OAWYM: The Great Escape

Game Date: 6/10/2017
Location: The Game Keep
Campaign: OAWYM, Session 31
Module: Scourge of the Slave Lords
System: D&D 5e
DM: Rusty

The Party:
Byzun (Gary) - Human Sorcerer
Halfbeard (Cliff) - Dwarf Fighter
Karzen (Daniel) - Eladrin Artificer
Val Ravensword (Matt) - Half-Orc Paladin

The Session:
The entire party has been captured, tortured to death, raised, and tortured some more.  We spent days, maybe weeks, in separate cells, knowing nothing but pain. Time lost all meaning while the slavers broke us over and over.  Finally we heard one of the commanders say, "The Earth Dragon has awoken."  We blacked out and woke up in a cave, together again for the first time in a while.

There were hallways in all four directions.  Every once in a while the floor would rumble.  We were each at one hit point, clad in nothing but loincloths.  We had no spells prepared, as we would have used them up while resisting torture, and our captors never let us sleep more than three hours at a time.  We're all under the effects of an "Ordeal" from having been tortured and raised, so we have -4 to most of our d20 rolls until we get a few long rests in.

We found a scroll tube on the ground.  Inside there was a note telling us to seek out the Water Dragon.  There were also a few spell scrolls inside.  We took a short rest to spend a few hit dice, and looked for something to use as weapons.  Halfbeard found a few rocks, and took off his loincloth to use as a sling.  And that image is now burned into my mind forever.

You're welcome.

The four tunnels were pretty much identical, but we saw a bit of light in one direction, so we headed that way.  While walking down the tunnel, we were attacked by a sandling - basically a sand elemental.  We tried to run past it, but encountered a will-o-the-wisp.  Both creatures would have been easy under normal circumstances, but without armor or weapons not so much.

We ran back in the direction of the first chamber, while the sandling and wisp fought each other.  The enemies did not follow us.  Then we picked a different tunnel.  We found a pool of crystal clear water.  It did not detect as magical, and we each drank some.  It was the best thing we'd had in days.  Halfbeard dove in and caught some fish and clams, and we ate well for the first time since being captured.

It looked like there was a larger underwater cavern behind the pool, so Val dove in and got attacked by a giant crayfish.  The party helped her out, with Byzun delivering the killing blow.  We found that crayfish is good eatin'.  We also found some sharp seashells that could be used like daggers.

Next we came to a room full of large mushrooms and fire beetles.  We tried running past them to the next hall, but a fight was inevitable.  We made short work of them and moved on.  We managed to use material from the giant mushrooms and beetles to make clubs and shields.

In the next hallway, we fought a roper.  Luckily it was much smaller and easier than the ones we encountered a few sessions ago.  After Halfbeard killed it, he found some valuable gems in its gullet, one worth about 5,000 gp.  Now that Halfbeard had a club, he no longer needed a sling, so he... (Val: "Please put the loincloth back on, please put the loincloth back on, please put the loincloth back on") ...fashioned his loincloth into a bag to hold the gems.  ("Dammit.")  Then he tied the bag into his beard so he could keep his hands free.

After a few more tunnels, we saw a way out.  There was a large cavern full of bats, with an exit at the opposite end.  Unfortunately, there was a 20-foot wide pit between us and the cavern.  Byzun cast light on a rock and dropped it to check the depth, and found it was hundreds of feet deep.  We used one of the scrolls we'd found earlier to cast Spider Climb on Val, and had her climb around the pit.  Then we used some rope made of roper tentacles to help the rest of the party across.

...at least, we tried to.  As Karzen made his way across the rope, he failed his athletics check, badly.  He fell, but was quickly caught by a sticky line from another direction.  He was snagged by a cave fisher, basically a web-spitting scorpion.  The fisher pulled Karzen into an alcove up above us, and attacked him.  Byzun threw a few cantrips at it and Val tried throwing a rock.  Halfbeard used a goading attack on the fisher, causing it to climb down and target him instead.  The dwarf then quickly finished off the cave fisher and knocked its body into the pit.

Once we all made it across the ravine, we looked for more cave fisher alcoves.  There was one on our our side of the pit.  Val was still under the effects of Spider Climb, and Karzun convinced her to climb up and check it out.  She peeked into the lair, and got hit in the face with a fisher attack, taking her down to four hit points.  She climbed back down, healed herself a little, and we went out the exit.

We came out in the forest.  We knew about where we were, having crossed this island last session.  From here we could get to the compound, the shantytown, the keep, the docks, etc.  However, there was a lot going on.  Apparently the volcano had recently erupted.  We could see a lot of fire and smoke in one distance, an injured drake in another, and a fog of yellow vapor over the compound.

We walked around the vapor and into the shantytown, where the slaves were overthrowing their slavers.  The slaves told us that the keep was destroyed and the slave lords were trying to leave.  They pointed out where we could find Dame Gold, and helped us equip ourselves with armor and swords from some guards they'd killed.

Now dressed in guard armor, we went around a corner and were almost attacked by another group of slaves.  One of them recognized Val; it was someone she'd danced with at Dame Gold's party more than fifteen sessions ago.  The slaves gave us more information, as well as a few spell scrolls which we used to heal up the party a little.

At the docks in the distance, we saw one ship carved like a dragon, which we are hoping is the "Water Dragon" we were told to seek earlier.  We ended the session there.  We're considering heading back to the keep to get our lost items, and/or pursuing the surviving slave lords.  Either way, there's a good chance we'll finish up this module next session.

Reminder: Next week is Free RPG day, so our normal campaign will resume on 6/24.