Skyfell Campaign: Session 22
Skyfell Introduction
The cast is:
Session 22 - Welcome to the Dead Isle
Preparation
Though the Clockworks of Carnage arc came to a conclusion, there was still one thread of that story the party wanted to tie up. The Stomper had set the citadel on course to a destination out in the open skies and everyone wanted to know why. So most of my prep work went into getting the storyline sussed out and all my maps and such completed.
We had initially planned to play in July but player work schedules, and to be frank, my own fatigue from work and other responsibilities, led me to cancel that session and push it out a month. (We all know the difficulties around scheduling around real-world responsibilities and events.) I was even too exhausted to enjoy any of the games in which I was a player. I was just on auto-pilot and quite miserable. I did end up taking off a week. My family and I spent a few days in the Bay Area, exploring Point Reyes and Golden Gate National Recreation Area. We even walked across the Golden Gate Bridge.
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| The Golden Gate Bridge |
This did wonders for my spirit and I came back feeling recharged in spite of the raging sunburn I ended up with. When you spend so long in lockdown, it's easy to forget about things like sunscreen, I suppose.
For the game, there were also some concerns that Meribore was starting to feel out of place with the rest of the party. As a firbolg druid, she felt that wandering the Open Skies on a ship was not how she needed to spend her time, especially with the recurring dreams of impending doom being her constant companion. I needed very desperately to find a way to keep Meribore in the group. My initial solution, essentially railroading the story, was not well received, and rightly so. It took a lot of work and brainstorming with some of the players to come up with other ideas to pitch. This was a rather stressful process for a number of reasons but I think the outcome made for a better story and experience.
I did start putting a playlist together for this arc, but eventually I abandoned that effort. I decided, instead, to use one of the many existing playlists from some previous sessions. Ironically, in game, I ended up switching over to a playlist that is a compilation from the various Star Trek: The Original Series soundtracks. It ended up working well given the nature of the arc and some in-game events.
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| Star Trek: Original Television Soundtrack |
On the side, I also started reading through some of the old Forgotten Realms: The Harpers books that I've picked up over the years. These have been on my shelf, unread and collecting dust, for quite some time. As part of my overall downsizing effort in my real-world life, I'm finally focusing on making time to read these and other books so that they can move on to another home. I've completed reading the first two: The Parched Sea and Elfshadow. Both were pretty good and provided some much needed inspiration.
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| Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham |
Pre-game
I was fairly certain the session was going to be mostly storytelling and any "action" could be handled through some theater-of-the-mind roleplaying. Because of that, I didn't bother with the Heroscape maps and such. I had a few set pieces ready just in case, but I wanted to end the day on a cliffhanger so I was conscious of that goal throughout the session. The absence of maps did not go unnoticed by the players.
We had another absence too. Michelle could not make it to the game due to work commitments. We had discussed earlier on Discord that we could add Bronte (her character) to the stock of sidekicks on the ship (Fizzlestick, Eldith, Gubrash, and Huru) so that he could be present and advance as a sidekick. This would at least help to ensure that Bronte's experience didn't fall behind. I took a pre-game moment to reiterate that anyone could, at any time, play any of the sidekicks if they wanted.
I also took a moment to pass around a handout of the Howling Wind II stats, now updated to include the new lightning ballista that Ringmaster Overclocked had given the party as a reward for all their hard work in Session 21. (Everyone also has access to the pdf, but it was a convenience to have a printout on hand.) Here's the airship's character sheet, something I developed specifically for my campaign. You can read up on airship rules on another of my posts.
