Session 103 - Sometimes Having No Plan CAN Work!
22nd June 2025
In-game timeline: Start of session: 1490DR Mirtul 17. End of session: 1490DR Mirtul 17
Our "Heroes" are finding out more about the rumoured Guardian, or "The Watcher" as others call her, and her apparent descent into madness. Which is a little worrying.
So, worried, they decide to faff about a bit more, making sure that any last remnant of surprise they may have over any residents in this spooky "temple to a Beholder" is well and truly gone.
They spend time hacking off arms from things they killed recently.
They throw an arm onto painted glyphs in a strange form of Hop-Scotch, to no obvious effect.
They throw another arm onto a floor of thick slime and are surprised when it seems to be carried in the same direction the slime is moving - i.e. towards a hole in the floor.
They throw a third decapitated arm into a pool of water.
They use Pacino to investigate the hole in the floor, discover it is a likely trap, and spend quite a long time trying to work out how they can actually safely descend into this trap, for no discernible reason whatsoever.
All of this done without trying to be quick, or quiet, or without a care. If any group deserved a Darwin Award, it is this one.
Eventually, just in case there may be a creature somewhere nearby who is so blind, deaf and stupid to not yet be aware of their presence, Karoshi decides to throw a lighted torch onto the slime, without testing its flammability first, and all are shocked when the entire floor bursts into flames. Derrick, who is in the process of "abseiling" down the floor on a rope - still for some reason trying to enter an obvious trap - is surrounded by flames. He is somewhat resistant, but the rope isn't, and as he quickly retreats back he glares at Karoshi.
Having done everything bar ringing a loud bell to announce their presence, the party finally decide to press on, trying at this point to stealth, laughably, and they discover a recently deserted "kitchen" of sorts. They also uncover the source of the slime which seems to be harvested from slug-like creatures.
They also discover another route down to the base of the trap, which seems to finally satisfy their desire to enter the trap, though they find nothing of any use there, unsurprisingly.
They make their way upstairs - after making significantly more noise dragging and dropping a large, heavy, stone bench on the burning slime, to save themselves taking about 2hp worth of damage.
Then they run up the stairs.
No one other than they are surprised when they immediately encounter hostility at the top of the stairs. Derrick slips on some strategically placed slime at the top of the stairs and is quickly set upon by more of the same creatures they have met previously. He takes a fair beating, as do Iwee and Jaxii who come quickly behind. They are saved from a likely quick death by a successful Slow spell from Iwee which limits the danger of a few of these creatures, and the use of more torches to bathe the area in bright light, albeit also igniting the slime at the top of the stairs.
Brawn seems to win out over brains when the fighters of the group manage to withstand much of the battering they are getting, and they slowly begin to take down the creatures with their few remaining abilities, and their very capable fighting skills. Unfortunately, as quickly as one creature falls, as it seems to be replaced by another - it is almost as if all the creatures in this place have had ample time to work out how to defeat these intruders. Still, our "Heroes" have somehow attained enough skills and resilience that perhaps they can withstand this onslaught for a while. But they are making zero progress towards finding Yegmir's Arm at this point.
Things get decidedly worse for them when The Guardian appears at the other end of the room, descending ominously from a hole in the ceiling to scream mad rantings about people come to steal "Her Baby" and firing off a random lightning bolt, fire ray or telekinetic beam.
Luckily for our "Heroes", The Guardian seems unbothered about who she hits with these bolts and, although she brings many of the party perilously close to death with her powerful weapons, she also clears away some of her own creatures in the process. She also, luckily, seems to not want to hang around and is happy just to appear every so often and randomly fire off a weapon. Her madness at this point is likely the party's saving grace.
Despite this fortune, it still takes our "Heroes" a while to work out that staying together is not a great idea, and nor is waiting around to be shot. Eventually they work out that perhaps it would be a good idea for someone to go invisible, using one of their few remaining abilities to do so, and try to find the arm, whilst the others keep the creatures, and The Guardian, occupied.
At least that seemed to be the initial, somewhat sensible, plan. It turns out that this was not really the plan at all. Derrick decides that he is the best person to go invisible and head into the darkness in search of the relic. Derrick has no darkvision, and carrying a torch would somehow be a bit of a giveaway as to his invisible state. He wanders into darkness and falls over a step, clattering noisily to the ground.
