NDT session 21: You’ve finally made a baboon out of me

 Ext: Xitaqa.

Featuring: Bait, Glimmer, Rurik and Namfoodle

The group has arrived at the ancient ruined town of Xitaqa with old buildings built into the walls of the gulleys and a large tower visible.

They decided to enter the first building they came across. This was the home of some angry baboons upset by the intruders. The party opted to fight, suffering a couple of wounds and slaying 3 monkeys before deciding it was a rather pointless fight and leaving.

As the moved a little further on the heard some footsteps approaching and attempted to hide. Unfortunately, they were spotted a by a group of hobgoblins accompanied by some trained baboons.

Confident that his new half-plate and a sanctuary spell would protect him, Bait moved forward to draw the baboon attacks. Unfortunately, some lucky strikes from the baboons quickly brought him down. 

The others suffered damage from the hobgoblin’s crossbows as they closed in. 

A rather chaotic fight followed as attempts were made to save Bait and fight the baboons and hobgoblins. Eventually sheer weight of numbers threatened to overwhelm the other. Namfoodle began retreating first, followed by a badly wounded Rurik. Glimmer decided to valiantly/suicidally cover their retreat and was brought down by a baboon. 

Namfoodle managed to finish off the hobgoblins with magic missiles and the baboons were quickly defeated. Unfortunately, this was too late for both Glimmer and Bait.

Namfoodle and Rurik were left wondering what to do next.

DM notes: this was a rather brutal session. Unfortunately, for Bait I rolled 3 crits and a couple of 18s in one turn against him (plus the baboons had made their saves against sanctuary). After that things rather went downhill…

I had offered to run a one-off Call of Cthulhu scenario that would probably been less deadly than this was.

NDT Session 20: Another ropey session

 Ext. Wulfwolde Hills.

Starring: Namfoodle, Bait, Glimmer and Droop

As the group approached Xitiqa they spotted a group of horsemen approaching (men on horses not centaurs) from some distance. As they got closer Bait realised they looked hostile so Namfoodle cast rope trick and the party hid up the rope. 

Unfortunately, the horsemen’s leader worked out something was up so left 4 of his men to guard the area before the rest headed off.

The party tried several means to distract the men before Namfoodle succeeded in distracting some with his owl familiar and a magic mouth spell. 

The group descended the rope and quickly killed the men. Namfoodle noted they had similar markings to the men who had attacked them back in the river (session 1). 

The party continued onto Xitaqa and soon saw a tower looming over some gulleys, just as Loshad had described. Soon after that a group of baboons attacked them but were defeated with the survivors fleeing into the rocks.

DM notes: a short session this week but the group have finally reached the outskirts of Xitiqa. Let’s hope those goblin gits haven’t been lying about this being where Stephan is. 

NDT session 19: Poke-a-honker, or The Terror of the Goose Hydra

 Int. gnome mine, Wulfwolde Hills.

The party had climbed into a tunnel and were in mediates attacked by a large Ochre Jelly. Just as they were finishing it off Snake was stuck by a piece of web and was paralysed. The giant spider had made its move and was on the ceiling above them.

The spider paralysed a few more PCs before it was eventually slain. The party found some treasure and some web cocoons. These were found to contain two of the missing dwarf and the missing gnome. Plus a couple of orcs that were swiftly killed.

The dwarves and gnomes celebrated the return of their fellows with a grand feast of pasties. They gave the party a couple of silver short swords and had altered some half-plate armour so it fit Bait.

The party then decided to head for Xitaqa, remembering they had to defeat some strange beast by the river for Loshad. 

On approaching the river, the party’s horses got skittish and refused to head on. The party’s heard hissing from ahead and sent Namfoodle’s owl familiar to scout ahead. However, the only creature by the river was a goose.

A goose by a river

The group approached the goose hoping to scare it away with some thaumaturgy. This failed so Glimmer shot it hoping for a decent meal. 

The goose with two heads.

Instead of dying it grew a second head and let out a deafening honk before attacking.

Rurik was frightened by it and summoned up a fog cloud that hindered the other party members more than it helped. Meanwhile the goose started growing more heads as it suffered damage.

Rurik and Bait attack the goose hydra.

Eventually, the goose tried to fly away but was downed by some magic arrows and a very lucky shot from Glimmer. However, when the body was recovered it was only a normal goose again.

The party forded the river and soon after spotted a group of horsemen approaching from the distance.

DM notes: I thought the goose would be more fun than some werewolves and it was, albeit not very tough.

NDT Session 18: The Lion, The Witchbolt and the Orc Goths

 Int. Gnome Mine, Wulfwolde Hills

Cast: Rurik, Bait, Glimmer, Namfoodle

The party started to head down the tunnel the orcs were guarding and immediately another small group of orcs ran down it to attack them. A few seconds later more black-clad orcs arrived including their leader. 

The fight was fairly desperate with Bait and Rurik getting badly wounded but Namfoodle’s Witchbolt spell badly hurt the leader and Rurik’s Bear wildshape causing finishing off a few wounded orcs meant the party prevailed.

However, the party had hardly time to get their breaths back before another small group of orcs appeared. Rurik cast a moonbeam spell on them and they fled. The party decided they might be getting reinforcements so they sldo retreated to the relative safety of the gnomes mine to rest up for the night.

The next morning they returned to the orcs lair, which had been mostly stripped of valuables. The remaining orcs had left during the night via a different exit of the tunnels. The only thing of note left was a tatty stuffed lion. This appeared to contain valuables but to get to them required putting one’s hand in its mouth triggering a trap.

Instead the party decided to hack it open revealing some silver, some jewelry, a scroll that had unfortunately been cut into pieces and a single magic boot. Rurik seemed to think he had seen a similar boot somewhere in Sukiskyn so they packed it away.

