York's scenario recap

Session 1: Leomund's Tiny House

PCs: Adrie, Half-Orc Cleric (Tim DeCapio); Giltun, Dragonborn Warlock (Elissa Hoeger); Nash, Human Cleric (Mykl Sandusky); Phynian, Human Sorcerer (George McBride); Ripper, Elf Fighter (Corwin Knaff); Shofar Walowitz, Half-Elf Bard (Alan Zitomer); Vassago, Half-Elf Warlock (Colleen Moore); Vetran, Elf Cleric (Ron Seidel)

Our Heroes were recruited by Miroslav, a human Cleric of Hione, for an expedition into Whiggam's mountains. Doing library research, he had found fragmentary notes about a long-vanished Warlock who had spoken, occasionally, of a land holding many bizarre creatures found nowhere else in the world. Tracking these clues, he found no more about the land (except that it was on some continent other than Whiggam), but he managed to pin down the identity of the Warlock, a gnome named Leomund. (No, not that Leomund. Apparently this Gnome admired the ancient wizard and spell-creator Leomund so much that he adopted it as his magical name when he came into his powers. The Gnome's original name is lost to history.) He had established that Leomund vanished about 80 years ago, and had found the location of his remote, fortified home.

Guided by Miroslav, the party swiftly traveled into the mountains, learning at the last town in the foothills that this particular stretch of mountains had an evil reputation -- "nobody goes there, it's scary." As they climbed toward the presumed location of Leomund's home, they began to hear the eerie peals of a distant bell, which brought on increasing feelings of unease. The bell rang once every 15 minutes, and the sound came from ahead of them, growing louder (and making them increasingly nervous) as they traveled. Eventually they reached a clear slope leading up to a structure at the peak of a ridgeline, which both matched the location on Miroslav's map and could be clearly identified as the source of the mysterious bell sound, which at close range induced fear so strong that it could be briefly paralyzing.

Approaching the house, they were attacked by a trio of Galeb Duhr, or rather by one Galeb Duhr and two boulders it had animated into minions with physical abilities equal to its own. Though bruised and battered, Our Heroes prevailed, only to discover a problem. Leomund, a recluse with no interest in entertaining visitors, had built a house to suit himself -- a solidly-built stone structure with a 4-foot-high roof and a 3-foot-tall door. It was at this point that our adventurers realized, with some chagrin, that they hadn't thought to recruit anyone Small for this expedition. The house had an attached observatory that was a 20-foot-diameter half-dome, which offered plenty of room inside, but unfortunately had no exterior doors.

The smaller and slenderer members of the party squeezed through the door and found that the main house appeared to be solely living quarters. A puzzle-lock on the door to the observatory was quickly solved. Another puzzle-lock in the middle of the observatory area opened a trapdoor into stairs leading down. This stairway apparently had been intended to pass large loads at times and so was wide and high enough for the party members to descend at a crouch, rather than squeezing through in a crawl. The party's Half-Orc, however, had to leave his armor outside the building entirely, since there was no way he could squeeze through the front door wearing it.

At a landing on the stairs a bizarre creature sketched itself in the air from the lines and angles of the stairway; fully formed, it looked more like a wireframe animation than a solid object, but it proved capable of dealing large amounts of slashing damage as the many thin lines of its structure cut through armor and flesh. Although resistant to many weapons it succumbed to magical fire, and the party made their way to the bottom and Leomund's true workroom.

This was dominated by a mural occupying the entirety of one wall. A sinister landscape beneath an impossible night sky held shadowy hints of menacing creatures lurking behind various elements of the terrain; in the foreground was a brightly-painted image of a cloaked, staff-wielding Gnome with his back to the viewer. As the party watched, the bell-tone sounded from the mural, somehow not frightening when they could see its source, and the picture animated. Dark creatures emerged from the landscape and charged toward the viewers, while the painted Gnome fought them off with Warlock cantrips and spells, and the power of his staff. Once the last of the onslaught was done, the painted Gnome froze back into immobility.

