Blood, Fire, and Gems

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Last week in Bara-Kraz...

19th of Granite

    The party consists of Eevris the Goliath Ranger, Guts the Half-Orc Barbarian, Celestia the Elven Cleric, and Talus the Half-Elf warlock. The party is heading into the eastern jungles bordering the southern savannah. They've heard rumors of a dead giant and his two-handed sword- Guts is chomping at the bit to retrieve it. They stop to make a purchase of mostly rations but Guts decides to purchase a dog: quickly named Doggo. Doggo is not very keen on its new owners and seems skittish.

    They opt to go around the Red Rocks to the East, not keen on risking run ins with gnolls and also recognizing that it would take them further out of the way to the jungle. While making camp on the edge of the savannah, Eevris and Celestia see smoke plumes in the far southwest. They think nothing of it and sleep soundly, Guts tries to cuddle with Doggo but their newest party member isn't having it.

    The next morning they trek into the savannah. Two days of uneventful trudging through the scorching heat passes until they glimpse the jungle tree line. The party collectively notice that it seems like something is glinting above the jungle canopy. When they reach the treeline. Eevris covers their approach with her longbow and then they slip into the jungle.

    Eevris searches the jungle for clues about the giant they're tracking. She is rewarded with a lot of it: titanic footprints, knocked over trees, and other such signs...everything points to them dealing with something much larger than a giant.

    Cautiously they follow the trail through the jungle until they come upon an immense skeleton. The bones are daubed in flaky crimson and the ground around the bones is sodden with blood. A deep pit plunges into the earth and the bottom is filled by normal-sized bones. At the lower levels it looks like the pit is spanned by a rope bridge. Through the skeleton's ribs pierces a sword taller than the tree tops. From the jungle floor the party can see that the glinting they witnessed earlier is actually a massive gem in the sword pommel. As they continue their investigation, Talus discovers a very poorly hidden trap door under the skull. The wood is spongey with blood, and after some cautious prodding the party opens it and descends packed dirt stairs.

    At the bottom are three blood covered and bare skinned primitive humans wielding stone weapons. Despite Guts tries to communicate and a melee ensues. Amongst the clash of arms, mist of blood poofs into the room and along with it a figured armed with a wicked axe and clad in armor the color of spilt gore. A previously unseen bone pillar, one of four in the corners of the room, begins to glow with the newcomers arrival. The party can feel their strength being sapped away as a result of this foul magic. 

Focusing their efforts to quickly dispatch the primitive humans, the armored figure poofs away before the party can turn their attentions towards it. Celestia and Guts destroy the glowing bone pillar while the rest explore the room, noticing a bone chest next to a wood and bone door on the west side of the room. Talus carefully opens the chest while Guts and Eevris knock down the door.

    In the other room, 3 prisoners hang from their hands by chains attached to the ceiling. Talus discovers various random belongings but also finds a black leather whip, when he calls Guts over to investigate it- they hear the rapidly approaching sound of feet from the stairway on the east side of the first room.

    Guts scoops up the whip using a sack as a glove then sprints over to the stairs to ready an attack, Eevris takes up a firing position in the center of the room, Celestia stays with the prisoners in the other room, and Talus takes up position near Eevris.

    Savage humans stream from the stairway. The initial few are cut down and it seems like they have a handle on the situation until that armored figure teleports back in. Another bone pillar begins to give off a crimson glow and Eevris, who has been battered in the fight, feels her blood streaming thickly from her eyes, nose, and mouth. She collapses, bleeding out amongst the corpses of their foes.

    Talus, Guts, and Celestia all have their hands full and aren't able to help Eevris as she struggles. She sis unsure and woozy, garnering the attention of the armored figure. It towers over her and seems to scoff in contempt before felling Eevris with it's axe. Her guts spill out on the floor to the horror of her comrades.

    Talus tells Guts to throw him the backpack with the whip in it. He catches the bag and pulls the whip out, viciously cracking it at their surviving foes. At the same time a man, one of the prisoners, pushes past Celestia and charges into the fray. Through their efforts the party fights off the savages, flees the site, and makes camp on the Savannah for the night.

    As they prepare for rest and the journey back to Bara-Kraz, Guts has a gleam in his eye. He won't leave empty-handed. He wants to go back tomorrow for the massive gem in the sword pommel. Though Geremiah, their new party member, is fearful of returning to that hellhole he respects Guts' lust for treasure- he's a pirate.

    The party executes a high octane heist to pry the gem free and a wildfire is started to cover their escape. Just in case, at their campsite that night they bury the gem. Their prudence is rewarded as a party of savages attack in the night. They light another fire to cover their flight back to Bara-Kraz.

    Amongst oaths to recover the gem on their next adventure, the party walk into the city to discover that it was hit by another earthquake. This time, there are casualties and the Church of Grungni is taking to the streets. They believe that the quakes are a result of Lord Cholgan's inaction in pursuing the cleansing of shrines within Ormstone Mine.

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It was a really great session that felt exactly how I like DnD to feel.

    Next session my players will be heading back to the buried gem and then Elrin wants to try to go to an ancient Elven barrow he's heard about. The actions of the party in setting fire to parts of the Savannah and jungle as well as contributing to the sacrifices of the blood cult may not make it easy for the PCs to retrieve the gem as there are other denizens of the savannah whose lives their actions have effected.

Until next time!