Feb 26, 2017

6th Day of Flocktime, CY 579

On the afternoon of the 6th day of Flocktime, 48 hours had passed and Jarrus and Pontus were released from prison. While Pontus and Jarrus were sitting in a cell, Luapan sent a message to the Temple of Celestian in Verbobonc to update them on what was found in the temple, and Sarril used the mirror to visit his master in Almor to update him on what was happening. Sarril and Athan then decided to use the mirror to contact Iuz and let Iuz know that the party is in Hommlet. Luckily, this was on the last day and the party was able to skip town as soon as Jarrus and Pontus were set free.

DM Note: Sarril was actually trying to use the mirror to scry into the 3rd level of the temple. However, trying to use a scrying device like this to scry within a temple controlled and watched by a demi-god is never wise. Just ask a half-elf named Zolan (oh, sorry, wrong game). Athan wisely smashed the mirror before Iuz could snatch Sarril and have his way with him. Good thing for Sarril is that he managed to pick-up an amulet of proof against detection, so other than messing around with the mirror to say hello to him, Sarril is otherwise invisible to the demi-god who would like to take revenge on him for making him dance.

The party headed straight back to the temple, now empty again, to search the Wizard Senshock's room. Many interesting magic items were found, including a Portable Hole and Mirror of Life Trapping. After taking everything of value or interest there, the party moved to Hedrack's room, where they discovered a few more items of interest (although Hedrack had most of the good stuff on him at the time of his first death). They also discovered two women who were charmed into Hedrack's service. After dispelling the charms, some of the party agreed to escort them out to safety, with Athan thinking they would be a hindrance and Pontus seeing an opportunity to act creepy (a real shame, since he is the best looking and most charming, when he wants to be, member of the party - but he's also a barbarian, and their ways are strange). One item found was a figurine which is used to contact and summon Iuz. As Athan was playing around with this figurine (as he tends to do), a summoning was triggered which the party recognized as a sign to get out fast, and they all ran for the exit to return to Hommlet. As the party got close to Hommlet, they could see the smoke still rising from burning buildings. It looks like the entire village was decimated, with no signs of life anywhere. The party then changed course to head to the next closest settlement, the Town of Sobbanwych, which is also the town from which the women had been taken.

Sobbanwych was a once thriving town, walled and under the protection of a local lord who had a keep within. Today, few people still remain, with about 2/3s of the building empty and many, such as the mage's tower and the keep crumbling in age and disrepair. Luapan gave the rescued women several gold pieces each to begin a new life, being the good-aligned cleric that he is (note to DM to give Luapan some bonus exp) and let them go on their way. The party then settled into an abandoned warehouse building to study/pray/identify. When Sarril cast identify on the mirror and looked at it, he was (apparently) polymorphed into a Purple Worm, which the party immediately had to fight. The worm was so large that is destroyed the roof of the building. Even with the massive damage dealt by Jarrus, the fight was tough, with one party member getting swallowed whole (but living to tell the tale).

After the fight, Athan picked up the mirror and was polymorphed into Sarril. That's when Sarril explained that this is a Mirror of Life Trapping and that looking into the mirror actually transports the victim into an extra-dimensional space, trapped in stasis. There are 12 "slots" in the mirror and, because the slots are all full, whenever someone looks in the mirror and gets pulled in, something else gets popped out at random. Based on this knowledge, the party decided to use the mirror to start trapping harmless animals, in turn popping out a random creature or person, one of which would eventually be Athan. Following this process, the party started trapping horses until they ran out of horses, then started trapping squirrels. Many things popped out of the mirror, most of which had to be fought and killed, but due to dumb luck, Athan wasn't one of them. The final "creature" that was released was a blue-skinned "elf" in strange dress. This is where the session ended.

3 comments:

  1. Dude, did they just (indirectly) murder Hommlet by playing "poke the demigod?"

    Seems like there need to be some town ordinances established against adventuring free parties lodging within town limits. Can you imagine the expressions of the Hommlet refugees who make it to the relative's house in Sobbanwych only to see a purple worm explode out of the warehouse just down the street.

    ReplyDelete
  2. oh ... and by the way, where is that map from?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://plus.google.com/+JeremyfrothsofSmith/posts/5BEp3Lg7ixU

      I also found a PDF someone had put together with details about the town. Not all of it was applicable, but I try to build on what others have done as much as possible given the limited time I have.

      Delete