Table of Contents
Session Recaps
I'm going to use this session as notes for all of us about what happened in each Session. If you have things important to you please add them in too because I'll use that to custom tailor future sessions to your PCs.
Session 1
We did the 'purchase a dragon egg', the 'peat bog family rescue', and the 'shocking evening' encounters.
Logan was able to impersonate Chachi and buy the fake dragon egg as well as plant the magical pin on the elven Seller's cloak. Varatas was knocked unconscious in the ensuing fight with the Welcomers who came to steal the egg. The Welcomers defeated, the party took the egg back to the Harper and turned it in for their reward, but he determined it was a fake egg. He was still happy because it was way more important to plant the pin than to get the egg. He initially suspected the party of swapping a real egg for the fake, but was convinced otherwise by the party.
The party set up a grisly warning sign to the Welcomers outside the abandoned farm house. Logan carved with a dagger into the foreheads of the dead Welcomers “Dirty Whore Welcomers”. There were also plenty of groin stabbings per Logan.
The party was able to rescue the peat bogg family from several goblins and a bugbear. They also rescued a man dressed in all black leather, who held himself like a trained military man. He said to look him up in Phlan sometime. His name was Chaab.
The party was able to figure out how to capture the lighting from a blue dragon's tooth that had lots of magic in it that was jumping from person to person. Turns out it had to do with safflowers from the region. During the investigation, they met 2 old gossiping ladies, a pale dragonborn traveling to find her long lost brother, a wood-elf female that sounded like a redneck with a distinctive bow, three halfling tumblers that liked to mess with Logan, a food critic, and a rich man and female dwarf that were trying to buy/sell the dragon tooth.
At the end of the session all 3 PCs hit level 2.
Session 1.5
Varatas: see this page, I wanted to roleplay a little bit of stuff during downtime before the next session.
Session 2
The party started out in the Laughing Goblin. Logan told a story about how he lost his finger to some halfling merchants who were concerned about the light at Sokol Keep being out. Everyone was concerned about the disruption to shipping and its economic impact on the city. As the party was talking to “Fat Mar” the waiter, a group of drunken dock workers came into start a brawl with the two human female mercenaries in the corner. The females goaded them and started up a brawl. More dockworkers came in and targeted the party, but Varatas was able to use his control fire spell to persuade the brawl to end.
The party talked with Keria of the two women and Thirius of the dock workers, which gave them some more information and pushed them to go talk to Liela of House Sokol and to talk to Guard Sergeant Hurn with the Black Fist about Sokol Keep.
The party then went to talk to Hurn and Liela. They went to Hurn first, and found him slightly drunk and clueless, although he did point them to the ferryman. Liela, did similarly, and offered to pay the party to get the light back on. She also pointed the party to the ferryman.
The party then went to the ferryman, who was eating raw fish on the docks, and he took the party to Thorn Island for 3SP. He spoke with a truck-driver / cajun accent that was hard to understand. He had a crush on Darvag the groundskeeper's wife Shandra.
Meeting with Darvag, Shandra, and their son Rorin, they were given a key and license to explore and investigate the mansion and keep. They went to Igan's study and found Igan's journal and the Book of Moonsea Cults. Those alerted the party that their might have been a cult of Dagon on the island, as well as how to open a magic door. The journal was knocked off the shelf by seemingly unknown means. As the party was discussing the journal, all of the chairs in the room also fell over for seemingly unknown means.
The party goes to the West tower and discovers freshly torn up earth and finds in the basement an eerie stone and rope. Varatus opens the door with his hand and by speaking the words from Igan's journal. They first get the kid Rorin, and then when he seems too hyperactive and immature to be relied upon, they get Darvag to come oversee the stone.
They enter the dungeon, encounter a crypt of skeletons, and writing in the mud floor draws and X and and arrow away from them. The party proceeds down a descending hallway to a circular room with water. Logan falls into the sinkhole and takes damage, the rest of the party uses rope to rescue Logan as well as cross the room.
They encounter 2 empty rooms that may have been jail cells in the past, and then they come to the altar room, where they discover an altar, a jade idol shaped like Dagon (that looks like this: link to image of Dagon).
On the altar was the corpose of Igan turned zombie after being stabbed in the back as well as the corpse of one of the black-fist guards. Two skeletons, a fish ghoul, and 2 zombies fight the party, with the party being triumphant. They then encounter the remaining black-fist guards, including Grim. Grim initially tries to bluff his way out of it, and Varatas tries to make a “we'll let you go argument” at which point lines of “X”s are drawn in the mud by an unseen presence. Wracked with guilt, Grim then comes clean saying he murdered Igan for the treasure and that he'll peacefully stand trial for his crime.
