Dungeon Crawl Classics - Session #2 - The Wizardarium of Calabraxis: Part I

At the end of a long week, I looked at my next session plans for our D&D 5E group and found my creative energies spent. Then I thought to myself, last time I was unprepared, DCC saved me. So I read over my copy of The Wizardarium of Calabraxis. There were laughs, augmented intelligence, death, and even some emotional damage, even though we didn't get through all of it yet. Thanks Claytonian JP for the great adventure and thanks to Raven Crowking for the recommendation! On to the session recap...

Last session's survivors:
George the Apprentice (Dwarven Blacksmith) (lvl 1)
George the Astrologist (Merchant) (lvl 1)
George, Zealot of the Hidden Lord (Potato Farmer) (lvl 1)
Vos (formerly Callie) the Thug (Confidence Artist) (lvl 1)
Scoops the Wildling (Trapper) (lvl 1)

This session's additions:
Mom the Midwife (lvl 0)
Emo Deathrock the Dwarven Dirge Singer (lvl 0)
Whiskey Bert the Sailor (lvl 0)
Blint Westwood the Outlaw (lvl 0)
Seaman Pavel the Ferryman (lvl 0)
Aseir the Soldier (lvl 0)
Anton the Tax Collector (lvl 0)
Fezim the Cultist (lvl 0)

After having made it out of the Portal Under the Stars with less than half of their comrades, the party spent a couple weeks flaunting their newfound wealth and spurning common labor. Not to mention they didn't bother burying or building monuments to their fallen friends. Forget the past and always the look to the future, right?

One day, the party woke up early to the local reeve and one of the blacksmiths screaming that during the night horrible hairy men from the mountains had come and abducted their son and daughter respectively. The Georges, Vos, and Scoops immediately put together a posse to recover the kidnapped children. Eight intrepid villagers gathered, armed with only knives, sticks, and rumors of the mysterious caverns of the nearby mountains.

After tracking all day, Scoops finally brought everyone to a cave entrance at around dusk. The more experienced party members let their foolhardy friends walk up to the cave while they waited at the tree line. Whiskey Bert drunkenly yelled in the cave for the inhabitants to fight like men. Several stocky, hairy men with strong ape like features stumbled out of the cave. Wielding rocks, clubs and fists the ape men quickly fought the invaders to their territory.

The peasants and Dwarf-George rushed madly into melee while the other leveled adventurers attempted to shoot arrows and fling spells from the trees. Scoops narrated his own fumble with expletives as his bow snapped back and knocked him flat on his face. George the Astrologist failed casting sleep. Dwarf-George jumped into melee with success until an apeman threw a rock at his head and he got knocked prone. Mom ran to help Dwarf-George to his feet. Vos nailed a backstab attack with his bow, driving an arrow through the back of the neck and out the mouth of the largest apeman. Whisky Bert narrowly avoided a flying stone between the eyes due to a drunken stumble. He laughed but the distraction proved his undoing when another ape man's club collided with his temple, scattering teeth, blood, and even popping out an eyeball before the life went out of him. (sorry for the run on sentence!) Soon enough the party finished off the last of the ape men.

While seeing if the ape men had anything worth looting (and honorably looting Whisky Bert's mangled corpse) they found nothing worthwhile but noticed both tattoos and warpaint on the bodies. The first cavern was littered with food, bedrolls, tools and other living supplies used by the ape men. Five ape wives and three ape kinder howling wildly at the death of their men. The party demanded to know where the reeve's son and blacksmith's daughter were. Suddenly the ground shook all around them. Fearful and huddled in a corner the ape folk pointed to a battered and abused body in a tattered nightgown on the other side of the room. Sadly it was the corpse of the reeve's son.

Seeing a narrow set of stairs on the other side of the room the party decided to continue on. As they approached the stairs, a ghostly visage of a wizard with three eyes walked towards them, looked at them, and then left the cave. One side of the wet, mossy and thus slippery stair fell into, what seemed, an endless black abyss. All made it safely down except Emo Deathrock, who while whistling a sorrowful tune, slipped and fell screaming into the abyss until no one could hear him anymore. Vos, the last to come down the stairway, threw her rope down to the others, had them tie it around a stalagmite and then tied it to her own waist. Now that's some old school precaution. Their torches revealed a large black obelisk, a partial cave in, a narrow path ascending upwards, and a wall covered in crude cave paintings. The cave paintings depicted tattooed ape men worshiping the obelisk and defeating non-tattooed ape men tribes. The obelisk suddenly vibrated, dislodging a dirty loincloth from the top, and the earth shook again.

