Roll call:

Bill – III the Thief
Andre – Niall the Cleric
Jon – Apollonia
Trevor – Eitsa the Huntress/ Battu the Warrior
Matt – Oxley the Seer
Chris – The Clap / Klamlydia the Halfling

The session opened with planning the assault on the Emperor’s Obelisk. The PCs traveled back and took 4 days to lick their wounds, heal, and spellburn, particularly so that Oxley cast Kith of the Hydra to protect himself in case he died in the ensuing combat.

Finally, the PCs decided on a plan of flying way over the obelisk, dropping down near the top of the obelisk and then using the password to enter from the top. III executed this daring maneuver and was mostly successful, landing very close to the targeted space. They were then able to fly in through the top using the password provided by the Cosmpolitan Hermit in last session. The top level was exposed to space somehow, very cold and some of the lighter-equipped PCs started to float way, but all made Ref saves before anything too terrible happened. The floor of the top level was littered with small delicate bones. A shaft led down into the obelisk and the general layout seemd similar to that of the CH from last session.

The party made their way down the shaft, Oxley and Apollonia in the lead. They spotted a couple demons down on a ledge outside one room in roughly the middle of the obelisk. At the same time, there were some plaintive, pathetic “meows” from behind one of the doors. Also, when they passed a certain point, spider-bat bones (as seen above) animated and two swarms of spider-bats charged down at the party from above and below.

Apollonia landed with Oxley on the ledge and she Lotus Stare’d one demon into submission while Oxley and Klap destroyed the other one. Niall turned and destroyed the spider-bats above, while Apollonia hurled the smoking demon body of one of them down through the spider-bats, killing many of them, before Niall eradicated the rest. The party ignored the “meowing” and found the portal the demons had guarded had an elaborate magical lock, which Oxley deciphered via Read Magic.

Opening the portal, they found a time-stopped tableau: The emperor worm and six of the First Slave “Fleshies” were facing off with a man who could only be Yeph-Siroth while the demon-demi-god Mal-Uk had emerged from his portal to Hell!

In the ensuing combat, the following happened:

1. Oxley had fashioned a grand plan to cast Mind Purge on the great Mal-Uk, but after spellburning, etc, rolled a Nat 1 and took corruption.
2. Mal-Uk laid down a darkness around his personage, then cast fireballs.
3. Niall did a tremendous damage Bolt from the Blue to destroy Mal-Uk.
4. The Emperor attacked Battu and destroyed his “slime-hood” protection, then offered him a deal— to kill Yeph Siroth. Battu instead charged into the darkness Mal-Uk had created to try to slay him.
5. Battu rejected the offer and charged Mal-Uk and missed.
III snuck up and critted Mal-Uk, but didn’t quite take him down— finally Klap was able to slay him.
6. The party had not really wanted to fight the emperor, but the Emperor assumed the PCs were with Yeph-Siroth. He tried to dominate Yeph-Siroth, failing first, but then finally succeeding and turning Y-S on the party. Finally, Niall took out the Emperor with a juiced-up Bolf from the Blue.
7. At this point, Yeph-Siroth hurried to the dissolving, vaporizing body of Mal-uk, asking the PCs to give him the black fruit, claiming they would not know how to use it.
Battu retrieved the Black Fruit, but after a moment of indecision decided not to eat it. (I noted to the players that they would lose their control of the Ps if they became demigod).
8. Yeph-Siroth charmed Battu to give him the fruit, but Klap tried to wrest it from Battu, finally succeeding on the third try.
9. Klamlydia, now enlarged to triple size (!), rushed forward and dove down on the fruit to cover it up.
10. Yeph-Siroth was slain and his quest to get the black fruit was ended.
11. Oxley cast Mind Purge again on the vapor of Mal-Uk attempting to return to its dimension. THis barely failed when Mal-Uk made his save exactly, even at -2d.
12. Oxley cast Ward Portal to shut the door to Mal-Uk’s Hell-Manse.
13. Lydia ate the Black fruit and expanded and grew fare more, further and further until she disappeared from sight as she ascended to true godhood (!)
III took the green and gold boots from Yeph Siroth. He also had a magical rod of some sort.

Left undone:
Most of the obelisk is unexplored, including the next room.
PCs must decide if they would return to Canopus, find out what happened to the “phase-obelisk” that has bridged the two worlds, etc.
How will they live with their bizarre mutations back home?
What will they do (if anything) with the first slave “fleshies” and the maggot-men?

Luck awards:
+1 permanent luck point for each PC.

XP:
Clear Flyer maneuver – 4 XP
Space-warp entrance: 1 XP
Un-dead spider-bats – 3XP
Demon guards- 3 XP
Mal-Uk 5 XP
the Emperor – 4 XP
Yeph-Siroth – 3 XP
Black Fruit – 4 xp

Total: 27 XP

Thoughts on next session/“season 3”

There are two main options:

1. continue to explore the obelisk (with loot and dangers in the obelisk and more exploration of Canopus).
2. Mostly handwave that and return to home base/City of the Damned to kick off new adventures and grab old threads, etc.

