Session 235: Bathtime

Lalie and Aila, Gnorcia and Pella, Lhoss, Tatania, Feno, and Sergius find themselves with the decision of whether to explore the two greenish-brown pools within the barrow. All of the remaining areas have been explored and cleared, so there are no excuses to put off the decision any longer. Lalie is intrigued by the waters and takes off her glove to test the temperature with her hand. Gnorcia, seemingly emboldened by Lalie's action does the same. The two comment that they don't feel any different, but Tatania notes that they are still fully clothed. While Gnorcia and Lalie discuss whether it would be wise to test the waters, Lhoss looks on idly and comments that she would never be brave enough to strip down as is depicted in the murals and bathe in the murky water. Lalie seems to interpret Lhoss' offhand comment as some sort of challenge and orders Feno and Sergius out so she can run a proper experiment. Feno dutifully disappears into one of the rooms and shuts the door. Sergius walks into another room, but keeps peeking his head out until the women all shout at him to give them some privacy. 

Lalie immediately strips off her armor and clothing and submerges herself in the lower pool with Gnorcia hot on her heels. The effect is immediate and noticeable to both the bathers and onlookers: an eye that appears less keen and a jaw that is slightly more slack; these two seem to have lost a shade of their intelligence! Gnorcia declares that she is feeling a little dumb, so why not do something a little dumb? She scrambles out of the lower pool and immediately plunges into the upper pool. It is as though a cobweb is immediately swept from the corner of her brain as Gnorcia seems her old self again. Except, she seems shinier somehow? I mean, she's not attractive, but for a gnome, she's slightly comelier. Lalie joins Gnorcia in the upper pool and exhibits the same mini transformation. It's difficult to pin it down, but Lhoss has an increased level of trust and respect for Lalie. 

Tatania may have been reluctant to be the first one in the water, but after seeing what has transpired, strips and dunks herself in the upper pool. Unfortunately, she sees no change in herself from the experiment. True to her word, Lhoss does not even consider the task. The men are called back into the main chamber and the women recount their success/failure from bathing. The men declare it is their turn and shoo the women out of the room. Sergius climbs into the upper pool and Feno the lower one. They experience nothing. They switch pools but still feel nothing. Feno notices that the mosaics that had depicted bathing figures have disappeared, leaving blank walls behind. Disappointed, they dry off and all head back out into the marsh.

The party walks around the barrow marsh, looking at mounds they haven't explored before. They find a covered mound that would take too long to dig out. Next they encounter a sealed tomb but are perhaps too afraid to attract unwanted attention with the noise that breaking down the door would cause. They then come upon a cover stone that appears to have been removed with a rope and horse (judging by the drag path and horse tracks left behind). The group peeks in and observes a 15' x 15' chamber with a disturbed sarcophagus and a mummy lying face-down on the ground. Gnorcia nudges the mummy with her toe with thankfully no response and Lalie uses her skill to passively detect evil and, even more thankfully, senses none. Tatania is clicking her tongue at whomever left the mummy in such a disrespectful state and is contemplating restoring the mummy to its sarcophagus when Lhoss catches a glint of gold. She carefully scoops up a gold ring on the tip of her dagger, Gary, while Tatania casts detect magic and, unfortunately, detects none. With this small treasure, they all decide to head back to Orlane.

Feno has caught word that Alan Clayborne has returned from his journey to find the Mayor. Feno and Lhoss head to his house to speak to him, but he is not home. They first try the Slumbering Serpent as it's the closest inn to Alan's home, but he isn't there. Lhoss visits briefly with Belba, largely to assuage the side-eye glances from the inns' patrons. Belba kindly informs the two elves that Alan generally frequents their own Foaming Mug Inn. Of course! Sure enough, Alan and his wife are in the common room of the Foaming Mug. As Lhoss and Feno approach, Alan seems eager to share is news but hesitant because it's not exactly good news. Alan found the mayor, but something seems off. The mayor was willing to speak to Alan and even come back to Orlane, but he had a strange emotional detachment. He didn't smile and there didn't seem to be any light behind his eyes. What strange depression, ennui, or trauma is tormenting the dear mayor?

