The Machine in the Cemetery: Session 10

Garren and Birch finished burying the dead at Birch Manor. They discovered they were being spied on by two Fire Cultists. On the cultists they found a map of Birch Manor and a list of wanted items. The Map was an old blue-print from Exacting Machinations; they made some of the traps in Birch Manor. How did the cultists acquire the Map?

They cultists were after a Ring of Elemental Command - which Birch has in his holdings.

Garren and Birch headed to Duskhollow. On the way Garren asked where did Birch find the paintings covering Garrens past life? Birch said in an old temple on the far side of Faerun. He doesn't even remember the name. But he said he would look in his journals to see if he can rediscover it.

When they got Duskhollow, Birch and Ardwyn went off to talk about rebuilding Duskhollow. Deni told Garren she found some information on the two thieves that stole Barris's Sword and Shield in the burned remains of Kelt Drumm's bakery. She found a notebook in a protected hidden area of the ruined bakery. Written in thieve's cant are their real names:

Blue-eyed Jona is Janis Scento

Sly Cassandra is Rarssa Dassan

They were apparently hired by Marlandro Gaelkur, he is a Barber in Red Larch

As Deni and Garren discussed the new information, a disturbance occurred in the cemetery. Birch, Deni and Garren went up high on some buildings and saw some kind of machine had drilled up from the ground and stopped in the cemetery grounds.  They heard a door open and close a few times. As they neared the cemetery they could see smoke coming from the back of the stopped machine.

They were met with a small army of hostile black armor clad humanoids. The three hero's eliminated the first wave of strange soldiers, but they know there must be more; possibly inside the machine.....

Journey to the Tomb of Chaos: Session 8

It happened on Garren's watch  ...

A fog rolled in through the swamp, it barley touched the high ground the Hero's claimed for camp. Two creatures of unknown make fought for dominance just south of camp. The Hero's could barley make out the silhouettes as the beasts fought. They were huge. A man could fit in a foot print lying down.

While the hero's watched the fight, a party of four dwarves crawled into the camp hoping to find safety in numbers from the battle royal just a couple 100 yards away. They said there were two Orc clans on the higher high ground on the other side of the bog. Each clan was cheering on a different beast.

Eventually one of the beasts gave in and walked away from the fight. The Winner soaked in the glory; the victorious clan threw gifts and prizes down to the beast. Both beasts eventually left the bog through different portals.

One dwarf said they were giants. While another said they were demons. And a third dwarf said they were giant demons. The fourth dwarf stayed silent and stroked her beard. In truth no one but the orcs know what the beasts really are. The fourth dwarf did say the orcs follow Orcus. The dwarves left early in the morning.

The next night the Hero's found the path to the Tomb of Chaos as their map suggested. They watched three squads of Gnolls march away in different directions in the flat land just below the path. As the Hero's approached the path, the saw at least two gnolls on watch. Deni and Darrin snuck up within mere feet to only spring a trap as they walked into the space of a Putrid Haunt lying in wait. The pair fought hard and almost killed Darrin. Garren came to the rescue. He healed Darrin and went to work on the Haunts with the Xanthos blade. Eventually the Gnolls and the haunts were dispatched, but one runner got away.

The Hero's approached the Tomb at night. They met little resistance. The statues outside the tomb all had gems for eyes.

When the heroes entered the tomb they were ambushed by Gnolls using a weapon built by the Exacting Machinations Incorporated over 2000 years ago. The weapon saturated the area with 100s of arrows. The party was skewered. They fought and won. They pulled the arrows from their flesh and destroyed the additional magazines of arrows for the unbreakable weapon. It was to big to carry.

Chanting started in the next room. When the PCs entered they set off a sigil which gave them disadvantage on Wisdom saving throws and held them in a hold person spell. Deni, saved. The rest did not. Fang slit Louissa's throat opening a portal to the Elder Elemental Eye. A Quaist came over and snatched the Elemental Spell Book, Journal and drawings held in the Amulet of Binding. The items were tossed into the portal. Garren broke free and attacked Fang. But Fang had a talismen. When Garren drew blood with his sword, he lost experience instead of damaging Fang. Eventually Fang was slain. The Quaist fled through the portal with Fang's body.

They rescued the Dwarves of Ballentine Creek.

The hero's returned to Duskhollow to find it burning.

In Search of the Tomb of Chaos: Session 7

The unlikely hero's are coming together, but what they have in common can also rip them apart ... (as observed by) The late? Bertrand Prenav 1491

The hero's emerged fresh and anew from the Hall of Reckoning. They were met by an unusual army lead by a Dark Omen riding a Black Dragon called The Dark Rider or Slayer. It asked for the weapon Garren acquired - Xanthos Ex Democritium - to only become angry and scream betrayal upon discovering the weapons true design. Slayer  is powerful, it called down a meteor storm on the party by taking the lives of his army to power the spell in the protected area and then fled the aura of the sword.

The party healed up and went back to Duskhollow to acquire a sextant to make a map to find the Tomb of Chaos. Salodan Hamir had a sextant for sale in his shop. The party paid a hefty price for it. But it is an antique. It was made by Exacting Machinations Incorporated in 503 DR. Almost 1000 years ago - the current year is 1491 DR. And it looks brand new.