Roll Call:

Bill – III the Thief
Andre – Niall the Cleric
Jon – Apollonia
Trevor – Eitsa the Huntress/ Battu the Warrior
Matt – Oxley the Seer
Chris – The Clap / Klamlydia the Halfling

Session opened with the PCs in the caves of the First Slaves/Flesh things. The PCs were able to speak their language and discussed their various goals with Kirbolos the Elder, a Head on Fingers. He offered some troops, and said he could muster as many as 200, but wasn’t sure that the PCs had a way of getting them up to the Obelisk. Finally after some good discussion, the PCs admitted that their real goal is to get into the “Locked Obelisk”. Kirbelos informed them that they could possibly try to contact “the hermit” who had moved its whole obelisk over the poison sea some centuries ago, in response to factional warfare.

To get all the way out there, the PCs would need to master a “clear flyer” the jellyfish things that sail the skies of Canopus. But first, the Elder offered them a bath in the flesh pits, which might endow them favorable mutations if they did well. The PCs mostly accepted… with the benefits as detailed below as well as I could remember:

1. Oxley – Owl wings (High-medium)
2. Apollonia – Demonic bat wings (Medium good)
3. III – Hummingbird wings (very good)
4. Klamlydia – Hummingbird wings (not as good)
5. Klap – 4 arms – extra attack die
6. Battu – 8 octopus tentacles – extra attack
7. Eitsa – Feathery angel wings
8. Niall – Feathery angel wings

Having done well in the fleshpits, they set out to master the Clear Flyers. It took 3 days to find a plateau where they were basking in the sun. They entered through the anus (hilarity ensued) and a well-blessed III was able to master the brain levers of the flyer to shoot into the skies. They were attacked by various antibodies, but Niall cast Holy Sanctuary and critted the roll, turning the entire Clear Flyer into his HS. Battu used the brain to calm the antibodies and all combat with them was thus avoided.

Approaching the redoubt fo the Cosmopolitan Hermit, the PCs examined it and saw that there was a Liquisassin membrane protecting both entrances. The party decided to get in close and mentally signal to the Hermit that they wished to enter in peace. The Hermit pulled back the LIquissassin. While they got out of the Flyer, he brought up a giant-ass Spider-bat to attack them, which they easily dispatched with Bolts from the Blue, Scorching Ray, etc.

The Cosmopolitan Hermit had tested them and found them worthy combatants so admitted them to his chamber to parlay. He agreed to give them aid to enter the “Locked Obelisk” as long as they did not 1) hurt the Emperor and 2) did not hurt the Hunter levitating the obelisk up. He didn’t care what they did to Mal-Uk.

He did tell them the events as he understood them:

1) Yeph-Siroth, some mage of a backwater world had angered his patron Mal-uk.
2) Mal-uk is a Supreme General of Hell, of a finite tier only second in power to the king of Hell, Asmodeus.
3) Mal-Uk influenced his ally, the Emperor of Pyorex on the planet Canopus to have his revenge on Yeph-Siroth— creating a phased obelisk to unleash Hell on the city below.
4) Yeph Siroth gathered his champions and flew up the obelisk into Pyorex and into the Locked Obelisk
5) After Yeph-Siroth entered the Emperor’s Obelisk, it became locked and totally impregnable- (it was already secured and only a few of the Worm Princes knew how to enter)
6) Shortly thereafter, the Cosmopolitan Hermit left Pyorex and moved his Obelisk out a great distance over the poison sea, as he had broken with the other factions of Pyorex.

the CH also explained how each obelisk has a Hunter within that levitates the obelisk. His aid is contingent upon the PCs swearing not to harm the Emperor or the Hunter levitating his obelisk.

Before wrapping up, III showed the CH a mental image of Vander to see if he had any info on his nemesis. 1 fleeting Luck!

After 1 day with the First Slaves + 3 days finding the Clear Flyers + 2 days flying to the obelisk of the Cosmpolitan Hermit… we will open on Day 158

XP -

The Flesh Pits – 4 XP
Anal Entry of the Clear Flyers/Str drain tentacles – 2 XP
Antibodies of the Clear Flyers 2 XP
Mastering the Brian of the Clear Flyer 4 XP
Bypassing the Liquisassin – 3 XP
GIant-ass Spider-Bat 3 XP
The Cosmopolitan Hermit – 4XP

Total: 22 XP

Roll call:

Matt: Oxley the Seer
Bill: III the Thief
Andre: Niall the Cleric
Jon – Apollonia the Cleric
Trevor: Battu & Eitsa
Chris: Clap & Klamlydia

The session opened with the PCs regrouping in the caves of the Maggot Men, pumping them for information and formulating a plan. After some discussion (and some mild prodding), the players decided to strike West and seek the help of the “first slaves” the fleshy mutants that the Spawners had first formed before the maggot-men. The players’ ultimate goal is to recruit them for an all-out assault on the worm princes.

The party asked for a guide to help them find the flesh-slaves, and were granted the services of Node 41889, the younger hatch-mate of Node 41888 who was captured by them in Session 31.

The PCs were set upon by 40 spiderbats (“Tactical spiderbats”) but slew them all and permitted none to escape.

