A first-hand account of the following events has been recorded by Glock in his journal.
SESSION 02:
Glock, Machival, Radagast, and Jhaan awoke in the storeroom, after securing it the night before when they killed the two Kobolds inside.
Drawn to investigate the dark forces he sensed, Caligo found himself suddenly inside this same storeroom, unnoticed by the waking party.
This did not last too long, however, and Glock quickly jumped into an offensive defense before this mushroom creature could take advantage of their low guard.
Jhaan, and Machival did not do much to help resolve the situation and watched on in indifference as Glock tried to scare this mushroom, whilst Radagast attempted to break their focus on one another to find a peaceful resolution.
Eventually Glock threatened his way to peace, and Caligo agreed to move with them in these unknown caves.
The first task of the day was solving a puzzle involving the identification of a fake coin which sat amongst 8 real coins. The party makes short work of this, solving it on their first attempt, and unlocking a hidden door to a chest and a strange mechanism.
The chest was looted, the mechanism was activated, and the party ventured on deeper into the subterranean rooms.
Here they faced some tricksy Kobolds who tried to corner them after Machival accidentally activated a trap that threw spears from a nearby wall down the length of the room - He was the only one injured, being knocked unconscious from the pain.
After defeating them and rescuing Machival from his near-fatal mistake, Machival carefully checked for any more traps in the room, discovering three right in their direct path - he learned to be a little more cautious.
This room leads them to a spiral staircase, taking them deeper underground.
Following this staircase down, they surprised some poorly hidden Kobolds who had set up some makeshift barricades, with the goal of stopping anyone who tried to come down the stairs.
Before long, the party found themselves in a small, rubble-strewn room with a mermaid fountain in the centre. Radagast immediately recognised the fountain’s design as a trap, but decided to charge head-long into the room, activating the danger.
Thankfully he was able to relay to the party exactly how to deactivate it, but Caligo was keen to get the hell out after it spat a dangerously high pressure stream of water at Machival.
Caligo moved deftly into the corridor leading to the next room, where, upon opening the closed door, he was met by three rather startled Kobolds sitting at a table covered in rotting fish.
He was quick on his feet, ducked back into the fountain room, and out of sight, magically disguised himself as a Kobold in an attempt to fool those in the next room.
Amazingly, this worked a charm, and Caligo was able to push forward through the Kobold barracks (as he discovered even more resting within this room), and into a second chamber containing a large open pit.
He was greeted by a mean looking Kobold sitting atop a throne who shouted strange words at him he did not understand, but quickly feigned extreme injury, pretending he had come to the Kobold to warn him of a danger that had done this to him.
The Kobold was convinced by this performance and sent his apparent underlings to investigate whilst he remained on his throne.
Caligo quietly sent a telekinetic message to Radagast that more Kobolds were headed to them, and then conjured another illusion, tricking the throne-sitting Kobold to forget about him and investigating the illusion as it vanished behind a corner.
Meanwhile, Radagast chose to keep the information that Caligo had sent him to himself, and unbeknownst to the rest of the party that there was a small Kobold army headed their way, Jhaan and Glock retreated from the fountain room back toward the staircase. Here, they (rather loudly) destroyed a smelly, and rotting wooden barricade that opened up another passage to the north.
Jhaan stayed behind, whilst Glock ventured deeper, finding the passage flooded with water from a room in the east.
Upon investigating, he was quickly ambushed by a cinder rat, exploding from an orb of fire, which bit him in the face, alighting his hair, and sent him retreating back to the staircase once again.
Being berated by this fountain, and seeing several Kobolds starting to make their way into the room, Machival and Radagast chose to also retreat to the staircase, and joined Jhaan and Glock.
Glock informed the party (minus Caligo) that there was a large fire beast in the next room that may be coming to attack them any moment, but it actually remained in its chamber, blocked by the pool of water Glock had waded through.
