Last updated June 6th, 2008
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Game Summary
Previously...
mp080315
Previously, on Mediterranean Plotluck... After nursing Seikius back to health and taking a few days to recover from their ordeals, the party finally finished the repairs to their ship. They debated whether they would leave the island yet, particularly because Seikius still wanted to recover the "Staff of Apollo," as he was asked to do in his vision.
While the party deliberated, they were surprised when five figures emerged from the underwater cave entrance. Liola staged an escape and brought several other prisoners with her -- Cessar, a human ranger, Hythia, a tiefling scout, Krokius "Krok," an orc barbarian, and Occela, a human cleric. Liola warned the party that the frogs would likely soon send an attack force.
The party quickly set about building defensive structures and prepared for the upcoming attack. With Ghamor's familiar acting as an advanced scout, the party was immediately aware when the frog-creatures moved against them. Wave after wave of frogs fell from alchemical explosives, missile fire, and the combined defensive force of Ackrak, Seikius, and Krok. The battle seemed to be going quite well...
Overview
Episode 7: Treasure! A Hoard To Loot But What's This?
Date: March 22nd, 2008
The explosives eventually run out, and Ackrak, Seikius, and Krok are forced to wade into melee, but the frog attack force is breaking. At last, the frogs' morale is broken and they begin to flee, leaving many of their wounded behind and abandoning their slain comrades. Occela heals the relatively few injuries sustained, and Ackrak, Ghamor, Seikius, and Krok give chase.
The group catches up to the routing frogs and slaughters the survivors, though they discover a new enemy has appeared. An unarmored man, bearing a collection of severed heads approaches the party and begins an assault using a style of combat similar to the "boneskin knight" from days previous. The party is more powerful now, however, and they are familiar with the man's tactics, and more than a match for his power. He is quickly disarmed of both his magical focus (the severed heads) and even his weapon, both courtesy of Krok. The man acknowledges his defeat in a most bizarre manner, plucking his heart from his own chest and offering it to Krok. A bewildered Krok accepts the man's offer, and the man collapses.
He was not alone, however, as a terrible sea monster had risen from the sea and attacked the ship while the party mopped up the frogs and battled the strange man. They now race back to their ship as the monster retreats, likely sensing its master's demise. The party finds the ship has sustained only superficial damage with a minor loss of crew. Though Hythia sustained a grievous injury, having lost her arm to the battle with the sea monster, and though she survived with Occela's aid, magical healing could not restore her limb.
Anticipating a weak resistance from the remaining frogs, the party descends into the caverns for one last exploration, hoping to find any wealth hoarded by the frogs. To their surprise, they find the frog's camp with ease, and also that no frogs remain at all. They find a large altar and an idol, stained with the blood of humanoid sacrifice, and enough bones to constitute two goblins ... likely Seikius's students. They quickly destroying the altar and defacing the idol.
They search the ruins of the frog's camp, presumably where a couple hundred of the creatures were staying, and locate a spawning pool. The party uses a combination of magic and brute force to destroy hundreds of the frog's eggs. In what likely served as a throne room, they find a passage obscured with a large, heavy stone, which Ackrak and Seikius easily move aside. Inside, they find the entire wealth of the creatures, likely taken from merchant ships and unwary travelers over the course of many years.
You see before you a magnificent treasure, the likes of which you could never imagine were it not before you now. Mounds of gold and silver coins litter the floor like fallen leaves, along with gems of all kinds: amber, diamonds, and rubies.
There are four masterful sculptures: one of Athena, one of Apollo, and one of Artemis in repose, and the fourth is a particularly stunning bronze of Aphrodite that inspires lustful thoughts.
You see some of the most rare and exotic paintings and mosaics imaginable, as well as fur and silk clothing heaped around almost carelessly, likely collected from a hundred, hundred merchant vessels.
Among the vast wealth laid before you, there are a dozen or so items that stand out in particular.
