Saying Nope to Yet Another Adventure! 5e WNW

Session 9 of the weird new world campaign was played on Friday 2/20

The party consisted of the following:
Verdt, 1/2 Elf Wizard 3 (John)
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 3 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 3 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 3 (Erik)
Riia, Human Ranger 3 (Hanna)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 2 (Nadia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 2 [Allison (Absent)]

Now that the giant skeletons are out of the way, the party members have the leisure to actually look around the Temple. Bach peers under the propped open door to check for Blightfang’s presence, of which he finds none. Kethra acquires herself a nice thigh bone from one of the massive skeletons for her use as a handy club. Meanwhile, Guy notices two tracks trailing behind the center statue, and entices one of the others to push it open with the assurance that all is trap-free. The statue glides smoothly across it’s tracks, revealing a dark stairway leading downward beneath it. The scent of stagnant water and damp dirt are the only things to greet them. Grabbing a large rock, Nessendra imbues it with light and tosses it in. It’s trip down the stone steps are unhindered, and they hear it hit dirt eventually, but all are still reserved about going down.

All but Bach, that is! After realizing that there is somewhere dark and fearful in the vicinity, he charges down, Verdt sending dancing lights chasing after him. The rest of the party follows a bit more cautiously, and getting to the end, they come to a long hallway going off into yet more darkness. Walking along, Guy notices strange square gold pieces sporadically littering the ground. Money laying around so free and accessible? He decides to pocket them whenever they appear; Kethra, unbeknownst to him, making a mental note each time. They come to a door off the side, but still wondering what lay ahead, Bach kicks the glowing rock which flies to the end of the hall where there lies a second stairway down. They decide to go into the side room first. Bach kicks it, and manages to break a toe. However, it does seem to loosen the door. Lifting the door with ease, Kethra props it open with her bone club. Inside, there are bejeweled carvings of the same creatures they fought upstairs along the walls, as well as a stone sarcophagus in the center of the room. Guy is the first to venture in, making his way straight to the jeweled eyes of the creatures, and begins prying them from the walls with his dagger. Nessendra, not wanting to be around such sacrilege, walks off to investigate the second stairway. The group searches the stone sarcophagus and finds some non magical items bearing the mark of an evil god.

Moving on, they venture down the next stairway, arriving in a large room with a long scum covered pool of water. Skulls bobb up as they get closer, but only seem to want to watch them. The party also hears something like a rhythmic chanting far off through a doorway on the opposite wall. Thoroughly creeped out, the party decides it would be best to leave now, before terrible things happen. Just as they all turn to leave, though, Guy is overwhelmed by curiosity and dashes towards the doorway, peering through. More stairs down. Telling the others that he’s just going to have a peek, he sneaks his way down quite a ways until he find himself on a black sand beach looking out on a dark lake, a lit pyramid far off in the distance. The others, hearing no screams of pain, make their way down the stairs to said beach. The chanting has become loud and reverberating down here. There are definitely some super baritones in the group. They also notice a boat floating a little ways off, and a large stone to their right with a glyph carved into it. Verdt tries to read the symbol, but only manages to get a bit nauseous. Bach, trying his hand at it, has an altogether different reaction. A thought drifts into his mind, and he suddenly desires nothing more than to rip the heart from his nearest companion and take it to the temple for sacrifice. The others hear him begin to chant in rhythm with the ones off in the distance. Turning, they see his eyes have turned black and menacing as he evokes his energy blade.

Riia thinks quick, binding him with her vine spell, and Guy conks him on the head with the pommel of his rapier. Luckily, that was all it took to bring him round. Making sure Bach is really back to normal, Riia unbinds him and covers up the glyph. Their nerve wavering, they switch their attention back to the boat. Guy uses his mage hand to tie a rope to it, and while Kethra pulls it taut, he climbs his way over to it. The boat is empty except for a burning candle. He jumps in. Runes along its sides light up, and it lurches suddenly as it begins to glide out towards the pyramid. Barely holding in a fearful squeal, Guy jumps out and splashes back to shore. They look on as the boat slowly drifts to a stop.
Looking at each other and nodding, they decide that’s enough creepy stuff for one day. It’s time to go. They speed walk out of there lickady-split, rolling the statue back into place, wedging a stone in the rails, and removing the stone block from the front door to close it after they’re back outside. They then set off for town again, getting as far away as possible before setting up camp for the night. They do the regular watch times with two people each two hour period. During the third watch, Kethra hears something moving in the distance and yells a warning. A few of the party members awaken. Nessendra, Verdt, and Guy, alert and listening for anything else. Three ghouls come into view, and Kethra shouts out a war cry as they run towards each other. The three awakened members join in; shooting magic and stabbing with swords. The sounds of fighting finally wake Riia and Bach. Bach, having dozed off on watch, jolts awake with a loud snort, shakes off the sleep and gets in there, shooting an agonizing blast so powerful the targeted ghoul explodes! Riia, still half asleep, sort of fumbles around for her swords, her feet getting tangled up in her blankets. And Anya, that lazy girl, acts as if she’s not even there! The party kills the remaining ghouls off quickly; Riia, running out and at the ready just as the others are cleaning themselves up.

They decide to set off again since it’s nearly morning, confidence bubbling over from their easy win. Guy, a little more affected by the lack of sleep than the others, sneaks a nap on Kethra’s pack; her wondering why it had gotten slightly heavier than she remembered. Marching along, a rustling in the branches above make them look up. A giant spider is leaping down at them! It falls directly on Verdt, stabbing him with it’s poisonous pincers. Verdt is down. The remaining party members attack with full force! Even Nessendra brandishes her weapon, knowing it would be unwise to help Verdt while a giant spider remains on top of him. Even so, she is the second to get hit and downed! Their healer incapacitated, the others fight more feverously and finally kill the overgrown arachnid.

Whew! What’s next for our heroes? Another feel-good romp with some wildlife? When is that next full moon, anyways? Will they actually ever finish a planned quest? We’ll find out next time on~ Weird! New! World~~~!!!

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Guest post by Nadia aka Guy Noir