The party decided to barricade the passage to the fountain, to try and slow down the Kobolds in the hopes that the fountain trap would sort them out. Radagast, however, had a kinder heart, and charged back into the fountain room. He successfully convinced the Kobolds that the fountain was the threat they were told about, before retreating back to safety behind the barricade.
Radagast remained near the passage, but safe behind the barricade, whilst Glock, Jhaan, and Machival ventured back toward the cinder rat, determined to avenge Glock.
This vengeance was carried out by scooping up the water around their ankles and tossing it at the rat to extinguish its flame.
Radagast sent a quick telekinetic message to the Kobold he originally spoke with, letting it know how to disarm the fountain, before he joined Glock, Jhaan, and Machival to finish off the weakened rat with some powerful bolts of magic.
SESSION 03:
Glock, Radagast, Machival, and Jhaan, cautiously entered the waterlogged chamber to investigate the remaining two elemental orbs. Glock threw a spear at the air-orb, planning to get ahead of another elemental rat before it could attack him. However, there was no elemental rat, and the spear did nothing to the orb. Instead, the spear just clattered to the ground.
He then decided he would pick it up, and work out what to do afterwards, but as soon as he touched the orb, wind rushed through the chamber, and a voice told him to call on the wind to receive a blessing. He was granted a temporary flight which he could use once within the next 24 hours.
Jhaan, Machival and Radagast saw this and decided that the potential boons were worth the risk of another attack, and also touched the orb. They then investigated the other remaining orb on the other side of the room, receiving blessings of the earth that increased their damage temporarily.
Meanwhile, Caligo ventured a look into the cavern he was near, trying to figure out where the Kobold he tricked went. His eyes found the Kobold making a scene in front of a young green dragon hatching, which did not seem entertained by the Kobold, promptly squashing it underfoot, and began to eat the remains.
Caligo deftly turned around and tried to put as much distance between himself and the hatchling as possible.
Now done with the waterlogged orb room, the others continued their exploration of the caves, discovering three Xulgaths guarding an entrance that led deeper into the earth. The Xulgaths were not expecting to see them, and were caught off-guard, allowing the party to make short work of them.
Caligo heard the commotion of the encounter behind a thin rock wall he was passing by, and managed to blast through it with his magic to reunite with his team.
He explained what he had seen, and the party debated whether or not they should risk facing the dragon hatchling, or leave and live to warn Otari about the literally growing threat.
The party opted to instead investigate the dragon, and see if they could make peace with it, potentially helping it or convincing it to leave the area.
As they prepared to head off to the dragon’s cavern, Machival saw an opportunity to capture Glock, and set up a snare trap.
Conveniently, Glock was the last to attempt to leave for the dragon’s cavern, allowing Machival to trigger his trap earlier than anticipated.
Glock, dangling upside down in the snare, cut himself free, and retaliated. However, with the others leaving, and taking the light source with them, Glock was left in pitch black, whilst Machival took advantage of his own dark vision.
The resulting encounter saw Machival using the darkness, and his roguish skills to dodge and manoeuvre around the confused Glock, striking with precision to try and knock him out so he could quietly drag him out of the caves.
Whilst this was happening, the rest of the party met the dragon, and Radagast, using his Druid Wildsong, was able to determine that the dragon was hungry - as is typical for any baby - and organised to feed it the corpses of the Xulgaths they had defeated.
Making their way back to the Xulgath corpses, they heard Glock screaming at Machival and struggling to stay upright. By the time they reached him, he was extremely bloody and bruised, but alive. And Machival was nowhere to be seen; he had recognised that he was about to become outnumbered, and fled, to try again another day.
Glock was outraged, but with no way of tracking Machival, and a Horned Dragon threatening their lives, the party decided it was best to keep the dragon satisfied, feeding it, and leaving out of a tunnel behind the dragon that led back up to the surface of Otari.
Machival made his way back to Tamily Tanderveil, and told her of the Horned Dragon, suggesting that the rest of the party had succumbed to it. Claiming the full reward, he then went off to the Crook’s Nook to resupply, and plan his next move.