Curious about the obelisk, Aseir decided to tap it with his sword. Nothing happened, but getting closer, he noticed more intricacies, and glowing moving parts deep inside. Fezim brashly touched the obelisk and he suddenly knew no fear, which circumstantially made room for more intelligence. After sharing the visions he saw when touching the obelisk, everyone took a shot at it. Many of their minds were expanded with concepts of mining and non-euclidean mathematics. Others felt their emotions frayed, melted, or torn away. Aseir lost his concept of compassion. Anton forgot his sense of humor. Mom let go all his envy. George the Zealot turned his back on sadness. George the the Astrologist stopped caring what other people thought, and never felt embarrassed again. But as the one who would have benefited from an intelligence boost the most, George did not receive one.

They decided to move on and go up the narrow, single file path that continued onward. Halfway up, they found a disembodied head, with strange tentacles trailing out the neck. They decided to hold on to it. At a fork they decided to go right. They eventually came to a short hallway to their left with a door at the end. They opted note it on their map, but pass it for the moment. As they continued straight they came to what at first appeared to be a dead end. Closer inspection revealed worn away engravings of eyes (27 to be exact). They first tried poking them to no effect. They next tried staring at them, which opened a secret door. George the Zealot said the Hidden Lord would be pleased, and he was.

Fezim lead the party on, and ran into two stunted looking humanoids with heads and features of a pig and eel. After a moment of surprise, Fezim began to attack. Being sorely outmatched, and without much room for maneuvering in the tight space, the archers of the group yelled duck and started shooting arrows down the hall. Fezim at one point felt an attack on his mind and was blinded until a few minutes after the battle was over.

The mongrel men being taken care of, they continued down the path and could see a hexagon like structure made out a black stone beneath them. As they came around on the first side, they saw an indentation and placed the head in it. Further off they heard the creaking of a metal. As they passed a couple more sides of the structure they found an opening with a raised portcullis. Between the light of their torch and a green glow from within the structure, they saw a horde of treasure.

Before they entered, a bored sounding alien voice warned them from entering from within. "Listen if you come in here, I'll have to kill you. And I don't feel like doing that. I'm tired." While the party conversed with the guardian, Vos told Fezim that a real man would just go in after what he wanted. Fezim's low self esteem and lack of fear overwhelmed his better judgement and he rushed in. Immediately a tentacle with many eyes and mouths grabbed him from the ceiling. Fezim's ribs and spine were crushed with several sickening cracks before he was thrown on the stone floor with a splat. This was followed up by several fiery rays from the ceiling which only left a smoldering pulverized mess of what used to be Fezim's body. Vos then suggested that they use the grappling hook to pull things out, but the guardian suggested against that.

After conversing with the voice for awhile longer, they concluded that perhaps if they rebound the guardian somewhere else, they could enter freely and loot the hexagonal room! George the Zealot attempted to cast word of command by yelling "Unbind!' twice, but failed. The guardian mentioned that perhaps the Calabraxis' old library might hold some knowledge about how to rebind or unbind it.

 Soon afterwards, they made their way back to the door they skipped before and found it unlocked. Inside they saw a myriad of strange bones of men beast chained to the wall. One of the walls was a thick green, partially translucent material with what looked to be diamond shaped slots on the other side. Seeing a grate in the corner, the party used the rope and the grappling hook to pull it out of the wall so they could crawl through the space. On the other side they found the library they were looking for!

Finding most of the books uselessly decayed, they felt dejected until a book with a long spine crawled toward one of them and introduced itself and Baxter the Jolly Book-Axe. He was excited for company, having only had the bats to talk to for so long. Hoping that Baxter might be able to help them on their quest, they began to ask him about Calabraxis, the guardian, and the secrets of the wizardarium!

Those who have fallen:

Whiskey Bert the Sailor - head smashed in with a club.
Emo Deathrock the Dwarf- fell to his doom.
Fezim the Cultist - death by tentacle and rays.

