Journal: Cult of Rhomoch/Plague of Babies Arc
Session 1
Introductions
Zawar (Brad), Jihan (Scott), Samara (Alisha), Guttertooth (Sean), and Elim (Joe)
Travelling on a job to deliver goods.
Day 1 (Day 16, Month 4, Year 962 AP)
Not expected to be dangerous, but need escort for reasons (insurance is assumed). Cart driver's name is Luffy
Meet farmer and daughter, but failed to sense magic on ring and thus failed the check (rolled 6 on magic, and needed 7+)
Day 2
Found an over turned cart and it is over turned. Heard cackling and laughing coming from it. Jihan offered to check it out, and for Luffy to take a break. These are imps and goblins, one of which is 25 feet tall. The goblins had overturned an alchemist cart and killed them and their horse. They are now destroying their bottles, and other celebrating. Elim asked them if we can join them in their celebration. While trying to figure out what to do, the giant goblin hit the horse back side and it smashed into Samara. Zawar mind controlled the giant goblin, told him to kill his friends, and then took the potions. Milky Potion: Some kind of protection magic. Limited in scope of use. Thick liquid in test tub: Not to be ingested. it is a weapon coat. Bottled ooze: was created, but not intentionally, and is neither protective, destructive, or a coat. Elim found 3 different potions, and 40 silver pieces. Several pictures are in the box with the Money. Zawar was confirmed to know the Goblin Language.
Day 3
Came to fork in the road, and took the smaller of the two roads. We got to the point that the were some shadows appeared on the horizon. Luffy got off the cart frustrated, and started walking towards the shadows. Jihad made his way to help Luffy, and Luffy got frustrated that he came to help. We were told that this was an insurance fraud job, and that we had to help by unloading the cart. After doing that, they sad we were going to have to die. We tried to haggle our way out of it, but didn't work, so we got into combat. We killed the 3 humans, and Zawar mind controlled the Ogre, and we captured Luffy as he was trying to run away. We then tried to figure out how to go forward from here.
Session 2
Going dungeon diving!
Natural cave formation where the cart and gear is. However, the path has a man made archway that then leads to a man made structure. There was an old camp outside of it.
- Dungeon room 1 was like a small room, like a bedroom. There was a small coffin that is broken. There is a small clay statue (3ft tall) of a snake-man warrior.
- Dungeon room 2 was a second small room. Found a dead body with a small golden amulet.
- Dungeon room 3 (large room) tapestry of people worshipping. Another stone box was found. It is stylized, and the lid is still in place. Inside is a statue of a snake-person, dressed like a scholar with a clay scroll in hand. There are also some decayed scrolls of paper. I took statue, and Jihan took the tapestry.
- Dungeon room 4. There is an ornate coffin. The coffin contains a 3ft tall clay statue of a snake-man in a imposing stance. Guttertooth took this statue, and the statue had a small gold ring on it. Elim learned the ancient language.
We re-entered the hallway which lead to a large door. Two iron pegs with giant stone slabs across the door. There is a massive bloodstain above the stone slab. Door was trapped. We missed the TRAP!!! We lost Royish the Ogre.
Behind the door are old frescos, very poorly done. there are 3 coffins, 2 medium sized ones on the ends, and the one is the middle is larger and of a warrior. The first coffin holds a full grown skeleton that is holding a part of metal shield, a golden neckless, and a bronze kopesh. It attacked. The same thing happened with the other two coffins. We found two gold amulets.
We then found a Stone frog/buddah thingy. We found that there was a hidden path below the statue. Headed back to camp to rest and relax rather than proceed onward though.
Session 3
Day 4
*Note* Zawar missed this session and the notes will reflect this. One of the other players should fill in more context.
There are still unexplored doors for next session.
We found a terracotta army. Samara broke one to see what was inside (spoiler it was nothing).
Found a room with a mummy - but the corpse was poorly preserved and had been reduced to a black ooze monster that was afraid of fire. it beat up guttertooth pretty bad, we ran from it and shut the door to its room, leaving it to fight the illusion zawar left in there as a distraction.
