Day 36: The Murmuring Cave

Again, each party member receives mysterious gifts in the night. Grabathor retires from the party.

They head down to Mez, launching at the port village of Mochly and leaving Ben there with the wagon and horses. They sail down without incident, meeting a boat full of halfling heroes on their way to wipe out the gnome cult that has taken hold in the Barrowlands.

Upon arrival near the hills surrounding the mastaba, they hear sounds of combat and find an elf fighting a manticore. They help him and learn that he is Kylwin the Bold, a Guild scout down here investigating the Xalco situation. He joins the party.

Afterwards, the party meets a shedu named Sulpa-Uddu who warns them to stay out of the Valley of the Wise and not disturb the Yellow Disc. They disregard his advice and proceed down to the valley, where they find a copper dragon napping on top of the Mastaba of Aptor. The dragon wakes, and while the party tries to talk him into letting them pass, he explains that he has been given license to eat any who intrude in the valley. The party tries to subdue him at first, his strength is such that they quickly change to an all-out battle and slay the dragon.

Inside the mastaba, the party encounters a few traps, including a mimic chest and a stone head that shoots magic missiles, and they loot some gold and jewels, some of Aptor's childhood toys, and three cursed pieces of jewelry. But the sarcophagus has been smashed in, and a strange tunnel has been bored into it, miles long with faint octagonal patterns in the dirt. The party hikes to the end of the tunnel, coming out on a hillside on the other end of the valley. There they are confronted by two couatl, Yopat and Chac, and Sulpa-Uddu. The party explains that the Disc is missing, and they suspect a trio of lamias who were seen on this hillside a few days ago. As the guardians of the valley cannot act outside their jurisidiction, they ask the party to venture to the Murmuring Cave where the lamias make their lair and retrieve the Disc. The party agrees to turn the Disc over to them instead of the Guild, and Yopat removes their cursed items. They are flown near the cave.

Inside, the party encounters the three lamias, Abit, Illan, and Tamar, resting near an underground pool. Abit holds the Yellow Disc. They see Hinonk first when he accidentally makes some noise laying caltrops for an ambush, and ask if he is the messenger they've been waiting for. He tries to bluff them, but fails, and Illan casts a Charm Person spell on him. Tamar looses an earth elemental (who they've nicknamed Dirt) from an iron flask, controlled by a magic stone, and the rest of the party reveals themselves. Illan entices Hinonk to stand next to her, effectively taking him hostage. Stuck in a standoff, the party and the lamias talk for a bit, and when Hinonk reveals that the party is from the Adventurer's Guild in Guffin, the lamias are taken by surprise, as the messenger they are waiting for was sent by one Aidan Mome from the Guild.

Eventually, the lamias' quasit familiar, Pheltch, returns with news that the messenger will be arriving soon. While waiting for him, Hinonk and Tamar play a board game with a set they looted from Aptor's grave goods.

The messenger arrives via flying carpet, and it turns out to be none other than Adrumel, the Sword & Rod, third highest ranking member of the Guild. He takes the Disc, explains to the party that a contingency plan to recover it has been made, and that he's impressed they managed to track it all the way here. He escorts them out of the cave and leaves.

The party returns to Sulpa-Uddu to explain what happened. He is horrified by the loss of the Disc, believing that if the wards on it are broken, something terrible will happen, having previously alluded to some doom that befell Parz, was avoided by Mez, but might now be repeated in Engol, which seems to be related to the Disc in some way. He leaves to confer with the couatl brothers.

The party hikes back to their ship and finds it gone. They pay a passing trader to take them back to Mochly.

Accounting:
Mysterious gifts are given: a bundle of wolfsbane for Gnaurm, a spyglass for Eryn, a book (A History of the Land and Peoples of the Suprora Forest, by Aelgeth Thrifelwine) for Taniya, a silk dress for Baella (Taniya's NPC partner), a felt pouch for Cymerick's oracular knucklebones, a leather pipeweed pouch with an embroidered rabbit for Hinonk, a fighting net for Grabathor.

