Medieval Melodies: Maze of the Blue Medusa

Showing posts with label Maze of the Blue Medusa. Show all posts

Monday, April 9, 2018

Monday Recap: Back to the Beginning

Well, here it is. The final session of Maze of the Blue Medusa! I'm just going to get to it, and leave my thoughts for afterword.

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 12 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: Back to the Beginning

Meanwhile, Alan and Anrira had realized that the shining objects were actually fragments of amber, scrawled with Chronia's writing. There were letters dating some time ago, meaning they hadn't ever reached their intended recipient: the Medusa. The group slowly pieced together that Fracture had been preventing Chronia's letters from reaching the Medusa for some reason.

They decided to solve the most immediate problem first: they went looking for Chronia. Her trail of time-decay was easy to follow, starting in the room with a now-shattered sculpture and continuing through several rooms filled with dust and rot. They stopped briefly to inspect a magical rose and a large astrological orrery, but for the most part pressed forward until they found Chronia, collapsed and sobbing in a small chamber.

Aniria and Coria tried to comfort Chronia, but found it difficult to do without being able to touch her. Her powers, unfortunately, were too strong. Derrik played a bit on his magic lute, and that seemed to help a little.

Chronia told them that she was trying to see her sister, Charity, who was just beyond a large pit that covered the eastern section of the room. Unfortunately, with Chronia's time-dilation powers, the wooden planks crossing the pit had dissolved into dust. Without a way to cross, she had been sitting here crying most of the night.

Aniria took pity on her, and used her magic to craft a stone bridge they could cross. The group crossed one by one, entering a finely-decorated lounge area. Of course, as soon as Chronia entered, everything started to mold and decay.

Notably, there was a large ball of ribbons slowly rolling around the room. As the group inspected it, they realized each ribbon had a love poem written on it, and for some reason, faint screaming could be heard from inside the ball. Aniria decided to hug it until it calmed down, despite the ribbons decaying from Chronia's magic.

In the next room, they found a headless skeleton in fine robes propped up next to a screened door. The screen began to decay, but beyond there were further screens and veils, all obstructing the view of Charity Torn. Her voice began to resound from behind the veils, sharp and curious.

Chronia told Charity of her recent troubles, but Charity admonished her for seeking help. The group suddenly felt a bit out of place. They weren't sure if they should help Chronia, Charity, or just leave. Derrik asked if there was any way they could change the situation, to help the sisters resolve things.

Charity explained that she was here to prevent a powerful lich, the one sitting outside her room, from ever harming anyone. She was essentially a living prison. Chronia's presence was jeopardizing that goal, and Charity wasn't able to help her sister while she was guarding the lich. Charity said the only way the group could help would be if they could kill an Arch-Lich.

The group seemed positive in their response, which was fortunate. At that moment, the ball of ribbons in Aniria's hands finished unwinding, and revealed a three-eyed skull, set with a ruby, emerald, and sapphire. It flew across the room, settling on the headless skeleton. The creature rose up into the air and proclaimed, "I am Zygmunt Wombwell, Arch Lich of Revelation! Charity Torn is MINE!"

The heroes drew their weapons to attack, but found themselves held back: In Charity's presence, they had to struggle to perform a harmful act. Fortunately, they had found a hint that one of the gems might be the lich's phylactery, so all they had to do was remove it and destroy it... without hurting the lich.

Coria transformed into a Scorpion, and with her strong willpower, was able to press an attack on the lich despite Charity's power. Alan unleashed a powerful Sunburst spell, channeling radiant energy into the undead fiend, while Derrik and Ahneria worked to undo the lich's powerful but painless magical attacks.

The lich had prepared spells that worked perfectly, despite being unable to harm anyone. His red eye spewed fire that harmlessly burned away the senses, his green eye summoned swarms of insects to painlessly deliver the flesh to the afterlife, and his blue eye only flashed once, but was thankfully resisted and the group didn't find out what horrible thing it caused.

The fight carried forward, and at this point Aniria was nearly entirely devoted to restoring sight, hearing, or feeling to those around her. When she had a moment, she wrapped her arms around the lich and tried to drag him away from Charity, so they could attack freely. Fortunately, Alan's beam of magical fire finally finished off the undead monster, and he collapsed into a pile of bones and robes.

Coria scuttled over to the skull and extracted the gemstones with her claws, crushing them one by one. With the threat hopefully vanquished, Charity emerged from her veiled chamber, though she was still wearing a veil and gown to completely obscure her appearance.

The group left the Torn sisters alone to talk for a moment. After a bit of time, Chronia emerged from the room and said they had decided to go to the Medusa and set things straight together. Coria apologized for the group killing Fracture-of-the-Bone, but Chronia said it was alright. She had discovered the same truth they had: Fracture had been stopping her messages. She felt bad for being tricked for so long.

Charity emerged as well, and thanked the group for ending her guardianship of the lich. She said the effects of her power would fade shortly, and if they wanted to avoid making an enemy of the Medusa, they should go slay Lady Crucem Capilli the dragon. The heroes resolved themselves to do so, and headed back towards the center of the maze.

As they walked the corridors of the maze, sure enough, the group felt their ability to fight return. And it was fortunate, as well: as they walked through the room with the shattered sculpture, they were ambushed by a squadron of Chameleon women! Derrik and Aniria were taken by surprise as the lizard ladies revealed themselves and attacked!

Fortunately, the group had become quite adept at dealing with these creatures, and with a couple Fireballs, Thunderwaves, and a few good swings of hammer and axe, the attackers were vanquished. Coria commented on how many of the Chameleon Women they had seen in the maze - it seemed like the Neonate Empire's invasion of the place was only escalating.

The group took a quick moment to rest in Tyko Wort's room, before gearing up and heading into the chamber where they had met Lady Crucem Capilli. It was their final task, and Coria spoke up, saying she hoped they could leave as quickly as possible once they were finished.

As they entered the room, they saw Lady Capilli speaking to a group of the Chameleon Women. Coria didn't waste any time, unleashing a powerful Blight spell on the dragon in human form. The Chameleon women pointed accusing fingers at the group, shouting in Draconic. Lady Capilli smiled as she transformed. "After all this time... it's betrayal, is it?"

Unfortunately, the Blight magic seemed to have no effect on the now-towering dragon. Capilli dove into what seemed to be solid ground, but it was an area of shadow. She slipped out of another shadow behind the group and unleashed a blast of lightning breath across the party.

Alan, wanting to reduce the number of shadows in the room and keep the dragon away from the group, encircled them in a ring of fire. Meanwhile, Aniria summoned her storm cloud, Coria transformed into a huge dino-bird draped in tree-like protection, and Derrik took to the sky with his magic lute in hand.

Unfortunately, Capilli didn't stick around to deal with the Wall of Fire spell, and took to the sky after Derrik. He managed to hang on through her powerful claw attacks, but with a mighty strike of her tail, she batted him out of the sky. Coria rushed upwards with her fantastic flight speed, snatching Derrik as he fell.

Aniria summoned all the power of her healing magic to revitalize Derrik, and he flipped onto Coria's back to attack the Dragon in midair. They performed several aerial strikes, all the while dodging lighting breath and claw strikes. Alan, from the safety of his Fire, shot off a series of Fireballs to weaken the beast.

Meanwhile, Coria noticed they had an unexpected visitor: Levalliant Green, the Medusa's oddly prescient companion. He waved hello, and walked over to a blank wall, holding an hourglass. Coria decided to ignore him for now.

Crucem Capilli was tiring of these games, and finally managed to catch Coria in her claws. Coria fought valiantly, but her winged form was dispelled by the dragon's powerful attacks. Derrik and Coria fell, not only taking damage as they hit the floor but also suffering some fire damage from the Wall of Fire. Aniria rushed to heal her comrades.

Coria managed to see Levalliant Green again, this time holding his hand near the blank wall. Just as the sand in the hourglass ran out, a door appeared on the wall out of nowhere. He calmly locked it , as if he had been expecting it the whole time. He waved again, and gave a thumbs up. Coria continued to ignore him.

The Dragon turned to swoop down and deal out another breath of lightning. Alan, still hanging on from the last one, summoned all of his strength and blasted Capilli with a monstrous Fireball. She faltered, spun, and hit the ground hard.