The next morning is the beginning of Needfest. The party decides to stay in town for the holiday. Townsfolk are buoyed by the festival with all sorts of gatherings and celebrations. They mayor even joins in, though his demeanor is not much changed. The children of town put on a play portraying the brave actions of the Saviors of Orlane. Feno is pleased his own depiction while Lhoss is positively delighted to be shown in such a glowing light. Each afternoon, Lhoss and Tatania meet up to dig through the bag of holding and identify a few of the magic items. On one evening, seemingly all of Orlane gathers for a potluck where everyone contributes what they can to the feast. Lhoss assists in baking some bread, Feno contributes a delicious wheel of cheese, and even Gnorcia uses a freshen cantrip to crisp up some apples that had started to go a little soft. It is a cheerful night filled with food, drink and dancing. Your old Velma had her fill of wine and cut a rug. With that joyful memory, I leave you until next time,

Velma

Session 234: Hair today, gone tomorrow

This report chronicles the events of the expedition into a barrow within the Barrow Marsh on the 28th day of Sunset, between the hours of 9:30 and 11:00 in the morning.

The golden goblet called to the party from the short pedestal. It looked enticing, yet menacing. Lhoss inspected it for traps and Niki tested the liquid inside and determined it was not poison. It also did not appear to be evil in nature or possess any magical enchantments. The liquid inside was viscous, green, and familiar. Lifting the goblet to transfer it into a glass bottle that could be sealed, it became evident to the party that they were dealing with that substance well-known to them: green slime. To be sure, Tatania sprinkled a few crumbs of bread into the goblet. The slime reacted instantly. It bubbled up violently, doubling in volume. The goblet itself was appraised to be worth 345 gold pieces and featured a unique non-metallic interior coating that seemed to resist the slime’s corrosive properties.

The party quibbled a bit about how best to handle the situation. They had obviously dealt with green slime numerous times in the past and were being overly cautious about handling it and making sure that the vessel they intended to transfer the glop into would be capable of safely containing the dangerous liquid. The room seemed to grow impatient with their slow decision-making. Suddenly, it began to rain indoors, causing the slime to grow further. Several members of the party retreated outside of the room, but a stubborn few persisted, trying to find a way to decant the slime and recover the goblet. Soon after, the temperature skyrocketed, reaching intense, furnace-like heat. As the rest of the party retreated and closed the door to seal off the heat, they witnessed the glass bottle shatter and the golden goblet melt into a bubbling pool of gold. It almost seemed as though some trickster had set a supernatural trap that sprung when the adventurers tried to claim the goblet.

Continuing north through the marshy interior, Gnorcia accidentally stepped into a pool of peat water but was dried by a companion's magic. The party encountered a locked northern door rigged with a thin wire trap. Lhoss climbed the wall to disarm the mechanism, which triggered a massive four-foot stone block to slam down on the opposite side of the portal. Once the door was unlocked and the block bypassed, the group entered a large crypt.

The new chamber contained numerous burial alcoves and two large wooden statues with antlers. While the party began searching the alcoves, an evil presence was sensed behind a western door. Suddenly, the door burst open, and two sons of Gaks (horrid, worm-infested creatures) attacked. The monstrosities were swiftly vanquished through a combination of magic missiles, martial prowess, and a holy mace that reduced one to a puff of magic.

Peace was short-lived as an explosion rocked the southern end of the tomb, and smoke began pouring into the chamber. The southern door was incinerated, and a funeral pyre zombie emerged. During the skirmish, the zombie was levitated into the air by Lhoss to neutralize its mobility. When struck by magic, it burst into flames, burning away its flesh before being shattered into bone fragments. Simultaneously, the two wooden statues in the room animated into wood golems. In the ensuing melee, the golems were destroyed, though the dwarf Sergius unfortunately had his beard singed by the flames of the burning constructs.