He then approached the town’s mayor, warning him that Glock is in town, and that he is wanted for murder. The mayor was thankful for the information, and also shocked to hear about the existence of a dragon under Otari, suggesting that perhaps Absalom should be notified, and aid requested.
Seeking further information about the area, and keeping an eye out for potential goblin camps, Machival was told he should head north, as there have been some strange movements up there that might be of interest.
Glock, Jhaan, Radagast, and Caligo made their way back to Tamily at the fishery, who was surprised to see them alive.
She told them she knew of the dragon, but had nothing to offer them as Machival had claimed the reward on their behalf. Instead she was able to scrounge up some gold for them, and organised free lodging for them.
Glock, wanting to find Machival, began asking around if anyone had seen him, and eventually overheard someone at the Crook’s Nook bragging about ripping off an elf from the city. He also overheard that some smuggling operations were happening out of the Gauntlight Keep to the north of Otari, and decided that Machival might be found there.
Caligo practiced his new-found alchemy skills, not being overly successful at first, but persevering, and succeeding with time.
Radagast kept to himself, communing with nature, and meditating on the encounters under the fishery.
Jhaan decided that the best course of action was to head to the guard and inform his boss of the dragon, to organise a party to fight it.
The head of the guard was reluctant to believe him at first, suggesting that it was absurd such a threat existed without him knowing about it. Then he decided that it was worth taking seriously, and Absalom should be notified, and aid should be requested.
Jhaan, unhappy with this outcome, demanded that a party be put together to take care of the dragon before it grew hungry, and started using Otari as its kitchen.
The commander again refused, but did suggest that Jhaan station some men outside of the cave to try and keep the dragon contained for now.
Session 3.5 (Machival):
Machival escaped from the caverns after attacking Glock, back up through the fishery and out the way the party came in.
His first stop was to Tamily, explaining that he had become separated from the others after learning of a dragon hatchling below, being fed and raised by a tribe of Kobolds. In the chaos, he has presumed them dead, as he saw no other way out. Tamily was horrified to hear this news, and gave Machival the party’s reward for his troubles, not at all blaming him for running when faced with a dragon (even a young one).
Machival then proceeded to visit Mayor Oseph, and let him know about Glocks presence in town. The mayor thanked him and told him to get in touch with Captain Longsaddle in the garrison, who he hoped would organise a prompt arrest.
Together, aware of the danger that Glock posed if cornered, Machival and Longsaddle devised a plan to capture Glock with as little risk as possible.
The plan was this:
Longsaddle would post an arrest warrant for Machival, for crimes against Otari. This would likely lure Glock and his companions out to find Machival, if they were still alive, and not hunting him down already.
Machival would leave a trail of clues leading to his whereabouts, where the party would “find and capture” him, after putting up a bit of a fight, of course.
They would then bring him back to Longsaddle for the reward, and satisfaction of their vengeance, where Longsaddle would then arrest Glock, and pay Machival.
So, Machival set out early the next morning, whilst the town set up for the Founder’s Day Festival, bumping into people, pinching their purses, and making his way through the graveyard and into the forest on the outskirts of Otari.
However, here he happened upon a small goblin camp, a hunting party perusing the woods for food to bring back to their boss. Machival, intrigued and excited to meet some potential Goblin friends, strolled up to them to say hello. His first step triggered a hidden net trap that saw him suspended from a tree, and laughed at by the Goblins.
The Goblins initially saw him as a potential meal, and began searching his suspended body for goodies, and gold. Machival tried to convince them to let him down, and learned that they were members of the Mudlicker clan, notorious for taming exotic animals to use in war. Using this knowledge, he was able to convince them that he could offer them more than just food. He was a trader of dragons, and it just so happened that he had a young green dragon ready for a new home.
Machival led the Goblins to the edge of Otari, back to the cavern the dragon resided in. Here he encountered several of the town guards, successfully convincing them to leave the cave entrance in his care for a few hours, and go enjoy the festival. After-all, the existence of a dragon actually being in the cave had not been confirmed, and the likelihood was almost zero.
