Month: November 2021

Review: Castles & Crusades Gods & Legends, and Of Gods & Monsters

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I will be reviewing two Castles & Crusades books covering gods and pantheons, the now out-of-print Of Gods & Monsters (OG&M) and its recently published replacement Gods & Legends (G&L). I will explain how they are different, how they are similar, and why you might want to get them (OG&M is still available in PDF format).

The gods play a huge role in my C&C campaigns through the abilities they provide their followers (originally inspired by the AD&D 2nd edition concept of specialty priests). When I began my world development using C&C my pantheons made use of the AD&D 2nd edition Legends & Lore book and the powers they bestowed on their followers, as well as the information from OG&M (both books had James Ward as their primary author, so this made sense even if the books were published decades apart). Those books were indispensable in laying out the foundations of my game world (even though I am now beginning to strike out on my own).

Sadly, although OG&M was published in 2012, it has been out-of-print for a while, and even though Troll Lord Games (TLG) had spoken of making a 2nd edition of OG&M years went by and nothing happened. But then, a few months ago G&L suddenly appeared. A lot has changed between the two books and although I really like G&L, I am saddened by the dropped and forgotten material from OG&M. Let me provide some detailed examples.

Of Gods & Monsters:
OG&M lays out 20+ pantheons: Aihrde, American Indian, Aztec, Celtic, Dwarves, Egyptians, Elves, Gnomes, Greek, Halflings, Humanoids (Bugbear, Goblin, Hobgoblin, Orc, etc.), India, Japanese, Norse, and Romans. Each section provides:
1. An introduction to the pantheon
2. Deity entries
3. Magic items each god uses and may bestow upon a follower under unique circumstances (typically 2-3 items per god)
4. Spells (unique to the pantheon, around 10 new spells per pantheon)
5. Bestiary (unique to the pantheon, around 3-6 monsters per pantheon)

It has a great balance between crunch and fluff. I have read other reviews where the reviewers thought the rules were all over the place and some of the spells were clearly not balanced and were too weird. There is some truth to this. Still, some of the spells in this book stand out as being truly unique and I have seen nothing like them in any other source. With this book now out of print and with the spells not appearing in the soon-to-be-published C&C Adventurers Spellbook, these spells are now lost and forgotten unless you get this book as a PDF. Let me give you an example of a couple of the spells.

There is a 6th level gnome spell called Avocado Justice (p.83). “A special banner is created, with a warning…something like, ‘don’t attack us [or] you will be sorry.’ Those who see the banner save versus their wisdom. If they fail…wherever they are standing they are permanently turned into a growing avocado plant.”

I had an NPC gnome illusionist who the PCs met and they saw a nice garden of avocados in front of his cottage. No one else thought anything of it, but I did tell the gnome PC in the group that the plants might once have been intruders who tried to enter his house and steal his magical secrets. I have made this a spell that one of the gnome gods in my pantheon provides those who worship him. It has a truly unique character and just feels like the quirky thing that a gnome might do.

Here is another unique 8th level gnome spell called Mass Eating Rather Than Dying (p.83). “The material component is a dead number of gnomes. On the death of a gnome, during the duration of the spell [1 minute/level], instead of dying, the gnomes find themselves back home in front of a large table filled with food and they have one hit point left. The spell only works during a battle and not from dying of disease or old age. Being accidentally bit by a poisonous snake would clear the poison out of the system of the now comfortably eating at-home gnome.” Again, I think this is a really flavorful spell. I think it would be fantastically cool if as a TPK has occurred – and we lost several gnome characters – for them all to appear back home for one final feast before they die. I can see players trying to abuse a spell like this, but then again, the wording of it allows me as the GM to put restrictions on it if need be. This is also a spell that one of my gnome gods gives to his followers.

Gods & Legends
G&L lays out 27+ pantheons: Aihrde, Dwarf, Elven, Halfling, Gnome, Humanoids (Bugbears, Gnoll, Goblin, Orc, Hobgoblin, Lizardman, Kobold, Giant, Ogre, Troll, etc.), Dragon, Fey, Centaur, Merfolk, Sahuagin, Celtic, Greek, Egyptian, German, Norse, Slavic.

