Friday, August 21, 2015

5e WNW: 2 Dead Demi-Gods, a Rabbit, and a Mirror

5e WNW - Session 21 of the weird new world campaign was played on Friday 8/14

The party consisted of the following:
Nessendra, Wood Elf Cleric 5 (Erindale)
Kethra, Human Fighter 5 (Nikki)
Bach, Dragonborn Warlock 5 (Erik - Absent, kindly played by Nadia)
Riia, Human Ranger 5 (Hanna - Absent, kindly played by Allison)
Guy Noir, ½ Elf Rogue 5 (Nadia)
Anya Bowen, Tiefling Ranger 5 (Allison)
Zugun, Coffin-bound Human Priest (NPC)

Taking a very brief moment to catch their breath, the party quickly follows after the spiders. Up to the balcony, through a small door, and down a narrow corridor that leads deeper into the mountain, the party comes to a large stone chamber carved into the mountain. In the center of the chamber stood a wooden coffin supported by a stone plinth. Bach and Guy charged forward, grabbed the lid of of the coffin, and threw it open. Within swarmed hundreds, if not thousands of spiders! Guy changed his mind about punching the vampire in the face, and instead blasted it with a bolt of flame. Bach followed suite with an blast of eldritch energy, and Nessendra with a flash of holy radiance. The rest of the party shuffled into the room. The swarm of spiders burst forth from the open coffin and attempted to envelop Bach, but he quickly leaped back. Anya's magic bow found it's mark, as did another round of blasts, the last of which turned the remaining spiders into a blackened smear on the smooth floor.

Guy rifles through the coffin, finding a twisted and rune covered stone tucked under the pillow. As Guy holds it up, a shimmer passes over the stone's surface, and the runes flow languidly around. Nessendra wraps the stone in her cloak while Guy continues to dig around in the coffin, cutting the lining, ripping the pillow, and even carving into the wood. Meanwhile the rest of the party heads back to the basilica. As Guy continues to carve, the coffin shifts, revealing a hidden compartment embedded in the plinth. He shoves the coffin off with a loud bang, revealing a large mirror, a sack of coins, and a white rabbit in a locked cage.

"Everything ok?" The party yells back to Guy.

"Uh, I had a slight weapons malfunction, but uh... everything's perfectly all right now. I'm fine. We're all fine here now, thank you. How are you?

The party sighs "We're going back to see what he's up to."

Guy panics and stuffs the heavy jingling bag of coins in his backpack. "Uh, uh... negative, negative. I had a reactor leak here now. Give me a few minutes to lock it down. Large leak, very dangerous." he yells back.

The party shows up as Guy guiltily turns to face them "I found a rabbit!" He points into the hidden compartment.

At this point the rabbit introduced himself as Jack, and asked to be freed to he could go home. No one thought this was a good idea. Guy wanted to keep him as a pet. Most of the rest of the party just wanted to leave him behind. Jack pointed out that he was stuck in a cage full of his own shit, without food or water. Further questioning revealed that the rabbit worked for a queen, who's name he declined to provide, and that he was spying on the vampire and got caught, and that he isn't native to this plane, but from a realm that seemed to correspond with the Feywild. The party put off the decision, and Guy tied the cage and mirror to his pack, and headed out of the vampire's lair.

Given the poor state of the party, they made their way back toward the holy shrine to camp, but when Nessendra cracked open the door to the antechamber and found it full of gargoyles playing "Don't Blink" so she quietly closed the door. Having had enough of the citadel, they made their way carefully back down into the dungeon, through Zugun's chamber and back out onto the side of the mountain. There they made camp. The hours of darkness passed uneventfully, but as the sun crested the horizon Nessendra spotted a serpentine dragon with large yellow eyes further down the mountain heading northward. Even from as far away as they were, she could hear... something. Thwacking Kethra, who was also on watch to see if she'd seen it too, Nessendra discovered that Keth had fallen asleep!

Over breakfast the party decided to try to use the stone on Affleck. so back into the castle they went. Finding the tower was less of a chore than they'd expected, and his stony form was right where it was supposed to be, gaping chest and all. Most of the party stayed in the stairwell, while Nessendra walked behind Affleck and tapped him with the stone. Instantly his form reverted to flesh and he stumbled a step forward, looked down, touched the hole and said "But I'm a fucking demon god!" before falling face down. Bach checked the body for loot, but came up empty handed. So he took some of his feathers.

Taking a breather, the party went back out onto the walkway over the waterfall to discuss their next steps. Zugun pressed for getting to the ritual site as quickly as possible. Jack again pleaded to be freed, and offered to take them all with him through the mirror, reminding everyone that distance is different in the Feywild, and that he can drop them off deeper into the Shudder Mountains. Zugun admits he knows little of the Feywild, but thinks that it might work... if Jack can be trusted. The party agrees, and unlocks Jacks cage. He instructs them to set the mirror against the wall, and then tells them to go through. Nessendra (the elf) went first, and Guy took the rear, bringing Jack with him.

They found themselves standing on a familiar looking mountain, looking down into a familiar looking river valley... Instead of a citadel over a waterfall, a large wooden cabin next to a stream. Also, the land seemed to be divided into some sort of grid pattern, with each block a different height from the surrounding blocks. Jack hopped out of Guy's arms and called the party to follow him. A couple of hours later Jack stopped suddenly and flattened himself, shaking in terror. Down the mountain was the same yellow-eyed dragon, or as Jack named it 'Jabberwocky'!

Grabbing Jack, they ran as far and as fast as they could... and came upon a group of 5 figures standing 15' tall on needle like stilts! Stilts that protruded from the bloody stumps of their legs! Jack again squirmed from Guy's grip and ran toward the figures yelling "HELP!! HELP!!" They turned their bloodstained mouths toward the party and moved with shocking agility toward them. The stilt-walker vampires seemed excessively hungry, but failed to get a single drop to drink. Guy spent the entire fight scurrying after Jack, and caught him after the last of the vampires fell.

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