The Adventure of

Michael Jackson

and The Vindicators

Session 1 2017.01.20
On the road
1. hunting Gnolls
2. Nymphadora and Grinshook capture Rowbane, A-Acron, and Michael Jackson
  1. Party ordered by Lord Bradlock to track down Gnolls Pack Leader
  2. Shirked duties
  3. Killed 2 knights
  4. Fled to Gaeklub
Gaeklub
1. Got rooms at the Gay Club in Gaeklub
2. Dave the Fabulous Barkeep
3. Agreed to help orphans of Gaeklub
Session 2 2017.02.03
Gaeklub
1. Lady J escaped from western kingdoms
  1. Lady J found her way into the Gaeklub Gay Club
3. Scout Andulian for Lord Bradlock entered Club looking for Nymphadora and Grinshook
4. MJ and LJ fled to St Michaels
St Michaels
1. Investigated Lind the Shadow’s home
  1. Found Lind nearly dead by Goblins
  2. Took to temple
3. Sent by Lind to find Wizard Grevis
  1. Found slain apprentice
  2. Recovered lost spell book
  3. Items identified
  4. Obtained Unseen Servant “Paper”
5. Bishop Martin IV
  1. Son of Lady Erma is in Gentle Repose
  2. Find book of Necromancy?
7. Lind requested to clear out home and seal off from Goblins
Session 3 2017.02.17
St. Michaels
1. Rowbane and Grinshook escaped Gaeklub when Lord Bradlock’s scouts entered
  1. Encountered Loretalyn
  2. Rowbane turned into a Tinker Gnome Fighter
  3. Fled hoard of zombies to arrive outside of St. Michaels
  4. Saved by LJ and MJ
Sealed basement of Lind the Shadow
1. Picked up task of finding children stolen by Goblins from Orphanage
  1. Intimidated farmer into giving vague info
  2. Discovered Goblin tracks heading northward
  3. Attacked by Loretalyn’s zombie scouts
3. Roebane and Grinshook left to investigate zombie tracks
4. Lady J and Michael Jackson meet Trinity the Drow Elf
Enter Goblin cave
1. Fight Goblins deeper into cave area
  1. Collapsed tunnel
  2. Leave cave and go back to local farmer’s barn to rest up and reattack
Session 4 2017.03.25
Goblin Cave outside of St. Michaels
1. MJ and LJ returned
  1. Discovered small hole through rubble
  2. Expanded hole and proceeded
  3. Dark tunnel, 2 hobgoblins guarding
3. MJ tricked into coming closer
  1. Murdered one, other escaped
Gob Village
1. Alerted by 2nd hobgob village hiding
  1. Discovered children voices
  2. Found “Uncle Bill” Bugbear
3. Killed Uncle Bill and several preg/elderly gobs as well as hobgoblin
  1. Rescued children
5. Met Lester Leftfeet
  1. Agreed to help if party will leave 1 adolescent and 1 toddler
    1. Told about Loretalyn’s chamber
    2. Spiders beyond
    3. Worg within
    4. Gobs and Zombies left caverns not long ago
    5. Attacking town
Loretalyn’s chamber
1. Taunted Worg then Dissonant Whispers to chase back to Gob village
  1. barred door behind
3. Rescued Rowbane and Grinshook
  1. Hid in chamber past spiders
Gob Village
1. Fought Loretalyn
  1. Enlarged 4 chickens
  2. 1 kept enlarging into gargantuan then popped
  3. L fled
3. Found fragment “Rites of St. Lazarus”
St. Michaels
1. Brought children back
  1. Orphanage has no money as half was destroyed in Gob attacks
  2. MJ donated 2000cp to orphanage
Session 5 2017.05.28
Farms surrounding St. Michaels
1. Getting Rowbane and Grinshook caught up
2. Edge of Farm fields and forest Tracked zombies
Farmer Dan’s farm
1. Woke from camp to find hysterical woman running with baby
  1. Husband, farmer Dan charmed by Elven Slavers
  2. 2 Children missing
3. Grin and Row agree to help
4. Converse with Elves, threaten, attack
  1. Defeated Elven Slavers and liberated 2 thralls and farmer Dan
Forest path
1. Tracked Zombies to a fork
  1. 8 Z’s and 1 human go right
  2. 4 Z’s and huge Z footprint go left
3. G & R go right
Goblin cave entrance
1. Surprise and defeat 3 gobs
  1. Zombies emerge from small cave one by one
  2. Keep Z’s choked and pick them off
  3. Collapse cave
Forest Path
1. Camp at fork from C
  1. Ogre Zombie attacks at night
  2. Defeated ok
3. Located and defeated other 4 Z’s
  1. Track back to a different farmer
Evil Farm
1. Found ransacked farm
  1. All inhabitants dead
  2. Locked trapped cupboard
    1. Journal detailing black rituals and necromancy carried out in secret
    2. Indicates shrine in secret basement
  4. 3 poisons
  5. 1 magic dagger
Locked trapped entrance to secret basement
1. potatoes and carrots
2. Evil Shrine
  1. Fragment “Rites of St. Lazarus
    1. Speak with Dead
    2. Raise Dead
    3. Gentle Repose
4. Ghouls waiting at farmhouse entrance
  1. Tough fight
  2. Paralyze G & R
6. Carried back to Loretalyn’s hideout.
Session 6 2017.06.11
St Michaels
1. Orphanage, little Tommy
  1. Informed party that Lord Bradlock saved town from Gobs
  2. Remarked that Grinshook’s armor looks like LB
Chapel
1. Bishop Martin warned about LB
  1. Recommended talking to Lind
  2. Suggested they take out LB
Tavern
1. Grinshook hid out at Lind’s burned down hut
  1. Rest of party lured out LB with promises of capturing a deserter
  2. LB followed to hut
    1. Ambushed
    2. Defeated
Grevis’ Tower
1. Discovered burned out tower
  1. Ghoul bodies
    1. One alive trapped under bookshelf
    2. Lied about ghouls and Grevis
  3. Grinshook killed Ghoul
3. Party left town
Session 7 2017.06.24
Fled St Michaels
Path to Cold Mountain
1. Met Poedith
  1. Encountered Ghouls and a Ghast
    1. Defeated
  3. Learned they were sent by Loretalyn to track down and capture alive
    1. Rowbane and Grinshook
3. Discovered sacked wagon train
Carts containing red rocks and shiny black rocks
1. 1 cart armored and locked from the outside
2. 2 Carts tipped over
3. Goblins milling about
  1. Going through carts
  2. Trying to break into locked cart
  3. Gambling and arguing
5. Party attacks Gobs
  1. Killed half
  2. Rest fled
7. Investigated carts
  1. Iron Ore
  2. Coal
  3. Bashed lock off of locked cart
    1. Discovered very large clawed hand
    2. Bark-like skin
    3. Large bulbous tumor growing from wounded end
    4. Claw starts to grasp and move
    5. Chop claw and arm to pieces
    6. Open tumor up
    7. discovered baby troll growing from arm
    8. Killed everything with fire
9. Ring of swimming
10. Broken mechanical hound
Rowbane swims to the bottom of the lake
1. Finds a drowned dwarf in full plate
  1. Tightly gripping a chest
3. Rigged up a pulley
  1. Dragged to surface
    1. Discovered box full of magic items and potions
    2. Full plate armor
Spider-cathedral
1. Walls made entirely from spider silk
  1. Stretching up 30yds to arched ceiling
  2. lumps bound in spider silk line the walls
3. Rowbane hung back
  1. Working on mechanical hound
5. Grinshook and Poedith enter SC
  1. cut open a lump
  2. Discover expensive jewelery
7. Setting fire burns away a large section of web
8. Surrounded by spiders
  1. Fought off several
  2. Grins drinking unidentified potion
    1. Potion of Dimmution
    2. 1/2” smaller than Rowbane
10. Flee spiders
11. Set walls on fire
Back on trail
1. Blink-dog encounter
  1. Grinshook attempts to befriend dog with meat
  2. Dog slinks up, teleports away
  3. Disappears
Cold Mountain
1. Guard allowed in to town
2. Linkboy, Garrett offers services
3. Head to Jeweler Ludicris Pennyloafer
  1. Takes instant liking to Rowbane
  2. Offers to assist with Mechanical Hound
  3. Gives keys to shop to Rowbane to bring back the hound
  4. Rowbane is tempted to murder him, but resists
5. Garrett takes party to The Fabulous Trout
  1. 25gp /night
  2. Argent Stonemason, Dwarf
    1. skeptical of party’s ability to pay for such high class rooms
    2. convinced with bag of gold
    3. feeds party
    4. hot running water
    5. comfortable beds
  4. forge heats water, can be used
7. Garrett takes Grinshook and Rowbane to Curio Shop
  1. Baal Hassam is closed
  2. Party convinces him to talk
  3. Party insults him by calling him a demon
    1. Slams door in faces
Session 8
Cold Mountain
1. Thieves guild offers protection
2. Meet Carmine and Darryl
3. Darryl
  1. Posts shop outside of wealthy inn
  2. Busy activity of employees
  3. No sign of Lord Bradlock
5. Party investigates
  1. LB camped outside of city wall
  2. All spy on camp at night
  3. LB and his Lt are gone
  4. Single Officer remaining with soldiers
7. Party attack
  1. Kill Wight officer
  2. Destroy wagon
  3. Kill goodly knights
  4. Kill soldiers
  5. Free people chained to wagon
9. Zombies attack city
  1. Party fight them off
11. Darryl fight Wright Lt. In a joust
  1. Defeats
  2. Brings corpse back
Session 9
The Turnip
1. Rested for several days
2. Summoned to Palace Temple
Streets outside Temple
1. Marf Denou
  1. Heard denouncing Bishop Barnabus
  2. Spoke with him
    1. Aware of Shadows
    2. Mostly poor
  4. Legend of Sax Goldmire
3. Will speak to the Temple on poor’s behalf
  1. Will try to scrape up a reward
  2. Robe of Useful Items
Temple Palace
1. Brother Galston
  1. Legend of Sax
  2. Poor attacked the most
3. Proximity to temple
  1. Will pay to stop
  2. Blessed weapons
Baal Hassan Curio Shop
1. Purchased Circlet of Blasting, Driftglobe, Bad Armor
Up the mountain
1. Came upon fiery bowl
  1. Hovel next to it
3. Aakron saw a black shadow at the bottom of the bowl
  1. Thin spot between the realms
5. Brother Willis
  1. Answered questions
  2. Blessed with protection from fire
7. Party entered Shadowfell
Shadowfell
1. Appears to be similar to PMP
  1. Little light
3. Hovel next to bowl
  1. Sax Goldmire, Dwarf Paladin
  2. Edges blurry and smokey
  3. Super old
5. Agrees to lead party up mountain
Cave in the mountain
1. Sax cannot travel into the cave
  1. Party presses issue
  2. Sax attempts
  3. S Turns into a tiny mote of light
  4. captures mote and puts in a flask
3. Travel father into cave
Cavern
1. Solid blackness, magical
2. Unearthly voice
  1. Threatens and taunts’
4. Attacks
  1. Party fight and kill
6. Travel through to other side
  1. Find another portal
8. Dump light mote/Sax out
  1. Sax is able to seal the hole
10. Blast knocks party back
Session 10
Cold Mountain Volcano
1. Fought Manticores
2. Found Skel Mine
  1. Killed Elf Necromancer
  2. Want to sell mine to dwarves
Town of Cold Mountain
1. Guard Capt Draconious
  1. Offered Saddle of Cavalier
  2. Find cult and stop before Walpurgis
3. Baal Hasaan
  1. Wants escort to City of Brass
Hunter’s Guild
1. Grinshook took contract
  1. Fire elemental residual gem
  2. 5000sp bounty
3. Sell Skel Mine
4. Buy 4 draft horses
  1. Find armored wagon from sacked wagon train
6. Head east to Dwarves
7. Attacked by Trolls
Session 11
Road to Gloomshiver Mine
1. Elves with thralls
  1. Dancing
  2. Setting up
3. MJ attacked Elf priest
  1. Summoned Fear Smith
    1. MJ went down
5. FS fled into darkness
6. Released Thralls
  1. Druid thrall
    1. Convinces party to stay for 3 days to close the feycrossing
8. Back on the road
Gloomshiver Mine
1. Administrator Glint
  1. Loretalyn in office with HellHound
  2. MJ demands her death
    1. Convinces Glint she needs to die
3. Fight and defeated
4. Agree to liberate mine if he’ll send Forman to offer price
Session 12
Gloomshiver Mine Camp
1. Met Lev Six, Half-elf Evoker (Rich)
  1. Agreed to liberate mine
3. Administrator will send emissary to check Skel Mine
4. Met Gandarius and Gromph
  1. Will aid with getting help from Feywild
Gloomshiver Mine
1. Roper, Piercer, Darkmantle
  1. Chewed off Zero’s arm
  2. Ultimately defeated
3. Gloomshiver Mining Campaign
4. Stocked up on healing potions
5. Travelled to Stonehenge
Stonehenge near Gloomshiver Mine
1. Asked Gromph to help with Zero’s arm
  1. Gandarius buried Zero to his neck
  2. Grew twisted root arm
3. Agreed to track down Fearsmith
4. 2 Ghouls and 1 Gast
  1. Attacked at night
    1. Zero captured 2 Ghouls with amulet
    2. Killed Ghast
  3. Sent ghouls to track Fearsmith
6. Fearsmith
  1. Found
  2. Slayed
  3. put body in H Haversack
  4. Took head
8. Long rest
  1. Mummy attacked
10. Opened portal to Feywild and went through
Feywild
1. Walked towards sunset
  1. Ending up where they started
3. Entered copse of trees
  1. Discovered Sprites
  2. Showed Fearsmith head
  3. Paid tribute
  4. Pixie king lead to Crystal City
Session 13
Atop the dale looking down at Crystal City
1. Redcaps chased Corbin and Manad
  1. Party joined flight to Crystal city
3. Crystal Lasers killed many Redcaps
4. Met Nevil Broomcaster
  1. No idea why they know him from another realm
    1. Knows them somehow
6. Met Fey Lord Neffelstein
  1. Asked to help him in hunt
8. Found Wizard Grevis
  1. Advised about Titan and Crystals
10. Grinshook wants to go directly to Wood
Shreevage Wood
1. Manad and Corbin hunted Meenlock
