Magic Shop Owners Session 11

Session Notes

Calendar Date: 14-3-569

Survivor Beach

The party rested on The Kraken with their new party members: Rosetta the maid, and sailors Ivano, Donato, Antony, Leo, Marco and Paul. After the night, they travelled to a cave which had a fully intact boat sheltered inside. They met a man and his daughter who were braiding ropes in preparation to leave the island. The man was a fisherman who was helpful but didn’t know too much, but his daughter and young child saw the adventurers and wanted to hear stories about monsters. The party happily obliged and started explaining about the lich they had defeated before her father told them that they would scare her. They did find out that there was a secret entrance into the castle that the children used to play near, but Nora, the girl, didn’t hang around with those kids.

They next sailed over to a hut on stilts in the water, which had an old man spearfishing off the side. Maia asked if he was Oskar. He was surprised they knew who he was. They offered him the toy boat, and he was sad his family had left without him. He had been passed out drunk during the storm and their escape. As a result, he decided to give up drinking and gave the rest of his very strong rum supply to them. Sphonyx pocketed it.

Now the party observed the beach properly. They saw the shacks and tents strewn across and the lava stream dividing the beach in two and decided to split up. Breadwig, Geog and Rosetta took the right side, because Geog wanted to see the filthy tent, and everyone else wanted to go on the left. Before they left, Maia lent her levitation boots to Breadwig so they could travel back across if needed. The left group first came across a dinghy on two driftwood poles as a makeshift shelter. Inside was an enthusiastic man who wanted a sail to attach to the dinghy to get away. He said he would provide them with useful information to get into the keep if they did.

Meanwhile, the three on the other side of the lava river went to investigate the lava. On their approach, the sand of the beach became incredibly hot and bone spikes started poking out of the ground at them. Geog avoided them, and Breadwig managed to jump and stop Rosetta from being injured by them, too. The lava was very hot, and there was a haze of heat near it. The rain of the storm hissed as it hit the lava, but there wasn’t much else of interest here.

Continuing up the beach, the others found an old barnacle-covered bomb shell which they investigated, finding a rune that said ‘anglefire' upon it. They got a good one hundred meters north of it, and Jatumal fired one of his arrows at it, causing a huge explosion, sending sand and shrapnel flying and creating a large crater.

Breadwig and Geog saw the explosion, and some shrapnel landed not far from them. They dismissed this as probably being their friends and carried on. They spied a mound swarmed by kettle crabs, which had occasional human limbs and weapons sticking out from it. Oskar had told them this was a mass grave from the recent explosion of the keep and the storm. Many had died, and the giant crabs had taken up residence, eating the bodies. Breadwig did a fly over assessing if there was anything of value. He was quite certain there was nothing of use, and the crabs would be a difficult fight. He, Geog and Rosetta decided to edge along the cliff face and avoid the crabs. Along the way, a small mound of human bones was in their path, which seemed to have otters living inside. Breadwig flew Geog and Rosetta over this, and they continued along the cliff face.

The others had reached a tent, which they thought could be used as a sail, but inside they heard screaming. Maia carefully peeled back the tent flap and spied a woman holding a baby trying to avoid a kettle crab. They ran in swinging. Derek used his polearm and Sphonyx her dagger. They penetrated the thick carapace of the crab, killing it. After the heat of battle, they noticed that the woman had red scales all up her left arm. She explained that the keep has started to mutate the people inside, but she just wanted to get away. She wouldn’t survive much longer on the shore with her baby. The party suggested she join the man in the dinghy and use her tent as a sail. She happily agreed, and so did the man when they got back. Thankful for the sail, he also told them that there was a secret tunnel to the west of the keep, which you needed a black iron key from the soldier to access. Luckily, they already had one of these from the lighthouse. They made their way back north, encountering a heron with bloody tatters instead of wings, which choked and fell dead. Derek tried to perform chest compressions, launching a ring from the heron’s mouth which he expertly caught. The compressions did not save the heron.

Geog, Breadwig and Rosetta were approaching a tent with makeshift spiked walls around it. As they did, a gruff voice shouted, “Get lost!” They just wanted to talk to him and find out what he knew about the keep and what had happened, but he didn’t want anything to do with them. As a result, they had a long back-and-forth before Geog charged in with his flaming sword. He took a bolt to the chest, which somehow managed to pierce his living armour. But when he reached the tent, he set it alight, causing two scavengers to run out. Breadwig attempted to disintegrate one with his staff, but it had no effect, and Geog missed an attack with his sword, turning the sand where it hit into glass. The battle was tough, and Geog took another few bolts through the battle, but together they managed to defeat one of the two, and the other ran off in fear. Inside the smouldering tatters of the tent, they found a hoard of treasure which they took and decided to hide from the others.

