Summary
Flamerule 15
On the Trail (Session 1)
After a quick morning trip to shops for supplies, the party leaves Saerloon on the trail of Aria's brother, Ezra. On the way out of town, they spot a wanted poster for Prim for murder, 50 gold for information leading to, 500gp for her alive only. Seeing that, they question her and she explains her father was killed as part of the conspiracy they investigated in Yhaunn and she now knows the murderer was a Zhentarim agent. They travel to Archenbridge and stop for supplies, then on to Highmoon. In Highmoon, Dolomoth commissions a woodcarver to make his crowstaff. Furath visits the library at the temple of Oghma and gets a bunch of spells. they journey on and arrive at Peldan's Helm. Furath questions a local and finds out where the necromancer was seen digging and leads the party there. There are still open graves and old remains scattered around. Aria casts Summon Spirit and calls up the ghost of an old warrior. He asks Aria to play him a tune and he joins in with ghost bagpipes. He tells them about Ezra digging up bodies, animating them as skeletons and putting them to work digging for more. The ghost says he muttered to himself a lot and had a map, Ezra talked about Strakaal's tomb in the Stonelands and offers to draw the map he read over Ezra's shoulder. Joan recalls that Strakaal was a necromancer warlock in service to a lich or such, over a thousand years ago. The ghost takes Aria's paper and quill and sketches a map. Aria thanks the spirit and releases him.
The party heads south west along the Moonsea Ride, headed for Tilverton and the wastes beyond. Two days later, Culathos contacts Dolomoth, wanting to know where he is. The fey is angry and demands they drop what they are doing to help. Dolomoth explains their mission and Culathos says if the party will help him, he will help them in their pursuit of Ezra. Someone important to Culathos has been kidnapped by his enemies among the Seelie fey. Because of protocol, and the fact that at high summer, the summer fey are ascendant, Culathos cannot directly intervene, but he can send Dolomoth. Culathos transfers memories directly to Dolomoth, giving him a headache that feels like his brain is freezing. There's directions to a fey portal not far away, then directions through the Feywild to the summer stronghold and then directions to another fey portal that will take them closer to the Stonelands.
They change course and travel to the old fey portal which is in an old Stonehenge like circle, but all but two of the stones have fallen. Dolomoth steps up and releases some spell power to open the portal. On the other side is a different land, and they ride through into the Feywild.
With it being high summer and entering in a fairly southern location, this area of the Feywild shows the clear influence of the Seelie court. Plants are green and full, the weather is warm and the sky is a bright blue. It is bright, but there's no sun in the sky. And the light doesn't change. Dolomoth leads them off with his implanted directions. They travel for some hours and follow a path along a hillside, approaching a small pond. Akari spots an ambush by a group of goblins, with archers up hill and javelin throwers downill, waiting to hit them from behind when they turn to face the archers. The archers shoot down the hill while the other goblins throw a couple of javelins each, then charge into melee. These goblins are much better equipped than the ones they are used to. Furath casts Haste on Prim and she rampages through the melee goblins, killing all four almost single handed. Joan casts Bless on the party, and the spell casters hurl spells at the archers and cut them down in short order. They search them for coins, then move on. Dolomoth's directions lead them to a hill where they can see the summer fey's stronghold. It looks like a four tower castle, with walls connecting the towers, but the towers are trees! Each tree is over a hundred feet in diameter, but only four or five hundred feet tall. Walls made of lesser trees grown together like hedges form the walls between the four giant trees at the corners.
Flamerule 30?
Fey Battle (Session 2)
They decide to get more information. They send the familiars to scout. Nuts returns empty handed, but Bar says there are four buildings in the courtyard, one guard walking each of the four walls and one tower has a guard posted at each of its three entrances. While they dabate, a mounted patrol of fey departs the fortress and the gate is left open. They decide to infiltrate. Dolomoth and Akari use Disguise Self to look like fey warriors. Furath and Dolomoth turn the rest of the party invisible. They conceal their horses and approach the fortress. As they walk up to the gate, a guard questions them, but Dolomoth is the only one who speaks Sylvan, the fey language. He convinces the guard they belong and walk in. Looking around the courtyard, they go to the tower to the right of the guarded tower and enter through its open door. Inside is a dining hall, servants are preparing for a meal. Dolomoth leads them to a hallway and upstairs to a servants' common area. A hallway leads to a door and out onto the wall leading to the guarded tower. They emerge and Dolomoth begins berating Akari, pretending to chew her out. The wall guard questions him, but Dolomoth intimidates him. As they move acorss the wall, Furath bumps the guard. Now he's suspicious and spins around and Dolomoth yells at him again, playing an angry officer. The move to the guarded door into the next tower and again Dolomoth yells at the guard as he opens the door. But now Joan makes noise and the two guards confront Dolomoth and Akari. More guards are coming from inside the tower. Furath drinks his Potion of Cloud Giant Strength and grabs the first guard and throws him over the wall to his death. The party attacks, Furath throws the second guard off the wall. Akari hammers the new guards with two Shatter spells. Dolomoth and a fey warlock trade Hex and Eldritch Blasts. Joan casts Spiritual Weapon and goes in to fight. Prim drops a fey archer with a single shot. More guards rally and Aria drops her invisibility to hit them with Thunderwave. The party moves forward, cutting down the defenders, but one flees downstairs. They find a set of stairs and head up, taking a moment for some healing spells.
