NDT Session 32: Temple of Boom

 Ext. Lost valley of Hutaaka

The party decided they couldn’t trust either the Traldar or the Hutaakans so spent the night travelling back to the temple to stop the undead.

Whilst they were resting outside a group of Traldar arrived and after some discussion informed the PCs they would need to collect some water from a ‘singing pool’ to pour into a bowl on the alter to stop the undead.

The group sped off to the pool, and after a brief fight with some arachnids, collected some water and headed back.

The next day they approached the temple. After breaking down the main doors they found a vestibule full of skeletons and zombies. These were swiftly dispatched by a Namfoodle and the group could enter the main part of the temple. The most striking sight was a large pit surrounded by flames. 

The group prepared to explore

TBC

NDT session 31: Are you the bad guys?

 Ext Lost Valley of Hutaaka

We had left things with the party being accused of murdering some men. The party quickly pointed out the evidence that suggested others were involved so the lizard riders determined that they had been killed by “The Mutts” and asked the party to help track them down.

The party, believing the attackers to be gnolls readily agreed and followed some tracks that led towards the attackers, who were revealed to be jackal headed men not gnolls after all. Despite this the party aided the humans (who called themselves the Traldar) to rapidly defeat their enemies.

The party then accompanied the Traldar back to their village (Ronkan). The Traldar leader told them a tale of how the had been enslaved by the ‘Mutts’ (or less offensively The Hutaakan) but had risen up so the Hutaakan’s had released a load of undead and worse to attack them.

Overnight the village was attacked by undead and a number of corpses were cremated in the morning.

Later some scouts returned reporting that the Hutaakan priests were preparing a ritual that night… possibly to summon more undead. As the Traldar were afraid of the dark they asked the PCs for help offering some gems for payment.

By the time the party arrived it was already dark and they were surprised to see the Hutaakan’s fighting off some undead. They decided to talk to them and were told a different story - the Traldar were ‘Wreckers’ who had rejected the Hutaakan’s benevolent rule and had more recently managed to drive the Hutaakan’s from their temple, which had caused the plague of undead. 

They said the ceremony they were performing was meant to stop the undead and they would discuss things further when it was completed. However, the party’s interest was piqued as they thought the temple may be where there was treasure to be found.

TBC

NDT Session 30: Road to nowhere

 Ext. Black Peak mountains

At the bottom of the gorge a lizard was attempting to attack the party but was quickly dispatched. Rosie entered its disgusting lair but discover nothing of worth.

After successfully negotiating the gorge they continued on until they came to another collapsed bridge that would have led to a grand gateway. This gorge was slightly easier to climb and they quickly regrouped by the gates.

Finding no easy access, Bear Rosie helped the rest climb up onto the wall above the gates disturbing some ravens in the process. They spotted some statues the other side but were able to bypass any danger as they descended. Stopping only to unbar the gate they continued onwards.

The path descended into a large valley in the mountains. This proved to be an eerie place with little wildlife. They came across a ruined and abandoned village and set-up camp in a deserted building. 

Their rest was not interrupted but during the night they spotted some undead - zombies and skeletons - acting in odd ways but not threatening.

The next morning Rosie felt sick, possibly picking up some illness in the lizard lair. They started exploring the valley but found only more ruins. It seemed that some places had been destroyed deliberately. They found some odd shaped footprints but no sign of undead during the day. Also no sign of this fabled treasure.

They camped in another ruin and again spotted the undead, some seem to be praying, others acting like they were at work. Even more oddly some of the undead had jackal skulls or heads instead of human features.

The next day Rosie felt better again and they continued onwards walking past a large lake.

 Soon after they came to another ruined village, which contained 3 recently killed humans. As they took in this scene a group of men riding on the back of giant lizards approached who were under the impression that the party had killed their kinsmen.

TBC

DM notes: this was the least satisfying session so far for me as nothing much happened really. However, things should pick up next week…

NDT session 29: Mule Ruinations

 Ext. Foamfire river valley

The party had stopped for a rest a mile to the north of the gnoll funeral ground when a large group of (alive) gnolls descended upon them.

A tense battle was fought Namfoodle wiped most of the gnolls out with a fireball and the remaining ones were swiftly defeated. Notably, Xianti was wounded and actually caused damage (vampiric touch) to an enemy for the first time in the campaign.

