Shadowdark #16: 'The End! ... for now?'

Realising that Lord Trum is in fact a wily and powerful Rakshasha, and he has some sort of means of teleporting betwixt the castle and the caves of chaos, and that he is in fact responsible for all the trouble with moonstone production, AND that he is responsible for the bloodline that created Dagmara the Sorceress, whose blood will aid him in planar travelling across the multiverse, ...the characters should probably run away bravely...instead, they stay and fight.

Our heroes...

 Lady Maureen - Dagmara's mother, and the old yet 'sprightly' Priest - Byden, will accompany them...they being the only remnants of the old adventuring group that originally explored the vile caverns years before...losing the fighter Devlin AND,  not realising that Lord Trum had been transformed into something far less than human. 

'I used to worrrrrk forrrrr Morrrdorrrr'

 Dropping in on the now quiet cave complex via Jeralt's Griffin, they enter the top most rear cave...immediately encountering a Wraith in the caverns.

Wraith in the web spell...winks out and then attacks again

 This of course, is the undead remnants of the fighter - Devlin, previously a member of Lady Maureen's adventuring party...after some dodgy moments, he grants them a clue to the next 'trapped' room, which the characters eventually get after losing a whole batch 'o' hit points.

 

'yea though i expire....a clue I shalt give theee...or you could just ignore it like...'

'there must be a pattern..wait..FIREBALL...INCOMING!'

 Then, the final conflict...as they enter Lord Trum's...otherwise known as 'Crasus the Rakshasha's' - throne room, clearly part of some ancient spaceship, with which he either escaped, or was exiled from, the Tabaxi realm of Drymoon by the children of Duke Leto...or...has that even happened yet?...(all makes total sense to me).

'CHARRRRGE!'

 

'I'll just hang about behind this handy pillar, shall I?'

The Rakshasha - Crassus...has time to summon a demon, but is engaged by the fighters, before he can summon any more (he has a whole selection), fighting a defensive battle at his throne dais, as the characters force him to roll disadvantageously behind the now erected 'Mountainholme' magical shield wall...of course, his prescient mind-reading ability means the fighters have to do the same, when rolling against him.

Mountainholme in action pose...

 Casting out an energy ball, he manages to summon one demon before he is engulfed in combat - though this one - Balor himself..will prove to be a tough opponent.

'He seems friendly...'

  

The Sorceresses dally with the creature, trying to convince him to break the deal he has ...as Crassus screams (meows) 'BRING ME DAGMARA!' ...and the demon nods as a pact is made. Spells go off, one after the other .many failing...and many fumbling - it is just not the Sorceresses' day!

Spell effects..when they work...

Balor manages to rope in Dagmara, but she blinks out with Misty step, much to the Balrog's annoyance...

awww...he was really niiice

The growing Owlbears that Dagmara had adopted also attack (clearly now with magical improvements to attacks...uh..ahem...that enables them to tackle 'Balor the Balrog')... Biden too tries to both heal and take down the Balrog, where he can...

Balor destroys ALL in his wake...so far...

The Sorceresses conjure up a plan to become invisible and move behind Crasus, with Dagmara eventually finding her way into the hidden control room behind him, realising that breaking Balor's pact will not work...Maureen moves up, planning to use her 4th level spell on Crasus (as lower levels will not work on the Rakshasha)...casting 'Cloudkill' AND...it fails... She immediately uses her 'pearl of power' to regain the spell, the characters move out of the way ...AND...it fails again GAHHH!

'It's behiiiind you!'

Meanwhile,  Balor kills the Owlbears, and poor old Byden the Priest...then the demon flies toward the characters at the throne..who are CLOSE..very close... to killing Crasus himself.

Taking on Balor the Balrog...

Spying Dagmara, and still under pact, Balor moves to the rear control chamber to grab her again..and is deceived by her mirror image spell, grasping an illusion..and screaming his defiance! 