At the top of the stairs, they find four more guards and engage them. Aria steps to the front to let loose another Thunderwave. But as they move in to fight them, Furath spots an armored troll at the end of the hall guarding a locked door. Dolomoth can feel a powerful fey presence equal to Culathos. Furath attacks the troll, and it attacks with its axe and bites him, but his defensive spells are barely keeping him alive. They kill the guards and start concentrating on the troll, but another troll enters the hallway, she's a warlock! She hammers Furath with Hex/Eldritch Blasts and drops him, then switches to Aria. Akari pulls out the Pipes of Haunting and frightens the two trolls. Dolomoth hits the first troll, Joan heals Furath, Prim snipes at the troll warlock. The armored troll goes down, then Aria does too. Akari heals Aria and the troll caster teleports away after a hit from Prim. They take a moment to catch their breath and Joan yells out to burn the troll. It is regenerating and is about to wake up when Dolomoth hits it with alchemists fire and starts to burn it. The troll warlock reappears out of invisibility behind the party and away from Akari, it has broken the frightening spell. She continues to batter the party and they are running low on spells, but Joan has healed the party again and they manage to drop her, too and Furath sets her on fire.
They run to the locked door and Furath grabs the troll's great axe and smashes the door with his giant strength. Inside is a fey woman, with enchanted handcuffs. She imperiously demands to be released. Dolomoth and Prim picks the locks and her power returns. She kisses Dolomoth on the forehead, then strides out. More troops are coming upstairs. The fey trails icy mists and snowflakes as she moves forward and the walls begin to coat with ice. The guards coming up the stairs panic at the sight of her and she cuts loose with blast after blast of ice magic and begins moving down the stairs, slaughtering the guards. Joan grabs the magic manacles and the party follows. The stairs down are a tube of ice, dismembered fey soldiers are blasted into pieces on the walls, frozen there by their own blood. The party searches for treasure, taking the troll's axe, and orb from the troll warlock and a black fur belt with a roaring bear head buckle from one of the guards. The party catches up to the fey on the wall, she is throwing clouds of icicles against troops in the courtyard. She turns and asks how they got there and they reply they have horses hidden in the woods. A whirlwind of snow lifts them off the wall and carries them to the horses, Furath and Akari fall to their knees, puking with motion sickness. She pauses and seems to be speaking to someone else,, then there's a white flash and they are at a portal arch made of desert sandstone. She kisses each of them on the forehead and gives them a magical blessing, then opens the portal for them to ride through and escape from the feywild.
Desert of Death (Session 3)
(GM's note- I was tired and didn't do my usual job of tracking everyone's combat actions, but I did get a lot of quotes)
The party emerges from the feywild portal onto a dry, dusty hillside. Culathos contacts Dolomoth and asks him to look at the map the ghost drew for Aria. As he looks at it, a snowflake appears in his vision on the map, Culathos tells him that is their location so they know where they came out. Aria thinks it is the same time of day as when they entered the portal, but they don't know what day it is. After the stress of their battle in the Summer fortress, they decide to make camp.
