Kythorn 5
Kythorn 5, 1370:
High = 70, Low = 50 (N from ILO)
No precipitation
Calm.
Overcast.
Training completed that evening:
* Steve completes training and goes to 9th level bard, rolling 2,
then 2-1, then 1-2=1 for total of 50HP.
* Maanamere becomes a 7th level ranger and rolls 2, then 4-1 for
hp bringing his total to 53hp.
* Ag goes to 8th level thief, rolling 4, bringing his total to 38hp.
* Denyae goes to 7th level fighter rolling 1 then 8-1, +3 for CON,
bringing her total hit points to 82.
After dark, Ag, Brogan, Darius, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve (with
gargoyle ring), and Tristan head for the mines. Steve summons a
gargoyle to leave behind, taking 4hp damage. Dexter casts Wyvern
Watch on the gun deck. Brogan casts Blessed Watchfulness and
Sacred Guardian on Henkles before leaving.
They arrive without incident, Brogan reverses the Stone Shape and
they all descend.
The party heads northwest and around to the northernmost junction
room and disturb the webs to see if spiders come out, which they
do. Violence happens. Spiders die.
3900xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve, and
Tristan
This junction room repeats the pattern of the previous ones -
table & chairs, some old/damaged equipment, some loose
detritus/low quality ore with some corstal in it. There are three
other exits, going roughly N, E & S. The party leaves everything
in place for now and explores the three exits, each turns out to
be a roughly straight tunnel about 500' long with three sets of
exploratory side-tunnels. Nothing of interest is noted in any of
them.
Meanwhile, Denyae comes off DRG.
Returning all the way to the entrance shaft, the party explores
the SW tunnel, which goes for about 500' before reaching another
web-filled junction room. Violence happens again. Spiders die
again.
2600xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan
Using torches, they cleared the webs away and found a typical
30'x30' junction room. There were exits going W and SSE, they
chose SSE.
The tunnel proceeded for over 750' before they encountered a set
of the now familiar exploratory side-tunnels, however in this case
the downward-sloping tunnel to the east had been expanded to the
width of the main tunnel. The party proceded past it for the
moment but soon encountered a second, more typical set of side
tunnels followed by a dead end. They returned to the widened side
tunnel and proceeded down.
At that moment, Dexter's Wyvern Watch spell was triggered back on
the ship. Steve's gargoyle signals to Henkles, who raises the
alarm: "All hands repel boarders!"
Some zombies reach the gun deck first, Henkles arrives to find a
leather clad dwarf waving a holy symbol at them and looking very
frustrated. Henkles yells “Drop that! Surrender or die!” He
dives out the nearest port hole. Henkles pursues him into the
water.
Henkles finds himself in the water with a mysterious dwarf.
Nearby, two dwarves are hauling an apparently paralyzed dwarf onto
their rowboat. Henkles makes for the boat. He yells “Rowboat!”
up to the Star Chaser confusing the zombies. Some of them begin
lowering a rowboat. Some living crew run for bows. (Can't get a
ballista shot at this angle.) The gargoyle dropped a sack of
rocks on the rowboat from great height and puts a big hole in the
bottom. The dwarves on boat begin bailing and rowing away. The
dwarf in the water dives below the surface.
Henkles dives after the dwarf swimmer, but can't find him in the
darkness. He pulls out a Continual Light button but it
doesn't help. Henkles heads for the rowboat.
Once they are far enough from the Star Chaser to be targeted,
ballista shots start hitting the rowboat. The dwarves stop rowing
and stick their hands up. Eventually the zombies stop firing.
Henkles swims to the rowboat before it sinks. The dwarven sailors
say “Hi! We just work here. We surrender. A lot.” Henkles
suggests maybe piracy isn’t the life for them.
The Star Chaser gets a rowboat in the water with two humans and
two zombies and sends it over to the dwarven rowboat. The dwarves
see zombies and start screaming. Henkles says “Get in the boat
and lie down. Or else.” They think about it and scream a little
more. Henkles tries to climb into the dwarves rowboat, which
finishes swamping it. The dwarves scream some more and panic.
One goes back to bailing the (under water) rowboat. Henkles grabs
the paralyzed dwarf before she can drown and hauls her to the Star
Chaser's rowboat, where the zombies haul her in. In the mean time
the dwarves panicked even more, since they can't swim. Henkles
directs the Star Chaser rowboat over to the swamped one. The
dwarven sailors grab the side of the rowboat, then remember the
zombies. More screaming and flailing ensues.
Henkles yells “Stop worrying about the differently living and get
into the boat!”. There are two traditionally living sailors in
the boat, they grab the dwarves and haul them in. In the process,
both dwarves fall mysteriously unconscious. The Star Chaser crew
has no idea why and they didn't do anything with those belaying
pins, whatever do you mean?
No sign of the swimming dwarf can be found anywhere and he is
presumed to have used some form of Water Breathing.
