Weekly Game Session Summaries, Part 1:

Thank You For Playing today's game 08/25/2019 - From 8:15 pm EDT, until 10:15 pm EDT, and our 224 th Gaming Session, goes out to:   Bard – Human - Maevis Silverleaf & Cleric / Magic-User – Half Elf - Quintolos -  Roxxifarius   Cavalier Knight - Human - Ubet -  The Freeman (Hermit Legend) Fighter / Thief – Shield Dwarf - Grax Ironcloak -  GreyWolfVT  (Ed) Magic-User - Elf - Xilicien -  Devin M. Ranger - Human - Coal Blackburn & Cleric – Human Female - Sheila -  Shadowfox (Steve) Witch  - Human Male – Elmfra Darling - Okey   Whom Could Not Make It Today!   Rowan  Root  –  Nick R.   (Arriving later in September)   Game Summary for Sunday Evening (08/25/2019): It is now 9 days later, about 8:00 am back on the Isle of Dread in the native village of Tanaroa Waycombe.   The party is at a meeting with village Matriarch Giannia. The Matriarch is asking the party to travel to the Forbidden City that the Snake People (Yuan-Ti) have retreated to after the death of the Naga, Explictica Defileus, in order to prevent their return. The party agree and are asked to go see the old wizard Ranme Mgumbo, at his secluded grotto, north west of the village.   The party goes to Ranme Mgumbo and learn of two known ways into the city. The first being a main entrance, accessible from following along a river from the island’s west side. It is a series of caverns and passages that go through the central plateau before emerging into a lake area in a huge crater with  vertical cliffs all around it. A small island known as Taboo island sits on the lake, where the Forbidden City is located.   The second way in, is via traversing through the island jungle to the central mountain range to locate a huge rope bridge that crosses onto the central plateau. The party would need to climb down sheer vertical cliffs to reach the Forbidden City. Ranme does mention of a possible rumored third entrance may exist.   After having a bite to eat and drink at Ranme’s, the party head back to the village and are confronted by Blutto, a guardsman for a prominent merchant named Rollo Bargmann. Blutto’s boss could not make the meeting to offer the party a job of locating and figuring out a way to retrieve a known magical obelisk, from the Forbidden City.   Blutto, mentions that his boss’s employer is the ruler of Thyatis, Emperor Thincol I Torion and that 5,000 gold pieces each is being offered in payment. Blutto tells the party that other groups have gone to the city but none have returned, including the most recent one.   The party accept the offer, then head on to see the elf, Captain Malmir.   It is now about 11:00 am on the Isle of Dread in the village of Tanoroa Waycombe, in late July. Number of Sessions for current Adventure Module: 1st Session for I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City 08/25/2019 85 sessions for “Isle of the Dread: Parts 1-4”: 10/11/2017 – 08/25/2019

Thank You For Playing today's game 09/08/2019 - From 8:15 pm EDT, until 10:15 pm EDT, and our 225th Gaming Session, goes out to:   Bard – Human - Maevis Silverleaf & Cleric / Magic-User – Half Elf -  Roxxifarius   Cavalier Knight - Human - Ubet -  The Freeman (Hermit Legend) Fighter / Thief – Shield Dwarf - Grax Ironcloak -  GreyWolfVT  (Ed) Ranger - Human - Coal Blackburn & Cleric – Human Female - Sheila -  Shadowfox (Steve)   Whom Could Not Make It Today!   Guardian (Paladin) - Halfling - Rowan  Root  –  Nick R.   (Arriving later in September) Magic-User - Elf - Xilicien -  Devin M. Game Summary for Sunday Evening (09/08/2019):   It is now about 11:00 am on the Isle of Dread in the village of Tanoroa Waycombe, in late July.  