They begin their journey into the Stonelands, an arid area of rocky hills west of Cormyr. Weather is good, and they make good time. A day short of their goal, they hear a woman's voice calling for help. They follow it into a small canyon and dismount as the ground gets rocky and closes in. As they turn a bend, they see the end of the canyon, but no one is in sight. Suddenly an avalanche sweeps down from the steep slopes to their right and most of the party jumps free, but Dolomoth is hit by stones and trapped. As they recover from the dust, four hideous dog like creatures the size of horses charge the party. Joan helps Dolomoth get free and they circle around to face the creatures charging them. The party lashes out in all directions, but the creatures are very strong. Furath and Akari gang up on one and Aria gets the killing blow. Dolomoth and Joan hammer another with Sacred Flame and Eldritch Blast until Akari finishes it. Furath and Aria concentrate on a third and Prim kills it with a flank attack. Joan and Dolomoth double team the last again and Akari gets in another killing blow. They heal and search around to make sure there wasn't a real victim. Furath finds their tracks showing they piled up the stones for the avalanche and spots tracks leading away, but he turns back and the party continues on their way.
Finally, they spot their goal, the map has led them to a suspiciously symmetrical hill standing alone. There is an area where the dirt has been dug away, exposing a tunnel. There is a tent and a group of zombies and skeletons standing guard around the tunnel. The party moves in, Prim sneaks around the far side of the hill and comes up to the crest. When the rest of the party is ready, she pops up and blows the head off a skeleton with her crossbow, then ducks back under cover. The party charges and attacks the monsters. Surprisingly, there is a zombie horse and it charges Joan. But a half dozen minor undead are easily swept aside by the party. They check out the tent, Aria recognizes some of Ezra's books and maps inside. They move forward to the tunnel into the hill and see that under the dirt, the "hill" is really a pyramid! The tunnel is a hallway entering the pyramid, the doors are engraved with a skull breathing fire, in a circle, the symbol of Strakaal's lich patron, Radeira Soulcatcher. Akari uses a ritual to cast Unseen Servant, Furath casts Dancing Lights and Joan casts Light. Inside, the hallway is dusty and becomes steps leading down, a short way down is a landing with hallways leading left and right. The dust on the steps is disturbed by bootprints, on the landing, dragging footprints approach the hallway, then recede back. There are rooms on either side and the boot prints continue down the steps. Furath goes left and finds a room with two mummies sitting up from their rest and a lever on the back wall. Joan goes right and finds a room with three mummies and another lever. The party becomes engaged on both fronts and Joan yells useful advice. Akari makes attacks with Shatter and Aria uses Thunderwave and Burning Hands, Dolomoth goes hand to hand with Shillelagh and Green Flame Blade. Furath uses Fire Bolt spells and Joan turns three of the mummies to give the rest of the party a chance to beat on them. Aria is punched out by a mummy, but brought back. Once the mummies are destroyed, Akari uses Mage hand and Unseen Servant to pull the levers down. There is a grinding noise under the steps. They move down the steps cautiously and find room with a pit, it looks like the steps might have dropped into a slide so intruders would fall into the pit. At the bottom are several bodies, they spot a night black cloak and a torn satchel with shiny golden globes. They use the Unseen Servant to retrieve the cloak and globes. A stairwell leads deeper underground.
They descend, and hear voices ahead, Ezra's and a raspy voice, barely understandable from its antiquated accent. They make their plan. Akari will disguise herself as Aria's dead sister Levina and Aria gives her Levina's diary as a prop. Furath turns Dolomoth and Prim invisible and Prim takes the magical manacles to sneak up and trap the undead warlock (a deathlock). Furath and Joan will hang back. Aria and Akari walk in, it's a tomb with trophies on the wall, a stone writing desk and seven podiums with large, scary arcane tomes. Ezra is reading from one. Aria begins pleading with Ezra, Levina is alive and he doesn't have to do anything and Torin is using him. Strakaal is bemused until Aria mentions Torin and calls him "the Betrayer". He casts Detect Magic on Ezra and realizes he is under Torin's influence and slams him away from the desk with Eldritch Blasts. Ezra stands up, grabs the book and disappears. Prim slaps the manacles on the deathlock and freezes his powers.
Trapped, the deathlock bargains with Aria, since he detected that she is a necromancer of some kind. He is the archive keeper for his patron lich, Radeira Soulcatcher. Torin was one of her minions, but betrayed her to ally with one of her rivals, another lich. That lich was destroyed, but Torin may be seeking to restore him to power. Strakaal will aid them if they promise to stop Ezra before he can deliver the stolen secrets to Torin. Furath realizes Ezra teleported away somehow and runs upstairs. When he comes out, a dust storm has swirled up and visibility is poor, the sun is setting. Furath searches Ezra's tent, food and water and some other supplies are gone, the dust storm is covering his tracks. In the tomb, Strakaal also offers Aria personal power, she can swear an oath and become a warlock to his master as well. The party agrees to free him and releases the manacles. He tells them Ezra is being controlled by Torin and he will seek to return to "the false faire". Aria knows the travelling circus is on its last leg, heading south towards Suzail and coming towards them. Ezra will head towards them, they need to stop him along the way. They leave the tomb, Strakaal calls after Aria, his lady will be listening for her, the offer is good up until the moment they fail… When they emerge from the tomb, the doors swing shut behind them.