Back in the dungeon, the party got to the bottom of the widened
stairway and found that it met a tunnel going NNW and SSE at the
bottom. there were some (3) huge centipedes ther, but they
ignored the party and the party returned the favor. Heading NNW,
they went for about 350' before reaching a dead end. They
returned to the foot of the stairs and proceeded past it.
Heading SSE, then ESE for a total of about 1000', they came to
another junction room and began clearing the webs with
torches. Three giant spiders came rushing out, saw the party, and
retreated. The party shot them in the back, but didn't kill any.
Steve cast Flaming Sphere to finish clearing the room, the
spiders were not seen again but some burning flesh was smelled in
the process. The room proved to be a typical junction with more
detritus that might hold some corstal. They left it for now and
moved on.
Exits from the room went ENE and SSE. The party went ENE first
and travelled about 600' before passing two sets of side tunnels
and reaching a dead end.
Returning to the last junction, they went SSE. That tunnel wound
for about 750' before ending with a set of side tunnels, but the
side tunnel going down and SW had been widened. Ag headed down
and found that it stopped at a pit after 65'. Lowering his light
into the pit, he found that the shaft had intersected with the
ceiling of a natural cave, about 25' above the floor. The cave
was about 55' wide E-W at its widest point and 160' from the
furthest point South to the furthest point North. Along the E
wall a stream was running and most of the rest of the chamber was
filled with mushrooms. There were many stalactites, but only a
few large stalagmites. There were iron rings set in the walls
above the openning that still looked servicable.
Darius and Ag began descending into the chamber on the Tenser's
Throw Rug, while Dexter used his Ebony Fly. Before they reached
the bottom however, a shrieker started shrieking and nine white
snake-like creatures with stubby legs came swarming out of the
water. Everybody went back up while Brogan and Tristan used
Rockburst on the creatures and Ag cast Magic Missile
to finish the last one.
825xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for 9 Drink Skinks and some collateral shriekers.
Start of 2017-12-24 Game (Star Chaser) and 2018-01-28 Game (Mine)
Meanwhile, back at the Star Chaser, the crew in the rowboat start
paddling back to the ship, with Henkles clinging to the side to
avoid crowding. Suddenly, Brogan's Sacred Guardian spell
notified him that Henkles was in danger. He notified Steve, who
sent his gargoyle zooming in. Seeing no threat above the water,
the gargoyle grabbed Henkles and hauled him into the rowboat, two
segments before the first shark would have bit him.
The gargoyle hauled the swamped rowboat back to the Star Chaser so
that the other rowboat could return faster.
The sailors spotted fins all around the rowboat just as the
gargoyle was hauling Henkles up, then the sharks started attacking
the rowboat in earnest. Most tried to bump into the boat and
capsize it, but one or two each round actually surged out of the
water and tried to bite Henkles or a sailor. The first sailor
attacked in this manner was Spuds Arraramas, a living human of
Amnish descent, who panicked and spent the rest of the encounter
screaming and waving an oar around instead of rowing. The second
sailor who was attacked was Orthrarevra Mamardudon, a zombie woman
originally from Baldur's Gate, who ignored the shark, even after
it took a chunk out of her arm.
Henkles started throwing darts, but switched to swords when he
realized the sharks were coming to him. He also sustained a minor
bite. Staric and some of the human crew also joined in with bows,
doing a lot of damage to the sharks but also doing two points of
damage to Orthrarevra and another two to Sirsu, one of the dwarf
prisoners, with stray arrows. Eventually, the rowboat reached the
ship and the last of the sharks was dispatched while the prisoners
were being hauled onboard.
520xp to Henkles, Staric, and the entire living crew of the Star
Chaser for 8 sharks.
As soon as the prisoners were hauled on board, Alrillenion,
Katirask, and Old Scurvy recognized one of the sailors as
Sirsu, whom they had served with in the past. Linlenial Aelirial
identified the other sailor as Dunardu, Niece of Throfain
Mararderdon, whom she had served with on the Spectral Voyager in
'68 and '69. Henkles had the paralyzed dwarf and Dunardu moved
into a cabin and left Kadatae BlueShade, a particularly burly
female zombie, to guard them. Then he took Sirsu into another
room and Staric began questioning him.
Back in the mine, Darius and Brogan began descending again on the
rug. The shriekers went off again, but no skinks this time. They
landed and started considering how best to deal with the shriekers
but were interruted by a bunch of javelins flying at them from the
south. Dexter identified the source as kobolds and Darius used a
Snilloc's Snowball Swarm to eliminate them, also eliminating some
shriekers.
268xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for 4 kobolds and 2 shriekers.
The kobolds didn't have any cash, but they were all wearing
necklaces with peices of corstal on them! Between them they had 5
1 oz. pieces.
The rest of the party descended and they followed some cart tracks
south, through an empty chamber and further south to a carved
tunnel heading east (having descended about 50' in the process).
