Mothership: Advent Dawn session 1

On some backwater planet, Ossie Marcial, SpaceTuber and  Teamster specializing in computer repair and zero-G industrial equipment (hover forklift certified) goes looking for work. His viewership numbers are about as good as this blog does... in other words, lousy!

I love each and every one of you who do reads this blog!

Needing cash, he signs on to help recover a derelict ship. A couple other lucky souls ended up on the team, though apparently through less than voluntary means. 

 Ossie and the other members of the advance team are jolted awake from their cryosleep and get the lowdown on things from Chl03 PAX-70N, aka Chloe. The android tells us that we're approaching the Advent Dawn, a massive ship built around the Company's experimental inter-dimensional drive engine. Looking out at the ship, its resemblance to a tentacled monstrosity is purely coincidental. 

Ossie introduces himself to the other team members, Adalberto Loony, a fellow teamster specializing in demolitions, and Stirling Blackwood a xeno-biologist. What exactly are we going to find on the Advent Dawn?? Chloe tells us that she has already been on the ship, and that we should avoid anything that looks like a moving ooze. Solid advice... also that her prior visit isn't going to be super helpful in getting to the bridge as apparently the inter-dimensional drive causes the interior of the ship to rearrange itself... Fun...

The shuttle docks, and they take their first tentative steps into the Advent Dawn. Hacking the first terminal they come to, Ossie gets some basic, but not really useful info from the ship. Wandering the halls they eventually come to a med bay. It's filthy. Ossie tries to hack the computer here, but it reaches out to touch him in uncomfortable ways. Doc Blackwood checks the computer and find that a human (?) brain in a jar is hooked directly up to it, with a pair of floating optic nerves and eyes in the jar looking back at him. Everyone agrees this is a hard NOPE, and head back to the corridors. 

Not too much further into the ship is a lab, with a number of clear tubs with embryos taking up most of the space. There's also a crying android with a large gun mounted to its shoulder, and the head of another android active on a shelf... the head looks remarkably like that of Chl03... and she insists that it IS her head. The crying android wants Chl03 to stay with him. Ossie tries to talk the droid into coming with us, as no one in the party is of a pay grade high enough to authorize turning her over. He almost goes for it, but then threatens violence. Ossie tells the droid to take Chl03, and as the droid passes Ossie to grab Chl03, Ossie pulls his gun. 

Terrifyingly Adalberto pulls a grenade...

Stonehell: Questions... and Answers

Session 274 was played on 11/24/24

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

Back in the sepulture, the party pauses to discuss their options. Do they really want to take on a powerful mage that they know next to nothing about? Should they take on the Three Eyed King? Since neither question had a good immediate answer, and didn’t need one, they teleported back to the manor.

Kicking back for a couple of days, they then return to Stonehell, heading to Rocky for some answers.
Q1: Do you know anything about the plated Mage?
A1: Yes
Q2: Please describe the strengths and weaknesses of the Plated Mage
A2: He is undead, and physically weak
Q3: How can we destroy him, and banish him forever?
A3: Lightning and other electrical powers

Having the best answers they think they can get, they return again to the manor to prep… But prep for what??

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Stonehell: Going Down....

 Session 273 was played on 11/17/24

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

Through the busted doors the party hears movement, and can see… something approaching. They’re shocked, but not surprised when the heads of the undead alien hydra come bursting through what's left of the doors, and manage to get solid bites on Blotto and Borumar. Thankfully the beast had suffered prior injury and 3 of its heads were already destroyed, and the party had little trouble hacking the 4 remaining heads until it stopped moving.

Beyond the hydra was a room similar to the one that held the other undead hydra. The biggest difference was in the condition. The ziggurat was smashed open, and the columns destroyed. They managed to find a decent haul of coins.

Past the ziggurat room the hallway wrapped around and ended in a stair heading down.

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DM’s Note: WTF… the map is wrong! According to it, the stairs would drop the party into the Chapel of Luck in the Casino! Flipping through the book, I think it’s supposed to bring them to level 8, just outside the Sanctum of the Plated Mage, so that's what I went with, but...