The main pool of water in the main room had mummy hands, head, and jewels in it. The party found a gold chain with an Egyptian eye.
Ornate painting of people screaming at the sky as snakes rain down on them were found on one of the doors (unexplored)!
Elim took a bunch of scrolls that had a bunch of old crazy writing on it (from the language he learned in Session 1)!
Session 4
Continued to look into the different rooms that had yet to be explored within the ruins. First the group wanted to find a means to prevent the ooze from following them. To do so, they leveraged old bedding from one of the rooms to block the cracks of the door to slow it down. From there exploration continued.
The first room was collasped with a small path way in. Jihan squeed through the pathway and found a creature bashing it's skeletal head against the wall. The party decided to leave it alone and to explore the next room.
The second room had a similar coffin to others found earlier, but it was in the center of the room, and there was a silvered mirror on the wall. The group open the coffin and found nothing instead. So they took the mirror and proceeded on.
The final door way was one covered in snake pictures/artwork. There was a set of stairs behind the door. The ones leading the group started down the steps and triggered a trap. The steps went flat and they slid down into spike jutting out of the bottom. After the trap reset, the rest of the group met them at the bottom.
There was a large statue in the center of the room, and shields on the walls. There was no back wall, and a bottomless pit behind it. The statue called a shield to it, animated, and started attacking the party. The party was unable to damage the creature effectively, and eventually tricked it into falling over the edge.
There are two paths hidden by the pit. The one leading north was blocked and would require excavation. The one to the south was unimpedded so the party began to travel that direction.
Session 5
Session 5
We heard noise to the south. They were waste height and looked related to the halflings of the region (ishi'qo), but they are not the same. We saw them, and metal was glinting. We ducked into a near by room. It was damp and mold was growing on ground. We saw a fountain with no water. We then heard the creatures dredge by, but not try to follow up. We traversed a hallway, and it lead to a fork in the road. There was a hall to the south and stairs down to the west. We went down the hallway and ran into some kind of ooze. We immediately ran and headed down the steps. We found a door, and a side room with a shrine. There are two slots in it to place your hands. Zawar put his hands into the holes and tried to manipulate the shrine. We twisted it and a bunch of sliver coins popped out. We loaded up on the silver and returned to camp.
The return to came was uneventful. Samara and Guttertooth took some time to look for horses. We then rested and reached lvl 2. From there we started appraising the goods to see the most expensive.
Day5
We started making our way to the target town were were originally travelling to. On our way back, Samara saw a giant bird like creature flying above and carrying an elephant in one of it's talons.
Arrived at evening. Went to a bar and inn. We got set up with rooms, and then a creepy salesman try to do business with us. We shoo'ed him away, and then enjoyed our evening.
Jihan decided to follow the seller, and leave his pack with Samara. The rest of us went to bed and Samara didn't notice the bag and left it in the bar.
Zawar investigated whether or not there was any way to get something out of the clay statues, and then when he couldn't used sense magic to see if there was anything magical. There wasn't. Guttertooth just broke his clay statue open, and found snake bones inside.
Samara decided to try to explore the inn a bit in the middle of the night. She accidentally woke up the inn keeper, and said she just wanted a snack. The noise woke several up, but didn't do anything else.
Jihan followed the merchant to a non-descript house. He saw him leave and followed him to a path the merchant was in red robes with a bag on his head. There were other people naked on the ground. They then declared it begins, several naked people left, and then two other robed individuals started a bon fire. An individual in full black armor showed up and went to the bon fire. Then several of the naked people showed back up with a big fat guy with a pig head on a palanquin. The big fat man heads up to the altar. The group sacrifices a baby, the pig man eats it, and then the cult starts an orgy.
Session 8
Session 8 - 6/22/22
Party regrouped, and they are trying to identify where/what to do now. The the group landed on trying to figure out where the babies from the rituals are coming from. Elim plans to use a hench to assist in this process. Elim sent his hench to go watch the cave with all the goods that we 'found' after the insurance scam.