Varatas also got a Wand of Magic Detection.
When the party leaves, the light at Sokol Keep was back on.
The party collected their gold, and Varatas made a note to return when their magic was higher to investigate the source of the unforeseen presence.
Guys, if you have anything you want to add to it, please feel free.
-Lothar called on the his god Helm to destroy the statue. Each party member received 2 chunks of jade from the remains of the statue.-
Session 2.5
Link to a misadventure for Lothar and Varatas, Logan can crash if he wishes.
Session 3
The party met with Doomguide Yovir at the graveyard to be given quest to investigate the rumors of the ghost ship. The party speaks with the madman “Yip” and the blackfist knight. Logan tried to find his Harper contact and couldn't. Lothar met with “Jerry” and was given a subquest to find a merchant (he did).
Varatas on his own met with the medical gnome and got an assessment of the bones.
The party borrows horses and sets out on the road, where they met the merchant, ate some duck, and fixed his axle. The party then encountered two wolf pups and a dire wolf mom, which they ended up drowning in the lake by Logan jumping on its back and pushing its head down in the water.1)
The party camps without incident and makes it to the ferryman who tries to talk them out of going to the island. The party goes to the island and immediately meets Elisande who acts as an informal tour guide. They talk with the second crazy man, and investigate the forest, where they find a hidden shrine underneath the island with gold bars that are old, a ceremonial dagger, and a damaged book written in draconian. The book is in Varatas's possession.
As they leave the shrine, they are attacked by a minor devil2) And they defeat it easily. They then come back out to the villagers and confront them about the contract between the “Queene and the Folk”. The crones, the chief, and ferryman, and a couple of commoners attack. The party vanquishes them but spent a lot of resources to do so.
The ferryman is still at large, and the second mad man is missing. There is still the impending attack by the ghost ship / dracolich looming soon.
Oh yeah, while Varatas is trancing, the other PCs discover a notebook written in draconic hidden under a rock in the mad man's hovel. They also found a vial of a special kind of poison.3)
I know at least one healing potion was spent, so make sure that was marked off.
Guys, feel free to flesh that out with anything you thought was memorable or that I missed.
Session 4
Began on island, Varatas and Lothar full rested, Logan short rested. Fought off the kobolds and humans masquerading as skeletons. Convinced the surviving prisoners to tell all in exchange for freedom. Let the kobolds go in a boat with weak bonds and one oar. Took the human one with them to Ixas's boat.
As they arrived, the ship Audacity materialized and infernal pirates came out to attack the boat. The party slayed all. Logan threw a dracolich statue over board, Varatas looted Ixas and found journal pages / a ring of evasion.
Varatas found in the tome from the island that there may be a Dragon Mask in the Phlan region. Varatas also found out from Ixas's journals that he was searching for books concerning powerful dragon relic in the region. His journal also seemed to indicate a schism in the cult of the dragon.
Party made it back, Lothar took the ring of evasion and attuned. Logan went whoring, Varatas went to the fancy baths where he locked wits with a high power merchant 4) Logan went to the Tymora temple and confessed his sins and his cured body parts, and that he will be more Jerry Falwell now.
The horses were returned safely to Doomguide Yovir; he seemed very interested in the dracolich statue as he thinks it (a) needs to be destroyed or used for less nefarious purposes, and (b) thinks he may be able to use it to save “Yip”'s mind.
Varatas spoke with Abel Burryd 5) and she was quite grateful for the information and told Varatas that she would organize against the cult as well as to investigate the island. She said that she owes Varatas a strong favor.
Guys, feel free to flesh that out with anything you thought was memorable or that I missed.
Session 5
Begins with Varatas walking into the library and seeing a “Wanted for most grievous crimes” poster. He goes and rounds up Lothar and the two of them find Logan preaching on the street corner. They are both shocked and Varatas wins 10GP off of Lothar for a bet.
Logan mentions that he tossed a half-demon's salad6)
The party meets with the Lord Sage of the Library, and it turns out he's met with Varatas before. Varatas shows him the Tiamat tome from the island and the Lord Sage pays 500gp as security to keep and copy the book for their library.
Varatas even manages to cast a suggestion spell on Logan but Logan succceeds on his save so Varatas thinks that Logan is telling the truth.
The lord sage talks about how some ancient tomes were forged and some where stolen, by Tibeem and Spurnik. He offers 50 gold for Spurnik and 100 gold per book returned, estimating another 4-6 books stolen. Tibeem was caught in their escape by the Black Fist Knights.