Sneaking into the cave, and right up to the sleeping dragon, Machival poured a vial of paralysing lethargy poison into one of its nostrils and scampered away.
This upset the dragon.
Somewhat dazed and confused, it saw three little Goblins standing at the mouth of the cave, and crushed one of them, and bit the other in half.
The last remaining Goblin, Skrug, escaped as the poison started to kick in, and met with Machival outside to wait.
Once the dragon was immobilised, they needed a way to transport it.
Machival collected the town guards he relieved earlier, and convinced them that a sleeping dragon was much better off outside of Otari where it was unlikely to wake up and hunt the citizens. So, they all worked together to painstakingly lift the dragon between them, and carry it out of the caves and into the woods.
Once again in the outskirts, the dragon-transport met a strange merchant Goblin named Legitimate Jack, and her Wood Giant bodyguard, Jodi. Machival and his silver tongue bartered his way into getting Jodi to carry the dragon the rest of the way to Skrugs boss, and sending the guard back to Otari to now freely enjoy the festival for the rest of the day.
Machival, Jack, Jodi, and Skrug all made their way north to the Gauntlight Keep, where Skrug said his clan was staying.
After some clever logistics involving a feather-falling feather and Jodi’s raw strength, the dragon was delivered to Skrugs boss, Skrawng, who was in awe.
Machival offered the dragon to Skrawng in return for the clan’s help. Machival wanted the clan to pretend to have captured him, and sell him to the infamous Beast of Otari.
Scrawng did not even hesitate, and instructed his goblins to move the dragon into one of the towers he used for his giant flies.
Session 04:
Radagast, Caligo, and Glock, all awoke in the Crow’s Casks to the noise of the bustling tavern downstairs. They noticed that Jhaan had already bounced, likely to watch over the cave until backup arrived.
Downstairs they found the tavern full of patrons, all trying Magiloy’s experimental festival drinks. They also grabbed a wanted poster off of the notice board that featured Machival; wanted for crimes against Otari.
Radagast watched as both Glock and Caligo each downed a mystery concoction given to them by the barkeep. Glock felt warm and invigorated, gaining a decent buff to his constitution, while Caligo lost most of his brain cells, temporarily dropping his intelligence by 10 points! As a result, the following hunt was mostly led by Glock; Dromaar Babarian detective.
Glock was hungry for vengeance, so the party immediately began searching for Machival. Glock jumped up on a table in the tavern, and offered to pay for any information the townsfolk may have on the whereabouts of his attacker. Naturally, the slightly drunk patrons jumped on this and all started shouting at him that they had the information he was after. Eventually, Glock learned that Machival had headed south west, to the Library, and so he followed the clues.
Encountering and questioning several acolytes, Glock was led up the cliff face behind the Library, and into the graveyard, where he was pranked by an elderly acolyte who was getting bored of tending to the graveyard on such a festive day. Glock did not find the prank funny, and threatened the man’s life for information on Machival. The acolyte conceded, and told the group that he had seen Machival walk through the graveyard, and exit out of the northern gate, toward the forest.
At the edge of the forest, they came across a beautiful natural pool, surrounded by tall rectangular stones, and a druid named Worliwynn. Radagast knew this woman well, as they had crossed paths many times before, and both looked over Otaris forests. Worliwynn offered to help Caligo and restore at least some of his brain power, but was ultimately unable to help in any meaningful way. As a result, the party decided that perhaps it was best that Caligo try to sleep it off, rather than carry on like a goldfish.
Eight hours later, Caligo had regained much of his senses, though was still far from restored. This would have to do though, as they were fast losing daylight, and had given Machival an even larger head-start.
Entering the woods, the party discovered a small clearing where a Goblin, and a Wood Giant were sitting around a fire. Unaware of who Legitimate Jack and Jodi are, and who they had met, the group decided to try and covertly gather some information; Caligo disguised Glock as a large Hobgoblin, who proceeded to stride into the camp with confidence, and swagger.
