Magic Shop Owners Session 12

Session Notes

Calendar Date: 15-3-569 - 16-3-596

Level 1

After leaving the keep dungeons and having some time to think, the group of sailors began questioning why they had a vampire with them. The sailors decided it was either them or the vampire, and the party were unsuccessful in persuading them otherwise. Pavnutia, the vampire, said she wanted blood to return to full strength. Sphonyx used her hypnotism to force three sailors to offer themselves to Pavnutia. They did, but were instantly knocked out of it by the bites. The sailors began calling Sphonyx a witch and were unhappy with the vampire drawing their cutlasses. Breadwig used sleep on the sailors putting ten to sleep. Pavnutia began draining and killing the sailors until she was satisfied, and then thanked them. Many in the party were unsure about this action and weren’t entirely happy about the outcome. Breadwig had not intended for the vampire to kill the sailors. The awake sailors ran, and the party let them go. Rosetta, the maid, and Gerturde, the old woman, were unsettled. Aldo, the child, hid behind Jatumal’s leg, and Vertex seemed unfazed. Some of the party agreed with Pavnutia that she would make them vampires after they left the keep. Sphonyx and Jatumal consoled the child. Sphonyx began asking the child about the keep and any cool things he had seen around. He said he liked playing in the ballroom and that there were many cool hidden passages around.

After the chaos had subsided, the party moved north from the stairs, entering a large circular room with a map of the keep laid out upon it. Inside were two mutated men arguing about what to do with the keep after this disaster. The party talked with them, learning about the history of the keep, the duchess, the duke and the other inhabitants. The men were cordial and helpful and really just wanted someone else to take charge. They were happy when the party said they would investigate the duchess, who had apparently locked herself in her rooms. Derek began looting the place while this conversation was ongoing and found 57 gold. The men began questioning this, but Geog persuaded them that he would bring back double the gold within a year by investing it correctly. Since it was a low sum, they accepted. The two men told them how to reach the duchess and the duke’s rooms quickly.

Level 2

After leaving the council chamber, the group ascended to the second level of the keep, having decided to make a rush for the top level of the keep, collect what they could, possibly stop Vermesh, the worm god who had corrupted the island, and then leave. On the second level, they began making their way through the corridors and sighted four scavengers coming the other way with full sacks. Initially, the party shouted, asking the scavengers to leave their things, but the scavengers believed they could take them on and prepared for a fight. Combat broke out with Stinkcat using their bolas to trip and tie one of the scavengers, and then Derek and Geog rushed in while the others used ranged attacks to varying degrees of success. One of the scavengers pulled a grenade from their belt and chucked it toward the ranged attackers of the party. Jatumal dived upon it with his ignid scaled shield. He was unable to shield himself from the blast but was able to dampen the blow for the others. Everyone was badly wounded by the attack, and Gertude was blown to pieces. Rosetta was knocked into the wall by the blast and fell to the floor. The other scavengers fought Derek and Geog with melee attacks, and Pavnutia the vampire attempted to bite them unsuccessfully. Vertex ran away.

Breadwig rushed over to Rosetta, chanting “Rosetta! Rosetta! Please let this wand make you feel better!” as he used his healing wand on her (We had decided a good rhyme gives bonus healing and also had a chance to save from death). He kissed her as he did, and she was still breathing although unconscious. Sphonyx picked her up and took Aldo back to the staircase where the three hid for the rest of the combat. The scavengers took some devastating hits and were quickly down to only one left, who began running with a sack. Jatumal attempted to use hold person on him but failed. Then he ran down the stairs and past Sphonyx, who knocked the bag out of his hands with her staff, and he continued running. They collected the treasure the scavengers had dropped. Notably, Breadwig found a ring of thorns, which he put on. As he did, vines grew up his arm and around his hand. A large thorn appeared pointing towards his hand. Internally, he knew that when the thorn was pressed into his hand, his magical abilities would be doubled, but spells cast on others would also affect himself.

Aldo told Jatumal of the secret passages between the rooms in the keep, and they used these to stay out of the corridors. Along the way, they came across a panelled door that Aldo explained opened into one of the guest suites, which the party decided to enter. Inside were two mutated noble women who had stabbed each other. The suite was lined with tiger skins, and the windows were broken, through which rain came in. Behind the furniture were many little eyes that looked upon the part. Derek approached one and used his speak with animals ability to talk with it. It was a cat, as were the others. Derek tamed a grey one called Felix and helped to persuade three others to join the party as pets. These were Jade, Gerald and Potato, and they were very happy to come with them as long as they were fed. Meanwhile, Geog ran a bath for Rosetta to help her relax after her near-death experience.

