Wielding a Bohemian Ear Spoon

Hi Im Camus the Catoblepas, I ll be your harbinger of doom tonight.

The Isle of Dread was a realm of mystery and danger. After the battle with the undead ritualists, Thokk began training his pet displacer beast, using his natural athletics and some measured diplomacy on the quivering creature. The body of the succubus evaporated with a shriek when she was slain by Poppy, and all that remained of her was the black iron rod she was holding. Sharia picked it up and found that it had strange magical properties allowing it to hang immovably in mid-air. The vampire witch-doctor disembodied head still wore the crown of coral, which Hex knew to be magical, along with the sacrificial dagger (+3) still clutched in her hand. The crown allowed water-breathing, which would prove useful later on. Two paths led out of the clearing. The western path was lined with halfling statues every twenty feet or so, and the southern path ha none. The clearing itself was ringed with twenty or more outward-facing halfling statues.

Even before they had caught their breaths from the exertion of combat, another long lowing sound, as of cattle, was heard. They listened as the swishing of the branches to their north revealed a large dark beast who slowly shambled into the clearing. He was cow-like, somewhere between bison and mammoth in size, with a long neck that hung low to the ground. Its skin hung loosely from its bony body but its eyes flashed brightly. Many of the heroes were susceptible to the doom-dealing glance of its eyes, and were thus drained of strength while in its presence. Only Poppy, who was a devotee of the Raven Queen, the same deity as the catoblepas, was immune to its weakening affects. Two other figures darted between the trees behind the catoblepas, not revealing themselves. “I am Camus, reaper of souls in this land. You have upset the balance and your lives are judged forfeit.”

Seeing the carnage they had wrought upon the undead, Camus was convinced to suspend judgment, as long as they killed no more lawful living creatures of the island. They then learned from the catoblepas that their were other undead on the island,and they were an abomination that he would look kindly upon if they were destroyed. He could not interfere with their fates by telling them where they were located, but he did tell them that they were led by a fearsome draco-lich. He also let slip to Sharia that there were indeed living creatures on the island of the mansion in the great western lake. Finally, when Poppy gave him one of her gems, the catoblepas left one more message – the undead were not the only abomination on the island. He then knocked over a halfling statue with a swish of his tail. The stone halflings were also spirits lost to his mistress. One final agreement between the harbinger of doom an the heroes of WInterhaven granted them the right to kill as long as they killed more undead than otherwise.

So saying, they continued on the southen path, leading towards the lake and not lined by the unusual creepy halflings, each standing at attention or slumped over his spear, with little more than loin-cloths and a few bone adornments. The path followed a small stream that grew until it was a rivulet as they stepped out of the boggy forest to the lakes edge, which was a smooth grassy lawn in either diretcion as far as the eye could see (2.4 miles) Searching the area they found the week old remains of a camp, and spent a peaceful night under the blaring stars. The displacer beast, after another bout of half-orc athletic diplomacy, spent the night guarding itself against the guard who was on guard duty. Furious but afraid, it was not taking well to captivity, and its tentacles slithered and smacked.

The next day, Hex went for a walk along the lake bottom. At a depth of 100 feet, it became very deep and very dark. He began his return to the surface, and for a moment, felt he may have disturbed something… ominous. On shore, the island was just visible by the tallest member of the group, and thus it was estimated to be 11 miles away. (( \kappa=\sqrt{\left(\frac{R+h}{R}\right)^2-1}\ . )) They needed a boat, and Hex didnt see any sign of habitation on his underwater tour. Neither was anything found on shore, other than a week old work site, where the tanning of hide and the stretching of sinew was performed. They needed to make a boat, and Felipe leapt into the woods to find the perfect wood – strong, but flexible, and she found a stand of bamboo like trees right near their camp. She and Thokk performed the harvesting, while Poppy tied the bamboo together with her knotting skills. Ria took a leadership role, and spent her time inspecting the boat. Sharia and Hex also did important things to help. They wound up with a twenty foot square raft, with bamboo stakes pointing out of every side. It also had a small sail, but was meant to be rowed. They camped another night, and on the net sunrise, they began their journey across the lake.

