SAGA 1455: Tomb of Dead Gods

The RPG SAGA continues with...

DM's Note:

First, I want to say how happy I was to find the module ST1: Up the Garden Path. I thought this adventure was pretty much lost to time and that I would never be able to get a copy or run it since it had such a small release. I modified it for higher level play, though it mostly consisted of puzzles/thinking RPG encounters. The players sped through the situations.

Second, I have to admit I took on too much with this session. I prefer to play for 6-8 hours, which is great since I know most RPG groups these days only play for 2-4 hours. Last week the time just ran away from us and we actually had to stop mid-combat. They used the rival NPC and enemy groups against each other, but in the end, we had to admit it was time to stop after rolling initiative and starting the first 2 rounds of combat.

SAGA Log 1455: Tomb of Dead Gods

Modules: ST1 Up the Garden Path

& 4E Tomb of Horrors Campaign (Modified for 5E)

Since Blueblood III (Daria) & Oran had been adventuring in this reality, they had heard a rumor that some monsters had captured Holic & Ryali in mortal form; Pylia and the rest of Force Green suspected that it was a lie constructed to distract them from their quest to stop Caperaktis (which was, itself, a distraction from the vengeance quest against Veersalla).

They decided to just spend a day investigating this side quest. The group tried praying to Ryali, used their scrying mirror, and cast legend lore (to learn of the white dragonborn Chosen of Semuanya). They plane-shifted to Waterdeep, to the Yawning Portal, and spoke with the Chosen of Semuanya. He spent an hour going to check intel about the situation. With the intel from the Chosen of Semuanya and Bloodblood III’s knowledge of hidden elemental planes, they used Garble-Garble to help break into a steam-based paradoxical imprisonment dimension of a primordial quark named Iffanbutt.

In the paradox demi-plane, the Force Green team (Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, & Blood) and the Chosen of Semuanya collected paradoxical objects and presented them to the quark in order to force him to release Holic & Ryali (who turned out not to be the gods in mortal form, but the twin quarter-elf children of Elaida and Vandomar - named after their friends from the Sapphire Circle Adventuring Party; they destroyed the demi-plane, releasing all of the people inside back to the prime material plane. They made sure the twins and the Chosen of Semuanya would be fine and then departed for their next quest.

Force Green plane-shifted to the Shadowfell to destroy Cap’s soul engine there. The team fought off the undead guardians and destroyed the Shadowfell soul engine, but the Caperaktis construct took the soul of Drizmar and teleported out to an Astral Plane base called the Tomb of Dead Gods (which he mentioned because he assumed Pylia already knew about it from the Acererak books the group had stolen).

At the Tomb of Dead Gods: Pylia, Blue, and Blood met up with some Vecna cultists who told them Vecna was upset about Cap stealing the Eye of Vecna artifact; the team sent the cultists in first to defeat many of the undead guardians and a team of devils inside. The ice devils told the team they worked for Mephistopheles, who sent them to “help” the group. The devils were soon defeated by other guardians inside. Vecna himself appeared and tried to work a deal with the group. An eladrin gambler also tried to get them to make deals with him. Pylia went with Vecna to fight Cap, who had left, to his actual lair. Blue and Blood stayed and destroyed the soul engine there, but then left because the area was also guarded by powerful undead bodies of Orcus and Demogorgon.

Blue and Blood had alerted the Alpha-Omega Organization about Vecna potentially interfering in mortal affairs. They arrived at Cap’s lair at the same time as the AO Agents; Vecna left. The cultists went to fight the large Cap construct body and the undead demon lords while Pylia, Blue, & Blood stayed behind to finish searching the lair for Cap’s phylactery. Before they could find the phylactery though, Cap showed up controlling an undead lich body and started fighting them [to be continued]...

SAGA 1454: Garden of Graves

The RPG SAGA continues with...