Raleigh D&D 5E - Session #8 - Prophecies in Perrol

This session's cast:

-Drael, the (still) blue, apex seeking, goliath barbarian and his faithful(?), always hungry, red saber-tooth tiger companion. (Player absent)
-Rolin, the elven yellow assassin, and secret priest of Mephala, lord of the eight shadows of murder.
-Vyn, the dark elf and red, gold dragon (retconned) sorcerer.
-Theren Galaodel, the straight shootin' pious fighter
-Percival "Percy" VelJohnson the orphaned, nosy, yet private half-elven bard

Our bloodied party triumphantly paraded down the now sunbathed streets crying that the lord was dead and declared freedom to the Tangari slaves. Emaciated, wheezing jackals lay where smiling beggars once sat. Cheering Tangari flooded the streets, crushing the jackals beneath them. Drael gave a rousing speech, declaring the Tangari free and claiming most of the credit for the deed. Vyn attempted to rebuttal this claim but was drowned out by the cheering crowds.

The two hundred or so Tangari began to gather supplies for the trek back to Sonsari's tribe. While the Tangari spent a couple days preparing, the party looked to the ziggurat, hoping to also recover Yaga's Book of the Dead for Lupus Loricatus back in Perrol. Sonsari cautioned that even the lord and his jackalweres avoided the place, except for a few sporadic excursions were few returned, if they returned at all. Luckily, some Tangari knew where the spoils of these trips had been kept, and Yaga's Book of the Dead was among the loot!

A couple days journey brought the freed Tangari to Sonsari's tribe where they were greeted with open arms by her father, Chief Darok. Sonsari immediately told the tale, and Darok expressed his gratitude for returning his daughter to him. But more importantly, a great curse on their people was now lifted and it was time for celebration. A week long festival was conducted, and the party was named living heroes and saints of the Tangari and immortalized in song by Darok's resident bard, Percy. Percy impressed with their deeds, asked to accompany them to be part of their tale.

Rolin showed Sonsari his golden apple pendant and asked her what she knew of it. She said that was the symbol of the secret god, knowledge passed down orally only to certain bloodlines in the Tangari, which had been given to her from her mother. He revealed that he was the new mouth for Mephala on this world. Sonsari said she would spread the word among her kinsmen.

Darok granted the party the right to take the mark of a member of the tribe, a tattoo, and named them heroes forever. He also awarded them with a chest full of magical supplies which happened to have a shipment label for the Purple Moth Magic Shop. Some of the grateful people who had been freed or their families offered themselves as servants to Drael, Rolin, Vyn and Theren. Each found themselves with four willing men and women ready for service. Rolin with those of the bloodline loyal to Mephala. Vyn, interested in the resettlement of Sancre Tor and its history spent time researching it. He learned there was certainly interest in rebuilding the sacred city and reliving the former greatness of the Tangari before the Endless Empire came and conquered them. Little was known about the ziggurat, other than that it was there even before the Tangari first settled the badlands.

Drael decided to stay with the Tangari for the time being. Vyn sent his people in all four cardinal directions with a month's worth of expenses to search for information about gold dragons. Theren sent his to his monastery to do research on the blade they recovered known as "the gift". And Rolin left his to spread the word that the secret god speaks again, but took Sonsari with him back to Perrol. On their way back to Perrol, Sonsari disturbed a giant wasp's nest and the undead corpse of a minotaur, but survived despite herself.

Once they had settled at the inn upon arriving in Perrol, they decided to present Yaga's Book of the Dead to Lupus Loricatus. The butler told them he was currently at town council but that he would summon them when he had time to see them. So they left their calling card, and wandered over to the Purple Moth magic shop. The proprietor there was ecstatic to recover his lost shipment and promised to make them the promised remove curse potions, only saying it would take a few weeks. He also passed to them a crystal ball said to show you truths about your past, present and future, but only once. Since he had already used it, he figured they could have it. They willingly accepted it for a later time. The party decided to do some shopping. Rolin sought a master instrument craftsman, with the help of Percy, to make him a flute that doubled as a blowgun. Vyn commissioned a metal mask to hide his dark elven appearance.

That night at the inn, the party took turns looking into the crystal ball. All participated, except for Drael, who was absent, and Theren, who refused. None but the user could behold the vision.

Vyn saw visions of his ancestors going all the way back before the elvish races split. He saw his golden dragon ancestor living among the elves. He then saw a man whose face was obscured by a bright golden glow at the right hand of the emperor. And then he saw himself, uncovered, with golden skin and openly speaking with a great golden dragon.