Great lake kraken - devourer of rafts

Hex was underneath the boat, and at the halfway mark, he was the first to see the dark shape rising from the bottom, a large open mouth, two black rolling eye, and enormous spiked tentacle reaching up towards them. When it was fifty feet down, he knew its maw was big enough to swallow the raft whole. He climbed up onto the raft. And so began a doubled up effort to paddle the raft out of its trajectory. Ria cast her spell of non-agression down at the kraken, buying them a moment which she used to temporarily blind it. Most spent the time paddling as hard as they could. A part of the lake surrounding them had turned into crashing thrashing waves, and they sought to pull ahead. Hex, Felipe, Thokk, and Sharia all paddled, but Poppy used her magical skills to cause distracting, shimmering images in the water behind them.

The kraken was quick to shake of the divine peace from the cleric, ad it resumed its blind charge upwards, to broach the surface and smack it huge beak-like maw where the raft had been. They had managed to paddle just out of its reach. In blind rage, it thrashed its tentacles, but Thokk and Sharia both managed to dodge them. Now the counter attack began in earnest. Hex was first to react and in pure swordlock madness, he launched himself (while images of green devil faces danced in his mind) across the ten feet of thrashing waves to stab maniacally into the kraken and hang precariously from its mega beak. Thokk paddled while managing to convince his captive displace beast to lash at the kraken with its own tentacles.

The rest of the crew spent their efforts either paddling furiously towards the beach 5.5 miles away one square at a time, or attacking with their scant ranged powers, until the kraken regained its sight and launched itself at the raft. Its maw and tentacles latched onto the raft and began to crush and devour it. The raft buckled, split, and snapped, but somehow survived the initial clenching attack. But the next act of the kraken burst the raft asunder, sending them all into the lake, Those with metal armour had to expend all their effort to remain afloat, Ria in her chain, began to sink, but amazingly managed to swim close enough to Hex , that he hatted her with his coral crown. Poppy hacked away at the tentacle that held her, severing it and dropping he into the water. Thokk was also held by a tentacle. He went berzerk and in two swipes of his axe, severed the tentacle that held him and bit deep into the hard shell beak of the kraken. (Over 70 and 50 damage by the two raging attacks.) He began to sink, but held his head above water. The panther screeched like any feline dumped into cold water and paddled away. Sharia also began to sink, but with a burst of effort she pulled her arm up and out of the water, launching Skarn across the chopping waves. Like a streak of flame it struck the cracked beak of the kraken and blew it apart like broken crab-shell. The kraken shook and went limp, sliding down into the depths.

Over the waves, they heard the echoes of a despairing death cow, and without a second thought Poppy unked her head beneath the waves to grab the severed tentacle of the dying kaken. Calling on the Raven queen she transferred some of her life force to the kraken, healing just enough of its wounds that it might survive. When she resurfaced, she saw the bamboo gathered into bundles and everyone hanging on, while Ria read her water breathing ritual. They paddled on towards the lake and made landfall on the island, dripping and exhausted, in the late afternoon.

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This week we find out heroes following a game trail down the side of the volcano towards the Dreaded Death Bog. Ahead on either side of the path looks what appears to be standing stones, but as they get closer, they are statues of two primitive halfling warriors bearing spears. The statues are extremely lifelike, and each of them depicts a middle aged warrior standing at parade rest. Examining the statues closely confirms that they are, or were, live Halflings at one time who were most likely petrified, possibly by the “stone eye basilisk” they believe to be on the island. The strange thing about the statues is that they are not fighting or fleeing.

