TOPIC: R4. Princes of the Apocalypse

Scarlet Moon Hall, part 1
A funny thing happened on the way back to Summit Hall. Dreena Dellmon, is that you? A cosy evening around the campfire. Pay no heed to the noisy lycanthrope tied to the tree. Dreena and her friends are going to Scarlet Moon Hall. A gathering of druids at the invitation of Elizar Dryflagon. The Rite of the Wicker Giant? Never heard of it. Let’s tag along.

To Summit Hall first. Drop off the freed slaves. Lady Ushien cures lycanthropy. A funny thing happened on the way to Scarlet Moon Hall. Attack of the devil dogs. Arrival at the hall. Nice place – not! A tower on a hill, a huge wickerman and a hillside of happy campers. Bort proves he has no social graces. For Helm’s sake Bort, is it really necessary to pick a fight with absolutely everybody on the way up this damned hill?

Intermission
Meanwhile back at Red Larch. A town full of conspirators, secrets and spies. The tale of Nylox and Nylar.

Scarlet Moon Hall, part 2
Despite the place name, there’s not a hall in sight. It’s a tower perched on a hill within a decrepit circular outer wall. The wickerman blazes. Fire cultists and hell hounds everywhere. Ascending the tower. Elizar Dryflagon awaits (with his little dwarfish friend with the fiery mane). The spellcasting begins. So much arcane force in such a confined space. The tower cracks and shatters. Dryflagon is defeated. The gathered druids were tricked. The hillside strikes camp and disperses.

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Into the Valley
Return to Feathergale Spire. So why was the telescope on the pinnacle spying on the valley floor below? Oooh, is that a secret entrance? Goodbye Snakey Snake. Hello Hawkey Hawk the Second. Into the Valley. A fissure. A subterranean passage. Bugger me, this passage goes on for miles! Whispers in the darkness. Dead monks. A stone stair. Bugger me, this stairway goes on for miles! A precipice above a hucking fuge cavern – I mean its seriously big. Is that the legendary and long-abandoned dwarven city of Tyar-Besil we see before us?


Tyar-Besil
Arched entrance. Centuries old dwarven statues. A gatehouse. Tortured screams from the city. A cacophony of strange voices lift in imitation of the terrible cries. A junction of streets with buildings and walls joining at various angles. Kahlan listens at the first door. Aargh, my bleeding ears - that’s the worst music I’ve ever heard! Let’s kill the musicians (we use the term loosely). The players did for music what the Vogons did for poetry. There’s a man chained to the wall (so that he may appreciate the players). Damok Seer joins the party. Damok is a paladin of the god of light, and a man with the power to heal too— much to Bort’s annoyance.

Zombies are People Too
Hawkey Hawk reconnoitres. Beggars in the colonnade. Ungrateful wretches. The central plaza. The great pyramid and moat. Wyvern rider. Damok saves Burlap. It’s great to have a nurse at last. A largely futile charge of cultists. There’s something in the water. We haven’t slept for over a day. Let’s find somewhere to kip. Funny little bird-men. Let’s kill them and sleep in their gaff. Bort raises them from the dead and gets them to stand sentry while they party gets some much needed shut-eye. Just as well, the bird-men zombies kill off curious cultists in the night. When the party awake, only one zombie remains standing. Bort names his new zombie pal, Beaky.


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The Queen of the Howling Hatred
Back to the pyramid. Holy levitating priests! Fireball! Up-rushing air from a bottomless pit. Bort invites Beaky to jump into the void. Goodbye Beaky. The Queen will see you now. An audience with Aerisi Kalinoth, self-styled Queen of the cult of Howling Hatred. Damok steps forth. The rest of the party stands back (probably wise). Aerisi invites you to rid her of the hated Earth Cult, in return she’ll let you live. Talks don’t go well. Burlap wrecks the pyramid. Bort calls upon Talos to unleash the power of the storm. Aerisi Kalinoth’s body dissipates into wisps of air. Her spear drops to the ground. Damok claims the queens nice-looking spear. Damok starts to act queer.

Onwards to the Crushing Wave
Departing the Howling Hatred (air cult) the party follow a tunnel to another part of Tyar-Besil. This section of the ancient city is ruled by the Crushing Wave (water cult). A great underground lake and lots of unnerving darkness. Running battles with the locals. Freeing prisoners. One prisoner Bero Gladham, is fraught with worry – his wife Nerise has been “taken below” by cultists. Damok gives Bort the nice spear he took from the air queen. Damok instantly feels better it – and so does Bort. A strange lab and a weird glass tank with a leather harness. Bort creates a new zombie friend. Let’s strap the weird glass tank to the zombie’s back. The troll beneath the bridge.