By now, Crasus has been worn down, and a triumphant Leeta the hobbit, slowly being turned into a dwarf by Mountainholme (a Dwobbit?, a Hwarf?...a Dwarbit?), leaps forward with the 'blessed magical crossbow bolt of doom' - the only thing that will kill a Rakshasha..and stabs him between the eyes - GREAT SUCCESS! ...except, now...the vile Balor is released from his pact with Crasus, and turns upon the characters. 

Bjorn Down!!! Bjorn Down!!!

Bjorn goes down in a flurry of horrible blows from the Demon Lord...just as Leeta, picks up his dropped magical Elven blade herself and rushes the huge beast....taking him down with a heroic CRITICAL...rolling for triple damage! WOW..what and end to the campaign... as Leeta the 'Dwobbit' saves the day!!!

Saved by the Dwobbit

Bjorn is revived, and our heroes have won the day...

Reasoning that the room was filled with portals to the other planes, which a sacrificed Dagmara's blood would have used to activate, and thus allow Crasus to escape...the party opts to destroy the whole place and (hopefully) end any future attempts to kidnap Dagmara...all's well that ends well...for now... 

 

  

Leeta the Brave

 

Lady Maureen goes on to become Castellan of the citadel now that Trum/Crasus is gone... 

Leeta the 'Dwobbit'...becomes her top bodyguard

Dagmara the Wise

 

Dagmara the Sorceress inherits her mother's Witchy-Woo Tower

Jeralt the Holy

Jeralt the Paladin takes over the church of Saint Terraginis in the citadel, succeeding his dead Mentor, Byden...

Bjorn the Mighty

Bjorn is promoted to 'Captain of the Guard' in the citadel

 But, it is rare in this world that heroes such as these, the only survivors of the 12 characters that started the campaign, are allowed to rest for long... 

  

Balor goes on to open a sandwich shop in Norwich, identifying as a cat called 'Bob'.

 

 

 

Shadowdark #15: 'It's a TWAP!'

 The characters resolve to return to the caves, though of course they now have new found information regarding Dagmara, the half orc wizard's parentage...stunning revelations; so much so that in fury, she returns the group to the caves in search of the apparently kidnapped babies...which of course is a ruse of devious nature.

'I hope this thing can fly?'

 They find tracks left by the kidnappers into a green mist filled cave...and discover that finding the clues is waaaay too easy.

'Wait...this seems far easier than...AHHHHHH!'

Entering a second entrance into the bandit lair instead, the bandits are reluctant to engage (after losing most of their number during the last encounter), but...they have a cunning plan (my lord). As the characters pursue the fleeing bandits, bags of 'anti-magical moonstone' cascade from the sides of the high chamber, stunning them and exploding amongst the magic users. Though they fight their way through, Dagmara is kidnapped and taken to the entrance, where harpies take her to the green mist cave, evading the descent of the party's 'Attack Griffin'.

 

Dagmara kidnapped by level 2 Bandit NPC morons! I mean...the embarrassment of it all...

With little choice now, the party rush inside the mist cave, discovering quickly that it is a maze and (DC15) checks must be made to stay together, which they invariably fail, except for Lyall the cleric, who dutifully finds the kidnapped Dagmara in the Harpy's lair (finding an ancient corpse on the floor, and a captured Dagmara in the nest above).

 His frantic Elven cries of 'HELP' reach the other characters, but they simply can not find him...though Fighter Bjorn finds a magical crossbow bolt of some nature in one of the rooms. The Harpies descend on the sole cleric, killing him in a few rounds., despite Leeta finding him, but being unable to save him.....when Bjorn and Jeralt reach the chamber and start to wreak vengeance on the winged hags.

Arriving home to discover that no one has emptied the dishwasher...AGAIN!

 In her vain attempt to escape, the bound Dagmara does find a secret entrance...apparently to the larger 'boss' cavern which has not been explored yet...and notes it for future reference.

Sadly, the characters regroup, and carry their once proud Spinal Tap drummer...I mean cleric, from the field of battle (cue music).

Death in the Harpy maze...

 Returning to the castle...there are things to discuss with Lady Maureen when they return her wand, whose big reveal as Dagmara's mother, makes many of the previous situations clear:

'I mean there is a chance, that I uhh, might not have exactly, precisely, told you everything?'

