Rappan: Wipeout!

Session 265 was played on 9/15/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The second draggone lands, charges past the nest and the stuck Aroon toward the door that it can’t fit through. Blotto and Lor’Koth are high as a kite, Nick is hanging on with just a couple of hit points grappling a squirming crying dragonne cub, and Aroon is trapped in the nest. Borumar and Jameth use their ranged weapons to shoot at the dragonne in the doorway.

Then reality goes sideways…  and instantly snaps back. The dragonne lets out one last cry before turning and flying off. Borumar and Jameth help Aroon out of the nest, and watch the water below the balcony drain away.

Morgana and Koltic come running up saying they need to get on the boat and get going. Borumar points out the problem with that plan.

Morgana starts the teleport ritual. Aroon and Jameth go and retrieve Blotto and Lor’Koth.  In the distance, a wall of water rises up. Everyone looks to Morgana, and the wall, and back and forth as the ritual progresses. With mere moments to spare, the wall of water now clearly made up not just of water but the entire host of the Blue Lord within it, Morgana finishes the ritual, and the party teleports away.

Gains:
Kills: everyone within miles of the temple
Losses:

Rappan: Purple Shrooms and Dragonnes

Session 264 was played on 9/8/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After Looting the lizardmen bodies of their gold, Morgana and Koltic start talking about how they can use the final vial of the Water of Life to seal the passage down to the alien ritual site.

Meanwhile, the party goes to check out the stinky passage. Growing near the entrance were some mushrooms. Blotto smushes one into a wiggling troll larynx, and it stops wiggling. Lor’Koth takes one of the mushrooms, sniffs it, and then pops it into his mouth. A moment later he sinks to the floor, and starts drooling purple spit. Blotto tells his companions about goblin “human-tales” relating to little girls and mushrooms, and how the lesson is to leave both alone.

Blotto bravely heads in with Jameth and Aroon close behind. They encounter the mushroomfolk within. While they have no language in common, but Blotto exchanges a troll larynx for a large lump of fungus. He then warns them that “a frankly terrifying wizard and acolyte are planning on blowing up the caves. You might want to leg it” The mushroomfolk raises its hand to its face, sticks the fingers into an orifice, and extends the fingers to Blotto. Blotto sticks his fingers up his nose, pulls out some snot and extends his hand. Blotto then takes the mushroom fingers into his own nose, and the mushroomfolk takes Blotto’s fingers and inserts them into its own orifice. Blotto feels weird tiny needle-like pricks in his flesh. Blotto, Aroon, and Jameth depart. Blotto starts to see dragons in the green fungus of the walls start to move in stop motion.

Leaving Blotto and Lor’Kth to enjoy their chemically altered state, Nick, Jameth, Aroon, and Borumar head back to the dragonne balcony. Currently empty, with a big nest off to one side, they check it out. Nick tosses a rock to the nest, and a dragonne head pops out, and roars at the party, deafening them. It leaps out and bites Nick, twice, and Nick drops. Aroon and Jameth hack into it, it mauls Aroon, and then Borumar blasts it with his bow, killing it. Borumar dumps a healing potion down Nicks throat, while Aroon and Jameth check out the nest. There’s a dragonne cub within. Jameth and Aroon crawl into the nest to grab it for Morgana, and then there’s a roar! Aroon gets his foot caught and can’t get out of the next. Jameth, Nick and Borumar run for the door with the cub. Aroon ducks down, hoping to avoid notice as the cub cries out in distress.  

Gains: dragonne cub
Kills: dragonne
Losses:

Rappan: Trappers, Keepers!

Session 263 was played on 9/1/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

After finishing off the swamp monster, a large pale frog head pokes out of the far end of the swamp, and blasts Nick, Jameth, and Aroon with its icy breath. Discretion being the better part of valor, and Lor’Koth having successfully removed all valuable material from the stairs, the party retreated.

Backing down the corridor to a small 5’wide passage, they follow that to a 20’ round chamber, seemingly empty. They toss a rock into the room, and hear a quiet “ow” but still don’t see anyone, nor do they see any evidence the rock bounced off of anything. Maybe a magic mouth spell? Blotto tosses a troll larynx. No effect. The floor is a little soft, and blotto pees on it. The floor shivers? Undulates? Nick pours some oil onto it, and it pulls away. Nick asks who here is good at carpet munching? Floor laying? Further bad jokes are made at the expense of the creature that is then killed from the safety of the doorway. Nick goes to check the corpse for treasure and gets the companion creature on the ceiling dropping down and enveloping him. Morgana transforms it into a newt, and carries it with her. Also collected are some platinum coins and a pair of blue diamond earrings.

With most of the party hurt, they head back to get some rest out of the alien area. In the oracle room a dozen lizardmen are entering from the other side. Morgana doesn’t give them a chance, and fireballs them.  Jameth and Aroon use their potions.