Taniya pays ben 5 GP to wait at Mochly, drinks her potion of healing,
Hinonk claims Drimmo's short sword +1.

The party loots amethyst-and-jade grapes and golden stalks of wheat worth 5,500 GP.
The party pays 100 GP worth of the golden wheat for passage back home and loses its ship, the Mermaid.

Each party member receives 1,767 XP.
Hinonk is awarded 1,000 XP for excellent roleplaying while under the effects of Illan's Charm spell.

Day 34-35: No Longer Drimmo's Company

Lady Blyneth and several other notable Guild members and officials host a banquet for the returning adventurers at the Huntsman's Den, an old and reputable establishment in between the Old City and the garden district of Guffin. After discussing Drimmo's fate and their experiences in the island temple, the conversation at the table turns to the subject of Xalco, the beholder warlord conquering the fractured city-states of Mez. The Guild is concerned that he is destroying ruins that hold valuable relics, and Blyneth reveals that the mysterious (and absent) Guild officer known as the Cup and Mirror has furnished a list of the most important sites to explore before Xalco destroys them. Lissanth, a high-ranking Guild member and priestess of Isis present at the banquet, is concerned that a place known as the Tabernacle of Utu is not on the list.

Sir Bartheon and Lissanth both offer to sponsor the party now that Drimmo is gone. Bartheon asks them to tackle the first item on the Cup and Mirror's list, the Mastaba of Aptor. Lissanth asks them to seek out the Tabernacle of Utu for her. The party decides to go with Bartheon.

The next day, two priests from the Temple of Balder visit Taniya's house. They explain that they have heard the sword Daemonrazor, known in their records, was recovered by her and used to slay a bone devil. They ask her to bring it to the temple, where the Archbishop of Tar-Eng is visiting, so he can bless the sword. Accompanied by her partner Baella, she does so, and learns some of Daemonrazor's history in the process.

Eryn buys a mysterious puzzle box found by a gnome adventurer in the Barrowlands, opens it, and finds an enchanted axe inside. She sells it, deciding to remain in Guffin and continue her resesarch for now, instead of continuing to adventure with the rest of the party.

That evening, Bartheon visits the party in the Guild House to show them the location of the mastaba on a map and explain that their purpose is to recover a relic known as the Yellow Disc. The party does some library research afterwards, learning that Aptor was once the Archon of Kyros and that the Yellow Disc was a magical item he crafted with assistance from powers from the plane of Concordant Opposition to banish false gods from Kyros.

Accounting:
Daemonrazor is blessed by the Archbishop of Tar-Eng, becoming a longsword +2/+3 vs creatures from the lower planes.
The party sells all non-magical loot, distributing 1,625 GP to Taniya (who claimed the coral jewelry already) and 2,705 GP to all other party members.
Eryn buys a puzzle box for 2,000 GP, finds an axe +2 inside, and sells it for 2,600 GP. She buys a sling and 12 bullets for 1 GP, 5 SP, and returns the Bag of Holding to the party's custody before withdrawing.
Hinonk buys a box of caltrops, 6 silver arrows, and a quiver for 7 GP, 3 SP.
Taniya buys a hand crossbow, 20 quarrels, 2 vials of holy water, 1 small sack, and 2 days' rations for 451 GP, 5 SP.

The Guild Banquet

A lot of new characters, world events, and Guild politics got brought up at the debriefing banquet, so I made a Storify out of it.

Day 32-33: The Temple of Geryon

The party docks at North Porttown. The harbor guard allows them to sleep in their boat until morning. Upon awakening, the party meets a group of five adventurers preparing to sail their ship, the Dauntless, to Bload on behalf of the High King of Tar-Eng, to slay a vampire lord. They do not hold the Adventurer's Guild of Guffin in high esteem, but one of them mentions seeing a halfling matching Drimmo's description coming out of the Mermaid's Tail inn earlier.