This book has an elaborate introduction by Davis Chenault that provides advice on how you might use the gods in your world. This can be a quite useful section for GMs that want advice and guidance on using gods, alignment, holy symbols, etc.

The rest of the book is made up of the pantheons. Whereas EG&M provided a deity entry, magic items, spells, and a bestiary, this book just provides deities. No magic items. No spells. No bestiary. Just gods. And the format changes depending on the pantheon. Fantasy pantheons (i.e. dwarves and elves) provide background descriptions that are several paragraphs long. Whereas for the human pantheons (i.e. Celt and Norse), it is just a list of deities and powers with no deity descriptions (the Earth pantheons to be found in this book are the ones to be found in the Codex books that TLG publishes, so all the deity information is to be found there).

In my game world the Codex books are core books and there are molfar, seidkona, berserker, and drachentoten found everywhere, so this is not a problem for me since I own and use the codex volumes. However, for GMs that do not have the codex books, you will have a lot of game stat information to use but nothing provided explain or flesh out and add context to the stat dumps and so those without the codex volumes may feel frustrated.

A comparison of the gnome section from OG&M (top) and G&L (bottom)

Final Thoughts
So, where do we stand?

G&L is focused just on deities, pantheons, and guidance on how to use them. The fantasy pantheons are well laid out and provide a lot of information for those that need to drop a fantasy pantheon into their world. The pantheons based on our world, however, are massive stat dumps with no context or narrative support. I will use it as a quick reference, but for detailed information, I will head to the relevant codex books I own. GMs that don’t have them may well feel frustrated by the Earth pantheon sections.

Artwork. As for the fantasy pantheon deities in G&L, although there is a lot of great new black and white artwork. However, some art is also recycled. This can be annoying for those of us with both books that got used to associating specific art pieces with certain gods that James Ward wrote up for OG&M and now seeing them used for completely new gods written up by Davis Chenault for G&L.

OG&M as of this writing is only available as a PDF on DriveThruRPG. What it lacks in more robust write-ups on fantasy pantheons, it makes up for with unique deity-specific magic items, pantheon-specific spells, and culture-specific monsters. If you looked at the rough list of pantheons I mentioned for each of the books above you will notice that a large number of real-world pantheons have been dropped (e.g. America Indian, Aztec, India, Japanese), you now only have real-world pantheons represented if there is a TLG codex book for that culture.

For me, OG&M is just as important as G&L. I think the material they have dropped from OG&M and allowed to remain out of print is a real shame. I have no idea if TLG plans to keep the PDF of OG&M available (I hope they do), but in case they don’t, it might be worthwhile to go take a look at it and use it to add in the missing Earth pantheons and to add magic items, spells, and monsters to each of the pantheons that are missing from G&L. TLG may have intended G&L to replace OG&M, but I think OG&M has a purpose and place, indeed, OG&M will probably remain the main source and reference for my C&C games due to the gods, magic items, spells, and beasts, and G&L will probably function as the supplement to it as I will use it to mostly to just add a few more deities to my current pantheons.

Castles & Crusades Diary: Barrowmaze, Session 87

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Summary:
My players broke the game and all hell broke loose! Cleverly using a spell, a player bypassed two crypts of monsters and directly grabbed the prized items. The guardian elementals (11 8HD and 2 16 HD), and 15 undead (3 wraiths, 6 mummies, 6 rot grub zombies) smashed through the walls to destroy the group! But the priest managed to command ALL the elementals to fall under his command and destroy the undead!