SAGA Log 1454: Garden of Graves

Module: 4E Tomb of Horrors Campaign (Modified)

Meanwhile during the downtime: Glora and the rest of the Sapphire Coast leadership agreed with having an allied Sword Coast government and chose to use the current Veertopia unified military/guard, converted to a new system. Each city-state/region provided representatives for a council system and elected King Harpell as the tie-breaker/leader. Blueblood III (Daria), back in this universe, had been traveling with her husband Oran (from the other reality), gathering intel about the elementals/primordials. In the Jade Empire, Borngray II and his wife Kya decided they were too young [elves!] to produce an heir.

Blue learned abyssal and re-bonded with Mercy, who said he’d be happy to step aside and let Blue take over the family affairs and palace when Blue was finished adventuring. In her new city, Pylia was approached by the Skullsmasher adventuring party, who told her about Caperaktis trying to use some of Acererak’s plans (in the Feywild and Shadowfell) to steal soul energy; they left to hunt down Moghadam.

Force Green met up at the end of the downtime at the family Feywild palace. Pylia put the silver leaf tattoo on Mercy, Blue, Blood, and Drizmar (but not herself). Pylia spent 12 hours using simulacrum to make a duplicate of herself; the duplicate cast wish to alter Mercy’s true name. They left the duplicate with a plane-shift scroll and instructions to rest in the Feywild and then go back to the wizard school at Skull City and finish training the lizards as guards (and conduct more research from Acererak's books).

Flying on the winged aberration “Garble-Garble,” the group went to Feywild Summer Court and got permission to go to the Garden of Graves - where Pylia had been told Caperaktis had set up a magical device to syphon energy from dead fey. They went there, saved the eladrin named Paelias, defeated the corrupted guardians (fomorians, spriggan, a will-o-wisp, dryads, harpies, wraiths, devas, a firbolg berkserker, & death knights), and destroyed Cap’s Feywild soul engine.

They reported back to the Summer Court, flew back to their palace, and rested.

SAGA 1453: King Harpell

The RPG SAGA continues with...

SAGA Log 1453: King Harpell

Module: 4E Tomb of Horrors Campaign Book (Modified for 5E)

(with Hommet Shaw borrowed from Sword Coast Legends)

The group divided loot, went to the New Mystara Marketplace, and said goodbye to “Wizard for Hire” Worth; he got 47,486 gp from the loot split. The rest of them got 118,968 gp each. They paid to have Mercy resurrected and returned to the Feywild family palace. Va’Zarbreena suggested Drizmar and Pylia should get married; Pylia pointed out she hadn’t been proposed to. Blue cancelled the steam breath helm.

The group plane-shifted to K-T, to Feymarsh. The family revealed Breth was going to be crowned king of Feymarsh. Breth knighted the party, making them official Knights of Feymarsh. He also relayed an invitation to check with Jamah’s daughter Daronica (who is getting engaged/married soon and taking over rulership of her family kingdom). They teleported to Pylia’s family to visit with them and Pezok. Pylia’s brother (Eilion) had broken up with Ivanja. They were reminded that Keraptis was the Emperor of Veertopia for K-T. They also found out that Daronica’s fiance was Hommet Harpell (a.k.a. Hommet Shaw of the Order of the Burning Dawn).

The team teleported to Baldur’s Gate to check on Therlion, who was in a temporary leadership position while looking for new rulers for Baldur’s Gate. Therlion gave them his invitation to go speak with Keraptis. The magic scroll sent them to the Palace of Keraptis, where they met the cunning and suave human wizard. They came to an understanding (he is a servant of Mephistopheles and offered to help them deal with Veersala); Keraptis said he would step down after the team defeated Veersalla and that he would help protect the team’s family members. He also told them Cap was a “wannabe” Acererak.

Drizmar and Pylia checked in with the Eldreth Veluuthra (EV). Blue & Blood prayed to Ehlonna, who let them know they were in line to become her new chosen. Pylia messaged Fritz, who was rebuilding Bloodstone and coordinating the Oerth/Greyhawk Castle rebuild with Brodo. The group rested for a 10-day and then attended the engagement party for Daronica and Hommet.