The group cautiously waited for Lady Crucem Capilli to rise up and regain her senses, but she did not. Alan lowered the Wall of Fire, and they inspected the body. Sure enough, their foes had been slain.

Aniria rushed over to Zaccheus, a mechanical peacock they had befriended earlier in their travels. He had been staying with Capilli, and he was grateful to be unhurt after such a fierce battle. Aniria decided they would be friends forever.

Coria and Derrik confronted Levalliant Green, demanding to know what he had been up to. Levalliant smiled and told them that beyond this door, the woman that had locked them in the maze had returned with the very mercenary army they had come from in the first place. He said that this would be quite the faster way out of the maze, if that's what they wanted to do.

The sounds of pounding and shouting started to emanate from behind the locked door. The group could hear familiar voices arguing with the voice of the woman they had found in the painting. It seemed like they were planning to kill the Medusa and "save" the Torn sisters.

Aniria and Derrik began to call out through the door, trying to reach their companions and convince them that the woman - Ashen Chanterelle - was tricking them. It took some convincing (and a drawing by Aniria, slid under the door), but they agreed and the door was unlocked.

The room they had entered in, a barren prison, was now full of people in Harmony Mercenary Company uniforms. Ashen herself was there, dressed in fine robes. And of course, the painting that had lead them in here was present, now looking out into the Harmony Company headquarters.

We're back! And the art style is back to normal fantasy art!

The group of heroes and their company met, shook hands, and seemed amicable. It was only barely that Coria noticed Ashen begin to run towards the painting, likely hoping to steal it once more. Acting quickly, Coria threw out her hands and Polymorphed her into a mouse. Her leap towards the painting turned into a tiny squeak as she smacked the wall.

Coria picked up the mouse and handed it to Levalliant. He smiled and took it gratefully.

The group gathered their things and passed back through the painting, ending up in the familiar halls of the Harmony Mercenary Company. As they left, Levalliant called out to them, asking if they knew why the medusa had kept so many stone creatures in her archives. When they responded quizzically, he informed them that it was like a prison for the worst offenders in the multiverse. He grinned and pulled the painting off the prison wall, closing the portal.

The group was glad to be back, and not to think about the maze any longer. Derrik and Aniria decided to drink as much as they could as soon as possible, with Coria and Alan joining in for a little while.

Soon afterwards, Coria used her magic to travel to her home in Jeonju, and Alan returned home to deal with his family problems. Derrik, with his sword of plant understanding, took up gardening, and Aniria collected as many animal friends as she could, with Zaccheus to help her take care of them. They all had grown during their journeys in the maze, and learned to deal with chance and conflict better.

As for what became of the Maze of the Blue Medusa and its inhabitants, well, that is a story for another time.

And that's the show! Overall, I felt the campaign was a success. Lots of fun adventures, good combat and conversation, cool NPCs, and perilous situations. I definitely want to thank Patrick Stuart for writing this, Anton Khodakovsky for doing a mind-bendingly amazing job on the layout of the PDF. I had so little prep to do!

As for the players, they said they enjoyed the game. I think they all liked exploring their characters, and the maze gave them plenty of challenges to overcome. That said, I think the Megadungeon play style was a bit to restrictive for characters like a Tempest Cleric (constantly looking for rooms to Call Lighting in) and a Druid (we ignored doorway restrictions on Allosauruses). If I do another, I think I'll try to limit those outdoorsy-types among the players.

Also, I find that NPC interactions tend to be more open-ended, and the players have more choices where to go next, than a dungeon where you have to pass through several rooms of random encounters before getting where you want to go. In a monthly game, I certainly think avoiding combat saves time and makes the game more fun. It's tough to balance the combat-nature of D&D with a group that prefers interaction and exploration. Maybe it's time to look into a different system?

Anyway, over the next few weeks, I'll be wrapping up some more campaigns, but worry not! We've got a lot of great stuff coming up, and I'm already planning my next big adventure.

Thanks for reading!

Monday, March 12, 2018

Monday Recap: The Blue Medusa

Yet another session of Maze of the Blue Medusa under our belt! After this week's events, I'd be surprised if we have more than one more game in this campaign. Which actually works out nicely, as it means I have a few different campaigns wrapping up at the same time.

What will I do with my free time? Who knows. Probably more campaigns, new characters, more adventures!

Hooray!

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 11 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: The Blue Medusa

Following the directions of Mr. Grasp, they entered the Almery, where they had been teleported once before. They fended off some roaming cannibals and climbed up a pillar of petrified corpses before finding a large map room with a tile map on the floor. Coria was extremely excited to see the map, which appeared to be the entirety of Ahneria. However, Mr. Grasp urged them through the room and up to a finely decorated relief of a nomadic king.

After inspecting it a bit, they realized it was actually a secret doorway! Alan pushed one of the jeweled eyes and opened the wall, revealing a finely decorated stone room. A large, armored weasel-like creature lay in a pile of straw near the door. The moon-children put fingers to their lips, saying the group shouldn't wake Overdose the Armored Chem-Stoat. The group snuck past and found themselves in a large office.

Inside, sitting at his mahogany desk, was the moon-man Torgos Zooth himself. He looked up just as his children leapt off Aniria's shoulders and ran to him, shouting and laughing. Though he kept his stern demeanor, he thanked the group and seemed deeply grateful for the return of his children.

The group decided to ask Torgos how they could escape the maze. They knew about the island that lead back to Ahneria, but the party simply didn't have the power to overcome a fleet of warships captained by the Neonate Empire's chameleon women. They had arrived via a painting portal, but the portal had been closed by Ashen Chanterelle.

Zooth was surprised to hear about Ashen Chanterelle, and that the party had been in contact with a dragon who wished to burn down the maze. After some thought, he asked them to recall as much as they could of their conversation while he lead them deeper into the maze.

Zooth strode off, opening a mirror portal in the wall and motioning the heroes to follow him. They passed by several statues, which Zooth casually explained one by one. Victims of the Medusa, mostly those who tried to kill her or committed some other offense.

However, one statue made him pause, a statue of a child holding a puzzle cube. The child was emaciated, its fingers worn to the bone gripping the cube. The cube itself was unpetrified, held in place by the child's fingers. A pool of dark blood had formed beneath it, dripping from the cube itself.

Zooth carefully explained the importance of this statue. The child was the last in the line of savant kings, bred by the medusa to design elaborate puzzle traps for the creature now contained in the cube. The creature in the cube was none other than Denrosathal, Closer of the Gate, Mnemoclast, Archdevil of Memory, father of the Blue Medusa. He had been trapped in his prison for over 14,000 years.

After he was sure the group understood the gravity of the situation, Zooth lead them further into the Medusa's collection of stone prisoners. Upon reaching a cavernous room lit with blue candles, he knocked upon the door frame and announced the group's presence.

Appearing from behind a bookshelf, a tall and lithe woman draped in a blue dress appeared. She carried a dagger and rapier at her side, and held a porcelain mask to her face, which was ringed with her writhing snake-hair. The group quickly bowed, realizing this was the Blue Medusa herself, Psathyrella.

She bid them to not stand upon such formality, and one by one they raised their eyes to her, Coria remaining bowed the longest. Alan noticed the variety of books in the Medusa's collection, Derrik eyed her seemingly endless collection of rapiers. Aniria simply smiled and waved.

Zooth bade the party to tell Psathyrella about their encounter with the Dragon named Lady Crucem Capilli. The medusa asked a few questions, but for the most part was unshaken by the information that a dragon was threatening her maze. Rather, she asked the group if they were here to kill her. They responded truthfully: they had come here on accident, and were simply trying to return to their own world.

The Medusa contemplated this. She then asked them to do her two favors: kill a particularly annoying creature that she had taken on as a servant, a creature known as Dendro Blackpoll, and deliver a book to Chronia Torn. If they did as much, she would help them escape. She might even throw in a rapier or book, as a memento of their meeting.

The party agreed. The Medusa bid them good luck, and Zooth lead them back to his office and through another exit into the Almery. They walked past a couple fountains and a room containing a pair of odd helmets before Zooth stopped.

He told them there was one more room before they reached the chamber containing Dendro Blackpoll. In it, they would find a potential ally. It was up to them whether or not they wanted to use him in their mission.

Rounding the corner, the party met a large devil sporting curled horns and cloven feet, holding a wavy dagger and muttering to himself. He introduced himself as Halo Nilotec, but only after questioning the party on their names and why they were here.

