Session 14 – Hammer Time

Campaign II, session 14. Previous: Session 13. Next: Session 15.

Interlude

• Mireya follows up on the allegedly crooked guards, trying to find out if money is being passed around under the table, and generally getting a sense of Bastion’s underground. She picks up the Streetwise proficiency.

  • The crooked guards were convicted on a lesser charge (unlicensed gambling)

  • All known Lhazaarans in Bastion have been rounded up or fled the town

  • Count Leng’s forces have clashed in the countryside with some other Lhazaaran troops. They take a lot of prisoners, and some prisoners have been exchanged for food supplies or other concessions.

• Fenmyra spends time with a local physician named Corin, learning the first rank of Healing.

• Cresilde assists with the mage Thamior of the Hall of Scrolls in identifying the two magic items y’all retrieved, then the remaining time working with the Count’s personal physician, Halven Rusk, in tending to those wounded in battle, including prisoners.

  • There’s limited space to hold them, so the count wants them in good enough shape to travel so they can be exchanged.

• Vezkha learns Caving from some of the local dwarves. Along the way she picks up a sidekick named Grath, an orcblooded who wants to learn the ways of smashing!.

• Vierath has two potential adventure hooks – he has arranged with Kerowyn Hucrele to transport a Sairan prisoner to Teryk where the man is wanted for desertion. He has also found a treasure map to an ancient academy north of Bastion.

• When you finally meet up to plan your next moves together, a total stranger shows up, who seems to know you better than he should. Eventually, he changes his voice, tosses off some extra clothing, and reveals himself to be Zydell! (he learned the disguise proficiency)

The Ancient Academy

Armed with Vierath’s treasure map, the party treks north to find the ruins of the Ancient Academy.

• Encounter: sheep

• Encounter: vista

• Into the dungeon

  • A giant statue of a bipedal frog

  • A sunken room with zombies and a gem

  • A ruined lab with one green potion (rampaging bugbear)

  • A ruined study with some salvageable notes on pond ecology and a spellbook

  • A ruined armory with rusty chainmail and spears

  • A couple of smashed up monk’s quarters (one had skeletons)

  • Abandoned storage room (ink and moldy paper)

  • Smoky bandits

    • A decent plan for smoking them out, but lack of prep for the bandits to run around the other side

    • A round of surprise on both sides, then a round of total misses, then a round of slaughtering bandits (one managed to slink off unseen)

  • Smoking down the bees

  • Ancient Crypt (6 more skeletons with ceremonial necklaces)

  • Cultists (Vezhka immune to fear, then Vezhka “dies” for a round)

  • Listen at the door, hear sounds of gnawing and crunching on bones

    • It’s an undead creature, gnawing on the corpse of another cultist!

    • Vezhka charges in, and strikes a solid blow. The creature retaliates, and after gouging Vezhka with its claw, she starts spasming uncontrollably and falls to the ground.

    • It was wearing a golden necklace and a discarded hammer (magical) could be found in the corner

    • Vezhka’s paralysis is cured by Cresilde, but she is still suffering from chills, shivering, pallid complexion and intense lethargy. It’s some kind of magical disease that will need a magical cure…