Travel to Amberbluff and the Temple of Disease

September 24, 2008

The nobles of Longmaple arrive with their support staff. The team convinces them to leave Ann in charge, as Carl and Erkon go to Listwater. The group took a loan from Ann of 35 gold to purchase Karin's house so she will go to Velen. This sets up all the nobles in good positions to build the party's prestige level in the future.

The party then escorts a small army of soldiers to Aberbluff to help defend that area. On the way they find an inn where they  meet some adventurers that had found a lot of gold and platinum at an area to the north and were buying everyone food and drink. Orrin wakes up in the middle of the night and everyone in the inn except the party and soldiers that came with them are dead. The party figure out it is a disease or plague, and send soldiers out to search the surrounding farms for more victims or to warn them. All the people are dead of disease. The party leaves signs and burns the farms and buildings instead of leaving the diseased bodies. When some of the soldiers start getting sick, the party decides to check out the ruins for the source of the disease.

They find a temple to a god that worships disease, and decide that is the place to go.

Upon entering, Kernosh uses the purple flames to light the first room up.

Traveling down stairs to the second room, some drakes, fire snakes and a constrictor are found. Cabal stays back and uses Scratch to aim his Bigby's icy hand as the rest of the party engages the reptiles. They are defeated as the party continues to move through the underground complex.

The party comes upon a magical rug that attacks Cabal in a constricting grasp, Kernosh is able to flip Cabal out and then Kernosh befriends the now floating rug.

The party continues (with the rug following Kernosh closely) finds some traps on some stairs that lead to a statue of a diseased man. Using a lever to move the statue, the party goes down into a new room. Just as Cabal realizes the money in some broken urns is magical and possibly dangerous, a group of creatures appears. The party also realizes they have contracted the disease from above.

XP: 320

DM Notes

• I was really happy with how the group handled the politics.  I didn't want politics to become the focus of the session, or the game.  I outlined the parameters for the players and they brainstormed on what they wanted to happen.  If they thought of something, a roll let them know how tough or easy it would be to do that.  I think it worked out well.
• I do think I made the prices too cheap.  I am not using the standard economic system so 35 gold is more than it seems but I think it is less than it should be.  Oh, well.  They got a deal.  (I am thinking it should have been 120 gold instead.)
• I really enjoyed creating the maps or using maps that I already had, like the Inn.  It was a lot of fun! 
• When they were at the Inn, it was obvious to the player that something was happening but not to the character.  It worked out well even if a few things were forced. 
• The dungeon was a lot of fun!  I had a few things to add as they found them.  It worked well!  I also used two white boards for the levels, so created a three level dungeon for them to explore!
• I didn't try and hide any parts of a level.  They saw the whole level.  Building as they come to it doesn't work for me.  Instead, I let them see everything and then decide how they approach certain areas.  Again, I think it worked well.
• We ended on a cliff hanger of the party being in battle just as they realize they have contracted the disease as well.  I was happy where we ended. 

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