They PCs found a depression in the rocky terrain that they explored full of what Node 41889 called “The precious ones”, blobbers with skeletons of gold and platinum. The PCs didn’t explore this era, but noted the location.

The PCs were accosted by a glowing pyramidal quadrihedron, which tried to entice Apollonia, Node 41889, Battu & Eitsa to walk into it. Ultimately it was destroyed in a fierce combat by III, the Clap, and Oxley’s 3 Scorching rays. Node 41889 recognized this thing as a servant of the Spawners.

The PCs made their way further west and found a small canyon in which a cave was flashing them with light. Entering this natural canyon, they found themselves trapped - the caves were issuing spikeballs, which exploded into spores when they stopped bouncing- although no one was harmed by the spikeball spores due to successful Fort saves.

III and Eitsa gained one of the caves and fought the flesh-mutants therein, with the Clap ultimately helping subdue one of them. To their surprise, the PCs found that the flesh-things spoke a similar language to their own and explained their purpose in seeking them out. The flesh-slaves, seeing that the PCs had not harmed their brethren, were amenable to discussing the PCs’ goals. This is where we ended Session 32.

The game will resume on Day 152.

Note: III has shown Venger’s sketch to the maggot-men and the flesh-mutants in an effort to spread Venger’s notoriety across the known worlds and make sure he is branded a criminal everywhere!

XP:

Spider bats: 3
Blobbers/ Precious Ones; 1
Polyhedral Champion: 4
Flesh-mutants and spikeballs: 3

Total: 11

Andre’s notes from session 32:

Adding this so we remember for next time (might save a repeat of the planning debate)…

Stated party goals:
1. Recruit the First Slaves to join us in our uprising
2. Check out the caves of the Precious Ones on the way back to obelisk land; Node 41889 told us they have something in their caves
3. With the First Slaves and the Rebel Maggotmen as our army, offer to a lesser faction (most likely the Astronomers) to help them overthrow the Hunters in exchange for aid accessing the locked obelisk.

…. and a note: if we ever see a few spiderbats scouting us, take ‘em down fast, they will bring a large force after us if they escape. Best to stick to the ridges when possible.

Roll call:

Matt – Oxley the Seer
Andre – Niall the Cleric
Trevor – Battu the Warrior
Jon – Apollonia & Jaspandar
Bill- Node III, the Thief King of the Maggot men

The session opens on Day 149. The PCs have left Clap & Klamlydia to guard the MDTE and advanced up to the end of the ridge to observe the obelisk formations. After spotting the activity of the “maggot men” (last seen in Session 17!) within the “fallen obelisk”, III scouts up to the obelisk and sees many dozens of maggot-men working inside with a large maggot prince deeper within the obelisk. He observes the maggot men cutting big swaths of meat off the inside of the obelisk, and then sees them floated out to the big meat pile outside. He grabs some of the meat, which is a sort of seafood-ish/shellfish/insect-y and returns to the ridge where the party waits.

The PCs decide to journey along the inside of the Eastern ridge and then loop back to investigate the “phasey” obelisk in the Southeast of the formation. They form up to do this with III in the lead. III falls down a trapped rock slide and ends up with 5 maggot-men trying to capture him. In a nutshell, Jaspendar sleeps most of them, while Battu and III kill the rest. In capturing the maggot-men (the slept ones), Apollonia interrogates them mentally and the MMs beg the party to come to their leader.

They move through the tunnels with the maggot-men and Oxley summons a 4HD slug monster (equivalent to one of his giant beetles— but more or less the Canopan version.) A strange creature from above attacks, grabbing the slug thing but Oxley repels it with a finely placed scorching ray.

The party then finds the hideout of the maggot-men in a large circular chamber. A gate is raised allowing entrance and the Battu, III, Apollonia go in with their prisoner / new friend Node 41888. ( he has promised to take them to his leader, Node 2127. He refers to III as Node III of course, hilarity ensues.) A giant-ass slug emerges from the floor and blasts acid on the party (III has already moved aside) wounding Battu and dropping Apollonia and killing poor Node 41888. Niall, Oxley & Jaspendar are trapped on the other side of the gate, but Oxley’s slug forces the gate open on a crit. Battu, Oxley and III dispatch the giant slug with a combination of scimitar swings, anal backstab and massive scorching ray.

III declares himself the king of the tribe, and Node 2127 comes out to greet the PCs, saying they have passed the test and they have found the PCs to be very mighty indeed. They want to help the PCs destroy their masters, the maggot lords (same as the PCs fought in the Merchants’ quarter— the mentally dominating maggot prince in Session 15. ) The maggot men communicate mentally so III became the conduit with them.