2. Killed and returned
Hairy turnip
1. MJ told tales
2. Rowbane finished dog
  1. Got gem from Grevis in exchange for panther figurine
Shreevage Wood
1. Talked to lizard
2. Found tree
3. Gathered mushrooms
4. Fed Bubbles the Manticore to the tree
Back to Crystal city
1. Spores not enough
2. Bought 10 cows
Shreevage
1. 6 Wisps
2. Fed cows to tree
3. Used mech dog to gather spores
Crystal City
1. All good
2. Hunt tomorrow
3. Claw ready tomorrow
Session 14
Turnip
1. Backdoor
2. Marjan
  1. Sandy Heat (Human Easterner Common, Durka Durka)
  2. City only has Sand and Heat
Crystal City
1. Tailor
  1. MJ getting sparkly displacer glove made
3. Forrest
  1. Caught Orcs
  2. Caught Drow
  3. Killed High Elf
Hangman’s Tree
1. Wood elves
  1. Fought killed
3. Fey Lord Neffelstein
  1. Pleased with results of the hunt
  2. Happy to provide Military assistance
  3. Where should I send troops?
  4. Advised to visit Gabriel at Genesis
    1. Planeswalker who can provide more info
Session 15
Turnip
1. Party came down stairs
  1. Gith patrons
3. Nevil is freaked out
  1. Party has been dead 10 years now
  2. Ever since gnoll hoard came through that gate
5. Back door is unstable
  1. Gith ship tied to a rope out the door
  2. Zero took a rope out the front door over the roof, and in the back door
    1. Caused singularity that pulled the Gith ship into the Crystal City
    2. Chaos ensued as Gith swarmed out of ship
      - took hostages
7. Guards would not allow civilians to enter ship area
8. Party went to Lord Neffelstein
Crystal Palace
1. Lord Neffelstein is very excited.
  1. Deputizes Vindicators
Gith Ship
1. Darryl gets charmed to attack allies
  1. Michael J polymorphed Darryl into a mouse
    1. Broke spell
3. Butchered wizard
Old man brothel
1. Set building on fire
  1. Killed Gith
  2. Rescued hostages
3. Back to the Turnip
Session 16
Crystal City
1. Carpenters and Wizards
  1. Taking half ship apart
  2. Cataloguing parts and studying magic
Turnip basement
1. found ooze
2. Built earth bridge along right wall
3. Found Fear orb room
Sanctuary
1. Met Stewart, Cleric of Janus
  1. Prayed for a safe place to hide the temple
3. Turnip must be how that prayer was answered
Main Tavern
1. Stewart agrees to investigate
  1. Front door first
3. Nevil’s background
4. Repair back door
Genesis
1. Lord Neffelstein put on diaper out of respect
2. Massive crystal
  1. Hollowed out down to waist high
  2. channels cut to walk through
  3. Large empty areas
    1. feyfolk sitting
    2. dancing
  5. Only light comes from invisible dancers wreathed in faerie fire
  6. Dancers quickly put down any fighting with Hold Monster spells
4. Peter Gabriel
  1. Dressed like a flower
  2. When he’s near, hear whispers in head
  3. When he speaks, whispers stop then slowly come back
  4. Summons Bone Devil
    1. Determines that party could go through huge gate to find out where it goes
  6. Offers to planeshift party to Abyss to do so
Turnip
1. Stewart explains that if you concentrate hard, then touch doorknob, then can pick any previous destination you’ve walked through door from.
2. They travel briefly to Cold Mountain and warn Bishop Barnabus
Session 17
Turnip
1. Nevil
  1. Gave Robe and Beans
Crystal City Streets
1. Grevis
  1. Gave the Crystal Laser Dong
3. Leviathan Deathbringer Pixie King
  1. Gave Rotten stump
Genesis
1. Peter G had them hold hands and planeshifted
  1. MJ lost his grip and split the party
Death Dells
1. Lady J, Zero, Darryl arrive on west ridge
  1. Few gnolls
    1. Fought and won
3. MJ southern
  1. Dressed as a gnoll to avoid detection
5. Som Ting and Hardy eastern
  1. Alerted 3 gnolls
  2. Barely managed to kill them
7. Surrounded Flind’s tent
  1. Tied Treant Beans to arrows and fired into middle of Gnoll camp
  2. Caused chaos
  3. Fought Flind and Shoosuva
    1. Killed both
9. Escaped through portal with Flind body
  1. Left Treants behind hopefully to destroy the portal
Session 18 2018-01-07
Portal Room
1. Looted Flind corpse
2. Heard sounds of moving stones
  1. Attacked by ghouls and witherlings
4. Barlgura and Fang came through portal
Collapsed Hallway
1. looted storage
2. D got a shot off at the Quasit
3. Sunbeam trap
4. D charged through and found handle
5. Placed head over handle to hide it
River room
1. Dumped half of bridge into river
Apartment
1. Zero possessed
2. D tried to get servant to touch
  1. Freaked out and ran
4. Wrapped up Zero like a burrito
Servants Quarters
1. Got story of Lady Merida
Audience Chamber
1. Lord Wolfgang Albertus
  1. Explained story
  2. Wary of party after they tried to get his servant girl possessed
  3. Relates Vampire Lord Darius Demarko
Pangolin Village
1. Manad stole a Hadrosaur
  1. Raided palace armory
  2. Found javelin of lightning
  3. Used it to kill the owner of the Hadrosaur
3. Contacted Lord Neffelstein
  1. Teleported Corbin and Grevis to Pangolia
  2. Army is being moved onto neighboring island
Session 19
Pangolin Village
1. People flee at sight of humanoids
2. Consulted Grevis
  1. Obtained Helm of Comprehending
4. Restocked arrows and bolts
5. Manad attempted to herd Hadrosaurs into village
  1. Attacked by 4 pangolin people
    1. Killed them
  3. killed Hads
7. Poe summoned Giant Goat and Mastiff
  1. Poe cobbled together a larger boat
    1. Rafts and canoes
  3. Brought 1 Had, Giant G, and Mastiff along
Mesozoic Sea
1. Harrassed by Plesiosaur
2. Tossed hunks of meat
Western Island
1. Debarked
2. Found huge path tunnelling through vegitation
3. Manad used Beast speech
  1. Not a predator
5. Triceratops nest
  1. Picked through nest
7. Mother came home
  1. Killed mother handily
9. Followed back to creek
Creek clearing
1. 3 Lizardmen drinking
2. Zero approached
  1. traded helm of languages
  2. Convinced to take to village
Lizardman village
1. King talking to a demon
  1. Wants LMK to be part of battle
  2. Hold off the Fey folk
3. Manad challenged to single combat
  1. Defeated barely
Session 20
MJ & LJ elected for a long rest
1. Preparations
  1. Gathered casks of lamp oil
3. Gnoll sleeping in bed
  1. possessed by Lady
5. Discovered traps sprung
  1. evidence of gnolls moving into dungeon
7. Golem had killed piles of gnolls
  1. Sent to guard portal
9. Vampire Lord awakened
  1. Used Amulet to Command Monster
11. Sent him into Abyss to fight gnolls
  1. Never returned
13. Built dirt redoubt across room in front of portal
  1. Poured oil on enemy facing side
Portal Room
1. Wave after wave of hoard
  1. Held off until reinforcements arrived
Session 21
Herzog The Black
1. Commanded with Brooch of Abon-Nareth
  1. Defeated Herzog and 2 babies
  2. 1 baby escaped
    1. Slid the Black, son of Herzon
Druzil Drow Elf beast merchant
1. Druzil
  1. Attacks at night with sleep darts
  2. Binds Vindicators
  3. Upset that Vindicators are searching for him
  4. Zero Convinces to sell a Giant Python
Session 22
1 year later
1. Party reunites
2. Discusses events of previous year
Turnip
1. Party meets up again
  1. Tell stories
3. MJ hands out copies of “Dangerous”
Crystal City
1. Wizard Grevis
Space
1. Took dingy and rope
  1. Out to ship
3. Fought trash golems
  1. Trash queen
  2. Found Captain EO Armor
Crystal City
1. Brought ship back
  1. Grevis dismantling
Rishnag
1. Gave Rod Staff and Wand
2. Find little sister at the sea
  1. She will meet at Older sister’s in Befagor
Session 23
Rishnag's cottage,
1. quick to lend their aid to
  1. helping Colatta, Rishnag's pet Shambling Mound.
  2. zapping Colatta with lightning
  3. feeding it the bulk of their organic inventory,
  4. Shambler seemed happy and healthy
3. Rishang was happy to accompany them.
  1. showed them to a ship in a cave nearby,
  2. left after the pirates met an untimely end.
Session 24
Pirate Cave
1. Sailed ship around
  1. Seems to be fair
  2. leaks a bit
  3. very slow from shredded sails
  4. not enough crew
3. Sail to Stelt
Stelt
1. Meet Sorrento
  1. Gives hard time
3. Introduces to Mayor Levi
  1. Levi
  2. Welcomes their money
  3. Hires out Carpenters
  4. Sells provisions
  5. Tries to sell anything and everything
5. Ship
  1. Dusk
    1. Specters arise
    2. Captain Wraith
      - Killed
  3. Specters go back to oars
Village
1. Meet Maizie
  1. She agrees to prep the ship
  2. in case need to evacuate village
Harpy caves
1. Kill 4 harpies
  1. Kill crying lost grimlock girl
3. Halfling’s Hope (Pirate Ship)
  1. Took 2 carpenters, 13 helpers and Maizie
  2. “test drive”
5. Darryl
  1. Cloak of manta
  2. Minor Illusion
7. Zero deceived Halflings
  1. we’re being chased by monster
Session 25 2018-04-02
North Sea
1. Temporarily putting the captive Hobbits at ease, the Vindicators
  1. compelled them to row the haunted longship
  2. across the northern sea to the
3. Island of Dinosaurs once more.
  1. treed Wizard "Tim" from a
    1. pack of hungry dimetrodons, but as his
  3. unstable personality became apparent, they
  4. decided not to allow him to to accompany them to the lizardfolk village.
Lizardfolk village,
1. only fence posts and the
  1. stonehenge, with
3. allosaurs digging through the midden, which
  1. fell easily enough.
Central Volcano
1. volcano where the Vindicators found the
  1. lizardfolk
    1. performing a strange ritual.
3. Further investigation revealed they were
  1. summoning the god of the island to
    1. protect them since
    2. all their warriors perished in the
    3. gnollish invasion.
5. 40' foot tall carnivorous white rabbit appeared
  1. Demigod Eesterbunay
  2. attacked the party, which it
    1. saw as infidels.
  4. explosive chipotle-diarrhea filled chocolate eggs and his
  5. vicious teeth and defeated him, causing the
7. volcanic island to begin rumbling.
  1. Rescuing the lizardfolk from the erupting island, the
  2. Vindicators departed, and as
9. evening turned to night, further
  1. discovered that the
  2. ship's ghostly night-shift were
    1. getting hungry.
11. Rather than feed these specters, the Vindicators
  1. dispelled them back to their hiding places and put the
  2. lizardfolk to work in their place.
Session 26
On the Water
1. sailing southwest
  1. towards the Storm Seas
3. need of placating the sea gods
  1. safely pass through.
5. quelling the captive hobbits and
  1. convincing them to return to their oars,
7. prowl for some souls
  1. offer up to the angry storms
  2. feed their hungry spiritual nightshift.
9. found the needed sacrifice in a
  1. badly listing ship
  2. pirates
11. deceive the pirates
  1. offered them a fine meal
  2. prepared by their resident hag
  3. poisons interlaced in this meal
13. pirates were easy prey
  1. subdue and bind the pirates,
  2. wood scraps soaked in lamp oil
  3. on the raft they
  4. others were offered to the ghostly night rowers.
15. appeased the gods,
  1. proceed with both ships
  2. beach nearest the village of Salasar,
    1. dragonborn are the primary inhabitants.
Salasar
1. Beaching their newly acquired ship
  1. hobbit carpenters to properly repair it,
  2. bargained with the resident merchant
    1. materials and supplies.
3. met the priest of Bahamaut
  1. tasked them with finding and destroy the deposed head priest of Tiamat,
5. an adult blue dragon
  1. Xeraldo
  2. fled back to his lair
  3. neighboring desert wastes.
Session 27
Salasar
1. Gathered resources to repair ballista
2. Forge
  1. Lavrna Kettleman, Filthy with soot White dragonborn teenager looks miserable
    1. Agreed to travel with Vindicators to colder climes
4. Town hall
  1. Reviewed books on creating armor from dragonhide
  2. Sheriff Miles Letchworth
    1. Asked to find brother and return family ring
Desert Nomads
1. Trad, Swarthy Human rides the lead camel
2. Zero
  1. Stealthily stole his wife
    1. She died in combat with the dragon
4. Bartered and betrayed dragon
  1. Xeraldo fight
    1. Blinded in one eye
Session 28: Xeraldo’s End 2018-04-29
The Deep Desert
1. Efreeti -
  1. Searching for a weapon on the plane of fire
3. Salt pans
4. Storm clouds
5. Kobold fortifications
  1. Trenches filled with lightning storms
7. Sink Holes
Xeraldo’s lair external
1. Vindicators used Fog Clouds and Darkness to create cover
  1. Planks across trenches
  2. Overwhelmed Kobolds
    1. K’s fled in panic
  4. Spelunked down sinkholes
  5. Discovered various compartments
Xeraldo’s Lair interior
1. MJ disguised as a crystal
  1. X was packing his shit
  2. Wants to leave
    1. would not let him go
3. Fierce battle
  1. X is dead
Salasar
1. Turned in quests, rested up, repaired ships
2. Headed out to sea once more

