This is the 4th part (technically, it is the 5th, but the first part is called part zero) of the continued story of the main D and D 5th edition campaign that I am in. For this session, only the players of Etcher and Sairon could make it, so instead of immediately carrying on with the adventure where we left off, we flashed backward a few days before we went on the current freemen mission that are undertaking, and instead played through a private adventure that, Erif, Etcher, and Sairon went on...
From the journal of Erif Hcrocs:
Olivia is trying to help other freemen scholars determine what has happened to Enigma, and Rhaugox is inspecting injured freemen, to determine if he can help them, (and if they have character, and if so, if it has been injured), but that doesn't stop the rest of us from going on our own adventure!
We found a cave, and we decided to explore it!
Inside of the cave, we found a hidden room, with a shrine and stone tablets covered in self-contradictory gibberish, but most importantly there were zombies in there, and they BURN!
Then, we find a another room, in which I get blinded with a blast of radiant light! And then we get attacked by something! I'm not certain what they were, but I have the sneaking suspicion that they were angels. I don't know why they were after me, and frankly I don't care, but I made sure to inform them before I burnt them to death (because we did kill them all) that I did nothing to provoke them into attacking me, so what I was doing was SELF DEFENCE (just to make sure other angels don't come after me for killing these angels!).
(out of game note: Erif and the others were not actually attacked by angels, they were attacked by undead shadows. However, Erif has refused to believe this, and so now he thinks that he may have done something to anger some angels. And it seems fairly logical to him - he has probably done things that angels, being beings of pure law and good, would not approve of)
The final notable fact about this little trip is that we found some valuable items that we can sell - and we don't have to split it with the others at all!
After this side trek was finished, we returned to the time in the adventure that we had left off last session, and we just continued to play, without deciding to explain the lack of two of the members of our group.
Returning to the present day journal of Eric Hcrocs:
Alright, so as it turns out, the bugbears that were running at us were not happy - they were scared. And they were not running at us - they were running away from yet another storm of acid rain. I can't blame them for that, acid rain sucks. What I do blame them for is that they still attacked us while they continued to run away from the acid rain, and they got away before I could burn them all to death!
Then, the acid rain hits us (acid rain is just the wort!). This acid rain is different, though - it's much more thick and sticky, and when it hits the ground, it forms into two black ooze monsters, which attack us.
A fight ensues!
And we destroy the both of them, and then manage to find shelter from the acid rain until it passes. I actually felt really good about that fight - I was finally given the chance to get back at the ABSOLUTELY STUPID ACID RAIN, by burning the ooze monsters that it made to death.
Once the acid rain passes, we continue our journey for a while longer until we finally reach the source of the (absolutely horrible) acid rain problem - the tower that rose from the lake (out of game note: when it was described in this session, it did not sound like a tower. So I either misheard the description of what the "tower" looked like for this session, or I misheard what the structure looked like in the previous section. I am not sure which though)
The main challenge in getting to this tower is the fact that the lake surrounding it is filled with black, semi-acidic liquid. There is a boat, but it looks to be in a very bad condition. Sairon tries to fix it up - and it manages to get us to the island with the tower, but not before it collapses and is wrecked beyond repair.
Inside the tower, we find one sole occupant - a lich (or other similar undead spellcasting creature) named Kalumadin Al-amad. Apparently, he was imprisoned here long ago by a god when he questioned the god's right to use their power. He created the acid rains in the attempt to lure a team of adventurers (such as ourselves) to his prison/tomb, so that we could free him, and says that if we do, he will put a stop to the acid rains (It is admittedly a really clever plan, although if there is a next time, could he at least try to make it rain something other than acid? Like fire rain? Fire rain is better than acid rain in every possible way!).
(out of game note: I am not certain that Kalumadin Al-amad is what the character's name is. I have been taking less actual game notes in many of the roleplaying games that I have been playing in. I reserve the right to change this character's name if it turns out that this is not actually this character's name, and my notes are mistaken)
In fact, freeing him is surprisingly easy - all that is needed to be done is to destroy four runes inside of the tower, which I do - each one only needs one small blast of fire! After he is freed, Kalumadin Al-amad ends the acid rain (finally!) and leaves with his undead army (because apparently, all around the edge of the lake, there is a whole lot more undead buried there).
(out of game note: wow, Erif. You just released a lich (or a being with a similar power level) and his undead army free from their prison. I'm sure that won't have any negative consequences for the world at large. I'M SO VERY SURE.)