Rolin saw a girl murder a man on a barren mountain top, and tear a golden apple from his dead grasp. He also saw the emperor sitting on his throne. Beside him was a man whose face was obscured because of an bright golden glow around it, but behind the throne stood Mephala herself. Finally he saw a modest stone manor on a hill within the city, with Tangari secretly coming in and out.

Percy saw the battle where his father died. His mother told him the story over and over growing up, and he knew every detail by heart, or so he thought. One detail stuck out as vastly different then how his mother had told it, but it was not immediately obvious why such a detail would be obscured. Next he saw his brother, miserable and carrying a heavy burden through an endless mire. Finally he saw himself and his brother as part of a royal entourage, happy and full of honor and accolades. In turns delighted, bewildered, and heartened the party silently went to their own rooms to ponder alone the meaning of their visions and how they would rise to their destiny and face their past.

Raleigh D&D 5E - Session #7 - The Hidden Palace of Sancre Tor

This session's cast:

-Drael, the (still) blue, apex seeking, goliath barbarian and his faithful(?), always hungry, red saber-tooth tiger companion.
-Rolin, the elven yellow assassin, and secret priest of Mephala, lord of the eight shadows of murder.
-Vyn, the dark elf and red, gold dragon (retconned) sorcerer.
-Theren Galaodel, the straight shootin' pious fighter

After following the friendly buzzards through winding ravines and towering sandstone columns the party finally came to the Valley of the Hidden Palace. The walled city could be seen to have a myriad of streets centering around a great palace, with a large ziggurat of differing architecture looming behind  From a distance Drael noticed that the city Sancre Tor did not seem abandoned but alive and full of activity. So Rolin and Vyn enthusiastically rode their horses through the valley towards the open city gates, while Drael and his tiger companion trailed cautiously behind.

Finding no guards at the gate, Rolin and Vyn quickly questioned one of the several beggars loafing outside the gate along the wall. "Call me Ishmael, travelers! What brings you to the sacred city?" They explained they had heard great things and wanted to visit, but were weary from travel. Rolin asked to buy Ishmael's clothes. Ishmael immediately offered to introduce him to the finest clothier in the city, who owed him a favor. "Why would you want to wear a beggar's clothes?" Ishmael laughed. Drael, uncomfortable about the city, opted to wait outside the gates. As Ishmael walked them through the market streets, they noticed various smiling beggar's lounging around while men and women in white busied themselves with work. Rolin pulled one of them aside attempting to question the nervous man but Ishmael quickly dismissed him before he could relay any information.

Growing suspicious, Vyn decided to not enter the clothier shop once they arrived. Rolin entered and met a man in white named Tarok who began to fit him into a robe of purple and yellow. All the while Ishmael babbled away. Suddenly Vyn entered the shop disguised as Drael and had a confusion conversation with Rolin, Tarok, and Ishmael that I can't fully recall. Not having the results he desired, Vyn left and wandered the streets questioning beggars and eventually disguising himself as one of them before exiting the city before the gates were closed. All the while, Rolin's robe was finished as night fell and Ishmael brought him to an inn run by the maiden Sonsari for the night so he could be prepared to be presented to the lord. When questioned about the lord, Ishmael merely stated with wide eyed adoration that he was a lion of a man.

After Ismael left Rolin to rest with Sonsari, Rolin quickly took the opportunity to get the low down from his new host. She told him that she was the daughter of a Tangari chieftain that had been captured by the Lord's minions. She said if he could rescue her he would surely be rewarded. Rolin said he would do one better, by killing the lord, freeing all the Tangari slaves, and cleansing the sacred city of Sancre Tor itself! Amazed, Sonsari wished him luck as he left to go gather his comrades to undo the lord once and for all. He successfully sneaked through the quiet and deserted town streets, but found himself at the closed gate. It was unguarded but locked by a massive bar too great for him alone. Climbing up the steps to the top of the wall, he found both Drael and Vyn quibbling about whether to abandon the adventure and leave him alone in the city or not. Once the two of them saw Rolin, they begrudgingly changed their tune and climbed the wall with Rolin's rope. Between the three of them, especially due to Drael's great strength, they opened the massive gate to let the saber-tooth tiger in.

