Oglesby S Demise The Portal (Session 38)

Summary

Detail

They started this session in the main chamber of the second level of the mine, after invisible Oglesby had returned from searching a good bit of the tunnels. The main point that was the most interesting was the underground body of water with a large row boat floating in it. Audra questioned the lack of diggers and humans, and also that they hadn't found a path from the floor above to this floor. Obviously, the grates that they'd passed through were not the normal path to get here. They'd also seen a lot of rocks up top, but only four goblins doing the digging? That didn't make since. They could hear no other sounds of digging anywhere. Oglesby decided to finish searching the remaining cave structure to find out if this really was part of what was above. He was still invisible so it should be relatively safe, or so he thought.

He went to the Southeast tunnel and moving carefully in there, he found a pool with a bunch of baby Mud Beasts and a single, I believe it was a Derro, chopping up fish and throwing it to the baby Mud Beasts. There wasn't anything else down there of interest. He moved up to the lower of the two Northeast tunnels. Moving carefully down that one, he discovered that this tunnel circled around and joined the other Northern tunnel where the heap of trash was. It also continued east and into a small circular cavern. As he was moving around in that chamber, he felt something like a spider web like filament. It stuck to his leg. Before he could get unstuck, the owner of the filament yanked him toward itself. It was a spider like creature but not a spider. It had claws and attacked him. The first round was pretty devastating. Even though he got free once, he was unable to escape before he was pulled in again and killed.

When Oglesby hadn't returned in a while, the rest of the party grew apprehensive. They knew he was headed to the Northeast tunnels but weren't sure which one. They moved to the Northern most tunnel and found the trash heap. Kipp picked up his trail and the followed it. They rounded the corner into the chamber he was last in and beheld and gruesome site. This large spidery like creature was busy devouring their friend. Before they could attack it, the creature scurried off with it's meal. They gave chase and caught up with it in a small chamber up this Northern tunnel. The quickly dispatched it. Rushing to Oglesby's side, it was obvious that there was nothing they could do. There was so much of him eaten away. Without any better idea, they removed any items that might be useful, rolled up his body in some cloth and placed him in the Bag of Holding. They'd hoped that once they were out of here, that maybe they could find someone to restore him.

They continued following the tunnel they were in and found a chamber with Derro in it. The Derro had heard enough noise from the fighting and were waiting on them. They attacked the party approaching them but didn't fare well. Once the party defeated them, they followed the tunnel further. It wrapped around and met up with another tunnel they had already checked out. They really needed a rest so they decided to go back up to the spider creature chamber. Anyone coming would likely think twice about coming into the spider creature area. They also had only two small openings that would be fairly defensible. Pyreece cast Continual Light on a small stone and place it in an central area.

As they rested, they were visited by another Derro. He was just barely in sight of the group. Audra was the one on guard on that side. She watched for only a moment before deciding that she couldn't let him leave. She said out loud, "There's a Derro!", as she rushed him. She caught him off guard and she hit him. Brandy was up quickly and right behind her. She and Audra finished him off. Seeing no signs of anything else, they returned and went back to resting. The next morning Pyreece healed several of them, including herself. They weren't strong but they could continue the search for the Elemental Eye.

It was decided that the large row boat and the water leading away from here was likely where they should go next. They moved into that chamber. The Mud Beast that Oglesby had said he'd seen in here wasn't readily visible. Kipp had grabbed the ores and the long pole with a hook from the main chamber. The used the hook to reach out and capture the backend of the boat and pull it toward the shore. Everyone climbed in. Brandy and Kipp took the ores and rowed. Pyreece took her place on the bow of the boat with the Continual Light stone. Audra took the rudder. Along with Elenor, they proceeded down the Western tunnel. After many miles of tunnel, they finally reached an exit.

The tunnel opened into a cove. It was littered with ships that had not survived travel into it. The water near the shore line crashed against the rocks all around. There were rocks poking out of the water throughout the cove. Pyreece used the long pole with the hook to push against the rocks and help keep their boat from being damaged. The Western side of the cove was cloaked in fog. There were two large metal hoops on top of the two natural stone columns sticking up about 15 feet out of the water. They guessed that they might have something to do with tying off boats but couldn't be sure of their purpose. There really wasn't any place to land or any place to go if you did. They proceeded to enter the fog.

After a little while, they finally emerged from the fog into an open sea. It was perplexing as they didn't expect to be anywhere near the open sea. When they looked back, North and South of where they'd emerged, they saw no land mass. It seemed that they were in the middle of a large open sea. The only sign of anything was the fog that they emerged from. It was early morning and the sun hadn't risen yet. They could see the stars and though no one knew how to steer by them, they could tell that they weren't right. They couldn't find any patterns in the stars that looked familiar. The fog must have been a portal of sorts.

As the sun was rising, they decided that they could travel in all directions, as far as they could and still keep the foggy portal in sight. If they didn't see anything, they would return and try the next direction. It seemed the safest way to explore at this point. With sunrise, they were able to determine an East and West so they set out West. They made sure that they kept the fog in sight. They went out quite a distance before the fog finally looked so small that they were afraid they would loose sight of it. They spotted nothing else but open sea for as far as they could see. They decided to return to the fog and try another direction.

They set out North next. They had gone quite a good distance when they ran into an area populated with islands. They weren't very big but it was something sturdy that they could stand on. The islands were surrounded by plants called Sargasso. As they neared one of the islands, they realized it wasn't land but a giant Sargasso. Looking in all directions and seeing other distant ones, they spotted a larger one with smoke rising off of it. The first sign of life here so far, they made their way to it. As they got closer, they spotted someone on top of a building. There were many buildings in a cleared area. They began spotting others moving around and some were near the shoreline looking at their new visitors.

As they got closer, they could make out more definition and realized they were looking at Goblins. They weren't carrying weapons and didn't appear to be hostile. They spotted an inlet and made their way up to the shoreline. There was still no indication that they were violent or would be a problem. They disembarked and tied off the boat. Audra did her best to look back at the island they had past and the area of fog. She tried to orient herself to these two points so she wouldn't loose sight of the foggy area. If she did though, she could determine where it was based on the other Sargasso they'd passed. I think it was Kipp that reminded her that it was simply South of here.

The village consisted of 8 huts, one larger and the rest about the same size but smaller. There were crates, baskets of fruits and vegetables. There was a central fire pit. There was a make shift fence surrounding the village. I don't remember who spoke about it first but it became a topic of interest quickly. Where did all of the wood come from to build the huts, fence? Also, where did the fruits and vegetables come from?

There were questions but they would have to wait until the next session. That is where this one ended.

Please start the recorder.

Exp: 1580 + 158 = 1738