Tl;dr: A rescue mission kills an adventurer, then another one is lost exploring undead filled rooms on a mysterious misty mountain island.
Future Adventure Notes:
•Successfully rescued the remains of a marooned crew from a misty island that has appeared near Port Mirandia.
•On said island are many unexplored areas. Four of note so far, only one has been partially explored.
•The partially explored tunnels of the Temple of Gol were crawling with undead.
•All adventurers should be instructed on the usefulness of dodging and knowing when to run.
Session Title: Journey to the Lost Island
Session DM: Geokhan
Session Date: 03 June 22 @ 23:00 UTC
Session Risk: 6+
Characters:
•Bar’Sah (Sorcerer 2/Wizard 2) with Clockwork the familiar (played by Tootired78)
•Free (Barbarian 3/Rogue 1) (played by Le Count)
•Nerea (Warlock 4) with Narsil the familiar (played by Trulhammaren)
•Sina (Paladin 4) deceased (played by RCB)
•Bert (Ranger 1 ) deceased (played by RCB)
I, Bar’Sah, will start this dictation by noting that the simpering “Sister” Sina has been silenced permanently. A useful tool no longer present, and oddly I find this unsettling. “Sister” Sina assembled uss that day. Having got to know the two sailors we found on our previous adventure after their shipwreck, even bothering to learn their namess. As a pair they were Ssteve and Greg, but I never discerned whom was which.
Ssteve and Greg we planning a rescue mission to find any survivors of their unnamed ship that smashed into a misty island that appeared during their escape of undead crewed ships. They believed it was less than a days travel from Port MIrandia and “Sister” Sina had offered adventurer escort. I did have some curiosity of this island, as typically they do not suddenly appear. The ship’s captain was happy to have some “seasoned folkss” along.
Heading generally northwest from Port Mirandia, we sailed forth. The Dwarf managed to spot a corpse floating in the water, then foolishly dove in to rescue it, bringing it back to the ship. I bade he discard it immediately, but Ssteve and Greg saw enough to recognize fellow crew member Larry. They proceeded with a prudent sea burial custom, tying a heavy chain around it to ensure it stays at the bottom of the ocean. Quite prudent considering it might have been undead and dormant when we discovered it.
There was another or perhapss the same dark shape looming in the waterss depthss, roughly the size of two elephantss. Then we began to near the mists of the isle. The captain took a moment to sound the depths of the ocean, declaring the ocean floor was six fathomss below. Through the mist the captain demanded a slower pace from the crew out of caution, since the mist alone makes for danger, the sea below unknown.
The captain checked again the distance to the ocean floor, two fathomss. He declared that as close as this ship itself would get, anything further would be by rowboat. It would be take a half hour or so to row the half mile from ship to shore. We chose to spend the night on the ship. During the night, I was told in the morning, that some greenish lightss appeared initially far off east of the ship, several hundred feet away, which began moving towardss the ship against the current, gaining speed, until they got within sixty feet, then they dropped and disappeared.
In the morning, through the mist, with the light of the sun we estimated the island to be roughly four miless wide. We took the rowboat in, with Steve and Greg doing the rowing. We heard the water crashing on a barrier reef, and as we neared the mist disappeared. The mist only obscured a ring around the island. Now beyond the mist, we could see the smoke of a campfire. We spotted a break in the reef the we rowed through carefully, then neared land.
In the water near the land, large creatures with long cylindrical necks raised out of the water, regarded uss briefly, uninterested. We could see large flying leather-winged bird like creaturess flying into the water to catch fish. We rowed towardss the campfire on the beach, where a few ramshackle shelterss had be assembled, near a shipwreck. There were several people around.
Our arrival coincided with shouts of alarm, from those watching the trees. We heard shoutss of “the beastss are returning!” amidst criess of relieve that Ssteve and Greg had survived and returned for them. We offloaded the raft swiftly and moved to try to assist against these beastss. It wass here that “Sister” Sina’ss instinctss of sself-ssacrifice overrode any semblance of caution. Foolishly she stood in between the people and a raging three-horned massive lizard that trampled, gored and stomped the life out of her instantly, her life squished out as one might a simple bug.
