Lark's Landing, Episode 25

Colonial Caerdia: Lark's Landing is a story being told through a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign I'm running at a local hobby shop called the Devil's Bench. If you aren't familiar with this ongoing story, you can follow this link to Once Upon a Tabletop on YouTube to hear the start of it or read the brief summary I wrote when I switched from video to blog.

You can find the previous episode here.


28th of Waning Summer, 0AL

Having grown tired of the elvish conversation between Stor and the naerid in the half-flooded, crystal-ceilinged room, Kordak makes it known that he's moving on and opens the doors. Everyone joins him, to the protests of the naerid, who asks that at least the "pretty one" (looking at the half-elven T'Zaric) stay, but they continue on anyways.

Beyond the doors is a long hallway filled with a dripping sound. The source is about halfway down the hall, where water is falling from the ceiling and running down the hall the the far end. Much to Kordak's annoyance, T'Zaric rushes off ahead while everyone else is discussing how best to search the way for traps. He makes sure the structure is sound enough to be safe - or at least as safe as the rest of the place - and moves on to the far end of the hall, where the water runs under a door to his right. To his left is a stone pulled partway out of the wall, showing a small passageway behind.

Akta, who can see twice as far as anyone else in the dark, informs the others that T'Zaric is safe, so they join him, telling him that they need to stay together for safety. They check the door for traps and, finding none, open it to reveal, stairs leading down into a room flooded with water. There's another door on the other side, but only a couple of inches are visible above the water. They decide to try the small passage instead.

Being the smallest and most-able to maneuver in tighter spaces, Stor leads the way in, single-file, with Kordak close behind. The passage carries on for about fifty feet before turning right, then comes to an abrupt end after another thirty feet. Certain that this passage must lead somewhere Stor looks around, searching for some way onward, finding nothing. Further back, the others begin tapping the walls, searching for hollow points, but finding none.

Kordak, looking over Stor's shoulder, spots a catch in the wall that's so obvious to him that he's surprised Stor can't see it. While the goblin is looking the other way, he reaches out and releases it. The wall in front of them falls away, crashing into the unseen ground. Stor peeks out into another hallway, where it looks like a statue that was once blocking this passage has fallen to the floor. There is a sword slung over the statue's shoulder. To the right is a pair of doors, and to the left the hall continues on for a ways before turning to the left.

Stor hops down out of the passage, searching for traps, and everyone else follows when he declares the way clear. As he comes out, T'Zaric takes the sword from the statue, since no one else has. It's made of wood with jagged obsidian spikes along the edges, and he's fairly certain it's magical. He stows it away for later examination, then goes and knocks on the doors.

Everyone is aghast that he would make so much noise in such a dangerous place, but they decide the direction has been chosen. They proceed cautiously into a large room. They are on a narrow platform with alcoves containing inactive fountains to their right and left. Ahead of them, stairs go down to a central chamber flooded with dark, foul water. There is corroded bronze brazier in the middle of the room, and four square stone pillars along each side. At the far end, where only Akta can see, there are stairs coming up out of the water, leading to another set of doors. Balasar casts a light spell on a rock and throws it into the water, revealing that it's only two feet deep.

Before moving onward, they examine the fountains. The one on the left has some water covered in scum, but something moves within. After some poking and prodding - and another light-enchanted rock thrown in - a bullfrog jumps out. Akta puts it on her head, where it stays only long enough to relieve itself before jumping back into the fountain.

There is a lot of lime at the bottom of the other fountain, and Extang sees something in it. He uses a magical hand to scoop out a small pendant with "Lord of Snails" engraved on it. Examining it, he comes to believe this is the most powerful magical object he's ever seen. T'Zaric comes over and takes it to examine it as well, but he can't tell anything about it so he hands it back. They then both feel a slight burning on their hands from the acidity of the lime still on the pendant - which they hurriedly clean off.

The group moves on, heading down into the water to cross the room. The water and slippery floor beneath makes the going slow. As Kordak and Extang step past the first pillar, they see a giant, glowing slug that burbles at them in the same language the other creatures in this place were using. Thinking his new amulet might give him some control over this creature - a slug just being a snail without a shell, after all - Extang gives the creature a pointed look and slips the amulet around his neck.

This appears to make the slug angry, and it charges aggressively. Kordak steps up to meet it, while Extang casts a spell to shrink the slug down to a more reasonable human size. The others rush in to help, Stor activating his boots of water walking so he can get greater maneuverability, while the others cast spells of their own.

The slug spits a stream of acid over Kordak, T'Zaric, and Extang, causing Extang to lose his concentration on his spell. Growing back to it's full size, the slug climbs up a pillar, hanging just above Kordak's head. However, before it can do any more harm, the various spells and weapons hurtled at it kills it. It falls down, right on top of Kordak.

After getting Kordak out, and determining that the slug has nothing valuable, they press on towards the door at the far end of the room. Stor, walking on top of the water, gets there first, followed closely by Akta who chooses to use her magical armour and swim. As the rest get within ten feet of the stairs, Kordak, who is leading the way, suddenly drops into the water. He comes up sputtering a moment later. Now aware of the hidden trench, the others cross it, reaching dry land.

The doors are examined and opened. Beyond is a hall going off to the right. At the end of the hall is a door on the right, warped out towards them. After examining the door for a bit, they decide that this may not be the best way to go - either there is a lot of water beyond the door, or something big crashed into it. They turn around and head back to explore the other end of the tunnel with the statue.

This hall turns to the left and they find, beyond the door, the room most of them had gone to while Extang was working at the mud-blocked door. They realise they've gone in a circle - however, the silver pyramid on the one standing pedestal catches Extang's attention. The others warn him that it's very dangerous, but he can't see anything out of place. Just to be safe, he waits until everyone else backs out of the room and prepares a spell. Just as he grabs the pyramid, he teleports away.

