The World of Weirth is a setting much like a Hyborian Age, with danger at every turn, Swords & Sorcery magic, demons and mad prophets.
Tribes Of Gnolls And Nomads roam the savanna, while peasants and hedge wizards hide behind the walls of even the meanest thorp. A powerful Ley Line crosses the land, creating transient Gateways to the Faerie Realm.
Meanwhile the influence of Demons And the Belowdark waxes, threatening to cover the world in darkness, a suffocating nightmare that wells up from horror-filled dungeons underground.
Check the World of Weirth tab above for more info, including a draft of the Player’s Guide.
DM’s Note: We have been playing a style of gaming session some might call “Press Pause”, where at the end of each session we stop wherever the party is and just start back up again at that point for the next session.
As this Samm-Puul adventure wraps up we will be transitioning to a 1:1 Time schedule, where one day in the game world equals one day in the ‘real world’. For example, this session ends with the party back in Zan’s Forge on 35 Zazel 573. They will need a couple of days to rest up and heal, then they can start doing things in town, such as selling treasures, learning skills, buying equipment, etc.
Seven days later will be 6 Hielik 573, which is when we will resume campaign play. There is a chance that some characters may not be available for that session (such as Lieres, who needs to level up and needs nine days of training to do so…).
It sounds confusing at first, but it adds an amazing dimension to the game and I am very excited to introduce it here.
Episode 33: In the Deep Slime Pits
Today’s Date: 33 Zazel 573
27 May 02021
Early evening – The Party has been split!
The Mission
Lord Zan, Castellan and Baron of Zan’s Forge, has sent the party to Samm-Puul monastery to find out what happened, and collect some items of Star Metal, and then report back.
The party discovered the Monastery had been sacked by Skarn, the monks all dead or fled, and a strange force affecting the entire island.
In the process of recovering the items they had been sent for, they found more Sky Metal items, two daggers and the existence of a third holy symbol. They also found two survivors who may or may not be Zygarian agents, the holy relic of the Beekeeper Cult, and a rift in the air that leads to a desert region…
The Party is Split
- Aziagos, Kosas and Dimble have descended into the shaft and during their exploration have come to the end of their rope.
- NPCs Vion and Hildis are standing in a corner, seemingly as far away from the pit as they can get.
- Digger is pacing back and forth along the edge of the pit, making concerned noises.
- The lantern oil is running low, Lieres estimates they’ve been down here about three hours. It’s likely the beginning of the Evening Watch (6pm)
- There has been a lot of action on the rope, pulling, slack, more pulling. Finally, it goes taught, then stays that way.
Kalder: Decides to send Adora, Arnbjorg, Shavanoxil and the NPCs back to the surface, to break the camp and prepare the horses for a quick departure. He and Lieres then descend the rope to the lower level.
It takes Adora and the rest four turns to exit the cellars, and they encounter three Returners, the guards they had killed but neglected to perform a Ritual of Departure. They dragged the bodies into a side chamber and did so, immediately.
Once out of the dungeon, they collected Orgona and Wethis, broke camp, and packed up.
Meanwhile Kalder and Lieres follow the rope and manage to catch up with Aziagos & Co. They have a brief discussion of whether to follow the witch, as Kosas can detect her, to the West and below, with his Finding. They knew she was up to something, as they found one of her sympathy stones in the still-smoldering remains of her campfire.
Dimble argued for looking in the chests they had found, and leaving, but the rest wanted to find out what the witch was doing. They knew they were close behind!
They followed the tunnels, infested with an orange, cottony fungus and small white beetles. Much crawling and several vertical descents later, they found an enormous chamber, lit by small green lights, filled with mushrooms and Myconids.
Meanwhile, above, Adora and Shavanoxil had a bit of an argument about leaving. Shavanoxil pushed to follow Kalder’s admonition to bring the Star Metal items back to Lord Zan. Adora wanted to wait for the rest to return. They agreed that if the group did not return by morning, they would go ahead and leave. They gathered wood, built a large fire, and sat down to wait in the ashes of the Scriptorium.
The Myconid King
In the great chamber, two Myconids began to move toward the party. Aziagos and Kosas adopted a defensive stance, but the mushroom men only belched forth a cloud of spores. As these spores enveloped the party, all but Lieres were able to avoid breathing them in.
Over the next couple of minutes Lieres developed a strange telepathic bond with the Myconids, though he was not entirely sure he was not hallucinating!
A brief parley, and the Myconids escorted the group to the back of the chamber to meet the Myconid King. An enormous creature, fully 15’ tall, it probed Lieres’ mind and sent forth a telepathic “bellow”:
“The Crimson Maiden is come! The black-cored blood polyp would deliver her to the Lord of Worms! Let not this occur! SHE BELONGS TO THE PRINCE OF CHANGE!”
The mighty mushroom-creature raised its arm and pointed, sending an image of club-like things smashing a pile of meat in a pool of blood.
“Drink of the Water of Life, cast your augury! Carry the spore to the place of the blue flame (or double flame, Lieres was not sure later…)”
Lieres was nearly overwhelmed with the Myconid mental chant: “Carry the spore, carry the spore!”
