D&D Journal #27

The following journal is short, because I’m unusually busy right now. I just took my session notes, and edited them, to make them more readable. I’d be really happy to know what you think about this format, as opposed to the previous journals.

Campaign: Ancient Runes
Session Date: 19.5.06
Present Players: Mickey (Verena), Koby (Seamore), Effim (Hrothgar), Alexey (Ringold), Natalie (Grenada), Gideon (Ivillious)
Game Date: 285 TME (to The Modern Era) Early Spring
Day 5 in the Maze.
Time: ~24:00
Sleep Time: ~13:00 [sleep time is the next time you are supposed to sleep, if you sleep at the same time each day]
NPCs Met:
Seebo, male gnome leader
Gerbo, male gnome
Duldshvan, male gnome
Fonkin, male gnome
Ondami, tall black Human in crimson and purple robes, with a ruby on his forehead and a carved bone amulet.
Arios the Paladin
Rooms Explored: slamming doors corridor(no description, as you’ve passed it), ex-fire elemental room (Ringold and Ivillious weren’t there, and the room was squeaky clean. Eerily clean. You set out on a quest to find your dead friends’ bodies), gnome room (no description, as you’ve passed it), merchant corridor (he wasn’t there), Paladin room (see one liners/character interaction), Cleric room (Ondami was there, and he gave you your first mission [out of three], in order to retrieve your friends, who are currently “traveling between worlds and planes”, as he phrased it) and then the ooze room.
Enemies Fought:
[maze group] Oozes – 4 black ones and 2 clear ones. Awful battle. This is the last time I’m bringing in Oozes that split.
[mountain group] 2 large, white, ape-like creature and one huge, white, ape-like creature. Nice tactics there.
Things Found: Not much worth noting.
One liners/Character interaction: Hrothgar was unusually impatient. Hopefully his ego will go down a notch or two. You also discovered that he came to the maze in order to find a cure for his bear changing phenomenon.
Seamore had some nice interaction with Arios, the paladin, disappearing whenever he saw her.
Arios had a nice discussion with Verena and Hrothgar. She also told you that you might have visions at the beginning of the next part of the labyrinth.
Grenada found her voice a bit, this session. Needs to take the lead a bit more – but a definite improvement.
Ivillious and Ringold had some fun in the sun in a freezing mountain (died there, too)-range and in mysterious metal building.
End Point: ~5:30 in the morning. Outside the room with the oozes. Hrothgar is pretty bashed up.

D&D Journal #25

Wow – we’re at 25 already! ‘Aint that cool!
Let’s see, last session you started right after Ringold and Ivillious died (unexpectedly) in the hands of an Elder Fire Elemental (if only an elder fire elemental had hands…).
RIP Ringold and Ivillious (or will they?)
Anyway, Verena confronted Seamore by the smoking remnants of your deceased party members. “We should have done better, and you still owe me an explanation for your behavior in the sarcophagi room” was the gist of most of it.
You then went out shopping (there’s nothing like going out on a shopping spree after your team mates just died a horrible death), had a little chat with the merchant of this area, Giermond, left him empty handed, and walked back to your friends’ bodies. On the way, Grenada (there in body, if not in spirit), found a secret doorway, and you opened it to find one of the labyrinth’s “backstage” areas, with a few gnomes, some beds, barrels, sacks, etc. The gnomes were terrified to see you at first, but after Verena talked to them a bit, they relaxed, and their leader Fonkin, stammering and stuttering, told you that they maintain the traps in the maze, being called out from time to time, when the coast is clear, to fix what adventurers like you break. They are very proud of their work; even though it seems that the maze terrifies them, and they aren’t so sure what it’s used for (they live in a little world of their own, of gadgets and gizmos). They have a nice time with Seamore, showing them their creations, and it seems as though he enjoyed himself as well. The encounter ends with you getting a few tips about some traps, and Seamore getting some presents for his help (what little things the gnomes have to give).
Then you reached a room with a carpet (that you were previously warned about), and Grenada walked into the room, got trapped in it, and almost got killed by the carpet, which turned out to be quite animated (pun intended). However, you did manage to get there in time, and save the gnome from certain death, destroying the carpet in the process (quite a “gnomy” day you had there).
Seamore healed Grenada, and you continued on your way – this time going for the door opposite the door where the fire elemental was (the door with the seaweed and mermaids and such carved on it). Grenada opened the door for you, and you discovered a relatively dark room (lowlight), that is in fact a large pool, with a stone column slung across it, as a bridge to the stone door on the other side. Verena discovers very quickly that magic does not function in the room, while Seamore notices the dark and large figures swimming in the water (Verena identifies one as a Shark. The other remains unidentified). Verena finally summons up enough courage to walk to the other side, reaching the door at the other end safely (although she did slip once on the way), and passing through it. Next came Grenada, who passed to the other side effortlessly, which left Seamore, more or less stranded on the other side. Our mighty Dwarf tried to cast fly on himself, and rush to the other side – a seemingly impossible feat that turned out truly impossible in the end, as he fell, like a stone, into the waters below. Once he touched the water, the fly spell came into action (checking that out later, I discovered that that shouldn’t have happened, but whatever. If you go into the room next time with “fly” cast on you – that’s not how it’ll work) and he flew to the ceiling, only to crash down again, later on. Anyway, our yo-yo dwarf finally got the hint, and made it all the way, the normal way, to the other end. The corridor you reached was in poor repair, with blinking lights, roughly hewn floors, cracks on the wall and ceiling, etc. You followed it until you reached a smelly and ancient man in a dirty toga, bald, but for a few wisps of hair, that held an old and worn piece of rope, that connected to a rusty pulley, which in turn ran down to a rickety wicker basket, with room for one person (or two people that had better be married, or very much in love…). “Silver piece for passage”, the old man croaked, “Silver piece for passage”. Seamore noticed that the decrepit creature had a blackened silver symbol on his neck, and you all noticed that “silver piece for passage” is all that he seems to say. You pay him, and go down the hole, about 120ft into a snake pit (with, and here’s the surprise, snakes!). You fought the snakes and lizards and crocodiles bravely (at the end Verena had to sit in a ridicules bubble, just to stay alive), and very tired, you finished your daily work, standing at the edge of the snake pit, in front of the corridor leading 30ft forwards, and then taking a sharp left turn. Here endeth the session, and here you also got yourselves a brand new level (11). Go you!
P.S. I ignored Ivy on purpose, it being easier for me to introduce Hrothgar in the next journal.