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Down down down they go… coming to a 4 way intersection. A door directly across, a room with a large ornate door to the west, and a hallway to the east t-intersecting into a larger hallway that runs north/south. The party opts to check the door to the south. Borumar pokes at it, checks for traps and then tries to open it, and is given a nasty shock. Then Blotto tries, and gets zapped. Morgana casts dispel magic on it, and then… then they realize that it’s a false door.

All the zapping and yelling noise attracted the attention of a stone giant. It doesn’t understand common, dwarven, or orc, but does understand goblin. With Blotto translating, he tells them that the fancy door and what’s beyond is the home of the Plated Mage, an enemy of the Three Eyed King that he serves. He’s also pleased to hear that the lords of the surface lands don’t have any giants under them, as it’ll make the Three Eyed King’s conquest easier. A strong believer in might makes right. He suggests that if the party can take out the plated mage, they might be able to get an audience with the Three Eyed King (one that doesn’t involve them instantly being enslaved). With that, the party heads back up to the Sepulture and then teleports back to the manor to research The Plated Mage and the Three Eyed King.

Gains: some gold
Kills: Undead alien hydra
Losses: Many single use magic items drained of their power

Stonehell: From the Sewer to the Sepulture

Session 272 was played on 11/10/24

Morgana, wizard 10 (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief 11 (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter 8 (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 9 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 9 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 8 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 8 (NPC)

With just a single location left to explore in the sewers, the party makes as direct a transit to the last closed door from the Hermitage as they can. Behind it is a completely spotless room. Everyone’s guard is immediately raised, and they begin to look carefully for cleaning slimes like gelatinous cubes… but find nothing. They check more carefully, and don’t even find any damned dust!

Or the regular kind of dust for that matter.

Blotto pees around the room, and the party decides that’s good enough.

Conferring for a moment, they decide to use the ring of scintillating orbs to travel to the Sepulture of the Kion. Avoiding the magic draining of the sparking room, and as in the sewers, head to the next unopened door. Unfortunately the big door they try to get through defies Borumar’s ability to open, and Blotto’s pee.

Heading up north to the upper halls of the Sepulture, they manage to open the door to yet another room full of the floating sarcophagi… and some giant spiders that get the drop on Borumar. In spite of their speed, they fail to land a hit on the triton, and are quickly slaughtered.  

Through the door on the far end of the room, they’re set upon by an Ochre Jelly, but Morgana drops an Ice Storm on it before it can get close enough to hurt anyone. Following the corridor, they come to a set of busted doors…

Gains:
Kills: giant spiders, ochre jelly
Losses:

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DM Note: I finally updated everyone's levels...

November ‘24 In Review

Fuck. Just…. Fuck. We're all going to be dealing with the negative consequences of this election for years, if not decades. My wish is that everyone who voted for Trump personally gets everything they voted for.

In less horrible news, Friendsgiving was wonderful… minus the stomach bug that we all passed around starting Thursday night. Once I finally stopped puking, I slept like I haven’t slept in YEARS. Basically all of Saturday I spent unconscious.

With the holiday season now in full swing, I’m looking at what I can actually accomplish with the remainder of the year, and thinking about what I want to do for next year. Back in 2023 I did my #Dungeon23 daily writing prompt, and I really enjoyed the experience. I’m thinking about doing a similar project, #Hex25


Gaming
While I didn't actually get 2 session reports per week written, it kinda averaged out to close enough.

In Stonehell my players wrapped up their exploration of the sewers and moved back into the Sepulcher, and then ended up down on level 8, and talking with a friendly stone giant. They decided to head home, and do some research on the Plated Mage. We’re pausing Stonehell for December, and one of my players is going to run some Mothership.

The Caves of Chaos game has had too many bumped sessions due to work conflicts, but I’m looking forward to getting in a few more sessions before Christmas and New Years.


