Enter the Sky: Cloud Kingdom Chaos (Day 3)

The lust for power and wealth outweighed half the party’s common decency. While Al, Thor, Thirian and Korathank tried to sing a dwarrow funeral dirge for the honored dead, Ferran hacked open the large chest, while Hadarai smashed a barrel against the wall. Wolf perused the books on the shelves, while Korathank held back, trying to urge patience to her more excitable comrades before deciding to join in the prayer.

Of course the unquiet dead were enraged at those who would not only disturb their rest, but their actual funerals! Whiskey burst from the broken cask, along with the festering ghost of a maggot riddled dwarrowknight.

Apologies and joining in the funeral service apeased some of the ghosts, but the ancestors did not make it easy. The suddenly frigid air froze the lungs (Con save) of some.

Enough of our heroes managed to finish the dirge that the spirits were able to find peace. The ghost of the dwarrow chief even bequeathed his armor and blade to Thor in gratitude.

This is also the day we began learning to paint miniatures. We used a selection of reaper paints and learned how to add a base layer, and for campers ready for more advanced techniques, got to talk about washes, glazes and dry brushing.

Constructing and using a wet palette is one of the most important parts of this curriculum. Being able to keep color blends fresh is a valuable skill.

Waiting between layers of paint isn’t always easy for every kid, but luckily there’s a lot of in character near death experiences to keep them distracted.

Behind the book cases a secret room is revealed, with a gate key set into the wall, a puzzle meant to be opened by the intitated… unfortunately the books were mostly destroyed in the struggle with the ghosts. When Wolf tried to activate it, everyone in the treasure room was frozen inside a block of ice.

Wolf was trapped in the secret room with the puzzle. Korathank and Ferran were trapped outside of the cave on the cliff face. Everyone else suffered the torments of the uninitiated as several wrong sequences of gemstone keys were tested.

This puzzle was improvised based on the gem stones that were rolled for treasure after the ancestor spirits had been appeased and Thorin had agreed to be the blood protector of the mountain, and was welcomed into the clan of the dwarrow they had respectfully buried. One of the chests contained 2D6 gemstones worth 750 gp each. I rolled 4, so I made them elementally themed in my description of how they were carved. Then when it came time for the puzzle to open the way forwards into the cloud kingdoms, I thought it would be more fun to work with what I rolled randomly to have in the cave.

I figured each gemstone rod would fit into a slot and that it would have an effect on the runes chiseled into the heart of the mountain above the key slot. When the ruby was put into the first slot, for example, flames would dance from the runes. sapphire in the second slot would then weep hot tears. diamond in the third slot freezes those tears to ice. (as noted in the left hand column) When the fourth stone was inserted, a horrible effect befell those trapped in the treasure room based on the elementally themed logic of the inputs.

In the first example. We start with Ruby (fire), which is then quenched with Sapphire (water), which is then cooled by Diamond (air), which is then made solid by Emerald (earth), thus freezing everyone in the room in a solid block of ice.

In the second example, Ruby (fire) and Sapphire (water) went the same, but Emerald (earth) was made more fluid and loose, but then dominated by it’s opposing element (air), which reversed the gravity in the room, forcing wolf to climb from the ceiling and hold the gemstone rods in their key slots by force.

When at last they had survived a high speed electrified whirlpool of melted ice, which thembecame an electric whirlwind,which became a shocking storm of steam, they found the correct combination (in order by alchemical density, starting with earth because it’s a dwarrow temple).

As they made their way from the temple to the mountaintop, our heroes faced the guardians of the peak, another form of creatures who had once already tested their mettle.

One by one as they meet with the towering beast standing before the now shimmer quartz monolith that dwarfs even the huge Elder Wolf.

Yet, not all went smoothly. Korathank the Paladin stated proudly that his master Cthulhu had sent him on this quest. The Elder Wolf was not pleased.

Meanwhile, Al was furiously recording all the various permutations and runes to be found in the tomb and the traps to be found there. Ferran stuck around to steal the gemstone rods before making an escape.

The Elder Wolf had no patience, but (with a Natural 1 on a check against Korathank’s ridiculous Persuasion check claiming Cthulhu was an okay guy) chose to grab for Ferran first. While the guardian pulled Al and Ferran up through the stone itself, Korathank dove through the rapidly closing crystalline portal.

While Al was answering the guardian’s question as to why he sought passage. (Curiosity, of course! I’ve never been there, so I’m going.) Ferran snuck through the portal. When they arrived on the other side, Korathank and Ferran both found themselves under terrible curses, as the granite that covered the crystal slowly burrowed it’s way into their bodies. (Cursed: disadvantage on Dex checks and saves for Korathank, Con for Ferran)

Now that our heroes have made their way into the cloud kingdoms proper, will they be able to reach the source of the trouble in time? or even survive the journey?

We’ll let the dice decide in:
Cloud Giant’s Gate, Dungeon Camp (day 4)