PC’s:
Gnoosh, Gnome Rogue 7/Illusionist 6 of Baravar Cloakshadow
Elfgiva, Elf Archer 3/Cleric 3/Wizard 3 of Sehanine Moonbow
Ria, Human Pacer 5 of Loki
Zen, Human Monk 7 of St. Agathos
Arthur, Human Oathsworn 6 of Celestian
Oswyn, Human Cleric 4 of St. Jasper
Gorgat, Half-Orc Barbarian 7 of Haephestus
Tiberius, Human Cleric 5/Paladin 2 of St. Ingrid
Kyron, Human Cleric 7 of Zuul
Balthazar, Elf Wizard 7 of Arcanus

NPC:
Dhekeon “the Disgraced,” fallen skeletal paladin of St. Justus (seeking redemption)

Game Diary:
When session 86 ended the Army of the Light had cleared out all of the Chaos Sepulcher of Elemental Earth except for the final chamber, where they needed to fight the final earth elemental guardians and grab the skull key needed for the final chamber (they need skull keys for earth, fire, air, and water, to enter and take on the final challenge, and they so far just had the fire key).

Fully rested up from the previous adventure they returned and entered the final earth elemental chamber. Stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere with an altar 80 feet away at the far end. Knowing there were going to be obstacles in the way from having completed the fire chamber (where Roulf used his boots of striding and springing to leap to the altar, grab the skull key, and put the fire elemental guardians on a goose chase him around the room). This time it was Ria who used her winged helmet and swiftly flew through the chamber and grabbed the earth skull. Earth elementals emerged from the walls and floor and Ria darted through the air keeping out of reach.

Meanwhile, the stalagmites and stalactites came to life and the characters learned they were piercers and ropers! The ropers struck Elfgiva, Kyron, Gorgat, and Tiberius, and the poisonous sludge-coated strands drained all of them of half their Strength and pulled them towards its mouth. Although the piercers missed their marks, the battle with the ropers was tough and once they finally destroyed them in their weakened conditions they had to help Ria out with the Earth elementals. Fortunately, there were four clerics in the group and they neutralized the poison from the ropers and restored everyone’s strength. Kyron then cast walk through earth, a special ability his new god Zuul provided him as his specialty priest. He lowered himself into the ground and two earth elementals pursued him. The earth elementals proved challenging and when they struck the characters they hit hard. But they were eventually defeated and people were healed by the four clerics. Spells had been used up in the battle and the group thought it good to leave, rest, and recover, before returning for the next two sepulchers (air and water).

Roper art from the D&D 5E Monster Manual

Then Kyron had an idea. Instead of laboriously going through the Chaos Sepulchers of Elemental Air and Water, why not just use his walk through earth spell (it lasted an hour), head over to the two chambers of Air and Water, move unseen up through the stone altar, grab the skull keys, and head back to the group, bypassing all the undead and monsters that lie in-between!! The group agreed with uncertainty of what to expect. They waited for him as he head off on his own through the earth floor. He proceeded to enter each of the final chambers in these sepulchers, grab the two skull keys, and met the rest of the group back at the main entrance to the Chaos Sepulcher stairway which led out into the Barrowmaze.

It was then that they heard a whistling sound and splashing. Kyron had awakened all the elemental guardians and undead in those two areas with his theft and the group could see from the entrance to the Sepulcher of Air that air elementals were battering down the bricked-up wall that separated them from the group. Likewise, the water elementals were battering at their bricked-up wall and water was beginning to pour through the washed away mortar. Then Gnoosh, with his robe of eyes saw that three wraiths were moving directly through the stone walls toward them (and thus would reach them first).

The clerics prepared their undead attacks and assaulted them as they arrived. Then the air elementals (4 8 HD and 1 16 HD) broke through and they all saw five tornadic columns shoot toward them at super-human speed. Kyron stepped forward and made a Wisdom check to impose his will on them as the first new cleric of the forgotten Chaos God of the Elements – Zuul – in centuries. With his dice roll, modifiers, and level he got 30! I made the challenge level 16 to match the highest hit die elemental – and he succeeded! They stopped and awaited his command. One needs to remember that these Chaos Sepulchers of Earth, Fire, Air, and Water were the resting place of perhaps the last of Zuul’s priesthood. Although these priests and followers had since been corrupted by the Chaos Tablet and the church of Nergal and turned into undead, Kyron now represented the first living priest of this faith in a very long time.

At this point, mighty waves of water descended down the corridor towards the group to “wash” them away into oblivion. Kyron stepped forward and tried to command them to stop as he did to the air elementals – he got another modified result of 30 and they also stopped and awaited his command!!

