AD&D Session 23: The Floor Is on Fire

Since the last session Kai and Ellea have returned from their training a level higher, while Timukel has left to begin his training. After chilling in Porto Oro for a while, the group (Archie, Kai, Gaia and Ellea) go to the mayor Andrea to ask for permission to use Russel for a lift to Estato again. During this they have some conversation about Estato. Andrea tell them that the White Crab Inn is a very lively place always with music and dancing, while Hewitt the crab fisherman always welcomes newcomers to the island and is very happy to tell them all about the village. Andrea again gives them permission to go to Estato with Russel, who again agrees to collect them at the end of the day, or after two nights.

In Estato the group decide to visit a grove of stately elm trees to the south of the village. Here they find a small ramshackle cottage and they go to knock on the door. After hearing some scrambling inside and a man shouting ‘just a moment’ the door flies open and they see an old thin man with a weasel perched on his shoulder hastily tidying the messy cottage. The man asks them what they want and Archie decides to tell him that they would like to join the cult. The man replies ‘Join the cult? How curious. This is contrary to your previous actions on this island. Was that a lie or are you merely stupid?’ The conversation continues with both parties eventually convincing the other that they are in fact against the cult and would like to take it down. After convincing Ramne of the groups credentials in taking down cults, he agrees that they should team up. He will tell them what he knows in exchange for their strength in fighting the cult and raiding the HQ.

The old man’s name in Ramne and his pet weasel is called Whiskers. He has been gathering information but lacks the strength to destroy them himself. He tells them that the temple was one of the first places to be infected and that the dungeon from the previous session is their HQ. He also tells them that there is some unknown evil power at play and he believes that once this evil power is removed, the people of Estato might return to normal. While there are a few people in the village that he trusts are not under the influence of the cult, he does not know for certain who has been infected. The effect of the cult in the village has generally led to the village being less friendly and more sinister than before, and there have also been a few people disappearing from the village - the children of the village carpenter, a travelling merchant and the wife of a local dock worker.

Ramne gathers some belongings and the group leave his cottage. Ramne is quite frail and moves slowly. Most of the group go to the Inn of the Slumbering Serpent and talk to the owners who Ramne trusts. They don’t have any extra information and it seems Ramne just wanted them to go here so he could have their lavish breakfast before leaving on the adventure. Meanwhile Gaia decides to try to sneak in to the Temple of Merikka. She is confused about the conflicting information she received from Ramne and from the children last session about the temple. Gaia successfully enters the temple without being seen and goes through one of the doors from the main central sanctuary. In here she finds a meeting room with some wooden benches, a few chairs and a shelf with some bottles of wine and glasses. Fearing being discovered by the priestess, Gaia leaves the temple.

The group again travel to the dungeon, this time significantly slowed by Ramne, but make it there mostly without incident. Near the dungeon entrance they encounter a giant snapping turtle, but luckily notice it early and manage to avoid it. Archie charges down the staircase to the dungeon, and nimbly keeps his feet before warning the others to be careful because it is slippery. They set up a rope mechanism and descend. Again there are four guards at the entrance and Archie tries the same trick of saying they are there to take over the guard duty. Despite being warned about this ruse, the guards surprisingly fall for it again which leaves Gaia scratching her forehead in confusion.

The group follow the same path as last time in the dungeon, scaring away a few giant rats with fire and arriving at the corridor leading to the place of the previous encounter with the three men. Along this corridor, Gaia is scraping her hand along the wall and where the corridor turns north, one of the bricks of the south wall comes loose revealing a hidden passageway. Inside this hidden passage is an alcove with a small rowing boat and the edge of a body of water within a cave. The water is shallow near the edge but quickly gets deeper. It extends in all directions but with the lack of light they can’t see where the water ends. They get in the boat and set off towards the south. They see similar alcoves and edges to the water to the west and to the south. To the east the water extends further. To the north east there is a mud shelf on which they can make out some silhouettes of crocodiles. They decide to land the boat on the south alcove and continue.

