Waning Sexy Cremza'amirikza'am

 

This play report didn't have much sleaze, but there were a couple of nice battles.

7 players.  Three veterans, a couple people familiar with what was going on, and a couple noobs.  Interestingly, no sorcerers... just fighters, thieves, and clerics.  Everyone started the session at 3rd level with max HP.

I gave my usual intro - trekking through the hot desert; above, the fuchsia sky containing twin suns.  Those who'd discovered the fabled and forbidden Cremza'amirikza'am below the lost city found others to join their adventuring party.

It's always important to cut to the meat of the scenario after the introduction is over.  For this megadungeon, the entree is exploration. 

Stepping onto the cave system of level 3, the PCs noticed a decrease in the magenta-violet illumination from the machine on the previous level.

They saw some weird looking plants creeping along the rock walls, as well as animal and human remains strewn along the ground.  

Misha, the player whose character was a pixie-fairy asked an important question that I had no answer for.  How tall was the ceiling?  So, I made one up on the spot, as GMs must do when faced with such a predicament.  It varies, I said, ranging from 7' to 9'.  I might change that as time goes by.  Good thing he asked it, though.  Future players will undoubtedly want to know.

Another PC, Splits, a demon and thief by trade, took a bone and began to sharpen it on the rough cavern wall.  Unfortunately, he ripped open a few spore-pods that emitted a yellow gas.  Mirdon, a human fighter, decided to "take one for the team" and breathe in the gas.  Not sure why, maybe he thought there was a chance it would be good for him?

In any case, I asked him to make a saving throw.  Lucky for Mirdon he rolled a 19.  The wave of nausea dissipated as soon as it began.

Then, all of a sudden, an arrow hits Alizon, the dwarf thief.  It came from the west and more arrows followed.  The archers were well hid and the PCs had difficulty hitting them.  So, a couple of them charged to engage the archers in melee combat.

Attacks of opportunity were rolled.  They missed Grimda'ark the human fighter, but hit Yarra the half-orc cleric.  But at least the two heavy-hitting PCs were in the archers' faces and swinging wildly.  Grimda'ark using his legendary, pastel, crystal encrusted Ga'ay Blade.  Sadly, the glittering power of his ga'ay blade kept missing the mark.  

Thankfully, Yarra picked-up the slack.  She was rolling solid hits and doing more than her share of damage.  The archers dropped their bows and stabbed with poisoned daggers.  Yarra was hit, but she also made her save, and was unaffected.  Then she killed one of the former archers.

Alizon took out her throwing dagger and with a natural 20 sent it straight into her opponent's eye.  That was the end of that encounter.

The PCs found a vial of black liquid, strange silver hexagonal coins with a square shape cut out of the middle, their weapons, and an orange-stained popsicle stick laying on the ground nearby.

Speculation mounted, but they soon moved along, investigating as they went. They saw cave paintings that showed humans being imprisoned and tortured by demons and a godlike demon sitting upon a throne of skulls.  Sorcerous glyphs were also scrawled upon the rock walls, but without a magic-user, they couldn't translate them.

A purple-stained popsicle stick wasn't too far away, and next to that was an old rusty grate, leading to a ventilator shaft or perhaps a sewer.  The pixie-fairy peeked into it, considering if he should go all the way in (assuming someone smashed a hole through) since coins were visible down there.  But they decided against it.

Lathander, the human cleric, attempted to sense evil in one direction or another since there were several avenues open to them.  They followed what evil Lathander could detect - walking up to a teal-tongued demon chained to a massive rock.

The demon offered a single wish to the party in exchange for his release.  The party freed him, but soon after they were attacked by some monster that was preparing to feed upon the demon.

That was a longer battle, and almost saw the demise of Alizon.  It took 4 lengthy rounds to kill the beast, Mirdon critted twice (thanks to Crimson Escalation) and everyone else got some good hits, too.  Lathander kept healing Alizon who took the most hits and damage.  

After their kill, they followed its tracks to the monster's lair and claimed several gemstones as big as an elf's fist.  Nothing super impressive, but enough for every party member to retire on (or at least take a good 3 or 4 years off from adventuring).  

VS

p.s. If you want your gorgeous hardcover Cha'alt and Cha'alt: Fuchsia Malaise books before the Kickstarter for book 3 later in the month, Order them now!