During this long fight, the others came to a makeshift driftwood shack. Three children were playing outside, and two women sat mending clothes. These people also had mutations, one child had a goat eye, another a fang and the final a single elf ear. One of the women had a horn and the other a pig nose. They were faring poorly on the beach after leaving the castle. The husbands of the women had been out hunting food for days, and they suspected the worst. They explained that the mutations started about a year ago to anyone who was spending extended periods inside the castle. They were just servants, so they hadn’t had too severe mutations and wanted to get away. Orsino, the prince of the keep, had saved them but had been transformed into a red crystal tree by a strike of lightning. The party also asked the children about an iron hatch near the keep, which they said was to the west of the keep, and they could show them. The mothers said absolutely not. Jatumal decided to run off with the child with the singular elf ear, the women were shocked but then drew daggers, chasing him. As they ran past Derek, he swung his polearm, cutting the two women in two. Their blood seeped into the sand. The other two children ran off screaming.

Jatumal had crested a dune and kept Aldo, the young child, away from the death of his parents. He told him they were going on an adventure. Meanwhile, the sailors were confused; they didn’t know how to react. Two people had been killed, and a child had been kidnapped in front of them. They almost left but were convinced to stay by Maia, Sphonyx and Stinkcat, who were also unhappy with the whole situation and confiscated Derek’s polearm.

It was a tense walk to the next tent where they met a jovial researcher called Hamza who was studying the events of the keep but was also rather cowardly. He found the sorcery very interesting, but he explained that he didn’t understand much of it yet. He gave them some gloves that would allow the wearer to safely touch any object and not feel its effects. He asked in return that they visit the screaming red glass tree and retrieve some of the glass so he could examine it. They agreed. Maia and Derek made their way over to the lava stream and shouted for Breadwig to lift them across. He flew over and took them to the tree. It had a black charred skeleton inside its semi-translucent body. Maia used the golden anti-corruption staff on it, causing it to shatter into many pieces. Orsino’s voice spoke to her, saying his older sister, Viola, had sent him to save the servants, but he had been struck by lightning. This was not his mother, the Duchess’s sorcery and was likely the red priests doing. He urged her to find his little sister Bianca and to take his circlet before his presence vanished.

Hamza was thankful for the red glass they had brought to him, and the party continued to the cliff, where there was an old burial mound at the top. Along the way, Breadwig gave the levitation boots back to Maia, and they encountered a twisted mass of humans molten together. They screamed for death. The party killed them. At the cliff, Maia levitated up and let a rope down. Everyone climbed up. They read the runes on the stone arch of the mound, which said that Prospero lay her and to leave him dead. Instead, they went inside. They lit torches and pushed open a heavy stone door which ground along the ground. Inside was an open sarcophagus with more runes about Prospero the mage etched upon it; the rest of the room was bare apart from some burnt-out candles. Inside the sarcophagus, they found a crystal eye which had swirling clouds inside it. Derek took this with Hamza’s gloves in fear that it was dangerous. There was also a ring, which they forced onto Antony the sailor’s finger, and nothing happened, so they quickly took it back. Antony was mildly annoyed by this.

They returned to Hamza with the eye, asking if he knew anything about it. He didn’t know anything about this particular eye, but did know wizards used them to store part of their mind before death so they could live on. Jatumal and Sphonyx touched the eye, and Prospero’s voice boomed in their heads, happy to do something after ten years. With some sarcasm, he explained who he was and that the eye had a weak enchantment, so he could only speak to them once a day. He had been killed by the duchess in a magical duel so she could take his power.

Next, they came to a tent made of red and black cloth. Outside sat a man and a woman. The man was missing his left ear and was gruff and mildly grumpy. He had been a bodyguard in the keep. He pulled some of the party to the side, explaining that the woman was a bit mad. The mutations had gotten to her somehow. She wore a mask covering the top half of her face and had a strange smile. She came over to them, asking if they would find her earrings and laughing. Then she turned to Breadwig, who was wearing them after looting them from the scavengers and laughed, “Oh, look, there they are.” She paid them 1000gp for them and then ran off onto the beach. The bodyguard said he would steer clear of the keep if he were them; the mutations were unnatural, that’s why he removed his ear.

The final stop on the beach was a huge bonfire. Here, a mixture of mutated people from the keep and stranded sailors mingled. The keep people were mostly unhelpful, but did explain that the duke was friendly with the red priests while the duchess was not. They loved all of them a little too much and almost seemed entranced. The sailors had just been stranded making a shipment to the keep and offered to help if they could get away. Six more sailors joined the party. These were Carlo, Tamsin, Lucky, Etri, Moira and Hasker. Also, along the beach edge, Sphonyx found a plant that looked like the goolgeek Sam had described.

