Sounds fun - sad I missed that.  Lots of good choices - what could possibly go wrong?

I think they're a little frustrated with the strength of the cannibal opposition, but I can only hope it makes  them angrier and more vicious. 

gizmomathboy wrote:

Francisca and I talked about our options and will spring them on the group next session we think. :-)

Haha! Can't wait to hear it. 

Sounds like a good time, Donovan!  You guys starting up again soon now that the holiday break is over?

Allan.

1-14-2019 Xambaala Campaign, SESSION 8

Player-Characters
ligedog – Nax, Half-Blood Pict Barbarian (2nd Level)
cadam – Josson Common Scout (2nd Level)
francisca – Ulfsteinn, Viking Fighter (1st Level)
Del – Friar Cook, Common Cleric of Helios (1st Level) - Presumed DEAD
gizmomathboy – Dennill, Common Monk (1st Level)
Ray – Xirixan, Hyperborean Necromancer (1st Level)
NPC – Catai, Common Fighter (0th Level)

Synopsis. Our heroic fellows explored the warlord’s palace further, aided by their dwarf captive. They fought giant rats, giant leeches, toad creatures and more snake-men, while negotiating a fragile peace with the dwarfs. Much treasure was recovered, but Friar Cook fell prey to a teleportation trap. Now the party must decide whether to abandon him.
Enemies overcome: giant rats (x6), toad witch (x1), giant leech (x1), snake-man (x6), spitting cobras (x2)
Treasure won: silver chalice, golden-hued cone, smooth stone, bronze censer, fine castanets, withered flesh amulet, dagger, moleskin book, witch’s spell book, philters (x5), rubies (x3), fungi (blood red x2, yellow x1, bright green x4, sky blue x3, purple-blue x2, deep purple x2, violet x1, black x4), emerald
Adventurers slain: Friar Cook?
Begin time/date: 12PM on Skyday (10/20/576, Tempest [Late Spring])
End time/date: 8AM on Sunday (10/22/576, Tempest [Late Spring])

A giant gem, you say? Back in Xambaala, they healed up and chatted with the captured dwarf. He says he’ll tell them where there’s a giant gem in the warlord’s palace if they take him back to his kinsmen. Figuring they had nothing to lose and already planning to return anyway, they agreed.

Rats! Nothing guarded the upper level the palace, so they quickly descended to level two and into the area where they’d fought with the dwarves before. Cadam’s scout searches one room and finds a silver chalice, a golden-hued cone and a smooth stone, but not before six giant rats jump from the debris to ambush him. Everyone piles in and they slay the rats pretty easily, though Del’s cleric contracts some kind of rat disease that would have killed him if not for gizmo’s monk. Xirixan had been jonesin’ for an undead companion and gleefully animates one of the dead rats.

Skillful negotiations. The dwarf then led them through a secret tunnel down to the pebbly shore of a large underground river. To their right, they saw a vegetal house where the dwarf said a toad hag lives. He says she’s stolen one of their maggots and if the group gets it back, his kinsmen will reward them. He advises that it would be a good idea to cross the river to join up with his kinsmen before attacking her, but the group is suspicious of an ambush there. A homely woman then emerged from the hut, pleasantly greeting them and telling them the dwarf was dangerous and offering them a spot to rest. The dwarf then says the woman has the gem, but then the woman says the dwarfs have it. gizmo’s monk grows board and slings a stone into the woman’s face prompting Eli’s barbarian to charge her and cut her in half with a critical hit. They all laugh for a bit and then toss her hut, finding the maggot, a bunch of treasure and, in the back yard, lots of fungi. The viking, barbarian, monk and captured dwarf then hop in her small boat and head across the river to where the dwarf says his kinsmen are. When they land, they dwarf screams for help and a pile of dwarfs emerge from a tunnel. francisca’s viking negotiates with them and trades the maggot and captive for an emerald and info that the gem is downriver (in a dome).

Leeches and lost cities! Then they returned to the hut, spent the night, healed up and headed downstream. After a few minutes, some giant sea creature bumps their boat, throwing the scout and monk overboard. It’s a giant leech! And it latches onto the monk! Most of them hop into the chest deep water and are able to kill it. They then rowed downstream, where the river dead ended into a large circular cavern. Some strange, seemingly empty buildings lined the shore and a giant hemispherical building sat on an island in the center of the water. They land on the island and search it. Josson’s scout discovers some snake trails leading into the dome, then heard some movement inside.

