Session One Hundred and Eighty-Six Summary (Graveyard of Empires: After the Fall)
Session 186, June 26 2024
Introduction
We continue at 7:20PM on the 28th of Anurilden (00.000.08.02 on the Apocalypse Clock) with the party fleeing the invisible Silence they encountered in the armory at the base of the Necropolis. This tactical retreat follows the monsters using a flying skiff to almost explode the group, a mind-controlled Velkin to poison Vikram, and their own knives to destroy Buzz. The expedition to the lower levels was not completely without benefit, though, as the party now has power armor and several more energy weapons (e.g., rifles and rocket launchers). Can the group evade their attackers and make it back to Lolth's protection? Find out next time; or not.
Larry's Summary
We wait for Kauri to cast blood magic Web to slow our attackers when a dagger appears, stricking him.
We fight to withdraw and move up the stairs.
Druul moves up the stairs to start playing and pull the mist back to where the rest of us are on the edge.
Hasted Thorfus swings twice where the body connected to an arm would be missing then stepping forward and swinging again, missing both times.
Glompus shoots a lightning bolt starting in front of Kauri and it hits something, about 20 feet in front of us.
Kauri Cast a forked lightning bolt from in front of our front line down the passageway at the bottom of the stairs to its maximum distance.
Thorfus ties a rope to his blanket and tosses it out and pulls it back, not finding anything.
We pulled back and stood in front of Kauri so he can cast web uninterrupted. Velkin tells the spiders to spin a new web. The spider complains. Velkin smacks his mandibles around.
Velkin says it is to protect the mistress.
The spider say they will use the magic web as a framework.
Thorfus stays behind to see if maybe they try to come back through.
Velkin has a couple pieces of chalk.
Prix and Aeda plan to go find Buzz.
Thorfus writes a note to his chamberlain: "Have the best craftsmen see if they can correctly repair buzz so buzz can still fly. Or if they know of better craftsmen in another guild to ask them. It has to be done right or I will not be pleased. Lord Thorfus Ironhand-Thurdan, Lord Marshall of Clan Thuridan.
Thorfus suggests that they also seek to find some soft stone like chalk, talc, limestone, that can be ground up to make a powder to toss and find those who are invisible.
Peronelle asks who wants the necklace. Kauri says the necklace is glowing light blue.
Kauri does blood magic identify magic. Power to make things invisible in an improved way. It has some attachment to another plane of existence maybe. Its aura is very strong, like a beacon of transspatial energy.
Last owner is very tentacly and doesn't talk a lot. Strong feeling that it was used continuously for all if not most of last month and mostly in the nearby necropolis. (Suggesting these things are not here because of us.) Before that from further away, and in possession of now dead owner for past month.
There is writing on it. Druul doesn't know if by lore. Velkin recognizes it as the language of the DVLs and the rune says, "Shaitan."
Velkin asks Vikram who asks to hold it, who quickly passes it back. This has been imbued with some of Asmodeus' power.
Velkin asks if he can track it, probably.
Vikram says. "It probably isn't dangerous at the moment we should not take it with us elsewhere."
Lambertus asks if he can consecrate it? To do so, he will need to rest and learn Bless for the ritual. Sandwiching between his wooden and platinum holy symbols for now.
There is a blood magic Bless that Thorfus gives the blood for. Lambertus casts the spell with the item sandwiched between his holy symbol and it explodes and Kauri says that the transspatial glow is gone.
Velkin asks what happened to his ring and Thorfus says he hasn't seen it since he last saw him wearing it.
Velkin asks the spiders if they want a ride, they demure since they have fewer spiders to do the job. We give them the 80 spiders to speed up the job and we wait the 30 minutes for them to finish.
Velkin asks Vikram about the ring and Vikram didn't know as he was distracted by Velkin trying to poison him.
We work out way up the stairs and the wooden gate is broken through, so the beetles have access to the area.