The animated picture produced sounds, including some comments from the Warlock suggesting that he was trying to keep the creatures from getting past him. On the next animation cycle the party discovered that they could fire missiles and spells into the mural and affect the animated creatures in it. This caught the attention of the painted Gnome, who turned to face them and apparently could see them. Although only snippets of conversation were possible as the painting froze after each wave of attackers was done, the party conveyed an offer of help and the Gnome asked them to get turpentine and wipe his painted image from the mural. When they did so they found that a live, three-dimensional Gnome was emerging from the wall as the paint was erased.

Ultimately Leomund thanked them for the rescue and explained that the mural was a portal for accessing the realm of the Great Old One from which he (and many other Warlocks) drew power. He had intended to use it to attack and seal off a pathway by which other denizens of that alien realm could attack the living world. The portal was so designed that only images could pass either way, a safety feature that he thought would keep it from being used as an alternate invasion route itself. He had circumvented that safeguard by painting himself into the mural with Nolzur's Pigments, thereby putting an image into the mural-world that was also real. To his chagrin he learned that his own presence in the mural made it a two-way pathway that the monstrous denizens of the other world could use to escape - unless he stopped them. Fortunately he found that after each onslaught there came a brief period of immobility which functioned as a rest. but he was unable to extricate himself until someone outside the mural could remove the paint. Once he was out, the mural was once more impassable.

Grateful for his rescue, and shocked to learn that he had been trapped in the mural for eighty years, Leomund told his rescuers that the land of exotic animals they wanted to find was in the Deep Forest on the continent of Surelant. He told them a few particulars, including the fact that the people of the Deep Forest were secretive, suspicious of outsiders, and tended to use mindpowers of the local fauna to befuddle uninvited guests. He recommended making friendly contact, with patience and persistence, as the best way to get access to the animals of the Deep Forest. Leomund also, as a token of gratitude, gave the party a quantity of magical gear he had used in his earlier adventuring days.

LITERARY SOURCES: This scenario was inspired by the writings of HP Lovecraft, with just a touch of Looney Tunes.

Session 2: Explore the Forest!

PCs: Amaya Rein, Human Monk (Hannah Tandy); Farryn, Elf Ranger (Danielle Coates); Hildur, Dwarf Barbarian (Clara Shikhelman); Lilith Stormweather, Tiefling Cleric (Sydney Chiang); Oswin Hornblower, Halfling Bard (Kevin Lee); Sycorax, Tiefling Cleric (Kayli Marshall); Vitis Vinifera, Half-Elf Ranger (Riley Chiang)

Surelant is a continent friendly to Whiggam. Since every continent is trying to build up their own Menagerie, collecting animals from Surelant's Great Forest might risk straining relations. Fortunately, the folk of Surelant believe that the depths of the Great Forest (hereafter simply the Deep Forest) is populated entirely by ignorant yokels who cannot possibly have anything of interest to trade. Whiggam was able to negotiate a deal where Whiggam adventurers would have a free hand in the Deep Forest, under the sole condition that if they retrieved more than one of any particular exotic animal not found elsewhere, they would leave one with the Surelant authorities. Whiggam also learned that, while the Deep Forest dwellers had relatively little contact with the outside world, they did sell exotic timbers and unique apothecary formulations in exchange for precious metals, platinum especially.

Travel between Whiggam and Surelant involves a long sea voyage -- essentially halfway around the World, about the same distance sailing west or east. When this expedition launched, storms at sea made the western route impassable, so the trip involved sailing eastward between Eldruent-Vangruldear and Melkanth, both continents hostile to Whiggam. There are two reasonable places to make landfall in Surelant, Westport on the extreme western tip of the island (which serves the Great West Road, running from the coast to the Great Forest), and Norbury in the northern mountains, which connects directly to the Great Forest through a steep but short mountain pass. The players elected to take the more northerly sea route, passing closer to EV to land at Norbury.