Halo had been sent by the Medusa to kill Dendro Blackpoll as well. She had cut off a snake from her hair and given it to him, transforming it into a dagger that surely knew the exact time to strike and kill Dendro Blackpoll. In return, she would unpetrify his brother Pylos, and they could get back to their task of freeing Dendrosathol. However, Halo was extremely cautious about simply killing Dendro Blackpoll. He revealed to the party that Dendro Blackpoll was, in fact, the severed and stitched-together hands of Dendrosathol himself. Halo worried that if he killed the hands, Dendrosathol would know, and erase Halo from all memory.

The group was confused by this. Coria agreed that being forgotten by everyone was a terrible fate and began having second thoughts about killing Dendro Blackpoll, the hands of Dendrosathol. Aniria was annoyed that Halo was being so indecisive. Alan and Derrik just wanted to get their hands on the supposedly magic dagger and see if it really was as powerful as Halo claimed.

After much debate, the group decided that hanging around such an indecisive devil wasn't worth it, and he wasn't that useful as an ally. After allaying Coria's fears of being erased from history, they pressed onward to the chambers of Dendro Blackpoll.

The room was divided in half. One half was tiered into three levels, stacked with books, rings, and a massive greatclub. The other side was flat, covered in paintings of many subjects, and sculptures of hands. In the center of the room stood Dendro Blackpoll. The creature seemed to be once made from the hands of an archdevil, but had morphed into its own sort of creature. Connected at the wrist, each hand's middle finger had grown a face and moved like an elongated neck. At the point of connection, the hands had sprouted little devilish wings.

As the group entered, Dendro was arguing with Blackpoll. Dendro, the left hand, was convinced that he was a person who just happened to have the shape of a hand. Blackpoll, the right hand, retaliated, saying he was basically a hand that had learned to think and talk. They noticed the group, and asked them to weigh in. Derrik had strong opinions about the inane conversation.

After a moment of debate, however, the hands agreed on one thing: these intruders must be killed. Blackpoll picked up his greatclub, and the party drew forth their weapons.

The group quickly discovered these devilish hands were immune to non-magic weapons and fire, rendering Derrik's axe and Alan's magic obsolete. Derrik quickly switched to one of his magic swords, while Alan began using Telekinesis to attempt to wrest Blackpoll's club away from him.

Coria transformed into an Ankylosaurus, swinging her tail against the hands. Fortunately, her druidic magic infused her strikes, allowing her to damage the monster. Aniria used the size of the room to her advantage and called a thunderstorm into existence above the battle, striking down with lightning to hit Dendro. Meanwhile, the hands attacked with pokes, grasps, and the greatclub.

In the chaos of the battle, the group began to realize their attacks weren't always connecting. An attack that harmed Blackpoll seemed to have no effect on Dendro, and vice versa. This sparked Aniria's rage when a powerful lightning blast failed to do anything to Dendro. Fortunately, Coria was able to beat the monster back, and soon Dendro was hanging limply at Blackpoll's side.

Blackpoll raised his club up in a mighty strike, but Aniria brought another God-infused lightning blast down upon him, burning him to a crisp. The monster died, and the group breathed a sigh of relief. Now all they had to do was deliver a book. Alan discovered a valuable tome among Blackpoll's collection, and pocketed it.

They decided to take another exit out of the room, to avoid having to deal with Halo again. They stumbled across a room where tiny toy soldiers waged grisly war upon each other, and by entering they inadvertently became deities of the slaughter. Aniria attempted to save some of them, but her benevolence only caused more divide and massacre. Coria pulled Aniria away before the firbolg got too frustrated or upset.

They took the known path back towards Chronia's room, heading down the petrified pillar and past some paintings. Coria saw a figure up ahead using her blindsight, and the group called out to it. However, Derrik couldn't see anything, so they approached slowly. Suddenly the figure lunged forward, and Coria felt a sharp pain in her back, followed by a terrible bolt of electricity. She stumbled, and Derrik wheeled around, yelling "See-more!" The mad mathematician appeared, frustrated that his invisibility had been removed. Fortunately, all it took was one claw from Coria and he was down, spitting blood and trying to crawl away.

The party questioned him on what he was doing and why he had attacked them. He said he was trying to get the Zooth boys back, as they were useful in his research. Aniria, after making sure Coria was alright, healed See-more's wounds and bound his hands. The group made a quick detour to deliver the mathematician to Torgos Zooth, who glady accepted such a prize.

They went to the chambers of Chronia Torn, and Derrik immediately began petting Fracture-of-the-Bone again. The group delivered the book, and told Chronia that the Medusa had asked for her. Chronia seemed delighted, but had completely forgotten to write a letter back to the Medusa.

This caused even more suspicion in the party, as Chronia was only asked to write this letter a few hours ago. Not only that, Derrik's love of Fracture-of-the-Bone was getting to unhealthy levels. After Chronia scratched out a quick message to the Medusa, the group was forced to Polymorph Derrik into a cat before they could get him away from the strange dog-beast.

The group returned to the Medusa's chambers, their journey uneventful. There, they discovered the Medusa sitting with a man in green robes, a smile sitting above his small goatee. They were discussing something, but when the party entered, the Medusa turned her attention to the group.

She was impressed by their trustworthiness in completing both of the tasks she had laid out for them. Not only that, but she read Chronia's letter with great interest. She thanked them, but told them she had another request of the party.

At this point, the man stood and introduced himself as Levalliant Green. Alan realized they had received a note left from him earlier in the maze, not once but twice. The group wondered who he was and how he knew they were coming. Levalliant seemed to regard their concerns with nothing more than passing amusement, and launched into an oration regarding the state of the maze.

Levalliant told the group that Lady Crucem Capilli and Halo Nilotec had both been hired by the Neonate Empire, whose capital city of Nyctopolis had fallen into dark dealings. The Chameleon Women were here to salvage the reptilian history and artifacts from the maze before Crucem Capilli burned it down, releasing Dendrosathol. Why the Neonates wanted Dendrosathol free was somewhat irrelevant, but it was imperative that he not be set loose.

The Medusa chimed in, saying that the group's final task would be to slay Lady Crucem Capilli. Torgos Zooth and herself would ensure that the Chameleon Women, and their warships, were dealt with. Levalliant simply remarked that after being frozen in stone for 5,000 years, he was happy to be free once again.

Alan and Aniria began questioning Levalliant more about how he knew so much about them, the maze, and the world outside it when he had been petrified so long. Coria didn't want a confrontation, and Derrik simply meowed.

Levalliant smiled and asked them if they really thought it was a coincidence that they had found the painting that had lead them to the maze. Why would he have written notes for them if it wouldn't have happened? Aniria, suddenly realizing this man knew far more than he was letting on, grabbed his collar and lifted him into the air.

She demanded answers. The group had suffered in the maze, to be sure, but she had only joined the mercenary company because her family had been killed. How far back did Levalliant's knowledge go? Had he known everything? And if so, had he caused everything?

Levalliant just smiled and deflected the question, saying if they wanted more answers, perhaps they could help him get something he wanted. Coria managed to talk Aniria down once again, and they left in quite a huff.

The group headed back to the island, passing through Chronia's room to do so. They informed her that her letter had been delivered, and the Medusa seemed keen to read it. They also warned her (as Derrik meowed fitfully) that her pet, Fracture-of-the-Bone, might be malicious. Chronia was upset by this news, and the party left with the tension unresolved.

Back on the island of Elatior, the group rested. Around the island, the warships of the Neonate Empire watched like silent sentinels, the last barrier between them and their home. Just one more fight, and they could leave the maze behind for good.

They slept fitfully.

We stopped there. My two favorite characters, the Medusa and Levalliant Green, finally made their appearances! I didn't play them exactly how the book recommended, but being a DM is about building a story using the tools you have, not following someone else's plan.

I think we'll probably only need one more session of this campaign to wrap things up. The players are interested in what will happen after the Maze, but honestly I'd rather have them return to their various homes and work things out with their pasts. Plus, then we can have some fun NPCs in the future of Ahneria! And in the meantime, I can start a new campaign...

Thanks for reading!

Monday, January 8, 2018

Monday Recap: The Reptile Archives

We sat down to play another session of Maze of the Blue Medusa this weekend! I really enjoy this campaign, it's easy to prepare for and there's so much content.