Nothing happens.

He rejoins the others, examining his prize - which appears to be worth about 5 gold pieces. The group discusses their three options of where to go next - the bulging door, the room filled with water, or the sun-emblazoned doors on the far side of the room with the naerid. They choose the doors with the naerid.

They make their way back, and the naerid is delighted that they've returned. Kordak ignores her and heads straight for narrow ledge that has only two feet of water on top of it. The naerid swims over, resting her arms on the ledge. T'Zaric comes over to try to get her to tell him about his wooden-obsidian sword, but she says she doesn't know anything about swords. Besides, she seems more interested in Kordak, who is intent upon crossing to the doors. Pulling herself up out of the water, she kisses the resistant half-orc, then drops back into the water, vanishing.

Kordak feels a strange sensation, almost like his lungs are trying to fill with water, but he shakes it off. He tells the others about it, and they become more cautious. Stor steps out onto the water beside Kordak, intending to rush across to the doors, but his path is blocked. The water rises in front of him, forming into an elephant-headed humanoid holding a trident. T'Zaric launches a barrage of of magic missiles at it, but they seem to have no effect. Stor stabs it with his spear, and he feels it hitting the water, but the creature doesn't even react. Stor disengages and quickly retreats back onto land.

The watery elephant-man raises his trident and stabs at Kordak. As it does so, something black swirls up into it from the water and extends itself into the trident, and Kordak is hit by an electrical jolt. The Naerid resurfaces deep in the pool, lashing out at Kordak with a whip of water. Kordak isn't able to tell what the black thing in the elephant-man is, but he swings at it anyway, and is rewarded with hitting something solid.

The others take a several steps back from the water. Akta and Extang hit the naerid with some spells while Balasar shoots a crossbow bolt at her, making her very angry. Seeing Kordak's physical strikes hit when his magic did nothing, T'Zaric pulls out his light crossbow and shoots the black thing in the elephant-man - it falls limp, drifting down out of the watery elephant-man, accompanied by an enraged shriek from the naerid.

Stor runs out onto the water to strike at the Naerid, and as his attacks hit the elephant-man collapses, splashing back into the water as if it had never existed. Stor dances back to the shore, but the naerid follows, jumping out of the water to give him a very angry kiss. She then splashes back into the water and vanishes.

Store begins to cough and choke, unable to breathe. Extang rushes to his side and pulls him back from the water, trying to discover some way to help him. Everyone else rushes to help as well, except for Balasar - who jumps into the water, releasing a loud burst of thunder into the area where he last saw the naerid. Her limp form becomes visible and floats to the surface, dead.

After another minute, Stor becomes able to breathe again. Kordak takes the naerid's head and ties it to his belt by her hair. Akta dives into the water to see if there is anything interesting at the bottom of the pool - Balasar, Extang, and T'Zaric all join her. All of them except Balasar notice a little grove hidden behind some kelp in the deepest part of the pool. With her magical swimming speed, Akta arrives first, finding a little treasure trove. From it, she selects a golden mask and a pair of gloves, then heads back for the surface. Extang and T'Zaric arrive and split the rest to the treasure - with each taking a crystal scroll case, T'zaric scooping up six golden statues and Extang taking a silver figurine.

They resurface, coming face-to-face with a golden-faced bestial creature. Startled, T'Zaric shoots a fire bolt at it, just grazing the top of the head - which turns out to be a giggling Akta. They settle down to take a quick look at the items they found. As they're doing so, it becomes apparent that T'Zaric appears to be stockpiling items. He unabashedly admits to fully intending to keep everything he found, to which the others object - explaining that, in this group, everything is shared equally.

While they are arguing about treasure, they become acutely aware of the poison in the environment that is still harmful to them. Balasar insists that they take a short rest, and sits them down to cast some healing magic on them. During the rest, Akta examines her gloves, finding that they are able to help the wearer snatch missiles out of the air. T'Zaric's wooden-obsidian sword is also magical, and he figures out that it is particularly effective against plant-like creatures - which, when he shares this information, immediately makes his friends think of the grove of sickly trees. And Extang, after discovering a stopper in the base of his silver figurine, finds that it contains a potion of clairvoyance.

At the end of their rest, they trade a few items around - T'Zaric has reluctantly given one of each of the golden statues to everyone, but gets one back from Balasar in exchange for the sword - and they continue on past the sun-emblazoned doors on the far side of the pool. Beyond is a passage that turns left, then heads up the stairs to another pair of doors. They check the doors and pass through into a twenty-foot wide hall going to the left and vanishing into darkness beyond an archway. The edges of the hall are covered with rubble, and the walls both have frescoes on them - one depicting battles with enemies, the other showing a journey to a new land, centred on a pyramid with a sun at the top.

Kordak notices that the portion of the fresco with the sun on it is separate from the rest and can be pushed inwards. He gets Extang to prod it with his ten-foot pole and as he pushes it it swings open, revealing a passage eight feet above the floor. Kordak picks up Stor and tosses him through, into a long hallway with stone animal heads on the walls. There's a narrow hallway to the right a little ways ahead, and a wider one to the left just barely visible on the edge of his vision.

The others climb up behind him. With her superior vision, Akta can see one sculpture that is beyond the others' line of sight - an eagle head with an open mouth that has something in it. When she tells the others about it, T'Zaric immediately wants to go find out what it is - since there's no talking him out of it, the others accompany him. As they near the passage leading to the right, he catches a glimpse of a light disappearing around a corner, and jumps back - the image of a giant glowing slug still fresh in his memory.


And that's where this session comes to an end. What's the source of the light around the corner? You just might find out next week in Episode 26.