We had been in slight shock when Kyron use his spell to circumvent the tombs and directly grab the skull keys, but I thought that a solution had been found and now they were going to pay for their ingenuity (or “cheating,” take your pick!), but now with two successful, nearly impossible dice rolls, he now had all the elementals at his command!

Still, although the wraiths were gone, I still had 6 barrow mummies, 6 rot grub zombies, and an amphisbaena. Well, I thought I did. The clerics “turned” undead and as the undead retreated Kyron commanded the elementals to destroy them all. I am afraid that 96 hit dice worth of elementals can take care of some zombies and fleeing barrow mummies!

The session was now at its end, but all the players were high on their successes and decided to game longer and nonchalantly go through the Air and Water sepulcher chambers and collect all the loot. They went to the air elemental area first. It was indeed easy as they saw that the air elementals had “blown” the doors off their hinges and any traps had been triggered and were no longer an issue. They picked up the loot and entered the main chamber where there were still guardians of the air remaining – giant eagles (they had been too large to leave the chamber into the narrower halls, so they had to remain). Kyron was overflowing with success and commanded them to have them join his retinue of elemental followers, but this time he rolled a 1! Ah, but the group had a card from the Deck of Dirty Tricks that allowed a re-roll. He rolled again and…got another 1! Now the giant eagles were pissed off! It was there that I ended the session on a cliffhanger for next week.

We spoke animatedly about this for quite a while afterward as everyone packed up and put on their shoes and coats to leave. This was clearly one of the adventures that will stand out as a highlight of the campaign. They are already speaking about next week and with all the elementals under Kyron’s command of entering the fifth and final chamber and take on the former high priest of Zuul who is now a very powerful undead (Zuul wants him destroyed, for although this elemental priest was once his prized high priest, he is not pleased that he has been corrupted into an undead).

Will the group defeat the giant eagles? Probably. But can they defeat the former high priest of Zuul now that he is a powerful, corrupted, undead with other powerful undead support?

Castles & Crusades Diary: Barrowmaze, Side-Session 86.5

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Summary:
On a side-quest to remove petrification on the wizard Balthazar, a small party from the Army of the Light must do a quest for a mysterious elven wizard, hunt down phase spiders, and then enter the lair of galeb duhr defended by a pet bulette and offer them gems for a favor, but they mustn’t kill or hurt the landshark in any way or the galeb duhr would not help them!

PC’s:
Roulf, Half-Orc Dragonslayer 6 of Crom
Oswyn, Human Cleric 3 of St. Jasper
Zen, Human Mok 7 of St. Agathos
Ria, Human Pacer 5 of Loki
Kyron, Human Cleric 7 of Zuul
Wright Dawnbreaker, Human Paladin 4 of St. Luther

Game Diary:
We had a little side session mid-week to reverse the petrification that occurred to the elven wizard Balthazar in the Barrowmaze fighting a basilisk.

The adventure began with an elven wizard sage and traveler who is rarely in Ironguard Motte seeking the assistance of the Army of the Light. In her travels, Hulda had encountered an evil sorcerer that had made her legs appear as an incorporeal smoke-like substance (even though she can still “feel” herself walk) and she now wears a long dress to cover it up, for if others saw her they might mistake her for an undead. She posited that components from 4 phase spiders might be able to temporarily allow her legs to “phase” back into reality until she can find a longer-term solution. She then stated that if the group would help her, she could help them. They told her about their friend Balthazar, an elven wizard who had been turned into stone when fighting a basilisk in the Barrowmaze. She said that by the time they returned from their adventure for her, she might have found a solution for them. So off they went a days travel to the west to find the phase spiders.

After a brief encounter with small 3 foot tall froglings that tried to ambush the group in the Barrowmoor – and failed! – the group camped and set off the next morning to find the phased spiders. But how does one do so when they can phase in and out of this realm and the ethereal realm?