Session 29: The Sinking Quagmire of Essintial May 12 12:00-15:00 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313

After facing down an ancient Aboleth that had installed itself as deity of an underwater tribe of Merrow, the Vindicators headed into a river delta leading into the Essinital Quagmire. Along the river they found the nearly drowned body of Tim the Wizard, whom they rescued, entrapped in their magic mirror, and subsequently fed to the nightshift on their longship. Wading their way through the swamp, they eventually found the town of Essintial, learning of past events of adventurers either causing or saving people from terrible fires, depending on who's story is believed. It was here that they met up with Ranaulda and purchased the needed components for their ritual. Proceeding from here to Farfall, they found the cottage of Reldiay and commenced the ritual. The fumes of the boiling cauldron overwhelmed the senses of our heros, Finding themselves in a shadowy realm they were taken backwards through Zero's past, leading all the way back to his happy childhood. Surrounded by his friends and family Zero felt peace at last, however the rest of the party were able to see through the thin veils to the shadow demons that lurked behind them. While combatting the demons, our brave adventurers managed to convince Zero of the truth of the situation, and were able to quickly banish the demonic shadows. Ending this tyranny allowed the shades of Zero's friends and family to escape their captivity, and now they are willing to help Zero in his adventures.

The party awoke to find the seemingly well repaired cottage to be in ruins, Zero's arm missing, and a flayed goblin nearby with a cryptic message scratched into his skin stretched over a nearby stump: "Baathemal has left his seat of power for a visit to the Fire-plane. He is accompanied there by your former captors. Seek him out, strike a bargain or risk a wager and Brenna and Ziv will be yours." The Vindicators headed back to Farfall, and while attempting to find a buyer for their salt and galleon, determined where to head to next.

Session 30: Following the Trail Saturday, May 19, 12:00 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313

Session 31: The Planes of Existance 06-09 12:00

Standing outside the gates of Farfall was Benito, the Zealot of Asmodeus. Claiming to have left the former Ikean temple ruins in sticky mire of Essintial specifically to find them, Benito requested our heros to attempt to intercept a deadly disease from The Outer Planes that his informants had told him was about to be released in Blackmoore by the Cult of Indapamide. Taking the job with the added agreement that Benito would put a 100gp donation to effective use to begin tracking down the honorless Hags, the protagonists headed south. Upon arriving in Blackmoore, the Vindicators sold off their excess property and consulted an arcane college to attempt to locate some additional treasure. With their peaceful pursuits behind them, they began to hunt high and low for the Cult, which they quickly found and coerced into moving up their plans, which caused the Cult to eshew caution and make themselves vulnerable. Having convinced the local populace to meet on the docks with the promise of a Michael Jackson concert, the Indapamides moved to disperse the disease on the gathering. The Vindicators were able to stop very nearly all the agents carrying the disease, with only 1 vial being released into the crowd. After summoning clerics of Gygax to tend to the infected, the Vindicators returned to the tunnel hideout of Cultists, and confronted their leader who revealed himself as a Cambion and after a stalemate, fled into another dimension.