The Myconid King pointed to where Xochi was hiding, and Lieres went to confront her. She yelled something to him about “go away, all that is here for you is death!”
She then cast a spell on Lieres and he began to flee in terror. Aziagos was able to grab him and take hold, preventing him from leaving the room.
Kalder then approached the witch, after Dimble had snuck around the side, and when she began to utter a spell, Dimble summoned a ton of energy from within, trading to whatever god would listen for more Spellcraft power! He cast Storm King’s Hand (Shocking Grasp) and was able to disrupt her spell and possibly kill her.
Kalder and Dimble searched the body, finding her sympathy stone, and grabbed her two bags – a poke (like a messenger bag) with a basket of food in it (among other things), and a bag of spell books!
Heeding the words of the Myconid King, Lieres purifies some water from the pool and drinks it. The Myconid King exhorts him to drink the pure Water of Life, not to burn it.
Since the relic bowl is upstairs with Shavanoxil, Lieres drinks the water. He feels a flush, his body gets hot, and his ears shrivel like raisins, looking for all the world like two brown, dried, oak leaves.
Retreating with the baby and the loot, the party flees back to the tunnels, the chant of “Carry the spore” nearly making it impossible for Lieres to think.
The Treasure Chests?
Upon their return to the water chamber, they took a chunk of time to investigate the chests and amphorae. Well, the chests anyway.
Four of the five were filled with trays of papyrus packets, little packets of seeds. Lieres and Kosas found some they thought may be valuable to an alchemist or arcanist and grabbed them up.
In the fifth chest, they found:
- a small (12’x12’x6’) casket with an intricate double lock. Lieres was able to pick the first, but the second eluded him. The group decided to wait until they were somewhere safer to do this, as they could fairly feel the magic emanating from this box.
- a scroll case contained three 6’-long parchments, with an elaborate ritual of some sort, the runes written in Stygian, the old, dark language of magic.
- a silk-wrapped ceramic tile, broken into two irregularly shaped pieces. On the glazed black surface of the tile were some engraved letters, filled with gold: “XUB NY” and “GURAX”
- finally, a long, narrow, leather-wrapped bundle (about 16” x 3”) bound in silver wire (in the configuration of a Hex of Confusion)
Realizing how much time they had spent on the chest-looting, they decided to head for the surface, neglecting the amphorae.
It was quite a procedure to retrieve the rope, prepare the basket to hold the infant, and negotiate the pool of water back to the waterfall room. Lieres slipped and fell, getting a hard bruise on his leg (- 1 DEX and a limp for d3 days). Perhaps it is the effect of the Mother’s Milk in the water, everyone knows it is dangerous to consume raw!
They climb the waterfall, and this time it is Aziagos that falls, taking a big hit on the side of the pool. The rest are able to negotiate the climb. While they are climbing back up the rope hanging down the vertical shaft, a Chull (giant hermit crab) approaches! Aziagos shoots it with an arrow, square in the eye. It splashes into the water, out of sight.
Dimble calls forth an Unseen Servant to carry the infant, up the waterfall and up the long shaft, and thus the party is able to escape the dungeon nearly without incident. (Couple of Fire Beetles, easily dealt with). At the top of the stairs, they re-unite with Adora and Co, then repair to the shattered keep for the rest of the short night.
Once again everyone but Shavanoxil makes their save against the Shineburn, and in the morning she is sicker than ever. Arnbjorg insists she drink the Mother’s Milk, and later that day, drink the last portion.
The Journey Home
It is three long, uneventful days back to Zan’s Forge, limping along, dragging an improvised cart/sledge with a ton of gear. Kosas and Aziagos get lucky, late the first day, as they encounter a herd of spoon-horn antelope and are able to bag two of them. (their rations were dangerously low!)
At the gate they are accosted rudely by the guards, who obviously do not recognize the dirty, filthy travelers. When they tell him who they are, he changes his tune and sends them on their way, also sending a messenger to the Manor.
The party returns to the boarding house they had first stayed in, near the center of town. Mistress Gunnvor is there to prepare food and baths.
Later that evening, while you all are bathing/cleaning/unpacking, etc, an emissary of the Baron arrives with a squadron of Cavalry. She is looking for the Sky Metal objects you were sent to retrieve.
She will take them now, thank you so kindly.
She is looking for two sword blanks and three holy symbol castings, according to a scroll she reads from.
Also, your presence is respectfully and at your convenience, requested in the Baron’s Public Chamber on Maliel 1 Hielik (the day after tomorrow) at the first bell of third watch (10am). Today is Arkados 35 Zazel.
She makes it very clear that any magical items recovered from the monastery should be brought to the Baron’s chamber at that time.
LFG Playtest Campaign 1 - The Shadow of Evil Chaos is an experiment with a new (to me) game system, Low Fantasy Gaming, and a new magic hack designed to bring the atmosphere of danger from the pulp novels of Swords & Sorcery. We are playing fully online over a Discord Voice server, using some home-brew maps, art and characters designed on the HeroForge 3D printing site.
Follow all of the posts here: LFG Playtest Campaign 1.