One observant character noticed that a shrub was leaning in one direction and posited that this might be a sign that an invisible, ethereal web strand was attached to it. Ria and Roulf climbed into trees, Kyron sent his arrowhawk familiar into the sky to look for disturbances, and this allowed them to narrow things down – just as the massive phase spiders shifted into this realm to attack! The cleric Oswyn cast spiritual weapon to fight them from afar at a safer range, as did the cleric Kyron. Zen moved in for close combat but he was covered in web shot at him from a spider on the ground. Roulf and Ria pursued spiders in the trees, but soon web was appearing around them as well. They had to be careful in the way they fought since the components Hulda wanted came from inside their body, so it was important not to damage that, so there were lots of called shots on the spider’s legs, and/or the use of bludgeoning instead of slashing or piercing weapons on the body to avoid cutting or puncturing the parts Hulda needed. This obviously made combat more interesting!

Phase Spider art from the D&D 5E Monster Manual

Eventually Zen was near to breaking out of the web, but then a new web covered him and a companion. Roulf was bit by a spider in a tree and began to suffer from their poison (which would cause him to pass out quickly and then die slowly over several days), sensing he had mere seconds (1 round) before he was going to pass out and fall from the tree, he lept out of it onto the double padding of web below him where two companions were!

The spiders did fall, the clerics neutralized the poison in Roulf’s body, put the spiders on a wagon, and headed back to Ironguard Motte. Back at Hulda’s house, she collected the bodies and put them away for future research. When asked if she had a solution for Balthazar’s petrification, she thought she had a solution. The group would have to travel for a few days west outside of the Duchy of Aerik until they found the torn-up landscape left by a landshark (bulette), there, somewhere underground would be a group of Galeb Duhr. They would have to offer generous amounts of finely cut gems (at least 5,000 gold pieces worth) and then ask for a sample of their sweat and blood. Here was the trick – they would have to pass through the tunnels of a bulette, but they couldn’t hurt it at all, for the galeb duhr would then not help them if their pet was killed!

Galeb Duhr artwork from the D&D 5E Monster Manual

They headed off on their multi-day journey through cloudy skies and heavy rain before putting a boat down on the Merisc river and rowing down the river until they saw uprooted and leaning trees, which were clear signs that they were in the hunting grounds of a landshark! Hoping the heavy downpour of rain would mask their footsteps from the creature that has tremorsense, they eventually found a cave opening. Descending into it they had three directions – left, straight, or right. They chose left and after 20 minutes they entered a large 100-foot diameter chamber lit with some phosphorescent fungus. There were six immense boulders in this room. The party held out their hands filled with gems and respectfully made their request. Several boulders rose from the ground and what appeared to be ridges ended up being eyebrow ridges and a crack in the stone was a mouth. Standing 16 feet high, the deep-voiced and slow-speaking galeb duhr leader engaged in conversation with them.

There was a lot or role playing as the group negotiated with the stone beings, but the role-playing was top-notch and the galeb duhr agreed to provide sweat and blood for the group. This group of the Army of the Light began considering that having galeb duhr as allies could be useful and began working out plans for future visits and gifts of gems. The galeb duhr called their bulette into the room with thunderous vibrations into the ground and minutes later it arrived and they had it sniff the group members and learn their scent so that they would be recognized on a later return. All worked out splendidly!

With all the business completed the group headed back, and after a short encounter with some carnivorous apes, they arrived back in Ironguard Motte and Hulda promised to concoct a solution for Balthazar’s petrification soon with her new components in hand. And that was where the adventure ended.

This was a very fun side adventure. I enjoy designing these side treks that can add new character and sub-plots to the campaign. I was very keen to see how the players got around the bulette challenge. As it happened the weather condition (as always) was determined by me rolling weather dice and we all have to respond to that. When I rolled the “rain” symbol on the weather die, I then rolled another die and got the maximum number, which meant “downpour.” That obviously gave the players an advantage as the entire surface of the land had the sound of the heavy rain hitting, thus muffling the sounds of the characters’ footsteps. Then, when they had to choose which of the three paths to take, they took the one that would lead the furthest from the landshark. So the randomness of the dice and the wise choice of the players in discussion saved them the challenge of how to avoid fighting a trained Landshark pet!