Leaving the mystery aside, the party decides to camp, and so they find some trees to climb into off the trail, and pass a night without excitement. They do hear the lowing of a cattle echoing through the swamp, and it is a melancholy sound. When dawn cmes, they pass the statues and when the path enters the bog, it divides into three. One path curves northwards, the other path curves south, and the center path cuts straight into the bog, and this is the route the party takes. They spend the morning, stretching into late afternoon trudging through the bog until a second evening starts to descend. Ahead they hear voices, and Felip creeps forward to see a strange sight.

In a clearing near the center of the bog is a circle of standing stones, with a sacrificial alter at its center. A man lays on the alter, while two women stand over him. 5 other men stand in a semi-circle around the alter. As Felipe watches, one of the women, wearing a strange crown of coral, begins chanting a ritual. With a knife, she slashes open the chest of the sacrificial victim and pulls out its lifeless heart. She then takes a metal ring with a large red crystal and pounds it onto the open gash. At the appropriate moment, the other woman, who is strikingly beautiful, despite her red-tinged skin, the soft pink bat wings, and the horns and sharp fangs, taps the crystal with her red crystal rod, and the crystal begins glowing, and the newly created Heartless Vampire Zombie stand up and lurches over into line with his five friends. As they are dragging the 7th corpse onto the alter, Felipe, creeping invisibly closer while invisible, is noticed by one of the heartless vampire zombies who begins moaning “blooooood…”

Felipe bursts into action, and we mean that literally. S/he explodes into a furious swarm of buzzing, stinging insects, which completely destroys 4 of the heartless vampire-zombies. And with that combat ensues. Hex, Thokk, Sharia, and Poppy all charge into the fray. Sharia is first to go, and when she gets between the standing stones, she notices the wraith. An intense battle rages within the stone circle, as the heroes battle the succubus, the shadowy wraith, and the vampire witch, along with her remaining 3 minions.

Only Ria was outside that tightly confined area of battle, and she soon heard a familiar low rumbling growl as the displacer panther struck. Even as she was lifted in its tentacles, each of which was like an octopus pod but with a sharp hook in the center of each, the panther started dragging her away from the group.

As Ria was being dragged off, the rest of the crew were having their own troubles. The dark wraith stabbed Sharia with its shadow blade, and as the ghostly blade pierced her, she was blinded to all the world but for herself and the wraith. She crawled on top of the alter for better positioning. Thokk was swinging his axe at the succubus, but she deftly avoided his swinging weapon and snuck in for a kiss upon his lips. Suddenly attacking her didn’t seem like such a good idea, and he moved to another target. Hex was groped from behind by a heartless vampire zombie, who threw his long nailed arms around the swordlock and held him fast, bending in to plant his sharp incisors into Hexes neck.

Poppy faced off against the vampire witch Calypso, but she was hard to hit. Thokk eventually knocked her to the ground and used his headsman chop to send her into the afterlife. Since he was unable to attack the Succubus, along with Hex who also got kissed, Poppy stepped up and swung her massive sword in an unbelievably lucky attack that left the demon headless. Her body evaporated. By this time, Hex had disengaged and used his magic to instantly switch places with Ria. Suddenly, the panther had an unexpected prey, and this one had a much sharper pointy stabby thing then the luscious cleric.

The battle in the clearing was winding down as they chased down the last of the heartless vampire zombies down, but the real battle was just beginning as the panther found itself cornered when Thokk streaked his way across the clearing and down the path to flank the beast. Soon with the entire party surrounding and beating on the displacer panther, it was looking for a way out, but none came, and it was reduced to laying down on its side and mewling. It surrendered, and the party was left wondering what to do with a very big, very humiliated displacer panther.

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The session began with the characters taking stock of their situation. They had just defeated the army of white apes that greeted their arrival in the ruined volcano temple with feral screams of challenge. They worked their way up the winding staircase to the lip of the volcano, where a small stretch of jungle overhung the steaming crater. From here, the highest vantage point on the island, they were able to take stock of their locale and spy some of the features of this island of mystery and danger, as well as discover that they had four options for descending the volcano.