However, my players have started expressing some fatigue in going through room after room of the dungeon. As you'll see this session, I used NPCs to help them along, and lowered the number of random encounters. They are still progressing, we're just skipping some of the extraneous stuff.

Of course, I'm still getting used to the dungeon crawl style of play. It's a lot different than the games I normally run!

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 10 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: The Reptile Archives

Cast of Characters
Jon: Dungeon Master
Megan: Aniria Lightningblood, Firbolg Tempest Cleric, accidentally destroyed her home, now an adventurer, rushes in to danger but loves cute things
Makayla: Coria Kelvardil, Moon Druid Elf, traveling the world and cataloguing all the animals she can find, cartographer and voice of reason
Jackie: Derrik Evanwood, Human Bardbarian, punch things, woo women, deal with alcoholism, collect magic swords, learn about the feelings of trees
Tom: Alan Xanthudides, Human Phoenyx Sorcerer, not-so-secretly a noble with a bad family, someday hopes to burn the maze down, actually quite good at social graces

When we last left our group of intrepid explorers, they had returned to the in-dungeon island of Elatior, only to find themselves surrounded by machete-wielding temple guards. Behind the ring of swords stood Lady Nine-Bones, colorfully robed and wearing her signature nine-bone necklace.

She accused the group of bringing a "Loa", a God of the Maze, to the surface after she had asked them not to. She was referring to Marquis Aeolis and Lady Torc, the newlyweds that had been frozen in time in the Dead Wedding. The people of the island had only ever known the lovers to be a statue, and they had woken up that day to find themselves visited by said statue.

Aniria was upset that people were so upset, and tried to make things right. She appealed to the fear of the islanders, saying that they were also afraid of the maze and wouldn't bring something to the surface that they didn't trust. The Bondye Reparte lowered their weapons, and Lady Nine-Bones seemed willing to talk.

The party explained that Marquis Aeolis and Lady Torc were human, not Gods, and that they were looking for refuge from the Maze as well. Lady Nine-Bones declared that they could stay, although she would be having a talk with them to confirm their intentions.

The group wasn't quite sure what to do next, and Lady Nine-Bones offered a solution: she touched one of the bones on her necklace, and suddenly clasped her hands over her eyes. She spoke in a different voice, and asked what the party was doing.

As they told their story, the group slowly realized that they were not speaking to Lady Nine-Bones anymore, but to the Medusa Psathyrella. They immediately informed her of Lady Crucem Capilli, the dragon bent on destroying the dungeon. The Medusa advised them that she would take care of the situation, and seemed intensely interested in how Chronia was doing. Finally, she told them they were amazing, and pitched backwards into a faint.

Aniria managed to catch Lady Nine-Bones before she fell. The Bondye Reparte assured the party that she would be alright. They also told them that they hadn't spoken to the actual Medusa - just a representation of her personality. Now they knew that the Medusa would want to be informed of Lady Crucem Capilli. Also, she didn't really think they were amazing; Lady Nine-Bones used a phrase that the Loa would never say to break her trance.

The party decided to stay in town while Lady Nine-Bones recovered, and to see to the Marquis and Lady's integration into the village. They also planned their next moves: find the children of Torgos Zooth, deliver them into the Almery where he was laired, and then deliver a message to the Medusa about the threat of a Dragon. After that, they could leave the Maze without guilt.

Well-rested and ready to adventure, they travelled down/up to the maze via the stairs in the island's temple. They stopped by Chronia's room to ask her to write a letter to the Medusa explaining the Dragon situation, since they thought it might go over better for her to say it than them.

Coria lead the group as they ventured up through the Gallery, dispatching some Cannibals they found critiquing some artwork. They were passing through a room with visually upsetting art (thus their eyes were closed) when they heard soft crying and moaning. Coria had turned into a Giant Scorpion (which had blindsight) for this task, and was able to see the form of a thin man surrounded by three corpses.

Fortunately, the corpses were Cannibals, and the man was quickly revealed to be Seymore, the mathematician who had supposedly kidnapped the children of Torgos Zooth. The group had already heard that he could turn invisible by saying "See-Me-No-More", and became visible again whenever someone said "Seymore". They demanded he return the children of Torgos Zooth, and he conceded.

He directed the group to follow him, although Aniria hesitated due to his terrible rudeness. He even tried to abandon them at one point, though his attempt to turn invisible was quickly reversed. He seemed to begrudgingly accept that the party was stronger than him and knew his weakness.

They passed through rooms they had explored before, until they came to the stairs leading up to the Reptile Archives. Seymore lead the way, and they passed into a dark stone hall lit only by a lantern filled with red, glowing Moths.

Derrik decided to investigate a lizard-shaped mummy standing in the corner. He was quite surprised when it started speaking to him! It said its name was Scripta Elegans, a mummy stuffed with strategic maxims printed on silk. Here, the Archive was built by Reptiles, and the Reptiles were the Archives!

Scripta seemed quite serene, and happily allowed the group to pass by. They walked past a lamp which shone light from all over the universe, and over a bridge of stacked blue and grey slate. Seymore instructed them to hold their noses as they passed by a room containing a single rose, then stopped for a bit in the next room.

The room contained dusty furniture and an old lizard - not a mummy, but still undead. Seymore bowed, addressing him as "Lord Ambassador Draco Scabra", and proceeded to tell the old lizard a joke, which he found hilarious.

Draco demanded jokes from everyone, and Aniria flubbed hers but Alan came in with a one-liner to save the day. Draco countered by telling them the best joke he knew: due to an odd contractual obligation, his job as an Ambassador had never ended, and he had been alive for over 5,000 years. And now that he had lost the papers somewhere in the archive, he couldn't even break his own curse! He laughed hysterically.

The group realized he might be a bit insane, but he knew a lot of information about the maze. Alan kept telling him jokes and he told them more about the Maze and the Medusa and how it came to be. He thought their plan to get Zooth's children back to him was a solid one, and didn't seem too concerned about the whole "Maze burning down due to art-collecting Dragon" thing.

The party thanked him for his assistance, and continued to Seymore's lab. Succulent flowers and lab implements littered the room. In the corner, a caged door hid the two children, Anole and Anolis Zooth. They wore hats that mostly obscured their heads, but they did appear to be half-selenuim on their father's side. They seemed very afraid and upset.

Seymore, rather reluctantly, unlocked the cage and set the children free. Aniria immediately took them up on her own, setting them on her shoulders like a pair of giggling half-moon-men pauldrons. Their task accomplished, they set back to leave the Archives.

However, upon reaching the stairs down to the Gallery, they found an invisible wall of force in their way. According to Scripta, Seymore had placed it there to prevent people from escaping. Most of his "test subjects" ended up dying, and the lizard mummy had assumed that was what the group had been. It was quite a surprise when they returned, but unfortunately Scripta had no way of opening the wall.

They decided to venture southward, towards the Archive's true entrance. They met a cranky lizard-mummy named Emys Orbicularis, who forbid Alan from using fire in the Archives, claiming a nice young reptile lady had informed him of Alan's propensity for arson.

The group carried on, passing through a few rooms with the help of Chiromantis, a Lizard-Mummy who loudly announced them when they passed from room to room. After some convincing, they finally were able to rid themselves of their loud friend.

They found the exit to the Archives, and stood at a doorway that opened up into an enormous black void, punctuated by exploding rocks frozen in place. They were able to climb down toward a large platform, which looked to be the remnants of some sort of palace or great hall. At one end sat a throne, and on it was a very old lizard. Not a mummy, not undead, just very, very old. He wore a tarnished silver crown, and seemed unbearably sad.

The group stopped to ask him what he was doing here, what all this was, and if they could help him. He said this was the remains of the Reptile Empire, or at least his part of it. Long ago, they had built their archives into the Maze to preserve them, but after a terrible tragedy, all that would have been here was obliterated. He was all that remained, the lonely guard of the Archive entrance.

The group didn't think there was much else they could do, so they carried on, jumping from rock to rock until they got to an odd door standing by itself on a rock. Derrik knocked on the door, and a voice asked them to come inside.

They did so, and entered a room that looked like the Gallery. It was built from sandstone and large columns, with a large sphinx statue wearing a black crown. The Sphinx had been the one to ask them into the room, and requested their help.

