Session 25: “Francis Deserved Better”
The party were approached by a merchant named Hakeem in town, who’d been sent to find “Ecco and his friends.” The merchant was quite taken with Ecco, having heard many good things about him (per a blessing granted Ecco by Achilles which I failed do document in the recap above.) He passed along a message from a wizard named Alcasz that the party’s help was requested for an imporant mission.
The party loaded up a cart with supplies and headed out to Alcasz’ home, deep in the woods beyond the boarderland. It was a relatively peaceful bit of space. They were greeted by the wizard’s bodyguard, who told them of a place called The Rock which the wizard had determined contained secret knowledge of some indeterminate nature, which he wanted to party to return to him so he could add it to his library, and pass it down to future scholars. In exchange each member of the party would be paid 400g.
The party ressupplied and set out down the road. After passing the remnants of two blood skirmishes, they heard a melodious song.
EVERY SINGLE MEMBER of the party failed their saving throw versus spells, and so all were charmed by the Harpies which came into the clearing. Since there was no need for battle. the harpies took the party back to their caves, where they forced the party to spend the whole day cleaning. (The party was happy to do this.) While the party did this, the Harpies ate many of their supplies, and one of their beloved talking horses: Francis.
The horses were not affected by the spell, and tried to convince the party that the Harpies were evil to no avail. So instead they broke free and attempted to take revenge for the fallen Francis. They were ineffective, however, the members of the party tried to stop the fight between the harpies and the horses, and in so doing each was eventually able to break the charm’s hold on them.
The battle was brutal, but the Harpies were all slain without any further loss of life. The horses forgave the party for Francis’ death, since they were mind controlled. A funeral was performed, and the party settled down to rest and recouperate in the cave they’d just cleaned.
Session 26: “A different, smaller rock.”
The party set out from the Harpy’s lair, making note of it for potential future use as a hideout, since they’d spent so much time cleaning it. They also carried off what few treasures the Harpy’s had collected.
A little ways along the road the party found themselves stumbling accidentally into the Realm of the Dixies. This would have been a grave insult…had the dixies not intentionally led them there. It seems they’d crafted a gift for the Dwarf king, and given it to a dwarf to deliver. (Thinking Dwarfs, some of the shorter of tallfolk kind, might be less clumsy than others.) The Dwarf lost the gift to a band of ogre bandits, and the dixies would like the party to give it to the dwarven king, or one of his servants, so it can be conveyed to him. If they do this, a charm will come over the party, ensuring that their nights are always sound within the Dixie’s forest. The party agreed…ish. The Dixies are rude, and the reward was unimpressive, but it was probably going to be along their way, so why not?
Back on the road, it wasn’t long before the party was accosted by ogres. They demanded a tax for “road maintainence” on this clearly unmaintained road. The party performed some social trickery and managed to get the Ogres to hand over the pebble before a skirmish broke out. Glint was quickly tackled out of the fight, but this strategy backfired on the ogres as the rest of the party was able to move in swiftly to kill one, and injure the other three severly. They fled, leaving the party alone on the road with the rock. The Dixie’s rock. Not THE the rock.
LOOT: 1 Scroll of Cure Light Wounds 483 gold (161 gp/xp each)
Session 27: “Year Two: Polyamorous ogres and angry piggies”
The party decided to try and find the remains of the dwarf the Ogres had taken the gift stone from. They followed the trail of the ogre who fled into the woods, and came upon a hole covered by a deer hide. While planning how they would approach it, Addelaide used her Wand of Detect Foe, and noticed that there were other foes on their way to this place. Presumably the other ogres. The party set an ambush. The first ogre had spent the whole trek through the woods psyching himself up about how he shouldn’t have run from the pitiful weakling party. When he saw the PCs, he immediately attacked, and got one-shot by a nat 20 bowshot from Wob, because the dumb ogre only had 3hp left after the battle.
The second ogre was in a deep depression about the death of his partner last session, when he came upon the party standing over the corpse of his friend. Now in deep distress about the death of his companions, he led the party to a rock which, when moved, revealed a dwarf in a hole. The ogre returned the dwarf’s pack, mail, helm, and axe, and begged that the party simply go and leave the remaining ogres to mourn. Addy, feeling sympathy, gave the ogre some coin, but it didn’t seem to do much good.
