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.
7-8th of Waning Spring, 1AL
In a room full of stuffed cats, the 3rd Watch are once again facing off against a vampire - and T'Zaric, who has fallen under the creature's influence. The worst part is that as the group attempts to cast spells to bring T'Zaric back to their side, they discover that the changes that occurred when he made his wish prevent a lot of their spells from being able to take hold on him.
The vampire zips around the room for a bit, confidently ignoring the great deal of damage being dealt to him, until several swarms of bats arrive, answering his earlier call. At that point, he departs, instructing T'Zaric to keep the others occupied while he finishes his preparations down below - and telling him he can forget they ever met after he's expended his powers.
With the vampire frustratingly out of the picture, the group turn their attention first to eliminating the bats, then to taking down T'Zaric - who has mostly been kept in check by counterspells from Extang. When T'Zaric finally falls, they make sure he's not dying, then tie up his unconscious form.
Next comes an argument about what to do next. Quib expresses that he thinks it's time to go straight home, and Patrick wholeheartedly agrees. Fiaeorri isn't ready to give up on destroying the foul undead vampire, and Extang insists that this is all part of their job. However, they all agree that they need to recover from this encounter with the vampire before moving on, so they retreat to a side room on a higher level where they barricade themselves in so they can rest. They wait almost a full 24 hours for T'Zaric to stop struggling after he regains consciousness. Then they head back down, much to the dismay of Quib and Patrick.
They wind their way into the poisoned depths of the ancient tunnels, recovering some ropes the Extang and T'Zaric had forgotten on their firs journey here. At the bottom of a ramp with stone rollers set in the floor, they barely manage to push aside a sandstone block and make their way down a corridor which leads them to a lozenge-shaped room familiar to T'Zaric and Extang. Having been looted before, there isn't much of interest in the room, but T'Zaric suddenly has a strange experience.
While looking at the strange, pictograph language on the walls, some of the images seem to rise out of the wall, translating into and flickering between languages he knows. He reads aloud portions of what appears to be a history of this temple, with claims that this is the home of the true gods who will awake to defend their people. There is also mention of followers being lost to a snake-god, and other people turning to worship the rival dragons, Fremrossa the Eternal Flame, and Quatheig, Bringer of Death.
After the strange words have left, T'Zaric examines the pictographs that the translation came from, finding some images that seem to link up - including snake-people, a gold dragon, and a green dragon. Intrigued by this information, Extang uses his magic mirror to see if he can peer into the past of Fremrossa the Eternal Flame and views clips of images from the life of a gold dragon. He pieces together the disjointed images as best he can to tell the story to Quib, who excitedly writes it down.
The group continue on through one of the doors out of the room, down a hall to another room filled with rubbish and giant fire beetles. Having been here before, T'Zaric and Extang tell the others that the beetles are harmless if they and their trash pile isn't disturbed. Fiaeorri, after wandering into the room and getting a cursory examination by some of the beetles, decides she wants one as a pet and manages to get one one a leash without upsetting it. She names it Ruby.
T'Zaric and Logan open one of the doors off the room and see a corridor that turns to the right - where there appears to be some sort of flickering light moving away from them. They head up to the corner, but by the time they get there the light is gone. They call over the rest of the group before proceeding further.
They proceed down the corridor, but Fiaeorri - who has been fastidiously searching for traps up until now - is distracted by Ruby and forgets to be on the lookout for danger. They trigger a pressure plate that drops heavy wood and copper walls both in front and behind them. They begin trying to lift the doors, but don't seem to be able to get a good enough grip. T'Zaric casts a spell turning himself into a mist and drifts up into the mechanism, hoping to find some way to raise the doors again - but finds that they were designed only to drop once.
He returns to the rest of the group to find that some openings have opened near the ceiling, and shortly after he gets back sand begins pouring out of them, piling up on the floor. Desperation strikes them, and Patrick blasts one of the doors with a powerful spell - managing to damage it a little. That's when a little ball of light comes through the door and begins attacking them.
Quib manages to temporarily drive the glowing creature back through the door while the others smash at the door until it breaks open. The 3rd Watch rush out with the sand pouring behind them and quickly finish off the light-creature. They proceed forwards, carefully checking for traps, and come to a dead end - but Fiaeorri notices that it looks like the wall can be rotated. She pushes on one side, and it does turn, opening up a narrow passage to a hallway beyond - past a pitiful pit that everyone can easily jump over.
The hall leads to a corridor with stone sculptures of animals on the walls. They follow it in one direction, which winds its way back to the lozenge-shaped room, before coming back and turning down a side corridor. This side corridor has its own side corridor which leads to a small alcove with a pedestal and silver coffer on top. Fiaeorri immediately notices a hinge across the floor and, upon closer examination, determines that the floor will tilt in towards the alcove and lock in place, trapping anyone who is on the other side. She works at disarming the trap, but it proves a bit tricky for her - so T'Zaric pulls out his own thieves' tools and smugly finishes the job.
They enter the alcove and retrieve the coffer, opening it carefully. Inside is a strange, copper, fish-like figurine with some kind of writing on the side. Extang pulls it out to take a closer look at it, and discovers a small sliding panel on the back. He opens it, finding a wall of colorful, glowing beads inside. At the urging of the others, he pokes the beads, hoping to find something else inside. Instead, the hatch slides closed all on its own. After a couple of seconds, the figurine then rises into the air and flies off down towards the corridor.
And that brings this game session to an end. Discover what happens next week in Episode 48.
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