For the year of downtime:

Fluter stepped down and they appointed Mercy the new family leader. Blue established magical protections for the entire Feywild Palace gardens and outer fence/walls - and 100’ out from them - with tattoo magic (a silver leaf) as a key to allow people to forego the protections and teleport inside by hiring a team of 30 wizards to cast spells every day for a year and paying them 5 million gp that came from the family. Va’Zarbreena transferred over 1.5 million gp. Pylia and her bro got 500,000 gp from their side of the family. From Feymarsh, King Breth let them sell Castle Ravenloft for 3 million gold; one of the dragonborn bought it and became Baron Goldy.

Pylia, with her bro and Drizmar, went to the Feywild swamp and picked up the 12 remaining blackscale lizardfolk that considered her their Swamp Queen. When they said they were weak and needed her, she agreed to let them come with her. Pylia learned the tattoo ritual for the family, trained her lizardfolk how to fight, de-trapped Acerarak’s library and learned new spells; she magically messaged Moghadam, who gave her Ruinblade and granted her the ownership of the Tomb of Horrors/Skull City. Pylia moved her lizardfolk there and renamed it the Tomb of Wonders. The village people who didn’t leave accepted her leadership. She took over the former necromancer’s academy and made it a wizard’s school. She sent word to Kalstrand that they were open for trade.

With all of the downtime passing, the team’s ship was fully repaired by the elves of Evermeet - though the team had not picked it up yet. During the year, Daronica and Hommet married and had a child. King Harpell worked with the leaders of the Sword Coast to form an alliance that could be in place once Veertopia was fully dissolved.

SAGA Log 1452: The Fortress of Conclusion

The RPG SAGA continues with...
Force Green 
a.k.a. Team Tortuga 
a.k.a. The Fey Knights 2nd Generation

Session 1452
Module: Return to the Tomb of Horrors
Force Green (Pylia the half-elf bladesinger, Drizmar the drow assassin, Blue the satyr paladin, and Blood the gnome cleric - with the magic mirror holding the Loot Company cleric, his 4 fighters, and the Moil rogue woman) continued their quest in Acererak’s Fortress of Conclusion. They killed 12 skeletons (that Acererak could cast his spells through), a nalfeshnee, a marilith, a vrock, and a molydeus. The human wizard Worth met back up with them and they killed the hezrou that was giving him problems.

They attempted a short rest after finding some loot, but a skeletal-frost-toad attacked them. They finished the rest and found Acererak’s balor demon father Tarnhem, whom they released in exchange for his true name and a deal to work together to defeat Acererak. In lich-body form, Acererak showed up and fought the group. They broke the mirror to release Loot Company, only to learn that the evil Moil rogue had killed the cleric and fighters. Tarnhem helped them defeat this Acererak body; after the battle, they killed the evil rogue.

Continuing on, they found Acererak’s wizard library and magic labs. The found the “Apotheosis Chamber” with a huge phylactery orb containing almost 3,000 souls; Acererak only needed 3 more for the Apotheosis. In demilich form, he took the souls of both Tarnham and the deva (from the ring Blood had been using). Worth managed to save versus losing his soul and so did Blue, who put a cloak over Acererak’s eyes. When the team destroyed the demilich skull, Acererak’s soul went into one last frost-skeleton in the secret side room; Drizmar and Pylia finished it off (before it could make it to the escape portal) and sent Acererak’s soul into the phylactery.

They collected more treasure, ultimately destroying the curtain portal and several evil items. The team had a plan to move the phylactery and managed to get the sphere into the hall, away from the hole above the negative energy field. They used a magic spell for shelter to rest for 8 hours while thinking over how to free the souls without destroying them. They also plotted to obtain almost half of the library before the place was destroyed. They remembered the story of Orcus and Moil so they used a daylight spell to free the souls, destroy the phylactery, and simultaneously they opened a gate (to Cobalt Castle on Kalibruhn-Toril) and used spells to get as many books as possible. They escaped as the place was crumbling apart and falling into the negative energy below.