The dwarf, named Frow, was in quite a funk himself. He was tactical advisor to the king, and returning from a visit to see his son when the ogre’s attacked him. They’d forced him to dig out and expand their home, and he hadn’t even managed to escape himself without being rescued. When the party didn’t understand his malaise, he told them he didn’t expect humans to understand Dwarven Honor. Since his path would take him along almost the exact route the party was taking, the party agreed to let him travel with them.
The next day, as the party was traveling down the road, they were accosted by a pack of wild boars. Frow lept into the fray, but didn’t manage to accomplish anything.
The party ran the pigs off without any notable issues, aside from Frow’s ego problems. They captured and turned two of the pigs into bacon, then spent the rest of the evening resting. Wob worked on modifying his net, Addelaide forced Frow to do some affirming drill practice to try and improve his mood, and Glint spent some time walking and talking with Hibub.
Session 28: “Spittlefart isn’t very good at planning ambushes.”
As the party prepared to get moving they were approached by a flying pink pony named Cozyglow, who joined their band as they moved off into the grassy plains beyond the Dixie’s woods. It wasn’t long before the party spotted a group of goblins up ahead, and confronted them about the ambush they were obviously plotting. The goblins claimed they were here to hunt boars. It was obviously a lie, but the party let them get away with it. The goblins gave the party some information about the road ahead (City of Tuma had appeared, Goblins trapped on this side until it goes away, filled with scary horsemen and protected on the outside by flying metal men) for some of the party’s boar meat.
As the party approached the city of Tuma–which appeared quite real, considering how everyone had said it was a myth–they were accosted by five flying metal men who demanded “The Secret of the Rock” from anyone who would like to enter. The party made a few attempts to guess, but eventually decided to retreat a ways, and discuss whether they should try to go around the city through the waters to the North, or through the mountains to the south. The party set camp to rest before comitting themselves. Late that night, Cozyglow detected the same group of goblins skulking up on them, and raised an alarm. The goblins claimed it was all a big misunderstanding, that they’d thought the party were the flying metal men, and had hoped to ambush them to clear a path home. Another obvious lie, but the party was able to use it as a leverage to get the goblins to commit to helping them fight the metal fliers.
The party went back out, goblins skulking in the tall grass, and provoked the metal men into combat. They descended from the sky to attack with their razor wings, and the goblins instantly fled (after a single volley of thrown spears, prompted by a stern command from Cozyglow). The battle was a brutal one, and poor Hibub barely made it through alive. None the less the party defeated their foes, and the only real casualty was Ecco’s snake staff. It had been useful in restraining one of the metal men through the battle, but the razor wings eventually destroyed it, and it failed its save.
A single metal man escaped to return to the walls of Tuma, and the session ended with the party left alone on the battlefield at around 2am. Pushing forward in the dark without rest would be dangerous; but if the party takes time to recover they may lose whatever advantage they’d just won.
ALSO, the referee entirely forgot about Frow during this whole thing. So it must be ruled that Frow slept through the battle, and upon waking will feel intense shame for his continued lack of prowess.
Session 29: “Helicopter Pony”
Nothing of any great interest was discovered on the bodies of the flying metal men, and the party decided to immediately press on into the city. It was quiet–too quiet–in the abandoned city of Tuma. The party continued on through the road, warily looking about, utnil they were suddenly confronted by the sight of a great mass of wicked looking horsemen, brandishing swoards, and beckoning the party to battle. The party tried to negotiate, but to no avail. All the while, Bluepie wondered aloud what the heck everyone was staring at/talking to.
Eventually a pebble was thrown to see if the horsemen were real, and they responded with a charge. Frow and Ecco were both overwhelmed in the fray, and knocked unconscious. (Odd, since Ecco is not usually capable of that!). Bluepie walked through the horde completely unaware of it, and unaffected.
Bulgurd and the horses fled with the cart into a side street while Glint and Hibub protected their downed friends, and Cozyglow watched on from above. The horsemen turned around for another pass, and the party picked up their wounded, cut their horses free from the cart, and fled pel mel through the side streets. Fortunately, by utelizing Cozyglow’s high vantage point, the party was able to avoid any further confrontation with the horsemen, and make it out the other side of Tuma.