Sure enough, about 2/3 of the way to Surelant a large EV ship was spotted and changed course to shadow the Whiggam courier carrying the party, staying about 3 miles back. The PCs sent a raven (a character's familiar) carrying a small rock with a message tied to it; the message said they had the means to defend themselves and would do so if attacked. After receiving the message the EV ship dropped back to 5 miles separation but continued shadowing the party. The players deduced that the EV ship wasn't going to attack but intended to shadow them to wherever they were going in search of Menagerie finds. The players hatched a scheme where during the dead of night their courier would pass close to shore and drop them off in a lifeboat, which they would quickly row to shore and hide. They felt that with two rangers, one of whom specialized in coastal terrain, they could make their way overland to Norbury and reach the pass without too much delay.

Coming into sight of Norbury Harbor, they could see their Whiggam courier (which had been instructed to wait and bring them back, and supplied with ample funds for docking fees) anchored at a wharf, with the large EV ship that had shadowed them anchored about three slots away. The party split at this point, one contingent going to scout the pass, one going to the Surelant authorities to make sure their mission was acceptable, and one group (the party Bard, posing as a wealthy EV merchant on holiday) went to ask questions on the EV ship. Results: the pass looked to be in good shape for travel, the Surelant authorities were quite supportive of the Whiggam mission and happy to sell them additional travel supplies at cost, and the EV captain was cozened into admitting that he was on the lookout for the Whiggam ship to send out a party of adventurers and had a group of sailors with land and wilderness skills ready to go follow them whenever they appeared. Our Heroes avoided this headache by simply making for their planned rendezvous out-of-town without ever going back to their own ship.

Travel through the mountain pass involved an encounter with a gang of bandits led by a middling-high level Warlock, who used Hallucinatory Terrain to set up an ambush. The fight was made lively by taking place on a narrow ledge between a rising cliff and a ravine; jockeying for position to push an enemy into the ravine was a major tactic. Arriving at the Great Forest, the party quickly made friendly contact with the Foresters, a mixed society of elves, half-elves, and humans, with elves in the majority. They were taught recognition signs for friendly passage, and warned that the Deep Foresters were a suspicious, unfriendly bunch who had nothing of interest aside from the herbal concoctions and exotic timber that they sold for trade goods. Undaunted, Our Heroes pressed on, until one day two members of the party succeeded in a difficult saving throw and saw that their comrades had suddenly fallen into a trance and they were being confronted by people in forest-camouflage clothing holding small, furry, big-eyed creatures facing toward the party. The big-eyed creatures are Spirit Tarsiers, and the Deep Foresters explained that they have a gaze attack that can put people into a trance where they don't remember anything that happened. Their plan had been to knock out the party members, transport them past the Deep Forest, and let them continue through the forest without ever seeing anything of interest. With two of the party having saved, though, the amnesia approach was off the table. The party called attention to their trade "goods" (essentially money, given the prior information that the Deep Foresters accepted gold and platinum as payment), and persuaded Rudra, leader of the Deep Forest scouts, to bring them to their village to negotiate with the headwoman.

The PCs were treading carefully and on their best behavior as they were led into Ni-Hau, an almost invisible village in the Deep Forest. Like the outer villages, it was inhabited by a mix of Elves, Half-Elves, and Humans, but for some reason Humans were the largest part of the population in the Deep Forest. All the buildings were treehouses, their walls obscured by layers of live leaves; all access involved rope ladders which could be raised from above. This was explained as a necessary defense against the more dangerous inhabitants of the Deep Forest.

Negotiations with village headwoman Durga went well. The PCs confirmed the existence of a number of creatures known nowhere else in the world, and negotiated the conditions for future parties to come on collection expeditions. The primary condition was that new expeditions should bring a suitable fee, and MUST check in at Ni-Hau and get a guide before proceeding further into the Deep Forest. Some creatures, it was explained, could be captured and taken away safely, but others needed to be left alone; the distinctions would be long and difficult to explain, hence the necessity for a native guide. The party then returned home without incident, bringing along one Menagerie specimen: a Spirit Tarsier that had been "tamed" and was used to human contact.

