Session 14 - The One With The Earwax
21st Dec 2020 19:15 - 22:00
In-game timeline: DR1489 Elesias 13 - Eleasias 15
We rejoin our "Heroes" in the Ol' Boar Inn in Oakhurst, all nursing a pint of Goblin Brew Ale, nervously deciding who should reveal more of their personal history first.
In the end Thomas was the first to crack under pressure, and spent some time outlining his history, both ancient and recent. Luckily, he spent far less time than Stephen R. Donaldson in relating a plagiarised story, and so we all breathed a huge sigh of relief when the baton was passed, first to Kandi, and then to Carro and Mahtis.
Feeling that they now knew each other far better, though probably liked each other only the same amount, they went to bed, after agreeing to give Belak's wand to Thomas, as he was so keen to have it, with no immediate, obvious ill effects.
The following morning Carro went to visit his brother, Erdan, who was now conscious and able to talk. Carro joined the rest of the group for breakfast and passed on the information he had gleaned from his brother.
It was all agreed that the best next steps would be to head to Neverwinter (which is the last known whereabouts of Mahtis' sister, and is further west, which fits with Kandi's plans to find a Wise Woman, or his lifelong friend) and try to find the half orc Togruk (which is the person that both Carro and TC are keen to find). They also wanted to do this quickly, as they were worried that Belak may be heading to Neverwinter himself in order to find and kill Togruk. So, Neverwinter it is!
And so they headed back to the Fortress.
In a period of impressive procrastination, each member of the group provided perfectly valid reasons why they should not head straight for Neverwinter. Classic Columbo "Just one more thing…" moments included:
- We must tell Yussi about Calcryx and lead her back to the Fortress (why she couldn't find her own way back to her old home is not worth delving into)
- We must check on Calcryx, like we said we would
- We could never beat Belak to Neverwinter, as he is likely to change into a horse (the DM especially liked this one)
- We should try to find the legendary Dragonsboon, especially since we have a key
- We should bury Karakas' body (not sure why they didn't think of this last time they walked out of the Fortress, but at least they got round to thinking about it this time)
- What about those four pillars we ignored?
- There must be some "dragon artefacts" somewhere, as Mayor Leng keeps asking about them (but then again, they had just come out of an old dragon worshipping fortress, so it was a fair question to ask, even if no artefacts remained there)
And so it was decided to head back to the Fortress and use the key they found on Karakas' body in the south-western part of the building. And this they duly did.
After killing a couple of innocent bats, and running away from some noises they heard in the northern entrance to the Fortress, they progressed into rooms not yet encountered, and, by the state of them, unvisited by anyone for a long time. Mahtis did a bit of spider-scouting ahead to check there was no danger of being set upon by enemies, before they all proceeded.
Discovering a glowing, glass orb that was emitting quiet, tinkling music, they cautiously approached. When the music got louder and a little more ominous, causing TC and Carro to flee the Fortress altogether and wait outside, they decided to block out the noise from their ears. An initial suggestion to stick a bedroll in their ears, was swiftly discounted. The next idea of sticking a candle in their ears was refined a little, to become sticking moulded candle wax in their ears, and this they did.
This led to much merriment as they decided to carry the now very noisy glass orb out of the Fortress, whilst not being able to hear each other speak, so needing to communicate with hand gestures only. Eventually they did bury the orb beneath some rocks outside, covering it with the aforementioned bedroll (inwardly pleased at being saved from becoming someone's earplug) which served to cut out the glow, though not the loud music.
In the meantime, however, Kandi, left alone in the room, decided to scout ahead on his own. And promptly got an arrow in his chest from some form of trap. By the time TC and Carro returned, both wearing earplugs, they wondered for a while why Kandi was standing there, dripping blood. Eventually Kandi got the message across about the trap, and TC progressed down the trapped corridor using his shield to successfully block the arrow that aimed for his chest.
It was unfortunate that at this point they all decided to remove their earplugs, so they could talk to each other more easily. Combined with the fact that Mahtis, still wearing her earplugs, at a similar point in time decided to move closer to the Fortress entrance with the singing orb. Whilst TC was now out of range of the disturbing music, Carro and Kandi were not. Carro resisted the strange sounds, but Kandi did not, and was scared enough to run away from them as fast as he could. Which meant running back into the trapped corridor, over the trap and receiving another arrow in his chest for his trouble, before reaching the far side and out of range of the music.
I know, you can't make this stuff up.
Kandi gave himself some healing and then worked with TC to disarm the trap, which enabled Carro to come over and join them with no problems. Mahtis, doing her own thing, was still standing just outside the Fortress with the singing orb, and with candlewax in her ears. At this point she decided to bury the orb.
Kandi, TC and Carro pressed on without her, arriving in a room with a large, marble dragon statue atop a raised dais. With no exits from the room, Kandi approached the statue to look for traps. Before he could do any investigation, as soon as he stepped onto the dais, the dragon statue's mouth appeared to move, and a booming voice filled the room: "In who's honour was this Fortress erected?".
TC, standing further in the room, said "Ashardalon". However, at the same time Kandi, standing next to the statue, asked aloud "Does anyone remember the name…" but was unable to finish his sentence as the booming voice said a simple "INCORRECT!", and a large amorphous blob of grey ooze dropped from the ceiling to the floor near to Kandi.
Quick as a flash TC drew his sword and dropped the torch he was carrying. Carro fired an arrow into the blob, which hit, but Kandi saw the arrowhead quickly corroding away inside the blob, so took the sensible decision to use spells and hit the blob with a Shatter blast before backing away from it. The blob raised an ominous looking pseudopod and swiped at Carro, hitting him for some bludgeoning damage and causing significant acid burning too. TC, in a desperate act to prove his prowess with a sword, despite seeing what happened to Carro's arrow head and the acid currently burning into Carro's body, swung at the blob with his longsword and scored a good hit, causing enough damage to the blob to ensure it dissipated away through the gaps in the flagstones beneath it. However his sword blade emerged corroded from the blow, and would prove to be less effective in future fights.
As Mahtis finally arrived to join them, the group cautiously triggered the dragon's question again, and this time TC, standing on the dais, gave the correct answer straight away, ensuring no more ooze monsters appeared. Instead, a very cleverly camouflaged door in the western wall opened, allowing them to progress.
The revealed room looked untouched for many years, centuries even. It contained six beautiful, life-size marble statues, seemingly of elves, standing to attention in alcoves along the walls. A draconic inscription on an archway above a pit of spikes was unreadable due to the dust and dirt that had accumulated over the runes. Beyond the pit was a room lined with marble tiles, many cracked with age, containing a single torch burning with a strange, green light. In the centre of this room was a long sarcophagus with a dragon-headed lid seemingly clamped tightly shut. A dusty suit of armour stood on an armour-stand in the corner of the room, but there were no other obvious objects in the room, nor any doors or windows.
With the pit only 10' wide, the group decided to risk a run-up and jumping over the pit, which they all managed to do, though Kandi only just and needed TC to grab him and pull him to avoid him from falling back into the pit of spikes.
And so we leave our determined group of "Heroes" standing before an ancient sarcophagus of dragon imagery, confident in their abilities to best whatever may appear in this room, after their grand successes over a basic glowing ball of glass, a simple arrow trap and a small bit of slime. Is their confidence well-founded? Or just foolish? We shall see, in the next instalment…