Lark's Landing, Episode 26

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

After a brief discussion, the adventurers decide to follow the mysterious light around the corner down the narrow hall to the right. They proceed cautiously, checking for traps and prodding around with a ten-foot pole. The hall winds around a bit, but the flickering torch-like light always seems to be just around the next corner, until they come to a hallway where the light is gone. Proceeding further, they come across a ten-foot deep pit with humanoid skeletons in the bottom. Of the far side is a narrow ledge, then the hall is blocked by a triangular stone coming to an apex pointing towards them.

Stor and T'Zaric determine that the triangular stone can probably rotate, but with the light gone Akta expresses that she'd really like to go back to find out what was in the stone eagle's mouth back in the hallway they came from. Everyone agrees, and the head back that way.

They arrive to find, wedged in the eagle's throat, a golden bracelet. Figuring it's a bad idea to reach in and get it, T'Zaric summons up a magical hand to fetch it out. As soon as the bracelet is disturbed, the eagle's mouth snaps shut - and everyone is glad this was the method they used. It takes considerable effort, but Kordak and Balasar manage to pry the mouth open enough for T'Zaric's mage hand to pull the bracelet out.

A brief examination tells them that it's a magical item, but with the poisoned environment they're in they don't want to risk taking the time to figure it out right now. They continue on to the end of the hall, which turns to the right, into a hall lined with withered and dried corpses standing on two-foot high ledges. It's a little nerve-wracking, but the corpses show no signs of being anything other than just corpses - Balasar even stabs one, but it doesn't react. So, they carefully file down the hall. When they get half way, the fifteen corpses suddenly animate and attack. Extang casts s spell on Stor to make him move faster. The goblin leaps into action, quickly taking down one zombie near him and injuring another while Kordak promptly beheads three of them. Akta blasts magic at one of them while T'Zaric takes down another. Having taken a minor injury from one of the zombies, Balasar calls upon the power of Epesta to destroy undead - causing eight of them to instantly crumble to dust. The remaining zombies are quickly cleaned up, and the party moves on, following the hall left to another door.

Beyond a door is a lozenge-shaped room with two perfectly preserved humans lying on stone divans, a table with a crystal flask and two chalices beside them. Stor enters, going to the wall on his left where there are strange glyphs on the wall - however, it appears to be something written in a language he can't understand. Kordak and Balasar, on the other hand, having just been attacked by corpses, decide they aren't taking any chances with these two. They stand over the bodies and, in unison, attack.

Miraculously, the two stand up, declaring their frustration at having their sacred sleep disturbed, and retaliate against their violent awakening - fighting with an unarmed style similar to, yet not the same as, the ones Stor knows. Having been weakened by the initial attacks, however, they are quickly killed. Some trinkets they were wearing are taken from them, and Extang takes the two crystal chalices while Stor examines the contents of the flask - a fine grey powder that he believes was once part of a potion or some other concoction. He tastes the powder, but is just seems like a powder, so he mixes the it with water and tastes a bit again. He immediately feels a bit drowsy, but manages to shake it off. He tells the others that he believes this was what the two humans had used to go to sleep. He is about to pour it out, but Extang insists they keep it - in case they have a use for it in the future.

There are two ways out of the room - a single door across from where they came in and double doors to the right. Akta and Balasar choose to go for the double doors - they examine them, then push them open. They follow the passage beyond, which turns left and takes them to another door. Finding it safe, they open it to find a room filled with giant beetles with glowing stomachs. There's a single door to the right, and double doors on the far side, and the room itself is covered in piles of rubble and refuse. They spot something shiny in the largest one.

Not wanting to anger these beetles, T'Zaric quietly casts his mage hand over by the pile, trying to lift out whatever the shiny thing was, while Extang and Akta make a magical distraction on the far end of the room. A couple beetles examine the distraction, but lose interest quickly and go back to what they were doing. However, the ones that examine the disturbance in the pile are a bit more aggressive, clearly not liking the hand going through their stuff. Extang sends a second hand over to help, and the two hands filled with rubble lift into the air, shaking away the loose rubble in the hopes of not having falling rubble bring the beetles over to the group. They then begin the float back, but, in spite of their efforts, the beetles continue to follow the hands. The two sorcerers, not knowing what else to do, decide to do jazz hands - sending what they'd scooped up falling to the floor - before letting the hands vanish.

The beetles don't know what to make of this, but they eventually wander off, carrying some of the rubble back to the pile. Once it seems safe, T'Zaric goes out to see if they managed to bring the shiny object closer. Some beetles go to investigate him, but wander off soon after, not interested. Below where the hands vanished he finds a rusty dagger with a snakeskin hilt. He brings it back to the others. Extang tries to clean up the rust with some simple magic, but the blade remains rusty. However, examining it, he does determine that it is magical. He gives it back to T'Zaric, since it seems it's the most useful for him.

The group decides it's time to go for the double doors on the far side of the room. They cross, waiting to get swarmed by beetles, but apart from some curious investigations, they get no attention. While Balasar examines the door, Stor tosses some food to one of the giant insects, hoping to befriend it. It seems to work, as it begins following him, looking for more food.

Beyond the door is a very large staircase leading up. They climb it, with Balasar at the front with Kordak, searching for any traps. Close to the top of the stairs he spots a pressure plate and stops everyone. T'Zaric comes forward and, pulling out his thieves' tools, sets to work. It takes him about ten minutes, but he removes the threat and they continue on.