Session 31 Summary As Michael and Poedith left the ship to rejoin the Vindicators, they were startled to discover that Michael’s brother Tito, and Michael’s pet Bubbles had ventured into the Dungeons and Dragons Rollercoaster ride and been teleported into this realm of fantasy and absurdity. Convinced by his brother of the urgency of his situation, and his desperation to not have to get a job, Michael agreed to allow Tito to join him. Meeting up the rest of the Vindicators, they were all escorted to the under-construction Cathedral to Gygax where Zero and Darryl were relieved of their infected gear to be purified.

From here they met with Bishop Troyman and Professor Garro, who together debriefed our heros and appeared very unsettled by what they were told. It was here that Michael was able to put forth his theory on a flat earth, and convince Garro that his heliocentric theories were in fact wrong, rather that this flat earth is the center of all existence. It was during this interview that Poedith agreed to bring Garro into communication with Abon Nareth, and he found out more about the nature of his curse, and that he would need to avoid using the artifact if he did not wish to be further transformed, and would need to fully destroy the flail if he wished to reverse the transformation. He was also warned that further use could cause him to become the new champion of Yeenoghu and could be irrevocably corrupted.

They were then requested to meet with Regent Gerald who also questioned them. During their visit to his office, a Magman erupted from his hearth, delivered a copper plate engraved with a map to a magical weapon hidden away on Ignius, the Elemental Plane of Fire, or celestial body, depending on who’s theory is believed. Darryl was able to meet with his benefactors, Lord and Lady Scouderspuck, who by extreme coincidence happened to be in this very city at this very time. He was able to sell trophies and accompanying stories to Lord Reginald Scouderspuck, who was very pleased and paid handsomely. During these events, the Vindicators had variously noticed a figure in red robes with white face paint spying on them, and eventually Zero decided to capture and interrogate this spy. Our protagonists were able to find out that this person, Talysis, was an apprentice of Benito the Asmodi Zealot, and that he was there to check on their progress of capturing the plague and returning it to Benito. The Vindicators in typical fashion then trapped Talysis in the mirror. Darryl took some time to tour the Gnomish factory and dam, and experimented with jamming up the water wheels, only to discover that wooden automatons were eventually dispatched to repair the damage. The Vindicators also showed their selflessness and compassion by defeating a pair of cloud giants who had been stealing food from a leper colony, and were able to cure the lepers of their disease, even though they lacked the ability to cure their disfigurement.

Session 32: The Wheels of Justice Sunday, July 1 at 11:00 EDT @everyone

Session 33 Sunday, July 15 at 11:00 EDT @everyone

Session 32 Summary Using the giants’ vines to destroy the dam, the Vindicators caused a profound setback for the gnomish factory, while flooding the town of Blackmoore, causing untold loss of life and destruction of property.

These events pleased the Blackmoore Panthers, and Samwise Jackson welcomed them into the brotherhood. Our XherosX protagonists then searched through the rubble for a few missing halflings, finding most, and hiring a few fabulous gentlemen, Skipper and Danny-boy, to fill out the crew. The rescue of most of the halflings pleased Maizie and she offered her maidenhood to Darryl, who took advantage of her offer in spite of the strict dwarven cultural prohibitions about dwarves mating with any other races for fear of creating abominations. Zero gained knowledge of one of the hags escaping to the Ignia, the Elemental Plane of Fire, and one fled to the feywild. Poedith continued his unholy transformation, becoming more beastial by the day and unlocking the final abilities of his demonic flail. Michael Jackson learned that time travels chaotically for beings within his magic mirror, and released Talysis. He also suffered a terrible loss when he and Tito learned of the passing of their father Joe Jackson. The party travelled to Essintial and ventured into the former temple to Ikea, finding a unit of Merregons guarding a treasure chest that contained a single magic ring. Further investigation revealed a shaft cut into the stone leading down, but the gang decided that a long rest would be more beneficial than continuing on, and made camp in the room with the chest and dead Merregons.

And they raided the flooded casino cash room and pulled a fast one on the crowds that gathered to watch =)

Session 33: Into the Pit Summary Unable to gain a long rest due to the smell of the decaying Merregons in the empty treasure vault, the Vindicators retired to the main warehouse/sanctuary in the Temple of Ikea. Resting among the stacks of flat-pack furniture, they prepared themselves for the decent into the hidden room beneath the treasury room. Upon returning to vault however, they discovered masses of roaches streaming up from the hidden tunnel and devouring the remaining ichor that the dead Merregons had decayed into. Venturing down the tunnel, they discovered additional dead Merregons slain roaches the size of dogs, and evidence of a recent conflict. Following the constant stream of the insects, they discovered a sealed room protecting a vault containing statue-like wax men, that upon lighting a large wick protruding from their necks, will accept any command issued by the lighter. They sent a few of these Living Wicks ahead, and quickly heard the sounds of conflict. Investigation of the noises revealed dead dog-roaches and 1 destroyed Living Wick. Killing the remaining dog-roachs, they continued on until they discovered a dead end room with a portal to the Abyss ripping through the fabric of The Weave. Venturing into the tear, Zero discovered an unbreathable environment and 3 man-sized roaches directing the normal sized ones into the portal. Travelling fully into the Abyss, Zero engaged the man-roaches while Darryl and Poedith fired from just inside the rift. Defeating 2 of the man-roaches and swarms of flying mundane roaches, Poedith managed to use his Flail Artifact to sunder the opening and seal the gateway against further incursion, trapping the remaining man-roach safely(?) in the Abyss.

The fury of the combat overwhelmed Poedith, who ravenously consumed handfuls of the tiny crushed insects, which fully gave him over to his transformation. A blurry doglike shape can be seen following Gnoll-Poedith, which when looked at from the corner of one’s eye appears to be a hyena. Poe is now often seen having conversations with this blurry hyena, and it appears that in his madness he pitches his voice differently and responds to his conversation as the hyena. Being fully transformed into a Gnoll, Poe is no longer able to fit into the Splint Mail he previously wore, and has decided to reconstruct armor more appropriate to a Gnoll at the next opportunity. Finding a hole chewed through the foundation of the temple hidden behind a collapsed stack of flat-pack furniture, the Vindicators made their way into a more traditional temple undercroft featuring carved alcoves in the walls containing mummified bodies of the wealthy and powerful who once lived above in centuries prior. Soon our heros came upon another scene of carnage and discovered a dying Deva, a lower ranking angel, who warned them that the demon Lord Akyishigal, Demi-god of pestilence, passed through mortally wounding the angel and moving on to spread his misery on the surface world. Our protagonists decided to delay taking direct action against Akyishigal, in favor of spending several hours searching the undercroft for resources. This search was fruitful in the discovery of a Sunhammer, a sacred weapon typically carried by vampire-hunters that is capable of delivering blows of pure sunlight. Redistributing their load of items, they ventured to the surface and engaged Akyishigal and his swarms. A tough battle ensued, with both sides paying dearly for every advance, until finally the Vindicators were able to push the last of the limits of their endurance and win the day, vanquishing Akyishigal back to his foul Abyssal plane.

Most of the townfolk of Essintial were slain in the hours leading up to the Vindicators engaging Akyishigal, including the mayor of the town. Zero was able to “find” a document showing Mayor Ruel’s intention of ceding control of the town to Zero in the event of his death, and Zero accepted his title as Burgermeister of the Sinking Quagmire Essintial. Benito and Talysis, the Asmodai clerics, survived the onslaught and managed to aid a few of the surviving townsfolk, ostensibly with the understanding that they would pledge their souls to Asmodeus in return for the protection. The Vindicators settled in, Zero overseeing the rebuilding efforts of “his” town, Darryl sending Halflings to aid the survivers in their efforts, Poedith taking over the forge of the slain smithy with Darryl as a helper to build better armor. Darryl was dismayed to find that attempts to call Lord Nifflestein on the Sending Stones went unanswered, and it was decided that after a few weeks of preparation and perhaps a little R&R the intention is to investigate this issue.

Session 34: The Deafening Silence July 29, 11:00am 601 Green Meadows Dr <- No longer at Becky's house @everyone

Update: I am not dog sitting for Becky, so i will be hosting Sundays game here 601 Green Meadows Dr. @everyone

Session 34: Summary Having previously solved the Akyishigal problem and accepting the burdon of political office, the Vindicators began solving the local issues of the Sinking Quagmire of Essintial.

Tito’s looting was solved with imprisonment within The Mirror, where he discovered a crack forming that emptied into the Astral sea. Poedith’s transformation came in handy when Maizie, startlingly starting to show a baby bump already, decided to attempt to be absent, but Poedith’s keen nose didn’t let her evade for long.

Convincing her to contribute to the rapidly approaching Solstice Festival, the Vindicators ventured deep into the swamp to the source of the Naptha used as feed stock to make the town’s only export, Kerosene. Slaughtering the trolls that have been feeding on the naptha produced from the well. Hunting animals on their return trip, and then striking a bargain with Benito the Asmodai cleric, and sourcing a sacrifice from Poedith’s bag of critters, the Festival was pulled off and another successful harvest was assured in spite of the fiendish invasion of the previous week. Next stop is Salasar, the Dragonborn town.

Session 35: The Return August 12, 11:00 am EDT 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313 @everyone

Session 35: Summary Upon landing at Salasar, the Vindicators gathered the remaining resources due to them from that town, settling issues back in Essintial with Maizie, and placating Tito and his new-found book of black magic, and putting him in charge of their ship and crew of halflings and spectral pirates, they ventured back into the Turnip. There they found out that an army posing as soldiers of Gygax came up from the iron dungeons below the Crystal Palace and proceeded to sack and annihilate the Crystal City, the Turnip, and through into the High Elven Selune City before being turned back by the High Elven army, and retreating back into the iron dungeon. From here our heros began to interrogate a captured ghoul before Michael Jackson became overwhelmed with righteousness and destroyed it. The party proceeded to track down the red-hag Rishnag, and after being mislead, tracked her down again and after a struggle captured her and brought her back to the Crystal City Ruins. Interrogating her under a Geas spell, she avoided questions that revealed that the former Lord Bradlock has had some part in working against the interests of the Vindicators, and that she was now working for a mid level demon in the Abyss, however based on her resistance to the questions it was very apparent that this is the case. It was also revealed that she previously was working for her sister Reldiay the Black, and she was unaware why Reldiay wanted Zero’s arm. Sending Rishnag to be further interrogated by The Queen of Air and Darkness, our heros ventured into Selune City. Learning that foreigners are not allowed in the city proper, they were escorted out to the sky docks, and purchased passage to the flotilla that orbits the small blue moon.