Jack instantly took a liking to this tall, handsome Hobgoblin, and flirted with him, attempting to sell some of her wares to break the ice, and impress him with her collection.
Sensing an opportunity to build trust, Glock followed Jack’s lead, and ended up having his bones jumped in the nearby tent, while Jodi sat outside and watched over Jack’s belongings.
Caligo wanted those belongings, and distracted Jodi with a thrown voice from behind the tent, then quickly swooping in and pinching the lot, which conveniently fit into a decently sized bag of holding.
Caligo sat in the trees and waited for Glock, examining his new found loot. However, sometimes when he would reach into the bag to retrieve an item, he’d pull out a rather disgruntled weasel. This happened twice, the first one escaping up a tree, and the second Caligo stuffed back into the bag, before he gave up and sat in silence.
After an hour, Jack screamed in horror and quickly scampered to her dogslicer as Caligo’s illusory disguise wore off of Glock. Jodi came to her aide, and gave Glock a good whack upside the head as he tried to escape. Thankfully clearer heads prevailed, and Radagast, who was idly minding his own business tending to the surrounding trees, came over and diffused the situation before any real damage was done. Glock was able to weasel his way back into Jack’s good graces, and the party learned that Machival had asked for their (or rather Jodi’s) help in transporting a young dragon to the Gauntlight Keep in the north.
Completely aghast that Machival was able to even subdue a dragon, the party thought it best to waste no more time and head directly to the Keep, and find Machival as soon as possible.
The party reached the old, dilapidated ruins just as the sun dropped below the horizon, and so Radagast cast light on Glock, turning him into the party’s beacon. This lit the crumbling watchtower they entered, revealing several Goblins hiding up in the rafters. They quickly dispatched the Goblins, taking advantage of the poor state of the tower to bring them down to ground level.
Venturing deeper into the Keep, the group did not find much beyond rubble, and rot; they were, however, able to discover a hidden door, but didn’t manage to get it open before hearing Machival calling out for their help. They followed his voice south to the Goblin Boss’ throne room, which contained Skrawng, his Goblin clan, and a freshly captured Machival, bound and on his knees.
Boss Skrawng was excited to finally meet the Beast of Otari, and demanded 500 gold pieces for the safe return of Machival. Glock, thanks to Machival stealing the reward from Tamily, had bugger all to his name, and wasn’t overly interested in buying his attacker. Machival quickly chimed in, suggesting that Glock could take Machival back to Otari, accompanied by Skrug for security, collect the reward money, and return to split it with Skrawng as thanks for ending Machival’s tirade. Greedily, Skrawng agreed, and turned over Machival to the party, reminding them that if they crossed him, he had a brand new pet to release on them.
Making their way back to Otari, The Party once again crossed paths with Legitimate Jack and Jodi, who were rather surprised to see Machival bound like he was. They continued to travel south in the dark, and cautioned Skrug that he should probably remain at the edge of the forest so as to not cause any issues in town. At first Skrug was skeptical, thinking they might try to screw him and his boss over, but eventually reluctantly agreed.
Wasting no time, and eager to see Machival pay for his transgressions, the party took him directly to Captain Longsaddle in the garrison, who took them below to the cells.
Machival suddenly slipped his restraints, and accepted a pouch of gold from Longsaddle for the direct delivery of Glock, who was then served with an arrest warrant for the murder of his beloved, and locked up in a cell.
A guard came rushing into the gaol, insisting that Longsaddle was needed upstairs for an emergency. The dead had started to rise in Otari’s graveyard, illuminated by a strange blue light coming from the Gauntlight, and they were throwing themselves over the cliff and down onto the library. The town guards rushed off to the graveyard at once to contain the dead and protect the town. Caligo followed without hesitation.