Castles & Crusades Diary: Barrowmaze, Session 86

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Summary:
Gimli (dwarven berserker werewolf) dies as he is swallowed and devoured by a Bag of Devouring! Gnoosh (gnome rogue/illusionist) loses two levels from a wraith, and Wright (human paladin) loses one level from a wraith. Examining a powerful clerical scroll, Kyron (cleric) immediately loses his priestly powers from Charon and converts to Zuul, the forgotten god of Chaotic Elements, and is given a mission!

PC’s:
Gnoosh, Gnome Rogue 7/Illusionist 6 of Baravar Cloakshadow
Llewelyn, Elf Cleric 7/Wizard 6 of Sehanine Moonbow
Rosaline, Half-Elf (elven lineage) Druid 7 of The Daghda
Zen, Human Monk 7 of St. Agathos
Roulf, Half-Orc Dragonslayer 6 of Crom
Edward, Human Bard of St. Cecilia
Gorgat, Half-Orc Barbarian 7 of Haephestus
Tiberius, Human Paladin 3/Cleric 1 of St. Ingrid
Gimli, Dwarf Berserker 7 of Odin
Wright Dawnbreaker, Human Paladin 5 of St. Luther

NPC:
Dhekeon “the Disgraced,” fallen skeletal paladin of St. Justus (seeking redemption)

Game Diary:
We left off last time with the Army of the Light entering the Sepulcher of Elemental Fire. They were hit by a wave of heat which functioned as a heat metal spell on those wearing metal armor, and the heat coming from a pit of lava burned their lungs so much that they were going to feel exhaustion within 10 rounds (effects similar to a slow spell). Several characters had endure elements and resist elements, which would reduce or slow down these effects, but the danger was all around them with lava crabs and lava weirds emerging from the lava pit. The session came to an end as Roulf lept over the lave pit, picked up the prized Skull of Fire Elements and four fire elements began to rise from the lava.

art by javi-ure, Deviant Art.

This session began with four 8 foot tall fire elementals emerging from the lava as well as a 16-foot tall fire elemental which spoke in Roulf direction “that [skull] belongs to ME.” But Roulf has boots of springing and striding and ran and jumped about the chamber always keeping ahead of the massive fire elemental leader. Spellcasters cast head fog to try and blind them, ranged combatants launched their weapons and magic missiles hit their targets. There were some hits by the elementals, but the protective endure and resist elements spells – and Gimli’s immunity to fire thanks to his Berserker Odin’s Fury – kept the group from taking too much damage, and the fire elementals fell.

You know the group did well and had enough resources left, for instead of wanting to head back to Ironguard Motte, they wanted to begin exploring the next sepulcher and chose the Chaos Sepulcher of Earth. It began simply enough with crypts filled with ravenous zombies, green slime, amber mold, ghouls, and ghasts. All proved challenging, but it was encountering four wraiths that left an impact on the group. Gnoosh was able to see them through the walls with his robe of eyes and prepared the group. The wraiths saw him and came in for the attack. He cast a cloak of energy on himself which would give them damage in any attack they did against him, but he himself was struck twice and failed his constitution save from both attacks thus draining him one level of rogue and one from illusionist. Wright was nearby and was also struck and lost a level of paladin before the wraiths were destroyed. It was at this point the group decided it was time to head back to Ironguard Motte and recover! They only had the grand chamber left to enter for the Sepulcher of Elemental Earth, but this would wait until the next session.

Back in town, Gimli wanted to examine a unique bag he had acquired in the previous adventure. Identify said it was a bag of holding, and yet when inanimate objects were put in it he was mostly unable to retrieve them afterward by trying to shake out the contents. So he decided to reach in and grab them. It was at this point something grabbed onto him He fought back with his dwarven strength to resist, but failed and the group members in the living area of their headquarters saw the dwarf get pulled into the bag, heard a gulping sound, and his worg familiar felt their empathic link abruptly end – Gimli had been devoured by some extra-dimensional creature! Gimli, much like Cobalt, the paladin who preceded him in death, had been one of the most well-known figures in the Army of the Light and now all that remained was a memory and stories of what he had done, and what stories will be told of what he did!

