Rappan: Black Monastery & Mint Julips

Session 276 was played on 03/23/25

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)

The monastery is mostly empty. A series of connected smaller rooms eventually lead to a larger work room, full of dummies… in the middle of the work area were 8 dummies that stood out from the rest. A little more finished, and far more detailed looking than the rest. A female wizard, a short halfling sized  warrior, a dwarf sized warrior… the party quickly realizes that they’re looking at copies of themselves! All investigation seems to show that they’re just dummies, but it’s disturbing.

While looking things over, a voice calls out from an open doorway. Within the chamber beyond are a pair of large trees growing up through the roof, and strung between them a hammock. Against one wall is a liquor cabinet, well stocked, and alone in the room is a cadaverous figure in black robes. Yet another friendly ghoul. The party chats, shares some drinks (he makes a mean mint julep). He provides some background on the story of the Black Monastery. A good order, fallen to chaos. This brother, Dr. Brutus, was working on attaining Lichdom, but messed up somehow, and has been trapped in this room for… he’s not clear how long. The monastery seems to jump around in time. To the amazement of all, in spite of the drinking, the liquor cabinet remained full. When the end came, it came with a blazing green flame that swept the halls. It unanchored the monastery from time, and Dr. Brutus has seen visitors from all ages come through.

This not being the first gentle ghoul that the party has encountered, investigate a little further. Morgana thinks it’s impossible to kill him, or maybe anyone trapped in the monastery? There’s a stone, somewhere in the monastery that fell from the sky, part of what brought about the end. If they can find it, break the hold it has on them, then maybe Dr Brutus could be freed, either from life (undeath) or from the prison of this well stocked room.

Dr. Brutus gives 2 final warnings. Watch out for the frogs, they have tongues of green flame. And if you find the theater, leave quickly, and count your shadows.

Leaving Dr. Brutus, the party explores on, soon finding the scene of a relatively recent fight between 18 spiders, 4 orcs, and 6 humans. The limbs of the various combatants had been severed and built up into a gory teepee. Within was a bloody cloak.

Gains:
Kills:
Losses:

Rappan: The black monastery appears

Session 275 was played on 03/16/25

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)

The party decided to take the winter off, and prep, train, and relax. Morgana takes several commissions from the party and outsiders. Koltic make Nick a ring of fire resistance, a wand of remove curse and dispel magic, and a boatload of healing potions. Nick finally trained up in spear fighting, while Jameth and Aroon became sword masters. Blotto finally manages to make it relatively safe for everyone for him to ride his semi-domesticated rust monster….

As the spring thaw arrived, so did news of trouble. Failing plantings, stillborn and deformed births, the usual. Along with it came reports of a monastery appearing near the ancient ruins of an old town. The party gears up, and heads out.

On the way they pass a small abandoned kobold hamlet… kinda creepy how empty it is. Pressing on they quickly come to the monastery. It’s a massive building with towers on the front corners. The party circles the outside of the building. Aside from the big gate at the front, there’s a back door. They opt to take that. Esmerelda the rust monster eats a big enough hole for Blotto to climb through. Once he’s inside, Borumar follows, and the 2 of them manage to force the gate mechanism to open allowing everyone in. 

Beyond is a large area to exercise horses in. The party pokes around, and heads deeper into the structure, taking the smaller of the northern doors out of the exercise area. 

Gains: 

Kills:

Losses:

April ‘25 In Review

It was bound to happen, I came down with a scratchy throat early in the month. We all did. Between the cold and the pollen, it’s been a month. On the upside, the weather has finally warmed up, and everything is green and bright and colorful. I’m trying my hand at gardening, with mixed results so far. Some things are growing… the grass doesn’t seem to be. Plus I managed to grow some mold on some of the seeds I was starting. Yeah, it's a mixed bag.

I did get a promotion at work, so there's that. Celebrated with a nice lunch and getting more 3D prints done at the library. Aside from that, I'm full on in audit prep, so super busy.


Gaming
My work game was a little limited this month due to… well… work. Stupid audit.

Sunday we've been exploring the Black Monastery, a Frog God Games adventure with a hellish map. It’s a giant structure, with a couple of dungeon levels under it, and it’s one of those buildings with pencil thin walls, and zero unused space, and the weirdest shaped room… Seriously, check out the map that I’ve got so far. We’ve abandoned it, and are now going dragon hunting.


Miniatures
This was a productive month, especially on the terrain front! Not only did I finish the Noodle Bar, and a random bit of scatter, but I also got another bunch of Flatline City buildings printed up at the library. On top of that was the assortment of random things that I decided to work on. My ratio of Reaper to non-Reaper is now 12/39, but I’ve got 5 more non-reaper minis in progress actively. 

Media
Daredevil Born Again
Star Wars Skeleton Crew
Ghosts
Game Changer seasons 1-3
Resident Alien season 3

Loot
My Downcrawl RPG book and deck arrived. I've started to read it, and plan on writing more about it after I finish.

Goals for May
Catch back up with session reports
Play a game of Stargrave or Rangers of Shadowdeep