Once he leaves it becomes apparent while the acid rains are gone, the poison death lake still remains - and will not clear itself out of the poison for several weeks. And the boat that we used to get there is now wrecked beyond repair. I try to swim it figuring "what's a little bit of poison going to do?". And then I almost drown. Luckily, my traveling companions are less selfish then I am, and manage to rescue me out of the lake.
Luckily for us, we managed to acquire some magical items in our first adventure (the one with the goblins, the bugbear, and the manticore) and one of the items is an oil of etherealness, which would allow one of us to escape the island. It is eventually decided that Sairon should be the one to go (because she knows this region best, and is probably the most trustworthy and dependable among us), and so she goes.
She is gone for several hours, and so I have to wait with Etcher on the island, where there is literally nothing to do. I try to play eye spy, but that turns out to go terribly as well (out of game note: this has been mentioned in a previous part of Erif's story, but it will be mentioned again - Kenku (which is the kind of creature that Etcher is) can only produce sounds that they have previously heard)
Eventually, Sairon comes back with a shark person and his boat (out of game note: this island is inhabited by 3 different tribes, each of which consists of a different kind of animal people - there is a tribe of reptile people (which is the tribe that Rhaugox comes from), a tribe of mammal people (which is the tribe that Sairon, as well as the centaurs that hired our group come from), and a tribe of fish people (which is the tribe the shark person that Sairon managed to convince to help the group came from), and we are able to finally get of the island.
Finally we return to the centaur camp - and we have to wait a few days for our reward, because they need to wait for actual proof that the acid rain has stopped. The wait is annoying (even with he acid rain gone, I have too many bad memories of this place to ever really like staying here) but eventually, we receive a huge chest of gold, and also a set of magic bracers.
The first two missions as part of the freemen have not been the best experiences I have ever had, but there will be many more in the future, and the future has more than unlikeable missions in store for me, I am sure of it!
Unlike Erif, both halves of this session (the flash backward adventure in the caves, and the finishing of the current mission) where really fun and interesting adventures. One of the "themes" of this campaign has been that every adventure involves some sort of choice:
(In the first adventure, we were given the option to not kill the bugbear and let him keep the freemen initiates as manticore food.)
(In the first freemen mission, we could have just as easily decided to kill the Girallon and his family.)
(And in this mission, we could have tried to figure out some other method for stopping the acid rain other than releasing a lich (or similar magical undead being) and his undead army into the world.)
and it has been interesting to see what my character - and the other characters decide to do ing each of these situations.
(in the first adventure, Erif really didn't care to much either way, it was other people who wanted to fight the bugbear - and he had no problem with that, since he got to burn things that way)
(in the first freemen mission, he was actually totally fine if he happened to kill any of the girallons - it just also happened to be that other people were able to non-lethaly defeated them first, and he isn't enough of a jerk to try to kill them while they were knocked out)
(and in this mission, Eric just didn't care enough to think about the consequences of freeing a powerful undead creature and it's army. It seemed like the quickest and easiest way of getting rid of the acid rain, and everything seemed to work out fine!)
Erif's Story: Part 5 will be coming soon!
Finally we return to the centaur camp - and we have to wait a few days for our reward, because they need to wait for actual proof that the acid rain has stopped. The wait is annoying (even with he acid rain gone, I have too many bad memories of this place to ever really like staying here) but eventually, we receive a huge chest of gold, and also a set of magic bracers.
The first two missions as part of the freemen have not been the best experiences I have ever had, but there will be many more in the future, and the future has more than unlikeable missions in store for me, I am sure of it!
Unlike Erif, both halves of this session (the flash backward adventure in the caves, and the finishing of the current mission) where really fun and interesting adventures. One of the "themes" of this campaign has been that every adventure involves some sort of choice:
(In the first adventure, we were given the option to not kill the bugbear and let him keep the freemen initiates as manticore food.)
(In the first freemen mission, we could have just as easily decided to kill the Girallon and his family.)
(And in this mission, we could have tried to figure out some other method for stopping the acid rain other than releasing a lich (or similar magical undead being) and his undead army into the world.)
and it has been interesting to see what my character - and the other characters decide to do ing each of these situations.
(in the first adventure, Erif really didn't care to much either way, it was other people who wanted to fight the bugbear - and he had no problem with that, since he got to burn things that way)
(in the first freemen mission, he was actually totally fine if he happened to kill any of the girallons - it just also happened to be that other people were able to non-lethaly defeated them first, and he isn't enough of a jerk to try to kill them while they were knocked out)
(and in this mission, Eric just didn't care enough to think about the consequences of freeing a powerful undead creature and it's army. It seemed like the quickest and easiest way of getting rid of the acid rain, and everything seemed to work out fine!)
Erif's Story: Part 5 will be coming soon!
