DM's Note:
In the actual module that inspired these adventures, the characters end up at the City of 7 Spears and I changed it to the City of the 7 Statues; instead of locating 7 magical spears to put on statues, I have them finding 7 crystal skulls to place on headless statues. I had read criticism about the way the module was put together with city adventures followed by the vaults (which I agreed with) so I condensed stuff together. I also added some special properties to the vaults because I wanted it to be more fun/special for my players than just what would seem like a random dungeon crawl.
I give my players a lot of freedom to roam as they would like and go after the goals they desire, thus they rarely go from Point A to Point B to Point C as a module/adventure path would expect them to. This week's session showed them once again defying expectations (in a very fun way)...
Session 1437
[Module: Serpent's Skull Adventure Path - Modified]
Pylia (half-elf bladesinger/wizard), Blue (satyr paladin), Drizmar (drow rogue), and Blood (satyr cleric reincarnated as a gnome) were with the evoker and diviner sorcerers; the team put their hands on the handle to the Vault of Silence but realized the 2 sorcerers did not; thus Pylia, Blue, Drizmar, and Blood ended up getting magically sucked into the vault with all of their gear falling off and staying behind with the sorcerers in the Vault of Madness.
The naked team defeated 3 yuan-ti malisons by using broken glass and curtains; they looted scimitars and some clothing from the snakemen. The group avoided 2 large skeletal creatures, went through a magic mirror portal to tunnels that were no longer silent, and destroyed 4 specters. They made some gear from things in the caverns. They killed 12 flying eyeballs. They explored a secret passage that went to a cavern with a roper and a zombie beholder; they killed the roper and banished the beholder. The next passage took them to the magic door for the Vault of Slumber.
After the group touched the entrance to the Vault of Slumber, they ended up in a room with a large aberration that they avoided. A tunnel took them to a waterfall and magic pond with a strange pink-scaled sea serpent that the group befriended; the 8 4-armed mushroom creatures fled into the pond. The group avoided the spiders, intellect devourers, and mindflayer wizard; they went through a secret tunnel and negotiated with demon guards; Drizmar went in with greater invisibility to get the crystal skulls while the team used Pylia's magic for a telepathic link to help figure out the magic puzzles.
They lit the magic garden maze on fire and watched as their new half-dragon serpent friend killed the monsters; they left the serpent behind when Pylia (somehow) teleported the team to Drizmar, they got the skulls (the 7 actual crystal skulls and 3 fake ones), and Pylia (somehow) teleported them again to the ape king’s throne room, where they found Pezok hanging out with the ape king; they gave the ape king the coins they got inside and convinced the king to make a big to-do ceremony (with Blue's help) publicly putting the crystal skulls on the statues (though they put 4 real ones and the 3 fake ones there while Drizmar invisibly hid the other 3 real skulls). Blue sent Pezok to patrol the areas with the hidden skulls.
They rested for 8 hours in the throne room, even though the ape king offered them his finest guest quarters; they wanted to be there in case the evoker and diviner tried to escape the vault or the other 6 sorcerers showed up trying to get them out. The ape king's servants mentioned a city rumor that the jungle necromancer had been spotted in the city, but Pylia insisted on staying to watch the door to the Vault of Madness. She even suggested that, with everyone rested, they should go back inside the Vault of Madness to try to figure out a way to get their stuff back. Blue asked the ape king to bring them some new armor and weapons to borrow in the meantime.
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