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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Goonalan" data-source="post: 9490737" data-attributes="member: 16069">Dark Squad in the Secrets of SaltmarshSession #149: To the Witch’s Tor.Dark Squad (in alphabetical order, no egos here).Daktari/Dak (played by Haggis) Male Human Uthgardt Sky Pony Barbarian Lvl 9Fellowyn Silverstream (played by George) Male Eladrin Wizard Bladesinger Lvl 9New Tricks/Newt (played by Bear) Male Tabaxi Warlock Lvl 9Ramshambo/Ram (played by Kev) Male Half-Elf Rogue/Fighter Lvl 7/2Vincenzo/Vinnie (played by Haggis) Male Shifter (Wildhunt) Druid Lvl 9DEAD PCs<s>Nicholai Barbaros Kostyiev/Nicky (played by George) Male Dhampir Cleric of Twilight Lvl 8 </s>RIPNPCs<s>Inverna Nightbreeze (played by George) Female Wood Elf Fighter Lvl 8 (Sidekick) </s>RETIRED<s>Garumn Male Mountain Dwarf Paladin of Moradin Lvl 5 </s>RIP*<s>Tarbin Tul (played by goonalan) Male Human Bard </s>RETIRED<s>Ubmo (played by Goonalan) Supreme Being Lvl 1</s> EXPLODEDUbdug (played by Goonalan) Supreme Being Lvl 2 (When we remember)*Trapped in the Land of the Bad Dead Ancestors.Servants/FamiliarsGerald (Bat/Giant Bat) servant/mount of New TricksOwly (Owl) Vinnie’s familiarArchimedes (very scruffy & old, Owl) Fellowyn’s familiar.The Dark Squad’s to-do list-<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Find the other four Symbols of Ub, one was left in Deepbridge (Duergar fortress in the Underdark). The others need to be found, they belonged to- Rambles 'Shambles' Bowspirit (halfling killer from Lowhill), Antonio De La Crane (posh kid druid alchemist) & Giggles (crazy wood elf). All of these folk lived in the Saltmarsh region, the Dark Squad have found the De La Crane Manse (in the Dreadwood) and the De La Crane Crypt (in Saltmarsh Cemetery).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Nightshade is in the Deep Dreadwood- except she's not there anymore, but a big red dragon is?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Blackedge and the Goblin Stair?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">To join the Pact of the Wild Flame prepare the Witch's Tor for the coming of the starfall, the Witch's Tor is in the Drowned Forest, in the Mere of the Dead Men.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">To join the Pact of the Wild Flame track down the last member of the Pact, a wild elf adventurer called Giggles- and finally put her spirit to rest, and also recover her maze button. Location unknown. SEE 2. ABOVE.</li> </ol>This is session 149, and the Dark Squad are having a fine old time of it, to begin with…In the previous sessions they defeated the Tentacled Horror (an alien aberrant, Vinnie later confirms- after study) and have since nipped back on board their time travelling and newly acquired abode- Castle Argentriver.And keep in mind that time doesn’t exist here, or else- it does, but the clocks here are somehow not connected to the clocks back in the real world, and so… none of the time here actually counts for/to anything.Yeah, that’s right- so far behind are we with the actual plot/story et al I, the benign (mostly) DM, has had to introduce a time-bending magical thingummybob just to get us back on track-ish.Fingers-crossed.So, the Dark Squad- back in the castle, and first off, they meet up with…[ATTACH=full]383864[/ATTACH]Ub-Pam.Ub-Pam is quickly identified by Fellowyn as a Pentadrone, a five armed/fronded/eyed/legged/etc. Modron.Ub-Pam is voiced by the great Pam Ayres, Vogons beware.Ub-Pam therefore speaks in a soft dithering Oxfordshire accent, and always in rhyming couplets (but nothing too saucy), often employing odd-sounding word endings- used to leap the rhyming gap or else hammer the point home (see the great Mark E. Smith-ahh for the masterclass).“Oi, loiks tha look ov yew Dak-tar-Eeee,We shud go monster huntin tergevver, on Sar-far-Reee!”More remarkably I managed to keep this nonsense up for about twenty or so minutes, at least until we got onto the next bit of tonight’s offering.At some point, and it’s Newt that spots it, Ub-Pam lets slip that she’s working for, in her words ‘the Concordant Divinity’, for the life of me I can’t remember what I rhymed with ‘divinity’.Infinity? Maybe.Newt hounds Ub-Pam for a very short while about this verbal slip- who is the Concordant Divinity? But and this is often the case, Newt digs for info (usually from harmless NPCs) in the most violent, monstrous and threatening manner possible. It begins with threats of immolation and gets less wholesome from there… the result, most often, is whichever NPC is suffering this barrage is instantly taken under the wing of one of the other members of the Dark Squad.Most often it’s Vinnie that interrupts and attempts to rescue whatever NPC that is being harangued by Newt.Therefore, Newt’s interrogations, very mostly, come to naught.It saves me a lot of work because quite