Carefully making their way through the dark streets, they made it back to the inn only to find Sonsari missing and Ishmael waiting in her place. Rolin quickly cast charm person, and introduced his two friends to Ishmael under friendlier circumstances. Ishmael told them he had prepared Rolin for the presentation for the lord, but when he was missing when it was time. Thus Ishmael's only choice was to present Sonsari instead, although that was not preferable. He also added the clarification that it was a presentation of an offering for a sacrifice to the demon prince Graz'zt. Rolin demanded that they be taken to the lord immediately. Ishmael was only happy to oblige.

They entered the gates of the hidden palace, and passed through grand rooms, gardens, and courtyards, until they finally came to the throne room of the lord. The double doors to the throne room were wide open to the lighted and opulent chamber. Ishmael presented the party to the lord, a haughty looking man wearing a pendant of a golden apple, with a lion body below the waist lounging on a great pillowed couch. Two guards in plate armor flanked him on either side. Behind him hooded and robed figures forced a girl quickly through a door to the next chamber. Rolin, quickly recognizing it to be Sonsari, bowed before the lord and stated they were there to serve him and attempted to cast charm person but to no apparent effect. The lord got up from his lounge and told the party he had been expecting them, and that his men would take care of them.

The lord then passed through the door, and the armored guards rushed to close the double doors to the throne room. A battle ensued as Drael and Vyn pushed back against the two armored guards, while Rolin rushed to the door to follow the lord, only to be met by a fiery flying suit of armor in his way. The tiger was soon distracted by several flying weapons that came off the wall. Rolin weaved in and out of battle, backstabbing and firing arrows where support was needed. Drael held off the flying fire armor, and Vyn shot forceful blasts of magical energy until the flying armor was blasted against the wall into dozens of pieces by a great bolt of fire. After that the battle quickly wrapped up in favor of the victorious but bruised party.

The momentary silence made the party aware of chanting beyond the door, which made them realized time was growing short. At that moment a determined man burst through the double doors and demanded to see the lord. After some initial distrust, the learned that the warrior, named Therol, was on a quest to slay the lord in the name of his monastery, which was an enemy to all cults of Graz'zt. A moment later they all ran through the door to interrupt the dark rite being led by the lord and his priests of Graz'zt. Sonsari was tied to a great alter surrounded by the priests. Rolin ran up and back stabbed the lord causing him great pain. The lord escaped through another door, while the priests attempted to stop the party from following him. The battle slowly went the way of the party, and one of the injured priests spilled his own blood on the alter to summon a hell hound as a final pleading to Graz'zt. But, the hound rolled terribly on its initiative and was slaughtered before it could breath fire all over everything. Sad. Rolin freed Sonsari, and she refused to stay put, scared to be out of their direct protection.

Following the lord out of the sacrificial chamber, they found him with dagger drawn in what appeared to be a personal chamber with pillowed bed, gilded mirror, Jacuzzi and even a cage for his two pet giant scorpions, which he immediately released. The outmatched and injured lord was defeated soundly, and Drael spoke to the scorpions, reasoning with them that this was not a fight worth fighting, and they scurried back into their cage, only to be lite on fire by Vyn. Soon after the body of the lord finished dissolving, everything that once looked extravagant and new became decayed and ruined, the illusion and magic of the lord fading away.

Rolin snatched up the pendant of the golden apple before anyone could notice. Vyn picked up the intriguing dagger, a red blade seemingly fashioned out of a single horn, and wrapped in a black leather for the hilt. After feeling uncharacteristically greedy and selfish, Vyn's further inquiry with Theren revealed the dagger to be called "the gift". The runes on either side of it meaning gift and blood respectively. This type of blade is giving to every great leader of Graz'zt cults, a gift from Graz'zt himself, fashioned out of one of his many horns. A truly evil artifact. Theren took it and sealed it in a chest found on the sacrificial alter along with its previous contents, a dried out human(?) heart. He vowed to take it back to his monastery to either be sealed away or destroyed. Drael picked up the head priests long sword, which at first glance seemed perfectly ordinary, but closer inspection revealed to be of great manufacture. A feeling of optimism and a positive outlook for the future took hold of him immediately.

As the party walked down the steps of the hidden palace onto the city streets, the sun rose to finish the cleanse of the sacred city of Sancre Tor.

disclaimer: this session happened a few weeks ago, so this is to the best of my memory and notes.