They move south through another small corridor and arrive at a crossroads - west is a short muddy corridor, south is a longer muddy corridor and east is a longer corridor, but without mud. They take the cleaner east corridor and arrive at a door going south. Archie and Gaia slowly force the door open and are greeted on the other side by two humanoid lizard creatures carrying stone battle axes. One is knocking on another door while the other is releasing a horrible odour. Archie and Ellea are able to cover their noses in time to not be effected by the stench, but Kai and Gaia feel its effects sapping their strength. Ellea casts phantasmal force, making the room appear to be on fire. Both creatures believe this illusion, taking fire damage and Archie goes to attack while Kai casts Faerie Fire and Gaia hangs back protecting Ramne and Whiskers. Archie’s magical sword is tingling in his hand (+2 against these monsters) and he takes down the first creature, but receives a hit in return. The other creature continues taking fire damage and also exchanges blows with Archie. Again Archie takes it down but not before receiving another hit. At this time the other door to the room bursts open revealing 4 more humanoid lizards. They also fall for the fire illusion and so hang back in the doorway. Archie takes some shots with his bow, hitting the creature in the doorway while Kai heals him with cure light wounds. Seeing the adventurers walking in the flames, the illusion is broken for the creatures, but Archie and Gaia close in on the doorway before they can enter the room creating a choke point. Another hit with Archies sword as well as a hit from Gaia take the creature in the doorway down and the other three drop their weapons and surrender. The group tie them up and kill any unconscious creatures.

After the fight, they look around a bit. The first room they entered from the north side is a small room with three wooden benches. The other door to the room leads west into a slightly larger but empty room. Further west is a small cave like area with fish bones scattered on the floor and some sleeping pallets. They find some pouches with 20 gp. To the south side of the room is another exit with a staircase that leads down to the east. The group decide to peak their heads down this staircase. At the bottom they find a large mud pit with some stepping stones forking in two different directions. Their curiosity satisfied, they go back up the stairs. While the others discuss what to do with the captured creatures, Kai slits their throats. Then the group all leave the dungeon.

On the way to the exit, they come across an aggressive snake. Kai summons some insects and Ellea uses phantasmal force to make the insects appear giant. These seemingly giant insect bites, as well as sword attacks from Archie and Gaia are enough to annihilate the snake without it managing to land its fangs in any of our adventurers. They exit the dungeon and return to the village without further trouble.

Back at the village, Archie, Gaia and Ellea will stay in the Inn of the Slumbering Serpent to continue working with Ramne and investigating the village, while Kai returns with Russel to Porto Oro with the 20 gp to try to hire some reinforcements. 

AD&D Session 22: Cult hunting in Estato

We begin with some admin from last session. Archie, after selling the three magical ear plugs which are much sort after as a leisure item in Porto Oro, has enough experience and gold to level up. During the hot springs festival he met a former adventurer called Girolamo. He looks back at his adventuring days fondly when he reached a level 3 fighter, but he was dragged away from adventuring by his wealthy father who wished him to return to ‘reality’. Archie successfully trains with him for one week reaching level 2.

Kai and Ellea (and Sir Goldborn in absence) negotiate with Walt, Jessie and Hank for the loot from the cult. They agree to keep the staff, dagger and 250gp, while Walt keeps the scrolls, Jessie keeps the potions and Hank keeps the green gems. Kai and Ellea then sell the staff in a magical shop. After Kai painstakingly tries to remember any details about what magical abilities the staff might have, the shop keeper is willing to offer them 10,000 gp for the magical staff. Kai also decides to keep the dagger. This results in 3,416 gp and 3,450 xp each for Kai, Ellea and Sir Goldborn. This is enough experience for both Kai and Ellea to level up. Kai returns to his usual trainer - an 8th level druid called Mike who lives in the forested hills north of Borgogazze. Ellea concludes a decade long search for her master in the forgotten caves of the Antium mountain, not far from Porto Oro, and starts her training. Both of them continue training as this session begins.

Before going on their training, Kai and Ellea show the islands map obtained in the cult cave to Archie. Since the two of them are busy with their training, the newly levelled up Archie takes it upon himself to investigate these two new islands that seem to be related to cult activity. He is happy at the arrival of Timukel the illusionist and Gaia the ranger (and her pet pigeon) who have both returned from a long hiatus from adventuring and are willing to help Archie. They decide to travel to the island with the ‘blind’ symbol - for this reason Gaia decides to buy a mirror which she hopes will reflect any sight based attacks. The first challenge is to find a way to get to the island. They go to the docks in Porto Oro to check out the boats own sale. After scraping together the few gold pieces they have and looking at the boats within their price range (mostly small leisure vessels), they decide that they are not suitable for a two hour journey out to sea. So they go to Russel and ask if he can take them. Russel is surprised that he wants to go to this island which he says is called Estato and is the location of the Porto Oro summer festival. For most of the year the island is quite sparsely populated with only some small fishing industry, but for August the whole of Porto Oro go there for the festival. He says that he is in service to Porto Oro and so cannot take them without the mayor Andrea’s approval. After telling Andrea about their suspicions about further cult activity, Andrea agrees that Russel can take them to the island, but there is not further reward available for their investigations of the cult. Russel drops them to the island without incident and says he will return to pick them up in a few days.