The party decided to change plans, and went to Ar-Hedar rather than trying to see where the babies came from. On our way to the city of Ar-Hedar we ran into a few individuals, and Zawar noticed that Guttertooth's sword is now magical. It is a Murderers Sword. The town was very small, mainly filled with small mud huts. We arrived at 9 pm, and only have star light, and a few candle lights flickering at the different huts.
We see a baker (Ar-Hedar) about to start baking a loaf of bread. The Ar-Hedar thought we were trying to convert them, but Samara tried to convince him to give us food for the night. He told us he got given this plot of land and would be left alone after the war. Zawar asked about the cult, and we were told they are quite bothersome.
Ar-Hedar set us up in his home and came back with some tea and cups. Ar-Hedar advised that he has stamped out evil cults in the past. We were told that the cult is likely tied to the god of hunger and famine, and might of been brought to this world. The god's name is Rhamoch, lord of hunger, instinct, and indulgence. Laid down for the the evening.
Woke up the next morning to an infant crying. Ar-Hedar thought we were part of the cultist because of this. We talked him off the ledge, but he told us to get the fuck off out of land and to not return. I saw that the bassinet was magical in nature as we walked away.
Zawar cast Apprehending the Arcane Form to identify the sword. The magic weapon was identified as being a murderers blade, and is effective at killing allies. Elim hench saw the group show up at the cave, get pissed, and left. He recognized one of the man as being from the village. We set up and camp for the evening. We awoke to another baby in a bassinet again.
Bassinet that is cursed to create an infant every morning for eternity. It is attached to a single person. The only way for it to move to the next person is for the original cursed individual to die. Someone in the group is now cursed. Dun-dun-duuuun!!!! It was near Elim.
Session 9
7/6/22
Party awoke the next day, and was still attempting to figure out what to do next with the curse that creates babies, and decided we might be able to research the issue at the small church. We are loading up the cart to go back to town.
On the way to town, the baby needed to be fed. We saw some random camels on our way to town, and stopped the cart in order to try to feed it via their milk. While Samara tried to get milk from the camels, part of the tribe came to us to try to provide help. They fed us, and told us they were from the plains-wind tribe. The sheik here is an elf named Elaniar. Guttertooth asked about a tribe healer, named Sofiatu, a halfling.
We stayed with the tribe for dinner. Zawar mentioned that we shouldn't stay the night given the issue Elim is experiencing. Guttertooth and Samra explained to Elaniar the situation that the party is experiencing. Elaniar was not familiar with anything like this, but brought in a Shaman named Taenara. He says you can't trust the faiths of the city people, and that they are fickle. He offered a ritual that the elements might come and cleans the taint of the curse, but there is no promise.
Samra explained the strange tree to the shaman, explained it what it looked like, and showed him the black sap of the tree. The shaman advised that he heard a tale of this, and that it was a ritual place that was desecrated, and taken over by cultist. Has no idea what was being done there, but the tribe involved was named windsmoot. Guttertooth asked about red-rot.
The party is going to try a ritual to cleanse the curse.
The group then went to bed. During the night, the camp attacked the party thinking that they were holding Guttertooth as a slave. They took guttertooth by horse, and surrounded the rest of us. Before the rest of the party got into combat, Zawar created a massive pit to drop the tribe into a hole to stop the encounter. We were kicked out of tribe because of this.
The ritual did not work (yet at least) and a baby formed in the cart at the first light of dawn.
We got to the town, and went to the rectory. Zawar and Samra went to go show the tree tar to someone, and Jihan went to the back library.
Jihan is going to sneak into the artifact room and back library. He found some artifacts and he ended up stealing a few of them. One was a dagger made from a femur, one was a scroll made out of skin, and a coin with a whole moon and a crescent moon.
