Dramatis Personae
Beltin (Aasimar Dirge Bard/Cleric 7).
Bol (Tiefling Vivisectionist Rage Chemist/Barbarian 7).
Phil (player kept his sheet so his character gets to keep his name; Oread Ranger/Empyreal Sorc 7).
Glira Cross (Human Gunslinger/Magus 7). ABSENT PLAYER
Bradley Weatherby (Human Dervish Dancer/Knife Master Rogue 7). The replacement for the deceased Desert Wind. He's a "problem solver" for a trade consortium in the south. One of their members skipped town with a sizable amount of gold and ran north, and now BW is looking to collect. Word is that his quarry, who is using the pseudonym "Rupert Smitty," was attempting to join the Bard's Gate caravan to reach the city of Parsantium in the north. BW set off on his own after the caravan before the party arrived and killed Gurg, but he underestimated the dangers of the Desolation and got lost and sidetracked. He ended up in the Boiling Lands before he met a couple of Skeribar's rangers who found his trail and were planning on taking him to the Redeemers for a nice sacrifice.
"This place sucks," Session 2 - 4/26/14
The session started with the main party reaching the crossroads as night was falling on Day 2 of the adventure and it seemed a good place to camp. Meanwhile BW and his new ranger pals were approaching the crossroads from the Boiling Lands and met them. BW talked with the party and learned they were looking for a supposedly destroyed caravan, the one that Rupert Smitty was supposed to be a part of.
BW explained why he was there and asked to join in their search, much to the chagrin of the three rangers. BW noticed their annoyance and asked what the issue was, but the rangers replied it was fine and they were leaving. BW tried to pay them a small token amount, but they told him they were more expensive than that but were content to say he owed them for now.
The rangers cut off road toward the Dead Lands and were soon lost in the night. BW told the party about how those guys were creepy and he didn't trust them and the party bonded before heading to bed. That night the only possibly dangerous encounter was some Acid Rain which Phil spotted miles off, so adequate shelter was prepared well in advance.
BW took first watch and at around midnight things got weird. He felt a surge in the area, almost like static electricity and he was sure something was about to happen, but then it suddenly stopped. Instead he heard a squeaky cart from the North and encountered the Midnight Peddler; the Dweller at the Crossroads was about to manifest when the Peddler intervened. Next time they stop there they will meet him and get their Corrupt-a-Wish. BW didn't wake anyone, but bought the fish.
The Peddler then told BW the man he sought was in the Rift and that he would face many dangers he was not ready to face there. And then the Peddler wheeled away South. Confused and a bit troubled, BW threw away the fish carried out his watch. A bit later in the night a Bonestorm happened, but it was a weaker one and was not much of a threat because shelter had already been prepared. Next morning BW tells about the "strange fishmonger" whom he assumed was some sort of Daemon. The party wonders if they had been sold a Red Herring, but as BW threw it away and the bone storm after, they had no way to check.
Dawn of day 3, party heads north along the road and Beltin catches first sight of the Chaos Rift from his airborne mount. They proceed for a few hours before eventually realizing something is flying toward them from the North. Eventually they realize it is a Chimera and they get ready for it to finish its approach. As they are waiting on the road, they suddenly hear movement and growling coming toward them from a dune on the side of the Chaos Ride; 9 Ghoul Wolves!
The party has time to get ready for the dual onslaught and the wolves get mostly cut down before they can do anything. Three survive and rip into Bol, tripping him and dealing decent damage, but fortunately for him he rolls his fort way in the 20s for each check against paralysis. The Ghoul Wolves get finished without fanfare and now the Chimera is nearly upon them... and Beltin's undead archer horde, buffed with Haste and Bard Song, rip it nearly to pieces.
With its final, and only act, the Chimera flies toward the largest cluster of enemies, all the undead and an invisible BW, and uses his cone of cold breathe weapon... which the undead are immune to and BW Evasions out of. The Chimera then gets killed, partially eaten raw by Bol, and then reanimated to join Beltin's growing menagerie. And the walk north continues.
Eventually the party comes to a gap in the road a hundred or so feet across, but luckily it appears that though some old wooden structure was once here, someone recently decided screw that and used magic (several Wall of Stones) to create a more permanent and safer bridge across the gap. Yay magic! The party continues on the bridge and BW decides to look for traps. He sees nothing but what appears to be scorch marks all over the midpoint of the bridge.
Beltin sends an undead over. Nothing. Must be safe says the party as they walk across the area, and that is when four heads rise from the hydra clinging to the underside of the bridge. 4 breathe weapons later the undead are in bad shape as is Phil. The hydra manages to kill one of the bloody skeletons and throws it into the Rift, but with his 80 speed mount Beltin saves it for another day.
The heads go down quickly and eventually realizing its mistake, the last head pulls back under the bridge as if the enemy can't see you then obviously you are safe. Bol was having none of that and flew down to finish it, and then barely managed to avoid its falling corpse that would have hit him and taken him 300 feet down into the Rift.
Northward again. The party eventually finds the caravan in all its destroyed glory. They find a bit of gold and some bits as well as a dead wizard who still has his spellbook; looks like they found the Wall of Stone caster. They realize he died unprepared, so he must have been targeted first. The party finds no tracks of any kind, which they take to mean flying enemies must have done this. BW realizes Rupert Smitty isn't among the dead and when the party finds a manifest they realize two non-ogres/giants are missing.
They also realize from it that valuable trade goods are gone as well as something marked "Magical Goods" on the list. Going with the logic that flying things would have a better time in the Rift than the Boiling Lands, plus the fishmonger told him so, they decide to explore the Rift for the two caravan survivors. This is reinforced when a Speak With Dead with one of the soldiers says that the attack involved fliers who came from the East. They also asked what was in the magical goods box, which the corpse replied "I dunno, magic?" The party decides that the tendril of the Rift that the bridge went over probably would be a good place to enter.
Southward! At the bridge they cut west following the fissure until they reach its genesis in the beginning of the Boiling Lands where the ground is only a bit marshy as opposed to a godforsaken poisoned swamp. It's dusk as they reach the high point of the fissure so they decide to camp above before heading down the next day. It is now the night of Day 3.
To summarize the rest of the session: Haha, oh wow.
The slightly longer version of the end of session 2 involves one successful perception check, several failed DC 19 fort saves versus petrification, and the DM feeling bad and lowering the DC to 15 so that at least one PC made it.
Full version: Upon entering the "Rift Genesis" the party picked their way through the mud pools and filth but something seemed wrong... perception checks were made and only Bol realized something was lurking in the mud pool behind them. So he did the obvious thing and pointed to the pool and called out "There's something there!" at which point the entire party turned to look one head of the amphisbaena basilisk directly in the face. Roll fort! FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL FAIL.
At this point I decided to show mercy (a weakness I know) and decided that since the it all happened so fast and so chaotically they would have gotten a +4 bonus versus the gaze attack so now Bol and Beltin made it while poor BW and Phil started to enjoy their new lives as statues. The two headed basilisk went down like a chump unfortunately the next round.
I did get to enjoy BW's out of character panic as I described the basilisk corpse sinking slowly into the primordial muck, perhaps never to be seen again, lost forever... and then Beltin made a knowledge check concerning the blood of a basilisk restoring the victims so his undead Gurg was able to pull it out in time. I had one last bit of fun by pointing out the corpse had enough blood to restore 1d2 creatures... the dice were on the players side there, so both were restored.
No casualties and DING, level 8; the DM got peer-pressured into it.
