Episode 3: To stealth or not to stealth

In case you haven't figured this out, this is a new game. Sort of. Some long time readers may recognize some of the characters. I've rejoined the game recently and started a new blog thread since I am playing a different character. So, let's properly introduce the gang:

Malek, Tiefling Eldritch Archer, channeling magic via arrows from afar

Thonk, Orc "alternative minded" Wizard

Lutor, Minotaur Cleric fond of protection, when provoked becomes intimidating

Viktor, the boisterous, slightly crazy, Gray Dwarf Fighter

Jack, a Tabaxi Bard with a penchant for storytelling

Selene, a Tabaxi Sorcerer fond of observing the world

When last we left this party we had killed off two very pissed of extraordinarily strong primates. And then kind of eyeballed each other, the Tabaxis on one side and the other 4 on the other. But after some careful introductions we realized we're on the same mission from the Talons.

So we decide to go into the caves, and Selene is taking point. She's stealthy. The rest of the party is not. Well, Jack is, but he's not going to take point. And stealth may be useless in general with this group.

Exploring the main room we see a destroyed laboratory. Puddles of unknown fluids everywhere in various hues, busted glass everywhere, destroyed furniture. Not much of interest in here just a whole lot of destruction.

But we do happen to notice some prints in the bright red hued liquid that leads to a wall, so we look up and notice an opening about 15' in the air. Sort of balcony/loft like. So Thonk walks up and grabs a dead spider out of his pouch and squishes it between his hands, which casts Spider Climb. For him. The Tabaxi are staring at him like what on earth. Malek decides to actually cast Spider Climb on him for fun.

Anyway, he climbs up the wall to the balcony and drops a rope down to assist anyone else that wants to climb up. Viktor just brute force climbs up the wall without the rope, so Thonk dropped the rope to the ground below.

Up on the balcony they sort of look around then poke their head around the corner of the opening to find a little nook/alcove. It's completely unoccupied except for a chest. Thonk, being Thonk, detects traps by picking the thing up and carrying it out. He then walks down the wall with the chest and sets it down and offers to open it.

The rest of us decide to proceed with a little more caution and check the lock for traps/open it via the lock. Turns out Malek can pick locks, and inside we find 6 potions. Only one of which was immediately identifiable as Invisibility though, so Malek handed it to Selene. We decided to work on identifying the rest later, so we packed up the rest of the vials and resumed exploring.

Going down the tunnel we came to a set of double doors, partially open, with a glow of light beyond. Selene slipped through to silently see if there was anything beyond the doors, then signaled the rest to come forward.

Which created a ton of noise as they grabbed the doors and pulled them open. So. Not sure stealth is the right approach for this party lol.

Beyond the double doors there's a hall that appears to open into a space before hitting some stairs, but there's a purple haze in front of the stairs. There's also two openings on the left and right before the main opening.

The left and right openings turned out to be small rooms with ladders down. There were also crudely constructed signs in the hall. The left hand room had a skull and crossbones, the right hand room had a dragon head. This, naturally, launched Jack into a long-winded tale about some pirate.

Stealth, not our strong suit.

Thonk decides to use his spider climb spell to climb down the skull and crossbones ladder to find a room full of literal bones.

Viktor explored the dragon skull ladder to find a room with a statue in it.

So we continued down the hall to the larger opening, to find another room. This room was a bit larger and weirdly had a sundial in it. We're in a cave, there's no sun. But there's a sundial in the center of the room surrounded by 8 statues of ladies with bowls in their hands. In the bowls appears to be lantern oil. They are all oriented to face the sundial. They appear to be representative of half-elves, and Viktor declares them to not be dwarf constructed. He also states that the sun dial appears to be pointing north.

Between the room and the staircase is a purple haze, blocking the stairs, but there's a left and right hallway that is not blocked. Thonk decides to cast detect magic on the haze ... by throwing a handful of corn starch on the haze.

So the party decides to explore the left hall. Turning left there's a short hall then another left with 4 openings. The openings led to 4 different apparent burial chambers. There's a crypt in each room with different orientations and decor/paraphernalia presumably significant to whomever occupies the crypts. The thankfully still sealed crypts.

Though why a Beholder nomming on the crypt would be significant of the crypt is a bit disturbing.

Repeating this process on the right hand hallway we find 4 more burial chambers, similar layout/vibe.

Selene sets to work documenting all this information, and apparently so does Jack. Malek and Viktor start poking about the statue room trying to figure out the puzzle. Viktor lights the fluid in one of the bowls, and it catches fire then goes back out fairly quickly.

So someone thought maybe lighting the bowls in the pattern laid out by the strange orientation of the various crypts would work. So Viktor tried it. Made it to the second bowl and there was this explosion of fire. So, that wasn't successful.

And that's where this session ended! More soon.