Session date: Monday, May 13, 2019
Game date: Saturday, June 25, 211
PCs:
Gulleck Stonefoot, Dwarf 7, hp 41, xp 71978/140000
Caryatid, Magic-user 5, hp 24, xp 21152/40000
Simon Sackwell, Halfling 4, hp 15, xp 9958/16000
Adrien, Fighter 4, hp 16, xp 10123/16000
Retainers:
Manley "Meat" Smythe, Fighter 5, hp 17, xp 17037/32000
Father Chase Pike, Cleric 3, hp 13, xp 4669/6000
Orin, Elf 1, hp 4, xp 2250/4000
Miss Vanjie, Thief 1, hp 1, xp 0/1200
About a month had passed in game time (and real time), so Caryatid and Orin used the downtime to create four Sleep scrolls apiece. The party also purchased two more canoes, at 50 gp each, in order to continue their exploration of the caverns across the underground sea.
Struck with a whim to have a thief for a retainer again, Adrien's player rolled up a new employee, whom she dubbed "Miss Vanjie". Sadly, Miss Vanjie came to the party with a single hit point. Well, at least thieves level up quickly!
In the Rusty Lantern, they found Moonpetal's Marauders carousing at the bar. I quickly made three more saving throws for Moonpetal and found to everyone's amusement that even a month later he was still under the effect of Caryatid's Charm Person spell. Moonpetal obsequiously bought her a drink.
They carried the two canoes down into the dungeon, paying a toll of 2 gp each to have them lowered down into the ruined city. It was awkward getting them down the stairs and through doorways, but they managed it, making their way to the Temple of Hedonism and its stairway down to the second level. In the large town square, they encountered a group of five acolytes of the Temple of Hedonism, who were not aggressive but nonetheless guarded and suspicious. They conversed briefly and then continued on their way.
In the vestibule of the temple, Simon sniffed for gold and lo and behold found a sack behind one of the statues containing 700 silver and 10 gold coins. They put on their togas to pass the crystal statue guarding the stairs and descended to the second level.
As was their tradition, the party took their new employee to the Temple of Fate to give her a spin on the wheel of fortune. The noise of the wheel attracted a group of stirges, but Gulleck slammed the door shut and they when they reopened it some time later, the stirges had moved on. Vanjie didn't feel any different after her trip on the wheel and it was unclear what boon or bane had been bestowed upon her.
Down to the third level they proceeded, carrying the canoes awkwardly down the stairs. Gulleck unlocked the heavy stone door, and then they came upon a session-changing random dungeon restocking roll. As the door swung open, they saw a party of 10 bugbears crossing the room, carrying the palanquin of the Queen of Nightmares.
Seizing the opportunity, Caryatid cast Fireball directly on the palanquin. Considering the room was only 20 feet square, this was a rather reckless decision. Everything went up in flame and heat, including the front half of the party. Three of the bugbears died screaming, completely exposed in the room with nothing to take cover behind, and most of the rest seemed badly injured as well. Gulleck and Simon gritted their teeth and withstood the worst of the blast, flames flickering around their shields. Caryatid found shelter behind the edge of the doorway, but Father Chase was caught in the full blast of the explosion, and fell to the ground with a wail and a heavy thump. Adrien and Miss Vanjie dropped to the ground and hid under their canoe.
At the same time, Orin cast a Sleep spell, and three of the bugbears carrying the palanquin staggered to the floor, leaving it tilted at an uncomfortable angle. A frail shout of pain and indignity came from the litter. Then, before the adventurers could gather themselves to charge into the room and attack the survivors, the curtain of the palanquin drew open a few inches and a thin wooden stick emerged, pointing at the doorway. A wave of bone-chilling panic swept over the adventurers. Some of the bugbears who had standing between the palanquin and the party ran out of the room, hooting in panic, but Gulleck, Meat, and Orin were also overwhelmed by the unnatural fear. Their faces filled with irrational panic, and they backed away, stumbling over the canoe that Adrien and Vanjie were huddling beneath, and then ran back up the stairs shrieking in terror.
Before the remaining adventurers could respond, a bony hand extended from the palanquin, finger pointing at the adventurers, and the chilling voice of the Queen of Nightmares spoke: "Do not move!" Simon and Adrien found themselves rooted to the spot, paralyzed by some fearful force that turned their bodies traitor against their own wills.
Three of the surviving bugbears took up the poles of the palanquin from their slumbering or burned companions and hoisting the palanquin back to their shoulders, took off at a jog to the west, along with the other surviving bugbears. Caryatid and Miss Vanjie were the only adventurers left with their faculties, and had little choice but to let them flee into the darkness.
Father Chase lay on the ground in unknown condition (the fireball had reduced him to -3 hit points). I let Caryatid's player roll the usual 1d4-1 to regain hit points at the end of a combat. She rolled a 4, bringing him back to exactly 0, meaning that he was alive and breathing, but unconscious and unresponsive.
While Caryatid attempted to bandage the worst of Father Chase's burns, the voice of "the Judge" echoed out of the southern doorway.
"Oh my! I'm so glad you weren't all killed by that terrible woman!"
Caryatid thanked him for his concern but as there was little an immobile stone column could do for them right now, she wasn't in the mood to talk. Eventually, the paralysis wore off from Simon and Adrien, and around the same time, Gulleck, Meat, and Orin returned from the Temple of Hedonism where they had been hiding in terror.
With all this waiting around, there was time for a few wandering monster rolls, one of which did come up as affirmative, which could have been really bad for the fractured and weakened party, but it turned out to be the addled cleric Bor, who lived on this level. He wore the tattered heraldry of the Great Cathedral of Idalium, but nowadays he seemed to worship other, more esoteric gods. Still, he was a friend to the adventurers, and when he saw that Father Chase was badly wounded and on the brink of death, he bent over him and murmured a prayer.
"Deliver this lowly one from the darkness, O Great Ones! Let him continue to play his role in Your Great Purpose. Grant me, Your humble servant, this blessing..."
Father Chase's eyes flickered open. He was weak and in great pain. Bor sat with him and spoke to him of the "Great Ones" and their magnanimity. Bor reached into a pouch and drew forth a crudely whittled wooden idol of a bizarre humanoid with flippers for arms and legs and a horrid, lamprey-like sucker for a mouth.
"Take this, my son. Meditate upon it and you too may soon come to understand the truth of the Great Ones. They have saved you today for a greater cause."
Caryatid politely shooed Bor away from proselytizing to her retainer in his moment of extreme vulnerability, and after thanking him, the group went on their way. They stashed the two canoes in the abandoned shrine with the other two that they had "rented" from Shorty, and then high-tailed it back upstairs. In the Temple of Hedonism they encountered the same five acolytes they had met in the town square, but for once there was no actual orgy going on, but just an unexpectedly wholesome picnic of bread, cheese. fruit, and wine. The adventurers apologized for interrupting as they crossed the room, scorched, burned, and ragged. They made it back to the Rusty Lantern with no further encounters.
Later that day, Miss Vanjie received a message that a rich patron in town wanted to publish her memoirs and sent her an advance of 1000 gold coins. How lucky! (And in one fell swoop, Miss Vanjie made it almost to level 2.) Meat and Orin both failed morale checks and decided to take a week off from adventuring, and Miss Vanjie left for four weeks (to polish up her memoirs and spend her unexpected windfall).