 

• 20 years previously, Dagmara, Trum, Byden the cleric and a fighter called Devlin (whose remains the party found in the Harpy nest), explored the caverns at various times. 
• Maureen found herself captured by White-Eye, escaping months later, and giving birth to her daughter in Boderfell (Borderfell...the Stroke City).
• She then headed north, leaving her daughter in the hands of the Boderfell/Borderfell rebels (who are really nice, honest)
• She returned here years later, in disguise, to wreak vengeance, find her daughter, or to determine exactly what was going on... 
• Trum had disappeared at one stage during the exploration - when returning to the party, he seemed 'different'.
• Clearly he, or his minion White-Eye, want Dagmara...Maureen believes that she is some sort of 'blood key', perhaps a blood sacrifice...that enables whoever is running the whole thing to escape somewhere...
• Maureen has also been passed 'moonstone' as a medicine but she realises now, that it is to dampen her magic. It came from Byden, who is clearly in the thrall of Trum too.
• When the characters tell of their 'eye of true seeing' magic item, and having seen Trum as some sort of Tabaxi/Cat person, behind his illusory human facade..Maureen gasps, grabs her ancient (1st ed no less) Monster Manual...and hisses 'Rakshasha...he is a Rakshasa! The real Trum is long dead then!' She shakes her head and sighs. 'This won't be easy.' 

Lord Trum...chillin'...with cheap fez that he bought from e bay, and pipe...

 

But what, gentle reader, is his devious plan...tune in next time... 

 

Cathulhu #2, 'I am here for the cemetery, not your weird shenannigans!'

Having been overheard by Lena...the cat of Paulie Pavlov, Whiskey and Fitz's discussion over the origins of the strange 'cat killer' are discussed by the new trio of investigator cats.

The gang - Whiskey, Fitz & Lena

 They resolve to investigate the last murder site, taking some milk at Fitz's hangout at Keenan's Laundry on East College Street. 

They look at the map in Brock's office, and mewl as they point to the sites of the four previous murders... Lena had also heard of some earlier cat murders in the cemetery to the south (one of her hangouts as she lives in the south east of the city with Paulie's family). She would like to return home of course, especially with a 'cat killer' on the streets, and persuades her two new friends to investigate in that direction. 

After a binned chicken dinner in Powder Mill Street, with a local cat called Maddox, he tells them of a house close to the cemetery, where the cellar was recently 'bricked up', removing it as one of Maddox's warm areas to sleep at night. Strange, unearthly sulphurous smells also emanated from the property at all hours. Mostly Irish immigrants live in this quarter, but there was a section of older richer houses on a large lot.

By mid afternoon, the party resolve to check the place out, finding a run down, though once expensive house. Fitz, whose speciality is opening doors, sneaks to the front. Finding it locked, he sneaks around the back and manages to enter via the kitchen, with Whiskey and Lena in tow.

 Their attention to the filth in the place is disturbed by a distinct banging from the basement, as if, something is trying to get out...present also is the voice of a man from below. 

They check out the living room and study, finding occult paraphernalia and messy 'insane' human notes. As they continue to search, they hear human 'can opener' footsteps coming up the stairs from the basement.Whiskey races to hide under the table, while Fitz heads for the chair...Lena heading for the fireplace, hoping to make her way out through the chimney...which turns to disaster, as she not only slips, but gets covered with inky black soot on the way down, convincing the approaching human...that she too is a black cat, and thereby, a target 'Here, kitty kitty!'

Terrified, the cats race from the room, though Lena is caught and dragged down the stairs to the basement...the next victim for the Black Cat Murderer?...the 'thing' that is making all the banging downstairs.

the 'horrible laboratory'

Fitz and Whiskey race to the bottom of the stairs, finding the basement and the horrific laboratory...where a door separates the 'thing' from the outside world. Whiskey tries to save Lena from the grasp of her human captor...whilst Lena herself manages to scratch and rip her way free, bolting up the stairs once more.

 

The cat that does not look like a D4, really...(well they have to useful for something)...