LITERARY SOURCES: Assorted Cold War spy fiction; Conan Doyle's "Lost World"

Session 3: Negotiations and Captures

PCs: Bobbins Kettleblack, Dragonborn Fighter (Andrew DeMario); DerShawkin, Gnome Rogue (Michael Brokes); Fencili Hartthsol, Gnome Warlock (Stevie Chudomelka); Malon (aka Kit), Half-Elf Rogue (Lee Mendelson); Vassago, Half-Elf Warlock (Colleen Moore)

--THE OFFICIAL STORY-- The expedition got to the Deep Forest without any seagoing difficulties. Arriving at Ni-Hau, they had an in-depth discussion with Headwoman Durga about what exactly they might hope to retrieve. They arrived at a list of creatures guaranteed unknown in the outside world, which might have some specimens that could be collected without harm:

  1. Carnivorous Sunflowers, a powerful and dangerous Medium-sized ambulatory plant.
  2. Lightning Panthers, apparently close relatives of normal panthers with silver-stippled black fur and silvery vibrissae (whiskers). They have a lightning "breath weapon" which they use for defense and hunting (they don't actually breathe lightning, they project it from their electrically conductive whiskers).
  3. Culverins, a Medium-sized ambush predator who have a long snout and the ability to shoot pebbles from it at high speed.
  4. The Spirit Basilisk, a Large reptilian predator/scavenger only vaguely similar to true basilisks. It has no gaze weapon; instead, whenever it is hungry, angry, or frightened, it emanates a psychic paralysis field in a radius around itself. To make matters worse, it is completely immune to magic.
  5. Razorwings, Small flying reptilian predators. Their wings are rigid, like an insect's, and as the name advertises have razor-sharp leading edges. They fly at very high speeds, like fixed-wing aircraft, growing organs beneath their wings that function as pulse jets.
  6. Forest Behemoth. Gargantuan reptilian herbivore. Impressive only for its size and tremendously tough armor.
  7. Monopods. Medium plant creatures that resemble large mushrooms when at rest; in motion, they kick off from the ground with a single powerful foot (the "stem") and use a wide, thin mantle (the "cap") to maneuver aerodynamically, even being able to glide considerable distances without having to touch down again. Monopods are sentient, though less intelligent than humans; a number of them have learned the Common tongue. (They understand its spoken form, but lacking voices, can only reply by writing on the ground with their powerful slashing tails.)
  8. Sentient carpenter ants. More specifically, a ten-foot-tall ant mound houses an ant colony with collective intelligence. No individual ant is particularly bright, but the colony can reason, act, and communicate about as well as a human being. As with the monopods, the colony living near Ni-Hau understands spoken Common and replies by arranging large numbers of ants into written letters. The party was quickly able to negotiate with the sentient creatures; a breeding pair of Monopods were pleased to become an exhibit, and the ant mound was eager to send off a young queen to found a new colony in a welcoming environment. Following native guide Rudra, the party stalked and killed a carnivorous sunflower without coming into range of its narcotic perfume (kudos to highly effective missile fire from the party Rogues), collecting 100+ seeds and suitable mulch for sprouting them. [Note on mistreatment: Carnivorous sunflowers are NOT sentient and are unrelentingly aggressive against any animal in range of their senses. Moreover, being killed causes them to set seed and is therefore an important part of their reproductive cycle.] The party was attempting to capture a Culverin but eventually decided that they needed to return home with the prizes they had in hand. LITERARY SOURCES: Appalachian folklore, assorted fantasy and SF by Piers Anthony, John Varley, Mercedes Lackey, E.E. Smith. And of course you should be able to figure out which of the eight creatures is an homage to A Certain Movie.

--WHAT REALLY HAPPENED-- This is what earned the expedition a Friends Like These award, for managing to be trustworthy friends AND traitors at the same time. They promised the Deep Foresters that they would keep their secrets, and true to their word did not mention any of this on their expedition reports, nor, as far as I could tell, in conversation with other players. Everything mentioned above is true and happened approximately as described, but a great deal else went on...

The first clue that something was odd about the Deep Forest community was when Fencili the Warlock used her Awakened Mind class feature to mindspeak Rudra the scout leader. He replied telepathically, admonishing her that she was being rude and should be very circumspect in using that power.

Another clue showed up during the negotiations with Headwoman Durga. While others spoke with her, Bobbins, a Battlemaster, used a class feature to gauge his relative abilities against the Headwoman. Bear in mind, this is a large, powerfully built Dragonborn in the prime of life, comparing himself to a petite elderly Human woman. The GM was obliged to report: "She's stronger than you are. She's faster than you are. She's tougher than you are. She's smarter than you are, wiser than you, and more charismatic than you."

But the real revelation came when the party's scouting allowed them to hear a crash of falling wood and a feline scream. Native guide Rudra took off toward the sound without paying the slightest attention to them; the PCs followed as best they might. They arrived to see Rudra lifting a large fallen branch off a badly injured Lightning Panther. Then they saw the cat morph into a badly injured Human girl who bore a strong resemblance to Rudra. They offered healing potions, but Rudra waved them away while talking softly to his daughter - talking her through the process of drawing her bones back together and into their proper places, closing the rents in her skin and refastening her muscles to their attachment points.

At this point, Rudra decided that his best course was to explain more fully to the outsiders and try to engage their sympathies. A fraction of the Deep Forest folk (about half the "humans", about 10% of the "half-elves") are secretly natural shapeshifters. [DM's note: these are not monsters from any standard supplement. I invented them for this scenario, just as I did the weirder animals.] They keep this a deep secret, not to deceive their neighbors, but to deceive their own children; their children are born as completely normal members of their apparent race, and show no sign of being unusual until their powers start to develop after puberty. The Shifters have learned through bitter history that nothing is more toxic to a child's personality than the sense of entitlement that comes from being raised to see themselves as different from and better than the people around them. So they live among non-shapeshifting folk, as members of the community, in order to raise their children as responsible people rather than self-centered monsters.

But once their powers start to manifest, adolescent Shifters need practice with them. All of the Deep Foresters spend increasing amounts of time alone in the forest during their teenage years, learning how to live alongside the Forest creatures. The non-shapeshifting Foresters simply don't realize that some of their neighbors spend that training time being Forest creatures. That's the real reason they wanted to vet the selections of hunting parties; many creatures might actually be adolescent Shifters, and only the telepathic Shifters could tell the difference. Thus the guides, and thus the accident: Rudra's teenage daughter was shadowing her father, feeling very proud of her ability to be silent and unseen in animal form, and missed a jump leading to a catastrophic fall.

The party all agreed to keep the Shifters' secrets and asked if a Shifter would be willing to come to the Menagerie - surely such a remarkable being would be a prize display. Rudra explained that the Whiggam Menagerie already had a Shifter in residence. It turns out that there is no such animal as the Spirit Tarsier. As part of concealing their own possession of mindpowers, they invented a fictitious animal with mindpowers and had mature Shifters turn into them as needed, to provide sightings in the forest and to be "tamed and trained" specimens when a Forest patrol needed to befuddle strangers.

In exchange for the party's commitment to secrecy, the Shifter villages of Ni-Hau agreed to help more actively with future expeditions from Whiggam. One particular item of assistance was that the village herbalists would distill, from the remains of the Sunflower the party had killed, a nonmagical drug that would help the next Whiggam expedition subdue a Spirit Basilisk.

