| Session Date | April 29, 2022 |
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| Base XP Gained | 13728 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party continued their explorations, bypassing stairs downward and heading to explore a new eastward-leading passage. Coming to a room with numerous passages entering and faded pastoral paintings, Mordecai cast find traps, immediately sensing a pit trap in the center of the room. Chalk scrawled on the south wall read “Kavkaz Lives!”
The party continued east, coming to a room where they found four wraiths. Mordecai turned them, but another group of four appeared, though they were turned by ZZ. Hans advocated destroying them lest they be a threat later and, after some grumbling, the party agreed and fell back. The turns were dropped and soon the eight wraiths came at the party. Right into the fact of lightning bolts from Hans and Burt. This slew four, but the other four came on. Atticus threw a glob of fire from a produce flame spell, which burned their cloaks but did little else. Jarrik and Bel shot arrows (Bel used magic ones which had an effect, Jarrik’s non-magic ones did not). A few magic missile spells and some quick melee actions managed to destroy the last four without anyone suffering any disastrous effects.
The party continued on, coming to a room with four doors in cardinal directions and more graffiti reading “Kavkaz is coming!” During this time, ZZ spotted a figure nearby, the same middle-aged man with a ledger and a quill who called himself the Recorder (who apparently looks like Elon Musk).
Further explorations soon took the party to a long room with an oddly placed wooden rail fence running most of its length. The room soon faded away and the party found themselves under a sunny summer sky at one end of what was clearly a jousting field, with stands of murmuring people nearby. The smell of hay and horses filled the pleasant air. A page appeared form nowhere leading a white horse to the party, asking the party who should ride the tilt? The party chose Bel, and the page nodded, asking under what colors she would ride. Bel said red and black, and the horses gear and lance carried by the page changed to match those colors. At the far end of the lists, a knight all in black, astride a black charger, appeared. The party quickly discussed some sketchy actions to help their champion; they also drew the magic lance they had from a bag of holding instead of the one the page held.
Ready, the two knights charged one another, and a lot happened very fast. Bel’s lance struck the black knight square, unhorsing him and clearly injuring him, though the magic lance was shattered. But Jarrik had used his ring of mammal control to try to cause the black knight’s horse to stumble. This was apparently noted as the Marshal suddenly cried “FOUL CRAVEN” and cast his truncheon at the Ranger. He seemed quite incensed, shouting that any further offenses against chivalry would be answered by being slain by the royal bowmen; a dozen or more crossbowmen appeared at that, aimed at the party. Although thinking she’d won, the page informed Bel that this was a best of three match (presuming one was not slain first). Taking the lance form the page, Bel rode two more indecisive tilts with the black knight, neither more than striking a glancing blow. Finally, on the fourth ride, Bel knocked the black knight from his horse a second time. The knight and his mount vanished, and the crowd erupted with loud cheers for the lady knight. A great chalice was presented to her to toast her victory, followed by presentation of a golden chain of victory. She was then brought a great shield with the old Imperial Lormyrrian crest (black eagle on green) and a great helm with an eagle atop it. Told she could take either, she selected the shield. The jousting field then faded away, leaving only the bare dungeon room with its dilapidated wooden fence.
The party explored on, soon entering a round, empty room. As they did so, the door slammed shut and it felt as if the room dropped in freefall. This lasted perhaps a minute or more, with the party able to do little during this time. Finally, the fall seemed to stop abruptly (though without causing injury). The door to the elevator room opened slowly to reveal an alien landscape, a vast wasteland of rock and sand stretching countless miles under a purple-red sky, a dim, reddish sun and stars that seemed too big above them. Across the wastes streamed several long lines of humanoids shuffling slowly towards a vast ziggurat in the distance, merging near it into a single file that entered a black gate at its base. The edifice was a mile high or more. Everyone in the party felt a strong compulsion to join the throngs heading to the ziggurat, and Burt, Bel, and Atticus could not overcome it and began to shuffle forward. The rest of the party was able to overpower them and drag them back tied up to through the door into the elevator room (this was just a doorway hanging in open space). They shut the door and tried to figure out how to reverse the elevator without success. Worse, the clerics seemed unable to access their higher level spells to dispel magic. They considered resting here for a time, but the compulsion soon came over everyone again, and they realized it was too dangerous to stay here. Unsure what to do, ZZ used his jester suit to invoke the powers of chaos, which resulted in a strange woman appearing. She demanded to know what they wanted and was most sarcastic about their predicament, clearly unimpressed by what she saw. After some tension (and sucking some spells out of Hans head and spellbook), she simply opened the door and they were back in the dungeon. (I believe the woman is now named Karynn) They asked her about a safe place to rest, but she exasperatedly told them to just “go to the room of rest” as if that was the most obvious thing in the world. Happily, she pointed out that it was nearby, literally right around the corner, before she vanished.
The party found a door there with a white hand painted on it, the symbol of Larana of the Healing Hand, goddess of healing, peace, and rest. Inside was a bare room, but one that exuded a sense of peace and safety. The party decided this was a good place to rest and did just that. The place proved almost too restful, as the adventurers all found staying awake for their watches somewhat difficult; only ZZ succumbed to this, however. The next day, they awoke as refreshed as they’d ever felt in their lives…