She told them the story of the island city she once guarded, where the inhabitants would use the reflections of the stars to predict the future and avoid disaster. No one was allowed to enter or leave the island, for fear of disturbing the waters and muddying the predictions.

She knew the city had fallen, but couldn't remember how. She also knew she was supposed to ask people riddles, and thought if she obtained enough riddles she might remember what happened.

The group came up with some good riddles, the best one being about the stars being of the past, present, and future all at once (since they were used to predict the future, they were seen in the present, and the light came from the past). The Sphinx thanked them and asked if they wanted to see anything in the Maze.

The group had been long looking for clothing for Chronia, and they had heard there was a place they could make immortal clothes in the Reptile Archives, the Grimspindle. The sphinx showed them a hidden room, where the spindle was housed. It sewed clothing of pure light, but in doing so released shadows into the world. The party was divided on whether or not they should use it.

They thanked the sphinx and ventured into the next room. Here, a strange symbol prevented plants from growing out of the next room. Coria quickly surmised they were near the Gardens, which means they must also be near the Gallery...

On Coria's directions, Aniria used Stone Shape to create a tunnel through one of the walls of the room. To the group's delight, they found themselves in the Gallery's Orrery room.

Not wasting any time, Coria quickly lead the group through the remaining Gallery rooms until they had reached Chronia's room. Next stop: the Almery!

We stopped there for the evening. I'm noticing that the players int his group have really different levels of involvement. There really is a "active" and "passive" playstyle here. Which is fine, as long as everybody understands and accepts that!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, December 18, 2017

Monday Recap: The Fall of Torcul

The current party dynamic... thanks to Jackie for the art!

We got together for another session of Maze of the Blue Medusa, possibly my last D&D game in 2017. Don't worry, I've got something planned for next week's article.

That said, this was a pretty short and unfocused session. I kind of see this as a stepping stone session between major arcs - the players wrapped up a few loose ends and finished off some monsters so they could freely head to the last couple sections of the maze. I'm guessing the game has 6-7 more sessions left.

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 9 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: The Fall of Torcul

Cast of Characters
Jon: Dungeon Master
Megan: Aniria Lightningblood, Firbolg Tempest Cleric, accidentally destroyed her home, now an adventurer, rushes in to danger but loves cute things
Makayla: Coria Kelvardil, Moon Druid Elf, traveling the world and cataloguing all the animals she can find, cartographer and voice of reason
Jackie: Derrik Evanwood, Human Bardbarian, punch things, woo women, deal with alcoholism, collect magic swords, learn about the feelings of trees
Tom: Alan Xanthudides, Human Phoenyx Sorcerer, not-so-secretly a noble with a bad family, someday hopes to burn the maze down, actually quite good at social graces

When we last left our heroes, they were resting up in the chambers that Tyko Wort protected. They had spent their time recuperating and talking to Lady Torc and Marquis Aeolis, the couple who had been locked in time for about 5,000 years and were recently freed. The party wanted to help them get somewhere safe, and outside the maze.

Coria suggested they take the couple to Elatior, the island on Ahneria they had discovered was connected to the maze. The Marquis thought that sounded like a good idea, and had a way to repay them. He went to Zaccheus, the mechanical peacock, and ordered him to give himself over to Lady Crucem Capilli, who was looking for a creature who consented to being a part of her collection.

The group delivered Zaccheus to Lady Crucem Capilli, the dragon-in-human-form who was collecting objects from the maze. They seemed to be just in time - it had been a while since they had last spoken to her and she was getting nearly impatient enough to destroy the maze and everything in it. She was delighted to see the party returned, and immediately gave them a new task: bring her a small oddity or curio, in mint condition.

The heroes regrouped with the Lady and the Marquis, and lead them through Chronia's Halls to the stairs leading up/down to the island of Elatior. Their passage was mercifully quiet, and when they reached the top they were greeted by the sleepy village with the night's stars hanging overhead.

There weren't many people around, but they sent Lady Torc and Marquis Aeolis down towards the little village anyway. Assured of their safety, the party returned down the stairway while debating what their next course of action should be.

They ended up deciding to finally visit Torcul Wort, who had requested their presence some time ago. Along the way, they fought another Negamancer (a chameleon person who controlled thrall mammals and used magic to undo time), finding a note describing three types of Gems and some strange uses of them. It was very vague, but mentioned a phylactery, so the group copied it down.

They wandered through the halls of the Dead Wedding, moving quickly since they had already passed through this area multiple times before. Along the way, Aniria grabbed Tyko Wort, their ghost boy friend. They reached the room near Torcul's that contained the Angel-fish, and Aniria used her Control Water spell to create a safe passage for them. They crossed the room, passed through a storage area, and entered the lair of Torcul Wort.

Torcul Wort, they had learned previously, was a son of Sophoria Wort, the Lying Lich they had killed a while back. He was a construct, made of gold, built in order to judge those who lied and cheated with their money. He wasn't human, but he was a small, child-like creation.

Now, however, he had grown into a bulbous and grotesque form, absorbing gold until he poured liquid gold from his form, gold fell from his lips as he spoke, and the room swirled with molten, shifting golden forms. He called them by the names they had "earned" by how they used or spent their money, including calling Derrik a "Murderer" and Coria a "Prude" (for rejecting money at all).

Aniria wanted to hug Torcul and make him feel better, but he was inconsolable. He had been told by a mysterious "someone" that the group had been responsible for the destruction of his Golden Engine, and for the death of his mother Sophorina Wort. His anger had given way to murderous rage, and he summoned forth minions of Gold to fight alongside him. He even summoned the gold right from the pockets of the adventurers to augment his strength!

The heroes, faced with such a foe, decided to leave.

Coria morphed into her Allosaurus form and snatched up Alan, even as he sent a massive Fireball into Torcul's golden forms. Derrik bolted, taking a massive slam attack as he turned his back on the fight, and Aniria sent the water containing the Angelfish surging toward Torcul. The fish and the Golden beast fought, giving the group time to gain a lead on their foe.

The heroes pressed forward, assuming they would be running all the way out of the maze. They stopped briefly to grab Tyko's ashes, hoping that taking his body with them would allow him to leave the maze. However, they could hear the pounding sound behind them, signalling Torcul was soon to arrive. Alan laid down a Wall of Fire to stop him, but they kept running.

Finally, the group reached an impasse: They had to choose between passing through a room containing a trap that would certainly slow them down but wouldn't stop them, or a room with a trap that might stop them completely. Coria went for the latter, just as Torcul burst into sight behind them, coating the walls and floor in gold. He was smaller now, nearer to his child-like form.

The room they were in had a pitch-black tar-like floor with six small green emeralds, carved like eyes, floating around in it. As Coria rushed through the room, two of the eyes floated near her and she was suddenly paralyzed! The rest of the group came to a halt and tumbled from her back.

Unfortunately, Derrik and Aniria landed right next to the other eyes and froze in place as well, starting to sink into the tar-like floor. Alan, doing some quick math, realized it took two eyes to paralyze a creature, and started scooping up the emeralds to free his companions!

Derrik turned and tried to reason with Torcul. However, they learned that he had nothing left to live for, since his entire purpose in activating the golden engine and killing the wedding guests was to get back at his mother, who was now dead. He begged them to put him out of his misery.

Alan, unparalyzed, shot a powerful Scorching Ray at Torcul. In his diminished form, he couldn't take any more and melted into a puddle of gold. All that remained of him was a small golden coin with an eye on one side and a mouth on the other - a form of his they had seen before. Aniria picked up the tiny coin and hugged it as hard as she could.

The threat gone, Derrik's eyes began to glaze over at the prospect of the massive amounts of gold covering the hallways. After much insisting, the group agreed to scrape as much gold up from the walls as they could.

Along the way, they fended off a pair of Chemeleon Women and a couple of Cannibals from the art gallery. Derrik found a spiffy new instrument being carried around by the Cannibals, and Coria found a pouch of Diamond Dust that she and Aniria could use to cast Greater Restoration. This would come in handy later, when they would be able to turn statues back into their creature forms.

Pockets filled, the heroes decided to go back up to the island village and lay Tyko Wort's remains to rest. However, their journey had an unexpected ending - the Bondye Reparte and Lady Nine-bones, leaders of the island's religion, had leveled machetes at them!