Basic info collected as per below:

The central obelisk is “locked” – no one has gone in or out in centuries. The Maggot men know from tribal knowledge that “aliens” flew in there a long time ago. It is the Royal Obelisk where the Worm Emperor lived. Node 2127 thought that some of the masters might know how to get in, but no one wants to give up the knowledge easily, for fear of giving another clan an advantage. And no one wants to take the risk of going inside themselves…

There are three clans of the “masters” (worm princes/maggot things.):
Astrogators - These are the wizards who watch the stars, treat with aliens, devils, demons and worse. They wield magic.
Spawners – These are the slavers who spawn slaves and dominate them to do the work of the worm princes.
Hunters – These are the ones that capture obelisks and float them, very powerful mind over matter powers. Each obelisk has a hunter who floats it.
The clans are rivals and hate each other. Without the emperor gone to maintain order, there is always clan rivalry and no faction can permanently get the upper hand.
Each of the obelisks belongs to one of the clans. Each has 1-5(!) worm-princes within it.

The “phasey” obelisk in the southeast belongs to the astrogators.

Other denizens of Canopus:
The maggotmen share that the Spawners first made misshapen human slaves for the community, but they were too hard to control and kept escaping. A community of them lives off to the west somewhere. Then the Spawners hybridized maggot-humans for slaves, and though some have broken off as rebels (like Node 2127’s bunch), many more still work for the Masters.

The maggotmen have no idea who/what Yeph-siroth/Mal-uk are.

(These are the main points I remember, but the PCs can get more information if Node 2127 has it.)

XP:

III only:
Scouting mission – 4 XP

All:
Maggot men ambush- 1 XP
Tongue thing- 2 xp
Giant slug 4xp
(Total 7)

Roll call:

Bill – III and Klamlydia
Andre- Niall and the Clap
Trevor – Battu & Eitsa
Jon – Apollonia & Jaspendar
Matt – Oxley the Seer

Note: Chris was a late scratch at gametime so Bill played Klamlydia and Andre played the Clap.

The party started off in the top floor of the Invisible Tower (Day 143 still).

After much discussion, the party decided against trying to do any sacrifice shenanigans and instead Niall cast Divine Aid to get Bast’s help to return the tower to the surface. The tower shuddered upward and returning to the lowest level, the party saw that the strange mechanism in the shark’s head had been wrenched apart and la y in pieces on the floor. They exited the tower quickly after stripping the jadinum coffin door off its lid and taking the gold, silver and jadinum keys from the trapped entrance to level 4 Oxley also grabbed all the alien jewelry on the vampire priest.

The PCs decided to return to the City with their loot. On the way back they were attacked by an odd bunch of desert scum. The band was quickly routed, but a couple escaped. Jaspandar had slept a couple and the party tried to interrogate them to no effect; Apollonia tried to convert them but fumbled (!). Ultimately, they laughingly embraced death in a most unpleasant nihilistic way.

The PCs rested in the City and tried to decide how to proceed— up through the obelisk or using the goo cave device that Apollonia had mastered. Oxley called upon Azi Dahaka for consultation and Azi Dahaka told him that the obelisk was not the final goal – that Mal-Ukk’s destination was elsewhere on Canopus, and also that Yeph-Siroth could be found in the same place. How to find them? Ask those you find there.

Niall also experimented with some spider-bats and found that the smoke bothered them, and also, something he had never noticed before— their breathing was labored, almost as the PCs’ was on Canopus itself. III prepared a smoke bomb using his book of alchemy.

The PCs then considered the thousands of spider-bats in the obelisk above the city and decided to take the Goo machine back. They rode to the goo-cave, finding it quiet and split into Team A (going to Canopus): Oxley, Niall, Battu, Jaspendar, Apollonia, III, Clap, Chlamlydia

Staying behind with the horses: Eitsa, Stormcat, Death-lion, Tayo

When Apollonia tried to use the MDTE to return to Canopus, she fumbled and landed them on a hot, jungle planet with a 100’ tall three-eyed statue. It was quite warm, with two blazing suns. They found some strange white-furred monkey dogs and tried to feed them, but ultimately decided to go back to the MDTE and try again to get to Canopus.

This time it worked and they emerged in the same Canopan desert as last time. They climbed the ridge and soon the pink liquid beast started flowing after them. They destroyed the liquid creature with a nasty scorching ray + Jaspendar using levitate to raise and drop the thing twice, particularly aided by a banishment. After this, they ascended the ridge across from the Canopan goo gave and were able to view the obelisks better this time: There are 12 huge obelisks floating- the Southeastern one is faintly visible/wavering/blurry on the bottom half. Amongst the obelisks they saw spider-bats flying in less ravaging/frantic natures + one of the giant slugs that they had fought in the merchants’ quarter house in the City.

There’s also a “toppled” obelisk laying on its side, with huge piles of meat laying on the ground nearby— this reminded Battu of whale meat, huge flesh of one piece. The party conferenced and decided to to approach the toppled obelisk and investigate the meat piles, hoping to find someone there to guide them. We will start on Day 148

XP:

Oxley, Niall, Battu, Eitsa, Apollonia, III, Clap, Chlamlydia
Overcoming the Mindless Master: 4 XP
The desert ambush: 1 XP

Oxley, Niall, Battu, Jaspendar, Apollonia, III, Clap, Chlamlydia
The pond-beast (“liquisassin”) – 3XP

Total: 8 XP

Roll call:

Matt – Oxley the Seer
Andre- Niall the BASTard
Jon – Apollonia the Cleric
Chris – Clap/Klamlydia
Trevor – Battu / Eitsa
Bill – III the Beggar

Opened on Day 141 with the gang returning from their journey to Canopus. They were reunited with Oxley and recounted the last few sessions events to him.

