[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #12

One of these days, I'm gonna write a blog post that's not a Mazes & Minotaurs session recap! But not today... not today!

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8, Session #9, Session #10, Session #11

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Meteora's player was busy with work stuff :(

The group woke up after some well-deserved rest in the cavern. Porphyra was still unconscious... So her player was given the choice to play as either Buff the henchman or Romulus the wolf, and of course he chose to play as Romulus the wolf!

As a first order of business, Romulus marked the cave as his territory.

Ellipsis came up with a plan to reach the Source: tie something to a rope, and throw it down through the little "window" overlooking the cave of the Source, wait for it to come down with the current, and use the rope as extra support when wading upstream. However, with their numbers so low, they decided to leave that part of the exploration for a later time.

Ellipsis and Romulus decided to leave the cave and explore the surroundings a bit. They left Buff and Chuff behind to look after Porphyra.

Outside, it was a hot summer morning. 

Suddenly, there was some movement in the bushes about 70' away from the cave entrance --- and a group of scorpion men started shooting arrows! An ambush! Ellipsis returned the favor with a couple of his own arrows, and Romulus charged into battle. However, the three scorps posed a much greater threat. Ellipsis called for help, but Buff and Chuff needed a couple of rounds to reach the place of the battle. 

Ellipsis took cover in the cave entrance behind some rocks, but still he got hit by several arrows... The damage was enough to kill him, but instead he got an adrenaline rush and continued fighting for enough time for Buff and Chuff to join the fight --- but then........

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #11

Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8, Session #9, Session #10

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Meteora the Amazon

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Right at the entrance of the cave, Meteora the Amazon caught up with the rest of the party. Turns out, she got distracted by a game of chance back at the village, and lost all her clothes as the outcome.

So now it was time to go dungeoneering!

The party traced the river back to its source, a cave on the northern slope of the Feathered Queen's mountain. The tethered their donkey at the mouth of the cave and cautiously entered. The cave seemed natural: grayish-black rock with sparkling speckles, polished smooth by millennia of fast-flowing water. The cave looked like a horizontal funnel, a gradually narrowing passage.

Ellipsis scouted forward, with the rest of the crew following after him. They found a chamber off the main passage to the left. They entered, and found that it was full of clusters of small, needle-like crystals, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow. There was a draft of air coming from further ahead, and a weird whispering sound.

The party realized that the whispering sound was caused by the crystals; and that the crystals echo any nearby sound and amplify it. Porphyra the Lyrist decided to test the acoustics and played a song: however, her voice cause a bunch of screeching feedback, which led to some of the crystals exploding, and maiming Buff the Warrior - a bunch of small crystal needles embedded themselves in his palm. 

The party proceeded further, and found a long winding passage sloping upwards. It led to a small spherical chamber, with an opening ~10' above the floor. An uncanny light was seeping through this "window", slowly pulsating between blue and orange. The light of the group's lamp seemed to "retreat" from this otherworldly illumination!

Ellipsis stood on Porphyra's shoulders and looked through the opening: into a great cavern, full of large crystal, with a sphere of light and a whirlpool in the middle!!

[Mazes & Minotaurs Actual Play] Colonists & Chimeras! Session #10

 Previous installments: Session #1, Session #2, Session #3, Session #4, Session #5, Session #6, Session #7, Session #8, Session #9

Ellipsis the Hunter

Porphyra the Lyrist

Buff the Warrior henchman (level 1)

Chuff the second Warrior henchman (level 0)

Romulus the semi-domesticated (at best) wolf of Porphyra

Having rescued the poor Phoenician man from the evil cyclops laboratory, the gang decided to go back home to the village.

They quickly headed south, as they wanted to cover as much distance as possible before nightfall. Then they camped, luckily without any incidents. During the next day's track, they noticed more weird kinks about the local wildlife: for example, a regular-looking brown bear tried to ambush them by rolling big rocks off a cliff. Some of the adventurers got hurt, but were able to continue the journey and reach the river around dawn.

There, they set a fire to signal to their comrades on the other bank, to come get them with the ship. 

In the meantime, Romulus the wolf started gnarling at something in the water: a human body!

The body was pulled ashore with ropes. It was the cadaver of a drowned man, with lots and lots of tattoos on his body: mostly concentric circles and spiral patterns. Then the patterns started swirling and moving... and the bloated body rose from the ground, and attacked the adventurers. His touch had a life energy draining effect. Porphyra almost fell prey to it, because she tried to grapple, but got lucky with her save. Then with the help of a bunch of rope they subdued the creature, and tried to throw him on the fire. The flames burnt the ropes away, and the creature attacked again, but this time was put down for good and burnt to ashes.

Meanwhile, the ship crossed the river and took the group back to the village. 

There, they took good care of the Phoenician, and, when he regained consciousness, the group learned about how the village is originally the rescued guy's home, and how he had been abducted by the cyclopes. He wasn't aware that his fellow villagers were gone as well. But, he did confirm they had been seeing vultures hovering above them. They also learned the guy's name (Bel-Shazzar). It also was confirmed that Danel, the nymph's lover, was also originally from this village.

The next day, the adventurers stayed on their side of the river, and tracked north, towards the volcano. Logging was still going on in the woods at the foot of the volcano. They camped here, and at night saw an awe-inspiring gigantic creature swimming in the river...

In the morning, the group took a turn towards the east, to reach the source of the river in the mountain. They managed to avoid a vulture patrol, and reached the source - a mysterious cave...