Meanwhile, Corellon and Ehlonna had recruited people for the Godswar situation at Firth. Daria/Charity “Blueblood III” Thoron and her alt-reality husband Oran the Green Lord gave up their powers (to 2 of their children) to come help in the battle (thus saving some family members). Ryali and Holic waited for the effects of the destruction, allowing Ryali to capture Shendelavri’s lost portfolio as a goddess of love. Meanwhile, someone else took the death god portfolio left behind from Jergal’s death - but it wasn’t Acererak. Firth was no more, thus ensuring that it would never become Ficaria, thus guaranteeing a new destiny for the universe.

In Cobalt Castle, the Force Green team communicated with their family and considered their future options. They found out Strahd was no longer at the Jade Palace and about the results of the destruction of Firth. They wanted revenge against Veersalla, eventually, but they also realized they could take some down time. Pylia knew it would take months of careful work to de-trap the magic library and catalog the books (but it looked like she had access to all of Acererak’s spells and much of his research). Blue and Blood contemplated trying to become Chosen of Ehlonna (one of them on K-T and one for the Feywild) since it was reported that Drizzt perished along with the people of Firth. Drizmar suggested, if they were going to become Chosen, then Pylia should ask to become a Chosen of Ryali under the new love portfolio. He also pointed out that they had missed a lot of EV meetings and should check in with the organization now that they were going to have some free time...

FOE2 Log 2 Finding the City of Many Things

The Adventures of the Federation of Explorers Team 2 (FOE2) continue...
Homebrew Campaign set in the Forgotten Realms

Session 2
FOE Team 2 (Fox Stormleaf the half-orc cleric/wizard, Ox Stormleaf the half-orc barbarian, Seiken Varis the monk, and Goffrey Greycastle the human fighter) wanted to get out of the evil city of Bane-worshippers, but first they needed to debrief the leading triumvirate. Fox completed a ritual to get a hawk familiar before breakfast. During breakfast a mysterious commoner asked the team to locate the exiles (who used to be a good faction in the city before the Bane worshippers took over).

At the meeting, the the council ordered the team to assist the guards in arresting the fiend-cult members. When the team met up with the guards at the rebel temple, they easily arrested everyone but the high priest. It turned out the HP had crucified the acolyte who revealed their secret and left a petrification trap in his office that turned 2 of the guards into statues. The team found a fiend symbol in the office desk, argued with the head guard, and searched through the hidden passage in the stairs. Inside, the team and guard captain had to defeat 3 lemurs and 5 imps. With the fiendish ritual circles in the secret room, the guard was satisfied they had enough evidence.

Before leaving town, the team also traded out gear at 2 different wizard shops. Their merchant friend asked them to investigate some forest bandits that had been stealing purple gems from one of the merchant companies. The team spent 2 days getting to the High Forest and another 5 days traveling through it, during which they had an encounter with 6 satyrs and some pixies.

The satyrs challenged Ox to a drinking contest long enough to knock him out, after which they temporarily charmed Fox and Goffrey. Once the charm ended, Fox used burning hands on 3 of the satyrs and told them to leave them alone.

The guys finally found the outer wall for the City of Many Things (which had magic runes); the city and its walls were both huge. They also discovered the camo-netting for the exile camp in the woods. They befriended Bruth, one of the 100ish exiles.

[Next time they may go back into the forest to find the gem bandits before trying to find a safe way into the dangerous City of Many Things...]

SAGA Log 1451: The City that Waits

The RPG Saga continues...
Module(s):
The Tomb of Horrors
Beneath the Tomb of Horrors
AD&D Return to the Tomb of Horrors
3E Tomb of Horrors Conversion
4E Tomb of Horrors Campaign
5E Tales from the Yawning Portal: Tomb of Horrors

1451: The City that Waits
Force Green (Pylia, Drizmar, Blue, Blood) and their new buddies The Loot Company (the human cleric and his 5 fighters) traded out gear at the “New Mystara Marketplace.” The gnome wizard merchant sent them to the archmage tower when they wanted more powerful stuff. The archmage’s “apprentice” scheduled them an appointment. The wizard interviewed them, deemed their goals worthy, and was willing to cast wish for them. They freed Sergei von Zarovich’s spirit from the sun-sword they recovered back in Barovia. They rested overnight and came back in the morning for 2 more wishes: (1) they found out Veersalla’s weakness (she must eat the heart of a phoenix each week) and (2) they protected the group from cold damage/effects for 8 hours.