They learned that General Gerson has cleared out the Western Gatehouse and kicked all of Hevralyn’s Phesters out of the City (or at least most of the city.) Gerson has established a small trading post and HQ in the palace now.

Gerson proposed that they should take over the Eastern Gatehouse too, as he needs it for security and intelligence and Niall agreed, as long as the PCs still have access to their “chapel” which Gerson was fine with. Gerson agreed to pay some compensation if warranted. Niall also healed 9of Gerson’s men, which continues to engender positive feelings and 4 more converts.

Oxley bought the following stuff for 787 gp total (between Gerson’s supplies & trading with desert people):
camels x9 50ea. = 675
riding saddles x9 30ea. = 270
saddlebags x9 2ea. = 18
feed x100 5cp eac. = 5gp
arrows x100 25
waterskin x22 5sp eac. = 11gp
oil, flask x30 2sp ea = 6gp
rope 50’ x8 25cp ea = 2gp
In addition, all PCs had 10 days food/water when they left on day 142.

Niall sent a sacrifice to Bast and requested an acolyte to minister his churches and interests in the City, should get a response ~Day 160.

PCs then left with supplies for the Invisible Tower (as they had agreed via email.)
Tayo, Stormcat, Deathlion and Jaspandar were left behind with gear and supplies while Team A went into the tower (III, Oxley, Clap, Klamlydia, Battu, Etsa, Apollonia, Niall).

FIrst floor— As before, when the torches lit, the tower sank down. This time they didn’t run out. PCs found a shark’s head with a lever in it— shark’s head closed on rope that Oxley had enchanted to try the lever. Also some very warm robes and slippers. Robes had strange insignia. Oxley felt a strange communication from an ambivalent life form, loud and penetrating.. he took 1hp of damage and nose bled from it

As the tower went down, it got uncomfortably cold.

Second floor- a strange cushion bed thing in spiral pattern, as well as murals of snake-men torturing humans and “human-hides” hung on the wall.

Third floor- Dining room with human bones in a box. Deathtrap here— 5 “fang-keys” under the rug had to be inserted into the snake’s head at the top of the door: “Jadinum”, Gold, Silver, Copper, Tin. III f ound a trap on a metal panel that opened and let water gush in (also through some other pipes) but III was able to shut the panel just in time to stop two monsters from rushing in and eating everyone.

Fourth floor- A serpent man vampire in a water-tank coffin attacked and was struck down by Oxley’s epic Scorching ray crit and spellburn. (He also owes Azi-Dahaka an agreement on a sidequest within 24 hours….) Inside his tank were three tablets of spells (scrolls): Invoke Cthulhu, Summon Deep Ones and Banishment. There was a magic circle and instructions on how to prepare a sacrifice, as well as remnants of shackles on the walls. There were water-breathing gill potions as well (they drank 8 out of 12). the tablets also mentioned that a sacrifice must be made before “the lever can be pulled”— explaining then that the lever in the shark’s mouth is the means to return to the surface— AFTER the sacrifice is made.

FIfth floor- A magic circle to be used to summon the Mindless Master. There are wards and sigils on the inner walls to protect the tower from the MM (and maybe other stuff). Two panel doors flew open and a tentacle tried to grab a “sacrifice” but Clap and Klamlydia severed it. PCs had a discussion about how to defeat the thing but didn’t feel that they had the firepower to do it. Oxley tried to banish it with a tablet they hand found in the vampire’s watery tank/coffin but this did not work (MM made its Will save.) The PCs, not sure that they have any hope of killing this thing directly and not willing to sacrifice to it, retreated back down to Floor 1 to try to buy time to devise a way forward.

wrap-up:
Andre asked a good question— last time the tower sank, it returned to the surface with no sacrifice. Would it eventually do so again? Answer: Probably not— what’s different this time is that the MM made contact with Oxley and is expecting a sacrifice.. so there would appear to be some sort of hold on the tower, geas on the tower, etc.

XP:
Shark-trap: 1
Water & Snake-teeth trap: 4
Snake-man vampire: 3
The Mindless Master: 4

Total XP: 12

Roll call:

Chris – Klamlydia the Halfling and the Clap the Warrior
Bill – III the Thief
Andre – Niall the BASTard, Tayo the thief, Stormcat & Deathlion
Jon – Apollonia the Sex Shooter and Jaspondar the Wizard

Session opened on Day 139 with the PCs in the Goo Cave as per end of last session (presumably a night’s rest.) After some discussion, the party decided to use the Goo Ship to travel to its “home setting” which Apollonia understood to be Canopus, and at least see the environs. (I clarified to Jon & team, that the “home Setting” is known to Apollonia, but the rest of the different options are NOT known… she can guide the MDTE there, but she has no idea what to expect when she gets there.)

PCs decided to bring Battu & Eetsa to keep an eye on the MDTE while the rest of the party explored.