The party head back from Ranme Mgumbo’s cove and the encounter with Rollo Bargman’s personal guard to see the elf Captain Malmir and talk about the trip up the western side of the Isle of Dread. The Captain says that they are to be dropped off in an area of swampland that serves as the mouth of a river that flows into the sea. Once they locate the river in the swamp. They are to follow it northly along the grasslands to either side of it. Which is then bordered by mountain ranges on by sides. Captain Malmir also reminds the party of a long rope bridge that leads from the central mountain range onto the central plateau which has an elevation of 3,000 feet. This could be another way into the Forbidden city but it is a climb down vertical  cliffs. This time Captain Malmir is returning back to Tanaroa, as it is not know how long the party will be. The party also knows that there are two groups of people making an enlarged path through the jungle, one that leads from Tanarao, with Rollo’s men working on it, the other leading somewhere to the east coast, being cleared by seamen, which was spotted by and spied on by Grippli frogmen, the previous adventure party met. After the meeting with Captain Malmir the party, gets a few more supplies, (mostly climbing gear), before heading to the merchant sailing vessel the Belle Venture. Once at the dock & on board the boat they set sail. The trip takes them 7.62 days to reach their drop off point. They are loaded onto a couple rowboats with a couple ship’s crew on board for oarmen and dropped off along the shore of the swamp land. Day 1 on the Isle of Dread: From there the party decides to head eastwards to the base of a mountain range.   Day 2 on the Isle: Once they cross over it, heading south west, they set up a watch order and rest (Note: The spell casters currently need at least 6 hours of rest to recover spells, once they start learning 5 th level spells they will need 8 hours), with nothing disturbing them.   Day 3 on the Isle: Crossing south east through a jungle they stop to rest after 12 hours. The rest is peaceful. Day 4 on the Isle: Crossing south through more jungle for 12 hours they then stop to rest with no disturbances.   Day 5 on the Isle: The party turns westward still in the jungle and 3 miles into the trek they come across two 6 feet tall prehistoric ( Phororhacos ) birds they have never seen before. It turns out that they are fighting off a group of 6 rock baboons. None of the creatures take note of the party so they quietly slip away. After another 12 hour trek they stop to rest peacefully.   Day 6 on the Isle: After going 3 miles south westerly, the party stumbles upon two sabre-toothed tigers mating. The party slips away unnoticed. After 9 more miles (12 hours total) they stop to rest with no encounter coming upon them.   Day 7 on the Isle: Traveling South westerly through more jungle they go 6 miles in 12 hours stop to rest without incident.   Day 8 on the Isle: Going eastward then north east through the brokenlands, (barren desolate area). A 12 hour trip going 12 miles (2 hexes). The party then rest without incident.   Day 9 on the Isle: The party travels trough jungle for 12 hours then stop to rest for the usual 8 hours all without incident.   Day 10 on the Isle: The group goes a wee bit through the broken lands and turn north into hilly terrain for 9 hours then stop to rest with no encounters.   Day 11 on the isle: Two miles into the hilly terrain they encounter a group of 7 native zombies. Grabbing his holy symbol of Mystra, Quintolos shouts a holy curse at the undead zombies! This is successful in turning all 7 of them and in this case they all drop fully dead! The bodies were search as well as the general area but nothing of any value was to be found. It is now 16 days into the adventure (since setting off in the Belle Venture), with 10 full days on the Isle & the start of day 11 after 3 hours of travel. Number of Sessions for current Adventure Module: 2nd Session for I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City 09/08/2019 86 sessions for “Isle of the Dread: Parts 1-4”: 10/11/2017 – 09/08/2019  

Thank You For Playing today's game 09/22/2019 - From 8:05 pm EDT, until 10:05 pm EDT, and our 226th Gaming Session, goes out to:   Bard – Human - Maevis Silverleaf & Cleric / Magic-User – Half Elf -  Roxxifarius   Bard Jester - Human -  BRIAN SCOTT  - left game early Beast Fighter – Rokas of the Strip Claws – Sylvan Elf -  Ejen Nailo Fighter / Thief – Shield Dwarf - Grax Ironcloak -  GreyWolfVT  (Ed) Ranger - Human - Coal Blackburn & Cleric – Human Female - Sheila -  Shadowfox (Steve)   Whom Could Not Make It Today!   Cleric – Half-Orc – Kalgas Barzel -  Andrew B. Guardian (Paladin) – Halfling - Rowan  Root  –  Nick R.   (Arriving later in September) Magic-User - Elf - Xilicien -  Devin M.     