If you have been a following of my on again off again podcast/video format, first of all thanks, but second I am likely going to discontinue that effort. Realistically, it is a lot of effort to prepare the videos every other week, and the very small audience I seem to be reaching just isn’t worth the effort. I will likely still record the games, I still enjoy that challenge, but the editing and publishing of the videos could fade away unless I get back a lot more motivation. Instead, I am going to swap to more of a written format, potentially with photos from during the game.
With this last game, we started Chapter 5, Sins of the Saviors. The group had finished chapter 4 during the last game, and with some re-gearing and character upgrades, we started out at level 13.
As part of the storyline, I asked the group to fill out a short personality survey for each of the current characters, to get a judgement as to how much Sin or Virtue each character had presented. If you are familiar with the campaign, this is an ongoing theme, and a factor that plays heavily into the last two chapters, providing bonuses or penalties based on the traits of the character versus the locations within the story. Will finalize those results before the next game session in 2 weeks.
We started out the story with the group returning to Sandpoint, hailed as heroes and victors against the looming Stone Giant invasion. Unfortunately, at the same time that they had defeated Mokmurian, a massive sinkhole had opened and appeared in the center of Sandpoint. This pit swallowed several buildings, and heavily damaged the town barracks, but fortunately no one was killed. However over the following nights, strange noises, howls and screams could be heard from the hole, and the Sheriff dispatched a patrol to investigate. That patrol unfortunately did not return after several days, and the Sheriff roped off the pit for safety. Since then, the town had waiting with growing dread, until the group had returned.
With some hesitation and nervousness, the group agreed to investigate the sinkhole, and explore its depths – to rescue any guards they could and stop whatever dire threat remained. Climbing down, they found an ancient staircase, leading into equally old architecture and a series of chambers beneath the city. These chambers, filled with a thick obscuring fog, were heavily decorated floor to ceiling with strange writings, written in various inks and mediums (charcoal, carvings, dried blood), and all with different sizes – but all written by the same hand. While the group investigated the writings in the first room, several of the members spread out to explore other sections, determining that the hidden rooms had once been a chapel to Lamashtu. More concerning though, as the group separated, is that the fog within the hallways and chambers had a mystical effect, and rather rapidly began causing confusion amongst the group.
Initially this was a simple matter of the group splitting up further, or mistakenly believing the group had gone one way when they had gone the other, but as Amiri the barbarian moved into the next large chamber, she was set upon by a guardian. Moving out of the mists and gloom, a Glabrezu demon engaged and attacked, quickly summoning a second demon for assistance. The confusion fog hampered this fight significantly, both by muffling the noises, and also continuing to confuse and separate the group.
The battle ended up taking most of the session, and actually still will continue into the next session. It began with the barbarian nearly dying, before he was able to fall back to the rest of the group and get them full engaged. Then with some coordination from Seltyiel the sorcerer, and several force walls, the group gained enough time to heal and recover, before continuing the fight. In the meantime, Lini the druid managed to bypass most of the confusion by using Wild Shape to become an earth elemental, and travelling thru the ground. From there, he emerged into the second chamber and was able to directly engage one of the demons.
Currently, we have the group spread out again, with both demons facing the druid, and the slowly approaching group. Back in the initial chamber, a recently cast reverse-gravity field (thanks to the Glabrezu’s) is hampering the groups movement, but the team is slowly pulling together.