One other thing that had been discovered in the Sepulcher of Chaotic Elements was a clerical scroll was worth 10,000gp to the right sage or ecclesiastic labeled “The Doctrine of Zuul.” They discovered earlier that Zuul was an ancient and now forgotten Chaotic god of the Elements. This scroll would outline the teachings and basic tenets of Zuul and his faith. Kyron decided he wanted to read the scroll and after doing so immediately felt a change within himself. Previously a Neutral cleric of Charon, the boatman, he was now stripped of the unique powers that Charon had given him and abruptly became a Chaotic Neutral priest of Zuul – the faith would live again with him, and new powers were bestowed onto him! [It should be noted that in my games I use something equivalent to specialty priest abilities that were found in AD&D 2nd edition and prestige class powers from 3E that are given to everyone based on the god they worship, so Kyron did not simply experience some mundane thing like having a god change, alignment change, and no ability changes; no, he lost several bonus abilities from Charon such as sensing undead, commanding undead, and protection from evil, and instead now receives resistance to elemental spell effects, and can begin casting unique elemental spells found within the C&C book Elemental Spells].

Filled with this new faith, Kyron looked forward to his new spiritual mission, and his first challenge was presented to him by the awakened god Zuul: his former high priest – Zvin Lorktho – had been buried in the Barrowmaze, but the Table of Chaos over time had turned him and his followers into undead. Undead are an abomination to this god of the elements and he told Kyron that he must destroy Lorktho, take his items as his own, and become the new High Priest of Zuul and spread the faith anew! Kyron was pleased!

We return to the Sepulcher of Elemental Earth next session!

Castles & Crusades Diary: Barrowmaze, Session 85

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Summary:
The Army of the Light enters the Chaos Sepulcher of the Elements and battle a spectre named Fecal Nul, golems made of stone and gems, before ending up in a chamber fighting lava crabs, lava weirds, and a variety of fire elementals emerge from a lava pool as the adventure ends on a cliffhanger!

PC’s:
Gnoosh, Gnome Rogue 7/Illusionist 6 of Baravar Cloakshadow
Llewelyn, Elf Cleric 7/Wizard 6 of Sehanine Moonbow
Rosaline, Half-Elf (elven lineage) Druid 7 of The Daghda
Zen, Human Monk 7 of St. Agathos
Roulf, Half-Orc Dragonslayer 6 of Crom
Arthur, Human Oathsworn 6 of Celestian
Gorgat, Half-Orc Barbarian 7 of Haephestus
Tiberius, Human Paladin 3/Cleric 1 of St. Ingrid
Gimli, Dwarf Berserker 7 of Odin
Wright Dawnbreaker, Human Paladin 5 of St. Luther

NPC:
Dhekeon “the Disgraced,” fallen skeletal paladin of St. Justus (seeking redemption)

Game Diary:
In game terms the Army of the Light took several months off to level up, train to pick some Advantages from the Castle Keepers Guide, and wait for winter to pass so that they could head back to the Barrowmaze after winter and the snow had melted.

And so they head back to the Barrowmaze on a bright, sunny, but chilly day during the first week of April, having last visited in mid-December. They made their way through familiar halls noticing that during the intervening months that some previous dead bodies had been removed (or devoured, animated, etc.), and one bricked up wall they had knocked down had been bricked up again.

They finally arrived at the area they were seeking – the Chaos Sepulcher of the Elements. It is bricked up and sealed from the rest of the Barrowmaze, but the group takes out their sledgehammers and breaks it down. The nature-sensitive elves and druid pick up the sounds of whispers in the air. Gnoosh, with his robe of eyes that allows him to see into parallel realms, sees small, invisible, air elementals the size of fingers darting about in the air. Gimli, the dwarf picks up vibrations coming up from the earth. They were clearly entering an area in touch with the core elements of reality (albeit augmented by the force of chaos that has settled so firmly in this area).

