RECAP: Jade Regent, 5-15-20
|From before: we burned Zoltan’s body so we couldn’t speak with dead; Mitch’s brother died in prison before the start of the game, and that’s when Zoltan took Mitch under his wing.
Last time: we made our way up the tower, fighting as we went – first rhemorazes (some people got swallowed bu got better); then crystal crabs, and then we reached the top. The top of the tower was super cold, and though we were attacked by undead and demons, we immediately went after the electrically charged crystals. We were also taunted by a semi-ghostly figure, childlike almost, who called us out. She stayed out of the combat at first, though lightning was shooting everywhere. Finally Mitch was able to kill her; when she fell, she had a ghostly air to her, and there seemed to be a separation of her physical corpse and her spirit, which flew off. The big blue sphere imploded and vaporized. Seconds later, the wind died down to “normal” and the extra coldness went away as well. Even the storm clouds receded a bit, although they were still there. The childlike creature looked like a nymph, but had some demonic physical traits like a tiefling. Her power seemed to be tied to the crystals.
This time: after about 5 min., the clouds started to dissipate, and the sun actually began to come out.Munpo is sure this tower was controlling the clouds; Billana thinks this was the beacon that controlled the other obelisks, which were acting as extenders, like extending the range of what the tower could do.
Right now we’re still 80 to 100 feet up, but esteban sorts out the elevator to the second floor. In the crystal room, we begin excavating the crystals. Some of the crystals have units that are used by the crabs to “manage the tower.” We are not sure how that works. It takes the team about 20 min. to extract all of the crystals, about 5500 gold pieces worth of crystals and gems.
We go down to the first floor to examine possible supplies in the area to the rear of the tower; at the left are some plants but mostly a white fungus; to the right are plants that have been growing wildly, and to the north are what looks to be various sorts of trade goods. Esteban looks through these and finds trinkets, some archaeological items, and some generic tools – not much. Erebus and Kainyn hear movement in the fungus room, and Savior goes to investigate and gets attacked by invisible creatures. Munpo moves into the other room and is attacked by a large plant.
The flight commences: Frost phantoms to the left, giant plant to the right. Frost phantoms are invisible and they go after Kainyn first. Munpo gets swallowed whole by the plant, and asked about attacks with arrows from the North. Munpo turns into a fire elemental, however, and is vomited back out by the plant. Savior uses his scenting ability to track and tactics of frost phantoms, with some success; the others except Kainyn (who has cast see invisibility) fight unseen creatures.
The plant creature proves to be very tough, and Erebus goes to help after Munpo gets barfed out. He keeps fighting though but then withdraws due to low hit points. Eventually the plant is killed in inside is founded +1 mithral breastplate; other weapons and crap are inside including an axe head that radiates faint magic but has no wooden pieces. These have been dissolved and digested by the plant. In the back room, we managed to extract one cargo unit of “supplies” and about 1800 gold pieces worth of “relics.”
We head back to the wagons and carry on towards Tien Xia. Everyone’s curious, since they felt the pressure wave from the blue sphere imploding over 2 miles away. Small patches of stars are visible now, which increases the next morning. Around the fire that night talk turns to: what do we do now? Ulf says we are well off the trade routes, since we came to the tower. His recommendation is to curve eastward and recapture the trade route at a place called Dead Man’s Dome, which is on the path. Basically it’s just a big crater, the exact opposite of a dome. Ulf says that lots of cultures have tried to colonize this area but the most successful was about 5000 people about 1000 years ago. Giants and undead slaughtered them. The town had a domed structure, and one heroic guardsman’s last act was to lure the giants into the dome and then drop it onto himself and the giants. No one knows any names, either the people or the warrior.
Once we rejoin the trade routes, will move out to Ul Angorn, which is about the same size as Qualiat, with people who are nice enough but a little nosy. Then we cross the river and head to Jarbin. Then straight across the tundra through the mountains and then we’re in Tien Xia.
Munpo will fix the magic axe had at some point. Morale has gone up considerably, the sun is out and travel goes swiftly and until we get to Dead Man’s Dome all is clear. However, about halfway, the dire wolf informs us that there are some frost drakes that have seen us. We get the wagons circled and see figures in the sky that blot out the stars. The drakes are on the way.
The better morale helps, and the wagons get the early lead against the drakes. Eventually we kill three and chase off the last one. Then we camp for the rest of the night. The next morning everyone is in good spirits and we move along for a couple of days since it will take us almost a week to get the Dead Man’s Dome. We can see some hills in the distance and some trees farther on; this is the first time in a while we have seen any trees or bare earth that isn’t covered in ice pack. The dire wolf scouts ahead.
After dark, Erebus spots a glow to the south, bluish white and about 150 yards away. Esteban and Savior stealth out south to have a look, but after they leave the winter wolf says the stink of undead are upon us from the North. Esteban gets close to the glowing thing: it’s a ghost in the shape of a man. He crouches to get a better look, but realizes suddenly that he’s in the basin, the crater that was talked about at Dead Man’s Dome. We put our camp right next to it. The ghost is moving around and looks like it’s guarding something. Savior heads back to the wagons, which alerts the ghost guard. If Esteban had to guess, the ghost is not aggressive but it’s still a ghost. It looks like a warrior.
Eventually the ghost comes forward and mouths the word: “danger.” It slowly reaches for Esteban’s head with both hands and although Esteban is a little frightened he lets it touch him. When it does, Esteban can hear its voice: “You are of the living, and you are in danger here. My kind approaches. Come here and fight, and I will help you.” Then it says: “I know that you and your friends cannot see – I can give you vision.”
Basically, we have to fight at both the crater and the caravan, since undead are coming from both directions. If we try to all gather in one place, we will be surrounded and overwhelmed and the ghost can’t help us. The team regroups and the first fight begins: the undead approach but the ghost illuminates the field. There are lots of undead, moving with purpose, almost in formation which they never do. And behind them we can hear the familiar cackle of the flamingo lady. There are wave after wave of skeletons, zombies and some sort of undead priestess, who flow towards the party. A party split into groups to fight them. Eventually we manage to kill all the undead but do not see the flamingo woman. Kainyn has See Invisible up, and has had Fly cast on him by Billana.