Machival decided he wasn’t too keen on facing the undead without some real backup, and reluctantly decided he would break Glock out of gaol, and try to make amends, if only to deal with the current threat. Glock was skeptical, having been betrayed twice already in as many days, but he also did not want to see his home ravaged by the dead, and put his issues with Machival aside, temporarily.
Together, Glock, Radagast, and Machival, all rushed to the library to discover that none of the corpses that had thrown themselves onto the roof had survived, but the sound of the undead from the graveyard above did not bode well. They climbed the stairs on the cliff face, entering the graveyard from the south, whilst the town guards, and Caligo, had entered from the northern gate.
Skeletons, and zombies littered the graveyard, they had emerged from their graves, and began wandering the grounds, headed towards the lights and noise from what remained of Otari’s festival. The presence of the party, and the guards, however, distracted them, drawing their attention instead, and they viciously attacked.
Amazingly, Machival, Radagast, Caligo, Glock, and the guards worked fantastically together, making short work of the majority of the undead, taking no casualties. Suddenly the blue light grew more focused, and with a flash, it disappeared. At the point of the beam’s focus, directly between Caligo and Machival, stood a spider-like aberration that screeched into the night.
Machival did not fuck around, and snuck up behind it, sinking his shortsword into its abdomen, and tossing a handful of graveyard dirt into its eyes. Glock swiftly followed up the opening with a well-aimed javelin thrown into its abdomen, but missed with a second. Radagast, with a thunderous crack, called down a devastating bolt of lightning, using the protruding javelin as a lighting rod. Caligo drew his smoking sword, and raised an allied skeleton from the ground, much to the guard’s horror. Reeling and screeching in pain, the aberration swung around, trying to clear its eyes of the dirt, and snatched up a guard in its mouth, biting him clean in half.
Driven by fear, adrenaline, and anger, the remaining guards wailed on the spider-like creature, and crushed its head underneath their clubs.
The guards quickly cut off any access to the graveyard, watching over it in case any more dead rose up. Exhausted by the day’s excitement, the party broke off and headed into town to find some well deserved rest. Machival returned to the Rowdy Rockfish, Glock the Crow’s Casks, and Radagst to the pond with Worliwynn. Caligo, however, was keen to push on and discover the source of this dark magic in the Gauntlight. Taking out the hand drawn map his had discovered in the caverns the day before, he once again examined it for anything that might relate to the Gauntlight, but discovered, instead, the lines of the map shift and morph into words, forming a letter.
Session 05:
Machival and Glock headed out of town, back to the Gauntlight Keep after convincing Wrin to join them. Radagast bid farewell to Worliwynn and set out to find the rest of the party in town.
Conveniently, they all met up on the road just out of town and carried on to the Keep together, following the new, mystical pull they all felt.
Caligo woke, and took a startled moment to remember where he was and the potential dangers that lurked around the corners. He cautiously left his hidey hole, determined to investigate the room that previously contained the bloody haunt that had so badly wounded him the night before. As he came to the corner of the hall, he spotted the rest of the party approaching from the south and warned them of the young green dragon that had broken free and wreaked havoc within the Keep. Glock ended a wounded maggot that was feeding on a dead Goblin, and moved with the rest of the group into the room Caligo had secured for himself.
Each member felt the magical pull grow stronger in here, and in examining one of the room’s walls, Machival accidentally opened a hidden door that revealed a set of stairs leading down underneath the Keep.
Wrin, crippled by her claustrophobia, refused to continue and turned around to return to her shop, despite Glocks attempts to persuade her.
Descending the stairs, the group entered a small, relatively empty room with some chairs and a painting of a tiger. Recognising this painting as one mentioned in his mysterious note, Caligo swiped it up and examined it before stowing it in his backpack.
He then read the note to everyone, which mentioned a hidden door. Caligo was unable to discover this door, but Machival opened it with ease.