They notice that there are five areas. They had previously worked out that four of the areas were associated with the four elements – air, water, fire, and earth. The symbols they analyzed led them in confidence to narrow down water and fire. Since Gimli, their dwarven berserker, was immune to fire when in Odin’s Fury, and Wright had frost brand, they chose to enter the fire elemental area first.

Breaking down that bricked-up wall revealed a corridor with eight doors with four on each side. One-by-one Gnoosh open locks (or the doors got knocked in when he failed) and they fought golems made of stone and gems (collecting some fine treasure from those encounters) and fought Sons of Gaxx (zombie-like creatures with rot grubs squirming inside them). Gnoosh launched a fireball into a room filled with three wights, and a couple of wraiths flashed through a door to drain the heroes, only to be despatched quickly. Gnoosh also has a hat of telepathy, which had provided him with a warning of intelligent creatures (like the wights but not the golems) behind some of the doors, reducing their chance of being surprised, and he soon picked up the thoughts of an insane person who referred to himself as Fecul Nul. Once a slave trader long ago, he had since turned mad as well as into a spectre. Gnoosh could sense his thoughts he passed approached through walls towards them. Then, as it passed through the closest walls Fecul could see Gnoosh and he made eye contact with the gnome and declared his intent to kill the wee illusionist/rogue. Gnoosh warned the group and conjured a protective magical cloak to surround him. Emerging from the walls the group attacked and the mad spectre fell before it could drain the gnome of the elements of life.

Art by Mark Tarisse

From Fecul they gathered an amazing handkerchief that had the capabilities of a bag of holding or a portable hole – but perhaps even more! They also found a skull with vertical waving lines, which the loremasters in the group had worked out represented fire and would provide access to other rooms in the complex.

Skull “keys” that fit into slots that will allow entrance to the fifth and final chamber of the Chaos Sepulcher of the Elements (art from Barrowmaze Complete).

They now arrived at the final double brass doors which undoubtedly led to the chamber of elemental fire (the doors were hot to the touch). They inserted the skull and the door opened. Before them, in a vaulted chamber that was roughly 60 x 90 feet was a pool of lava with an altar at the far end with the Skull of Fire.

Immediately they worked out that the heat in the room was quickly going to cause fatigue and heat exhaustion on those within, and those with metal gear were going to be affected as if under a heat metal spell. Druids and other spellcasters began casting endure elements and resist elements as a way to buy some time for several characters.

At this point, lava crabs began emerging from the lava pool. Gimli summoned Odin’s Fury, and now immune to fire damage, he charged forward. Gimli fought the crabs, and although he was immune to fire, their claws did do damage and one was a critical hit which tore at his magical leather armor and ripped a piece of it away (when my monsters roll crits I use weapon/armor wastage rules).

As the lava crabs were being taken down two pillars of lava rose from the lava pool and transformed into weird lava worms. Dhekeon, an undead immune to conditions like heat fatigue charged forward and fought one lava weird while standing at the edge of the lava pool. The heat in the room was going to cause the effects of a heat metal spell for those heavily armored and Dhekeon in his plate armor began to glow red hot and if he was a normal mortal would’ve begun to suffer from the red-hot metal on his flesh, but he fought on, taking the damage that was being dealt to him.

Although some had stayed back and used ranged weapons to avoid the heat, other characters that had been bolstered against the heat – such as the monk Zen who obviously doesn’t wear armor and doesn’t need to worry about his metal armor and weapons melting – closed in and assisted Gimli and Dhekeon in destroying the lava creatures.

Suddenly two surprising things happened, Roulf used his dragonslayer dexterity (and boots of striding and springing) and rushed into the room and then launched himself over the lava pool in between the lava weirds to where the altar was with the Skull of Fire located on top. He picked it up triumphantly like Indiana Jones picking up the skull in Raiders of the Lost Ark! He turned to see as the lava weirds and lava crabs fall to the adventurer’s several bursts of flames launch into the air from the lava pool and begin to transform into elemental fire creatures.

The battle was not over!

But the gaming session was! And so we ended on a cliffhanger for next week!