Fitz, bravely opens the door to the laundry room in the basement, revealing the horrific 'Cat from Saturn' which the human Montague has managed to summon from the Dreamlands and do his bidding, and help with his magical attempts to find eternal life and summon more cat demons, with the hearts of the black cats. With a lollop and a thrash, the thing tries to kill Fitz, who dodges and runs back up after his friends. 

 

the 'Cat from Saturn', and it hasn't had dinner yet...

Chased by Montague and the thing, the heroes race upstairs to the bedroom, with Lena and Fitz jumping onto the wardrobe.

Montague goes for a pistol in his drawer, whilst Whiskey races for the door...the cat thing lolloping toward the rickety wardrobe. Both cats pushing against the wall, they manage to bring the poorly balanced, heavy oak furniture down upon the cat-thing, hearing at least one bone break, but doing LOTS of damage, as they race for the kitchen downstairs...and the exit. Montague fires a shot from his revolver, but misses.

The old 'let's bring the wardrobe crashing down upon its alien head' trick.

They regroup back at Paulie Pavlov's house, where his young daughter feeds all the kitties some well deserved milk. Finally working out that the cat thing only comes out at night, they resolve to lay an ambush.

As expected, the the alien thing emerges for the night's hunt, though with one leg broken, and with a heavily wounded body. Clearly Montague could not repair it. Our heroes resolve to lead it to college street, where the traffic is heavy enough to cause an incident...taking it in turns to lead the thing in a merry chase for vengeance, they ultimately, in the darkness, manage to find an appropriate car, with a driver who could use better eye-glasses.

The cat thing misses one attack, as the heroes dodge effectively, and it is blinded by headlights from a driver who didn't even know it was there and ...SPLAT! Game over man! Game over!

That time when you realise that AI has absolutely no idea what you are asking for ...

 Breathing a sigh of relief, and with the thing's head not altogether attached properly, they retrieve their grisly trophy to return to Ricardo's gang...as proof of mission. Ricardo is grateful, having his gang feed on what is left of the 'thing' , and gives the party more catnip...informing them that his gang will take care of the 'can-opener' that had held the cat-killer.

'I mean this book is great and all, but where the heck did Kitty go???'

Returning to Lady 'Madame' with the Catnip, she is impressed (having never sampled it before) and hopelessly addicted.

Laughing at their triumph, the cats return to their homes, with Fitz returning to the Professor's home, near the University... a letter from London, an invitation to a lecture, has arrived... 

   TO BE CONTINUED ... in 'Horror on the Orient Express' (with added cat) 

  

Call of Cthulhu. Episode #28 ...'It's just an ancient journal ...what could possibly go wrong?'

 As Dagon, recently summoned and needing fed (and not at full HP), closes with the heroes at the entrance to its realm, ShanTryan casts invisibility (the power of not being seen) and scooches past the monstrosity toward the Black Sword near the sacrificial victim...Sensing her intent, Belphegor moves a little faster and grabs it, dropping spear and shield, preferring to lift the mythical 'soul sucking blade of Mu' (not TM since I nicked it from Stormbringer)...and ambushes Dagon from behind managing to do 23 points of damage to the developing demi-god creature  (and staring with wide eyes and slobbering mouth at what the blade can do! ...)

Septimus acts 'all defensive like' as Belphegor and.ShanTryan...race to grab the sword

 In a bid to sow confusion (since she may be playing both sides off against each other...see below...), ShanTryan, keen to shake herself from the yoke of Mu'an slavery, befuddles Septimus and makes a break for it, once more casting invisibility and racing for the entrance.

'AHA! it's MINE!'

 There she encounters a short priest (i.e. vertically challenged) - the 'Tangata Manu' in a boat powered by wind spirits, who is keen to rescue the whole party, but opts just to take the Atlantean slave since she has a dagger at his throat by the time she boards. As he sails off, surrounded by his giant ravens, Belphegor and Septimus look on, and try to find the rope they climbed down on...the half dead Kall tells them he will stay and sacrifice himself so that they can get away, as the caves become engulfed with deep ones... his dying screams echo as they reach the cliff top. The (taller) priest that brought them here, has died of his wounds, and they resolve to wreak vengeance on the treacherous ShanTryan...just as soon as Septimus's befuddle wears off. They start to make their way across the island toward the main temple complex, dodgin Deep One patrols. 