Doubly fortunately, just outside the city was a completely abandoned hut cointaining food and basic supplies, which is literally written into the module. No joke. The party looted what they needed from it. Ecco left a few gold hidden for the family if they ever returned. Cozyglow stole half of that gold.
Frow (renamed Frown after his close call with death) parted ways with the party here, heading off West into the mountains just as the party prepared to head South.
Session 30: “Blue Steaks”
The road came to an end, and the party was left to clamber through the mountains for the remainder of their Journey to the Rock. They faced a series of 7 encounter checks:
1. A glint of metal was spotted off the road. The party uncovered a treasure chest, and busted open the side of it so they wouldn’t need to dig it out. They recovered some treasures.
2. The party quickly reacted to a rumbling, and escaped being caught in a dangerous rockslide.
3. The party heard the babble of a nearby brook, and went to check it out in hopes of replenishing their dwindling water supplies. There were some odd sticks poking out of the ground, and the party unfortunately did not notice that they were damaged & destroyed warning signs. They drank from the stream, and many members of the party became quite ill from the tainted water. Fortunately the effects were temporary.
4. Late in the day the party came upon a band of cheerful dwarves singing their songs as they chopped up the bodies of a goblin band they’d slain. Their leader, on Contro Fishbeard, parleyed with the party. He explained that he was a Goblin Hunter, meant to keep their populations and ambitions in check. He was distressed to learn that any goblins had ventured into the lowlands, and intended to go do something about that. When asked about Frow(n) he didn’t know the guy. They’re from two different Dwarven polities. Frown’s is a kingdom, while Contro’s was a commune with a flat heirarchy. When asked about The Rock he apologized for his lack of Historical knowledge, but he did know that it had come into existence around the same time that the city of Tuma fell, and began to fade in and out of reality. The whole encounter was delightful, and everyone parted on friendly terms.
X. The party bedded down for the night here. They were briefly awakened by a swarm of thousands of screeching bats flying overhead, but otherwise made it peacefully through the night.
5. The party were surprised by a volley of spears coming over the rocks, followed by a band of goblins swinging swords. Bluepie and Bulgurd went down almost immediately with grevious wounds, but the party were able to fight the Goblins back without any other serious injuries. The remaining goblins grabbed Blupie and attempted to run off with her, but the party killed the two who carried her. Only a single goblin escaped.
The session ended with 2 more encounter checks left before The Rock.
LOOT: 260 gold coins Scroll and scroll case Hoplite shield covered in green dragon skin
Session 31: “Welcome to the Rock”
The party’s final encounter before reaching the Rock was with a group of goat herding Nomads who were initially suspicious that the party might be bandits, but happily sold them a few goats when the party produced a generous amount of coin. After that it was only a few miles more to the end of the party’s Journey.
A beautiful woman appeared to be chained to the Rock’s exterior, and begged help. Suspecting an illusion, Wob ingested a potion of invisibility and approached her with his Sickle that deals extra damage to magic-using creatures. Indeed, the woman revealed herself to be THE CRONE OF CHAOS, and was swiftly defeated. Behind her there was a crack in the rock, within which was a sword which Ecco was able to remove. The Rock itself had no other obvious openings, but a hint along the sword’s blade led the party to inspect the narrower sides of the structure. Indeed, the moment they touched the narrow sides, they were transported to a great hall.
They were attacked by the statues of four kings. Wob magically disanimated one, which caused its crown to fly off. Taking the hint, the party then quickly disanimated the rest of them by knocking their crowns off, and taking their crowns and weapons. They were then faced with seven chests, and a voice told them they could only open one. After some debeate the party did the genre-obvious thing: they opened the plainest, least decorated chest. It was the correct one, yay! It was also filled with treasure, and a talisman which teleported them, their horses, and their goats back to the house of the wizard who sent them on this adventure originally. He paid them the 400gp/each they’d agreed to, and told the party his whole story which isn’t really important to reproduce here. Thus ended “Journey to the Rock.”
LOOT: Sword of the Rock (+2 Longsword) Ancient Battleaxe Ancient Mace 2 Ancient Daggers 4 Crowns (200gp) 2500gp from the chest 2000gp from Arkayz 4 gold wristbands (400gp) Ring of Protection +1 2 Potions of Healing (d8) Rope of Climbing 2 Daggers +1 Total Money: 5100gp, or 1020gp/xp each!