After completing their rest, the party continued up the valley. It became apparent that a sizeable gnoll warband was forming up behind them. The party used pass without trace to evade/slow down the gnolls and reached the top of the valley. A large waterfall marked the start of the Black Peak mountains.

A nearby cave contained a high spiral staircase that eventually led to a bridge leading across the river to a high mountain pass.

Xianti and Namfoodle managed to work out a non-violent way to pass some guardian statues and after a long rest the group made their way along the pass.

Unfortunately, the route was perilous. One mules fell hundreds of feet into the river below while reluctantly attempting to cross a narrow ledge.

Later, a high, rather unsafe looking bridge across a intersecting gorge was discovered. The group carefully spread out as they traversed it. Unfortunately, some griffons spotted them and the remaining mule, which panicked , ran off and was carried away by the griffons.

Slightly miffed at the loss of their supplies they continued. Several hours later another intersecting gorge was encountered. Unfortunately, its bridge had collapsed so Rosie and Rurik changed into bear and ape form to climb down and up the walls of the gorge whilst ferrying the others across. As they approached the base of the climb for the first time they spotted a large angry reptile.

TBC…

 DM Notes: the mountain pass in the module is a bit crap - in fact with this and the Loshad bit I ignored there is well over a page of stuff (in a 48-page module) designed to get rid of the PCs horses… and I don’t know why. I tried to be fair but some poor animal handling roles 

Still there was some clever play in the session (I did have to let them role for a hefty hint before the statues).

NDT Session 28: Gnoll Hypothesis

 Ext. Threshold

After returning from the haunted house the party’s thoughts turned to supplies for their journey ahead.

Despite warnings about the dangers in the mountains from gnolls, the party bought two mules. Rosie bet the ostler that they would return safely with them.

The next day they were ready to depart and started to follow the Foamfire river towards the mountains. The first day was uneventful but the morning brought signs of impending danger.

Firstly, they discovered the grisly remains of a campsite that had been attacked by gnolls. The bodies of some people had been burnt but there were no skulls.

Then as the mists descended down the valley they discovered a further horrors -  some human heads mounted on stakes and then a circle of gnolls corpses and skeletons ons stakes, which were identified by Rurik as the way that some gnoll tribes dealt with their dead. 

Before they could investigate further they were attacked. Firstly, by undead gnoll witherlings then a gnoll shaman and her entourage. These were swiftly defeated with the help of Stephan and the party decided to destroy the site with some remain call lightning strikes and bear attacks.

Some items were discovered (including potions in kobold skulls and some scrolls) but the party decided to move on before taking a rest.

A mile or so upriver they decided to take a short rest but they were interrupted about 30 minutes later…

TBC

DM notes: this part of the adventure is quite horrific - I’m surprised I wasn’t freaked out when I bought it when I was 11 years old.

The party have also done enough to make the gnolls extremely angry - even more than the module suggests.i think I may have given the impression that the staking gnoll corpses made the gnoll witherlings - the original module has ghouls but witherlings seemed more appropriate (plus I had a couple of minis)

Finally, my group seemed to have lost track of what was going on. Some of them seem to have forgotten they’d moved on from selling horses to finding a lost temple but when they were reminded they decided to press on instead of staying in town. 

NDT Session 27: The uncanny fortune teller

Ext: The town of Threshold

A busy town market

After disembarking from the boat the party sought out a tavern. Stephan had been in town many years before and had stayed at on called The Mid Inn, which proved to not be very popular but served surprisingly excellent food.

The next day the party headed off to get supplies. First, Ham and Xianti went into a money changers to sell the jewels and gems they had found, and buy some diamonds for spell components. The others went to explore the market.

Upon leaving the money changers Ham and Xianti were accosted by a group of guards and told to go with them to a local magistrate.

Meanwhile, Rosy was dancing by some musicians and Rurik had found himself talking to a fortune teller. Convinced she was the real deal, he agreed to pay for a reading. The 1st card he drew was of a mermaid leaping from the water which the teller interpreted as representing him leaving the mines to become a Druid. The second card revealed an undead creature emerging from a coffin, which represented his current life. 

An uncanny portent

The final card represented a strange creature, presumably representing something to be met in the future.