The team went to “Wizards for Hire” and hired Worth the Evoker to come with them. They plane-shifted (via scroll) back to Oerth/the Tomb of Horrors and used the Amulet of the Void to plane-shift to Moil, where they were on a bridge near towers and above negative energy.

They had to find magical keys to release a creature that could fly them through the negative energy barrier to the Fortress of Conclusion. They defeated wraith spiders, frost-wights, Moilian zombies, ice snakes, floor traps, magic traps, a roulette wheel, the executioner demon, and riddles. They avoided a brine dragon and a medusa. They convinced the High Exalted of Orcus to help them (temporarily) work against Acererak. They also picked up some mystic dream drug doses and a magic mirror that can trap up to 12 people inside at once (which they used against the enemies).

After securing half of the group [Loot Company and the rogue woman they had rescued] in the magic mirror (to protect them from the cold and negative energy), the rest of the team [the “Core 4” and Worth] released the phantom flyer and rode it to Acererak’s Fortress of Conclusion.

They made it about half of the way through, dealing with more traps. They killed the Nightwalker, a dretch, and a glabrezu. They also magnificently dealt with or avoided many deadly traps. At the demon-face portal with swirly-orange mist, they had Worth deactivate a magic gem and go through; Worth used sending and magically-messaged back that he was choking but safe in a blue-tiled room with a passage off to the side. Amazingly, along the way, they only lost one fighter.

[Next time they hope to finish the lair and survive fighting Acererak. With all of their strategic planning, wealth spent on magic/gear, and careful exploration, they truly have a fighting chance.]

SAGA Log 1450: Escaping the Tomb of Horrors

The RPG Saga continues...

Module(s): 
The Tomb of Horrors
Beneath the Tomb of Horrors
AD&D Return to the Tomb of Horrors
3E Tomb of Horrors Conversion
4E Tomb of Horrors Campaign
5E Tales from the Yawning Portal: Tomb of Horrors

Session 1450
Still inside the Tomb of Horrors: Force Green’s Core 4 (Pylia, Drizmar, Blood, Blue), along with Pylia’s parents (Gale and Thane) and the  survivors of the “Loot Company” adventuring group (1 cleric and 5 fighters) were in a room hoping to rest.

Thane & Gael revealed the info they overheard while they were held prisoner: Acererak’s true lair is elsewhere; he made multiple bodies for himself that he could project himself through (such as the skull the team destroyed); you need the Amulet of the Void to access his lair; he has manipulated people - Thane & Gael think he has been playing Veersalla, Strahd, Cap, and Keraptis - using them and then distracting them all with worldly concerns of power and vengeance while Acererak is working on some sort of secret project. Whatever it is, Thane is sure they need to get to his lair and stop him. Gael also overheard something whispered about the city of Moil.

The Loot Company cleric attempted to planeshift them out, but that summoned a marilith; the team killed her. They were then invaded by the undead and necromancers from the Black Academy and had to kill/destroy: 6 wights, 14 ghasts, 1 bone golem, 3 vampires, 5 necromancers, 1 iron golem, 1 flame skull, and Mistress Ferranifer the vampire archmage. After winning, the team had both halves of the Amulet of the Void. They rested. Pylia figured out how the Amulet of the Void could be used to get to Moil.

Blood’s legend lore allowed her to find out that Moil was a city originally from the world of Ranais full of people with advanced science and magic who worshiped Orcus. When they turned from Orcus, he cursed them to sleep in a deathlike state until the sun hit them, but he put the city in a demi-plane with no sun, dooming them to slow death in their sleep. The city crumbled around them, preserved by the bitter cold.

Blue and Pylia convinced Thane and Gael to return home and check on Pylia’s brother and his relationship with Ivanja. The Loot Company said they wanted to go with the team to fight Acererak and helped by plane-shifting them to Mystara to go to the magical marketplace to buy scrolls and trade out magic items.

[For next time: The team plans to buy what they need, plane-shift back to Oerth, and rest again before entering Moil.]