In the connecting hall, the group came across four Morlocks tinkering with some gears and metal contraptions. Machival attempted to sneak by, but was heard, found, and quickly surrounded. In the scuffle, Machival was knocked unconscious, but the rest of the party made short work of the Morlock aggressors, and Radagast mended him back to health. Caligo then used his trusty wand of healing to bathe the party in a warm, healing energy, restoring everyone to full vigour.
Glock was keen to explore the area, and wandered away from the group who was examining a strange altar with a corpse at its base. Glock triggered a trap that saw him cut off from the group and face to face with mechanical, clockwork contraptions that did not hesitate to attack. Everyone heard the trap trigger, and rushed to investigate where Glock had disappeared to. Where once a hall stood, they found a shoddily built metal wall instead. They could hear a commotion on the other side, and Machival’s quick thinking saw the metal wall lifted out of the way with his tiny ladder expanding to full size from underneath. Beyond the wall, they were greeted by another clockwork machine.
Glock managed to overpower the machine he was facing, obliterating it in one hit, but was met with another that appeared behind him, The party was also able to destroy the machine they faced, and were also rewarded with a second appearing before them.
The machines were cut down easily, but more metal walls remained between Glock and the party.
Eventually the walls were broken through, mainly by Glock charging through them head on, doing what he does best, and the remaining clockwork constructs were dealt with.
Doubling back to the shrine room, the group found another set of stairs that led down once again.
Below, they encountered a rather apathetic Morlock ghoul who seemed completely uninterested in them and tried her best to read instead.
Glock spat out threats, while Caligo opted for a more diplomatic approach of communication. Neither were successful in persuading the ghoul to elaborate on the small amount of information it offered, though it did ask them to kill another Morlock on the floor above.
Glock, frustrated by the ghoul’s stubbornness, readied to attack, but cooler heads prevailed, and Caligo called him off.
Carrying on deeper into the strange floor they found themselves on, Machival spotted a green glow underneath a door in a long, narrow hallway. The glow became words that then flowed out of the room and up north, leading further into the area.
At the end of the hall they discovered a room filled with mist that began to swirl and shift. Machival readied himself for combat, and attacked the creature that appeared at the centre of the mist - a tentacled, one-eyed being that seemed to control the mist itself.
Machival fired an arrow, striking the creature, and then retreated down another hall and up a flight of stairs, abandoning the party.
Caligo, somewhat curious in the commotion down the hall, poked his head in to see what it was all about, before deciding that he, too, would fall back and head back up the same stairs they all came down.
This left Glock and Radagast to fight the creature alone, which they did valiantly. Though Glock was on the front lines, and supported by Radagast from the rear, he still took considerable damage before finally plucking the creature’s single eye out of its head with a well-placed, and powerful blow - this also very much killed the creature.
Session 07:
The party resumed their explorations of the dungeon inside of the prison that Gralgust took them to. They discovered the three Osprey thieves that were rather beaten up and malnourished and hatched a plan to rescue them from the watching Graulgust and his Engineers, rather than become enslaved by Graulgust.
They decided they would lay down a rope and lure Graulgust and his engineers inside, tripping them over and attacking them before they could get up. The thieves all armed with shivs would then jump on the morlocks and stab them to death.
Radagast and Caligo stood inside the prison, either side of the doors ready to pull the rope taught as soon as one of the morlocks entered. Machival snuck around behind Gralgast ready to take advantage of the chaos and get an early attack in. Glock put on a performance with the prisoners, pretending that they are attacking him to lure Graulgast and the engineers inside. Caligo decided he would conjure an illusion of Augrael from downstairs, the ghoul-morlock, who was at odds with Graulgust.
The engineers fell for this illusion and approached. Gralgast, however, was not fooled and saw through it, becoming aware that the heroes were trying to trick him. So Machival instead decided he would just attack Graulgust directly, but he was unable to land a decisive blow.
Seeing Graulgust distracted, Glock approached from the rear and pulled him into the prison, putting Gralgast between himself and Osprey Thieves where they proceeded to stab and beat him.