Session 36: The Heavens Await Sunday 2018-08-19 11:00 EDT 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313 @everyone

Session 36: Summary Approaching the silvery blue mithral gatehouse, the Vindicators passed into the large multilayered flotilla of ships. They were greeted by advertisements offering work collecting Moonspice for Sting, which they found out allows trained psionicists to fold space and navigate through it using the special helms and sails. They decided to sign on with Sting, and after being warned to avoid flight magic as it would bring the worms like a dinner bell, they proceeded to sneak around and gather the Moonspice. Towards the end of the day, a loud noise and the quaffing of a flying potion caused multiple worms to emerge and rage about the surface, however our heros were able to cleanly escape with their booty, and a collection of Moonspice that was gathered by a failed goblin expedition. Back at the flotilla, they gathered information from Mord, a Gith-Zerai priest who had retired to the flotilla. He explained that there are multiple groups that have studied and refined psionics, from the Illithid Mind-flayers, to the Duergar Grey Dwarves that live far below the surface of Primordia, and the Gith-Yanki who live primarily in the Astral Seas, as well as the monasteries of the Gith-Zerai in Limbo. He advised that all the former groups have a reputation for treachery, and that if they were interested in spending a few years in study, his Gith-Zerai would be the best choice. They were later approached by the High-elf Shayna, a principle Diviner for the Demarko Crime Family, the larger organization to which the Blackmoore Panthers belong. She explained that the Demarkos are looking to expand beyond Primordia, and wish to establish a presence on Ignea. They wish to gain leverage over Sultan al-Hadir abn al-Solar, by kidnapped one of his prized baby Salamanders, and using it to extort favors from the Sultan.

Following their meeting with Shayna, they were ambushed by Handel Stratus, the Cloud Giant that previously harassed and stole from the leper colony outside of Blackmoore. Handel threw a keelboat down upon the Vindicators and ordered his Orc mercenaries to pepper them with crossbow bolts, but the clever Vindicators overmatched the Cloud Giant and defeated him handily, gaining possession of the control handle of his floating island. Deciding then that it was a good time to leave for Ignea, our protagonists searched for an Astral-Sea-worthy ship they could capture, first eyeing the ship belonging to a group of Gith-Yanki pirates. Delaying their attack so that they could recover spells and health, they returned to find that the pirates were back from their shore-leave and were preparing to debark. The Adventurers decided to find easier pickings, and targeted an Orc vessel in poor repair, and quickly overwhelmed the ill-tempered brutes.

Sailing then with Kalinost at the helm, they travelled a few weeks through the Astral Seas until they could see the gas giant planet Aurea, the Elemental Plane of Air and it’s tiny moon, Ignea, the Elemental Plane of Fire. It was at this time that they discovered a pirate vessel full of Gith-Yanki were in hot pursuit and gaining. The Vindicators decided to pull up and prepare for battle, and battle they did in a hard pressed fight with the pirates including a mage who was able to keep Michael Jackson from casting his more powerful spells. This duplicity was in vain however, as the Vindicators were able to win the day and capture the better repaired Gith-Yanki vessel.

Session 36 summary Having found Lady Jay with a client in a locked cabin on the orc ship, she rejoined the Vindicators as they traveled towards the the moon Ignea, which orbits the planet Aurea. As the pair of celestial bodies came into distant view, another celestial body came into view, an asteroid headed directly towards the ship. As Kalinost tried to evade the huge speeding rock, it became apparent that some force was pulling the ship back into an unavoidable collision path. Coming to rest in one of the craters of the giant space boulder, the crew quickly came to understand that this was a piloted vessel and a hobbit ranger named Steve was able to fill them in on the terrible truth. Illithid Mind Flayers steered the asteroid across the empty void gathering slaves for some unknown nefarious purpose.

Being unable to breach an energy field trapping the protagonists and their ship inside one of the larger craters, they explored the space rock fighting mind controlled orcs and drow elves and the occasional Mind Flayer controlling them. After several such encounters, they managed to stumble upon the control room and a large pool containing a horrifying and powerful Elder Brain controlling the ship. It was here that the heros learned the dangers of fighting Illithids as several managed to latch onto the heads of most of the party and begin boring into their skulls in search of delicious brains. The Vindicators and their new ally were able to win the day, destroying the Elder Brain and blasting all the occupants into space where they were able to net a literal loot aura that formed around the now empty asteroid.

Session 37: What's that Grinding Sound? @everyone

Session 38: Ignea, The Elemental Plane of Fire 2018-09-16 11:00 EDT 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313 @everyone

Session 38: Summary On approach to Ignea, an exploding volcano slammed a shower of boulders into the ship, ejecting the brass plate over the side. Zero jumped after the plate, and attempted to shadow step back, but he never appeared on the ship. Without enough time to react to Zero’s departure, the remaining Vindicators gave more spice to Kalinost who was able to recover and guide the ship down to a reservoir on top of a mountain caldera. Docking next to a large Tibaxi ship, they paid their dock fees and debarked, heading to the city of Al-Quadim, The City of Brass.

Upon passing the Merchant’s Hall, Darryl arranged a late-day rendezvous with the Succubus guild master who promised a night of pain and pleasure. Temptations abounding, Poedith was luring into an alley by the sound of a tortured puppy, which turned out to be the mocking mimicry of a Leucrotta by the name of Drunun, who was keeping the company of Half-elf ally Som-Ting who was himself looking for a way to pass off a cursed box of religious tracts condemning the Catholic church. Drunun informed Poedith that Yeenoghu sought a religious leader who calls himself “The Prophet” and that Poe was needed to convince this Prophet to join Yeenoghu’s pack.

Visiting a slave-market, Xakinath the Hamatula sold the Vindicators some Genasi slaves, and Beast Merchant Thurdroum sold mounts to the party, until he realized that the centaur he was keeping had to be set free or risk his newfound peace through Gygax. From here the heros visited Murzol’s Crash-house, and murdered an elf-maiden erroneously thinking she was the hag Renaulda in disguise. Using sleep magic the Vindicators were able to frame the murder on him, and after a brief legal dispute, were able to absolve Poedith. In the process one of the witnesses attempted to murder The Sultan’s Illithid Vizier, but had his brain removed in the process. After an “Event” of earthquakes and volcanism, the Vindicators travelled out into the wastes in search of the Prophet and his community, eventually finding them. The Prophet had managed to find a way to allow the ghouls and the escaped Genasi slaves to find a peace, through a goddess they had discovered who lived deep beneath the surface of the planet. Upon visiting this goddess they discovered a Leviathan water-elemental, that seemingly lacked a method of communication but somehow left The Prophet believing he was receiving messages in his dreams from her. Convincing The Prophet that ghouls belong with Yeenoghu, and that he should lead them into Yeenoghu’s waiting arms, he agreed to allow Som-Ting to teleport him and his followers into the Abyss. The party returned to the town to seek a reward for chasing away The Prophet and his people.

Session 39: The Lost Temple 09-23 at 11:00 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313 @everyone

Session 39 Moving about the town, the Vindicators were able to purchase 50 Genasi slaves and piled them into the ship in the harbor, intending to transport them back to Primordia to work the Kerosene refineries of Essintial. Putting out word to have all their allies in town be on the lookout for a hag, they gathered information from Grotic the Drow apprentice at the Astronomy Tower, and learned the likely location of the Gulthias forest hiding their promised weapon. Infiltrating the palace dungeon, the Vindicators were able to rescue the accused murderer orcish innkeeper Murzol, sending him make his way to their ship. With most of the town including the sultan attending the events at the colosieum the party decided it would be prudent to break into the palace and capture one of the sultan’s prized blue Fire Snake Salamanders. From there, striking north across the wastes, the Vindicators arrived at the dead forest of Gulthias, where a giant dead tree dominates the center. They fought and then burned their way through an arm of blights, fighting their way into the hollow center of the giant tree, breaking through defense after defense and finding at the bottom a living face formed into the largest limb at the heart of the tree. This face warned them to turn back that a horrible evil lived below and then attacked them. They fought off it’s attackers and made their way into a blood pool below with a staff crackling in the center. Upon removing the staff the tree began to split apart and the blood pool began to slowly coalese into a humanoid form, but quick thinking and use of sunlight banished it back into the pool of blood. The ghost of the tree tried in vain to possess each of the Vindicators in turn, but frustrated by his inability, fled deep into the Ethereal Plane. Barely making their way through the desert, the party can see the dot on the horizon as they approach the city.

Session 40: City of Fire Sunday Oct 7 11:00 ET 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313 @everyone

@everyone Session 40 Summary While Michael entertained the panic-stricken guests at the couatl Izrail’s inn “The Cleaning Fire” the rest of the Vindicators coincidentally crossed paths at The Mercy of St Benivere Gygaxian Mission just outside of the Sultinate, where they were warned by Darryl’s succubus girlfriend Theth’tazon about the recent slave uprising. Firey guards accosted the Vindicators as they crossed into the Sultan’s jurisdiction, and requested Zero willingly turn himself in for questioning, which he agreed to. With Michael as his lawyer, Zero explained his actions, took a plea deal for the charge of not controlling his slaves and paid his fine, walking away a free man. It was slipped during this ordeal that Lily had been captured and was being interrogated in the lowest dungeon. Zero purchased and consumed Potions of Invisibility and snuck deep into the dungeons. There he was able to locate Lily, and just in the nick of time defeat the Illithid Vizeer, Ymmus, before he was able to do any permanent damage to the recaptured slave girl. Attempting to then shadow-step away, Zero encountered trouble in the mysteriously broken Shadowfell when he found himself buried under the ground for many hours until he was able to muster sufficient darkness to defeat the brightness caused by the sinister pyramid made of light. Resuming his efforts to free the slave girl, he next made his way up the Sultan’s private tower to his bed chambers where Ranger Steve’s beetle minions had determined young Lily was being held and interrogated. Disregarding his companions urging to abandon this girl and the rest of the slaves to their fates, Zero consumed his final Invisibility Potion and ventured once more into the heavily guarded palace, this time with Michael following along in the ethereal plane.

