War for Gateway Session Recap #7

[GM Mad]

War for Gateway Session Recap #7

April 15th:

In the aftermath of the raid into the enemy army's camp, Wyvern Squad retreats back to Eagle's Nest along with some of the spoils of war. The captured supplies are unloaded and stored in the outpost. One of the oxen is slaughtered for food, giving the group something to eat that is better than rations. Wyvern Squad settles in for the evening. The mages study the newly found spell book.

April 16th:

Not long after eating breakfast and regaining spells, the enemy's form of retaliation becomes known. Something large is spotted flying around over the enemy army. Eventually it makes its way to Eagle's Nest where it is revealed to be a large green dragon! The dragon is over 100' long from tail to snout. The dragon lands outside the Eagle's Nest and taunts the squadron with, “Come out and play little mice!”, while eating the remaining oxen.

Wisely Wyvern Squad retreats down the secret exit taking the stairs to the caverns deep in the mountains. Sensing this, the dragon starts to destroy Eagle's Nest, smashing the walls and bringing the whole place down. Eventually it discovers the hidden shaft and breathes its breath weapon down it, but by now the Squad is out of range. Rubble falls down the shaft, but the group safely makes it down into the caverns below.

Once in the cavern they have to work their way around the rubble that fell down the shaft. The group moves forward to find a way back to the surface. Light Cantrips are used to provide illumination. This time the gelatinous cube is nowhere in sight, so the group travels down the passage they didn't take last time. Might as well fully explore down here along the way.

Up ahead a side cavern is noted along the main tunnel. Like where the cultists were found elsewhere, a crude wall was erected to keep the gelatinous cube out. However, this wall was breached from the inside as the rocks that made it up are now laying in the passageway. Flare notes footprints leading away in the dirt. The footprints are of skeletons!

Inside the cave a ghastly discovery is made. Among the trash on the floor are the chewed remains of what looks like more cultists. Even worse, its only the skins of the cultists as their bones are missing! Some treasure is found among the trash along with a magical scimitar that Saladino claims.

Continuing on, another side cavern is found, but this one has nothing interesting in it. Eventually the group reaches the area where they found the demonic snake men and beyond that is where they discovered the cultist guards. The passage goes past that area, another place the group ignored in their earlier trip. Most of this unexplored area slopes downward and water has collected there. A fresh water spring from deeper in the earth provides clean drinking water and the skins are filled up. Also found in this area is a crude altar to Set where sacrifices were made to that foul god. The area is miraculously clean now, suggesting that the gelatinous cube has been here recently. A golden coiled serpent sits on the altar. Daubeny takes it as it is probably worth a lot of gold.

Retracing their steps, the Squad moves into the area where they fought the cultists. A similar rock barrier had been erected to keep the gelatinous cube out, but this one has also been breached from the passage side. The rocks lay on the ground where the cultists were keeping guard. Speaking of the cultists, their bodies show signs of being munched on by various creatures.

As the group starts to move into this area, the bodies of the cultists start to twitch! They stand up and in a gruesome display, they shed their skin leaving iit laying on the ground! Screaming “UNDEAD!” Wimzy rushes to attack. The group follows and combat erupts until Erisci simply turns the undead and they start to move away.

“I forgot I could do that!” Wimzy laments. “I'm a cheeky priest.” She then casts her own Turn Undead at the fleeing skeletons and blasts them out of existence.

Warily, the squad advances. They realize that they are approaching the area where the majority of the cultists were fought, along with Anen, the so-called Son of Set. Predictably the cultists and their divine master start to rise shedding their skin in the process! The cultists are easily turned, Wimzy destroying many of them, but their master is made of sterner stuff. The skeletal snake man falls again in the end.

The passage to the north is explored. It was where the cultists had set up their bedrolls, around a crack in the ground. Deeper in the earth lava flowed and it provided heat and illumination in this cavern. More food and water was found as well.

Not long after that the group reaches the beach. The Skeletal footprints they had been following simply walk into the water. The cave the underground lake is in is huge, the ceiling some 70' to 80' overhead. An old walkway is found leading away to the right and flying creatures are noted overhead. The cavern walls are covered with a greenish phosphorescent lichen that provides enough light to see up to 100 feet in distance. It is darker in the middle of the lake, just the shore is lit up. Some rock outcroppings are noted in center of the lake and the other side cannot be seen.

Saladino summons the black flying horse that the enemy priest used, once more with the intent of scouting the area while the rest of the group travels along the walkway. Laurel and her feline companion Malf ride along with Saladino. They quickly discover that the creatures flying overhead are skeletal bats about the size of a person! Laurel turns them and they fly away. Saladino directs his flying mount to hug the side of the cavern as more of these bone bats can be seen. They explore the areas ahead of where the group is traveling on foot.