Arriving, the party found themselves in a cave. III left the device and immediately had some issues breathing, and lost a point of STA. After some experimenting, the party found that they all lost 1-2 points of STA if they leave the ship and breathe the open “sour and dank” bad air of Canopus. This is WITH the improvised wet masks they made (otherwise it was 1d4). There was no save.

From the cave mouth, they could see some sort of structure or ship down in the rocky valley below, with a lot of strange pools of slimy multlcolored liquid. ALso, off in the “East” of the cave, they saw a bunch more floating obelisks floating in an orderly row of 5 (at least). They looked more or less identical to the one above the City. They decided to scale the ridge on which the cave is to seek higher air, but this didn’t improve the air quality. As they made their way toward the “north”, one of the pools began to move and started to flow out toward them. It covered the rocky terrain quickly and even flowed UP the ridge line toward them. The thing fired some gel missiles at the party, missing everyone but III. He was covered in slime and started to suffocate, briefly poking a hole in the pink mass on his face, before it self-sealed. Finally DeathLion & Stormcat were able to help peel the gunk off before III suffocated. Niall defeated the thing with Banishment, even though it’s “mundane” on this world, effectively barring the thing from approaching closer than 90 ’.

There were some climbing mishaps, including Tayo taking a dive off the rockface and apparently dying as he plunged 50’ to his death, but luckily when the body was flipped, young Tayo miraculously survived! The party advanced to the thing they had seen and found it to be ship-like, hollow with obvious space for crew, etc. and entirely constructed of wood. In the back of the ship was a big vine covered chair. Within a wooden chest, they found some intricately worked ultra-lite metal mesh masks that allowed them to breathe with no stamina penalty (8). They also found a suit of amor of the same stuff in a cabinet and also a green tunic with strange markings (III was not able to decipher this script.)

The party noticed that the ship had been charred and burned on one side, including the strange vine-chair in its center. Also there were two big crossbows by amber colored windows in front— one of which was intact, and acts as an ultra-lite heavy crossbow (d1d8) (But it has no bolts at this time.)

The party left the ship and Niall had the idea to drive the beast out of its slime-pond lair— sure enough, they found some odd metallic skeletons there worth about 280gp + another suit of the armor locked around yet another skeleton.

The party decided to retire back to the MDTE and go back to the original Goo Cave and supply up more seriously for a longer excursion (heading back to the City to resupply). They also realized that they had left their camels/horses unprotected and sure enough, on their return (missed Luck check) the cruel Vulture-men had alchemical-bombed them to smithereens and eaten what they could. Luckily, the spider-bat-proof tents Niall had bought in Session 27 were intact.

Next session will pick up on Day 140. Intention is to journey to the city and see if the Invisible Tower from Session 27 has returned (it has!) Then, resupply in the City and plot the next move.

Note: Niall did an experiment to see what happened to items that weren’t in the “steering column” or the “passenger pods” of the goo-ship/MDTE. When returning to Terra/City-world, he left out a silver coin and a ration. The food was withered and dehydrated but more or less intact; the silver piece was unchanged.

2nd Note Apollonia tried to show everyone present (including Battu / Eetsa) how to use the MDTE and so everyone can have a +1d (use D24) on an Int check to master it.

XP –
3 – Liquissassin beast
2 – Climbing hazards

total: 5

Roll Call:

Andre – Niall, Tayo et al
Jon – Apolonia, Jaspandar
Trevor – Battu, Eitsa
Bill – III
Chris – Klamlydia, Clap

Opened on Day 136, the party decided to strike out in search of the mysterious “Goo Cave” that Oxley had seen in his crown vision. The name of the first king, who had returned to the Goo Cave originally (so that Oxley could understand where it is) was Thiros (King Thiros.) Not much is known about his origins….. as if he had just wandered out of the desert and established a kingdom one day.

During the discussion, party hit upon the idea of meeting with the Kankir (desert tribesman last seen in Session 21). This was a little out of the way of the area of the goo cave, but the party wanted to see if they had useful info, etc. The Kankir hosted them and supplied them, but weren’t able to tell them anything about the Goo Cave. The party also asked about the Western Gatehouse, which is still under the control of Hevralyn and/or Royler as far as PCs know. They met Farish, the old blind Chieftain of the Kankir.

They swung down to the South, looking for the Goo Cave.

The party found an area with a lot of tracks and saw some Kankir-like humans/humanoids watching them from a distance, but didn’t follow-up.

They came upon a 30’ tall statue of a serpent man facing West. At the basis of the statue were the words in an obscure Chaos tongue that Apollonia could understand: “FIDI rule for all time the true MASTERS. death to all who oppose” Finding no other points of interest by the statue, they moved on.

The party next found an invisible tower in the rock and gravel. They noticed that it had a sea-life motif on the door when they covered it with paint: squids, crabs, etc. They explored part of the lower level and it became visible inside when Battu put a torch in a sconce on the first floor, but the whole thing began to shake and then it lowered itself into the ground. Feeling it move, they all responded by running out of the tower, which finally descended into the ground until all they could see was the roof. The party was very intrigued but had no mining tools with which to try to mine through the roof or the surrounding rock, so they finally moved on, somewhat regretting that they had run out. They camped overnight, but the tower did not rise again.