Zero managed to knock aside the white abishai guards and free Lily, but was quickly overwhelmed. Heroically he stayed the course, fighting until the bitter end for the poor slave girl, but he realized it was all in vain as he felt the firey spear plunge into his guts, and as his vision faded he vaguely felt his body plummet from the tower into the courtyard below, his various bits being scattered and lost on impact. Michael managed to gather some of Zero’s pulpy remains into a bucket and bring it back along with a handful of the items Zero had on him at the time.

From here the Vindicators decided that Ignea had cost them more than they bargained for, and decided that a return to the Turnip and from there to Cold mountain was the best course of action. Paying a local wizard to cast the spell Teleportation Circle brought the party to Blackmoore, where they found waiting for them Wizard Garro, now gothed out and fully in league with the Lich Abon-Nareth. Questioning the motives of Abon-Nareth yielded only that she was seeking to escape the no-longer shady Shadowfell, but revealed no untoward machinations. Darryl was also united with Maizie and his new child, a silent staring baby with blue skin and no beard. They located their flying Cloud Giant island and moved it along with the leper colony to Essintial. They soon discovered that Zero’s soul was being jealously kept by Asmodeus and after some debate, Ranger Steve and Darryl decided that they would strike a deal with Dispater, the Lord of the Second Hell of Baator, Dis. Dispater agreed to negotiate the liberation of Zero’s soul, and they will subsequently be free to make their attempt to restore him to life, and in return Darryl and Steve copied an expansive contract entitling Dispater to their souls and likely a lot more buried in hundreds of pages of fine-print.

Session 41: Signed in Their Own Blood Sunday November 4th 11:00am ET 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313 @everyone

@everyone Session 41: Summary With a week of waiting and preparing have passed in Essintial, The Vindicators were finally greeted by a humanoid covered in piercings going by the name of Theus. He delivered a pearl containing the soul of Zero, and Michael was then able to perform his Resurrection, resulting in the slow regrowth of a new species, a sort of hybrid of Tiefling and Troll. The short-term yielding a hideous scaly mucus covered arm with an eyeball and a couple fangs protruding from the stump end, but intelligent and housing Zero’s soul. A jealous confrontation between Theth-tazon and Maizie left an uneasy truce between the two, just in time for the Vindicators to be ambushed by the undead warlock and assassin Blasphemir and his hoard of zombies. A vicious fight later found our heros interrogating one of Blasphemir’s wight lieutenants who informed our protagonists about Lord Bradlock’s actions in the Shadowfell. They learned that Lord Bradlock was working for the Demonlord Abinag, who seeks to thin the protective entropy of The Shadowfell sufficiently to wake The Great Old One Obhiggan and destroy all of creation.

@everyone Seeking further answer from the Gygaxians and The Lich Abon-Nareth, The Vindicators further learned that a barter was made between Lord Bradlock and Abon-Nareth that traded certain church secrets for an army of undead. Using this arm, Lord Bradlock was able to construct a pyramid that absorbs all the darkness of The Shadowfell, concentrating it within its confines and leaving only endless light. Abon-Nareth expressed her displeasure with these results, and requested The Vindicators to visit her at Greywatch in the Shadowfell to further discuss the situation. Following these happenings, 2 acolytes were recruited for the god Janus, Bambi and Cherri, both former prostitutes. It was during this recruiting that Lind the Shadow approached our protagonists with the great news that Demarko patriarch Darius contacted the organization from the Abyss, having been freed some time ago, and then subsequently banished to the Death Dells by unknown actors. He is working on building his power base there, and needs a relic, a specific Canopic Jar of the king Ra-men-ischeap. With Teleportation now available, the Vindicators zapped themselves Northwest to the hidden mountain temple. Fighting their way past hideous screaming and gibbering aberrations from beyond this reality, and testing the might of a handful of Ra-men-ischeap’s mummy guardians they raided his treasury and then invaded his burial chamber, dispatching the mummy lord and taking all 12 of his Canopic Jars full of his organs, Several members were cursed with Mummy Rot, and while the curses from the lesser mummies were able to be easily removed by the Bishop of Cold Mountain as the mummies were already destroyed, the mummy lord was not so easily dispatched and part of his curse remains.

Session 42: The Curse of Ra-men-ischeap Sunday November 11, 11:00am 601 Green Meadows Dr Dallastown PA 17313

[2018-11-12T14:42:16Z] adippner: Session 42: Summary

Teleporting from Cold Mountain to Essintial, The Vindicators attempted to have Benito, Zealot of Asmodeus lift the Mummy’s curse, however it was apparent that there was some strong tie holding the curse in place. Reaching into the Bag of Holding housing the Heart of Ra-men-ischeap, The Vindicators discovered to their horror that the Ra-men had reformed within the bag itself and viciously attacked whenever an object was reached for. Quaffing a Potion of Giant Strength, our heros were able to rend the mummy to pieces, dragging each from the bag and tossing into a fire.

They were greeted by Tito who complained that his Tome of the Stilled Tongue was requesting terrible things, and Tito was subsequently convinced to find strong warriors, book passage to Terra the Elemental Plane of Earth, and toss the book into a bottomless mud-bog, the Bowels of Langbalt.

Emergency taxes were collected from the citizen of Essintial which caused unrest that was subsequently placated by striking deals with Beinto of Asmodeus to supply blessings on the strongest denizens to fight back the shadow creatures, and supply his unearthly strong workers to help rebuild sunken houses and improve the infrastructure.

Returning to Cold Mountain via teleportation, the crew ventured up the mountain, purchased the blessing, and ventured into the Bowl of Fire and from there crossed into the Shadowfell. It was here that they discovered a race of grey-skinned elves who called themselves the Shadar-Kai, or Shadow elves. These residents of the Shadowfell explained their relationship with Abon-Nareth, who’s tower, Greywatch overlooked the town of the same name from a hillside not far away. It was from these shadow elves that the party was made aware of a Wand of Web residing in a den of horrible twisted spider-beings.

Venturing on to Greywatch Tower, our protagonists discovered on closer inspection the obelisk was formed fully of animated bone and sinew, and on approach they were escorted by undead ogres that clawed themselves from the soil, but left our heros unmolested.

Upon invitation to enter Greywatch, they met Abon-Nareth in the semi-flesh, seeing her ghastly visage for the first time in person, and were introduced to the Vampire Gathas, whom they unknowingly freed from his tomb when they brought down the druid’s tree on Ignea. With Gathas were various Vampire Spawn and thralls he had collected from the colony of escaped slaves on Ignea before fleeing with his entourage into the Shadowfell.

The Vindicators were served refreshment from Abon-Nareth’s abominable undead creations, and she explained the power of the pyramid, and suggested a possible way to utterly destroy it with powerful evocation. In life, she had studied for a time with gnomish inventor and wizard Sandal Bergman, and together they had discovered a device to store elemental energy they called “The Annihilation Ark” as the power it was capable of containing could annihilate entire mountains if it became unstable.

Returning to the Prime Realm of Primordia, they slipped through a shadow crossing into the 3rd dungeon of Greyhawk, encountering hoards of ghasts that they valiantly put down before ascending to the surface of the city and locating the surviving progeny of Sandal, a gnome by the name of Guten Bergman.

Guten agreed to rent out his great-grandfather’s journal, and the Vindicators learned that Guten’s ancestor had built a huge iron golem to crush his enemy Belialivich, that ultimately ended with Belialivich’s immurment within the iron tomb beneath the Crystal City in the Feywild along with various abominations that were created as a result of their attacks against each other.

[2018-11-21T17:30:11Z] adippner: Session 43: The Immurment of Belialivich, Summary

Continuing from the holy city of Greyhawk, the Vindicators engaged with some gnomish acolytes to prepare spell scrolls and research Belialivich and his followers, learning that he was a mage of modest power and was in frequent conflict with Bergman, and learned about the dangers of russett mold and how to destroy it and the vegepygmies it creates.

Teleporting back to Cold Mountain, our heros were soon ambushed by Slid Shadowburn, scion of Herzog the Black Dragon whom they had killed over a year prior. Hoards of shadow creatures surrounded the protagonists as they fended off repeated assaults from the young shadow dragon above, eventually wounding Slid and chasing him off. Thanks to clever use of the Hunter’s Mark spell the Vindicators tracked Slid to a secret cave that protected a crossing to the Shadowfell, and following the wounded beast, found themselves once more under the penetrating light of Lord Bradlock’s Pyramid.

Further tracking the dragon they located the entrance to his lair, and venturing inside were attacked once more, finally vanquishing and slaying the monster. Searching onward for his treasure, our heros discovered a bowl of liquid darkness hiding a vast layer of bones far below. Investigating this boneyard, revealed trolls steeped in the shadow magic that drained strength with each claw attack. Fending off this new assault, the Vindicators spent many hours pouring over the complex, until they finally discovered a small hoard of treasure.

From here they returned to the Feywild, venturing down into the Iron Dungeon. Destroying the russet mold with artificial sunlight, they soon found themselves ambushed by vegepygmies but they were easily able to defeat the hoard.

Continuing on, they found they were being stalked by a semi transparent ooze, a Slithering Tracker. A remove curse later and they were greeted by the freed John Oozman who was understandably confused, but agreed to follow along with them into the lower levels.

Finding next the room they sought, they found the Annihilation Ark was a squat cylinder with a copper upper part and black painted bottom, and the letters DURAC___ down the side, glowing faintly with energy. Stepping closer to the DURAC/Annihilation Ark caused the 4 seeming dead ogres laying on the floor to stir to life, and brought about an attack from a Bone Claw, an immortal undead that can travel through shadows and rend the living with terrible 3 foot long claws before returning to it's shadowy hiding place.

Defeating all comers and looting the room yielded an insidious trap, an illusion covering a pit leading down to a portable hole, that if it came into contact with a Bag of Holding or similar item would cause a violent expulsion of matter in the area into the Astral Plane. Avoiding this hazard they were finally able to learn of the fate of Belialivich, who after being entombed in the Iron Dungeon attempted to follow in Abon-Nareth’s footsteps and become a lich. Failing to perform this ritual properly caused him to instead become a Bone Claw, an abomination bound not to a phylactery as a lich would be, but instead bound to a being of terrible evil.

[2018-12-03T16:16:31Z] adippner: Session 44 Summary

Emerging from a restful night at The Turnip, our heroes decided to take the Durac### out into the wilderness before opening it to determine what they faced inside. They discovered a dying djinn who begged them to give him strong wind to rejuvenate him. Upon provision of a great deal of wind, the Vindicators wished for a pair of Boots of Springing and Striding and the djinn disappeared into the wind.