The rest of us killed the smaller lizard, than the “triceratopss” as some referred to it. Amongst the survivorss were both the Captain, Waverly ‘Slick ‘n ly’ Clare and the First Mate, Montgomery Smith, who’s note we found in the bottle. I had assumed he would be dead, because that seemed likely.
Bottom: Montgomery Smith, First Mate.
The captain spoke about how there has been “too much death on the island. The beastss weren’t hostile at first, not until the third day did they start to be aggressive, almost as if someone was driving them. We managed to scout in the first three days.” He mentioned how difficult travelling the dense jungle can be then introduced one of their members, a scout named Bert, who had been one of those ranging around the island, noting landmarks.
B: Strange Tower
C: Large Strange Complex
D: Alien Foreboding area
They noted four locations of interest: a strange tunnel; a strange tower; a large strange complex at the crest of the mountain, unexplored but quite advanced, seeming out of place on this primitive island; lastly there was a point far down on the coast that the land changed, looking very alien, thorny, jagged and very foreboding.
With natural suspicion on my part, eventually we agreed to let them use our rowboat to start the process of getting what they could back to the ship while Bert escorted us to one of the landmarks, instead of us sitting around waiting for the several rowboat trips that would occur.
Travelling east from the shipwreck and camp we passed a fissure emitting green gas. Nerea unwisely sent Narsil to investigate, igniting the gas with his ambient fire. All that we could determine now was that green gas, now green flame seemed to be emitted by the island.
We pressed further, finding “triceratopss” trackss leading towards the coast. The beast that slew “Sister” Sina most likely. There were other tracks of smaller creatures, four in total, one much smaller than the rest. We came to the area the tunnel was supposed to be and large worked stoness, with markingss on them. Primitive pictures, pictographs or iconographs, showing animalss, and humanoidss of a size of human or maybe orc.
Parts of these pictures seemed to possibly be a language. Using magic I could read. “Be humble in the presence of Gol”. Bert noticed a bird while I was casting my ritual. Near these stones were stairs going down, leading into a tunnel. Vines lined the tunnel, making it seem untouched for centuries. There were more carvings here that read “You are now entering the Temple of Gol. ” The pictures here depicted the sacrifice of living humanoidss.
Using detection magic, the stairs further down were slightly necromantic. Crossing through afflicted Nerea and I, Bar’Sah with burning cold. That magic would have kept vermin and pestss from entering, possibly larger creatures too. The stairs lead to a room with skulls lining the wall and more pictograms, these arranged almost as it to tell a story.
The first showed a large rock falling from the skies. The second showed creatures come out of the rock. The third showed towns burning, all sortss of creaturess worshiping at an altar as sacrifices are thrown towards a large gluttonous demon.
One of the skulls in this room was glowing with divination magic, while the door out glowed with abjuration. Bert found some spectral eyeballs in the skull, but he could not touch then. He then tried to open the door and manage to dispel the magic, getting staggered in the process. Afterwards, the Dwarf, seeing how weak Bert was, decided to open the doors, never once getting hurt. The Dwarf has proven useful many timess now, irritating, but useful.
From room to room we travelled, one path blocked by a deep canal of viscous noxious looking green liquid, with bone shards. This liquid had necromantic energy. Skulls continued to line the wallss of the rooms and hallss. Eventually as we progress we came upon a group of zombies and some spectral figure.
The numbers kept growing. More zombies, a crawling torso, a mist of negative energy, heavy morningstar wielding undead, a mummy radiating power, and a mass of spiders converged into a humanoid shape. Some were coming behind us, somehow. Bert was felled by a single blow, the others tried to save him but I, Bar’Sah recognize a lost cause. We fled leaving him behind, lucky to be alive ourselvess. We should have fled much sooner, but the Dwarf was so focused on killing the zombies he did notice us getting surrounded.
We abandoned the idea of exploring further and made for the rowboat, ready to leave this island for good, doing so. We were back in Port Mirandia before the day ended, happy to just be alive.