The engineers shot with their crossbows from outside but were ultimately also drawn in triggering Radagast and Caligo to pull the trap. At this point Radagast had turned himself into an ape, subsequently crushing one of the engineers with his fists.
After the fight, they intimidated the Osprey Thieves to accompany them rather than be immediately saved and returned to Yinyasmera. The thieves revealed that they were looking for sort of teleportation or transportation device which Yinyasmera has a ritual to activate and use, but they didn’t know anything more beyond that.
So they continued on and they ventured deeper back down to the level where Augrael was.
They also discovered a map on Graulgust’s corpse, which revealed the layout of the level below. They brought this to Augrael who confirmed its authenticity and attempted to describe some of the areas that were depicted on the map, as they were not marked very descriptively. They discovered there was a library and a reading room, and were warned about the Cult of the Children of the Ghost Queen, formed by flesh-hungry ghouls. Augrael, being turned into a ghoul herself, was recruited by the cult, but she left to focus on her studies and reading instead. Augrael and the cult do not get along, but for the most part she just avoids them and keeps to herself.
Continuing to explore, and following the map, the group discovered a large hallway housing a group of ghouls who asked them if they were offering donations of flesh for the Ghost Queen.
After a little bit of deliberation the heroes offered up the three prisoners, the three Osprey thieves which they had saved, as donations for the Ghost Queen in return for safe passage. The ghouls greedily accepted this gift, and left the area with the thieves in hand. The three Ospreys were screaming for help, completely betrayed by the heroes. In all this commotion, down to the south the group saw a humanoid figure, this strange collection of leeches in the form of a man who Augrael said was Volluk, the right hand man of the Ghost Queen herself.
She didn’t know too much more about him and avoids him pretty much at all costs. She advised the heroes to do the same. Volluk seemed very surprised to see them and was rather annoyed that they were disturbing his work
Machival, naturally, tried to attack him with a quick-draw of his shortbow, but Volluk discorporated into a pile of leeches that escaped through a grate in the floor before any arrows landed.
Further exploration led Glock to Aller Rosk, a ghoul-tattoo artist in one of the chambers, who was extremely annoyed for being disturbed, announcing that he would tattoo Glock and consume his beautifully tattooed flesh. Aller was not messing around and did a considerable amount of damage to Glock, almost killing him instantly, biting him and infecting him with ghoul fever, which would, given time, turn Glock himself into a flesh hungry ghoul. The rest of the party heard this commotion and joined the fray. Radagast took a shot at Aller with his rifle but in the end Augrael dealt the final killing blow, ending Aller and digging into his flesh for a nice quick snack.
In Aller’s tattoo shop the party did find a +1 silver hatchet as well as a room full of corpses; five dead morlocks with their flesh decomposing. Upon closer inspection they saw that they were infected with a flesh-eating bacteria called blueblisters. Upon hearing this, Aurgrael chowed down on the corpses, blueblisters being a delicacy for ghouls. They left this room and discovered some scrolls, healing potions, spells etc. They also discovered a small fey-like creature, reading and scribbling in a book, a very morbid book about sacrifice and occultism. Upon disturbing this creature (these guys are disturbing a lot of people) it shrieked and complained, decreeing vengeance and letting out a huge bright burst of light which permanently blinded Machival. It then turned invisible and escaped the heroes. A now blinded Machival accompanied the rest of the party, via the aid of Radagast’s wolf, and Caligo’s conjured hand, whilst they made their way to the library marked on their map. Caligo was especially curious to learn what sort of books were around as they had found several tomes quite informative about occultism and sacrifices and cults already.
They peeked into the library and saw that it was filled with cultist ghouls, milling about the shelves. They also saw that the fey creature had escaped into this library and was accompanying the ghouls.
Caligo attempted to create an illusion of Volluk to draw them out of the library and not have to deal with them. Unfortunately the cultists saw through the illusion and proceeded to attack it. The party escaped and hid in the room where they initially found the fey, whilst Caligo broke off and hid in a book repair workshop.