Zawar and Samra went to the apothecary to ask about the tree sap. She seemed very interested in it, but Zawar saw that the the Eye Neckless she is wearing was magical, and was used for remote viewing. Zawar felt uncomfortable sharing this information with her once he knew that. He demanded the sap back, and left, and Samra followed him shortly there after.
The priest came back with milk, and advised the local warehouse worker has disappeared. His name is Abraham. It was obvious he was taken from it. Samra and Elim were going to lead the the priest away and recount stories. Guttertooth and Zawar wen (missing text in original)
Session 10
Session 10: 7/20/22
The group travelled to meet with the other tribe.
On arrival Guttertooth tried to convince them that we weren't slavers and we were there to discuss the corrupted tree. Samara showed them the sap, and discussed the situation with them. They think they can fix a portion of this, but that they need to be allowed to perform their function.
We learned that the god is being worshipped is an evil god. Samra told them that the black knight is part of the cult, and believed to the the avatar of this god. Zawar mentioned that he wants to get rid of the cult, return the holy lands to the tribes, and prevent these night baby sacrifices. The tribe started arguing that they only need soldiers and they would end it tonight.
We told the tribe about the curse, and they advised they could try to remove it via a ritual. During the ritual, Zawar followed it along a bit closer, to allow him to learn how to replicate the effects of stripping the curse magic from someone.
Jihan provided Zawar the flayed skin scroll. it has a spell written on it. It is a spell that allow you to become almost bee like. it allows you to spew hornets from your mouth, and smell magic by the sense of honey.
The next morning the bassinet showed back up, with 3 babies now. The tribe adopted the kids, and then destroyed the basket. We'll see what happens now.
Guttertooth's disease progressed further.
We headed back to the town, and arrived near midday. Elim meet up with the priest to look into options to deal with the Avatar and Zawar stuck with him. Jihan lead the group to the cultist leader.
The priest advised Zawar and Elim that the cultist broke in and stole the babies. Zawar convinced him that the cultist may be using something tied to the relics in the basement that has gotten them into the Mosques. He asked brother Jefari for access to the relics, and was granted them. The remaining relics are a leather pouch full of teeth, a book, and a incense burner in a lead chest. The book is a method/tests to bind extra planar beings to his will. There is a spell that is within the book that Zawar could learn that makes people hear the screams that are bound to hell. Incense burner is a successful use of sealing extra planar beings. The bag of human teeth that are charred black, but a few of them aren't. They are used to concern things behind the fire. Looking into the other notes. The black knight first appeared when the screaming children first appeared. We took the items and told the priest that we'll be getting rid of these items for him. We also told him that the other items were taken by the cultist, and we would get them back and purge them as well.
During this time Jihan went and bought himself a flask and high quality booze. Jihan went and got a nice flask, and then made his way over to the the inn. Found that the inn keepers wife has gone missing as well. Samra then listened to a story about a dragon destroying a village, and then being slaying and the village saved.
The group meet back up, and then proposed that maybe the Avatar is being maintained by the nightly bloodshed, and thus why the adults have been going missing each night.
Jihan then went to the cult leader to try to convince him to leave town to buy this kind of wine and import it in. He failed to get him to go into business with him, but did succeed in getting him very drunk.
Zawar gave out the magic items, that were found. Then the party moved to set up with tribes men. They planned the culling of the cult. When the cult began to group up, Zawar sent his cat familiar to follow a few of the cultist. When the cat confirmed that they were bringing a captive, the group jumped to action, and attacked the cultist.
A battle insued.
The Nomads helped kill several of the cultist, but lost a few of themselves in the process. The black knight appeared, and turned three of the cultist into viscera monsters. At this point Zawar dropped all the cultist into a hole, killing all the cultist and hurting the viscera monster. Samra encased 2 of the three viscera monsters in webs down in the hole. The battle continued. All the cultist were killed. The black knight evaporated as the rain started, and the cultist leaders tried to use magic to fend us off. Zawar mind controlled the final cultist, and they saved the kidnapped villager.
Jihan looted the dagger from the cultist leader, and Zawar took her looking amulet.
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