Goodman Games

Toby to Qort: I think it's something much stranger than that...

Toby reaches over and swipes the (unlit) torch from Kelven. "Hey! You've got your own torch!" Shouts the craven Kelven.

Toby pitches the torch into the "airless" section on the ring...

Being almost as unfamiliar with crossbows as with ray-guns, Nurzual puts the gun in his backpack for now.

All three of my characters will examine the ship. Qort had a lead on the other two ... if he's found a way aboard, he'll be looking around while they're still approaching. If he's not found an entrance, Nurzual will approach him and say, "Good sir healer, our new ... allies have given me this fruit from the prisoner's plant. What do you make of it? Could it really sustain life as he claimed?"

Sorry for not updating. I was having some "academic difficulties" that led to me dropping out of my major (and hopefully picking up another one). Expect more Dungeon Crawling tonight.

Life always comes first! Sorry about your school woes. I hope the major switch works out for the best!

Bilgewriggler wrote:Life always comes first! Sorry about your school woes. I hope the major switch works out for the best!

Seconding all of that!

Since I remembered I could subscribe to this topic, I just wait for something new to go up and come by to check it out. Delays are not a worry!

Best of luck dual-classing into the new major, TG! Think of the next phase as your prestige class!

Whenever we pick back up, just consider Arvis to be attempting to board the ship and Beega staring fascinated into the star-ring (but no closer than anyone else- yet!)

Sorry about that. Life is crazy.

Next Turn

Since Fenris asked about the orientation of the ship, consider it to be "face up" coming out of the ground, with the castle halfway underground. There is a light coming from above the ship, perhaps from the surface. The dragon ornament travels up to this light. The ship is rotting and pieces of it have disappeared or decayed and collapsed.

Arvis is able to board the ship. The deck is mostly clear, with the ropes needed to use the sails long since disintegrated. The door to the castle is gone.

Nurzual, Qort, and Brandybland are able to board the ship as well.

Breega hears the electrical humming of the pedestal. The party's attempts to throw stuff into the stars seem to have been fruitless. There must be another way to activate it (assuming that is a good idea!)

Blackthorn and Duke are not able to find any secret passages in the cavern itself. They are able to board the ship if they choose to do so.

As party members continue to board the ship, a rumbling comes from inside the castle.

What will you do?

Duke and Blackthorn board the ship out if fear of the effects of the wake of an airship on their immediate surroundings.

If the rumbling sounds like machinery, my characters will investigate. If it sounds like a large creature growling, or a stampede of some kind, they’ll ready their weapons.

Arvis draws his dagger and moves slowly toward the castle door. Below, Beega tenuously places a foot upon the pedastal of the star-ring. The stars are so close he could almost reach them...and yet....

My four zeroes get up on the edge of the deck, weapons drawn, ready for something feral and dangerous to spring out of the castle...

Next Turn
As Beega places a foot on the pedestal, he disappears from the room. Beega finds himself standing among the stars, a giant of titanic size. Before you lies a planet with purple skies, orbiting a sickly, green sun. As your attention wanders, the planet seems to shift slightly. You feel an electrical charge moving up your spine; you are aware that you cannot stand on this pedestal for long before it loses its potency.

For those aboard the ship, you find the dark glimmer of the cave replaced by the starry void of space. The ship spins slowly, adrift. The massive Beega seems unaware of the tiny speck that now orbits the Purple Planet. The rotting ship begins to level, and it becomes possible to walk across the deck with some degree of normalcy. The noises coming from the castle seem mechanical.

What will you do?

Toby, Havarth, and Lucius step down from the railing onto the deck.

Kelven pinwheels his arms, about to slip off the edge of the ship, but Toby reluctantly grabs him by the shirt front and pulls him to the deck at the last minute.

Lucius looks for a wheel to steer by and makes for it. If he can, he'll try to steady the ship from drifting and see if he can guide it...

TerraGoetia wrote:As Beega places a foot on the pedestal, he disappears from the room. Beega finds himself standing among the stars, a giant of titanic size. Before you lies a planet with purple skies, orbiting a sickly, green sun. As your attention wanders, the planet seems to shift slightly. You feel an electrical charge moving up your spine; you are aware that you cannot stand on this pedestal for long before it loses its potency.