Session 4: Bring 'Em Home PCs: Davos Rosencrantz, Human Bard (Matt Reichardt); Galarin, Half-Elf Druid (William Reichardt); Grandmaster Bato, Human Monk (Chris Reichardt); Urist Vorpalbeard, Dwarf Fighter (Joshua Reichardt)

The mission brief for this expedition was simple: thanks to trade and negotiation which had led to good relations with previous expeditions, the Deep Foresters of Surelant would have a number of captive animals ready to transport, needing only supervision from the Whiggam party to get them back to the Menagerie. It was known that one of those beasts was a Forest Behemoth, which could not possibly be brought across the steep passes to Norbury. The plan therefore was for the party to bring the animals out of the forest along the Great East-West Road of Surelant that runs to Westport on the western tip of the continent. A large cargo ship with a specially-built hold would be used to transport the Behemoth (as well as the more manageable animals). Travel to the Deep Forest proceeded well, and on arrival the part found waiting for them a docile Behemoth and rolling cages containing a breeding pair of Lightning Panthers. An additional bonus was available if the party chose to attempt it: the villagers had a substantial supply of sedative on hand, which could be used to knock out a Spirit Basilisk and keep it unconscious until its arrival in Whiggam, However, none of the Foresters had been willing to volunteer to administer it to a live Basilisk. The Whiggam party was welcome to attempt the feat themselves. After brief consultation, they decided to go ahead.

The capture was well-planned and successful. Native guides brought the party to within a mile of the Spirit Basilisk's current den, the closest they were willing to approach. Galarin used Commune with Nature to find a clearing with the best possible features for an ambush site. The party killed a deer and set the carcass in the middle of the clearing; then, while the remaining party members lurked at a distance (and safely out of paralysis radius), Grandmaster Bato dosed the carcass with sleep drug and then butchered it quickly and messily, so that the smell of blood and carrion rose quickly from the remains. The Grandmaster raced to safety using his enhanced movement, although such speed was unneccessary; while the Basilisk woke up the instant the wind carried the smell of the kill to its den, it took several combat turns to reach the clearing. While the party hid, it ambled up, devoured the deer carcass in a disturbingly small number of bites, and presently fell over unconscious. The party hauled it back to the rest of their caravan on a wheeled travois and set up a drugging schedule to make very sure it would stay unconscious untill delivered. The overland trip to embark on the ship for Whiggam proved uneventful but the sea voyage to Whiggam had to contend with a pirate attack. More precisely, the attacking ship appeared to be a privateer out of Melkanth seeking to seize the PC's ship and claim the prize beasts for themselves. The pirate's initial attack plan was severely impaired when Galarin used Control Water to capsize their ship. However, two Sorcerers took to the air with Fly spells and moved to attack. Clustering at the facing rail, preparing to meet the oncoming Sorcerers, the party overlooked the arrival of a quintet of rogues wearing Cloaks of the Manta Ray who had swum under their ship to board on the far side. All except Grandmaster Bato failed to save against the Wand of Fear wielded by one of the rogues. Davos and Urist dove overside into the ocean, while Galarin, who had taken the Wild Shape of a water elemental, simply poured himself belowdecks to hide in the ballast. Bato charged across the deck to engage the rogues in melee, only to find himself caught in a Web spell from one of the oncoming sorcerers.

Gato learned very quickly why it is a bad idea to find yourself restrained while facing multiple rogues making coordinated melee attacks with poisoned blades. Fortunately, both Davos and Galarin made successful saves to break out of the Fear effect as soon as they broke line of sight to the Rogue who had created it. Urist, unfortunately, did not, and being in possession of his own Cloak of the Manta Ray was swimming away from the ship at high speed. Ultimately, it took him three tries to make his save, which meant a total of six turns of combat spent swimming away from and then back to the cargo ship. Bato was at 0 hit points and had failed two death saves when he was rescued by a healing spell from Davos. Meanwhile, Galarin the Elemental was battling with several rogues and the high-level Warlock who had landed atop the Behemoth's pen, while the Sorcerers flew about flinging cantrips at whoever seemed a likely target. The battle raged for several turns, with the attackers taking some casualties while inflicting massive damage on the PCs. When Urist finally returned to the ship, accompanied by a pike-wielding penguin he had summoned from the Menagerie using an item, the attackers not yet slain decided it was time to flee.

No further hostile encounters took place and the PCs arrived safely at the Menagerie with their cargo of unique and impressive animals.

PrinceCon 43 Summaries & Run Recaps:

« Back to PrinceCon 43