More snake-men! They concoct some kinda elaborate plan while I'm taking a piss, but when Josson pushes the doors open, the party loses initiative and a bunch of snake-men and two cobras charge. One of the snake-men bites Josson on the face, injecting him with poison, and at the same time one of the cobras spits poison into his eyes, blinding him. He falls down and plays dead. ligedog and francisca then hurl radiation grenades into the dome while Xirixan activates the wand of freezing. They obliterate the snake-men and cobras. The structure rocks from the explosions, but doesn’t crumble.

The Gem in the Dome. With the snake-men dead, the party turned its attention to a giant, violet-glowing gem, sitting on a pedestal against the west wall. Nax immediately just grabbed it, triggering a save vs transformation! He made it, but the gem faded from his grasp and reappeared on the pedestal. Xirixan then sends his undead rat over to grab the gem. Same outcome. He opts to try once more, but then fails the save and suddenly Del’s cleric disappeared! Puzzled, the group was unsure whether to descend a set of stairs in the room (perhaps eventually finding Del’s cleric?) or just call it a day and head back to town (sorry Del).

Handy Haversack wrote:

All that careful editing of Mother Toad, and for what? A sling stone to the face, a critical hit, and some larfs.

I know it, man. A thoughtful setting, suggestions on her process, good editing and it all culminates in "I shoot him in the face." Hahaha!

gizmomathboy wrote:

Hey, I let the party parley with her for far longer than really necessary. :-)

Having the dwarf there didn't help the situation.

True. His talk about how she might charm one or more of you certainly didn't help, haha!

You guys went on to parley with the dwarves across the river pretty well, at least. 

1-21-19 – Xambaala Campaign, SESSION 9

Player-Characters
ligedog – Nax, Half-Blood Pict Barbarian (3rd Level)
cadam – Josson, Common Scout (3rd Level)
francisca – Ulfsteinn, Viking Fighter (2nd Level)
gizmomathboy – Dennill, Common Monk (2nd Level)
Ray – Xirixan, Hyperborean Necromancer (2nd Level)
Del – Ka’chee Yeil, Half-Blood Pict Huntsman (1st Level)

Synopsis: They barely escaped the ancient dome, then fled back to town to gain a level. Xirixan caroused a little too hard and lost almost everything in a drunken spree of debauchery. They then returned to the palace, descending to level three, where they encountered a shadowy robed figure.
Enemies overcome: giant sand lizard (x1), snake-men (x10)
Treasure won: Seal of Rassogos the Unavoidable
Adventurers slain: none
Begin time/date: 8AM on Sunday (10/22/576, Tempest [Late Spring])
End time/date: 12PM on Tuesday (11/17/576, Tempest [Late Spring])

Escape from Ancient Cyclopean City. As they stood there in the ancient dome, stunned at Friar Cook's disappearance, four snake-men emerged from the descending stairs - but Xirixan quickly iced them with his Wand of Freezing! They then debated for like two whole seconds over whether to go looking for Friar Cook or head back to town laden with treasure and experience points. Town, of course! Meanwhile, Del’s new huntsman swam over from the shore talking about how a magician had banished him to this remote area. They welcomed the New Guy and then, as soon as they went to leave, they saw a monstrous crab swimming up, apparently attracted to all their noise and the leech blood from earlier. They all ran inside the tomb and shut the doors, but not before Joe’s monk got pinched into negative territory by a giant crab claw. A few minutes later, the crab stopped banging on the dome doors, so they healed the monk, climbed into the boat, prayed to Xathoqqua that the crab would not capsize them and eat them, and hauled ass back to town.

Wild night partying in Xambaala! Pleased with all the treasure and experience points, the group was in pretty good spirits (Friar who?) and so I managed to entice Ray into taking his Necromancer carousing. It's an easy way to get extra XP I told him, though, you know, if you fail your poison save, something funny could happen. Sadly, he failed his poison save, rolled an 11 on Rients table and so wound up drunkenly partying all about town - losing all his gold, his ioun stone and the Wand of Freezing! Everyone tried to assure him it was just really bad luck, but he seemed pretty bummed. I had warned him that something funny could happen if he failed his poison save! Sure enough, it did! Haha!