For those aboard the ship, you find the dark glimmer of the cave replaced by the starry void of space. The ship spins slowly, adrift. The massive Beega seems unaware of the tiny speck that now orbits the Purple Planet. The rotting ship begins to level, and it becomes possible to walk across the deck with some degree of normalcy. The noises coming from the castle seem mechanical.

Well... I didn't see THAT coming! Can Beega interact with the stars at all? If he thinks he can, he reaches toward the nearest celestial object, if not he loses his nerve after a couple seconds and steps back.

Can Arvis (and the party) see Beega? If so, he calls to him, if not Arvis will check out the castle and the machinery, daggers out.

Nurzual hands the death-plant fruit to Qort.

Nurzual: Here, good healer. See if you can determine whether this fruit has any medicinal properties, or if it's poisonous to our kind. Meantime, I'm going to see what that rumbling machinery is. If it's scrutable, perhaps we can find a way to control it. And if it's about to explode, being closer will at least make the agony of death a bit quicker.

Brandybland: This situation seems a bit narrow in the toe to me.

Qort sniffs and peers at the fruit as the other two go into the castle.

Duke wonders how long this rotting old ship will survive in this environment. Blackthorn, let's retreat to the castle and see if things feel safer in there They cautiously make their way into the structure

Next Round

Blackthorn, Duke, Nurzual, and Brandybland head into the castle. It's nearly pitch-black, aside from the dim starlight pouring in the entrance. It looks like it would have once been a fortress, but most of the hallways and stairwells are rubble-filled. There is one large archway that leads further in, blocked by a large metal door. Behind that comes the mechanical sounds.

Lucius isn't able to find a wheel. It looks like the ship isn't controlled by ordinary means.

In the middle of the castle's main chamber is an impression, roughly the size of the pedestal.

Beega reaches towards the nearest star--the sick green sun of the Purple Planet. As he does, the entire scene seems to shift; Beega and the ship move closer to the star. Its soul-draining light burns on those crew members who are on the deck (-1 stamina to anyone on the deck while under the intensity of the green sun).

A spacefaring creature comes close to examine the ship. Arvis's calls to Beega seem to catch its attention. It is roughly six feet in diameter and looks like this:


It lets out an unearthly groan as arcane power charges in its eye.

What will you do?

Qort squawks in fear and throws the fruit at the creature. He rolls a 19 to hit! +1 if his agility is still boosted would make 20.

Unaware of the encounter on deck, Nurzual and Brandybland move to the door and see if they can open it. If Duke doesn't already have her torch out, Nurzual says, "As dim as it is in here, we might do well to strike a light ..."

Yikes! Is that Stamina damage permanent or temporary, by chance? Also, if Beega can see the creature, he strikes at it with a spear:
Beega atk: (12-2)=10
If Beega is unaware of it, he steps back off the pedestal, startled by the sudden movement (I rolled odds/evens whether he'd do this)
Arvis flees the sickly green rays and Floating Eye of Death, seeking solace in the castle.

Toby and Kelven are sickened under the green rays and stagger on the deck when hit by the light. (Both of them are down 1 hp for the duration.)

Kelven, seeing the weird eyeball beast, falls to his knees and begs it for mercy, showing his truest colors yet!

Havarth readies to throw his glaive if the giant eyeball seems hostile.

Lucius continues to race about, getting to know the ship and what is on it yet undiscovered...

Fenris Ulfhamr wrote:Is that Stamina damage permanent or temporary...?

Methinks 'tis only while in proximity to the green sun.

I need to add that after throwing the fruit, Qort will also stagger toward the nearest cover, as he's down to 5 Stamina and 1 hit point now.

If there is anything of Dukes torch left she rekindled it with her flint and steel.

Blackthorn posits we have to find a way to good this thing somehow, let's check out that impression in the floor

They make their way cautiously towards it, time and light permitting.

Ahh, I forgot to point something out:

The last quality of the mushroom milk that Qort drank: He is immune (for the duration) to the weird sun's damaging rays.

Everyone else who took sun damage has it until they are able to rest outside of the sun's influence.

I'll have a map of the ship drawn up soon; this isn't part of the module as-written, so I have no convenient pictures to fall back on!

Picture is too large to post, please click this link to see what you've found on the ship and inside the castle:
https://i.imgur.com/lAi2IJt.jpg