Glompus looks for tracks to ensure there isn't an issue that befell those that went ahead.
Glompus identifies the marks of Buzz and the others, but no problems. They all moved on and up the stairs. There are some other marks and pretty sure the beetles travelled up the stairs in the last several hours.
Thorfus asks is we leave the beetles alive as a deterrent, or remove them as a threat.
We reach the barracks and here voices of Prix, Aeda, Peronell, and Buzz.
Buzz is worried, they seem to be targeting him. Kauri says he does put off a bit of transspatial energy and defnitely when he is eating.
Velkin asks about how to obscure Buzz's transspatial energy.
Vikram mentions that Buzz could be noticed if someone were specifically watching an issue.
Vikram points out that we have an item of Mephistopheles. the watch that will take us to his base on the Astral Plane.
Vikram points out that the watch is Mephistopheles' personal item so he has more ways to track it.
Glompus suggests using the Slaad staff to open a portal to the astral plan and toss the watch in there.
The Slaad portal will stay open for ten minutes.
We decide to have Lolth do a portal to lose the watch.
We wrap the "watch" in Lambertus' wooden and platinum holy symbols.
- NOTE:** Lolth lead them through the barracks and into the city and took a left to go to the spire. They did **NOT** go up the spiral stairs.
Kauri, Lambertus, and Peronelle were the only ones in the party who met Jarlaxus, the now Drider ex spours of Jarlanna.
Velkin suggest we make a quick detour to the drow temple to leave a note for Jarlaxus to let him know that the drow are here with Lolth and Jarlana.
Velkin uses his ring to shadow step to see if Vikram can sense him. Vikram saw it, but didn't otherwise sense it.
Velkin suggests removing his stone arm completely to use the heal from the rod on it.
Lambertus says hold up, can I be unconscious first?
Velkin looks in his alchemy book for a numbing agent. But thinks back to something with numbing stuff in the river. Frog skin ooze in a vial.
Velkin rubs some of the frog skin ooze on his shoulder, then pokes it with a dagger. Lambertus says I feel the pressure, but it doesn't really hurt.
Velkin asks Vikram to craft a wooden basket that slots onto Glompus' power armor to be able to carry Snuffles.
We reach the drow temple.
Velkin leaves a note for Jarlaxus: "The mistress is in the house and as is her favorite." He doesn't sign it, so that it could be from anyone wandering through.
Put it where his journals were. Velkin puts the journal back with the note sticking out of it.
As we move through the city there is a trumpeting noise. It sound like an animal rather than an instrument. It is off to the side of us, then the echoes die out and it is quiet.
Velkin has Vikram raise him up and sees dust moving this way and there is a rumbling.
Barreling out of a side street is a creature about 15 feet long. It is armored and looks like an over-sized rust monster with huge eyes and a crest on its back. It trumpets and looks to the right and left. It ignores all of us and into the building Buzz went to hang out, and bursts through the wall.
The building is still standing and Buzz is currently fine.
Buzz is getting ready to move and there are crashing noises from the building.
The building crashes down on the creature and we hear sound from under the rubble.
The rumbling moves away from the collapsed building like under the street we are on and the whole place is like a localized earthquake. Sort of perpendicular to us and slightly towards us.
We decide to just get out of there. There is a crashing noise in the building Velkin is in.
We all follow the obvious path of the drow and dwarves. Velkin hangs back in the air held by Vikram.
We tell the drow guards about the beast and the two dead drow and possibly two more that were here when we got here before we showed up.
They send runners to share word of the drow and beast.
We then go until we reach a big open area with huge dais. One has the dwarves and one has Lolth.
We wait for Velkin to take his message about the watch to Lolth.
We hear a noise with giant waterfalls falling into pools with refugees gathering water.
Then Velkin joins up with us.
Coming down the stairs from the dais is the Dark King and 3 male driders marching in our direction.
(Velkin will talk to Lolth next session.)