March 17, 2024
Sword 19, 5043
We put the key in the
lock and we
all go through the portal touching. Heat
World!
Init.
Round 1.
We are inside the sun
– it is
hot and miserable. The heat is doing subdual damage 5hp/round.
Also 3hp acid/round.
The Heat Guardian,
according to Zora: long armed angry hot
guy with drippy acid. Lots of fire and
heat damage. Frank hates us and wants us
to all die a
fiery death. [And yet
you didn’t.]
I’m Mr. Heat Miser. I Mr. Sun.
I’m Mr. Green Christmas. I’m
Mr. 101. Friend (?) call me Heat
Miser. Whatever I touch start to melt in
my clutch. I’m too much!
Picture of world in hollow sun. [Ironically, there is a
shadow
over this world with no shadows.]
Round 2.
Beari casts Mass
Resist
Elements (Acid). Discount
12
damage from acid per round for 19 minutes.
Arden tries to do some
scouting
around the orb.
We have a terrible
discussion
about confusing geometry. Math
doesn’t
equal fun.
Arden say, “Cloud
approaching from behind me.”
Zora readies
longbow, waits for target.
Ben moves closer to Zora.
Round 3.
Arden goes scouting
again –
Finds fire cloud, evades, finds another fire cloud.
Ben casts Aid on Zora.
Round 4.
Beari casts Ice
Wall
horizontally on the sphere for cooling.
Invites all to stand on it.
Arden keeps scouting. Finds two more fire clouds.
Fire Clouds move closer
Zora moves to
stand on ice, arrows ready.
Ben casts Energy
Immunity (Fire) on ???.
Round 5.
Beari casts Wind
Wall around Zora,
Ben, and herself.
Arden moves to the
bottom of the
sphere, yells, “Best guess I’m on the bottom”
Zora moves
through Wind Wall, fires arrow into cloud, moves back to ice.
Ben reserves for what to
do.
Round 6.
Beari sees
they are Incendiary Clouds – clouds will be destroyed by Wind
Wall before
they do damage to us.
Arden runs in a spiral
pattern up
the globe going through the clouds.
Encounters the Guardian and yells his direction.
Guardian casts Wall
of Fire
inside Wall of Wind.
Guardian is tall and
made of
solid fire with talons dripping in acid.
Right eye is flame with black pupil.
Left eye is flame with black pupil except the lower 60º arc of its iris.
Zora attacks
Guardian with cold arrows: hits, hits, hits, misses;
Ben moves through Wall
of Fire without
harm to Arden and Zora, but not quite in
sight of
Guardia.
Round 7.
Beari casts Protection
from Elements (Fire) on
herself – can ignore first 228 hp from fire damage – moves
to where
she can see the rest of the party.
Arden hits Guardian and
takes
damage from Guardian’s Fire Shield;
Guardian casts Firestorm around himself -- Ben
is immune;
Beari and Arden evade for no damage; Zora is hurt – attacks Arden and Zora
with talons but misses;
Zora flies a
few feet off the ground, moves back out of AoO
range,
shoots bow, hits, hits, hits;
Ben casts Fire
Storm as
Cold for 66hp.
Round 8.
Beari casts Maximized Cone
of Cold for
90;
Arden
takes a flying tumble behind Guardian,
backstabs twice for regular + cold damage [and lucks out as DM
forgets to
give Arden damage from Fire Shield]
Guardian
casts Firestorm – Zora is out of range; Ben is immune; Beari
and Arden evade for no damage – attacks Ben for hit, miss, miss,
hit,
hug;
Zora shoots at Guardian:
hits, hits, misses, misses,
hits;
Ben rolls
his strength to escape the hug; combat casting, successful
concentration check,
of Implosion, but
fails Spell Resistance check; tries Implosion a second
time with successful concentration check but failed Spell Resistance
check;
6 hp subdual
Round 9.
Beari casts Ice
Storm on
Guardian and Arden;
Arden
stabs Guardian in back, kills [again Fire Shield damage is
forgotten/overlooked].
Ben casts
Mass
Heal on the
group.
Arden searches the body
Rod of Negation against
the Fire
Shield – oops – nevermind
– doesn’t
do anything.
Arden cuts off the
hands, still
dripping acid from the talons, uses a wand to cast Gentle
Repose on
them, and puts them into his
Belt of Many Pockets.
Arden puts the Key into
the
keyhole that is the Guardian’s left eye.
We go through the portal. (Where
are we now?)
Zora says
next time we kill a monster she will twerk
for
us. Ben and Arden are excited; Beari would like to opt out.
A New Place.
A scraggly field –
arid and
warm, but not too hot. Insects jumping
around – feels like being in the bush.
We fly straight up to
look around
and get the lay of the land.
You
are
suddenly and instantaneously no longer in the same place.
The clear blue sky and the ground beneath you
have been replaced with a yellowish-fox extending in all directions and
containing no discernable means of orientation.
Furthermore, you are in freefall, with no sense of gravity
telling you
where the ground was. This sudden
feeling that you are falling might provoke “space
sickness”: save
on a FORT::32 or be nauseated. Each
round, roll a d20 and tell the result to the DM.
Beari fails
Fort save – is nauseated. Arden
fails. Zora
and Ben save.
Zora is
carrying Ben so they can talk to each other.
Zora recites the relevant memory
card to Ben,
then Ben casts Miracle and we
are moved back to the surface of the planet.
The nausea passes.
Zora recites
the memory card to the others. We cannot
fly here at all. Must maintain contact
with the ground at all times or end up in the free fall clouds again.
Beari casts Secure
Shelter. We stay overnight and get spells back.
Sword 20, 5043
We tie a rope around
Arden, tie
the other end to the top of a tree. Arden
flies up to look around. There are green
hills in the distance to the North.
East, West, South have more outback.
We go North. There are no animal
tracks to be found, just insects. In a
few hours we reach the hills. Got to the top of a hill and send Arden
up to
look – with rope tie and Zora on
ground. There are hills ahead of us as far
as we can
see and scrub behind. In a few hours we
reach forested hills. Slightly more
critters,
no mammals. We see a stream ahead and we
go to it.
There are fish in the
stream. They’re not talking to
us. Arden goes up to look for life
signs. We see a lake ahead.
We go to the lake. It’s
getting dark and cast Secure
Shelter. Arden flies out over the lake,
with a rope dragging through the water, to see if there are any larger
things
in it. Beari
is concerned about what might be in the lake.
There are fish, but not unusually large.
Arden flies back.
Third Watch – Ben
and
Arden. Arden sees that the lake is very
still, and constellations of stars are reflected on its surface. But, Arden also notices, the sky is still
overcast. How is this possible? Arden wakes everyone to show this. Arden pulls out the Gem of True Seeing. Sees no difference. Seems
like the lights are in the water not in
the sky. Ben uses the gem for the same
results. Arden sticks his head in the
lake to see if he sees anything under the water.
Sword 21, 5043
Overcast with rain coming
We hike downstream
through the
rain (upper 70s).
Stream exits into a
valley with
city in the mountains.
Rain passes, beautiful
sunset.
We make camp. Sky clears.
Real constellations don’t match what the lake was
“reflecting”. The Lake
Reflection might match the real
constellations from 2-3 months earlier.
Arden notes that this could place the reflection constellations
as being
near the time we were thrown out of Plynck.
Sword 22, 5043
Bright sunlight, clear
sky, start
to hike to city.
Time passes.
Sword 25, 5043
Midday.
What we thought from the distance was a city
seems to be a castle with big walls.
Very defensible but broken down.
We go in. It all looks
abandoned. As they step inside, Beari and Ben each hear a voice in their head.
This
line of
poetry suddenly calls attention to itself; as if you were remembering
it:
The
fountains are dusty in the Graveyard of Dreams
The
hinges are rusty, they swing with tiny screams.
Beari says to
leave so we do.
Arden flies up (tied to Zora). Fountains
are
dried up,. decrepit. Arden flies over
the wall, over the courtyard, nothing happens to him.
Arden comes back, then walks into the
courtyard – no sign of life – long abandoned.
No signs of pillage or hurried
abandonment. Everything taken away. There is a road out the back.
We make camp outside the castle on the “road”
side.
End of run.