The others, deciding that providing a useful distraction would not be good use of their time, and sticking religiously to the mantra of "don't split the party!", attempt to follow Derrick, with Iwee and Karoshi managing to also go invisible, leaving poor Jaxii the only obvious target in the room for The Guardian's wrath. Still, with her being the most healthy, and being resistant to most damage and having access to multiple health potions that she refuses to ever drink, at least she is probably the best placed to survive these attacks.
She is hit again - this time by teleported rocks. The barbarian is getting battered and bruised. Her ominous predictions that "We're Doomed!" seem to be coming true - albeit she started saying this after having taken a single hp of damage from a small candle flame, or similar.
Meanwhile Derrick has recovered from falling over a step in the darkness and managed to crawl up the stairs and find some light. This light illuminates a strange sight - a golden tree seemingly flourishing underground! Unfortunately, opposite this tree, albeit locked in its own cage, is a young black dragon.
This is only unfortunate because Derrick is easily distracted, not because the black dragon posed any danger at this point. Derrick was invisible and the dragon showed no sign of being aware of Derrick's presence. But still the fighter paused, played with the lock on the cage of the dragon, read the signs next to the dragon, and considered talking to, or even releasing the dragon from its cage. All whilst his companions were being battered by creatures and eye-beams in the nearby room.
Eventually the fickle Derrick decides to abandon the dragon and to focus on the tree. He is able to reach into a hole in the base of the trunk of the tree and extract a thick branch from this hole. As he does so, the tree seems to start losing its leaves - slowly, but noticeably. He hopes that the branch he has recovered is Yegmir's Arm and starts to return to the others, still invisible.
When The Guardian appears again, Jaxii panics. She is not used to being so low on health, and the sight of an aggressive, mad, and powerful Eye is too much for her. She clams up. Iwee, being the brains of the group - admittedly a very low bar - reacts quickly and manages to throw her voice to make it sound like Jaxii is speaking, rather than to give away her own, invisible, location. She tries to persuade The Guardian that they are here to help protect Her Baby from bad forces. This initially doesn't work, but Iwee perseveres, and eventually, using all her powers of persuasion, as well as drawing upon any bit of inspiration left in the entire party, she manages to convince The Guardian that Jaxii is sent by Dris, is on her side, and that there are bad forces outside who threaten The Guardian and Her Baby.
Despite being a VERY long shot, it works! The Guardian tells Jaxii to go and deal with the bad men outside and Jaxii, relieved to not be at the receiving end of another eye-ray, heads out of the room - the creatures letting her pass as the order came from The Guardian herself. At least one creature does follow her to make sure she really does leave.
Meanwhile Karoshi and Iwee, still invisible, have made their way to the cages. In an inevitable clash of Marx Brothers slapstick (though, to be fair, the Marx Brothers would probably have actually had a better plan), the two sets of invisible "Heroes" run into each other and clatter to the ground in a pile of loud armour.
The dragon, who is not stupid, hears the clamour and reactively fires its acid breath weapon in their general direction. Only the fact that they are on the floor, invisible, and within the aura of Karoshi's protection, save them from the full force of very dangerous acidic projectile vomit and the three of them manage, just, to survive the blast. They decide that it is probably best to get out as quickly as they can, figuring that The Guardian's belief that they are on her side may not last very long due to her madness, and the fact that they were "sneaking" invisibly around Her Baby - which they think is most likely the dragon rather than the tree.
They quickly leave and catch up with Jaxii, who is contemplating spending an hour and a half bathing in the hot tub before leaving, but thinks better of it when she spots the eyes of the dark creature watching her from the ceiling above. They do stop to briefly smear the branch with Jaxii's blood, copious amounts of which are still running down her arm after the battle, within the "magic rune room", but this seems to have no effect of waking Yegmir's Arm. The creature still watches Jaxii (the others remain invisible) with curious, or possibly incredulous, eyes.
They all quickly get out of the cave system, battered, bruised and exhausted. It is the early hours of the morning and they can see Neverember's camp is starting to stir and prepare for something to happen that morning. They quickly check that the branch that Derrick obtained really is Yegmir's Arm - passing it between them to see what effect it has. Iwee and Jaxii are sure it is the Real Deal. <<details to follow, individually sent>>
Our "Heroes" retreat away from the camp and set up their Tiny Hut to rest and recuperate, which they hope they can do without interruption, though we will see. They prepare to bed down for a long rest, as the sun starts to rise…