The party moved on and was attacked by 5 vulture men who dropped chemical bombs on them. The PCs struck back quickly, slaying 2 and then finally Jaspandar cast Sleep and took out the last 3, all of them were killed when they fell to earth and incinerated with their remaining chem-grenades. They lost three of their camels, 2 who fled and 1 that died.

Finally they found the Goo Cave! The party approached and did not see any tracks that the cave was disturbed from without. They entered and Klamlydia detected an ambush inside. Niall cast a very high Holy Sanctuary, sanctifying the cave (!) as their sanctuary for 1d7 days. Then Niall entered alone and all the forces fled— they were 15 white serpent-men and 3 serpent men, all looking essentially like the statue they had seen above— they disappeared down a hole in the floor. Beyond was a cavern with a big 30’ long goo-blob in it.

Apollonia got a very good Detect Magic and they were able to explore the cave more easily.
Klamlydia found a strange gate with 7 slots in the floor and put in various lettered tiles to spell Canopus, which opened the gate to the goo-blob. Klamlydia was enlisted to explore the goo blob, finding a hollow cavity inside with 12 pods, and a pillar in the center that serves as a “bridge.” After experimenting with the pods and seeing that they could enter these, although not really move within them, Apollonia entered the pillar and made a crit Int check to understand and master the alien bio-tech. She now knows how to use the Multi-Dimensional Transport Engine to move the PCs to different “shadowpoints” across the planes, including a similar cave upon Canopus (and similar caves in Umerica, etc etc.)

Out of time and left off there to hopefully resume sometime next month on Day 139.

XP:
Vulture-man combat – 3 (all)
Invisible tower – 2 (all)
Serpent man combat – 2 (Battu, Klamlydia, Clap, Jasp, Apollonia, III, Niall)

Roll call:

Trevor: Battu/Etsa the warriors
Andre – Niall the Priest
Matt – Oxley the Seer
Jon – Jaspandar the Wizard & Apollonia the Cleric
Bill – III the thief

The session opened on Day 131 in the aftermath of taking the palace on Day 130. (This session was for roleplay and tying off loose ends, not delving/combat/crawling.)

The PCs had found the master crown last session which Oxley still had. After a tense night considering Prjil’s death, Oxley and Niall buried the hatchet when Oxley proposed to pay a blood price and Niall proposed that Oxley fashion a magic item for Bast when he is of an appropriate level. Oxley agreed to this as long as it’s understood it’s not in his capability at his current level.

After this, the PCs experimented with the crown, putting it on Oxley after he had been manacled up. The crown does control the other crowns’ wearers, which must obey the Master crown’s wearer— such directions are verbal, written etc, not telepathic. Also the crown has stored the memories of all prior kings, while they were wearing the crowns, so Oxley was able to see the boy Krinxides being divested of his crown after Yeph-Sirth flew into the obelisk with his handpicked coterie of companions, and the PCs gained some more info about the kings of Canopus— the sudden attack of the obelisk on the city of Canopus.

Oxley cascaded back through the various kings’ memories and did find that the first king of Canopus who bound together desert tribesmen with the villagers he found at the oasis of Canopus, had snuck out one night to a strange blob thing in a cave about one day’s travel out of Canopus. This hidden “blob of goo” was 12’ high and 30’ long and the king was able to enter into it.

After sifting through many memories, Oxley was taken over by the 20th king, Kronoz, who raved at them in Old Canopan for 2 days, and finally Oxley threw him off.

They also found that the crown confers a +2 to Personality.

The kings in the crown did not seem to be aware of Yeph Siroth’s manse details at all, including the consorts therein.

Niall approached Gerwin and invited him to use the palace as a homebase, showing him that his soldiers couldn’t attack Niall there. Gerwin agreed that it would be a good base of operations and will move in.

PCs determined that the crown may once have had power over the guards, but no longer, and couldn’t do any magic with the crown and the palace’s mirrors, etc.

PCs found a scroll in Y-S’s study, including Fly spell that they may use to go into obelisk (as apparently Yeph-Siroth did.)

The PCs also took stock of the rest of the treasure, 3000 canopan gp, 12000 sp and 10k in gems. (most of this was counted last session.)

Finally, the PCs discussed the boy’s ghost in the garden, fairly certain it was Krixides, the last king, whose skeleton they had found in the crypt. They summoned Lady Scrumos, who conducted a funeral for the boy and advised them to bury him in the garden instead of the crypt, which they did. The following day, the garden bloomed and no sign of the boy-king’s ghost.

Of the money:

1500 each went to the players to divide amongst their PCs (including Chris, though he wasn’t present tonight.)
1000 gp extra in jewels went into the crypt
3000 gp went into the crypt
2000 sp went into the crypt
10k sp is locked in Y-S’s study, which has been re-locked, Niall has the key.

Of items:

• Very light weight cleverly crafted chain male with no armor check – went to Oxley
  +1 space-metal blade longsword (d10 damage) went to III
  The Master crown went to Niall, and he will wear it. The rest of the party will keep their lesser crowns but not wear them.