Silly Quotes and Smart Remarks
We had seven bags of chips, three jars of dip, a package of cookies, and a box of donut holes
Brittany "Happy Snacksgiving"
Discussing names for weapons
Jack "I'm going to name my dagger Oxford Comma"
Jim "Then no one will use it"
Discussing the last adventure Brittany missed and the slaughter at the dinner hall
Nick "Circle of Murder"
Brittany "Sounds like a Spanish soap opera, but less Spanish and more murder"
Strakaal's warlock patron was a lich
Jack "You ever get a lich you just can't scratch?"
Dolomoth's patron contacts him and is angry and upset
Evan "Take a chill pill"
Jim "You told the winter fey to take a chill pill?"
Nick "Don't you hate it when your boss calls you in on the weekend?"
Sam read an online article about a woman who claims to have married a ghost. He couldn't propose on one knee because he didn't have legs.
The fey patron tells Dolomoth what he wants
Evan "Does he want me to marry him and does he have knees?"
Jack "Your patron turns and slaps you across the face"
The patron downloads knowledge to Dolomoth and it's a terrible brainfreeze
Jim "No lube"
Katya winces.
Going to the Feywild
Evan "Just remember to grapple some kids"
Jack "There'll be no kid grappling"
They need to rescue a fey woman
Brittany "Fewoman"
Seeing the size of the trees the summer fortress is built into
Jack "We're going to need a bigger axe…"
Summing up where we were and describing the summer court tree fortress
Brittany "Forestress"
We played at Jack's new house, he needs lots of blinds for all his windows
Jack "A blinding amount"
The party approaches the fortress gate and a guard calls down to them
Jim "Do you seek admittance?"
Jack "We admit nothing"
Some of the fortress staff are other races, like satyrs
Sam "Do any of them look familiar?"
Jack "There'll be no child grappling"
Jim puts a miniature of a troll spellcaster on the map
Evan, joking "Is that a troll-lock?"
Jim "Yep"
Discussing the usefulness of Leomund's Tiny Hut spell
Jack "Just drop a house on the witch"
Telling Katya about Valoris' icy rampage through the summer court fortress, with her victims blown apart and frozen to the walls in their own blood
Jack "Summer to winter in 30 seconds"
Brittany "Just like Buffalo"
Katya "That's an aesthetic in itself"
Nick "The aesthetic is terrifying"
Discussing using the familiars to scout
Sam and Brittany <Singing> "What a wonderful squirrel"
Talking about using the Belt of the Bear to change form in mid-air and crush someone
Jack "Bear-strike"
Looking at skills
Nick "What does Insight do?"
Sam "It's a vibe check"
Discussing the ugliness of the leucrottas, which look like a mix of different animals
Katya "Lots of inbreeding"
Brittany uses Toll the Dead and gets to roll 2d12
Nick "2d12 of murder"
The leucrottas are demon beasts
Jack "It's all fun and games until the abomination of God comes for you"
Jack "I can't wait until I get 9th level spells for Meteor
Evan "You should use it against dinosaurs"
Talking about various undead things, how do skeletons hear without ears, for example
Jim "How do undead dragons fly; they don't have flesh!"
Brittany "Neither do airplanes!"
Prim now has +11 Stealth, so she could sneak up on Akari with her 24 Passive Perception if Sam rolls well
Jack "What happens when an unnoticeable object meets an inescapable sight line?"
The party needs light in the tomb
Jack "I have Dancing Lights"
Nick "It's like a rave"
Everyone starts making rave music noises
Jack "We've got our glow sticks; let's go"
The party encounters mummies
Jack "I don't want my mummy, I was looking for my dad"
They find treasure, shiny golden globes with an arcane rune
Brittany "It's the Holy Hand Grenade!"
Talking to Strakaal and Ezra, Akari is pretending to be Levina
Brittany "Just another day in Faerun"
Talking about Aria's family history, abandoned by family, Levina first thought dead, then alive, then dead for real, Ezra is a necromancer controlled by some kind of undead, now Aria has to stop him
Nick to Jack "And we thought our family had problems"
