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| That's a big cavern alright! |
Timekeeping
This session began on June 5th, 2025, with the player characters adventuring until the end of the day. Downtime for these characters begins the next day.
Player Characters Present
Giuseppe (Level 8 Paladin of Rome, Brovenloft, wielder of the Dragonslayer and the Shield of Protection from Missiles, rider of Bonecrusher) with henchmen Bishoy and Tawadros (F6) and Rhoikos (M4)Thomas (Level 5 Cleric of Machodor, henchman of Sever the Wrathful) with henchmen Poindexter (M5) and Paul (P3)Deadeye Donny (Level 5 Monk of Machodor, wielder of the Lancespear+2)Lucky O'Brien (Mysterious Level 1 halfling thief, showed up out of nowhere)
Downtime
Session Report
Encounter #1: Zerathiel the Shedu
"Linger not in these halls, lest you encounter worse than shedu."
Rounds: 2 surprise segments.
Result: Parlay
Highlights: The other planar creature knew much that he was willing to share, but was the DM ready to share it? The inchoate abduction was locked away in my head, suddenly now was as good a time as any to share it. As it happened, the shedu's manner of speaking meant his words were hard to follow in any case. He warned them that they stood in the Cavern of Ithaqua, the Wind Walker, a primal force of cold and madness as well as servant of he-who-must-not-be-named. The cavern was a place where the barriers between the planes were weak, easing the way of travel for powerful beings such as himself.
During most of this he was showing more interest in the sculptured pillar than the party. Then he noted that Giuseppe was holding the Fabled Ice Jewel of Frigia (Gurt being unavailable, he had relinquished it for the moment), and suddenly he was much more interested. He told them that the nation of Frigia lay many miles south, across a "sea choked with ice and mist". He quizzed them about the Jewel (collectively the players managed to remember where they had obtained it), and told them that its loss had precipitated a civil war in Frigia, which in turn had led to the rise of Ithaqua worship in that land. He asked them to consider taking the jewel there. In return he promised to check on the Ice Pyramid and see if there was anything he could divine about its connection to these evil powers.
He left by the same door the party had entered, and now it was their turn to examine the pillar. They found it had been warped, as though by a chilling wind, and the face of the woman depicted was frozen mid scream. Spooky, but upon further examination they found a secret compartment with some interesting items so it was worth it.
Right in the very next room, there was another high powered encounter, but this time of a very different alignment. I only realised later that it was the party's presence that prevented the shedu being the one to walk through that doorway first!
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| Don't let him touch you! |
Combat #2: Malvoryx the Styx Devil
Rounds: 2 Surprise segments, 1 round
Result: Party Victory
Highlights: Again, there's nothing to say such a powerful creature cannot be surprised under the right conditions, so I let the roll stand. He was just coming out of the stairwell onto a raised area of the room. Initially the party were confident, but soon missile weapons proved useless. Lucky O'Brien saw that as a good reason to step back outside of the room and "guard the entrance". The others closed in for melee while Poindexter and Rhoikos went with Magic Missile. This is a great spell when you absolutely have to get some damage in, but against a creature with magic resistance, not so much. At first I forgot the most important part of the rules for magic resistance, which is that the base percentage is modified +/- %5 for each level below level 11 of the caster. Fortunately I was able to resolve the miss match quickly, and fortunately for the players enough missiles got through to really help with taking down the creature. A prolonged melee would have been no joke. Paul tried to grapple the monster, and thankfully with my handy unarmed combat spreadsheet at the ready he was able to get a finger lock. For creatures immune to normal weapons, I still allow the unarmed combat holds but not the damage.
To add to the fun, the first proper round started with tied initiative! "Their touch causes 2-8 hit poins of damage and has a 50% chance of inflicting an Imprisonment spell on the victim (with no saving throw)." I flicked around in my PHB, and, under the pressure of the moment, could not immediately find the level 9 spell entry for Imprisonment. When I finally found it there was another pause as I read through the description and did my best to describe what happened next.
"the recipient is entombed in a state of suspended animation (cf. temporal stasis) in a small sphere far below the surface of the earth."
To the great fortune of the (remaining) players, with the damage inflicted in the surprise segments they were able to reduce the monster's hit points to zero in the first round (which was tied initiative). But this was of little comfort to Paul as he sank into the ground.
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| Anyone would think I had a thing against Paladin henchmen... |
Unlike the Shedu, this creature of the lower planes was not talkative (not that he was given the same chance, but anyway), he merely cursed them, saying "Malvoryx has marked you for death." before he dissolved into form and matter. He left behind a box, clearly radiating evil, and trapped with a curse to boot. Naturally the players stashed it and hoped to profit later.
Session Statistics:
Wilderness travel: 1 Miles
Combats: 1
Rooms mapped: 8
Combat rounds: 1
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