Game Summary for Sunday Evening (09/22/2019): It is now 16 days into the adventure (since setting off in the Belle Venture), with 10 full days on the Isle & the start of day 11 after 3 hours of travel. It takes the party 5 more days to get back to the original swamp (Day 15 on Isle), going through hilly, jungle & mountainous terrain without incident. Day 16: It takes 12 hours to cross the swamp in a north westerly manner when they stop to rest without incident. Day 17:  Going some 4 hours more they then spot what appears to be a river emptying into the swampland. In the river fork area where an encounter with a couple of mating prehistoric Phororhacos (6ft tall) birds! The party creeps away from them and finds a spot to rest.   Day 18: They following along the river’s east side, which leads into grasslands, which takes two hours to cross  5/6 th  hex. One Hex being 6 miles.  Traveling 6 hexes without incident they stop to rest. They spot a group of 6 Phororhacos resting nearby but do not disturb them.   Day 19: Traveling 1 mile they spot a group of Neanderthals apparently hunting for food. Neither party confronts the other. Traveling 9 more miles in the grasslands along the river which curved from going north east to east, they arrive at a spot where they see the huge rope bridge mentioned by the wizard Ranme Mgumbo, some 3,000 ft above their location, connecting a mountain pass to their south with the central plateau to their north. The party contemplates finding a path up to the rope bridge but then decide to just keep looking for the main cavern entrance that leads to the Forbidden city on Taboo isle. This is about 4 hours into the day. Continuing a bit more they spot a river crossing area with docks, boats & rafts moored at both sides. The dwarf fighter/thief Grax Ironcloak, recognized them to be Mongrelmen, whom are a humanoid race of various mixed breeds of humanoids. Mavis Silverleaf the bard, approaches the nearest mongrelman, “Good day, We would like your help in getting across the river.” And starts strumming “Rolling Down the River” on his lyre. The mongrelman sizes up the group and speaks in a broken common, interlaced with animal noises, in this case bird chirping –like sounds, says, “That would be 5 gp to cross.” Maevis opens his coin purse and pays the 5 gp. The mongrelman motions the party into the boat they are to cross in and pushes off the shore with a paddle. An hour later you all reach the opposite shore. There is a path that leads to an opening in the Cliffside of the 3,000 ft high plateau and the party follows it. This about 5 ½ hours since starting from their rest. Entering the cavern mouth this is what the party sees as they walk through: The tunnel Narrows and becomes a small 5 foot wide path that hugs the wall of the cavern. Rippling quietly beside the path is an underground river of unknown depth. In the distance can be heard the sound of splashing water. Bats squeak and flutter overhead. 30 feet along the path the rock wall juts outward and the path turns out of sight around the bend. The party travels over 200 ft into the cavern when the front three need to make a saving throw vs spells. Balen the Bard Jester fails his save while Grax & Kalgas the half-orc cleric make their saves.   Balen appears to have fallen through the pathway and the group noticed that water splashes upwards from where he disappears! As Balen is under the water momentarily disoriented he feels as if something is probing his mind asking him to be a friend but he makes a successful saving throw vs spell and shakes off the effect and swims to the surface! The group then sees Balens soaking wet head appear through the pathway. Balen says, “What the fuck, something just tried to mess with my mind! And watch out this is water here, not a path! Balen then helps himself out of the water. Soaking wet he says, “It’s deep here, it goes over my head.”, “Something was trying to buddy up to me.”   Maevis Silverleaf says, “Alright, so it’s deep here, maybe a secret tunnel or an underwater tunnel?” There is an exchange between Balen and the dwarf Grax, each one ripping on the other   Rokas the beast figher says, “They are friends?”, Grax responds, “Nope, I never met the fool before.”, (really not until meeting him at the tavern back in the jungle village of Tanarao). Balen  says, “If we try swimming, something must have tried magic on me while in the water.”   At this point there was a discussion of having the witch Cassandra being a part of the hirelings, like Rowan Root the Halfling Guardian (Paladin) is until his player,  Nick comes back.   And that ends the live gaming session for the night until next time!   Number of Sessions for current Adventure Module: 3rd Session for I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City 09/22/2019 87 sessions for “Isle of the Dread: Parts 1-4”: 10/11/2017 – 09/22/2019