But as it turns out, the part has no need to go searching for Drimmo, he comes to the marina and finds them. He explains their purpose: a tiny island thirty miles from North Porttown used to be home to a temple of Poseidon, but it has been long abandoned, and a band of devil-worshippers have claimed it for their own dark purposes, funding their cult activities through piracy. The Guild has a policy of stamping out devil-worship as a community service, so the party is to sail to the island, wipe out the cult, and destroy the idol of Geryon, the archdevil believed to be venerated there. Drimmo wants to leave immediately, but Taniya insists on renting a room at the nearby Squid & Quadrant inn for a few hours to freshen up.

They leave around midday, and Drimmo and Gnaurm are soon seasick. However, they endure no random encounters at sea, and reach the island, scouting it in advance with Eryn's owl familiar, Talon.

Upon landing, the party is attacked by four giant crabs. They are easily slain, but tear apart Grabathor's net in the melee. After that, the party explores a shipwreck nearby. On the partially-flooded lower deck, a giant sea spider emerges from the cargo hold and attacks the party, but it too quickly falls. Donning the Necklace of Adaptation, Hinonk salvages various treasures from the sea spider's lair

Talon does further reconaissance of the temple, and with Drimmo's help, the party hatches a plan to burn the wooden shacks built alongside the temple platform as a distraction, and get inside while the cultists are dealing with the fire. Hidden in magical darkness, Drimmo enthusiastically starts three fires, and the party makes for the main temple entrance.

 

Despite the fire, the entrance remains well guarded. The party fights numerous koalinths and other cultists, and two polearm-wielding ogres tasked with guarding the temple doors. Once inside, they are confronted by the High Priest of Geryon, Snarkhos the Elder, and his kuo-toa assistant. Taniya beheads the priest with Daemonrazor, and his followers soon fall as well.

 

Searching the main hall of the temple, the party finds an altar on a metal grate. Laid upon the altar, cut open, is a dead mermaid. Taniya removes her from the altar, intending to bury her at sea later. They barricade the main temple doors, and although some tentative knocking his heard, the cultists outside do not make any heroic effort to enter the temple. The party searches the inner sanctum, finds it empty, then rests for a while.

 

Hinonk picks the storeroom lock, and the party enters. Drimmo is asked to check a treasure chest for traps, and when his searching acumen is challenged, he opens the chest, which was, of course, still trapped. A cloud of magical gas polymorphs him into a large ocean fish. Filling a barrel with their Decanter of Endless Water, the party places him inside for the time being, so he can breathe. Taniya is struck by a second gas trap, weakening her for a time.

 

Searching the other rooms, the party finds keys in the high priest's quarters and a copper tub in the kuo-toa's room, into which they move Drimmo. In another room they find potions and stairs going down. They descend, and behind one of the doors downstairs they hear rattling and tapping sounds. Inside they find a captive, Cymerick Blavask, a cleric and fellow Guild member, who has been imprisoned there for a long time, waiting to be sacrificed. He carries with him the bones he believes to be those of his friend Tomran.
 

 

The party proceeds through a tunnel, fighting a huge black snake, then enters the room under the drainage grate under the idol, the floor caked and soaked with blood, some of which runs through parallel channels under the wall of an adjoining room. The party opens the door to this room to find the channels draining into a small pool, in the middle of which stands the idol of Geryon. They cautiously put a rope around the idol and pull it over. While doing so, the room grows noticeably colder. Unbeknownst to them, a bone devil was summoned when the idol's guardian, the snake, was killed. Invisibly, the devil casts Wall of Ice on the tunnel, sealing off the party's only exit. He then casts an illusion of a red abishai devil, which the party attempts to fight. When they dispel the illusion, the bone devil reveals himself and casts Fear, causing fully half the party to flee in terror: Eryn, Grabathor, and Cymerick. After a long fight, in which Taniya is nearly killed and the bone devil tries and fails to Gate in another of his kind, Cymerick lands a killing blow and the devil's corporeal body is destroyed.