While this was going on, Michael decided to kill a pesky evil Redcap Gnome who had been slinking around the periphery. The death squeal of this diminutive fey creature roused the ire of a hoard of Redcaps who chased the Vindicators all the way back to the town of Shard (formerly The Crystal City). Upon realizing that the former defenses of the Crystal City lay in a pile of shards at the edge of town, our protagonists rallied and took the fight to the Redcaps. As the Redcaps approached to within melee distance, the Vindicators were joined by Aurora, a former agent of Mab, Queen of Air and Darkness and ruler of Winter. Aurora delivered a letter to Michael, and was released of her indenture to Queen Mab putting her spells and beast shapes to fast work assisting her new comrades and taking part in saving Shard from certain doom.

Recruiting John Oozeman to replace Nevil Broomcaster as the tavern keeper at the Turnip, the Vindicators then traveled to Cold Mountain, where Poedith expressed his desire to be free of the curse of Yeenoghu. Rousing the populace to attend mass in order to raise enough faith-power to remove this curse, the local priest was able to begin the slow process of transforming Poe back to his Hill Dwarf natural shape, causing him to shrink a bit and lose a great deal of fur. The priest agreed to send the Flail of Yeenoghu on to Greyhawk to be locked away in their vaults for all time.

While this ritual was going on, Darryl spent his time scanning the empty streets for magic, discovering the unguarded shop of Ludicris Pennyloafer gnomish inventor where Darryl was able to liberate scrolls and potions. Traveling on, he met with Baal Hassan, and agreed to give him transport to Ignea.

[2018-12-18T15:29:33Z] adippner: Session 45 Summary

Arriving at the Ignean reservoir, the Vindicators learned of a Gith-Yanki effort to gather allies from Ignea in the form of Red Dragons, an alliance forged centuries prior between the exiled goddess Tiamat and the mysterious immortal queen of the Gith-Yanki.

While at the reservoir, our protagonists also discovered that among the drow unloading “rare experimental soil” from another docked ship was one of the thralls of the vampire Gathas, whom they previously met at Greywatch while attending Abon-Nareth. Confirming this with Abon-Nareth, they subsequently approached the thrall who arranged a meeting with Gathas later in the “day”.

Venturing on to the sultan’s palace,

our heros discovered that a new vizeer had taken office, a High-elf, who would not admit an audience to the sultan, but let slip that he was now paranoid and focused on the rebellious slaves. The Vindicators then made the vizeer aware of the issue in the reservoir.

Establishing occupancy at The Sacred Flame Inn, the Vindicators invited Gathas into the building and discussed the situation, learning that he was there to investigate the Gulthias Tree and surrounding forest that the Vindicators had burned previously, and secured Gathas’ release from his bondage. Gathas agreed to spy on the sultan on their behalf.

Discovering that their animals had been auctioned off to the arena when their boarding fees had gone unpaid, The Vindicators then purchased some of the beasts from the arena and used their magic to tame them and travel out into the wastes to investigate the giant mole hills leading to the escaped slave output.

At the outpost some of them were recognized and invited in, discovering a sort of hero-worship of Zero the liberator, and found that the cult of Hydran, the Leviathan water elemental in the caverns below had been taken up by the escaped slave Alagossa who had previously been a disgraced priestess of Lolth the spider queen. After much debate and convincing Alagossa agreed to send her devout fire-genasi followers to attack the city of Al-Qadim at full dark, roughly 5 “days” from now.

Returning to The Sacred Flame, the heros met once more with Gathas where he related the Sultan’s movements and behaviors, specifically the sultan’s use of his wish magic to create a vast zone of anti-magic in his vicinity. Gathas also agreed to murder the gate guards and allow access to the rebellious slaves at first dark.

Upon visiting the Astronomy Tower, a message was delivered from Samwise Jackson, head of the Blackmoore Panthers and subject to the Demarko crime family:

“What I talk now? Right now? Hey Vindicators, there was a message from the new motherfuckin boss. Apparently the Motherfucker gave Yeenoghu a real bad day with that motherfuckin jar you brought him. He wants to see you in the Abyss. Don’t fuck this up for me.”

The Vindicators began preparations for the coming invasion by purchasing scrolls and seeding rumors against the Gith-Yanki.

The whole city is now a tense and chaotic place, with reports of panicked citizens fortifying their homes, and outbreaks of violence among the poorer areas as wild rumors push the populace to the breaking point. The growing discord that has been resulting from weeks of draconian martial-law imposed by a paranoid ruler is reaching a tipping point and the populace is on the verge of open rebellion.

[2019-01-08T15:00:36Z] adippner: Session 46 Summary

The tension in Al-Qadim, the City of Brass, was palpable as most of The Vindicators prepared for the planned rebellion, and Poedith spent his time grudgingly waiting hand-and-foot on his comrades and otherwise contributing to the day-to-day needs of the Sacred Flame Inn as part of an uneasy bargain between the Couatl Innkeep Izrail and the vampire Gathas who had taken up residence in the wine-cellar.

Tensions further increased with the sounds of a struggle from down below, with most of the lounging drow thralls rushing to the stairs down followed closely by The Vindicators. Arriving after the action the heroes discovered an adonis of a being, a celestial by the name of Sorath.

Learning that Sorath was summoned by Lord Bradlock via a ritual available to the highest ranking persons of the Gygaxian church and sent to assassinate Gathas to prevent him from working against Bradlock, the Vindicators convinced Sorath that Bradlock had turned to evil. Sorath offered to bring this information below Gygax and beg his assistance, informing the Vindicators that he would be listening closely to the chapel for a prayer.

In order to buy themselves time before the Deva could return to heaven and send reinforcements to complete his failed assassination attempt against Gathas, Sorath was cursed to only be able to take a step while speaking blasphemies against Gygax, thus making movement difficult for the devout being.

Verifying that all their allies were in place, and confirming that the new drow-led cult of the Leviathan, Hydran, would not burn demonically possessed children at the stake, the Vindicators snuck into the lower levels of the Sultan’s palace and planted beanstalks to disrupt the stonework and create entrances for the rebels.

As the sun set, the rebellion began, with the protagonists and a sizeable force of rebels travelling directly to the Sultan’s courtyard. Asking the beanstalk there to bash the tower, it succeeded in creating a sizeable rift in the upper levels and causing the tower to shake and begin to come apart. Using the stalk then as a bridge, the liberation fighters assaulted the Sultan’s suite directly, stopping his escape and defeating his personal guards and ultimately slaying the ruler and adding his energy to the Durac___ to complete their goal of filling it.

Looting the Sultan’s personal fun-money stash, the Vindicators fled the tower before it ultimately collapsed crushing the outer wall and killing many genasi denizens. Fleeing through a gateway created by the Turnip ring, they stepped once more into the familiar confines of the magical multidimensional tavern and inn they call home.

[2019-01-22T22:26:23Z] adippner: Session 47 Summary

Erliadar, the drow elf former slave who lead the Leviathan cult members in the previous revolution, brought Poedith to the Turnip having helped Poe escape from the Vampire Gathas’ influence. Poe was however too ill with withdrawal to be able to assist the Vindicators in their adventure, and Aurora offered to stay at the Turnip with him and antagonize him. To help reinforce to him that vampires are bad of course.

Encountering Druzil the Drow elf merchant, the vindicators learned that there was a roost of Giant Perytons nearby the High-elf city Selune on the moon of the same name.

Our Protagonists learned that these Perytons were descended of a curse, brought about when a pregnant woman learned of her husband’s infidelity, and got her revenge by cutting out his heart while he slept and consuming it. Shortly after the babe she gave birth to was a stag with wings of eagles and an insatiable hunger for human hearts.

Taking this knowledge, the Heroes gathered hearts from the local mortuary, and deciding that was insufficient, traveled to the roads west of Cold Mountain and tempted out bandits, slaughtering them all the way back to the village of St Martin liberating that town from bandit occupation and making the children safe once again.

With their wealth of human hearts, they then traveled to Selune, heading to the Giant Peryton roost, tempting them out and capturing them with a Mass Suggestion spell, followed up with several Geas spells.

Shayna the High elf seer for the Demarko crime family, informed them that Darius Demarko, the vampire that The Vindicators had previously banished to the Death Dells, had usurped the authority of that layer of The Abyss from Yeenoghu, and was looking for assistance unifying the demons and ghouls of that realm under his rule, and in exchange he would order his forces to assist in the coming battle with the Pyramid on the Shadowfell.

Taking their new flying mounts through to the Abyss with a 9th level Gate spell, they found the pine forested scrub lands and familiar hills and dales were surprisingly free of gnolls, and the few they encountered seemed to be conducting themselves with more organization and purpose than previously expected of the savage monsters.

Meeting with the vampire Darius in his fancy cave, he congratulated them on their various successes and made an official offer of support in exchange for solving his problems.

Heading first to speak with The Prophet, whom they had previously sent to The Abyss to serve Yeenoghu, they ventured into a huge barrow mound, dodging traps and attempting to repel down a deep twisting vertical shaft. During this maneuver Michael Jackson lost his grip and plummeted down to a platform, where he discovered a young girl and motherly woman asking him for help to escape the tomb. While waiting for the rest of the party to catch up to him, the pair asked him to share his memories with them, and then proceeded to aggressively try to take his memories from him. They proceeded to attack and more people similar people sprouted from a greasy patch on the wall. As the other Vindicators joined the fray, what was identified as a type of Ooze dropped over the side and attempted to escape it’s death with Michael polymorphed into a Giant Eagle giving chase with Darryl on his back. The Ooze cast a Hold spell causing the Eagle to plummet. Zero was able to jump off the side and kick the spiralling bird into the center of the chasm to avoid impact until the Hold spell wore off barely saving himself.

Proceeding into a wide tall gallery with caves pocked down both walls full of ghouls leering at them, they found The Prophet performing a ritual. Convincing him that Darius and Yeenoghu were now the same, as the vampire had drank the demi-god’s blood, the ghoulish priest agreed to serve, and told them that the Leucrotta Rrykx has fully rebelled and is actively against Darius and seeks to free Yeenoghu. He then proceeded to show The Vindicators the stairs out, that lead up to a large neon sign on the surface advertising the ghoul city.

Our protagonists are now preparing to handle Rrykx and deal with her demonic minions.

[2019-02-05T17:11:06Z] adippner: <!channel>

Session 48: Summary

Reuniting with Aurora, the Vindicators Plane-shifted back to Primordia, the imprecision of the spell landing them at Essintial rather than their intended destination of Cold Mountain.