After the brief respite in the suite, the party returned to the secret passages, emerging close to the stairs. There, they saw a red priest etching runes onto the walls. Breadwig decided to speak to the priest and asked him what he was doing. He was able to convince the priest that he also worshipped vermesh. The priest explained he was carving runes to stop vermesh from leaving this plane. The Duke had only half summoned him. Breadwig offered to help, and the priest said they needed to head down the corridor a bit to get a good distance between runes. As the priest turned around, Derek chopped off his head. Breadwig and the others then quickly scratched out the rune before ascending the stairs to the top level of the keep.

Level 3

In the corridor, they saw Helena, the muscular woman they had freed from the dungeons, chopping up a red priest. She asked if they had seen any because she wanted to kill more. They said they hadn’t left any alive, but told her to scratch out any runes she saw. She said she would before running off. Knowing where all the rooms on the top floor were after speaking to the two nobles in the council chamber, the party decided to go to Princess Bianca’s room first. The circlet that Maia wore disarmed the traps on the door.

The room was ornate with ivory furniture, and dolls lined the shelves on the walls. The party began searching the room when they heard a laugh from the dolls. They all began jumping from the shelves and laughing, trying to pile on top of the party. Jatumal swung his sword around, chopping them to pieces and releasing many little red worms which began forming together to make larger worms. These larger worms grew and grew until they were human-sized and had sharp teeth. There were six in total. One was quickly dispelled with the anti-corruption staff, and Sphonyx used her illusions to convince three that they were caught up in a vortex. They spun around the room, trailing slime before being pressed against the far wall. Breadwig threw oil at the worms on the wall, and Geog ran in with Darkfire, his sword, alight to burn the worms. He slipped in the slime, his sword catching it. All of the slime in the room went up in flames, as did the red worms, who seemed to be unaffected by the heat. Geog and Sphonyx were set ablaze. The fire broke Sphonyx’s concentration, releasing the worms from the wall. Before they were able to get away, Stinkcat lined up a throw with their spear, impaling three. The worms healed around the wounds, lodging the spear in place and forcing them to move together. The three together slid over to Geog through the flames, picking him up and slamming him into the ground with their teeth. He dropped Darkfire, but the flames were put out. The two worms still near the bulk of the party began spinning wildly. One hit Breadwig hard, throwing him back lifeless against a bedpost. Jatumal rushed over, pulled Breadwig’s wand out and sang “Here on the floor he looks like a dead pig, let us revive Breadwig.” (If they hadn’t come up with a good rhyme, Breadwig would have died here) Breadwig opened his eyes as his wounds vanished. Pavnutia bit and killed a worm, and Derek used his nechrome greatsword, creating frost on the body of another. Sphoynx rolled in her cloak, putting out the fire on it.

Awoken from near death, Breadwig stabbed himself with the ring of thorns and cast an illusion that the ceiling had collapsed upon the worms. He and the worms were knocked unconscious, since the spell also affected himself. The rest of the party made short work of the worms and shook Breadwig awake. After a very close fight and with everyone feeling weak, the party rested in Bianca’s suite, happy that the door traps would protect them. Jatumal and Pavnutia, who had not been badly injured, watched the door too.

Next, they headed to Duchess Forza’s room. Along the way, they found a man with the head of a magpie doing flips. He was an assassin called the Motley Magpie and had been hired by the duchess to protect her and assassinate her enemies. The party convinced him that they wanted to help and offered to pay him well if he would help to kill Vermesh, which he agreed to. Using Orsino’s circlet, they unlocked the door to Forza’s room and entered. Inside were many scrolls, papers and magic books in an array of languages. There were also lots of bird statues and amber spheres. Upon the balcony sat a chair facing the sea. The party approached the chair. Derek tried to turn it around with his polearm, but it was too heavy, so they walked around the chair. Duchess Forza sat charred with a hole in her chest where her heart should be. She whispered weakly, asking if she had saved the keep and if her children were okay. Sphonyx said the keep had been destroyed and corrupted, and Orsino was dead. She let out a horrible scream before disintegrating, and then a red lightning bolt struck the chair. All the party were caught in the blast. No one was killed, but some were badly wounded. Breadwig recharged his healing wand with a stone he had gotten from the magic shop in Whiterock and began healing the party as they investigated the duchess's rooms.

They found pedestals where they could put the amber spheres to activate different things in the room, such as lights and fans. After trying a few, they put a sphere in one next to an oil painting of the royal family, which disappeared, revealing a room filled with iron chests. Geog tried bashing a lock and hurt his hand. Then Derek pried one chest open. Inside were gold and small sapphires. They did the same for the other chests, amassing a large quantity of treasure. Breadwig, Derek and Sphonyx investigated the books in the room. They took some, including “Ghosts and Where to Find Them”,  A book written in runes they could not read and “Power Unlocked”. They then began mustering their strength and planning to enter the duke’s room, where they expected to find Vermesh.

XP

13197 xp = Treasure
120 xp = 12 x Sailors
140 xp = 4 x Scavengers
300 xp = 6 x Ravenous Wyrmling
14057 xp = total
14057/6 = 2343 xp

Published Content Used

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