OAWYM: Mystic Spiral

Game Date: 4/22/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 26
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Robb (Daniel) - Human Rogue
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Orc Paladin
Xevrick (Graham) - Elf Mystic

The Session:

Today we continued our exploration of a dungeon we found by accident.  We finished a long rest in a small room, and Robb unlocked the next door we found.  It opened into a large room.  There was a shallow creek running across the floor, a throne in one corner, and a troll.  The troll was trying to find a way to reach a hole in the ceiling.  We could see part of a rope which had broken under the troll's weight.

A few sessions ago we had a bad experience with trolls, but this time we only faced one.  We rushed him.  On the troll's turn, he did a large amount of damage to Halfbeard, but we managed to take the troll down in just over one round.

After the battle, we examined the throne.  It looked like it was encrusted with jewels, but they turned out to be colored glass and semi-precious stones.  There were some ashes in the seat.  Val chopped off a piece of the troll and tossed it onto the throne, and it burst into flames.  We decided not to sit in it.

There was another door on the back wall, locked with a complex wheel mechanism.  It wasn't too complex for the party rogue, and we looked into the next room.  It was an octagonal chamber, containing a huge throne and eight connected cylinders.  Seven of the cylinders were broken, but the remaining one held the body of an elf.

We freed the elf, who was still alive but couldn't remember how he got there.  His name was Xevrick, and he spoke to us using telepathy.  We examined the room while Xevrick tried to remember his past.  We learned that the room was designed to harness the power of psionics, and it had something to do with the demon lord Graz'zt.

We decided to leave the dungeon through the hole in the previous room's ceiling.  We used a telekinesis spell and the broken rope to get everybody out.  We made our way to the nearby Elf village.  Once there, Xevrick met up with the village elder/historian, and caught up on some history.  It turned out Xevrick had been put into suspended animation over 6,000 years ago.

While Xevrick took a trip down memory lane, the rest of us traded with the elves and updated our equipment. This village had a lot of uncommon items in stock, and some decent prices to boot.  We'll have to remember to stop back by every once in a while, assuming we ever come back to this island once we complete our sidequest.  We spent about two weeks of downtime in the elf village before we continued our trip. 

We traveled for a few days in miserable rainy weather.  Eventually we saw a sign that said "Wayfarer's Rest", and a bit later on we found an inn.  The owners were a very nice couple, and they went out of their way to make us feel welcome.  Despite their hospitality, we were suspicious.  This was not a well-traveled road; how in the world did they stay in business?  Before we could talk too much about it, we heard howls outside.

Val accompanied the bartender to close the gate.  Shortly thereafter, a traveling bard banged on the gate, and we let him in.  He introduced himself as the Jeffrey the Troubadour, but after we talked for a while we discovered the he was, in fact, Hassan Gold.  To recap - twelve session ago, Dame Gold hired us to find her brother Hassan, and deliver him a potion to cure his lycanthropy.  Failing that, we were to kill him.  We've long since lost that potion, so we knew we were on an assassination mission.

We asked Hassan about his lycanthropy, and he showed us his bite.  However, he claimed he'd managed to keep the disease at bay so far.  Xevrick has the ability to cure diseases, which he promptly used on Hassan.  A bit anti-climactic, but we'd been off the rails for a while so it was nice to actually accomplish something.  Now cured, Hassan started asking us about Dame Gold.  We began to explain that she'd been kidnapped, when the owners attacked us.

The barmaid used some sort of gaze attack, and Hassan cast slow on us.  Note, we're not 100% sure who's on whose side, but we're pretty sure the gaze put Hassan under the barmaid's control, and that's why he's suddenly turned on us.  But we can't take anything for granted.  We ended the session there, ready to roll initiative.