Gains: platinum coins and a pair of blue diamond earrings.
Kills: trappers, lizardmen
Losses:

Rappan: Alien Cultists Playground

Session 262 was played on 8/25/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

With the alien cultists dead, the party had a chance to look around the room. The most notable feature, aside from the 4 big bodies and the smoking cauldron, was a doorway glowing with orange light. Various things were tossed at it, including bits of the aliens (they bounced off) bits of the dead priests (they went through) bits of dead troll larynx (bounced) coins (bounced) goblin pee (splashed back). Deciding not to explore that, they head back to the wire covered doorway. Thankfully no metal spider had shown up to re-web it during the fight.

The party spends a bit of time looking at the weird obelisk. Lor’Koth doesn’t recognize the stone its made from, and tries to break off a piece. Eventually he does, but it crumbles to sand. No one can read the writing. Beyond the obelisk room, they come to another chamber with a weird blue grey crystal pyramid about 7’ tall. Electrical pulses can be seen in it. Morgana thinks at it hard, and the pulses clear, and reveal a view of dead alien cultists, priests of the blue lord, and a glowing orange door… Aroon tries and sees the deep dark void of space. Lor’Koth sees nothing, and can’t chip off a sample of the crystal.

Further along they come to a chamber with abstract metal forms (sculptures?) with plaques (?) and in the middle of the room on the floor a circular iris like hatch. Lor’Koth bangs it with a hammer. It rings nicely. They manage to pry it open, revealing a 20’ drop and a passage out to the east. Borumar checks it out. It quickly leads to a room with way too many holes in the walls and ceiling to be anything but a death trap. He comes back to the sculpture room, and the party tries one of the other passages out.

Following the long hallway, they round a turn and come to a long wide room with a raised path down the middle, and along the north and south sides are a swampy mess. The stairs down to it are covered in precious materials, and Lor’Koth gets to removing it. While he’s at it, Blotto goes fishing in the swamp and hooks a shambling mound. Lor’Koth ignores the fight, while the fighters take down the soggy monster.

Gains: precious material from steps
Kills: shambling mound
Losses:

Rappan: They're really not from around here

Session 261 was played on 8/11/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

The party descended the stairs down into the rancid pit. The rough stairs circle round and round, and open up at the bottom unto a weird worked stone(?) passage. In addition to the rancid smell, a gibberish noise can be heard, and just as the last of the party steps into the hall, the bell that the blue lord warned the party about sounds, and the gibberish gets louder and faster.

There’s no real choice on where to go, so the party follows the hall and the noise. The hall opens to a heptagonal chamber with a black obelisk in the center of it. 2 other exits head out of the room, one open, the other blocked by a weird metal wire lattice. The spidery writing on the obelisk is intriguing, but the chanting gibberish is more pressing, and of course its coming from the blocked passage. Thankfully the party quickly discovers that the wires can be yanked out of the wall with a little effort. They make a hole big enough to pass through.

The long passage opens up into a hexagonal chamber with a large pool of steaming bubbling green… goo? Surrounding the pool, waving their tentacles, are 4… things. Standing far too tall, and adhering to no known anatomy anyone in the party had ever seen. Koltic blessed the party and casts Striking on Borumar before Morgana opened things with a fireball. The flames only fully engulfed one of the aliens. Another was burned, but the other 2 the flames failed to touch. The magic bent around them! Combat was joined.  With well practiced skill, they focused on the most injured of the aliens first. Lor’Koth is the first to drop from the alien’s mighty swings. Not only did the tentacles hurt, but they yanked various senses from the party. The loss of the sense of smell/taste was actually a blessing given the rancid smell from the pool… Burumar’s enhanced striking is dispelled as he got into melee range.. After Lor’Koth, Nick, Morgana, Blotto, and then Borumar all fall. Koltic spends the entire battle running from body to body giving them the Water of Life and getting them back on their feet, and as he wasn’t a direct threat, the aliens to their detriment ignored him.

While the party defeated the aliens, it was a desperately close thing. Another round, or another alien, and it would have been a TPK.

Gains:
Kills: 4 alien things
Losses:

Rappan: The Blue Lord

Session 260 was played on 8/4/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Looting the vault, they find coins, jewels, some magic dust, boots, a ring of the triton, and 2 potions of polymorph self.

Returning to the main hall they head south and come to a large chamber containing a huge fountain of the Blue Lord, the walls decorated with moving scenes of ocean creatures. The far wall has an open rough passage emitting a green mist. The watery light grows brighter as the party enters.

“It seems I am too late, my temple is destroyed” a voice rings out. The water of the fountain forms into a 15’ tall avatar of the Blue Lord.
“How can we help?” Borumar asks.
“Avenge the desecration of this holy place.”
“Who do we have to kill?”
“Aliens. Invaders to our world that wish to release their alien god.”
“What else do we need to know?”
“A gong will sound when the time grows short. Stop the aliens from completing their ritual before the time runs out.