"You have some things to answer for..." growled Lady Nine-bones.

That's all for this session! Like I said, shorter. And since this group of players has less familial obligations than most of my other players, it looks like we'll be meeting again in January! I'm really enjoying how this campaign is ramping up in intensity as we push forward.

Thanks for reading!

Monday, October 30, 2017

Monday Recap: Tunnels in Time

We got together for a session of Maze of the Blue Medusa this weekend. It was a somewhat brief session, but the players managed to make it fun anyway!

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 8 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: Tunnels in Time

Cast of Characters
Jon: Dungeon Master
Megan: Aniria Lightningblood, Firbolg Tempest Cleric, accidentally destroyed her home, now an adventurer, rushes in to things
Makayla: Coria Kelvardil, Moon Druid Elf, traveling the world and cataloguing all the animals she can find, cartographer
Jackie: Derrik Evanwood, Human Bardbarian, punch things, woo women, deal with alcoholism, collect magic swords
Tom: Alan Xanthudides, Human Phoenyx Sorcerer, not-so-secretly a noble with a bad family, trying his best not to burn the place down, actually quite good at social graces

When we last left our heroes, they had just defeated the pipe demon Carnifex and gathered some nice loot. The group knew that they couldn't go back the way they came without running into Lady Crucem Capilli, who had threatened to burn the maze down if they didn't return with a sentient creature who had given consent to be "collected" by her.

The party explored a side-room near the pipes and found a vine-choked room with a hole leading to a tunnel in the ceiling. Alan and Coria, being the smaller members of the party, decided to crawl around the tunnels and check them out.

Unfortunately, they didn't notice the Chameleon women stalking them until too late, and when they reached the next open area in the tunnels, their foes attacked! Aniria and Derrik heard the ruckus and began to crawl to the rescue!

The warriors of the Neonate Empire tore into Coria and Alan with tooth and machete. Coria, unable to transform into a dinosaur, fought back using her scimitar, while Alan summoned a Flaming Sphere to protect himself. However, both of them weren't faring well against the barrage of attacks.

Finally, Derrik and Aniria arrived on the scene, jumping down from the tunnels into the open room where the attack had taken place. Aniria crushed some heads with her warhammer, while Derrik's greataxe made quick work of the lizards attacking Coria.

The group gathered themselves, and found that the vines lead northward. They heard terrible moans coming from that way, and Aniria rushed forward to see if she could help.

However, a gruesome sight greeted their eyes. The room was full of horrible beings composed of two different creatures fused together in awful ways. They cried and screamed for death. Their bodies were twisted and broken.

Aniria sadly began to grant them their wish, to put them out of their misery. The others joined in, using magic and weaponry to end the sad lives. As she finished off the last being, it warned her of the thing that did this to them - just beyond a door to the east. The group decided not to go that direction, since it was likely that the Loving Lich was laired there.

In the next area, they found a giant rose that smelled sweet with sap. Derrik poked it with his sword that let him read the minds of plants, and learned that the rose desperately wanted him to get in its bulb. Coria though that sounded like a bad idea, and that they should instead go up to another tunnel hole in the ceiling, the only direction that didn't involve going through that eastward door.

The group crawled through the vine-tunnels for quite some time. After traveling a good distance, Coria heard voices and movement up ahead. They called out, and sentient creatures answered them. The party decided to approach, cautiously.

They came face to face with the adventuring party they had unfrozen from a rogue time elemental long ago, back before they had found the island or even met Chronia. The adventurers spoke in a dialect of common that sounded centuries old, but they seemed friendly. Their leader, a fighter named Citrina, told them that he sought a bounty reward from the Medusa for the captured Time Elemental. The characters decided not to mention that they had freed the elemental.

Citrina suggested they go to the bar, close to where they had just come from. Derrik seconded, and the parties carried forward.

They finally reached the end of the tunnels, and spilled out into a room that looked a lot like the Dead Wedding area. Coria marked it down on her map. Citrina introduced the rest of his party, a thief named Zoothera, a cleric named Plain-Leaf Neglectus, and a magic user named O'Cephalus.

Citrina said there were two ways to get to the bar: one, they'd have to deal with some ghostly creatures, the other, they'd have to navigate a trap. The party chose the trap, and they went into the next room.

The room was full of censers of incense hanging from the ceiling. Derrik used a mage hand to bump one, and the incense self-ignited, causing a poof of smoke to rise from it. The group figured out they would have to move cautiously.

However, as they were doing so, they were shot at by nearly a dozen Oku, peeking in from an archway! Alan took several shots and nearly went down from the pain. Aniria bumped into a censer, and began loudly questioning people's opinions. It seemed the smoke had some kind of magical effect.

Coria and Aniria took advantage on the fact that the Oku were clumped together at the door, and unleashed a Thunderwave and Ice Storm that obliterated the bird-masked men. Zoothera finished the last one off with a well-placed arrow.

Coria wanted to map the room the Oku had hid out in, and the group explored it for a bit. They also made sure to relieve the dead Oku of their valuables. Aniria got a small rock that looked like a goblin (which she named Gibbles), Derrik found a note scribbled with random words, Alan found a book titled "Liches: A Treatise", and Coria found another key, this one marked "#19".

Finally, the group found a familiar "face" - the severed hand with an eye sewn into the palm and a snake body on the wrist: the ally of Torgos Zooth, Mr. Grasp. This time, the little flesh construct didn't bother playing dead, but instead slithered up to Alan and perched on his shoulder. The group concluded that Torgos was keeping an eye on them and decided they should probably get searching for his missing sons.

They also found a huge stone head situated in the room. Aniria started having a conversation with it, while Neglectus and Derrik read some ancient writing on the base. Apparently it was the purvey of someone called the Elephant King, which made Neglectus very excited as he was a cleric of an Elephant God.

(Just a side note here. Jackie, one of the players, is a language nerd and enjoys texts and fictional languages. The entire time they hung out with the Un-Frozen Adventurers, I was throwing around "thee"s and "thou"s at random, and adding "-ith"s to the ends of all sorts of words, which was really annoying her. So when they translated this poem, I made a point to say it rhymed in the original language but not in the common tongue. This made her very happy, as it never makes sense for something to rhyme in multiple languages. The moral here is know your players! If you're doing something that annoys a player, make sure to throw in something fun for them later on. Fun is the number one goal!)

The parties traveled towards the bar, meeting two helpful but hollow-headed constructs and clearing some blood-soaking vines along the way. They finally reached the liquor, and Derrik began to grab bottles from the shelves for drinking.

Citrina and Neglectus poured themselves a drink, and Aniria and Coria tried to get more information about the maze from them. Meanwhile, Alan and O'Cephalus compared magic notes, while Zoothera watched closely.

One of the constructs tapped its chalice-like head, and Derrik decided to pour liquor into it. Suddenly, the construct began to talk like the people from the country where the liquor was made - it explained that it could replicate the persona and abilities of the creator of any liquid it kept in its head. Derrik found this wonderful and poured some dwarven ale in the other one.

Meanwhile, Coria used her mapping skills to figure out where they were, and how they could get back to somewhere they knew. They were actually quite close to Lady Crucem Capilli, but also to Tyko Wort's room - a safe spot where they could take a much-needed rest.

Derrik found an empty bottle containing a note from the mysterious Levelliant G, and the others realized that he had nearly cleaned out the bar. Fortunately, this did nothing to combat his already drunk demeanor, and only Aniria was feeling unusually tipsy.

The two adventuring parties split ways, the Un-Frozen Adventurers still hoping to figure out where their Time Elemental quarry had gone off to. Our heroes decided to venture towards a resting spot.

They opened the next door and heard a slight tinkling sound. Inside, a small pixie was trapped in a birdcage. She gave them a very sassy look and told them they were about to get eaten.

As they asked what she meant, the southern door in the room burst open, and a horrible shark-man-beast with two gnashing mouths snaked into the room. Alan reflexively threw up a wall of fire, which pushed the beast back. It tried to dual-cast a spell using its two mouths, but the group resisted. They fired magic at the monster until it collapsed from its wounds.

The pixie seemed fairly impressed, but quickly turned the conversation to any juicy gossip the adventurers had heard about other denizens of the maze. They gladly exchanged information, and the pixie introduced herself as Ysanne. Aniria mentioned that they had found a squashed pixie that seemed to be her mother, but Ysanne was barely affected by the news.