Soon they come a tributary flowing out of the underground lake. The ancient dwarves built a bridge across the waterway, but it collapsed long ago. The sound of working is coming from deeper down the tributary. The tributary itself is a worked canal, but eventually it becomes a rough natural cavern. At this transition point, skeletal workers are transforming the rough cavern into a finished canal. The skeletons are engrossed in their work and pay no attention to the fliers.

Continuing on, the explorers continue to follow the road past the collapsed bridge. The road gives way to beach once more and activity is noted up ahead. Sitting in the water next to the beach is a huge, crudely built barge measuring some 20' wide and 40' long. Supplies, much like those found in the caravan wagons, are spotted. Several ogres are present with long poles to push the barge across the water. Right now the barge is docked on the shore and goblins are unloading the cargo while hobgoblins keep watch. A large cave opening is located here and the cargo is being taken into the caves.

Laurel takes the last of the Alchemist Fire she has, lights it and then drops it on a stack of Goblin Spit barrels. The Alchemist Fire explodes causing some of the Goblin Spit to further explode, showering those in the area with fiery liquid. The pair fly onward, doing a complete circle around the other edge of this underground lake. Two more tributaries are discovered. Both are finished canals like the skeletons are building elsewhere and water flows into the underground lake from them.

Saladino directs the flying mount back to the rest of the group. The flying mount is used to move everyone across the broken bridge. Once close enough, the squad attacks the survivors of Laurel's bombing attack at the goblinoids' barge.

A fierce battle follows. Multiple ogres are slain along with several hobgoblins. The goblins in the area fled deeper into the caverns. As the group takes the time to look around, the bones of many skeletons are found in this area suggesting that the goblinoids were being attacked by skeletons as well. Fearing that these freshly dead will be changed into skeletons in a few days, the bodies are added to the burning barge.

[GM Mad]

GM Notes:

And that is where the session ended with the group on the beach of a new set of caverns. Eagle's Nest has been destroyed and the group only has the food and water that they are carrying with them. The mounts are all gone, limiting how fast the group can move. Yes, this was 'The Empire Strikes Back' session!

Here's the full map for the Caves of Set:

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And here's the keyed areas of the dungeon map:

1. Arrival point for the stairs from Eagle's Nest. A great deal of debris from the destruction of Eagle's Nest now fills the area.

2. Fresh water pool where water is drawn up to the base. This is the deepest area of the pool. Small fish can be seen in the pond. Debris now litters the area where fresh water was scooped up in. The shaft has collapsed and been filled in.

3. This was where the gelatinous cube was first encountered. It was not seen during the second visit.

4. Cave where the bodies of cultists were found. Wimzy believes that they were eaten by ghouls before their skeletons left their bodies. Treasure was found here: 23 pp in an sack, 80 gp, 100 sp, 200 cp scattered, 100 gp jeweled necklace - Obsidian gem on a silver chain (15 gp) and a magical scimitar. Laurel took the necklace and Saladino the scimitar.

5. Minions of Set where fought here before.

6. Cultist guard post. They animated as skeletons when the group approached.

7. Makeshift shrine of Set. A golden coiled serpent is found and taken.

8. This is where the rest of the cultists and Anen was fought, twice.

9. Lava vent. Cultist resting area. Some rations, water.

10. Beach area.

[GM Mad]

Map to the Lake of Bones:

wfg008.jpg (94.73 KiB) Viewed 1754 times

Key areas of the Lake of Bones:

The blue is water and the gray rock formations in the water. The dark brown is the old road that connected the two areas together. The other color is the sand on the beaches.

At the upper left is the beach area from the Caves of Set.

The bottom left is the tributary where the skeleton workers are building the canal. The current flows out of the underground lake in this direction.

Bottom right is the large beach where the barge was being unloaded. This leads into the Bollo's Backdoor dungeon area.

Distance wise, the beach of the Cavern's of Set and Bollo's Backdoor are 600 yards apart to give a sense of scale.

[GM Mad]

Map to Bollo's backdoor:

wfg009.jpg (22.4 KiB) Viewed 1754 times

Not much was seen of this area thus far. The cargo was taken from the barge by the goblins and placed on the beach. During the attack you didn't see anything taking the cargo elsewhere. Just inside the caves, the passageway goes to the left and to the right. Numerous footprints go both ways.

Hit Points:

Some healing was done, but not everyone is back to maximum. The hit points include any level gains from this session.

Anik: 22 of 26
Daubeny: 28 of 32
Flare: 41 of 45
Kendell: 46 of 52
Saladino: 33 of 39

Now what?