Here

they discovered that the Asmodeans had been busy, the black arch decorated with vicious clawed buttresses angrily reaching for the heavens, being nearly completed by now and fully spanning the main street and dominating the sites of both former temples.

Travelling 3 levels below into a structure even more ancient than the twin goodly temples that inhabited these sites before the Asmodean takeover, they witnessed a ritual which Michael Jackson was able to contribute the urine of a christian to complete.

Discussing events with Arch-priest of Dispater Benito, Aurora was convinced to trade her soul for dominion over animals, the ability to summon vast amounts of water, and a unicorn that shoots rainbows from it’s ass.

Spending the next few days copying and analysing the contracts, the rest of the Vindicators busied themselves around town making improvements to the Smithy and the Mayor’s estate, while Zero travelled to the mouth of the foul river nearby searching for his lost giant python. It was here that he discovered lizardfolk preparing to sacrifice an orc to a “God-Snake” that matched the description of his former pet.

At the ritual site, Zero witnessed the feeding of the orc to his snake and then subdued it with an expert display of martial prowess, at the same time invoking the ire of the lizardfolk adherents. Slaughtering these, he eventually was able to bring the beast back to his estate and enlist the aid of his allies to ensorcel the monster to serve as a guardian of the town.

Proceeding to Cold Mountain, the Vindicators were able to convince bishop Barnabus to allow them to finally take the cursed Flail of Yeenoghu to Greyhawk, which he excitedly agreed to and informed them that luckily they would have an escort of a visiting Paladin and his retainers.

Casting a Teleport spell, the Vindicators were able to steal away part of the wagon, the container carrying the flail and the paladin himself, all arriving on the flying cloud island, and pushing the confused paladin over the side to fall 80’ to his death.

Returning to the Death Dells with the flail, they convinced Darius to travel with them to Rrykx’s palace, finding there a place of opulence with wealthy and affluent humans and humanoids socializing. Convincing one of the burly guards that it would be best for him stand idly by and let events play out, our heros proceeded slaughter the remaining guard and numerous other guests, each upon their death revealed themselves to be a glamoured Barlgura and a multitude of Maw demons.

Following a brief argument and battle with the invisible leucrotta, the illusions fell and the vampire Demarko was able to begin exerting his control over the demons, completing his dominion over the denizens of the Death Dells and agreeing to fulfill his end of the bargain and provide military might in the coming battle with the pyramid.

Proceeding outside Zero realized that without the illusions and confusion of battle he recognized this area of the Abyss from his childhood, having passed through this region in his wanderings following his escape from the bandits Brenna and Ziv. Retracing those childhood steps, he found the same cave of absolute darkness, and upon passing through, the protagonists found themselves on the Shadowfell in an apparent false dawn. Realizing this was due to the The Pyramid of Light being so distant as to be beyond the horizon, The Vindicators continued to chase Zero’s childhood memories until they came upon a scene very welcome to the Tiefling, a temple dedicated to shadow in the distance, a pair of young acolytes tending to a garden immediately before them. At first the young acolyte tried to explain the the monastery was having difficulties and lacked the resources needed to accomodate pilgrims, pointing to the silhouettes of a wrecked temple and a burned out foundation of another. The sole remaining temple stood over a cluster of temporary tents, and the acolyte agreed to bring them before Master Song. Before they could find the ancient Master, Goren Valcaryn, Shadow-elf and former bully to Zero in his youth stopped them and berated Zero until Master Song heard the commotion and demanded Goren step aside.

Master Song was unwilling to blindly trust that this Tiefling before him was in fact his former student, and challenged Zero to one-on-one combat. Once Zero demonstrated his various shadow abilities, Master Song was satisfied and the old tiger-striped Tibaxi explained the situation. A student that started after Zero had left, one Champion Bellicose, had risen quickly through the ranks and forms, and although he lacked the ability necessary to truly be one with the shadows, he made up for his lacking with savage brutality, and gathered a circle of followers from the ranks of the Monks of the Darkened Fist. Challenging the authority of Master Song, a fierce battle was fought between both the ancient master and the young Champion, and also between the followers of each, resulting in death and the destruction that is still obvious, displacing many of the loyal students, and the disloyal ones following Bellicose to join with the new power of light.

Master Song offered what little resources the monks had available to them in order to help Zero and his allies defeat these united threats.

[2019-02-25T17:58:12Z] adippner: Session 49 Summary

Waking to the twilight of the Shadow-Monk Monastery, the Vindicators observed a marked tension among the adherents, and soon discovered that a vast caravan of flying Gith-Yanki troop barges, along with some red-dragon allies of theirs were passing overhead. This continued for hours, and eventually the monastery caught the attention of one of the adult red dragons who began circling above waiting for an opportunity to shake down the monks for whatever meager treasures they might have, while avoiding the greedy notice of it’s brethren.

Master Hideaki, a Gith-Zerai monk, informed the Vindicators of the relationship between the Gith-Yanki and the Gith-Zerai; both had once been a single race mentally dominated and enslaved by the Mind-Flayers. Their hero, Gith, developed psionic abilities sufficient to break the control and rebel against the Mind-Flayers. The race subsequently underwent a schism, the Gith-Zerai seeking a peaceful existence in Limbo, while the Gith-Yanki sought to seek out and destroy every trace of the Mind-Flayers and any similar dominating slavers. He related that it is impossible to know the true goals of the Gith-Yanki with regards to their gathering near the pyramid, but that the sole motivation of any Gith-Yanki is to gather resources to destroy Mind-Flayers, altruism being a foreign concept.

The Vindicators then noticed a horse galloping unnaturally across the plains, bearing a very large rider and a smaller rider. These turned out to be Corbin and Poedith, delivering the promised Deadicorn to Aurora, Corbin offering his assistance at the behest of his master, the arch-devil Mephistopheles, ally of Dispater.

Calling the enormous red dragon down, the Vindicators offered to parley, but quickly turned to violence eventually slaying the fire-breathing monster.

A short time later, darkness descended across the Shadowfell as the Pyramid reached it’s capacity of gathered darkness and opened a blue firey portal at it’s upper-most tip, allowing the Elder God’s smaller minions to begin streaming through, the blue flames growing larger with time.

The Vindicators hastily attempted to Planeshift to Shard, the former Crystal-City in the Feywild to take advantage of the slower passage of time there and enable them to rest up, but their attempts first took them on a tour of Aqua, the elemental plane of water, and then to the Demon-web Pits of the Abyss, before finally delivering them to their intended destination.

Marshaling their Gygaxian and Gnollish allies, our heros returned to the Shadowfell and gained their final ally, a Gashedokuru, or giant skeleton, courtesy of Abon-Nareth.

With fierce fighting on every side between undead and demonic forces of the Pyramid, the opposing forces of Vindicator allies Gygax and Demarko, and the 3rd opposing faction of the Gith-Yanki, the protagonists stormed the Pyramid, discovering that it contained darkness so concentrated even their magical light giving objects barely cut through, and were forced to battle Champion Bellicose and his Neogi spiderfolk allies while nearly blind.

Following a long and frustrating fight, taking inch by bloody inch of the dark passages of the Pyramid, the Vindicators finally arrived in the central ritual chamber to confront the Deathknight Bradlock, just in time for a great quake to erupt through the pyramid followed by a furious roar of something huge and terrible come through the ever-growing portal from somewhere beyond time and space.

[2019-03-11T14:34:25Z] adippner: Session 50 Summary

Taking the fight into the ritual chamber of the pyramid, The Vindicators were ridiculed by the Deathknight Lord Bradlock as the center platform rose to lock into the ceiling, the ritual to summon The Elder God Obhiggan, The Spider-god nearing completion.

Fending off the Deathknight’s attacks and his 4 pet beholders, as the temple itself tried to hamper the heros with magical darkness, slay them with summoned banshees, and remove them by teleporting them outside the pyramid.

A lengthy and intense fight finally brought our heros face to face with the Neogi summoners who were subsequently slain and scattered.

Adhering the Durac___ to the floor, the protagonists set off the device with a Javelin of Lightning and attempted to teleport away.

Finding themselves standing on a wide plan under a glowing portal surrounded by a starry backdrop, they realized they were in fact astride the Spider-god itself. As the Durac___ exploded waves of burning energy washed

out from the portal, forcing Obhiggan to use his magic to push the flames back and with them the Vindicators.

The wayward heros awoke to find themselves on a rust red plane with iron monolithes protruding at points, murky canals crossing into the distance, and a hazy green sky split with occasional lightning.

They also discovered that the teleportation magic combined with the explosion of the Durac___ had caused a section of the pyramid to join them there, along with many dead, including 2 of their allies that were left behind, Ranger Steve and Poedith the Devourer, as well as the great and terrible Tarrasque, a horned turtle shelled behemoth that had previously been teleported into the battle at the Pyramid.

Resuscitating their allies, the reunited Vindicators hid and rested while waiting for the Tarasque to find other prey, then teleported to a curious tall iron tower that loomed on the horizon no matter what direction they turned.

Upon being ushered into a meeting room, they met the being who to some had become master, the Arch Devil Dispater. Striking a deal with Poedith, and seeking an agreement with Michael Jackson, the fiend congratulated the heros for stopping the Elder God, and informed them that their role in the river of fate was now concluded. It remained for them now, to indulge his desires to see the purging of all the Gygaxian Inquisitors from Primordia.

[2019-03-24T21:09:35Z] adippner: Session 51 Summary

With Bradlock defeated The Vindicators turned their attention to solving the Tarrasque problem now bothering their employer.

Careful study revealed that this new enemy was fierce and would be nearly impossible to defeat, but our protagonists wouldn't let that stop them, engaging the monster and whittling down it's health steadily.

The heros were able to turn Steve into a copper dragon, and while this was effective at harrowing and distracting the terrible creature, he lost precious time running in fright of it's terrible presence.

With Aurora in the beast's mouth and Darryl glued to it's back, they were able to make good headway against it. Unfortunately in the end, it's health held out longer than theirs did, and in the act of trying to break off the attack met an equally unfortunate and final conclusion for most of The Vindicators.

Michael and Zero returned, but similarly were not able to enact a plan that would result in victory. Zero perished, and ultimately only Michael Jackson survived to tell the tale.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse

The Adventure of

Michael Jackson

and The Vindicators

The outreach division of Better Way Ministries