Thank You For Playing today's game 09/29/2019 - From 8:30 pm EDT, until 10:05 pm EDT, and our 227th Gaming Session, goes out to:   Bard – Human - Maevis Silverleaf & Cleric / Magic-User – Half Elf -  Roxxifarius   Fighter / Thief – Shield Dwarf - Grax Ironcloak -  GreyWolfVT  (Ed) Magic-User - Elf - Xilicien -  Devin M.     Whom Could Not Make It Today!   Beast Fighter – Rokas of the Strip Claws – Sylvan Elf - Ejen Nailo   Cleric – Half-Orc – Kalgas Barzel - Andrew B. Guardian (Paladin) – Halfling - Rowan  Root  –  Nick R.   (Arriving later in October?) Ranger - Human - Coal Blackburn & Cleric – Human Female - Sheila -  Shadowfox (Steve)   Game Summary for Sunday Evening (09/29/2019): It is now 25 days into the adventure (since setting off in the Belle Venture), and the start of day 19 after 4 hours since the last rest. It is now late August. The party decides to have the witch Cassandra scout up ahead on her magical broom and she spots a path that rises steady up to a cave mouth as it winds under a waterfall a few times. After the party hears of this Grax the dwarf fighter/thief makes a wisdom check to disbelieve the waterfall. Rollling a 6 and needing ≤ 11 it was a success. Grax tries to shake off  that the waterfall is an illusion however it still remains. Rolling again to disbelieve the dirt path, a wisdom check rolls an 11 and was successful. So in Grax’s attempt to clear his mind of the obviously illusionary pathway, (knowing Balen the Bard Jester, fell through the path and into water), the pathway vanishes for him only and he sees the river in it’s place. Cassandra the witch takes Quintolos the mage/cleric over to the other side where the path starts again about 70 feet away and flies back alone to get the next person. Meanwhile, Quintolos need to roll a saving throw versus spell, rolling a 9 and needing ≥ 14. Being unsuccessful, he was charmed by something and was seen to jump into the river! The party looks on in disbelief. Meanwhile Grax tries to disbelieve the river is where it is and the wisdom check was successful when he rolls a 1 while needing ≤ 11. The river stays as it appears so was likely not an illusion. Meanwhile, Quintolos had to make a saving throw vs poison and failed rolling only a 5 and needing ≥ 7. The mucous membrance surrounding the creature causes Quintolos to start suffocating. However, the creature an Aboleth, tells him he will soon begin to breath water and will be taken to his new home. In the meantime, Quintolos’ skin is also transforming! Cassandra flies over the river where Quintolos dived in and spots him and another creature with tentacles nearby, under the clear water as seen from the lantern hanging off her broom. She flies back over to the party informing them of Quintolos’s location. Xilicien fires off a Magic Missile spell in the direction indicated by Cassandra, and 4 missiles fly through air then water to strike the Aboleth for a total of 13 damage! Right after that Balen, activates the magical cube of force so that it blocks out all things, using up 6 of 36 charges for the day. The Aboleth tries to attack Balen and Maevis with it’s 4 tentacles but the cube of force prevents it from being able to strike or grab anyone. It now appears the party is about to go into full combat mode to deal with the Aboleth. Knowing they can attack from out of the cube so long as they don’t cast certain spells. And that ends the live gaming session for the night until next time!   Number of Sessions for current Adventure Module: 4th Session for I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City 09/29/2019 88 sessions for “Isle of the Dread: Parts 1-4”: 10/11/2017 – 09/29/2019