Session 12 Recap

Session 12

Campaign Year 1

Session Start: (6/6/0) 6th day of Late Summer. Late morning on campaign day 34. Party was entering a large cavern chamber with a treasure pile and something (or somethings) lurking inside of it. One last remaining eyeless humanoid stood between the treasure and the party.

1. The fight for the hoard
   1. The party slew the humanoid and began ranged attacks against the thing(s) within the treasure pile.
      1. Most attacks missed until the human Sorcerer, Arno, landed a heavy hit.
   2. A large creature emerged from the hoard - the Young Deepspawn.
      1. A rubbery sphere roughly 10 feet across with three tentacles, three mouths on arms, and eye stalks.
      2. It monologued to them via ESP.
         1. It was biased against Momuk for being a wizard.
         2. The drow wizard had underestimated it because it is "young and small", but it had killed the drow and resisted attempts at being controlled.
   3. The party killed the thing quickly.
      1. Merywen's entangle restrained it, providing advantage on every shot and strike, and prevented any attempt at escape.
      2. It managed to land one ludicrously powerful multi-attack on Karnak before going down to a final attack from Kranimatraxis.
         1. Karnak would surely have died if he were not an Orc, as his Relentless Endurance kept him from going down.
   4. A passage behind the chamber appears to lead into the Underdark.
2. Splitting the treasure
   1. The party learned that human adventurers have a structured way of splitting treasure: one share per adventurer, and a half share for each henchman.
   2. The party considered splitting it in half first, but realized that would give them smaller portions, so they agreed to split by shares.
   3. They negotiated that the humans would take the bulky gear, since they had a henchman with guards and porters to transport it.
   4. Not everything made it into the split:
      1. Kranimatraxis managed to pocket a 50gp diamond during the fight.
      2. Zib managed to pocket a 50gp diamond during the fight and even pilfer a magic ring from the loot pile before the split was made.
3. The mimic
   1. The party returned to settle the issue of the mimic.
      1. Perhaps the drow's journal has information on it? They don't know because none of them can read elvish.
      2. The fact that the mimic responded so easily to being fed is a clue that it might have been a pet.
   2. They tried to coax it to follow them out of the dungeon, but had no success until Zib tried the "carrot on a stick" approach with meat from the slain creatures. It worked.
      1. The mimic moved slowly, but they could get it to follow them around the dungeon.
4. Getting the loot and the mimic out
   1. Momuk used Tenser's Floating Disk to help the humans stage their share of the loot near the dungeon entrance.
      1. The route went up stairs and through several, now empty, floors that the human adventurers had already cleared.
      2. They piled the loot past the catacombs and statues of forgotten gods or heroes.
   2. The party spent about half an hour getting the mimic back to their own entrance, to avoid questions about humans working with monsters.
5. The Sword Ogre Clan
   1. Upon leaving the cave the party found a surprise: a group of ogres had slain two of the guards and captured the remaining 8 guards, 4 porters, and the 4 human adventurers alive.
      1. The ogres stripped the humans of all of their belongings, and presumably now have all of the humans' share of the loot: the weapons and armor and a big pile of gold.
   2. The party approached them and were greeted amicably.
      1. The Chief is a half-ogre by the name of Morgash - smart and charismatic. He came to investigate the temple mount on hearing of human incursion.
      2. One of his tribesmen, Olg, had met the party in session 9 on the way to this very dungeon.
   3. The ogres plan to sell the humans as slaves to a hill giant that lives south of their land.
      1. A healthy human allegedly goes for 200gp a head.
   4. Kranimatraxis paid 200gp to buy George the paladin out of bondage, but George was stripped of everything except his clothes.
   5. The party high-tailed it out of there before the ogres frog-marched the remaining humans south.
6. The journey home
   1. The mimic's speed issue was solved by ritual casting of Floating Disk.
   2. George and Kranimatraxis discussed the new world.
      1. Humans that survived the blight had landed as refugees in the dwarven kingdom of Grunndarok, roughly 21 leagues west.
      2. It was problematic, so the dwarven king granted a tract of land to a human noble, and a fortress is under construction there (confirming the rumors from the news scrolls).
         1. The humans will live as vassals under the dwarven crown.
         2. The new human settlement is roughly 18 leagues west. The party doesn't know its name yet.
      3. The location of Valorhall (also from the news scrolls) is additionally now known: roughly 13 leagues northwest of Zarvelis's Lair.
   3. It took two days to get back to the party's home territory.
7. Back home
   1. Kranimatraxis and George holed up with some goblin wolf breeders as the rest of the party deposited the loot at home.
      1. The goblins will have wolf pups soon, but won't sell wild wolves. They prefer to wait until a hand-raised pup is about a year old to ensure safety for buyers.
   2. The guards at the lair's entrance told the party that the elevator would be used for emergencies only.
      1. They entered the lair through a new, large, hidden door that leads to the main market chamber.
      2. There was a crowd there, with a few merchants already operating.
   3. The party cached their haul in their barracks chamber and returned to Kranimatraxis and George.
   4. The mimic is currently trapped in the barracks chamber.
      1. It will have a food cost of 4x a medium size creature, or it will go into "ambush hunter mode".
         1. This will be treated as a weekly expense, with details sorted out as needed. It doesn't have to be a lot of gold: a skilled laborer might make 6gp in a month, and be able to feed a family on that.
      2. Zib pointed out the need to make sure someone is feeding it while the party is away.
      3. The party probably wants to feed it immediately on re-entry.
   5. Kranimatraxis requested the party find a holy symbol of Bahamut from one of the kobold Bahamut worshippers so that he didn't have to send George away without one. It's assumed that the party was successful and Kranimatraxis converted a 50gp totem into a functioning holy symbol with use of Channel Divinity.
      1. Implication is that a 50gp holy symbol has been imbued with power by an existing divine user.
      2. Kranimatraxis probably owes a Bahamut worshipper a favor.
8. The trek to Merthin's Reach
   1. On the last day of the session, the party escorted George to within 2 hours' walk of the fortress at Merthin's Reach.
      1. He will hike the remainder of the trip on foot and alone, as it would be risky to reveal the party to the human settlement.
   2. George and Kranimatraxis are making plans for a future meetup, where they will again exchange information on their experiences in the new world.

Session End: (6/9/0) 9th day of Late Summer. End of day, campaign day 37. Camping in the woods 2 hours' walk from Merthin's Reach.