often he asks very good questions.Ub-Pam is bunking up with Daktari, he’s the holder of newly acquired, the third, maze button- and so Ub-Pam will be there for the big haired barbarian from hereon in.That’s nice.And so, we move on, after intros-The Dark Squad have a few downtime things they want to do, although in truth that boils down to the following- Vinnie gets cooking in his alchemy lab, brewing potions; while the rest of the Dark Squad scream and shout (possibly under Vinnie’s door) their specific requirements re: potions. As REM put it- ‘everyone hurts’, and the Tentacled Horror put it best of all. The Dark Squad (some of them) have gone real deep on their resources.The druid/pharmacist is therefore put to work.Then, and keep in mind that these sessions are generally 3.5 hours long, then… we spend two long hours shopping.To make clear, the Dark Squad have got an entire Bag of Holding full of stuff to sell, they’ve been accumulating, and… the chest (found in the bilges of the Empress of the Sea) that had the third maze button in it, also contained 10,000gp. This represents more money than the PCs have ever had, conjure me a sentence with the following words in it- ‘pockets’, and ‘burning’, and ‘holes’.Of course they go shopping, and of course they take two hours to do it.Although that’s not entirely true.Ram wants for nothing, and so there’s nothing that he wants. Ram therefore does other stuff- he stays aboard the castle.The rest of the Dark Squad descend upon Waterdeep and do the shopping/wild thing.There are no pictures to accompany this section of tonight’s activity, needless to say- the Squad- sell, sell, sell! Followed by- buy, buy, buy!By the time the gang get back on board Castle Argentriver, I think, Daktari and Fellowyn are back to being broke again.Note, the Dark Squad have to roll again- a percentage dice, every time they get back on board Castle Argentriver. There’s a 1% chance for every hour they’ve been away that something about them will have changed on their return- a strange twist of time thing.Well, Fellowyn was ashore the longest- nine hours spent shopping, and so he has a 9% chance of some unalterable change, and he rolled a ‘11’, close but no cigar. But every time I’m making certain that the players are very aware. If this goes wrong, I am going to mess with their PCs something awful (potentially- the dice will decide).Then, at long last, we head to the Witch’s Tor, the next step on the time-travelling tour.Note, they were supposed to be doing the Goblin Stare/Stair next, but that got voted down in favour of the Witch’s Tor.Shhh…. It’s starting.At bloody last.[ATTACH=full]383865[/ATTACH]The Witch’s Tor is… foggy doesn’t cover it- and keep in mind this is a still image, in game the thick fog bank moves across the screen in a suffocating blanket.Also, the PCs Darkvision has been dialed down to 20 feet, so- they can’t see much.They’ve got their Rary’s talk-to-each-other-in-your-head-space spell going on, I forget what it’s called.Ram is, of course, sent ahead- and sending back a commentary- but he’s taking his time, going slow- very cautious.The fog/mist/whatever is wet and all encompassing, underfoot is soft wet and green- mostly lush grass, although there’s also lots of broken stone- it’s a rock formation and it’s going up, it’s a tor.Who would have guessed it.Ram does a little climbing, up a series of ledges- he’s heading to the top.[ATTACH=full]383866[/ATTACH]There’s something up there.A trio of standing stones, and some form of inscribed magic circle.[ATTACH=full]383867[/ATTACH]The rest of the Dark Squad, by hook or by crook, make their way up to the top of the Witch’s Tor.Oh, but let’s just take a step back for a moment, before heading here the DM (back on Castle Argentriver) asked the players the following question-“What’s at the Witch’s Tor? Why are you going there? To do what?”The answers took a while, but… they had 50% plus of most everything.In precis-The Witch’s Tor is some ancient elven constructed redoubt, with a beacon, a beacon to signal what is alas unknown, except to say that lighting the beacon will summon/cause the star to fall (or starfall). The starfall is a good thing- it’s part of the plan- possibly Ub’s plan, and the PCs know where the star will fall- they’ve been to the very spot in the Mere of the Dead Men.The Witch’s Tor is something to do with the Pact of the Flame elves- they built it, perhaps. The Pact of the Flame were an ancient elven group/organisation which may have been a precursor (or something similar) to the Dark Squad (and its myriad variants).They’re certainly something to do with what’s going on here.The big plot thing. The story.Lastly, a couple of folk (Sehanine Moonbow, Goddess & Sauriv, the old Lizardman) have both warned the Squad that the Witch’s Tor is (or was) the home to either a very nasty wizard, or else some very nasty magic.So, be warned.Back to the here and then, with the Dark Squad on the Witch’s Tor.They’ve been investigating the magic circle, standing stones, and the surrounds, and in summary-Things sound funny up here- when the Dark Squad talk out loud there’s a dull echo of everything that they say. The echo rather oddly- and suddenly, on the second/third/fourth/fifth repeat- cuts off, sometimes mid-word.Next, the magic within the circle is dead- inert, defunct- it ain’t working.There is however a repeated line of ancient flowery elven script worked into one of the rings of the circle.It says, after a good ten minutes spent by a variety of folk investigating, transcribing and then translating-Time is a River.The Dark Squad are intrigued- they delve further and make more skill checks.