There is a black, bound tome etched with unfamiliar runes, likely from the lands West of Greece.
There is a brilliant, green, fist-sized gem that casts reflections of light all around the room.
There is a rod, about 3 feet long, made of copper and wrapped in sheepskin, adorned with a fist clutching a lightning bolt.
You see a pair of bronze bracers, inlaid with semi-precious stones.
(Closer inspection reveals the bracers are covered in curiously detailed etchings of violent war scenes.)
Almost absently tucked away in a corner, is an apple, seemingly made of pure gold.
There is a plain-looking pitcher made of clay, not adorned with any precious metal or gems.
(Picking it up, it seems to be lightweight, yet practically full to the brim with liquid. Curiously, the contents don't seem to slosh around as you move, and pour only when you desire it.)
A bright-red sash draped over a massive, golden harp. The cloth shimmers and shines with unnatural light.
There is a heavy flail with a handle of a dark, almost-black wood with a thick, silvery chain and a demonic-looking silver skull at the end.
There is what first appears to be an exotic, dark metal-cast sculpture of a pouncing lion actually turns out to be the blade of a long sword, one of the longest you've ever seen.
(Actually a bastard sword, this weapon seems much heavier than most weapons you've held.)
Almost immediately, Seikius spots another item, the Staff of Apollo that he's been searching for. In his zeal to complete his quest, Seikius seizes the staff, perhaps a foolhardy move, as the moment his fingers wrap around it, he's overcome with a surge of holy power that enervates him, nearly killing him. He is scoured of the curse wrought by the "boneskin knight," and he feels a negative reaction in connection with each of the evil items he possesses. His skin burnt, he is momentarily reduced to a pale, quivering shadow of his former self. Yet he survives the divine transformation and emerges triumphant, with a new sense of purpose.
Ackrak takes for himself the red sash and the harp, the former which he keeps for himself, and the latter which he plans to gift to his goblin slave Gycco. Ghamor chooses to take the black tome, and also chooses the plain-looking pitcher as a gift for his elf-slave, Xiao Nan. Seikius, with staff already in shaking hand, chooses the bronze bracers. Krok seizes the golden apple, and also the skull-topped flail. Each seems satisfied with his choice of items, each with a plan in mind of how to use his portion of the loot.
The party then begins dividing up the remaining spoils, and Ghamor uncovers another item, unseen beneath the piles of silk and fine cloth; a fantastically beautiful mirror. However, upon gazing at the mirror, the world begins to shrink around the party, and each one is drawn into the mirror, in turn.
All the rest of the world seems to fade away. Time crawls to a standstill. All senses fail and fall silent within a small, lightless hell. Ackrak, Ghamor, Seikius, and Krok lose all sense of mind and self, and become lost within a empty wasteland of their minds. After an apparently brief moment, they are suddenly forward drawn again, where they fall to their knees, naked except for the horde-items they seized moments before gazing upon the mirror; Ackrak with the harp and sash, Ghamor with the tome and pitcher, Seikius with the staff and bracers, and Krok with the apple and flail.
They find themselves on a familiar ship in the middle of a dark and stormy sea. Liola stands before them, along with the others escapees. There are a few new faces however. Overhead, the sky is dark and scornful, and the party feels the ship toss on the fierce ocean waves. Liola tells them that they have been freed from the mirror, and indeed they see shards of glass lying on the deck of the ship. Liola holds the "boneskin knight's" scythe in her hands, and the shattered mirror is at their back.
"It has been one year... one year since you were lost to the mirror... much has changed."
Game Quotes
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Game Review
This was the last game session before Jack left on a three-week trip to visit China. As such, I decided to be cruel and leave the game on a cliff-hanger. The party ransacked a treasure hoard, each one receiving two artifact-level items, before becoming trapped in a magic mirror, only to be released one year later...
EXP by Player
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EXP by GM
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Next Session
Date: April 19th, 2008
Link: mp080419
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