The island was divided into three sections by sharp edged mountains ranges. To the north, the volcano sloped down to the coast of tall craggy cliffs which stretched the entire northern length of the island. They were able to see a fair number of flying creatures flying in and out of caves, and diving for fish between the rocks and small islets that dotted the northern waters. The creatures were large and looked to be four legged. One character thought they might be hippogriffs. This set off the imagination of some of the characters, who had visions of themselves flaying over the lands below.

To the west, the slope descended into a bog, and south of the bog, the western reaches were divided by a huge lake, with an island in its center. They could just make out what looked to be a mansion on that island, and it looked very out of place. South of the lake was an area of plains. The rolling plains led to the southwestern beaches, where they could just make out what looked like the ruins of a colony or some other walled enclave. It looked abandoned.

Heading down the mountain to the center of the island led to a raised highland plateau of broken lands and scrub. South of that was a jungle surrounded on all sides by mountains, and with a green river snaking through it, to break through the southern mountains and empty into the sea. More plains to the south showed what looked like a sunken ship in the shallows off the coast.

The eastern reaches were an area of hills closest to the volcano, and in those hills they could see large plumes of dust raised, but couldn’t tell what was causing it. South of the hills were more forest and plains, and they saw what looked like a thriving walled community. Floating in the protected bay outside the walled town was a ship with black sails.

There was another island connected to the mainland by the narrow strand of a natural stone bridge, all that remained of the mountain range where the sea had blasted through it.

Of more pressing concern was the campsite near the peak. Through the trees they could hear the hooting and calls of the silver backed apes, but they kept their distance as the party made their way to the old campsite which was made up of a torn teepee and a ring of stones for a cooking fire. On a stake planted in the ground near the fire was an ape’s head slowly decaying in the jungle heat. The fire looked weeks old, and no tracks could be found, other than ape tracks all around the campsite.

In the tent, they found a table, upon which was tacked a beautifully illustrated map of the island. The table and chair looked crudely made out of local materials, and across the back of the chair was a cured ape hide cut to be worn as a cloak. The bed was a small cot with a quilt patterned in arcane symbols. A moldering robe. Also in the room was a battered but locked chest. Thokk pried the lid open with his steel belted hands and showed little regard for the lock. Inside they found a bag of 10 small rubies, a scroll and a journal, titled “The Adventures of Shalazar Jones”.

The leather bound journal looked like it was once waterlogged. The pages were rippled and torn, and the ink was smeared. Nonetheless, it is mostly legible. The first few pages of the journal detail the sea voyage from Shalazar, the southern-most city of the main continent of D Erte, to the Isle of Dread. At least 20 days are spent on the voyage. The ship seems to become lost in a storm and is thrown up onto the southern beach of the Isle. Shalazar Jones is the only survivor. He trekked inland with a goal of reaching the top of the volcano to get his bearings. He describes a battle with a white ape, in which he was victorious, and since then the apes have not bothered him. The last few pages get harder to decipher until the last page, which is written in verse:

The mists cannot be breached nor bypassed
Without the Black Pearl held fast
The Black pearl cannot be found
Without first searching underground
The Black Pearl cannot be made
Without the natives aid
The broken planks cannot be fixed
Without woodwork masters tricks

The Black Pearl floundered castaway
Pirates have their own Black Pearl
Wizard knows but will not say
Where to search for pool a whirl
Hag knows spell, witch knows spell
Natives Know only where to fish
Tree monkeys hammer but fear the swell
Put them together and make a wish

The last few pages of the journal are empty. Also in the chest was a small wooden case that contained artists tools. The letter was written on fine vellum and was from Lady, the queen of Shalazar. It read:

By Writ of Her Highness the Immortal Queen of Shalazar

Fang Titan Drake
Death Cattle
Displacer Panther Packlord
Radiant Serpent
Stone Eye Basilisk

The adventurers wanted flying mounts, and so they headed north with the intention of gaining mounts, or even raiding the nests to raise hem for later. Soon however, as they were clinging to a cliff wall on a narrow natural stair that led to one of these caves, a glided into view, and it was no hippogriff, but instead had the body of a great lion, a scorpion-like tail laden with sharp thorns, and an angry old mans face. They immediately began heading back the way they came, and though the manticore saw them, it chose not to pursue.