[ATTACH=full]383868[/ATTACH]They soon discover that there’s another line of the same flowery ancient elven text, the writing however is much much smaller- and therefore much much more difficult to read, transcribe, etc.The Dark Squad are however dedicated- it takes a lot of rolling to get to the following, there are six phrases written below the repeated ‘Time is a River’.The phrases are-The river can be forded many times.The river can be swum, up or down water.The river flows to all places and all times.The river is everywhere, and everywhen.The river is the truth but only for the moment.Beware! There are crocodiles in the river.Keep in mind the above cost the Dark Squad another forty or so minutes off-Castle, and so their various imagined (or otherwise) meanings are considered, for a good long while.“Time iz a reevur, n’est pas? We kan cross time, we kan move back an fort- it iz talkin about ze Castle Argentriver, I am sur-ten.” Vinnie is convinced, there’s a lot of head nodding going on.Note, the thing about crocodiles is… it just makes the Dark Squad (mostly Newt) mad every time they are mentioned.And so, I just want to take a moment, or else to lodge a few questions in a player (or two’s) brain/s.There’s been a lot of talk about a man and a crocodile, and some chat about the pair crossing a river. The man carrying the crocodile. That all got said pretty much at the start of this story- in the Dark Squad’s second adventure.There’s been a lot more about the ‘man and the crocodile’ ever since, it’s a recurring theme and/or image.There’s probably a reason for it.What would a man look like carrying a crocodile?Man’s legs- crocodile head/upper body.Maybe.What does Ashardalon look like?Nine foot tall, a cross between an elf and a dragon.With elf/humanoid legs, and a dragon or else, a scaled/reptilian face and upper body.Just an idea I’m putting out there.Oh, and crossing a river… something to do with time?Just things to consider.Back to the session-Then, after a lot more chatter Fellowyn rolls something like ‘28’ on one of his checks- note Fellowyn’s skill checks are on fire all night, lots of big scores- anyway, Fellowyn delves into ancient elven history and comes up with a plan.It’s as simple as this- there’s a way into the tor, because- there must be a complex beneath the tor. That’s where the magic is, that’s where they need to go to get the beacon lit.[ATTACH=full]383870[/ATTACH]Here’s a strange picture.Vinnie is sat cross-legged by the inert ancient stone circle; he’s mumbling his way through the ten-minute incantation that is his Commune with Nature ritual.He’s going to find the way into the tor.Newt puts up with this nonsense for exactly thirty seconds, and then gets onto his flying broom and screams about the tor in random bursts yelling the following.“It’s bound to be on the bloody map… spread out and search you donkeys!”His logic is faultless.[ATTACH=full]383871[/ATTACH]Newt finds an obviously man-made, there’s brickwork down there, depression and in there he can see a stone door- leading into the tor.Vinnie has only just finished the first ying-yang of his ritual.Just a brief note- it took a lot longer than you’d thing to find the way in, for a while my screen just looked like the Dark Squad are recreating a spooky looking/Halloween flight of the bumble bee(s).The Dark Squad discover a way down into the delve.[ATTACH=full]383872[/ATTACH]Here they all are- and I’ve turned the fog machine off.There’s a little investigation of the exterior, and what do you know- Fellowyn’s dice are on fire.So, here’s the first/next oddity- the building work is here to buttress the tor, it’s ancient- oddly in good-ish repair (or else very well made), but- and here’s the stranger- it’s dwarven workmanship. Fellowyn’s certain.Dun-Dun-Derr.[ATTACH=full]383873[/ATTACH]Then Daktari ricks his shoulder.He did the run-up, shoulder-charge thing- this after Ram ascertains that the door here is neither trapped, nor locked, but is however a hefty slab of stone and difficult to open.Daktari is defeated by a door.Fellowyn gets it open.DC 12. For info, all the doors are.[ATTACH=full]383874[/ATTACH]It’s a tomb. Ram, as ever, leads the way in.