Logan searches their rooms and finds a grocery list and 2 cult of the dragon cloaks. Lothar interrogates the scribes and finds a small mapping compass. Varatas goes to the jail, and finds that Tibeem's already been hanged, and finds another small piece of paper with grocery lists.
The party goes to Cockburn's grocer7) And they find a map. They also bought 3 healing potions. 1 to Varatas and 2 to Logan.
Lothar bought a mule named “Lenny” and put a week of food on him.
They traveled to the mountains, fought some kobolds (including 2 winged ones) in the outside rocks, descended and fought 7 zombies, busted down the tiamat door and killed Spernik and 6 more kobolds, and we will pick back up right where we left off heading into the tiamat door room.
Session 6 - Varatas' Family and Waterdeep
The party enters the Tiamat door and pieces together the 4 keys to open it. They fight the wight and win, after learning tentatively about the Circle of the Scale druids. They recover a large scale, with runes on tit, possibly a scale of Tiamat herself.
They take it back to Phlan, where Varatas' Uncle Teclis is waiting for them. He convinces them to return to Waterdeep, where “Ninefingers” has some slight celebrity among the Harpers. Varatas meets with his father who apologizes about Silverymoon and raises concerns about Aletheia's magic awakening and her wild magic surges. He also gives Varatas a scroll of teleporation circle as well as the sigil to the family home.
The Uncle relays that the dragon cult loot is headed north and they've tracked it to a a roadhouse in the Mere of Dead Men, but there the trail disappears. He told him about how there's massive amounts of workers and materials at this roadhouse for rebuilding the roads through the swamp in the region.
The uncle helps the party find a caravan heading north out of waterdeep and they manage to get hired on as wagon guards. Logan's pocket is picked by a gnome named Jamna. A few days into the trip, bandits ambush the wagons and she again attempts to pick Logan's pockets but is knocked unconscious in the fight by Logan “accidentally” shooting her in the ass8). They loot her coins, but otherwise keep her alive. They also found a note on her that said “Figure out where the cult is taking the loot.” The bandits are driven off and 7 of the caravan guards are dead from the fight. And that's where we ended the session.
Session 7 - Travel and Carnath Roadhouse
They come across a human with his head sticking out of the road with Oathbreaker written on his head. He was buried alive in chain mail with shield and longsword. His name was Carlon Ammofel and he turned out to be a Harper tracking down the cult as well. Joins on with the wagons.
Next, Jamna saves them from a potential choking death with bones in their gruel. Then Jamna and Logan search in the middle of the night and find gold and gems in the crates.
Two days later, a cultist guard ends up mysteriously dead and a cultist accuses Logan. The party manages to calm down the mob.
They reach the roadhouse, meet a half orc named Bog Luck, and track down where the cult treasure was stored.
There was a duel between Logan and the accusatory cultist; Logan lost, but Varatas and Lothar stepped in to prevent the cultist from killing Logan outright. She is still at large.
They met the cook who smeared pig fat and not necessarily shit on Varatas, as he mentioned hissing ghosts in the night.
The party stands watch, joined by Jamna and Carlon, and they bust into the locked store room to find 6 lizardfolk and an open trapdoor leading down into the floor. They dispatch the lizardfolk and that's where we'll pick up next time.
Session 8 - Mere of Dead Men and Castle Narytar
Lothar heads down the tunnel and the rest follow. After about 120' of travel, they hear voices in draconic. They come out of the tunnel back on to the surface and they fight 6 lizardfolk. They kill 4 and 2 surrender and tell them how to follow the trail, they mention that there's a black dragon in the mere, and that the dragon cult is at Castly Narytar.
The PCs take the loot a few more hour sinto the forest and they chop down a tree, and bury the treasure. The party took a nice chunk of change (600GP in coins and 600GP in jewelry?) and then they buried the remaining treasure which looked like it was worth approximately 5,000-10,000 GP depending on how the non-coin items get sold. Varatas lighting bolted the end of the tree to make it look like the tree fell due to lighting instead of axe chopping.
As they were wrapping up, 10 bullywugs approached the group and tried to make the PCs leave. Varatas fireballed them and they all fell to a single fireball.
They proceeded in and found a camp site which they took over. They then saw 9 lizardmen approach the camp a few hours after dusk, and Varatas again fireballed them, killing 3 outright, heavily injuring another 3, and 1 jumped out of the boat and swam to the party. His name was Snapjaw. He took an immediate liking to Varatas and tried to convince the party to help his lizard folk agains the bullywugs.
He led them to castle narytar via canoes. They met some other lizard folk who helped them create a disturbance in the castle's outerward. (They also met the mostly naked dwarven cook who liked to captain morgan while wearing only an apron). In the confusion, the party slipped past the treasure sorting station, Logan swiped 2 big diamonds, and missed on a third one. And then headed down into the caverns beneath the castle.