The PCs spent several nights working on the map using the arcane, the stars, cartography and luck following the cryptic instructions. They were successful. To celebrate they ventured back to the Greenside Tavern. Kaitsyl Stonefoot waved them in where they took a seat at a table in the back. The party dined on braised boar, flatbreads, boiled spiced roots, and seasonal greens followed up with sweet cakes. During the course of the evening the PCs noticed the patrons and musicians would suddenly stop talking and carousing and stare at them. The whole place would go quite. It happened several times.

Barris brought out pipes and a blend of Old Grey leaf to smoke and discuss matters. Darren and Garren made amends to Barris. Barris then told the tale of how he lost his Family Shield and Sword in a con game. He was swindled, taken advantage of.

The con was run by two hafling female thieves:

- Sly Cassandra

- Blue-eyed Jona

Melusine Villeta and a few others in town have all said they believe the two con artists hailed from Red Larch or the Dessarian Valley - the epicenter of the awakening Elemental Evil. Barris would be very grateful if the PCs could recover his Family heir-looms.

As the evening and conversation wore on, Garren noticed a tall hooded and cloaked humanoid emerge from a dark corner in the Greenside Tavern and scuttle away outside. The PCs followed and sprung the hag's trap. Four assassins targeted the party; two hitting Garren with magical experience draining arrows. At the same time a portal in the sky above Duskhollow opened.

Garren's experience points streamed out of him through the arrows into each of the assassins and up into the portal where one of the Hags collected it. Garren resisted several times which only enraged the hag. Determined to acquire Garren's experience, she sacrificed an elf infant and gained more power to infuse into her spell. While Feelings provided cover with  offensive Eldrich spells, Deni and Darrin secured a cart and pulled/pushed it to block the energy steam. The Hag tried one last time to acquire what she needed from Garren. She drove her staff - which became 500' long - through the portal into he ground around the Heros to pull more experiecne from Garren, but he resisted. She eventually quit; closing the portal in the sky. But the party wonders ... did she get what she wanted? A coven will use obscure magic to forge a powerful scrying artifact known as The Eye.

The assassins were also killed in the process, they were used as "lightening rods" to  channel Garren's experience to the portal. [This might not go over well with what ever group supplied the assassins]

The PCs made preparations to journey through the bog to uncover the Tomb of Chaos. They procured supplies. Darrin asked out loud for a composite bow and a vendor suddenly appeared with a bow. It was evil and dominated Darrin, saying it wanted him to Kill Garren. Garren detected the evil in the artifact and surmised it had conquered Darrin. He used his new blade Xanthos to destroy the bow. The vendor promptly vanished in a puff of smoke. [What was that all about?]

The Hero's regrouped and made way through the bog following the strongest arm of the river. They battled Ghouls, discovered a freshly killed hill giant with acid burns and huge slashes caused by talons. {Possibly a black dragon???] The rotting corpse was a vile and nauseous site. The party made haste when they sensed a horde of insects on the way to consume the corpse.

We last saw the party make camp a night or two away from what could be the path to their destination. As the night traversed they met an entity called memory moss. It stole Darrin's memories. The moss flung spells at the party and then did nothing more while a swarm of poisonous frogs joined in on the chaos. The party burned the swarm.

The Unresolved:

What is in the Tomb of Chaos?

Why has Louissa Prenav sought out the Tomb of Chaos?

What happened to the Dwarves of Ballentine Creek?

What is the Tombs relationship to Elemental Evil?

What is going on with the strange patron behavior in the Greenside Tavern?

Help Balen befriend Duskhollow

Have the hags completed construction of The Eye?

Who's elven child did the hag use as a sacrifice?

Who heard Darrin ask for a composite bow?

Is Bertrand Prenav dead?

What's underneath the Sacred Woods Watchtower?

What's in Red Larch and how does it connect to the awakening of Elemental Evil?

Where are Barris Stonefoots'  family Sword and Shield?

Who and where are:

- Sly Cassandra?

- Blue-eyed Jona?

What or who is Slayer?

Roll20 Preview

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced me to look at virtual table top environments to continue gaming. I took a look at Roll20 and created this post to inform my gaming group of what it might offer us. 

Roll20 has platforms for Windows, iPad and Android.

I setup a test area with a map and made up several 5E characters. I then took screen shots of characters on the map to illustrate the dynamic lighting.

In the image above the Gnome has darkvision. From the Gnome's pov, looking South, the Tiefling and Ranger are less visible.

This is the GM view where everything is visible.

The Warlock's character sheet. It has three pages, Core, Bio and Spells.

If anyone in my gaming group is interested in trying Roll20 send me an email and I will send you a link so you can look around the test area.

For communication we can give the Roll20 built in audio a go, but you will need a microphone headset. I say headset because it will help block out the noise in the room. If the Roll20 audio capability is laggy we can switch to Discord or Google Hangouts. A last case resort is to just use the chat box in Roll20.

Take a look ...

~All my best. Be well, stay safe.

~Eddy

Roll20 Technical Support Documentation
Audio Video Trouble Shooting