[ATTACH=full]383875[/ATTACH]To here. There are two more stone doors (going south) in the corridor ahead.Just to say it’s ancient and much worn dressed stone, although there’s a layer of dirt and grime on everything. It’s dry in here- slightly oddly as it’s very wet outside. There are a few spider webs (all small), a lot of scattered broken bone (elven, Vinnie checks) and… it’s as quiet as the grave.That is until the Thud!With an oddly much louder echo.Which brings all the adventurers to a halt.The sound has no discernible source, except to say it came from somewhere ahead, somewhere not explored yet.A little later there’s a grinding noise (with accompanying echo), and yes- as Daktari discovers (the hard way)-[ATTACH=full]383876[/ATTACH]The grinding noise was the entrance door closing behind the Dark Squad. That’s Daktari’s second shoulder-charge ‘1’ in a row. The big barbarian has just dislocated his shoulder.Note the -2 on the above check was after his first injury.Fellowyn, I think, gets the outer door back open.DC 12. For info, all the doors are.Back to Ram, and after much checking of the doors in the passage.[ATTACH=full]383877[/ATTACH]Daktari lets Ram take over door opening duties for a while.The big barbarian is not having a good day, he is bringing great shame upon himself/his clan/etc.We’re in.A tomb, with exotic flowery patterns- barely visible inlay and ornamentation- in the walls and the floor, as spotted and explained by Fellowyn, after another great roll, all very ancient and elven- it all fits (except for the obviously dwarven stonework).This chamber however has two surprises for the Dark Squad to discover, or else for them to deliver unto themselves.While Daktari is getting a little healing, and his shoulder popped back into its socket, Newt rushes into the chamber- having spotted the sarcophagus, and knocking Ram aside en route, somehow in his haste he manages to dislodge a broken portion of the tomb’s stone lid, which falls into the dust filled sarcophagi. The tabaxi is engulfed in dust, and left coughing and choking, and for a while hidden from sight in the unleashed cloud.Alas the coughing and spluttering doesn’t go away.The Dark Squad have been trying to keep quiet (mostly) to this point, hence them using telepathy to communicate. Well, that goes out of the window, a moment after being healed by Vinnie, Newt starts shouting threats and then Eldritch Blasts the ancient sarcophagi into chunks.It’s at this point the PCs remember the sound/echo thing that has been going.The echoed sound of the explosion is horrendous.Fellowyn fails his saving throw.[ATTACH=full]383878[/ATTACH]His ear drums burst.He’s deaf.There is arguing, although most of it swearing and threats in telepathic, and a little player on player.To be clear, there were no traps in this room.This was/is an empty room.The events that transpired?100% Dark Squad.Of course, I took advantage of the situation- but that’s my job.We move on.[ATTACH=full]383879[/ATTACH]It takes Daktari three double-footed kick attempts to get the door here open.I’m letting him make the check for the doors with his Athletics skill, that’s +8.DC 12. For info, all the doors are.The chamber within contains a quickly identified ceremonial fire pit, a statue of a nine-foot-tall creature that’s a cross between an elf and a dragon, like a very tall and thin dragonborn- it looks exactly like Ashardalon in fact.There’s another stone door to the east.Investigations are much quieter now- Vinnie has seen to Newt’s cough and Fellowyn’s deafness with a bit of Lesser Restoration for both.Fellowyn examines the statue- it’s a statue, as described, it’s not made to move- not jointed, and not an obvious trap.It is however the spit of Ashardalon.Ram, listening at the other door in the chamber can hear either a whispering sound, or else something very similar- like a robe being dragged along the ground- a shushing noise.The rogue checks the portal over, as quickly as he can, and then with Fellowyn’s help (Daktari refuses and then looks downcast) gets it open.[ATTACH=full]383880[/ATTACH]Another tomb, three more sarcophagi, with another stone door- to the north, this portal is already open.The Squad move in after a series of checks, there’s always a series of checks- except when Newt gets involved, and right now he’s keeping up the rear.Then quickly Ram goes out of the opened door, moving as quickly as he can, he thinks he’s tailing someone, perhaps…[ATTACH=full]383881[/ATTACH]Another corridor, heading south, and down.But that’s the end of the session, we only had an hour or so in the Witch’s Tor, more of this- and I’m looking forward to this bit- have been for a while, next time.That said- no George next week (29th) and so we’re at the Alt Game, back to the Dark Squad on the 5th Nov.Stay safe and well you lovely people.Cheers the Dark Squad and goonalan.</blockquote>

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