They arrive on the west side of the island where there is a dock with a town behind it. The dock is quite large but at the moment there are only a few small fishing boats parked in it. The island is in the shape of an 8 with larger forested areas to the north and south with the town straddling the thinner section in the middle of the island. The group (Archie, Timukel and Gaia) disembark the boat and walk towards the town. The first building they see is a small wooden home with crab fishing equipment piled at the front. There is a man sitting in front of the building and the shadows of some more people inside the building behind the curtain. The man (who is called Hewitt) suspiciously asks what they’re doing on the island. The group say they’re visiting and ask if there is an inn. Hewitt points out a building a short way into the town and goes back into his house and locks the door and the group walk away.

The inn is called the White Crab and has a very quiet and sombre atmosphere with everyone sitting on their own and not talking. The innkeeper, Bertram, on the other hand, is quite lively and happy to see the group. He offers them a free drink, welcomes them to Estato and asks what brings the group to the island. They tell Bertram that they are investigating cult activity in the area and ask if he knows of anything suspicious on the island. Bertram seems concerned but says he doesn’t know of anything like that. They ask him about anywhere nice to go on the island. He says that there’s nothing to the north but there is a nice path to the south of the island that they could take. Finally Hewitt offers them rooms in the inn at discounted prices - at this time of year there are few visitors so their company would be welcome. The group thank him and say they will be back for the room in the evening.

Next they visit a temple building in the town. There is a poorly tended courtyard leading to the temple with a gardener and some outbuildings. When spoken to, the gardener just grunts and gestures towards the main temple building. Entering the temple through a door on the south side there is a large room with a tiled floor with a mosaic of a sea themed scene, tapestries of sea creatures on the walls and a jade statue of a beautiful woman on a low Dias at the north end of the room. There are four additional doors from the room - to the west, southwest, east and southeast. The group are greeted by a priestess who introduces herself as Misha and says this is a temple to the sea god Merikka. They are welcome to worship in this room, but the rest of the temple is restricted for non-members. The group asks her about cult activities which she knows nothing about and the group leaves.

Next Gaia decides to find some children in the town to talk to in a totally not creepy way, because children often know useful information. They eventually find two girls playing in the street. Gaia approaches them saying ‘hello children, come over here and talk to me, there is nothing to be scared about, I’m not a pedophile.’ She then gains the kids confidence by performing a trick with her pigeon in which she throws a rock in the air and the pigeon flys and catches it. The kids are amazed and ask her to do it again! Instead Gaia performs a new trick, giving one of the kids an apple to hold above her head and throwing the pigeon from a great distance to pierce the apple and take it from the kids hand. Again, the kids are obviously delighted. Gaia then tells the kids that there are three things that the pigeon likes - rocks, apples and secrets. The pigeon has had a rock and apple, now it just needs a secret. Do the kids have any? The kids reveal that they used to be able to play on the north side of the island, but now their daddy doesn’t allow them to go there. There is a trail through the forest to the north.

The group go straight to the trail which they easily navigate with the Rangers abilities. The trail goes through a dim eerie forrest in which they thankfully don’t see anything in two hours of walking. They then arrive at a swamp with water up to their knees. Again they wade through the swamp with no encounters and arrive at a small island created by a circular dam. They clamber over the dam to reach the island which has a hole with slippery wooden steps descending into the earth. Attaching a rope to avoid slipping, the group go down the stairs where they find a small entry room with four guards in front of a door to the south. The guards lower their spears menacingly as the group arrives. Archie tells them not to worry, it is the end of the guards shift and the three of them are there to take over. The guards surprisingly accept this without question and enter the door before walking to the east. Surprised at this success, the group waits a few moments before following through the door.