At the top of the stairs, the passage turns left, then opens into a large room with a scattering of small, baboon-like statues, and some ancient remains of actual baboons. With her superior sight, Akta notices something big and round, covered in tentacles, hovering close to the far end of the room. The description she shares with the others draws concern, particularly from Stor and Extang, who have heard of a fearsome, powerful, and malignly intelligent creature called a beholder. They share this with the others, and they discuss how to proceed - do they go back, or risk facing this deadly foe? Having just come up stairs - and their goal being to get back to the surface - they don't want to go back down. They decide that, if they prepare properly and attack in a rush, they can probably take it down.

Balasar aims his light crossbow while Akta, Extang, and T'Zaric prepare spells. Kordak and Stor (his firebeetle at his heels) rush in as fast as they can. Just as they are getting close, and noticing that there is something odd about this creature, the other attacks hit - and it explodes in a cloud of spores. Kordak manages to dodge out of the way, but Stor and his firebeetle inhale some of the spores - killing the beetle and leaving the goblin coughing and feeling ill.

The others rush over, and Stor manages to choke out that the thing was a gas spore - a type of fungus that looks remarkably like a beholder. Concerned, Akta pulls out her herbalism kit, and examines him. She finds that the spores have lodged in Stor's throat - and are growing. They will kill him in the next 5-10 hours. However, Stor being her friend, Akta doesn't want to worry him. Instead, she pulls Balasar aside, telling him what she found. The dragonborn cleric does have a spell that could get rid of the spores, but it is powerful and would leave them all vulnerable to other threats that may arise. The others, overhearing, join in, and it is eventually decided that Stor must be healed. Whatever the risk, they can't just let him die.

Balasar casts his spell, and Stor is cleansed of the spores, beginning to feel better already. Kordak looks around the room, finding a fishskin sack containing seven silver pellets, which he puts in the bag of holding. They move on, following the twisting hall until it splits. Do they go forward, or left? Most of them are interested in going left, so they head in that direction for a little ways, but become hesitant to continue when they see a third left turn ahead.

Some of them want to turn back, but others think that if they need to at least confirm that this isn't the way out. Extang volunteers to go ahead with his ten-foot pole, saying he will send a message spell back with his findings - and that they can go on without him if they don't hear from him at all. He goes around the next corner and finds that the next turn is to the right, turning int a ramp leading down with stone rollers set into the floor. It disappears into darkness below. Deciding to go down, but that he doesn't trust it, he hammers a piton into the wall, preparing a safety rope in case there are any sudden drops.

He's been gone for less than a minute, and the rest of his friends rejoin him, having decided not to wait. They watch over him from the top of the ramp as he descends. He reaches the end of his 50-foot rope, and still can't see the bottom, so he returns to the top, where T'Zaric offers him another 50 feet. This gets him close enough to the bottom to see a large sandstone block resting at the bottom of the ramp. He cautiously removes the rope, and examines it, finding only that it appears to be blocking a corridor to the left and straight ahead, but he cant see very well because there is so little space around the edges.

Extang returns to the others and reports on his findings. He arrives to find that Balasar has started to feel quite exhausted and is having cramps in his muscles. Stor reports that he recognises the symptoms as sewer plague - a debilitating disease that may get better on its own over the course of days, or could lead to Balasar dying of exhaustion. Unfortunately, there's nothing they can do about it right now.

They decide to explore the other branch of the tunnel, but leave the rope secured in case they come back this way later. They wind their way back to the branch and onward until they come to a long hall running to their right with images of people playing a game with a ball on the walls. In the floor in front of them is a large capstone that is obviously meant to be able to be pulled up from the floor - it has words in that unrecognisable language written on the top. About five feet up the wall to their left is a round depression in the stone wall.

After checking to make sure there's nothing magical trap-like or magical about the rock, Kordak and Balasar lever it up and lift the plug out, revealing a shallow pit below. It contains several humanoid skeletons and, on top of them, six jade figurines, a jade plaque, and a ball. Stor immediately picks up the ball, but it leaps from his hands, darting off to hover a little ways down the hall. The others tell him off, demanding to know why he touched the ball and insisting that no one touches anything else. Then the ball comes flying back, hitting Stor.

The goblin tries to grab it, but it dodges and hits him again, so Extang steps in front of the goblin - and the ball hits him, slipping out of his grasp as well. Stor glances down into the pit, looking at the jade plaque to see that the image on it shows two men, dressed in fancy feathered robes, hitting a ball between them, giving him an idea. Beside him, Kordak and Balasar are preparing a blanket to try to catch the ball in.

The ball bounces off the ceiling, hits Kordak, and as it rebounds Stor hits it. The ball flies into the wall at the end of the hall, hitting just above the depression in the wall - which briefly glows orange, and flies back to be hit by Stor again. This time when it hits the wall, the depression continues to glow orange, and the ball flies off the middle of the hall, accompanied by the sound like a trumpet fanfare. Far off, they can see another orange-glowing circle at the far end of the 140-foot hall.

Declaring that this is a game, Stor charges after the ball. Balasar and T'Zaric join him, if a bit less enthusiastically, while Kordak, Akta, and Extang hang back to observe.


And that's where this session ends. Check back next week to find out what happens in Episode 27.