The PCs found Pharblex and 10 bullywugs and they dispatched them all fairly easily. They disarmed Pharblex's trap above his chest and then found 6 clay pots that look like grenades. They also found a recipe inside the chest, purportedly to make more of the clay pots.
Don't forget that Jamna was last seen possibly climbing the keep's tower towards the observatory on the top.
They then went into the large cavern with water and frogs, and then retreated and eventually found a room spouting mist and they found what looks like a teleportation circle in the ground. Lothar deduced that it would need a command word to activate it. And that's where we left it.
Session 9 - Finish Castle Naerytar, Hunting Lodge, Parnast, and First fight in Skyreach Castle
The party goes back up from the teleportation circle and talks to snapjaw about the lizardfolk versus bullywugs. In doing so, Varatas sticks Pharblex's crocodile hat onto a lizardfolk. They head up and down the keep, meet back up with Jamna on the observatory, where they manage to spy on an adult black dragon, that Jamna identifies as Voaraghamanthar.
The party comes back down and eventually sees a black halfdragon, the wizard in red, and a half-elf roguish looking guy fleeing back into the dungeon. The party follows them to the teleportation circle and hears them say the command word “draezir”. THe party takes a 4 hours rest to replenish varatas's spells, and they go through and they end up at the hunting lodge.
Logan scouts the first floor windows and they just go in. They are taken to meet with Talis a half elf, who parlays with the party into ruining the big shipment in an attempt to make Rezmir look bad in the eys of the cult.
The party then heads off to Parnast, drinks in the inn, sleeps outside the stables, meets captain othelstan, and then flies their wyverns to Skyreach castle. Logan fails putting away his wyvern, and the other 2 wyverns come and attack the party. And that's where we left it off. (The ogres at the top of the towers were still laughing at the party and their fight with the wyverns).
Session 10 - Finish Skyreach Castle
The party talks to Rezmir and Blagothkus. Then eats lunch and talks to Glazhael. Convinces Glazhael that Rezmir is stealing from him. They lead Rezmir down to dragon and the dragon kills Rezmir. Rezmir drops Hazirawn. Not willing to sell Hazirawn for less than 3,000 GP to the party.
The PCs also dealth with the giant being mad that the PCs killed his prized wyvern “Chippy”. He bills a resurrection to the Dragon Cult. The PCs also fight the red wizard from the caravan and defeat him. A second red wizard manages to escape. Jamna steals some giant gems that apparently were the steering controls for the castle; the castle crashes into a far-north glacier. The dragon escaped, the giant kills Jamna in the fall, and the PCs flee on Wyvern. They land and Varatas successfully uses the teleportation scroll to send them back to Waterdeep. And the first thing they hear is a servant saying, “Oh good! You're just in time!”
Session 11 - Waterdeep and WPM
Met with Teclis, Tyrion, Murdir, and Grilmor. Discussed robe of stars, Merriadoc's armor, and Whelm. Set off for WPM. Ended up in werewolf room of WPM. Did not attempt to go past the green slime on right passage. Didn't go down left passage. Kelpies defeated.
Here's the message from the beginning of the session:
Search ye far or search ye near, you'll find no trace of the three unless you follow instructions clear for the weapons abide with me.
North past forest, farm, and furrow, you must go to the feathered mound, then down from the sun you'll burrow. Forget life, forget light, forget sound.
To rescue the robe of stars, you must do battle with the beast in the boiling bubble.
Cross cavern vast where chain links rattle lies Whelm, past water spouts double.
Merriadoc's cloak, armor, and boots yet remain to be won, underneath inverted ziggurat.
That garnered, think not that you're done. For now you'll find you are caught. I care not former owners brave, what heroes you seek to hire. Though mighty, I'll make each one my slave or send him to the fire.
Session 12 - WPM Continued
They looted the Werewolf's area, found some loot, triggered a stinking cloud, and found a spell book that self destructed.
They went into the boiling cave and saw a sleeping giant crab, and Logan managed to loot the crate without waking up the gaint crab. Varatas got his modified robe of the stars.
They proceeded down the left fork, made it through the heating metal plates after killing 2 gargoyles, then killed the ghouls, talked themselves past an ogre patrol, dealt with the slippery room, Logan almost died of super tetanus, they went to the crazy floating river room, fought Sir Bluto and his 8 knights. Lothar drops 3 poison grenades and all but Bluto, one knight, and Varatas failed their saves. The party eventually succeeds, and they end taking a long rest in the hidden room. Lothar got boots of striding and springing.