This was a typical mine tunnel, but after about 100' the party
reached a point where the tunnel intersected a natural cave that
was only about 18" high at it's highest but ran for 90' along the
N wall and 50' along the S wall (about 3' above the floor) The far
end of the cavern wasn't visible in either direction, but there
were a lot of tiny eyes looking out of the darkness from the
north. The eyes resolved into dozens of pink skinks that came
swarming out at the party. It went poorly for them.
4290xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for pink skinks.
On the Star Chaser, Sirsu, who identified himself as Sirsu of the
Sea Vault, insisted that he was an innocent sailor who was just
following orders to row the two dwarf priests out to the Star
Chaser. He was very upset that he was wounded and that there were
zombies on the ship. Henkles became a great defender of zombie
equality. Sirsu insisted that they should be handed over to the
local authorities, since they were in harbor, but he was willing
to answer questions. Henkles and Staric learned:
- the dwarf ship is called the Star Vault
- it's "really cool" because it's made of stone
- the engines are in the back and involve steam somehow, but he
wasn't clear on how
- there are about 175 dwarves on board
- about 20 are marines, 20-30 are clerics
- Sirsu isn't into religion much, but the clerics are probably
Abbathor worshipers
- he doesn't know what they were after
- one of the dwarf clerics was probably named Durin
Around the time Sirsu was being questioned, somebody checked the
hold and reported that one of the two locks on the chest holding
the Coronet had been unlocked. General alarms were sounded and
the ship was searched for intruders without luck. However, when
Staric and Henkles were done with Sirsu, they brought him back to
the holding cabin and discovered that Kadatae had been beheaded
and the dwarf cleric (plus her equipment) was gone!
Henkles joined the search of the ship and spotted the two dwarves
making their way towards the stairs, but when he attacked them, he
lost track of them. Likewise, Staric spotted them coming up the
stair to the deck, but tried to attack and lost track of them
while somebody brushed past him. Then a cry went up from the deck
that they were there and Henkles and Staric ran up. Everyone was
shouting and lot's of people where yelling "there they are", but
anyone who tried to grab them seemed to lose track of them. Those
not attacking reported that one was drinking a potion while the
other went for the rails. Finally someone got a saving throw past
the Sanctuary spell and rushed to stop the dwarf going over
the side, but he yelled "Pause!" with a Command spell and
made it to the water.
The second cleric turned into a seagul and flew off. Two
ballistae were brough to bear, but the gunners couldn't find their
target. The gargoyle tried to grab it but failed to beat the
Sanctuary spell. Mrap-M'rap likewise tried to attack but
couldn't. Several crew members grabbed bows, but only one got off
a shot that hit. That knocked the seagul out of the sky, but she
turned into a shark as soon as she hit the water and was gone.
The second cleric had been forced to drop her armor when she
polymorphed, so that was still on the deck. Eventually Tristan
would identify it as +3 Studded Leather. When he searched her
initially, Staric had pocketed a 1000gp letter of credit,
redeemable in Citadel Adbar, so the dwarf lost that as well.
While this was going on, the folks in the mine continued east to a
stoud iron-bound door covered with oil cloth. There were also
three more pink skinks, which didn't last long.
195xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for pink skinks.
Beyond the door, there was another 50' of tunnel and then a 50x50
room with tunnels leaving W, N, ENE, and ESE. The room held two
long tables and four chairs, all smashed, and two carts, one
missing a wheel, one with a broken axle. The SE corner of the
room was filled with the now ubiquitous pile of tailings. Each
corridor was blocked by a door like the one they had already come
through, about 50' out from the room. The oilcloth had mostly
been torn from the doors. Listening at the ENE door, the party
heard 7 skinks beyond, but they fled when they saw the party.
Beyond the door the air smelled foul. The party eventually
identified the smell as pompholyx dust, a common mining hazard
that causes open wounds to burn for additional damage (also ruins
the lungs, but that's a long-term hazard). They eventually
learned that everywhere E of the room they had just left was
permeated with the stuff.
They returned to the large room, searched it, and examined the
pile of tailings, but inspection showed that the pile had already
been picked clean of corstal. Nothing else was discovered in the
search.
The party headed through the north door and found the air somewhat
cleaner. As they headed north, the 7 skinks they had seen earlier
tried to sneak up on them. Didn't work.
455xp to Ag, Brogan, Darius, Denyae, Dexter, Maanamere, Steve,
and Tristan for pink skinks.
On the Star Chaser, Henkles and Staric searched the ship some
more, but found no further signs of intruders. They questioned
Dunardu, Niece of Throfain Mararderdon, whose story was consistent
with that of Sirsu of the Sea Vault. Additional details they
learned where:
- The Sea Vault's top speed isn't as fast as a ship under full
sail in favorble wind but can beat a ship that has to tack in
a crosswind.
- It takes almost half an hour to get the ship to full speed,
and it usually goes slower to save fuel.
- The Sea Vault turns slowly enough that the captain has called
her the "worlds fastest tectonic plate".
In the mine, the party explored the north tunnel, which eventually
drifted NNE and which eventually stopped after three sets of
exploratory side tunnels.