Chatting with Thuluna Maah (an old hag with designs on the water cult leadership). The current leader of the Crushing Wave is Gar Shatterkeel. Shatterkeel, one of the four elemental prophets, is Bort’s sworn enemy. Each prophet received a weapon imbued with elemental power. Bort posseses Windvane, the spear of Aerisi Kalinoth, the prophet of elemental air. If Thululna has her way the Dessarin Valley will be covered by water. For some reason the party didn’t think that aiding Thuluna was a good idea. Bort banishes the hag temporarily to hell. There’s just enough time to ransack her apartment and steal her belongings before she gets back.


Windvane – magical, a silvered +2 spear, aside from the weapon damage of a spear it also delivers a bonus 1d6 lightning damage. The wielder can speak Auran. The wielder has resistance to lightning damage. The wielder can cast Dominate Monster on an air elemental 1/day (save DC17). Windvane, though solid, feels almost ethereal, like grasping flowing air. The wielder gains a Flaw: “I break my vows and plans. Duty and honour mean nothing to me”.

Battle of the Crushing Wave Temple
Passages, canals, bridges and chambers. A courtyard of troglodytes. A watery serpent. The huge stone doors. A temple room of lizardfolk and a big ugly brute of scales, spikes and teeth –it’s a slaad. The Battle of the Water Temple. Everyone gets their chance to shine. Bort wades into the temple room proper and engages in melee against a mass of enemies. Everyone else does the decent thing and leaves Bort to it; choosing instead to snipe with ranged stuff from the relative safety of their own side of the bridge. A hard fought triumph. Sadly, Hawkey Hawk II is swatted to death. Owly Owl is his replacement. The zombie with the water tank trudges off into the darkness.

A Game of Riddles with a Giant Bug
Exploring the remaining areas controlled by the Crushing Wave. Trolls in the chambers: Marrowsucker and Nine Teeth are not as tough as they (or the GM) thought. A bi-pedal insectoid stands in the dark, guarding the top of a stone stair. A game of riddles (in the polite tones of Abyssal). Mr Insect doesn’t stand aside for losers. The party decides to let it slide for now. We’ll head back to the surface for some fresh air and plot our next move.

Here endeth the recap.


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Unlikely to be there tomorrow. Garuda - I'll text one of the chaps to let you know...

ROTATION FOUR (20 JUNE 2019)

26 Flamerule 1491 DR

Summit Hall
A couple of weeks rest at Summit Hall. Bad news from the west: Feathergale Spire and its environ has recently been destroyed in an explosion of elemental force. A solemn evening meal in the banquet hall. Loremaster Eraban, aged and wise advisor to Lady Ushien, takes a funny turn. His eyes roll back. He speaks in a strange voice: “Those that have interfered shall now bear witness to our power! The towns of Amphail and Beliard shall feel the destructive force or our wrath!” Lady Ushien decides to despatch two parties: Her knights shall travel south to Amphail; the party shall travel east across the Sumber Hills to Beliard. Next morning, before first light, you depart.

27 Flamerule

Beliard
Arrival at Beliard. It’s just after dark. Locals have been gathered in the village centre, rounded up by zealots of the Black Earth cult. One cultist holds an orb of energy while others sway and chant in a low melodious rhythm. Enter the heroes. Weapons clash, arrows sing and flashes of magical energy are swapped. A bright light emanates from the expanding orb. The orb’s luminosity grows, it crackles with energy, a hums fills the air with a tenable vibration.

Just as the cultist with the orb prepares for his martyrdom Bort casts a spell. A darkness enshrouds the cultist. The sphere in his hands becomes a blinding light, reaching its critical moment, but the darkness envelops him – and he and the orb are gone. Phew! That was close.

Meanwhile, somewhere in a plane of existence made of flesh and tarrasque bones – an explosion of elemental force tears reality asunder.

29 Flamerule

Sacred Stone Monastery
Report back to Lady Ushien at Summit Hall. Time to tackle the Earth cult. A guide takes you back to the Sacred Stone Monastery. Inside, nobody has done any housework for weeks. Rooms have been stripped of all items of worth. Down, down to the monastery undercroft. Nobody home. Down, down the ancient stair and down, down some more to a natural bridge spanning a gaping chasm. Beware gargoyles!


TREASURE
Not a lot.

XP AWARD
Bort, Burlap, Kahlan, Ellass and Damok each earn 3,000XP for this week’s exploits.
Including bonus XP for saving the town of Beliard from the Black Earth’s Devastation Orb.
Slade earns a token 2,000XP.

Bort….…. Award: 3,000 XP...…..Total: 35,700 XP....Level 8
Burlap...….Award: 3,000 XP...…...Total: 33,900 XP....Level 7
Damok…...Award: 3,000 XP...…..Total: 30,500 XP....Level 7
Ellass…….Award: 3,000 XP...…..Total: 29,700 XP....Level 7
Kahlan…...Award: 3,000 XP...…..Total: 33,200 XP....Level 7
Slade...….Award: 2,000 XP...…..Total: 29,200 XP.....Level 7




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