Wrap-up: At the end of the session, the PCs were torn about whether to use a spell scroll found in Yeph-siroth’s manse to fly up into the obelisk or to adventure more in the city, perhaps gain more power and XP first. There as no clear resolution, so we agreed to resolve via email. Next day will be Day 136.

Xp – 1 for the Crown exploration

Roll call:

Trevor – Battu & Etsa the Warriors and Q the Swarmgoyle (Deceased!)
Jon- Jaspandar the Wizard and Apollonia the Cleric
Matt – Oxley the Wizard and Uru the Warrior (Deceased)
Andre – Niall the Cleric, Prjl the Crab man (Deceased), Death Lion and Stormcat the henchmen.
Chris – The Clap and Klamlydia, the Halfling
Bill – III the Thief

We resumed mid-Day 130 after last session’s successful forays against the undead palace guardians.

It took a couple hours for Battu, Eetsa and III to join the party, they released Tayo to be their runner. While they regrouped, several of Gerwin’s men occupied the stable, watching them, but not menacingly. They saluted the party when they were waved to.

Niall had (last session) sanctified the Southwest corner of the tower (all 3 floors) as Bast’s holy sanctuary. They entered through the back door and found themselves in a servants’ quarters. Beyond that was a kitchen, wine cellar. They mounted the kitchen stairs up to a second level and found a door trapped with a tattoo trap, much like those at Yeph-Siroth’s manse. They chose not to explore further in that direction, instead mounting to the third level and finding the Empress-Regen’s bedroom, office and the treasury—after iii barely survived a trap, they found 10,000 gp in gems, 12k in sp, 3k gold (Canopan mint.)

Moving out, they found the nursery and nurses’s quarters. Here they found books on plants, and flowers and many toys, taking a wooden shovel.

They went down to the lower level next and explored the garden, finding most of it dry and dead, but with one green and well tended patch in the center. There was a boy there who told took the shovel toy and talked briefly with the PCs. (Honestly, I can’t remember what all what he said…) There was another door out of the garden that opened into an Erna temple where there were multiple skeletons in a ritual circle. In the center was a bag of glowing grain. Battu sent Q the swarmgoyle to go get the grain and it was instantly incinerated by the blue lightnings that erupted around it.

At this point, they decided to go back to the North, found the throne room and also a chapel of Destraal next to the chapel of Erna’s. There were two statues, either able to grip an object, right next to each other but missing their object. The throne room had mirrored walls and a huge dragon-mouth throne. When Oxley attempted to sit in the throne, the mouth slammed close— he barely jumped out in time, but still took significant damage as it slammed shut.

IN the NE corner of the first floor was a bath chamber, with a working pump (Water!) and a boiler beneath. There was even a sauna!!! There was a scythe in the bath basin, and when returned to Destraal’s statue, a crypt door was visible in Destraal’s chapel floor. Looking down below, there were two skeletons thrown disrespectfully down into the royal crypt— an adult and a child’s skeletons.

Using their crowns again, they found a guard room that led down into the dungeon. Venturing into the dungeons below they found cells with skeletons in them, and beyond that, another stairway down into the torture chamber. Here they were ambushed by a “Torture Golem” who almost dropped Clap outright and slew Oxley. Meanwhile, from the rear, the undead guardians ambushed Battu & Eetsa, held off. A fierce combat ensued — Prjil, III and the Clap finally dispatched the Torture Golem with help from Oxley’s scorching ray (after Apollonia healed him.) Meanwhile, Battu & Eetsa managed to slay and hold off the horde of pikemen until Niall turned many of them. at which point Oxley then maxed out his Scorching Ray to magma those remaining guardians.

When the Torture Golem was destroyed, many old bent weapons and other bric-a-brac came exploding out of it, along withe master crown, falling at Prjl’s feet. Prjl picked it up and placed the crown on. Instantly those wearing the lesser crowns (Niall, Oxley Etsa) had to kneel and obey. When Oxley tried to remove the crown, he was unable, without making a very high will save.. he made it, removed the crown and then incinerated Prjl.

Moments later, a locust-demon with a monk’s tonsured head appeared from the palace level and charged at Battu & Eetsa. It claimed to be Vyharkim the monk, Clap helped them finish it off and send it back to hell, where it said it would see them again.

(Prjl’s body was cooked + all his goods, Spellbook, etc.)

Oxley seized the crown but did not put it on. There was a bit of a standoff, more about Prjl’s death than about the crown, but finally the PCs agreed to split up, Battu, Klap, Klamlydia, and III, Jaspandar & Apollonia went to Niall’s sanctuary and Eetsa and Oxley went to the Chapel of Destraal to rest.

We would resume on the morning of Day 132.

XP:
Treasure room Trap: 2xp
Throne room trap: 2xp
Erna Chapel trap: 4 xp
Torture Golem/Guardians encounter: 4xp
Vyharkim encounter: 2xp

Total: 14
1 pt of Luck

SEVENTH CROWN OF THE EMPEROR: PRICELESS