Once more into the shadowy depths. Shrugging off the wand loss, they geared up and headed back to the warlord’s palace. They easily killed a giant lizard that had moved into the first floor during the three weeks when they were training, then moved past the dwarf guards with whom they had negotiated a peace on their last trip down. They paddled down to the dome and the scout and monk heard more snake-men inside talking. They burst inside, armed with Greek fire and swords, slaying the snake-men guards pretty quickly. Then they crept down the stairs to level three, passed through a few empty bedroom areas and discovered a long narrow passage. Eli's barbarian went first and stumbled into a shadowy robed figure. He backpedaled, but it followed. He tried to fight it, but missed. Its cold inky hand grabbed his wrist and drained his strength, whispering something that only Xirixan could understand, "Are you my master, finally returned?"

2-11-19 – Xambaala Campaign, SESSION 10

Player-Characters
Ligedog – Nax, Half-Blood Pict Barbarian (3rd Level)
cadam – Josson Common Scout (4rd Level)
francisca – Ulfsteinn, Viking Fighter (3rd Level)
gizmomathboy – Dennill, Common Monk (3rd Level)
Ray – Xirixan, Hyperborean Necromancer (3rd Level)

Synopsis: Circumvented the shadow, found some loot, avoided the underborea and a dangerous room, killed some more snake-men, puzzled by a gas trap, went back to town and leveled up.
Enemies overcome: snake-men (x7)
Treasure won: Cloak of Shadow, ring with 4 keys, Manifesto of Xjel’kha, Magical Scroll, 5 beeswax candles, 20 incense sticks, bellows, iron tongs, 4 empty glass phials, 76 gold pieces
Adventurers slain: none
Begin time/date: 12PM on Tuesday (11/17/576, Tempest [Late Spring])
End time/date: 12PM on Tuesday (12/17/576, Tempest [Late Spring])

Why, yes, I am Xjel’kha. As the inky shadow gripped Nax’s wrist, Xirixan said, “Yes, it is I, Xjel’kha, your master” and persuaded it to leave them unharmed. The party proceeded down the narrow hall, past a locked door and into long-abandoned bedroom. They quickly torched whatever mysterious figure was lying under a sheet on the bed, then tossed the room and recovered some loot. Behind a bookshelf, they found a secret door as well and went through it into a tunnel.

Underborea! They followed the tunnel, passing a branch, out to a ledge, 300 feet up, that overlooked a large cavern, dimly lit by giant phosphorescent mushrooms. In the dim light, they saw a crumbling building and a stone bridge. They heard rushing water. Rather than press forward and down into the cavern, they opted back to the branch.

Unspeakably horrifying you say?The branch quickly opened into a large chasm, crossable only via a long, narrow stair. Dennill roped up, crossed it and at the other end found a 50 foot deep empty well with some sort of trap door in the bottom. The group lowered him through, into an unspeakably horrifying chamber. Hanging there in the darkness, his torch illuminated walls lined with glass cases containing mounted corpses of various sorts of twisted men – reptilian, batrachian, canine, avian and demonic. Some cases also held bizarre glyphs inscribed on papyrus. They hoisted him back up immediately and fled the area, trekking back to the main circular entry hall with the dry fountain and one-eyed giant.

Always more snake-men. Six snake-man surprised them at the fountain but Nax, Ulfsteinn, Dennill and Xirixan cut them down with blade, fist and sling. Josson almost died, but Denill healed him with his mystical powers. They tried to the explore to the east, but kept finding themselves gassed to sleep in a small dining room area and eventually decided to leave.

Back in Xambaala.They had an uneventful trip back to town and most everyone had enough experience to gain a level (four weeks total time passed). Xirixan would not be tempted to carouse again, much to my disappointment.

grodog wrote:

Chainsaw wrote:

Xirixan would not be tempted to carouse again, much to my disappointment.

LOL :D

Allan.

Yeah, we all had a good laugh at the offer... "Hey, Ray, you want to carouse again? No way anything bad can happen again."