They long rest, and head down to inverted ziggurat, fight the manticores, kill everything else from a far, and then make it down to the chamber. They hold person the halfling and assasinate him, and he turns out to be an Oni in disguise. They find Merriadoc's studded leather armor, magic cloak, and boots for Logan. And that's where we ended.
Session 13 - WPM Continued
They continued on the last pathway. Logan spider walked on the ceiling, then they handled the crystal sphere room, then they handled the golem room, then the golem blasted through the turnstile. Then they handled the chains and disks room. They then fought the dwarven vampire Ctenmir and his rat minions. They defeated him and destroyed his coffin, finding an exquisite dwarven warhammer underneath it. The warhammer said to Lothar, “Whoah… that's a strong grip!”9)
Session 14 - Finish WPM, Waterdeep Council, Sea of Moving Ice
Finished up WPM by fighting two Efreeti. One of the Efreeti banished Murdir using what was thought to be a plane shift spell. The party killed the Efreeti.
Teclis contacts Varatas by sending and the party teleports back to the Elthrai teleportation circle. The valet whisks them off to the Lord's Palace in Waterdeep. They meet Dala Silmerhelve who info drops on the Draakhorn. They meet some of the most powerful members of the realm and are tasked with finding out more about the Draakhorn. Dala revealed that the last person who was tracking it was a tiefling nammed Maccath who was a wizard member of the the Arcane Brotherhood of the Hosttower of the Arcane in Luskan.
The party takes a longboat into the sea of ice an around the 12th day setting out find the Ice Berh they're searching for. They meet some eskimo-like people named “Ice Hunters” and they end up deuling them 1v1 (Lothar and OrcaHeart). The shaman tries to poison them and then has a change of heart when she thinks the adventurers are actually powerful enough to possibly defeat the dragon beneath. She reveals to them some stps down in her hut, and also says there's another way down in the meeting hall of the village.
Other notable things that happened this session:
- Lothar bought +1 full plate with fire resistance and was given a bag of holding
- Logan bought
- a +1 rapier and
- a +1 short sword
- Varatas bought a broom of flying that we're reflavoring to a staff cosmetically.
Travis took Logan's character sheet with him to clean it up for Charles.
Session 15 - Sea of Moving Ice
Sorry, this one's gonna be short. Party went downstairs, met Tiefling, got dragon slaying arrows, got the scrolls, went below, killed the dragon. Lucky punks.
Party is level 9 after next long rest.
Session 16 Luskan, Stiria, Alethia, and Travel to Tomb of Diderius
The party left the iceberge and took the dragon skin to Luskan and dropped it off at a master tanner. They then investigated how to get to Stiria, and travelled there. Alethia wild-magic surged and caused a gate to the Abyss to open and in came several Barlgura's and one Balor. The party and Stiria dispatched the demons. Stiria lectured Varatas about why she encased him in ice in the past. She then sent them on their way to their next objective, which was to track down a dwarf named “Varram the White”, suspected to be the white dragon mask wearer.
She teleported them to Boarskyr Bridge, and they picked up Varram's scent at a tent-side inn called “Bolo's”. They hired a guide and headed into the Serpent hills and made it all the way to the Tomb of Diderius.
Session 17 Tomb of Diderius
The party ran the tomb successfully. Logan went temporarily insane and shat himself. They fought a tile chimera, Logan was grasped into an Indiana-Jones style boulder of skeletons, to be saved by Varatas. They met a ghost and a giant Greek-looking-God construct. They found their way back into the back of the tomb, finding a Yuan Ti outpost. They defeated many yuan-ti and lizardfolk, as well as using a Bullywug Grenade to cause a yuan ti hatchery, including yuan ti purebloods and a yuan ti abomination to kill themselves. They found the dwarf in the yuan ti temple, and Whelm stirred up a conflict with Lothar as Varatas was negotiating. Whelm didn't want the dwarf to die, and stopped Varatas's negotiations. Epic combat ensued, party wins, but in the combat Varram the dwarf is killed.
Party leveled up to 10, long rested, and then Lothar used Speak with Dead to speak with Varram. Varatas convinced him he was the legitimate black-dragon-mask wearer, and Varram revealed that the cult had already recovered the lost white dragon mask and it was back in a place called the “Well of Dragons.”
Session 18, and 19
Session 18 was the trip to the bridge, red-dragon attack, Varatas losing his mask.
Session 19 was the council of waterdeep, with Laeral Silverhand as the new leader of the council, and the party is assigned to head to the high forest to investigate increased dragon attack activity. The party met the town mayor, spoke to some elf children, and went through the forest and found a cave complex behind a waterfall. Will start there next session.