Ysanne told them to beware the Medusa. Coria mentioned that Chronia seemed to like her, but Ysanne pointed out that the people who liked the Medusa were mainly the ones she couldn't petrify. She also told them that the person mostly likely to steal Torgos Zooth's kids was See-Me-No-More, a mad mathematician located in the reptile archives. He had the power to turn invisible upon saying his name, but everybody knew that he turned back if you said "See-More".

The party thanked Ysanne for the information and asked her if she wanted to be freed. The pixie actually asked to stay, as she enjoyed having an excuse to not go looking for her sister. The party shrugged and complied before going on their way.

They made it back to Tyko Wort's room, and found him playing with Marquis Aeolis and Lady Torc. The exhausted heroes snuggled up and took a rest, planning to find this "See-Me-No-More" when they awoke.

Whew! It was a short session, but they did accomplish a fair bit. Hopefully, next time we'll be able to travel to the Reptile Archives and explore a brand-new area! Whenever we meet again, that is.

Thanks for reading!

Monday, September 4, 2017

Monday Recap: Into the Woods

We managed to get a session together for Maze of the Blue Medusa over the holiday weekend! Which is good because the rest of September is looking pretty busy. I might have a couple off weeks for running games, but that certainly doesn't mean I won't be busy...

Also, I realized this weekend that this campaign probably only has 4-5 more sessions left in it. This might be the first start-to-finish campaign I post on this blog. Maybe. If I can ever schedule another Dragonborn Quest.

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 7 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: Into the Woods

In the next room, they met a polite locust named Celadine, who traded them some information for a length of Alan's rope. As he chewed on the rope, he told them that there were three sections to the dungeon; they were currently in the Northeastern section. The southern section was where most of the garden utilities were, and the northwestern section was a bit closed off. Celadine wasn't sure what was in there.

The group decided to go through a room with a very bright floor. As Aniria felt her way along the walls, she suddenly lost her footing and fell into a large pit in the center of the floor. Coria crawled over to her, tossed her some rope, and Derrik pulled the unfortunate firbolg out. The group found the edge of the pit and felt their way around it.

Reaching the other side, they found themselves in a small den of sorts, strange nick-nacks covered the walls and a hunched little old lady bustled about. She was mostly bald, but from her head sprouted antler-like lines of ink that formed mysterious runes. Even Derrik, with his comprehend languages spell, couldn't understand them.

She introduced herself as Aelfadred, the Glyph Witch. The adventurers spoke to her for a bit, learning that she was the one who had made the bird-masked "Oku" thieves that had hounded them earlier. She was also cursed, and had a set of 5 cursed doors that she encouraged them to try - each door would cure another one's curse, so it was like a fun game to find a curse that wasn't terrible.

The group declined, and Aniria went into the next room, where the Oku had set up shop. The bird-masked rogues were all chatting to each other, passing ideas around until they were practically useless. Coria was delighted at the absurd ideas the Oku would come up with if given the simplest suggestion.

Their leaders were two Oku that seemed to have the opposite of personalities: Santicle was a bravado-laden fool, while his partner in crime, Bittervetch, was a sullen but intelligent bore. It seemed like the whole group couldn't decide on anything except that they wanted money, and that their old leader, a bird/man named Akerstrom, was much better at guiding them.

The group asked if any Oku would be interested in guiding them into the southern part of the Gardens. At first, none responded, but after some coin was offered, they became more than willing. An Oku named Dog Mercury volunteered, as most of the others were still bitter about the last fight they had with the group.

The party made their way down through Chronia's entrance halls, passing through a black-floored room they had avoided earlier. Coria turned into a Giant Eagle to avoid stepping on the trapped floor. Everyone else just ran. Along the way, they ran into Lady Crucem Capilli, who asked where the curio was that she requested.

Derrik proudly handed over the sheet music he had written. Lady Capilli smiled like she was addressing a petulant child. She explained that she wanted things from the maze, not the adventurers. However, all would be forgiven if she was brought a new item: a living creature, one that had given its consent to be there. And if they didn't bring it back the next time she saw them... well, she would burn this place to the ground.

A bit shaken, the group made their way into the garden's southern section. It was dark, and the vines had overgrown everything. Derrik lit a torch, Aniria lit herself with a Light spell. Alan used his "finger-fire", and Coria used her eagle-eyes.

They discovered a stone couch, which Alan decided to take a breather on. He noticed the couch was magic, but couldn't figure out how. Aniria heard a grunting noise from behind a door and decided to open it.

Inside was a tiny, angry pig. Aniria immediate fell in love with it - even though it kept trying to bite her, she picked it up and held onto it. Outside the room, someone moved the couch in front of the door, and Aniria used her new Stone Shape spell to make a different exit.

Alan quickly discovered what the enchantment on the stone couch was, as two cannibals were making out on it. They seemed preoccupied, though, so the group let them be.

They explored a gardener's hovel, and were looking through the back of the dwelling when vines began to reach towards them from the walls: Pellory was back!

Coria slashed with her talons, and Derrik ran in using his plant sword. Aniria and Alan hung back and blasted the plant-creature with spells. After a few vine slashes, the creature had finished off Coria's Eagle form. Coria responded with a Blight spell.

The spell proved extremely powerful against the plant-based foe. Pellory withered into dust, and the foe was no more. Coria grabbed a jar of herbicide from the hovel, and the group went on their way.

In the next area, they met with a large worm named Germander. Despite a voice like the devil choking on cinnamon, Germander proved to be quite friendly and sociable. They traded information and learned that a demon was guarding one of the next rooms. Germander also warned them against opening doors with yellow mold on it - it was a trap.

Finally Germander demanded that Aniria put the little pig back. It was apparently pure evil, and could never be tamed. Aniria was heartbroken, and with a sad sigh placed the angry pig back in its room, blocking the door with the stone couch. Also, Dog Mercury had run off at some point. The group seemed to be losing hirelings.

The group carried forward, avoiding the yellow mold doors. They began to hear laughing and cackling, and realized that the demon must be close. They crept forward into a room full of pipes and flowing water, with a huge frog-demon howling with laughter as he leapt from pipe to pipe.

Aniria tried to talk to the demon and figure out what was happening, and they realized that this monster was re-routing the pipes to prevent the plants from being watered. The group tried to convince him to leave by saying that Lady Capilli would be burning down the maze, but that didn't seem to bother him. He just wanted to cause pain via plumbing.

The group realized they weren't getting anywhere and decided to attack him. The demon, whose name was Carnifax, spoke a little singsong rhyme that made Derrik unable to speak. Alan blasted it with a fire spell, but another rhyme put Alan's magic out of commission.

Coria shifted and attacked with her Giant Elk hooves, and Derrik swung with his battle axe. The demon responded with more verse, causing Coria to shift back and Derrik's axe to be unusable. The group kept striking away, however, and before long the demon was bloodied and bruised.

Carnifax made an attempt to escape, but Coria busted out her Blight spell once more. The demon shriveled into dust, and everyone got their stolen abilities back.

Meanwhile, Alan, whose magic had been shut off and left him with nothing to do, had been trying to fix the pipes. He finally figured it out, and the water began to flow through the plumbing and over a group of water wheels in the back of the room. A low rumbling sound filled the room as water was restored to the gardens.

Having finished that task, the group realized they would either need to find another way out, or locate some willing creature to join them when they saw Lady Capilli... unless they wanted to fight a dragon who could destroy the entire maze.

We stopped there for the night. It always amazes me how much we get done in these sessions! So many rooms to explore.

I should mention that the players pretty much steamrolled the gardens. I assumed they would be lower level when they went here, so I'm not surprised. Blight turned out to be a clutch spell.

As the end of the year approaches, we might have less time to play D&D, so I'm not sure when we'll play next. Stay tuned!

Thanks for reading!

Monday, August 21, 2017

Monday Recap: Framed

Another month, another session of Maze of the Blue Medusa. I had to come up with a bunch of cool loot to give my players, and they actually found some of it.Which can only mean I must make more loot. The cycle continues!

Also, at this point we're actually starting to get into some spoilers for Maze of the Blue Medusa. If you plan to play this campaign, you may wish to turn back now!