Choosing the western route, with the intention of checking out the mansion on the way to the shore, the began coming down the mountain. The jungle had claimed the steep sides, and they followed a game trail that eventually led them into a clearing. As they crossed, unawares of course, they noticed a fragrant smell. The clearing was lined with dark purple flowers, and the ground was covered in an especially soft, spongy moss. A few of the group, the men actually, decided it was a good place to sit down and rest.

Of course, all was not as it seemed, it was an ambush, and the mossy floor began to undulate. They were sinking into the moss, and deadly acid was bubbling up, injuring them, while at the same time, their minds struggled with intense vertigo, unable to focus on the ground beneath their feet. They were under the psychic tortures of a dreaded Moss mind master. The triple M enemy was able to trawl the minds of those it was battling, and produce a duplicate made out of moss. The field was soon filled with shaggy green Hexes and Poppies. The mindmaster itself reared up off the ground and into a massive shambling mound, invisible to any who came too near by its vertigo inducing aura. It sent mind attacks to tear into the party and send their own attacks against them, while swinging a big spongy fist of dripping acid moss around. The moss duplicates cavorted around the periphery but collapsed under a direct hit.

The cleric backed to the edge of the clearing, and heard the first rumblings of a second ambush as a long sleek panther leapt out of the jungle in a surprise sneak attack. It was the same color as the lotus of the clearing, with a gaping jaw of fangs and it had strange writhing tentacles sprouting from just behind its shoulder blades. But what made the displacer panther more frightening still was that it seemed to be more than one place at once, and sometimes neither place. The cunning hunter had been waiting for just this moment to attack and it tore though the priestess scant armour, causing grievous wounds. The cleric was undaunted however, and she turned and cast a spell that instantly turned the beast into a pacifist, quelling its natural violence while the spell lasted. Rendered unable to attack the panther slunk back into the dark trees upslope, growling lowly, looking back often with its emerald eyes.

Mastering the moss followed suit, and the party continued down the mountainside. Eventually as the path starts to level out, and the twilight of evening darkens, they hear the chirp of insects and smell the fetid swampy bog that lies spread out beneath them.

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Evil Temple or Day Spa?

One moment you are in a lifeless void, the next moment you are thrust into a place of stunning vibrant sensation…

The air is thick with the mixed smells of jungle, sea, and sulfur. Your vision is obscured by the limbs, leaves, and vines of the overhanging vegetation, and their swishing is loud in your ears, along with the buzzing of insects and the more distant shrieks and calls of the local fauna. You stand on the crumbling ruins of a platform built into the inside wall of a volcano. A circle, still faintly glowing blue, inscribes the stone at your feet and a winding stair built into the wall leads to other small platforms above and below. Far below the caldera of the volcano casts a sinister glow, the glow of lava. Broken columns on the edges of the platform is all that is left of the monastery that once straddled the crater.

Poppy, Thokk, Hex, and Ria were the first to cross through the portal and leave the eternal city of D Argent for the fecund tropical Isle of Dread. Through a crack in the volcano wall, they could see the entirety of the island spread before them, stretching towards the southeast as far as the eye could see. No sooner had they got their bearings than they heard a much more immediate sound. A deep thudding boom came from the rim above. Between the trunks of overhanging trees appeared a huge white ape, at least 10 feet tall. He stood on two legs and beat his chest with two pairs of clawed fists. It was a girallon, the infamous Six Armed White Ape of the Isle of Dread. Behind him came his subjects, a pair of hooting and hollering silver backed apes who held chunks of stone above their heads. They threw their stones at the cleric, but both sailed harmlessly into the magma below. Ria retreated to try the lower route.