Miniatures
I decided to paint up the Frostgrave cultists I'd assembled and primed ages ago. You can guess why cultists were suddenly on my mind. It's too bad I assembled them with skull face masks rather than red baseball caps. I painted them up to work with the king in yellow cultists that have been the main type of cultist that I paint. I also finished the fish faced Stargrave grunt I started months ago, a stained glass construct, and a couple of gelatinous cubes (and their meals).

I started working in earnest on Baba Yaga's hut, but that didn't get done this month. It's a big mini…


Media
Star Trek Lower Decks (season 5 and rewatch of seasons 1-4)
Deadpool & Wolverine
Silo (season 2)
Ghosts

Loot
I’m adding this section because it’s a rare month that I don’t get something new, usually in the mail from some Kickstarter that I backed months, or even years ago. Honestly I tend to ignore most kickstarter updates, assume everything will be late, and am just pleasantly surprised when it does show up.

This month's delivery was Stewpot, tales from a fantasy tavern, a game about a group of adventurers settling down and making a new life for themselves. I finished reading the book, and… It is a very different sort of game than I’m used to. Much more in the storytelling side of things. The actual rules for the various mini games that make up the scenarios are simple. I would be interested in actually trying it out, but reading through it, it feels less like a game and more like a loose framework to tell a very specific sort of story. Maybe when you boil it down that isn’t all that different from basic D&D, but…

Goals for December
Keep up with the Stonehell session reports, and get at least 1 Caves of Chaos session report written per week.

Caves of Chaos: Goblin Guards

 Session 3 was played on 8/22

Dramatis Personae:
Io the Thief
Wannabe Gizzard the Wizard
Tiptoe the Thief
Venus the Halfling

Starting in the tavern, feeling flush from the wyvern’s treasure, the party hires the 3 caravan guards who are between jobs, and willing to follow the party off to the caves. Norwood, Barin, and Harmyr are hopeful that the adventurer’s luck continues.

Taking the Old King’s Road, they head to the box canyon and to the goblin cave on the southern side. Almost immediately they’re confronted with 6 goblin guards. The fighting is chaotic, and the party begins to back track almost immediately after Norwood drops. Things are looking better as they get back to the cave mouth and half the goblins are down, but then Barin takes a nasty hit and drops. The remaining goblins suffer a string of bad luck and drop right after Barin goes down. Harmyr and the thieves grab the bodies of Norwood and Barin and start making for the exit of the canyon.

Their escape is interrupted when 6 more goblins come out of the cave, and start tossing spears and loosing arrows at the party. They drop the bodies of their fallen and book it back to the road.

The party makes it back to the keep, and has a somber dinner. Their spirits are lifted by a visiting priest who joins them for some lively conversation. His acolytes are less jovial, having taken a vow of silence. In the end the priest excuses himself, as he needs to converse with the castilian. It isn’t until after he’s left the tavern that the barkeep informs the party that the priest left them to pay his bill. If nothing else, they do hear a rumor about some lost magical armor hidden on one of the southern caves.

Gains:
Losses Norwood, Barin
Kills: 6 goblin guards

DM Notes: So many 1s were rolled on both sides…. SO MANY!!

Stonehell: Slime Trolls!

 Session 271 was played on 11/3/24

Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Borumar, Triton Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The party wraps back around to the southwest corner of the sewers. Along the way they’re confronted with a trio of slime dwarves sloshing their way in the muck. Nick and Borumar are hit by them. Blotto pees on them. The fight is quick and they drop after 2 hits each.

They make their way to the closed door marked on the map, and find a pitch black room. The slime troll hands that reach out of the darkness only manage to graze the party before Morgana dispells the darkness, and the party uses their weapons while Morgana and Koltic use flaming oil to make sure the trolls stay hurt. Investigating the room they find 3 mostly intact corpses of adventurers, and a decent haul of treasure. They take the corpse to use Speak with Dead to see what they know.

On the way back to the hermitage the party sees a trio of green slimes on the ceiling of the passage ahead. Morgana fills it with fire.

Gains: coins, gems, jewels
Kills: Green slimes, slime trolls, slime dwarves
Losses: