Kay’s Journal – 8/19
Kay's Journal - Reaper Errant
Thursday, September 1, 2022
Kay's Journal - 8/19 - Reaper Errant
Thursday, August 18, 2022
Kay's Journal - 8/5 - Reaper Errant
Kay’s Journal, 8/5
Thursday, August 4, 2022
Kay's Journal - 7/22 - Reaper Errant
Kay’s Journal, 7/22
After getting past the gargoyles, we rest briefly in the
corridor before continuing on. As we go down the corridor, the air gets warmer
and more humid. It’s very hot by the time we see an orange glow in front of us.
Fire is next, apparently.
We hear a bubbling sound up ahead, and smell sulfur. Fathom
takes the lead since she’s comfortable with heat.
The hallway opens up into a room. Yup…it’s lava. There’s a
big pool of it, mostly filling the room. There’s a solid island in the middle
of the big pool of lava, which is piled with coins, gems, swords, shields,
chests…all kinds of treasure. There’s a narrow pathway around the edge of the
room; on one end of the room it’s broken by the river of lava running through.
On the other end of the room there’s a bridge over the lava river. There’s a
door on the far side of the room, opposite from where we entered.
I see some fiends on the far side, in front of the door,
though they look like they are trying to hide. Fathom greets them, taking them
by surprise since they thought they were hiding successfully (that’s so cute).
She tells them we have the key and would like to pass through. She’s speaking
to them in Infernal. The lead fiend, a female who is directly in front of the
door, says that they are observers, and it’s not for them to let us through or
not. Fathom asks who we need to talk to, then. She thinks they might be trying
to trick us, but the fiend says it’s the watcher in the center that we have to
talk to, of course. She also notes that people travelling through here usually
know what they are doing.
I look at the island and the pile of treasure with the
goggles. There’s definitely magic there – looks like it might be some kind of
alarm, maybe. Also, it looks like the bridge over the lava at the end of the
room will collapse if we try to cross it.
We debate. What if the pile of treasure is previous offerings,
and this is a ‘bribe the guards’ type of situation? We try offering 10gp each.
Pujol summons an Unseen Servant and has it carry the 60gp over to the island. I
see the magic on the island coalesce a little. Fathom watches the fiends; one
of them is smiling a big stupid happy grin. Otherwise, they don’t react.
The coins start to shake as if the platform is vibrating.
Fathom asks the fiends if that was a sufficient offering. The female fiend
continues to be vague about it, but they do step back. That seems like a bad
sign.
Screw it, we jump across the lava to the island. We feel the
tremor…and the coins rise up into a vaguely humanoid-shaped golem. Great. It
points at Pujol and says something in Ignan. Does anybody speak the elemental
language of fire? No, of course not. Fathom casts Tongues on herself and asks
the golem to repeat what it said, pretty please. It’s asking for the words of
passage, and asking this of Pujol.
We debate on the words. We know, thanks to Pujol’s friend
the gargoyle, that the first word is ‘obsidian’. What could the second be?
Obsidian is earth that came from fire…a mix of the element of the last section
and the element of the next section on the map. Maybe this would be something
similar. We check the map…the next section is Air. So, what’s fire + air? Pujol
follows ‘obsidian’ with ‘smoke’.
That seems to be it. Yay! We do not die. The golem reaches
into a chest and pulls out a gem and offers it to Pujol. It’s a big gem, a good
4” across. Pujol takes the gem, and the golem dissipates. The fiends draw their
weapons.
I am an arrow at the lead fiend and tell her to cut the
crap; we satisfied the guardian. She says that now that we have recovered the
jewel, she can take it from us. So, I shoot her in the face.
The other fiends turn into misty liquid and flow around her,
giving her more armor. Abran shoots her twice. She flies across to the island
and attacks Abran. She hits him once, and it turns out her sword is poison.
Great! The poison is way worse than the sword wound itself.
CornCob tries to banish her, but fails. Gooseneck attacks
her, hits once. She’s clearly a highly skilled fighter. Pujol tucks the gem
into his shirt and books it back to the entrance; then casts an illusory
duplicate of the key, sets it on the ground, and runs. The fiend smiles at him
knowingly – I think she’s not buying it. Fathom casts a bolt at her, hits her,
and asks why she needs the key. The fiend says it’s a gift.
Abran swings at her, but she parries. He hits her with his
second swing, then he backs up. She follows him, giving Gooseneck an
opportunity to hit her while she’s moving, but he misses. She swings at Abran
and hits him three times. He goes down.
CornCob casts a spell at her and Gooseneck attacks her
again. Pujol runs back into the room and turns invisible. Fathom casts a psychic
lance at her, and that does it. As she fades out, she telepathically tells us
all that we won’t succeed, others worse than her search for the keys. Gooseneck
grabs her bow as she dissipates.
As he hands the bow to Abran, Gooseneck feels a twinge of regret
at giving it up. The twinge is mildly unnatural. Fathom identifies the bow – it’s
a +2 bow that does 3d8 poison damage. Abran thinks the bow is almost alive, but
he attunes with it anyway. It tells him they will do wonderful things together.
He asks its name, and it tells him it is called Ahtar Paire. This is fine. It’s
totally fine.
We rest on the island. CornCob heals Abran.
The key gem is probably worth 500gp, just as a gem. It’s a
sapphire. We stick it in the door; the door glows along the seams. The doorway
is extra-planar. We are going somewhere else. The doorway is a permanent gate
to a different plane.
Thursday, July 21, 2022
Kay's Journal - 6/24 - Reaper Errant
Kay’s Journal, 6/24
Gooseneck’s left arm is in the rock lizard mouth. He’s not hurt, but he can’t get his arm out without hurting himself.
We all feel a vibration in the rock below us. Some heavy mechanism is at work. A door slides open, and we see a dark passage beyond it.
Fathom goes into the passage to look for something that might release Gooseneck. She finds a stone handle that could be twisted right or left. I look, I see the walls have divots, like maybe they were dug into recently.
CornCob takes a look at the stonework. He doesn’t think it’s supposed to be a deadly trap. He also doesn’t think it can close any further than it already has.
Abran turns the handle. The stone jaws open and release Gooseneck. Gooseneck pulls the key out. There’s another lever that will close the door.
Abran casts a spell on Gooseneck to give him dark vision. I put on the goggles so I can also see in the dark. So, we don’t need torches as we head in to the cavern. The path slopes slightly downward. CornCob thinks it follows a natural vein of something through the stone. He thinks both the gate and tunnel are both very old, at least a couple hundred years.
We walk for 30-40 minutes, heading downward. There are no side passages. The size of the passage varies as we go along. CornCob spots some quarts fragments in the walls. Morgot thinks we’re beneath the surface and heading toward the center of the mountain. I look at the map, it seems to match where we are, but the scale is off. The map shows a long, straight area opening into a room. One of the symbols is at an opening at the end of a passage, right before a color change on the map. There are no lizardfolk markings here, but there are some sconces for torches on the wall.
We get to where the tunnel opens up. I see two carved gargoyles crouching up on the walls. There’s a beat-up gate in front of us. With the goggles, they don’t look magical, but they seem very lifelike. Pujol plays his harp soothingly.
The gate is old and decrepit. There’s no recent damage, and it looks functional. There is some debris under one of the carved statues. The gate swings into the next room to open. The gargoyles are looking down; their sight lines would cross about 4’ up in the corridor.
We debate what to do. Fathom uses a spell to open the gate. It blows open. The gargoyles start to move. Gooseneck jumps up and swings at one, misses. They jump down to the floor, and one swings at Gooseneck and misses. The other swings at Abran and hits him. I jump behind it, try to stab it, and miss. CornCob casts a spell at it, and finally manages to damage it. Pujol shoots his crossbow at it, hits.
The gargoyles look like Chibi Gooseneck.
Fathom casts a spell at one, hits it, and does a bunch of damage. One of them crumbles away, having taken enough damage to be destroyed.
Gooseneck shows the key to the remaining one. It focuses on the key. It stops attacking, puts its hand over the key, and then goes back to its spot on the wall. It looked like it was trying to figure out if the key was the right shape.
We go on. The gate opens in to a much larger room. It feels like we’re not alone in here. There was a brief sound of movement, like stone on stone. There was a symbol on the map that correlated to the gargoyle room; there is a different symbol here. I look around with the goggles while Gooseneck announces to anyone who might be listening that we have the key.
There is an area on the far side of the room where crystals are glowing. After Gooseneck says he has the key, a gravelly voice responds, telling him to come forth with the key. He does. It looks like a large gargoyle. There’s a stone door behind him.
We gather up. Gooseneck shows the key, and asks to pass. The big gargoyle isn’t convinced, but doesn’t attack us, either. It says that half the whole is not enough. Fathom shows him the map. She thinks maybe the symbols form a word, but she doesn’t know what it is. Gooseneck says we have the whole, and we should be able to pass.
Fathom draws the symbol for the room in the air. That doesn’t appear to be what the gargoyle wants. He says he’s waiting. Gooseneck offers the key. He seems hesitant to agree. He says we are not of the tribe, we don’t know the words, and should leave.
Pujol tries to charm it, and succeeds. It makes a placating gesture and a bunch of small gargoyles come out of hiding. They do not attack. Pujol asks what the magic word is – it’s OBSIDIAN. Then it lets us pass. Fathom looks at the crystals. Pujol asks about the crystals and asks for translations of the symbols on the map. He gives us some names. Gooseneck recognizes them as dialects of primordial languages – earth, air, water, fire – Aquan, Ignan, Oran, Terran.
Fathom looks at the crystals. The gargoyle says they are remnants left unmined. He doesn’t know why they were left behind. CornCob looks at them; they look amethyst in color, rather than clear and colorless.
Pujol asks about the slaad brothers. They were disciples of earth. The came through ‘not long ago’. They knew the word, and passed through. Fathom shows him the slaad crystal, and he says it wasn’t mined here.
We move on. The key goes in the door, and opens it. It opens into another cave. We hear water dripping as well as a trickle of running water ahead. This corresponds to another color change on the map.
Thursday, June 23, 2022
Kay's Journal - 6/10 - Reaper Errant
Kay’s Journal - 6/10/22
Thursday, June 9, 2022
Kay's Journal - 5/27 - Reaper Errant
While we are still at Brooks, CornCob asks if the bouncy castle comes with furnishings. It does not. Further, if we put stuff in there and collapse the castle, it will eject whatever was in there.
We decide to think about it for a while. In the meantime, we go check out the noises at the warehouse. We hear people talking about how crates should be arranged. Gooseneck charges in to the warehouse. He sees a lot of movement as people move around crates and chests. It looks like a wagon full of stuff just got delivered and they are trying to make space for it – getting it in its own space, separate from the other things. The other stuff is similarly arranged in to separated piles. It looks very disorganized. The crates appear to be mostly from ships, but a few come from inland. One of the crates definitely looks damaged; that could have been the crashing we heard.
Gooseneck says we heard the crash and came to check it out and offer aid. The warehouse manager apologizes for the noise, but says he has it under control. He asks everybody’s names; Gooseneck tells him. The warehouse manager is Johan. He asks if we have goods in the warehouse, or if the Silver Swan has goods to store.
Gooseneck asks about hiring crew. Johan becomes visibly uncomfortable and says he can’t help with that; most people go to the Jagged Blade to hire crew. Pujol has Gooseneck ask if there is any cargo from the Starfish or the Bloody Anchor. The Bloody Anchor hasn’t been there for a long time. They did offload some cargo when they were here last, but didn’t store it here. The Starfish mostly deals in foodstuffs.
We go to the hot springs. It’s a little bit of a trek to get there. The jungle is still very natural, lots of typical jungle creatures, but it’s very well-travelled. Gooseneck and I see someone patrolling the path, so clearly the place is guarded. Nothing would go completely unnoticed here. I see where the path veers off to go to the tent city.
We see two people at the springs. One greets us, says it’s been quiet there recently – not many people coming. She’s Margaret, and is making stew. I look around with the goggles, and don’t see anything that stands out.
The second person, a young woman, comes out from behind some rocks. She’s carrying something in a big leaf which she takes to Margaret.
Gooseneck goes and sticks his feet in the water. It smells a bit of sulfur, and is quite hot, maybe 107, 108 degrees. He doesn’t see anything in the water. It’s clear, and deeper in the center. The edges are maybe knee deep, but the center is probably deeper than Gooseneck is tall. Fathom also sticks her feet in the water.
Abran is uncomfortable; he stays on the periphery and looks for animals. CornCob looks for trails, he sees a couple of paths. One leads to where Margaret is making stew, and past that to the tent city. The second goes off in the opposite direction. Neither go by the log where people would store their stuff.
Nobody sees any mammals here (apart from ourselves). Plenty of little lizards and amphibians, though. Pujol talks to one of the smarter looking lizards, and asks it if this is a safe place. The lizard thinks it is! Also, there are good scraps.
Abran patrols. He finds some tracks that concern him – it looks like a large wild boar; following those tracks, he gets to a spot where a bush has been uprooted. It looks like something grabbed the boar and dragged it away. He thinks this happened yesterday. It looks like the boar got dragged away from the town or tent city. He circles back to the springs and tells us he wants to go fight whatever dragged the boar off.
CornCob suggests that Abran ask one of the attendants about it. Abran does. Margaret says the heard some large creature sounds in the jungle yesterday, but did not investigate. Probably because there was a large creature out there, and it’s known that there are large predators around. So far, people who have gone hunting for them don’t come back, or come back empty handed. But few bother, as the creatures don’t generally bother humans.
Abran asks Margaret where she lives – in the tent city. He asks if there’s anything or anyone to look for. He says we’re looking for crew, and asks if she knows anything about slaads. She doesn’t, and asks if they are land creatures. Abran says that’s a question for the demonic Fathom.
Gooseneck asks the ladies if they remember the two guys who became slaad. Margaret remembers them well; they were brothers and lived in the tent city. They helped hunt for game. She remembers them as being very cleanly. Gooseneck asks if she could show up where they lived in the tent city. She says their tents are still there, but occupied by others now.
It gets on toward evening. Nobody else comes to the hot springs today. Gooseneck eats some of the crew – definitely boar.
We go with them to the tent city. CornCob asks where they got the boar for the stew. They had set snares.
On the way to the tent city, it falls oddly silent. A large shadow looms above us, leaning down slowly. There’s a massive shape coming toward the center of the group – it’s a big dinosaur.
Gooseneck runs to grab Pujol and Fathom and get them out of the way. Abran shoots at it, hits, then takes cover behind a stone column. Pujol polymorphs it into a hedgehog – which works – and then goes and picks it up.
Margaret shows us the way to a large lava crevasse. Pujol uses Mage Hand to drop the hedgehog into the crevasse. Half an hour later, when the polymorph wears off, we hear a hedgehog squeal turn into a large lizard roar. Then, a mangled dinosaur head pops out. It’s not dead, but it’s damaged. We finish it off and then head to the tent city.
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Kay's Journal - 5/13 - Reaper Errant
Kay’s Journal – 5/13/22
We are going to Eudroya, a part town on the southern
continent. It’s much smaller than Ven, and in a jungle. Most normal supplies
should be available. This is our last stop before heading to the places the
ship was hired to explore.
The captain is planning on hiring 3-6 people here. We’re
thinking maybe going on the high end of that would be good.
We review the journal of the sailor who turned out to be a slaad,
as this town is where they hired on with the ship. The journal says they went
to the Jagged Blade – it’s a tavern in town that’s the place to go if you want
to get hired on to a ship. They also visited some hot springs in the area, and
a shop that is known to barter with sailors for things they find on their travels.
They stayed in the tent city that’s on the periphery of the town, near the hot
springs.
We get to port. The captain reserves a berth for up to a
week. Everyone is supposed to check in at least every 2 days, but other than
that people are cut loose. Pujol expresses concern about people or creatures sneaking
on to the ship. There will be a couple people staying on the ship to keep
watch, but there’s not much more than can be done. We’ll plan on giving the
ship a once-over before we leave.
There is no dominant religious order in this town.
The captain goes to talk to the harbor master. I overhear
part of the conversation; the harbormaster says ‘Bentor won’t let anybody in’.
Apparently, this dude Bentor is causing problems at the Jagged Blade, not
letting the normal hiring process go on.
So, we head to the Jagged Blade.
Morgot is unexcited by the stop in port; it’s just a
distraction from the mapping that he wants to be doing. Pujol asks Morgot about
the hot springs; he’s been there but hasn’t mapped it.
In the Jagged Blade, we get a table and plan to watch and
see if this Bentor person gives the captain any trouble. We pick a table in the
dark back corner, of course. CornCob goes to get drinks. A large, brutish man
at another table eyes us when we come in. CornCob eyes him back. He’s at most
lightly armored. CornCob thinks he looks shrewd.
Pujol starts performing with his harp.
I look around with the goggles (because we’re subtle like
that). Mr. Cranky has a magic weapon and pendant. The suit of armor by the bar
is magical. A couple bottles among the beverages behind the bar and a rock
burning in the fireplace are magical. Seems like a lot of magic for a bar in a tiny
little town, but utility magic items in a bar is not unheard of. The suit of
armor also has a jagged blade; it looks like it’s gotten dinged through use.
CornCob goes over to Mr. Cranky, greets him pleasantly, and
invites him to our table. He doesn’t want to move from his spot but invites
CornCob to join him. It’s Bentor. CornCob says we heard he’s the guy to talk to
about hiring crew. Bentor asks how sailing has been going. CornCob says it’s
been fine, we explored a couple of islands. Bentor asks if it pays well, and
CornCob says we’re being paid fairly. Bentor says many overeager people have
signed on with ships and not come back. He wants to make sure people hire on
with decent ships.
Bentor has been in town 5 years. CornCob asks if his role is
official or unofficial. Bentor says not much is ‘official’ in this town. CornCob
asks if Bentor gets a cut when someone is hired – yes, a bit. CornCob offers
him a bonus to point out any particularly good hands we might be able to hire.
He agrees, says it will take a couple days to find appropriate crew. Bentor
orders drinks for the two of them.
Bentor has a pendant that’s a bear claw. CornCob compliments
it, asks if it’s a trophy. Bentor says yeah, trophy or acquisition. Bentor has
never fought a bear. Crocs, crabs, yes, but not bears.
There’s a lot of people coming in. Maybe another ship came
in, maybe this is just when everybody comes to drink. Pujol keeps playing his
harp, keeping it low key.
Fathom realizes it’s really much to warm in this area to
need a fire…but the fire in the hearth doesn’t seem to be putting off heat,
anyway. Maybe that’s what the magic rock is for, producing a fire that’s just
decorative. She looks around for anyone who isn’t listening to Pujol. Everybody
is except for Bentor & CornCob, and a couple other people at another table
who were here when we got here. They are deep in conversation. Fathom tries to
listen in.
Pujol thinks most of the people coming in are sailors. A
couple have a very elven look to them, though they are not elves.
Abran gets us more drinks, and asks the bartender about the
suit of armor. The bartender claims it’s a good luck charm, handed down from
owner to owner…and you don’t want to do anything inappropriate in the bar.
The captain and first mate come in. They acknowledge us,
then look around, evaluating potential crew. Gooseneck goes to the bar and buys
them both a drink. He asks if they recognize anyone here; there are a couple sailors
they’ve seen before. The captain isn’t thrilled with the idea of going through
Bentor to hire crew. Feels his intervention is unwelcome. The captain says
Bentor can’t cut it himself on a crew, so now he’s just bullying people in to
going through him to get hired. Gooseneck offers for us to handle it. The
captain suggests we check out the item shop if we’re looking for the slaad.
Then she gives Gooseneck some coin and turns over the hiring to us (though she
gets final say), especially if we’re going to investigate Bentor. Then she and
the first mate head out.
Pujol and CornCob return to our table. We think there’s
about 100gp in the bag the captain gave us.
Abran tries to listen in to the two sailors at the table
next to ours, but can’t hear. Fathom and Abran decide to go talk to them,
because clearly they are up to something. There’s totally no other reason
people could be having a quiet conversation.
Fathom compliments them on their clothing and asks to join
them to talk. They say they’ve been trapped here, waiting for the right ship.
Fathom asks why they are ‘trapped’ – it’s Bentor insisting everyone go through
him to get crew. Some people don’t want to pay him, but Bentor has powerful
friends who will come to his aid in a fight. These two are considering taking
the risk anyway. Bentor’s friends are from out of town. The two agree to maybe
help if we go at Bentor.
We learn that Bentor charges the captains ‘finders fees’.
His friends are a wizard and huge person
who are out of town, and a gang that stays in town. The wizard doesn’t seem
super invested in Bentor. Fathom asks where Bentor goes when the bar closes; he
has a house in town. Abran asks them about Brookes, the shop. They say it’s a wonderful
place and the proprieter deals fairly with customers.
Fathom asks the bartender what he thinks about Bentor. The bartender
doesn’t seem to care.
We go to the store. There’s a kid in there and an adult who
looks maybe dragonborn. The adult is Brookes, and asks what ship we’re from.
CornCob tells her. She says we’re free to browse, but ask her any questions if
we have them, and don’t mess with anything that has a warning label on it.
Apparently some of the stuff might be dangerous.
Gooseneck asks about the slaad crewmen. She doesn’t sound
like she knows much/anything about them. She kinda remembers seeing people who
met that description browsing the store. Pujol asks if she saw them with anyone
else, and she says it was just the two of them hanging out. He asks what other
ships they were with – they were most recently with the Bloody Anchor, and the
Starfish before that.
CornCob asks if someone handling hiring them on to the
various ships. She says the thing with Bentor is recent.
She says the Bloody Anchor dropped off other hands at the
same time our two left; a handful left the ship and have since moved on to
other ships. The Bloody Anchor is picky about their crew, but maybe not in the
expected way.
Abran asks how Bentor went from being a failed hand to
running a con. Bentor doesn’t follow structure well. She doesn’t know anything about
his associates but thinks the big one must be a giant. The wizard is Oathen –
he buys a lot of stuff from her – diamonds, moss, lichen, unguents, a wide
variety of stuff. He goes for lichen that’s not native to the area.
Abran asks if Bentor’s behavior is good or bad for her
business – it doesn’t really affect her.
Gooseneck asks where Oathem is – pretty far away in a capitol
city. He sends people to pick stuff up for him and seems to be very powerful.
Then we get down to looking at stuff to buy.
CornCob asks about a magic war hammer. She’s got two, a less
complicated one for 500gp, or a more complicated one for 2000gp. One of them is
a +2 hammer.
Pujol asks about protection or armor; she suggests concealment
instead. She has a potion that will make someone undetectable, but it’s 10k gp.
A potion to make him silent is just 500gp.
CornCob asks about throwing axes; she has a set for 600gp –
but we already have a set.
Gooseneck asks for something that would increase lightning
damage.
Pujol asks what she’s offer for his last poison dart – 200-300
gold. In trade for an item in the store, she might trade it for an item she’d
sell for 500gp. He trades the dart for the war hammer for CornCob.
Pujol offers some of the spores he exudes. He has to work to
sell her on the idea, but eventually she offers 500gp for a sample. They make
the trade.
Abran and I hear a sound from outside; it sounds like maybe
a large crate being dropped either outside or in the building adjacent to the
shop.
Fathom asks about a green item she sees in the shop. It’s a
barrel with arrows with green fletching. They are magical.
Abran also asks about protection – she has some +1 leather
armor. She wants 1000gp for the 20 magical arrows. Abran pulls out his sniper
rifle and asks what she’d value it at. She offers 12k gold. CornCob offers to
throw in the pistol. She offers 20k gp for the pair. Abran also wants a ring of
fireballs – she doesn’t have that, but she has a necklace.
She shows us a 1” cube that can make a 20’x20’ fortress. It’s
reusable, just put it on the ground and say the word. It’ll do it 1-2 times a
day. It will absorb some amount of damage before it dissipates. Pujol really
wants it.
She shows us another cube. This one it larger, at 3”. Each
side has a different image. It transports users to other planes of existence.
It’s damaged, so it has some limitations. It will open a portal to the fae
wild, a plane of water, and the astral plane.
We decide to sleep on it. We hear another crash from
outside. She says there’s been a lot of noise from the warehouse behind her
shop lately.