| Session Date | March 9, 2024 |
| Start Date | 24 Reaping, 1273 |
| End Date | 24 Reaping, 1273 |
| Starting Location | Temple of Yig |
| Ending Location | Lich Tomb |
| Player Characters | Helga, Hans, Burt, Mord, Deaglan*, Sirius, ZZ |
| Base XP Gained | 1928 |
| Player Notes | ZZ's Notes |
The party continued to enjoy the unusual hospitality of the Serpent Man priest. He told them that there were two Troll Kings, but he could not answer which he thought was the most dangerous; indeed, he did not know very much of their realm as he avoided them and they let him be. As for their allies, there were hundreds of Bugbears and Ogres, plus Trolls. As far as he knew there was but one way into their territory. He was unaware of any Ogre Magi dwelling there and, as far as other spellcasters, he knew they had some sub-standard Shamans but he summarily dismissed them as a threat. He reiterated what they’d heard previously, that they were unlikely to be admitted without some sort of legitimate business, though he did not elaborate on that.
As they prepared to leave, ZZ apologized for removing the glyph on the door. The Priest of Yig was quite unconcerned, saying that he merely did it for protection. That glyph was strictly defensive and of no danger to anyone, though he had the capability to place much deadlier glyphs – he avoided doing so in order to not antagonize potential explorers or his neighbors. If they did come back, he suggested they simply knock!
The party now recommenced exploring to the east. The first room they entered had an inanimate Stone Golem which remained so the entire time they poked around. The party then dimmed their lights to allow Deaglan to explore around some darkened corners when a trio of Ogres came up form behind them. They shouted at the party and demanded to know their business as this was the Troll King’s domain. The party pointed out that they had seen the Troll King’s sigil on a door nearby and did not pass it, so therefore this must not be his domain. This confused the rather dim-witted Ogres a bit who merely said the party didn’t belong and should leave. A few more bits of logic and reason were too much and caused the Ogres to grow angry and attack. The first one, though, stumbled in his charge and impaled himself on his polearm! The rest of the melee went about the same for the Ogres, who were slain with little trouble, though Sirius was pummeled rather badly.
After rifling their nasty pocketses, the party went back to what they were doing. A strengthened Hans failed to open another door, which apparently brought the attention of a force of 14 more Ogres that ZZ spotted to the rear. When they saw their dead comrades laying slaughtered in the passage, there was no parley – they attacked! The party began to cast spells and receive the charge, but the Ogres were a hair faster. Sirius’ attempt to web them was disrupted as he was pummeled yet again. Fortunately, Burt was able to get off a minor globe of invulnerability followed by a lightning bolt from Hans. This was well-executed and resulted in 12 of 14 Ogres being fried. The last two were dropped soon thereafter. This time, after rifling them, the party took the time to dispose of the bodies in the golem room, banking up dead Ogres in the hopes it would impede that thing if it started moving.
Further on they came to a room where the air grew warmer and damper, the room Deaglan had scouted in the dark previously. Deaglan had not actually entered the room, a fact that caused much relief as the now lit room was revealed to be completely engulfed in Green Slime, apparently invisible to his infravision! The party debated how or if to proceed here and decided to investigate, throwing a flask of oil to se what that did to the stuff. It worked well, so Hans now cast wall of fire and completely cleared the room of every vestige of the stuff. Further on they found a room with a yellowish-brown mold engulfing it, and they opted to avoid this one.
The next door opened to reveal a rather warm, moist jungle or forest of immense thickness, lit by a filtered greenish light from an unknown source. The floor here was black loam or soil, apparently very fertile judging by the thick growth. There was a rather strong floral smell as the plants seemed to vibrate a bit when the door opened. It was clear that movement through this would be torturously slow, so the party turned to explore elsewhere, lamenting their lack of a druid! The next door opened revealed a room filled with rotting organic matter, dirt, etc as well as two Shambling Mounds (a stark reminder of the loss of Burt’s old Mound pal). These were quite hostile and attacked. The first was literally sliced in half by one great blow by Helga, a stroke for the ages! Meanwhile, the second grabbed Deaglan and crushed him to itself, smothering him. Fortunately, it too was slain moments before he succumbed and died of asphyxiation (knife’s edge there!).
Exploration continued, with one room found to contain many green blotches on the walls and floor, but nothing else. A second door seemed to lead back into the jungle area at a different place.
The party had hoped this path would lead them into the Troll Kings’ realm and seemed to still be going the right direction. Sirius offered to put on his ring of invisibility and take a potion and polymorph into an invisible bird to explore. This he did, first observing that the ceiling was about 20’ feet or so above, with the growth impinging there and offering no better path. He then went west following the perimeter of the room, moving faster than he could possibly in his normal form but still slowed to an extent by the thick jungle and an inability to cut through it. At one point, a huge bud erupted as he passed it, engulfing him in spores. He managed to escape whatever they were doing to him and eventually found that the other door was indeed into the same jungle zone. Nearby, he found a weird, luminous flower of immense size. From it he sensed an intelligence and even curiosity, as if it sensed his presence. Now turning north, he proceeded until he found another of the spore buds, at which point he turned south to rejoin the party before his potion expired.
he party was intrigued by the intelligent flower and made their way thither via the other door. Once on the jungle fringe, Hans cast ESP to try to see what was what with the flower. It seemed curious and not hostile, clearly sentient. Hans tried to communicate and the result was being blasted by a series of visions, what he perceived as being a friendly “gift” from the flower. What he saw: a bunch of odd figures, Ashen Magi, surrounded by their dog-headed soldiers, clearly somewhere in this dungeon by the unique stone of this place; the party placing strange, cold steel armbands on their arms; traversing a weird desert under a purple sky; dark, cold and dry, the party passes an immense skeleton half buried, as large as a castle; swarms of cannibalistic tribesmen raging down from the hills towards the party; a dead face watching the party from far above, apparently looking through a glass; a line of downcast human-looking prisoners being driven by dog-headed soldiers; entering a decayed, ruined city of alien architecture and hidden menace; meeting a desert hermit dressed in silvery robes, grim faced but hand raised in apparent greeting.
Hans asked if this were a warning, but the plant indicated that t was a gift. Hans tried to get clarification but the plant was not helpful here, and it was unclear if this was the future, a future, or what. Other questions on local geography went unanswered, and it seemed as if the plant was losing interest in the party. Not wishing to try to get to the plant to actually see it, the party decided to try exploring some other options before hazarding the jungle.
Moving west, they encountered one of the oddly cultured Ghouls they’d seen before. This one was clearly lost as he stood in an intersection looking helplessly around. Seeing the party, he hailed them with his impeccable diction and requested the way to the Dark Market. He was polite and proper throughout, and clearly grateful as he tried to palm a gold coin to Hans for the help. Hans was having none of that which seemed to put off the Ghoul.
Nearby, a promising passage towards the Troll Kings’ realm was found to be choked with heavy stone. They considered ho they might pass this, and decided to perhaps try it when they had a different array of spells. Further on, they entered a room with three Will-o-Wisps. These were knocked down remarkably fast, though leaving the party wizards rather drained of combat spells. Given this, the party decide to return to the nearby Lich crypt to rest for a night and consider their next actions.