Blotto asks for specifics, but the Blue Lord has few. “My magic can’t touch them, they are so foreign to our reality.

Koltic asks for a boon. The Blue Lord offers The Water of Life. While within these walls a single gulp will restore you to the condition you were in upon entering the temple, but be warned, it can only be used once. A second dose will kill you.

With that the Blue Lord sinks back into the water, and the light of the room takes on a greenish tint to match the vapors rising up from the doorway. Doing their best to ignore the rancid smell, the party headed down the passage. A long straight walk eventually brought the party to a rough chamber with 2 exits. A collapsed stair heading up, and an open one with the stair circling down. The green mist was even thicker here, and the smell worse. Blotto pees down the open tunnel.. It was hard to be sure, but it might have improved the smell.

Gains: vials of the water of life, the treasure of the vault
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan: Looting the Vault

Session 259 was played on 7/28/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Koltic spends some time with the poor broken man. He thinks he might be able to help him, but not here, and not now. With the amulet removed, and the Jinn gone, he’s not in imminent danger. They make sure he has some water and food, and leave him.

They check the rest of the VIP rooms, and find some minor treasure. Pressing on they find a big double door that opens out to a large marble platform over the main cavern with a dock down below.

They head back to the main hallway, and check out the next door off of it, finding the suite of the head priest. They search the room for treasure and more importantly, clues. Koltic finds a small secret door with a narrow passage to a vault door. Borumar checks out the passage, and fails to unlock the vault. He swaps places with Morgana who Knocks it open. Nick swaps with Morgana and opens the vault. He is immediately blinded, and placed in a silence field. With his hand still on the door, he slams it silently shut and carefully backs out.

Hours later, the spell effects wear off. Blotto and Borumar head down to the vault door. Upon opening it Borumar is magically Held. Blotto grabs him and starts to drag him back out of the way, but something stings him in the neck. Morgana Dispels Magic, revealing a Naga! Due to the confined space, Fireball isn’t a viable answer, but physical attacks work just fine. Koltic tries to use the Cobra Codex on the Naga, but the Naga makes its save. Some magic missiles, sword and spears, and blows from the goblin’s pole bring an end to the vault’s guardian.

Gains:
Kills: Naga
Losses:

Rappan: Be careful what you put down the drain

Session 258 was played on 6/23/24

Nick, Fighter 7 (Me)
Borumar, ½ Orc Thief (Josh)
Blotto, Goblin Fighter (Lanse)
Morgana, wizard (Rob)
Koltic, Cleric 7 (NPC)
Aroon, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Jameth, Fighter 5 (NPC)
Lor’Koth, Dwarf 5 (NPC)

Exploring around the temple complex, they come to a fancily staged dining hall with a food prep area hidden behind a curtain. Blotto finds the garbage shoot, and pees down into it. There’s a weird screeching noise in response, and Blotto immediately grabs his fishing pole and drops a line down with a glowing coin attached.

Meanwhile Nick is looking at a weird smooth wall. He grabs a wooden plate and tosses it at the wall. It sticks, and starts to smoke, and then dissolves. They decide to just leave that alone, and stay far away from that wall...

Blotto looks down the shoot, and as the line descends, sees tentacles reaching up to the coin. Everyone circles around the hole, and Nick directs them all to start pouring oil down, followed by a torch. More oil is added as the tentacles, while clearly burning, aren’t stopping. A caterpillar-like monster, fully 10’ long, plus tentacles, totally charred and mostly lifeless is thrust up out of the hole, followed by 2 more much more alive creatures.   The waving tentacles miss Blotto, but 3 hit Nick, and he’s suddenly frozen in place. The amigos shoot the one holding Nick with their crossbows, while Koltic throws more oil. Blotto lays into the other, and the burned monsters are quickly put out of their misery.

Continuing the search of the room, they turn up a couple of books that are of interest to Morgana, and then, making sure nothing else is coming up the hole, move deeper into the complex.

Around a corner they come to a series of VIP bedrooms. The first contains a pair of bodies, suicides in the face of whatever horrors were happening in the temple. The next was split by the earthquakes. Deeper in they heard raving, screaming, crying, and another voice calling out “Please! Please help my master!”

Moving to investigate they see a man clearly being tortured, with a large flaming being next to him. “The amulet, remove the amulet from my master’s neck!” The party is skeptical, but unsure what they can do, especially without prep. Koltic casts Remove Curse on the poor man before Blotto steps in to take the amulet. The Jinn swats Blotto. Koltic casts Dispel Magic on the Jinn, which fails to send him home, but does prevent it from attacking the party. Morgana tries Hold Monster, which surprisingly works! She then uses the amulet to send the Jinn home.

Gains:
Kills: 3 carrion crawlers, 1 Jinn
Losses: