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More of session 10

One of the PCs mentioned talking to the Burgomeister of the place so they asked the Innkeeper where to find him then set off. His house was only a block from the inn. The Burgomeister talked to them and made it plain that he was not the one who posted the flyer so the village was not liable for paying any fee for finding the children. He gave the same info about the old coven at Haunted Hill and about the recently fallen star. He had no further info but suggested talking to the minister at the church.

They went to the church and talked to the the Good Reverend. He had been in the village about three years and he had been keeping a detailed journal of all events in the place. Thus, the entire chronology from page 39 of Adventure Anthology: Death was laid out before them.

They party decided to look for the fallen star as a first course of action.

More on session 10 later...

Continuation of session 9:

The party told Rutherford what they had seen in the tower and he decided to go with the party  to take a look. He maneuvered the saucer into the air and towards the towers. As they got near the towers, three people came out onto the bridge and waved to the saucer. Rutherford moved close to the bridge to get a better look. It was two men and a woman. They motioned for him to set down at the base of the West tower and he did so. A few minutes later the three people came out of the secret door.

Rutherford and the party left the craft in order to parley with these people. Rutherford asked who they were and, in unison, they said:

We are Xaxus

Thus began a long conversation wherein the party learned something about Xaxus and a bit about the Fanatics of Manakata. Xaxus asked to be transported to the mainland of South America and Rutherford kind of avoided answering the request directly. He did offer to bring supplies to them in exchange for knowledge and they agreed. Xaxus also asked Rutherford to deal with the problem of the aggressive god-worshipers and he agreed.

Rutherford flew his craft over to the temple. He ruthlessly used the plasma cannon of the flying saucer to exterminate all the Manakata disciples. He landed the craft and the party checked the ruins and took the Manakata statue.

Then, they all fly back to Merry Olde England.

That is the end of session 9.

More of session 9

The party began to explore the island after Rutherford told them to go explore and make sure it was safe for him to leave the flying saucer.

During the flyover they saw the general features of the island but not details. They headed first for the Bone Chasm. They looked in and saw it was filled with human looking bones. They did notice that some of the skulls and bones were of larger than normal human size. The party decided not to climb down into the chasm but rather head for the two towers. As they approached, they got a better look at the bridge connecting the towers. It seemed to them that it had 'metal ropes" and some planks laid on the bottom ropes for walking. They walked all around the West tower and saw no entrance at ground level. The party walked all the way around the East tower and saw the the old doorway on the South side. They approached the entrance.

As the first PC stepped to the door several gulls flew out of the door and startled the adventurers. They all went into the room and looked around. The saw the bas-relief depicting majestic visitors from the stars setting foot upon the earth. They saw the gull droppings. They went through the door to room 2.

They went in and looked at the big statues. The PC in the lead saw the bas-relief face at the Northern end of the room. They made their saving throw and thus only had suffered a feeling of being turned to stone but then it passed. They ordered their comrades not to look and to get back into Room 1.

The party then made a plan to move through the room but only look at the floor until they got to the next room. So, they made their way into Room 4. They looked at the dead vines that filled a substantial part of this room and saw that there were skeletons embedded in the vine growth.

They then went back to Room 1 so that they could check out the door that lead to the East. After a little bit of "elbow grease" they were able to get the door open. They moved into the narrow room and looked at the small statues. One of them took a statue with them.

The adventurers then descended the stairs that lead to Room 30. When a couple of them got to the bottom of the stairs, the gigantic stone head turned towards them and began shouting in an alien language. The voice was loud enough to be heard across the entire island (but it is a rather small island). They ran up the steps and ran back outside of the tower.

They were discussing what to do when one of them noticed some people walking towards them from the West. There were 3 normal looking men with a variety of weapons and one very huge and very naked man carrying a very large club. His bulging muscles rippled with every step he took. The other group stopped about 50 feet from the party and engaged them in a parley. Only one of the sailors spoke English so he acted as translator. During the conversation, the party learned that the men had been sailors on the wrecked ship. The sailors were eager to recruit the party and told them about Manakata the Strong and the worship of said deity. The sailors let slip that not everyone survives the rituals and the party indicated that they would not join. Some of the party noticed that the Fanatics of Manakata had been trying to inch their way forward surreptitiously. One of the party decided to start a fight and so made use of a missile weapon. Two arrows and two lead balls struck the "enhanced" Fanatic since no one had chosen to target the normal Fanatics. The muscle bound and divinely improved behemoth fell dead to the ground. The other three Fanatics failed their Morale roll and fled.

More about the session later...

Session 9

The Idea from Space

Anthony R. played his halfing

Jon S.-D. played his elf

Walter played his cleric

Andy R. participated by telepresence and played his old elf character

Sam M. had car trouble. Andrew M. had COVID. Thus, they were not there.

Evan B. was a new player who was supposed to be there but he got sick.

It was April of AD 1603. They were contacted by Charles Rutherford. He had found some information about an ancient civilization near the bottom of South America. He would transport them in his flying saucer to a small island that he had learned about. They would make sure it was safe for him to explore and study.

The flight down took 2 1/2 hours. Rutherford circled the island to get a look at the various features and then landed near the wrecked ship.

More about session 9 at a later point.

Continuing session 8

The party entered Room K and examined the body. Then, looted it.

They moved into Room I and looked around but did not trigger the 3 "survivors". They glanced at the moongate but did not approach.

They went past the curtain into Room J. They looked around a little and the "maggoted men" became active. The PCs told the priests to have the guardsman put all the maggot men out of their misery. They did so.

The PCs moved up to Room L. They closed the doors to the moongate and locked them.

They approached the door to Room M and listened. They heard a dog growling. They made a plan of entry involving musket balls and swords. The dog was soon dead.

The party listened to the door to Room N and heard nothing. If I remember correctly, the dwarf chopped his way through the door. They entered and collected items of value.

I had been making a map on graph paper for them as they explored each room. Despite having the map before them, they did not realize the existence of the two secret rooms.

The party carried the swivel gun back to the gate they had come through ( along with the other treasure they had collected). They then set 2 barrels of gunpowder with very long fuses at the Room L moongate and 2 at the Room A gate. The elf cast the gate spell, they lit the fuses and then hustled through the gate. I forgot about the environmental effect on fire so they got lucky.

They made it back, the Bishop confiscated the new found gate scrolls and paid them. The PCs went on there way and traveled back to England.

End of session 8

More about session 8:

When they got to the cathedral, they learned that four priests and six guardsmen would go with them.

The elf used the scroll and created the portal. A silvery disk formed in the air. The PCs and the NPCs went through it. As they entered Hell they were almost overwhelmed by a wave of heat. They found themselves in Room A. Within a few seconds they realized that the two fires at the other end of the chamber (which were both about the size of a normal campfire) were giving off much greater heat than they should have. They saw that there were markings on the floor and that there were two doors at that end of the room. They saw the door close at hand and decided to try that one. They found that it was not locked and went through. The chamber beyond was unlit so the ignited a lantern. They saw the nearby bookshelf with the books locked to the shelf. I had decided that the Sole Survivor would be leaning against the wall next to where the gunports are located. The SS attempted to sneak over to the "northwest" corner in the hopes that the party would just leave. He did not do a good job of sneaking. The PCs moved quickly to where they could see down the aisles. The SS had a light crossbow and shot at the fighter but missed completely ( I rolled a 1). The fighter fired his pistol into the dark and missed SS. The PCs charged forward and the fighter knocked the weapon out of SS's hands before he could reload. SS slumped against the wall in madness and despair and the PCs saw the horror of his condition. They tried to question him but none of them spoke Portuguese (I handle languages differently than the book). They checked with the priests and one that spoke Portuguese came up to translate. After being horrified at the man's situation, the priest talked with him. The priest reported that SS was insane and gibbering. The party examined the library a little, examined the gunports and then moved toward area D.

More about this session later.

continuation of session 7

The party of two stalwart adventurers follow the worker-zombies. They all go into Room K. The party had 12 air bladders that had been filled with a bellows then tied tightly shot. They would carefully suck air from the bladders to avoid the effects of the bad air from the Machine. The party watches the workers dump the buckets into the funnel. I had decided that the door would remain open as long as there was some one in the room. The door would reappear when the last person left.

They watched the workers depart and looked carefully around the room. They made sure not to get too close to the funnel. The fighter took aim with his wheellock rifle at one of the crystals but made sure he and his comrade were on the other side of the room when he fired. He did 8 points of damage. I figured this would "break the circuit" of The Machine so that it was now non-functional. the door was open so it stayed open. The fighter picked up of the broken crystal and touched the silver wires. Nothing bad happened to him.

they go back to the flying saucer to rest. Later, Rutherford flies it up to the entrance with them on top, as before. This time, he will keep it hovering at the entrance. They go back in and go to Room K. They notice the air is no longer bad and skip use of the bladders. They detach the wires from the funnel and awkwardly carry it to the saucer. While trying to get it up and into the saucer's storage bay they both fail a dex roll and drop it. The glass is now fractured but the gold coating holds it all together.

They fly the saucer to the shoreline and get a good night's rest. In the morning, the cleric casts healing spells. the saucer goes back to the entrance. They take one of the barrels of gunpowder that they had brought with them and place it at the entrance to the Hollow Earth. They light the fuse and run. They go back to see that the tunnel is almost completely collapsed. Then, they go to Room K. They spend some hours getting the coils of silver wire and one of the intact crystals loaded on the saucer. They don't bother with the silver in the walls.

At one point, when they are carrying treasure to the spacecraft, they here noise from the Hollow Earth tunnel. They go and see two spider-things trying to clear a way through the rubble. they shoot and kill on and the other scrambles through and flees down to realms undreamt of by surface dwellers.

After getting the loot, they head back to a civilized place (a.k.a. London in the year AD 1602).

So, the the end of session 7 and the end of Thulian Echoes.

Next up, we will do Going Through Forbidden Otherworlds.

Some more about session 7

At this point, I had Sam play Jeremy Blake, the fighter. Anthony hung around to watch and I had him roll for the enemies they fought.

NOTE: I should point out that in addition to the three types of Hollow Earth critters that might be in the complex, I decided to invent one of my own. They are about as big as a medium sized dog. They are somewhat like spiders but more lozenge or cigar shaped. They have 10 legs and spikes on the back carapace to protect from predators. The bite only 1d4 damage and is not poisonous. They are semi-intelligent (maybe like a chimpanzee). 

They party of two went through the doors and up the stairs. They went to the door of the shrine and peered in. They saw the cube and the remains of the candles on the floor. They left and went to the abandoned warehouse. They saw only the remains of barrels and crates as well as some large reptile bones. The party left the room and headed for Hallway I.   

The party got to a position where they could peek down Hallway I without getting cut by the glass. The fighter's lantern only let him see 30' but the cleric had taken the Space Alien goggles and could see all the way down. I had decided that some of my Hollow Earth spider-things had made a nest in front of the door to Room M. they were attracted to the light and crawled on the ceiling in order to avoid the sharp glass and the electric walls.

The party moved down the corridor away from Hallway I. The spider-things came around the corner in pursuit. The party shot at the two monsters. One was killed and the other injured. The injured one fled to Balcony H and into the foyer. the two adventurers  went down the stairs and into the foyer. They did not see it anywhere.

At this point, the party decides to go look at the gate to Hollow Earth. They see no ballista and no guards. The gate is wide open. the party decides to wait there for awhile and rest. About 45 minutes later, a group of worker-zombies comes through carrying full buckets.

I'll write some more tomorrow...

Thulian Echoes

The text indicates that the ballista is loaded with round shot. The map/illustration shows a spear, instead.

Here is more session 6 info

The party left the Shrine. They went back to Room H. They used the key from the guard-zombie to unlock the gate and proceeded down the natural tunnel. they did not touch the plants. after going about 50' and around a bend they saw worker-zombies harvesting the plants. Since the workers did not attack, the party scooted around them and kept going down. After going about 200' down the tunnel and finding nothing else of interest, they headed back up to the dungeon.

They went to the stairs that led to The Machine. They wanted to spend as little time as possible in the bad air so two of them ran through the Machine tunnels with light sources. Thus, they got an idea of the lay out. The runners took some damage. they went up the stairs to think about what they wanted to do.

After awhile, a work party of zombies came along the tunnel and went down the stair to The Machine. The party decided to brave the bad air once again. They followed the workers. The workers went to the door and opened it. the party followed the workers into Room K. The party took some bad air damage. They saw the workers dump the stuff from the flowers into funnel. One PC went to look in the funnel and disappeared. Another PC did the same (I suspect the player took a not-give-a-shit attitude since he knew he would never play that character again). At that point, the party had had enough and left the dungeon quickly. They indicated that they would make their way back to civilization. 

I think a healing spell was cast somewhere along the way.

So, that is the end of session 6. We will see what the "present day" party decides to do when we have our next session two days from now.

More about session 6

After dragging the body up the stairs they went to the stairway to explore the upper floor. The party headed toward Room I which means they would go through the lightning trap in the hallway. This was a different kind of thing than the electrified walls in The Machine. I decided to give them a chance at spotting the trap. I decided that there would be tiny copper needles in the wall from which the lightning would emit. They rolled well for perception and spotted the needles. The ex-gladiator rolled his round shield down the hall and set off the trap.

I'll try to finish write more later but right now I have 2 nine-week-old kittens cavorting around the keyboard.