Keep Dungeons

After spending some time at the bonfire, the now large group of 12 sailors, 7 adventurers, a young boy with one elf ear, and a maid made their way up the incline toward the Obsidian keep. They saw the shattered castle with pits of fire burning. Jatumal asked Aldo, the elf boy, to show them where the trap door to the keep dungeon was. He scurried off, and everyone followed. Stinkcat produced the key and unlocked the hatch when they arrived. They then entered, passing through a narrow, quickly carved tunnel and emerging in a boiling cistern. Geog tested the water and quickly decided they could not stand in it. Maia began levitating across, and Jatumal produced The Kraken. He grew the boat to a size where it almost stretched from one side of the room to the other, but in doing so, disturbed a body in the water. It sat up screaming until its head fell off. Then, 3 chaos zombies, mutated like the people from the keep, rose from the water. Jatumal began shooting arrows, Maia flew over, hitting one, Breadwig got ready with a ten foot pole to push the zombies back. Derek, Geog and Sphonyx moved over to the port side of the boat, the side with two zombies instead of one. Derek used his polearm, Geog his spear and Sphonyx her staff to try and hit the approaching zombies from a distance. This made the boat unsteady, Derek and Breadwig fell over, and Sphonyx tumbled overboard. The boiling water would have been lethal, but the last charge of Sphonyx’s beetle protection broach caused her to bounce back off the water. The broach disintegrated. The zombies were upon them, one made a clawing grab at Derek, severely wounding him. The other attacked Geog, but did little harm. The zombie on the other side of the boat climbed aboard.

The zombies continued to scream, causing another to rise from the water. The sailors attacked the most injured zombie, killing it. Derek got some arrows from Jatumal and stayed back in fear for the rest of the fight, as did Sphonyx. There were a few missed shots, arrows, daggers and stones were lost to the boiling water, but no one in the party was harmed for the rest of the fight, and they were able to take out all the zombies before any more could rise from the bubbling pool. With the zombies dealt with, the crossing was easy, after which Jatumal took back the boat.

The next room they entered looked like the keep barracks, but the beds were strewn in disarray, and lava was rising from a small pool in the centre of the room. The party knew they had limited time to search this floor before the lava blocked their path, so they split up, sending a few people to investigate each room in the dungeon. Maia, Breadwig and Derek investigated the armoury and the chapel. They used the levitating boots to retrieve nechrome weapons from the armoury, which were surrounded by a lava pool. Inside the chapel, they saw a statue with a bronze sword and blood upon the blade. Maia broke this free with her mace and took the sword.

The other adventurers travelled to the black pit, where red eyes stared at them from the darkness. Sphonyx sprinkled holy water down the pit, and a female voice hissed. She was a vampire who had been trapped there and requested blood. In return, she could make them vampires and help take on any threats in the keep. Sphonyx was interested and was lowered down on a rope. The vampire had been chopped in half and defanged. Sphonyx fed the vampire, Pavnutia, a substantial amount of blood, and she regrew her legs and fangs before levitating out of the pit, claiming her power had been restored, but she still needed more blood. The party debated how to feed her this blood while the sailors investigated the various cells in the dungeon.

One had a man clinging to the wall above a pit of lava, the sailors decided there was nothing they could do for him. Another was unlocked and had a buzzing skull with a rune etched upon it, the sailors took this. Another cell was open and had a white weasel and two weasel kittens. They called Derek over, who tried to time the weasel mother unsuccessfully. The next cell had a muscular woman doing pull-ups. A sailor managed to break open the cell, and the woman ran off, claiming she was going to kill all the red priests. The next cell had a noble with a bug head who had aggravated the duke trapped inside, but the sailors weren’t able to break this open. In the second-to-last cell, there was a metal man that the sailors decided not to interfere with, and the final cell was empty, but the sailors broke in anyway. They found a sheet covering an escape tunnel, which they reported back to the others.

With the information about the different cells from the sailors, and determining they had about 15 minutes before the lava blocked their path, the group again distributed themselves across the cells. Maia, Stinkcat and Jatumal investigated the tunnel. At the end, they saw a seagull pecking at a body on a ledge. Maia levitated out and slowly approached the bird. She asked if it was a human, and it nodded and then began pecking the ring. Maia removed the ring, and the seagull turned into an old woman, called Gertrude. She had little memory of what had happened, but was happy she had been rescued. The others split up and broke into the various cells that were still locked. The metal man introduced himself as Vertex, said he had been captured by the Duchess in a faraway land and claimed to have encyclopaedic knowledge of everything he had encountered. Every question he was asked about the keep he could not answer. He also said he wasn’t great at combat. The other cell they opened was the one with the beetle noble; she also seemed to be in some form of trance and didn’t have answers to many of their questions. When her cell was opened, she wandered out and said she was going to the banquet hall for a drink.

Without too much time left, the party quickly made their way to the stairs. They climbed them and opened the door at the top. Water flowed down onto them, but there was not enough to harm any of them or push them back. Through the door, they entered the hallway on the first floor of the keep. The floor was wet with stormwater, and the looming halls and close calls made the party question why they were there. They had acquired the goolgeek for Sam the Slow and felt little attachment to the ambivalent people of the keep. Maia, wearing Orsino’s circle, suggested making a quick dash for the private quarters to see what they could find. The session ended with the party pondering what to do next with their rather large group of followers.

Current Party:
Players: 7
Sailors: 12
Rosetta (Maid): 1
Gertrude (Old Woman): 1
Vertex (Metal Golem): 1
Pavnutia (Vampire): 1
Aldo (Mutant child): 1

XP

20 xp = Kettle Crab
70 xp = Scavengers
100 xp = Chaos Zombies
10 xp = Innocent People
12410 xp = Treasure
12610 xp = Total
2894/7 = 1802 xp

Published Content Used

• OSE (Classic and Advanced)
• Raiding the Obsidian Keep