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| Howling Wind II Stat Block Rules from My Airship Post |
The printout also included the stats for the lightning ballista. I spent a little time going over the mechanics of the thing. In summary, the lightning ballista is a ballista that has been modified with an epic gnome invention (find the rules for Epic Gnome Inventing on the DMs Guild). The general idea is that the lightning damage is an add-on to the ballista that charges the tip of the bolt with lightning prior to firing. I explained that the ballista could be fired without the lightning damage (in which case it did standard damage and did not consume a charge) or fired with the lightning damage (in which case it did an additional 1d10 lightning AOE (area of effect) damage and did consume a charge). I also explained to Jeff (Ohmagoshno's player) that Ohma would have to build additional recharge kits over time because they would be consumed. This was, in part, why I had rewarded the players with a small collection of spare parts at the end of session 21. Here's the gadget's stat block.
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| The Lightning Ballista Mod Pack Rules from Epic Gnomish Inventing |
My awesome wife made lunch this time; she prepared some chicken soup using tomatoes that we've been growing in our backyard. It was incredible and a huge hit. So, after enjoying that meal, we got started. We did another brief recap, covering some details that I felt would be important for the coming session, and then we jumped in.
In-game
With a two-day trip back to Doraku, our adventurers used to time to help Clockworks of Carnage recover from the construct revolt in a variety of ways. There was plenty of manual tasks to be performed. The surviving guests still needed both medical attention for both their bodies and their souls. Bronte took on the former task while Drekzhar took on the latter. He spent the evening entertaining the survivors with a little music and a little soft humor to help guide the survivors through their recent trauma.
While Ohma and Tauffae did help out around the island, they primarily spent their time working on and training with the new lightning ballista along with Eldith, Huru, and Gubrash. Ohma received the plans for the lightning ballista and so spent some time studying these to learn how to maintain the thing and build recharge kits. He was quite happy to have a new toy. Tauffae also delivered the funnel-cake tools and ingredients to Fizzlestick who set about learning how to make the treat. The first few tries were not what anyone would call perfection, but eventually he got the hang of it. Tauffae was happy.
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| Happy Tauffae Source: Heroforge Designed by Me |
While all of this was going on, Meribore's sense of being out of place grew. What was a firbolg druid doing on a citadel full of mechanical creatures? And what was her place on a ship that wandered the Open Skies, which to her seemed like an endless, lifeless expanse? At least Bronte had found a role as the ship's surgeon. But what about Meribore? She seriously began considering whether it was time for her to leave the people she had come to call family to return to her homeland.
Drekzhar noticed this shift in Meribore's feelings. He spent a little time talking with her about them. He did explain that the Open Skies was not a wasteland but rather it was full of life, such as flocks of pterodactyl that congregated on rocky islands, huge blooms of flora that spread for miles, and gigantic sky creatures that filled the songs and haunted the dreams of every sailor. In fact, there was a flora bloom near Doraku and he promised that they would take a little detour there before they continued on their way to their next destination.
During this conversation, Meribore also explained in more detail what was happening with her memories and how the raven seemed to be sharing the events around the undead in general and The Glutton specifically rather than her day-to-day activities. To Drekzhar, this sounded a lot like someone who was gathering intelligence about an enemy and it occurred to him that the Raven Queen might turn out to be a valuable ally if a war were to erupt involving the Glutton. He came to think of the raven's visits less of menace and more of a potential benefit.
When Doraku was just within sight (about an hour out), the Clockworks of Carnage citadel came to a halt. There were some security concerns (and to be honest, some public-relations concerns) that needed to be managed before the citadel pulled into a more permanent berth. Our adventurers used this as an opportunity to depart. They left the unconscious halfling whom they had found on the shipwreck (see Session 14) in the care of Einkil Brawnanvil at the Temple of Gond. They also said their farewells to Queen Tinker who seemed to be adapting to her new condition as a soulforged being. Then, they left, ferrying the family of dragonborn they had contracted with for safe travel back to Doraku (see Session 17).
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| Highwater Source: Dungeon Master's Guide, 4th Edition |
Our heroes stayed a day in Highwater to rest and resupply. They left early in the day with a detour planned before heading to the mysterious locale The Stomper had directed the Clockworks of Carnage citadel toward. That detour was to view the flora bloom Drekzhar had mentioned to Meribore. It was a two-mile-wide bloom primarily composed of 200-foot-long weeds, enormous vines, and clusters of perennials. These either sprouted out from a huge central mass of detritus or from any of the dozens of other smaller masses (including pieces of shipwrecks) that had become tangled in the growth. There were flocks of pterosaurs weaving and bobbing among the flora. Meribore could sense that this place was a pristine, wild place where nature was mostly untouched by civilization. It was even more wild than her homeland since even their the firbolg presence affected the environment no matter how minimal that affect might have been. This discovery that the Open Skies was not a wasteland energized Meribore. This, in combination with the discussion she had had with Drekzhar earlier helped to assuage her doubts about her place with the crew.
Skyfell Cultural Note
The Open Skies are far from barren. They are just as full of life as any terrestrial ocean. Granted, there are some areas that are less populated, such as shipping lanes where airship traffic has frightened off wild fauna and damaged or destroyed the flora. But there are many more locations where life thrives unhindered by humanoid interference. Of course, there are the fantastical creatures, such as sky turtles and krakens, that haunt sailors' tall tales. There is also the more mundane, but no less fascinating, life. Flora blooms are one example. These start their existence usually as a clump of grasses, kelps, or other flora on a tiny island, large chunk of rock, or even a piece of debris, such as the remains of a shipwreck. Most of these plants pull moisture out of the air and so do not need steady rain or a body of water to sustain themselves. Over time, a biomass full of nutrient-rich compost can form at the "center" of the bloom. This helps to support larger flora in greater numbers. Given the right conditions, the bloom can become enormous, stretching several miles in all directions from the "center." Of course, so much flora offers both food and shelter for various herbivores. And where there are herbivores, carnivores are sure to follow. While this fauna is mostly of the type one might expect to see in the Open Skies, the blooms might also support more terrestrial life depending on its origins. Eventually, the largest blooms become self-contained, micro-ecosystems.
After this brief respite, the party plotted a course to the mysterious beacon. They arrived a day or so later at a small "island" (about the same size as the Clockworks of Carnage citadel) composed of three land masses all held together by the roots of an enormous stump of a dead tree. The stump was at least a hundred feet across. Meribore recognized the stump as being that of an evermore tree. These enormous trees were quite rare and believed to be older than the Cataclysm. The peoples of Piruna Fields thought of them as extended family, like respected uncles and aunts, and named each one. There were even long oral histories past from generation to generation describing the lives of each. Meribore knew of only one such tree specifically, called The Verdant Sister. It was on an island near her homeland. Though some of its story had reached her ears, she had never visited it.
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| An Evermore Tree Source: Pixabay with Digital Manipulation by Me |
Drekzhar had the ship circumnavigate the island at extreme range while Meribore used the ship's spyglass to see whether there were any clear and present dangers before they approached. There seemed to be humanoids on one of the islands but they were moving in a very uniform and prescribed manner. Our heroes decided to approach the island with increasingly tighter orbits so that they might get a fuller understanding of its layout while remaining as safe as possible. This pattern led them to the following discoveries.
The dead stump of the evermore tree was on the largest of the three islands. Upon its flat surface, a crew of skeletons were busy constructing what looked like a corral and chute that started from the base of the tree stump and curved out toward the edge of the island. A gaping hole was in the base of the stump where the corral met the tree. There was also an orb set on a pedestal centrally located on the plain that flickered with a purple light. (This was not an airmap beacon.) The whole area was overpowered with the smell of rotting flesh and viscera. Our heroes named this island Skeleton Island for easy reference.
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| Skeleton Crew Source: Monster Manual, D&D 5e |
The second largest island was positioned higher than the others and was at a slightly oblique angle to them. On its mostly flat surface were the ruins of a temple complex that looked much like all the other ancient ruins in the Piruna Fields. There was a main structure that clearly suffered the ravages of time. There was also the remnants of colonnades that led out from the structure to the edges of the island and clearly had extended further at one time in the very ancient past. Also, near the structure there appeared to be a small midden composed of modern refuse, implying that someone had recently visited or was currently residing there. That said, they did not see anyone milling about. Our crew named this island Temple Island.
The third and smallest island was tucked in below the other two and tethered to them by a network of giant roots. A runabout airship was moored there, tucked in among the roots. This was most curious as runabouts were only for short journeys and this island was a long way out in the middle of nowhere. There seemed to be no one present. Our adventurers named this island Ship Island.
During this pass, Meribore noticed that the island was completely dead. She could not feel any life pulse coming from it. This was strange because even on the smallest of land masses, there should have been at least some plant life and insects. From this place, she felt nothing. It was a stark contrast to the flora bloom they had visited the day before.
After some discussion the heroes decided to investigate Ship Island first. Since it was impossible to land the Howling Wind II on the island (because of the roots), they decided to lower a party down to the runabout using their ship's crane. In true Captain Kirk style, Drekzhar was the first to be lowered, followed by Gubrash and Huru. There was no one aboard the runabout. The interior was stripped down to only the necessities, much as a military vessel might be, and was in perfect working order. The drive and stabilizer were both fully charged. Hanging from the ceiling near the pilot's seat was a pair of small, holy symbols of The Glutton. Drekzhar pocketed these.
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| The Glutton Holy Symbol Source: Races of Stone, D&D 3.5 Edition |
Also, one of the roots that came down out of the Temple Island and connected to the Ship Island was broken open and rotted out. The ground and inside surface of the root showed signs of footprints from small humanoids. These led from the ship and into the root. It was pretty easy to imagine that the root somehow connected to the temple on the surface.
With this information, our adventurers decided to steal the runabout to prevent whomever might be on the Temple Island from escaping. (They also started planning how they might modify The Howling Wind II so that they could permanently dock the runabout to use it as a shuttle in their adventures.) After Oma safely piloted the runabout away from the island, they pulled both it and The Howling Wind II a safe distance from the island to regroup. After some more discussion, they decided to use the runabout to explore the islands while keeping their caravel at what would be, presumably, a safe distance away and, presumably, out of sight from any malicious eyes.
Following this plan, they landed the runabout on the surface of Temple Island near the ruins. The walls of the ruins were covered with the same sorts of writing and artwork as was found elsewhere in Pirnua Fields, especially like the remnants the party had found near Moss Creek (see Session 5).
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| The Ruins and Their Inscriptions Source: The Dark Crystal |
The midden was definitely filled with modern refuse, some of it having been dumped there within the last few hours. This was mostly empty tins, broken jugs, empty burlap sacks, and broken crates. All had clearly been used to store food. And there was a LOT of refuse here. Enough for a dozen people at least. Tracks, made by small humanoids, went from the midden through a crack in the wall of the main structure.
Inside the main structure, they found a passage that descended into the island. It was obviously part of the original structure (and not something made after the fact). From it came the smell of cooking meats, stewing vegetables, sweet cakes, and other foods. Tauffae heard voices, barely perceptible, chattering in gnomish rather jovially. He beckoned Omagoshno to have a listen to find out what the voices were saying. What Oma heard chilled him. They were talking about The Glutton and praising his glory. While he listened, there came a crash, as though someone had dropped a set of dishes. This was immediately followed by a cowering female gnome voice apologizing profusely. This was silenced by a deep, hateful growl that immediately reminded Oma of the creatures that had materialized out of the mouth of that hateful statue back in Moss Creek (see Session 7).
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| Monsters that Tried to Eat Ohmagoshno Source: Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes |
Oma stumbled back, an unbearable and cold fear gripping him. These were followers of the The Glutton and they had with them some unspeakable horror of his making.
End session 22.
Experience earned:
Bronte - 3600 (33,241 total)
Drekzhar - 3850 (34, 258 total)
Meribore - 3871 (33,814 total)
Omagoshno - 4190 (34,521 total)
Tauffae - 4211 (34,038 total)
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