Edit: This series was written before allegations about the authors of this module were released. To respect the players of the game, as well as the brilliant writing of Patrick Stuart, I've decided to keep these posts up. However, all links and art have been removed. Thank you for understanding.

This story is part 6 of a series. The campaign was completed.
| Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 |

Maze of the Blue Medusa: Framed

Cast of Characters
Jon: Dungeon Master
Megan: Aniria Lightningblood, Firbolg Tempest Cleric, accidentally destroyed her home, now an adventurer, rushes in to things
Makayla: Coria Kelvardil, Moon Druid Elf, traveling the world and cataloguing all the animals she can find, cartographer
Jackie: Derrik Evanwood, Human Bardbarian, punch things, woo women, deal with alcoholism, collect magic swords
Tom: Alan Xanthudides, Human Phoenyx Sorcerer, not-so-secretly a noble with a bad family, trying his best not to burn the place down, actually quite good at social graces
Liz: Guest NPC Gibba Gognata, caterpillar/snake child of the medusa, loves eating stone and people who let him eat stone

When we last left the party, they had been wandering through the art gallery housed in the maze. They explored several rooms before stumbling into the room that once held the Lion in Lapis Lazuli, a rude beast which they had dispatched earlier.

As they explored the surrounding rooms, Aniria heard the sound of chewing behind them. Sure enough, it was their friend Gibba Gognata, sneaking around and eating the walls. Gibba technically wasn't supposed to be doing so, by his mother's rules, but the adventurers didn't mind.

They explored several rooms, including one that made them irrationally angry and one that made them irrationally afraid, both based on artworks by the same person, one Milo de Fretwell. Coria and Aniria didn't approve of his overtly-emotional artwork.

The group held hands and crossed the fear-colored room, lead by Coria, who was able to suppress the effects of the artwork on herself. They emerged in a room with a large metal tree holding up glass globes. One of them had fallen and shattered, apparently killing the cannibal who had been standing below it. Alan wanted to grab a sphere for later, but the group persuaded him not to.

From here, they explored several smaller galleries. They found a portrait of a beautiful woman, who they quickly realized was Charity Torn, one of the three God-sisters of the Church of the Triad.

The characters were surprised to find that the painting could talk, but only had knowledge from the point in Charity's life when the portrait was created. They asked her some questions about the empire she once ruled, but unfortunately, she couldn't help them much in the maze.

As the group was preparing to leave, they were suddenly attacked by more of the bird-masked men, who demanded they give over their valuables. The group attacked, but it quickly became clear that Charity's painting held some of her powers: they struggled to do any harm to the bird-men, and vice versa!

After a few rounds of flailing about uselessly, Aniria decided to put a Fog Cloud up over the painting. Charity, who had rarely ever seen anyone being harmed before, was saddened to miss the chance to see violence, but the group made quick work of several bird-men before they scampered off.

Exploring the other rooms in the gallery, they saw some mosaics and curtains. Apparently, everything here was a strange and unusual work of art, and many of them dangerous, as passing through the curtains caused flames to lick at Aniria's heels. The group found another work by Milo de Fretwell, this one a gemstone mask attached to a skeleton. They decided to leave it alone.

Finally, they came to a dead end. A large aquarium full of lazy fish was the last room in the gallery. However, the sight of the fish caused strange things to happen to Derrik, Aniria, and Gibba. Derrik began to believe he was a polar bear, and leapt in the aquarium to eat a fish. Aniria jumped in too, but only to immediately grab a fish and try to strangle it. Meanwhile, Gibba suddenly felt the need to give his opinion on everything.

At that moment, a few cannibals burst into the room, demanding that the artwork wasn't to be interfered with. With two of their party members underwater, Alan decided to simply immolate their guests with a well-placed Fireball. Afterwards, he combined his Burning Hands spell with Coria's tail swipe to break the glass of the aquarium and free their friends.

The party retraced their footsteps back to the room that once contained the Lion in Lapis Lazuli, taking a short rest in a small red-colored room that seemed to repel the dangers of the gallery. They then pressed through the anger-colored room to explore the next section of the gallery.

They saw an empty room, a fish-like geode floating through an area, and a wispy sculpture that spoke strange whispers which only Derrik could understand. They passed by a corpse with some wax on it, followed by a line of statues with lanterns instead of faces. This made Coria a bit worried.

The group found a foot-long jade locust, which Derrik realized was incredibly valuable. He quietly stuffed it in his bag.

The group explored a large room full of pillars and a huge sculpture of a pair of hands, connected at the wrist. The hands took Derrik's bag, removed the jade locust, and put it back on its pedestal, waving an admonishing finger. However, as soon as the group left the room, Derrik grabbed the statue again.

They wandered into a large, long room that held a wire cage. The cage was as large as a house and oddly shaped like one. Inside, an emaciated and naked man watched them with hopeful eyes.

He told them his name was Ralph, and that he had been an amateur artist trapped here by the Lich Xanthoceras for being a romantic rival of the God-sister Zamia Torn. The cage was cursed, it would have to be destroyed before he could escape.

Aniria, finally in a room large enough for her Call Lightning spell, cast it and began blasting the cage with bolts of electricity. At the sound, the large hand sculpture burst into the room. Ralph told the characters it was the curator of the artwork, and would certainly kill them for breaking the artwork. Behind the hands stood the eight statues with lamps instead of faces, apparently waiting for the group to be in a vulnerable spot.

The hands leapt forward, bludgeoning Coria until her allosaurus form fell. Alan and Derrik rushed forward to help, while Aniria stayed back to blast the hands with lightning. Coria re-formed into her dino shape, and together the group made quick work of the statue. Gibba, excited to eat stone, began to munch away.

Meanwhile, the lamp-faced statues attacked, trying to grapple the characters into an embrace that would bring their lamp-faces right up to the adventurer's. One by one, the stone men fell, and one by one Gibba gobbled up their pieces. By the time they were done, the group was tired, but victorious. Aniria finished blasting the cage and Ralph was freed.

Gibba slithered around Ralph, delighting in creeping him out. Anrira lent him a fur coat so he wouldn't be naked, and he told them he knew his way around the gallery a bit.

Ralph lead them through a room with an odd sculpture and a room with large spheres in it, warning them of the danger in both rooms. They found a room with a perch in it, which turned out to be the home of the bejeweled hummingbird they had met several times on their journey. Gibba thought it looked delicious.

The group found (and killed) a weird Rat-leopard hybrid while Gibba used a bone to lure the hummingbird down. With a decisive snap, Gibba ate the bird! Thus ended the life of a small creature that had plagued the adventurers since the beginning. Nobody was too sad about it though.

In the next room, the group found a bunch of paintings and the stairs to the Reptile Archives, where they could supposedly find clothing for Chronia and possibly an exit to the Maze. Having found the location, they decided to return to the island in the maze and let Ralph out.

On their way back, they fought some more Chameleon Women, and Ralph told them more about some of the artwork in the gallery. As they passed by Chronia's room, she waved and remarked on how she had thought they possessed better taste in company.

Aniria and Derrik decided to stop by and see what Chronia meant by that, while the others followed Ralph to a nearby mural to ask him about it.

Chronia revealed that the mans' name wasn't Ralph at all, but he was, in fact, Milo de Fretwell, of horrifying artwork fame. He had been imprisoned not for loving Zamia, but for killing her. Aniria was aghast, and stormed over to him.

With little warning, she picked him up and demanded answers, after casting Zone of Truth. He mumbled half-answers and avoided questions, until Aniria finally killed him with an Inflict Wounds spell. In his dying words, he told them how Zamia had been his most perfect work of art.

The group, sufficiently creeped out, headed up the mysterious staircase and out of the maze. Gibba had to stay behind, since he knew the people outside would see him as a monster.

Outside, the group was happy to be free of the maze. Coria checked her star chart and determined, happily, that they were indeed still on Ahneria. Derrik rolled around on the grass, and Aniria hugged a tree. Alan seemed a bit sad to be out of the adventure.

They headed down into the small, simple port town, on a small island surrounded by horrifying fortress-boats controlled by the chameleon women.

We stopped there for the session. The players got to level up this time, since figuring out and killing Milo de Fretwell was one way they could do so. They are also itching for some town gaming, and I'm happy to oblige - if they like the simple, god-fearing folk of Eliator.

I'm not sure when the next game will happen, but rest assured, it will be up here when it does!

Thanks for reading!