Following the battles, a thorough search of the eight rotting wooden sarcophagi revealed several notable items: a suit of dwarven-sized chain mail, a winged helm, a longsword and a medium-sized kite shield bearing a red, white, and blue chevron, a pair of rusty silver thimbles, a sunflower statuette, a picnic basket, a scandalous piece of black lingerie, a bag containing 45 gold pieces, a potion of extra healing, and a small red bottle containing a "hair restore tonic". Sergius was quite distraught over the reduction of his magnificent beard and seemed distrustful of the tonic. It took much convincing from the rest of the group, but Sergius applied the magical tonic to his damaged facial hair He was much relieved when it successfully restored his beard to its former flowing glory.

Session 233: Lhoss and Tatania expand their powers

It is Day 27 of Sunsebb. Lhoss and Tatania find that spells have been acquired by the group that allow them to cast the Identify spell (provided they transcribe the spell into their spell books and have the requisite components - which they do and they buy). As they are both more skilled spell-casters than Duerom, they are able to cast the spell more times with greater accuracy. The duo sets to work identifying a backlog of magic items.

The first identified item was Gauntlets of Dexterity, which increase the wearer's dexterity score. They also examined a magical hand axe, though its specific combat bonuses were not fully revealed during the session. The party also identified several potions: two clear potions were identified as Potions of Health, which completely cure diseases like mummy rot, blindness, and infection but do not restore hit points;  a golden liquid with silver flecks was identified as a Potion of Treasure Finding which allows the drinker to locate large treasure hordes (at least 10,000 coins) within a 240-foot range; lastly all iridescent blue liquids in the group's possession were confirmed to be standard healing potions.

Next, Lhoss picked up some scrolls to cast Identify on them, but it was unnecessary as she was able to read the spell names and identified several one after another. The first discovery was two powerful clerical scrolls. One contained four 7th-level spells (control weather, conversion, exaction, and holy word), and the other contained two 4th-level spells (sticks to snakes and imbue with spellability). Next, a scroll containing magic missile was identified, written at a 7th-level caster power. Lastly, a Scroll of Protection from Undead was identified. This scroll specifically protects the reader from zombies. Pity, as this is a fairly low-level undead creature that the group doesn't seem to have any trouble handling on their own. 

Finally, Lhoss turned her power to identify a spell component (some gray dust). It was identified as Dust of Disappearance. The party has three packets of this dust, which makes creatures almost entirely undetectable and grants significant combat bonuses. I was thrilling to discover the true value of so much treasure being unknowingly hauled around in the bag of holding.

Lalie returned to the group in Orlane after being resurrected by her family in Veluna. While she appears unchanged, the "cost" of her resurrection remains a secret she is unwilling to share.

On the cold morning of Day 28 of Sunsebb, Feno, Sergius, Gnorcia, Tatania, Lhoss, Lalie, and Aila headed out to explore the barrow mound. During their travel back to the barrow marsh, the party noted that the decay in the Dim Forest has halted or slowed significantly. They observed a bizarre magical pattern: exactly every 10th tree appeared restored to complete health, while the others remained rotted, except for every 10th 10th tree (or 100th tree) which was not restored but rotted. Strange.

The party decided to dig out a mound and spent several hours excavating the entrance. Both Lalie and Aila pronounced the task to be below their stations. While shoveling, Feno "accidentally" flung some dirt in their directions. The task was most exhausting, but upon entering the dry crypt, they discovered two pools of brown, peat-colored water that radiated strong magic. Wall frescos depicted people removing their clothing to enter these pools. Sergius contemplated whether to reenact the pictures, but the group convinced him to explore the surrounding areas first.

The party first explored a side room. Inside, they found a golden jeweled goblet sitting on a pedestal, near an alcove containing skeletal remains. It was a tempting sight, but the vision of the adventure ended before anyone could decide how to approach the situation.