeat the fungus lord, when all their world's mental powers could not? The binder responded casually, like it wasn't even a challenge. The sniper gave a longer, more serious reply that also didn't really reveal much, but said that they were far more dangerous than they appeared and should not be underestimated. Then they asked about the lights on the moon.  At this, it appeared pleased. "Ah, so some of the ships did escape. The illithid empire survives out there among the stars." The others would probably have questioned it some more, but at this point the player of the githyanki decided his character could suppress his loathing no longer and pushed it to the ground. It reflexively tied to unleash a mind blast on him, but he resisted with no difficulty. It rolled well on initiative as combat started and tried to charm the priestess, (she's the one that had been nicest to it, after all) but also failed at that, and the whole group tore it apart before it could act again. They then discussed their situation again now they didn't have to worry about a potentially hostile listener. Having confirmed that this universe is really bad news even if they still don't know exactly why, when or how it diverged from their own, it was becoming increasingly obvious they needed to find those missing three golden chains and seal up the gate before something from outer space noticed and paid the planet a visit. Since they already knew one of them was in this dungeon, they'd better keep on exploring.Following this long talk, they decided that the remaining three coffins in room 7 would likely just have more of the same and weren't worth their time, so they opened the door behind them and connected up to the whistling statue at crossroads 8. They didn't spot the key, but did spot the triggering mechanism for the wind trap. Not knowing for sure what it did, they stood back and let the Binder tank it. Fortunately, her increasingly amorphous form was perfectly equipped to grab onto the walls and floor octopus style and avoid being slammed into the gate of knives behind. This prompted her to treat it like a funhouse ride and activate it again straight away after it finished, to the exasperation of the rest of the group. They followed a similar pattern in room 9. Having missed the key, they used her to tear through the green basalt pillar, which meant they avoided the fire trap, but did trigger the zap trap as she opened the coffin, requiring a dose of restoration for the dex damage. Having got away with whatever trouble they could throw at her so far, she was feeling pretty confident when they went back to room 12 to investigate the rug properly. She stepped on it and promptly disappeared inside it, sending the others scrambling trying to figure out what to do next. If it had been anyone else, she could have switched vestiges and used her Identify power to figure out how the item worked, but now they had to actually expend resources to sort this out. In the end they decided that they'd already spent a lot of their spells this day and this was a trap-based dungeon on a dead world, so there was little chance of wandering monsters if they did take their time, so they'd rest up for the night, have the githyanki study for spells first & cast identify, then wake the priestess an hour later so she could easily add whatever counterspell was needed to her prepared ones for the day. When they found out just how many low-level spells could have rescued people from the rug, they were slightly annoyed and the sniper just did it straight away with levitate. Fortunately, the binder had been wearing her water-breathing cloak when sucked in, so while she came out looking like a drowned rat and very annoyed from swirling around in there for more than 8 hours, she didn't wind up needing to be raised & losing a level. Having realised they have plenty of spells available that can rescue people, they promptly set out to test the limits of the rug's power. Would it trap items dropped on there? (no) Would it still trap you if you touched it with something covering your skin? (yes, they were wearing shoes before, after all) Would it work if poked with a stick? (also yes) Would it suck in intelligent magical items? (also yes, to the distress of the binder's sentient magical glove.) Having established this, ever sharp for rules exploits, the binder realised that this meant she could put her new airship, also a sentient magical item, into the rug and although it wouldn't be pleasant for the airship, that method would work to get it from one side of the needlespire gate to the other, which solved a bunch of other logistical problems long-term. So despite only getting through a few rooms of dungeon and minimal combat, this session has actually been very productive in terms of moving the plot forward. While she was busy turning the rug from a hazard into an opportunity, the others investigated the rest of the trappings in room 12. They rolled poorly and did not find the secret door behind the tapestry on the wall, but had no problem getting into the box on the altar. The sniper opened it, heard the whispering of the snake that offers to answer three questions if freed, and promptly closed the box again. This seemed like a good time to call the session to a close, so the group could discuss their response to this before the next one. What will the next year bring for the campaign? Will they manage to seal away the illithid empire, defeat the lich-queen and get some kind of happy ending, will one of them betray the others, will it all end in a TPK? For now, it's time for a several week holiday, as enough people are away over the Christmas break that running the next couple of sessions seemed impractical. Merry Christmas and see you all again in the new year.</blockquote>

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