The short priest - definitely not a DungeonMaster

 Meanwhile, ShanTryan has been taken in by the old priest and fed and watered. He needs a favour, and not in a good way... 

Apparently easy to dodge...

Since she owes him, he asks that she rescues 'Eye of Maurak of the three aspects' (his POW crystal) from the nearby island (which used to be a peak before the fragments hit)...and donates his 'mask of water breathing' to aid her. She swims across, once more invisible and rescues it for him as well as the Arc of Vlactos which is amongst his old belongings, with the map and its inscription:

'That is not dead which can eternal lie and in strange aeons, even death may die

Your ancestors are not your ancestors; your descendants are not your descendants

Remember to forget, that you, are you...' 

Who is the real evil after all?

 The Tangata Manu is saddened that he must go alone and destroy the fragments of whatever is left in the main temple, and so asks if she will do i?, destroying any means of resurrecting the dark god Ktulu and ways of bringing him back to Earth...since, he fears, that is what the priests of Mu had been up to, rather than worshipping the proper goddess...It all makes a certain kind of sense to ShanTryan, and fits neatly in with her plan.

Poor Kall...sacrifices himself

She agrees, asking for the rescued 'eye' in return, which he gives her with a few spells and POW in it. She also has more on her mind than helping out...since in her days in Atlantis, she had determined that Ktulu might actually be a power for 'good' (honest) - her own good that is, and, after her years in Mu'an slavery, the last thing she wants to do is help humanity, whatever is left of it. He also warns her about the 'thing with a thousand faces'.

Poor Belphegor, a force of good?

 As she arrives at the remains of the temple, Septimus and Belphegor see her from the cliffs, and resolve to set a trap at the entrance.With the help of the priest's ravens however, she realises that something is wrong, and asks the giant birds to attack the men at the temple archway before 'scooching' past in the confusion with her wee dodge.

Poor Septimus...befuddled,,,

The men follow her, succeeding in tracking her wet footprints ...toward the main temple area, where a freshly (relatively) carved statue to Cthulhu resides...damage done during the impacts has rendered the functionality of the chamber somewhat however - a spell to bring Cthulhu back via R'lyeh on one wall, and a partially obscured spell on how to banish him on another, The deep ones are trying, without success, to destroy this one...

The ambush that might have been...

The partial misalignment of the corner statues means that the spell to banish is not clear, though ShanTryan learns the summoning spell which 'is' clear (the bad one) as much as she can, discovering the disk...AND a nearby Shoggoth, which emerges into the chamber. She uses mindspeech from the 'eye' sending the Deep Ones toward her former master and the Shoggoth slowly follows . Bypassing the shoggoth, and ascending the stairs to freedom, she escapes both the island and her former master with both disk and Arc, surmising that the Shoggoth fears the black sword...and recording same...

The Shoggoth, after 8 pints...

 Belphegor and Septimus similarly, leave the island to its fate after seeing the Shoggoth, though Belphegor too realises that it fears the sword...

'Uhhh is that a statue? It's a statue right?'

CHECKLIST for what might have been...

• Realising that the Shoggoth fears the Black Sword, the characters might have destroyed it. 

• Realising that the alignment of the statues enables the 'good' spell to be revealed, the heroes could have re-set it.   

Shoggoth TIME! ShanTryan escapes with the Disk and the Arc, and the 'heroes' escape with the Sword of Mu...Crisis Averted! until uhh 1925

 Now both will most likely have to be done 12,000 years later. Oh well. Shoulda, coulda, woulda... 

Although, facts from earlier episodes remain pertinent; Henry Hancock came to Easter Island to find the blade of Belphegor... 

...and of course, the journal is signed, by 'ShanTryan, a Free Atlantean'...who shall be reborn, again, and again... 

...and again.