 

An earthquake follows, which the party speculates may be a response from Poseidon himself, revealing a hidden door to a treasure chamber. The party finds the original idol of Poseidon among the riches inside, and after resting and melting the wall of ice, restores it to its proper place.

 

Though columns have collapsed upstairs, crushing the bloody altar, the mermaid's body is unharmed. The party goes outside and finds four kobolds huddled in the courtyard, abandoned by the rest of their cult, who fled in the longboats tied up under the north cliffs. The party explores the outbuildings, finding electrum coins and buried horse and dolphin skulls, but nothing of real value.

 

The party sets sail, burying the mermaid and Tomran at sea. Grabathor makes an executive decision to release Drimmo into the water as well, and he swims away, most likely never to be seen again.
After sailing for a few hours the party encounters the Dauntless, floating empty in the sea. There is blood in the water sloshing around the bottom of the boat, but no other clues as to what may have happened to its owners. The party sails it back to Fyneport, sells their own, smaller boat, and returns home to Guffin.

 

Accounting:

All party members (excluding Cymerick) gain 3,774 XP.

All party members (including Cymerick) also gain 3,853 XP.

Taniya spends 2 GP on a room and gains a 25 XP bonus.

Grabathor pickpockets Drimmo's money pouch while he's seasick, gaining 36 GP, 8 SP, and 50 XP.

 

Eryn and Grabathor each receive 50 GP for the sale of Not Drimmo's Slavers.

Hinonk gains 100 XP for exercising his thieving skills.

 
The party loots 1,331 GP, 589 SP, a beryl ring worth 150 GP, 5 large pearls worth 100 GP each, a gold chalice worth 400 GP, a golden fish-shaped platter worth 200 GP, 3 gold chains worth 300 GP each,  a spearhead +1, a scroll of Lightning Bolt, a scroll of Fly, some quills, ink, and vellum, a potion of water breathing, a potion of gaseous form, a Trident +1 of Fish Command, 8 Haferan electrum coins, and the sailboat Dauntless.

Taniya loots a turtleshell buckler shield +1, Gauntlets of Swimming and Climbing, a coral necklace worth 200 GP (which she places on the mermaid before burying her at sea), a potion of healing, 2 coral bracelets worth 150 GP each, and a coral diadem worth 400 GP.

Cymerick loots a bronze footman's mace +2 with a trilobite-shaped head, and a suit of scale mail armor +1.

Hinonk loots a cypress-wood Wand of Illusion with 45 charges, a sawtoothed coral dagger +2, and sealskin leather armor +2.

 

Eryn loots a Bag of Holding, a potion of healing, and a Cloak of the Manta Ray (also of Protection +1).

Grabathor loses his net and loots a potion of healing and a bronze harpoon +2.

Day 31: Downriver

Hitching their boat to a trailer pulled by Spike and Moldy, the party heads to the town of Fyneport to set sail. Leaving the horses with Ben, they head down the river towards Whalefish Bay.

While sailing, Grabathor attempts to pan for gold (not really understanding how panning works) but only manages to catch a giant leech. It lands in the boat and attaches itself to Eryn's leg before Taniya manages to squish it.

Further ahead, they are hailed by a boy fishing from a tied-up skiff, who is promptly attacked and dragged under by a giant pike. Taniya swims after the pike and manages to kill it, with help from Eryn. They pull the boy up, heal and resuscitate him, and take him back to shore, along with the pike, which will feed his tiny fishing village for quite some time. The boy's father invites them to stay and feast, but they press on.

The party crosses Whalefish Bay without incident, arriving at the North Porttown marina very late at night.

Accounting:
Taniya gives Ben 5 GP advance pay.
Hinonk loses 2 arrows in the river.
Each party member gains 31 XP.
Taniya, Hinonk, and Eryn each gain 94 XP for participating in the rescue.