Through the door is another small (30ft x 30ft) room with corridors to the east, south and west. The area is excavated from soggy dirt and supported by massive, though slightly rotten, timbers. The whole area feels damp and the ground is wet and slippery. The group decide to head south, avoiding where the guards went. After a 50ft corridor, they arrive at a larger 50ft x 70ft room. It has a high ceiling with six wooden columns supporting it and a pool of mud in the centre which slows the group down but is otherwise unremarkable. On the south side is an exit to another corridor which stretches both east and west. The group goes west for 50ft when the corridor turns north. After 30ft the corridor splits with a passage stretching to the west and a short 20ft corridor to the north leading to a door. The group go to the door which Gaia and Archie quickly barge through at the first attempt, arriving to a small 30ft x 30ft room. There is a lightly armoured man in the room who quickly draws his short sword at their arrival. They instantly engage in melee with Gaia receiving a small blow. A minute later, two further people arrive in the room, one more lightly armoured with a short sword and the third more heavily armoured with a long sword. The two groups exchange blows with our adventurers all landing good hits and Archie receiving a blow which he easily shakes off. Eventually Gaia takes down the heavily armoured enemy who falls unconscious, and the remaining two flee. Archie and Gaia also take these two down as they run away, brutally slapping one to instantly kill them, while the other falls unconscious.

After the fight the group can investigate the room further. It seems quite comfortable with four soft chairs and some small tables. There is a fire burning in a large fireplace with a stack of wood next to it. There is a keg of wine with two glasses on one of the tables. There’s an opening on the north side of the room leading to a corridor. Directly to the east of the corridor is a door to a 20ft x 20ft room - an unremarkable room with two beds. The corridor also goes to the west for 30ft before turning south for 30ft. On the west wall of the corridor is another door to an unremarkable 20ft x 20ft room with one bed. At the end of the corridor to the south is a door to a 20ft x 30ft room. In here there is a bed, desk, chair and wooden chest. In the chest they find a small jade statue of a reptile figure, some clerics robes, a mace and a scroll with two cure light wounds spells. Taking all this loot, as well as the weapons of the three defeated enemies (a shield and short sword feel like they hold some sort of power) and the three bodies (two unconscious and one dead) the group leave the dungeon and return to the surface by the swamp.


Gaia briefly questions the two now conscious men who reveal that whoever their leader is is not dangerous and is a trusted friend and ally. They ‘bury’ the dead body in the swamp and proceed slowly with the two injured men back through the swamp and forest. In the forest they avoid an encounter with a bear with an offering of food. Back in the town, they take the injured men to the temple where they find Misha again. They tell that the men attacked them while they were wandering the island, they defeated them but spared their lives and wish to ask for their healing. Misha responds ‘very well, thank you for delivering them to me. The temple will ensure that they are healed and receive retribution for their actions.’ The three then go back to the inn to spend the night.

The next day, Gaia is missing from her room in which there is a smashed water bottle. The innkeeper says he didn’t hear anything last night, but saw their friend (Gaia) leaving very early in the morning. Archie and Timukel search the town, drawing a map of the area. They return to the crabbers hut and temple for uninteresting encounters. They go to the town barracks which is completely empty. They go to the town shop where the owners invite them for a glass of wine. It is the best wine Archie has tasted, the shopkeepers tell him it was made in the Inn of the Slumbering Serpent. Finally they check out a boarded up building which a fallen sign suggests was the Foaming Mug Inn. It seems abandoned.

During these trips around town they come across Gaia playing with the children. She says she had a strange dream: she was searching after the others because they were in danger. During the dream she might have involuntarily smashed her carafe of water. Feeling agitated she left the inn early and walked around. She found the kids and started playing with them. She asked them about the priestess Misha and the kids said she is very nice and kind and sometimes lets them help in the temple.

Finally, Timukel talks to a rough looking man with a long scar running down the right side of his face. Timukel asks if he wants to be his friend. The man responds by pressing a knife to him under the table and saying ‘you want to see what I do to my ‘friends’?’ Timukel runs away, noticing that 5 gp are missing from his pocket.

They all rest up in the inn for another night. The next day Russel arrives and they take his ride back to Porto Oro. Treasure is sorted out with magical items split amongst the three and all non-magical loot sold for 90 gp. Gaia takes the scroll and sells it for 600 gp. Timukel takes the shield and sells it for 2,500 gp. Archie takes the sword and decides to keep it, gaining 500 xp. The sword seems to lend some magical assistance, guiding the wielders hand to more lethal parts of an enemies body. It also feels like it has some additional power that is yet to be discovered.