The party then moved onto the large cavern that had been blocked halfway by stalagmites until  the gnomes had broken through a few days earlier. The only exit was a tunnel 30ft above the floor. Rurik turned into ape form to climb up carrying Namfoodle and they then helped the rest climb up with ropes.

TBC

NDT Session 17: Mouldy? oh doh!

 Int. Gnome Mine, The Wulfwolde Hills.

Cast: Bait, Glimmer, Aengus, Rurik, Xianti.

After spying the silver statuettes, Bait immediately ran forward to grab one. Unfortunately, it tried to bite him and its fellows rose to attack the party. The dozen statues proved to be tough opponents but were eventually smashed. The party gathered up the silver pieces for resale or spell components.

The party continued to explore and found a passageway lined with mould. Despite working out the passageway led to an area they had already been to, they spent some time and effort trying to get rid of the mould. After some Dragonborn breath, torches and one poisoning of Bait they gave up and went back around.

After one final gust of wind cantrip just managed to spread the mould back down the passageway they decided to explore other passages. 

Nearby a debris filled passage stumped the party and it was only when Glimmer kicked the debris in frustration (which required some cosack-style dancing in the cramped tunnel) was a hidden entrance found.

Beyond this were a small group of orcs, which were quickly killed. These seemed to be guarding a less cramped tunnel that the party proceeded to explore. Whether this led to more orcs or spiders remained to be seen.

NDT session 16: A horse called horse

A horse is a horse, of course, of course,
And no one can talk to a horse of course
That is, of course, unless the horse is the famous Loshad

Go right to the source and ask the horse

He'll give you the answer that you'll endorse.

He's always on a steady course.Talk to Loshad 

Wulfwolde Hills

The party made their way to the 3rd tomb. This seemed to be a well kept tomb on a lush green hill.

However, once inside the party found a pile of recent skeletons and the door to the tomb slammed shut. After looting the bodies the party found a secret door leading to a rough cavern. A figure emerge from the wall morphing into a hostile living statue of a man with a Jackal head. Bait managed to keep it distracted and it was defeated without much bother to the party. Another secret exit led the party back outside so they went to camp for the night.

A Living Statue about to be killed by some PCs

Glimmer again performed the one leg, whistling under the moon ritual so the next morning the party heard thundering hooves and what appeared to be a centaur appeared accompanied by 3 stallions. This was Loshad, the Horse-Lord. He warmly greets the party’s horses before begrudgingly addressing the ‘pedestrians’. 

Loshad told the party the location of Xitaqa across the river but said they would have to perform a task for him on the way. A strange beast had apparently taken residence at the ford and was upsetting the wild horses. The party were to kill it or drive it away. Bait was disappointed because he had heard whore-sword instead of horse Lord but maybe the party were finally going to be able to find Stephan.

Unfortunately, Xitaqa was the opposite direction to the gnome mine but the party decided it was time to aid Namfoodle and Aengus’s clansmen in their struggle against some orcs

On arriving at the mine it was apparent the situation had worsened. The gnome and dwarf miners had found a  cavern sealed off by a wall of stalagmites and stalactites  but could see a fabulous looking necklace beyond. They had broken through and retrieved the necklace but after that dwarves and one of the gnomes had started going missing from the mine. Some kind of spiders seemed to be the culprits. However, on the plus side the orcs had seemed to have retreated.

The party agreed to help and headed into the caves. They could occasionally hear skittering noises. After dodging a few hazards they found a paralysed orc wrapped in webs. They unwrapped the orc and took it back to the dwarves to guard so they could question it when it woke up. 

The party resumed exploring until they found a chamber containing silver statuettes. Again these depicted people with jackal heads…

To be continued…

DM notes: some of you may have noticed I will be going off script soon… stay tuned for some stupidity.

Oh yes. I accidentally found out via google what Loshad means in Russian. And for the any amongst you who are thinking that Loshad is not a horse, well… he isn’t actually a centaur.

NDT session 15: Too Ghoul For School

Ancient tombs, Wulfwolde Hills, Eastern Karameikos.

Present: Bait, Glimmer, Rurik, Snake

We left the group battling the last remaining shadow on the dark mound but it was quickly dispatched. After a quick rest to (literally) restore their strength the group headed into the tomb. 

A passage led downwards, its walls adorned with frescoes of people with jackal masks. At the bottom was a chamber containing a crystal coffin with a desiccated body holding a jewelled mace. The ever-eager Glimmer opened the coffin whilst Snake studied the frescoes. 

Somewhat predictably the body rose up and tried to attack Glimmer but was quickly dispatched back into the coffin. Glimmer grabbed the mace, closed the coffin up again and after a brief search finding nothing of interest, the party went to leave the tomb.

At that point, the frescoe Snake was examining came crashing down and a hideous undead ghoul emerged. It mauled Snake and paralysed her but the other PC’s quickly dealt with it despite its terrifying appearance.

The party somewhat warily head the the next tomb along. When they crossed the boundary of the scorched earth they found the recent remnants of a terrible battle with many dead bodies. Stepping over these, they entered this tomb. Within the tomb were many bones and broken weapons and from a chamber further in two undead figures appeared. They appeared to be the animated corpses of Elven warriors holding glowing balls  of light.

Rurik had heard of these creatures - Wyrds and tried to entangle them. Despite being slowed down they were able to throw the.maficsl spheres causing much damage. 

The fight was tough, Bait was briefly knocked unconscious before being revived by snake. However, with the use of several spells and magic arrows they were finally defeated. the party found some treasure and decided to return to camp to rest before investigating the final tomb.

DM’s notes: I found a 5e conversion document by someone called G.M. on Vaults of Pandius  which I used for the stats of the Wyrds. They proved to be a good tough fight so I’ll probably be using it for other monsters later on.