Before she or anyone else had time to react a second feral scream assaulted their ears from below. Another large girallon seemed to appear out of nowhere, to threaten from the platform below. He differed slightly from his cousin above. His six arms ended in blood red claws, and his eyes glowed menacing red. It was the even more infamous Su-Girallon, corrupted by an evil intelligence. Without pause for reflexion, Hex charged down the stone steps toward the su-girallon, cursing it as he went. From the platform he could see a break in the wall and a cave entrance partially concealed by an outcropping. From inside the cavern came the echoing howls of more monsters, and even as he discovered it, another beast came rushing through to throw its arms about the swordlock and drag him past the Su Alpha towards the platforms edge. The red claws of the beast raked him savagely as he was pulled past, but stopped short of toppling over the edge.

Above Poppy and hex withstood the charging rush of the girallon the barbarian named Big Top. Claws raked and fists pummeled. The silver backed apes tumbled down the stairs to whale into the barbarian, slamming into him with their massive arms. The apes encircled the barbarian and attacked from boh sides while the Girallon pushed past him to engage the little elf with the big sword. They sparred and he tried to grapple her, but she twisted out of the things grasp. Finally he over-reached and tumbled to the ground as they fought along the very edge of the platform. With a downward sweep of her heavy blade, the girallons head dropped to sizzle into the magma below.

Hex used his magic to strike the su alpha and slide him over the edge of the platform. The creature dropped 20 feet to land on his back in the cooling magma. It was scorched by the lava and wasted no time to scramble over the areas of lava that had formed a slightly cooler blackened crust, and thus it was not instantly incinerated by the extreme heat of molten rock. So there.

A second minion of the su alpha tumbled out of the crack in the wall to push Hex over the edge and he too went tumbling down into the lava. Having some resistance to fire, due to diabolical pacts, meant Hex took a minimum of burn damage as he too rushed for stable footing. By this time the su alpha had rushed from the caldera back to his platform and was trying to attack Ria who was cut off an alone on the platform. With the help of another su minion, which continued to spew forth from their lair, they managed to throw the cleric down into the lava. She suffered mightily from the attack and was forced to expend her divine healing magic on herself to prevent her from succumbing to the heat and the slashing claws of the su alpha who followed her down.

The back and forth of the battle went on for some time as the party was split, with Ria and Hex fighting off the Su alpha and the minions which continued to spill forth from the crack one by one to come rushing down the stairs. After Ria was knocked into the caldera of the volcano, she looked up and watched with surprise as minion who knocked her over the edge turned its attention to one of the silver back apes, to its own destruction. Then the ape turned to charge Poppy from behind, hurling her off the platform to come splashing down into the very very warm lava below. At the same time Thokk fell under the beating of the other silver-back.

Hex slashed at the Su Alpha from behind while it stood on the edge of solid ground and knocked Ria back into the magma with a back-hand slam every time she tried to escape the burning lava. She had to keep up a steady prayer of healing for herself such was the suffering caused by the big six armed brute. When Poppy fell from above, she bounced up lightly from the crusted lava and without pause charged the su alpha. Between Ria and Poppy, they were able to subdue the alpha male under their constant attacks until it lay down dead at the ladies feet.

Up above two apes beat on the unconscious form of the half orc barbarian. Whenever he apes tried to land a killing blow, somehow the oblivious barbarian would twitch and roll to the side, avoiding the apes. From below Ria tried to rush up the stairs to save the barbarian before he succumbed to death. She ran past the su monster cave and heard the hissing and howling of the creatures from within, but the cowardly creatures refused to engage now that their master was slain.

She blasted the last ape into oblivion and reached the half orcs side before he died.

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