Meanwhile, Namfoodle had noticed the others going with the guards and attempted to find out what was going on and the went to fetch  Rosie in case there was trouble.

Meanwhile the magistrate was interrogating Ham and Xianti in his office wanting to understand where they had got hold of some ingots marked with a manacle symbol. He was somewhat dubious about their story of rescuing prisoners but warned them that the symbol was associated with a group of slavers called The Iron Ring. As the pair could give little information about them, the magistrate sent them on their way warning that these were very dangerous adversaries and that he didn’t want any trouble in his town.

Outside the party regrouped and were approached by a young mother named Mary asking for help because her house was haunted. The party agreed to help (after checking with a nearby guard that this would not cause trouble) and headed off to the west side of town to the house.

Xianti and Rurik entered the upstairs floor first while Namfoodle was looking for signs of rats outside. Rurik was then hit by a rapidly moving bed and it seemed rats were not the culprits. The other began searching upstairs while Xianti went downstairs and found a hidden trapdoor to a cellar. 

After letting the others know what she had found she went down the stairs into the cellar but tripped on a rotten stair and fell down. Ham leapt downstairs and Rurik carefully followed. 

Unbeknownst to the others at the point Ham got possessed by a spirit and began untying his peace bonded sword. Xianti spotted a dagger on the floor and went to pick it up. Finally noticing Ham was possessed she cast Hold Person on him forcing the ghost to leave Ham. A short combat followed and the ghost was defeated. Within a hidden hollow a coffin was found with a dedicated corpse and several books. The scene was unnervingly similar to the card seen by Rurik earlier. 

The grateful Mary went off to get a priest to sort out a proper burial for the corpse before letting the players keep the books and dagger as a reward.

DM notes: so this week I decided to put a load of minis on a board and see who they interacted with, with interesting results.

The fortune tellers cards were Everway Vision Cards. I genuinely didn’t know which ones (if any would get picked)…

And the haunted house, yes, it was the haunted house speed run.

NDT Session 26: All buy by elves.

 The wilderness north of Kelvin

The party quickly defeated the remaining hobgoblins and released the horses and prisoners. The prisoners were mostly people who had been captured at various homesteads plus a few goblins (who ran off as quick as possible). Included amongst them was a young woman who had been captured along with Babushka (who had been left at the wolf skull lair). The ex-prisoners decided to return to Sukiskyn to start rebuilding their lives, Loshad allowed them to ride the freed horses.

The next day the party encountered a merchant caravan, the lead merchant Akihitos fleeced them by selling the some information which was largely useless but included the titbit that a red-robed mage and a dark-haired woman were looking for them.

That night they stayed at a very expensive inn run by some gnomes who operated a ferry across another river. A small group of shady characters left with undue haste when the characters entered the inn. 

The next day they finally reached Rifflian, crossing yet another river, The Windrush. The elves were keen customers for the white horses and the party could finally complete the quest given to them many weeks earlier. But they now had other fish to fry - journeying to the north.

At the local inn, the proprietor, a half lung called Stubbs Platterman, seemed to be friendly with Stephan and mentioned a dark-haired woman had been asking after the party members.

The next day Tara’s left the party to take Pyotr’s share of the profits back to Sukiskyn. Stephan and the party then caught a ferry heading upriver to the frontier town of Threshold. The 2-day journey was largely uneventful but overnight Aengus heard some loud honking which disturbed some of the party and the next day a flying carpet was spotted bearing a red-robed figure northwards.

Late in the afternoon, the party arrived at Threshold - the end of the line for boat travel upriver. A guard seargent (Athos) met the boat and made them aware of certain local bylaws. 

So will the party spend much time in town? Get sidetracked by some side-quests? Or head to the mountains post-haste? 

DM notes: As the party have completed their original task I thought they could level up. They’ll also have the opportunity to do some shopping.

The original module mentioned that Babushka was captured along with a young woman but no indication is given of her fate so I thought I’d tie up that loose end for my sake.

I also ignored the attack on the boat because… well… it’s just too like in all the old fantasy novels where in the first book the hero is told he has to travel in a caravan for safety and it then gets wiped out by bandits and he then spends the next 2 and a half books travelling by himself and never meets any more bandits.

As for next time I have some ideas… we’ll see what catches their fancy.