The Snake in the Tree (Session 118n)

 SESSION 118n: One Last Thing     (September 2020)

            This key better lead us to the damn sword! It did but not that simply. After a rest and cleanup our hobos elected not to investigate the passageway beyond the skeleton chambers but to back track to the stone trees and give the key a try. General consensus was to not push our luck. 

            The key did work and it opened a secret door into a giant subterranean swamp. How is this even possible? There are trees growing in here!

            FOREST OF THE SNAKE GOD: This enormous chamber appears to be an expanse of swampy forest with water that reached their knees. Surrounded by trees and working through the muck they trekked forward. Near the middle of the room was a swamp water elemental that gleefully attacked our band intent of drowning the lot. This would have been effective if Bunny had not suggested taking doses of water breathing potions prior to entering the swamp just in case. BAH. 

They eventually came upon a huge tree with golden apples in the NE corner of the swamp chamber. Near the foot of the tree is a great, old, rotting tree stump with a large two-handed black sword sticking out of it. The sword in the stump was the blade they have been searching for - Doomcreeper. As the hobos approached Gorloth the Tree God, a humungous four-headed snake, slithered down the tree to protect its prize. Strangely and luckily for the hobos one of Gorloth’s heads hung listless from its body. This fact probably saved our crew from certain death as it was a fire-breathing head that we had not accidentally reactivated. The other three heads were bad enough. The battle was epic and the water breathing again showed to be helpful. Gorloth like the skeleton king before it could not defeat the hobo-horde and failed to mark another notch in the hobo death ledger.

Doomcreeper was cautiously bagged and then the hunt for loot began. Felix however was distracted by the golden fruits above. He elected to climb the mighty tree and take a bite from an apple. “What is the worse that could happen? I’m already a skeleton”. Well the worst did happen. He took a bite and let out a scream befitting a little girl having a tantrum before falling from the tree into the swampy waters below. He began to thrash and scream as he became entombed in swamp muck. First rebuilding his internals and then his skin. Felix had received the worst possible punishment a skeleton could receive he had become a living, breathing and tissue covered being, once again. I’m ALIVE! The remaining apples quickly rotted and fell into the swamp. 

Great, thanks Felix you used up all the magic apples ya jerk.

The rest of the group quickly returned to the task at hand, finding treasure. The treasure that must be here. First we looked inside of Gorloth – nothing there. Then up the tree – nothing here. Then just perhaps laying around the tree or stump – nope not here either. Then Nara came up with an idea, maybe around the surficial roots? Nope nothing around the roots of the stump. I suspect they were very close to walking away but then decided to check under the tree (like actually dig). Paydirt. Another ransom of gems, jewellery and coins. In fact we had more loot than we could possibly carry. There was hand wringing and laments. Then our hobos started to throw away every non-treasure item they could. They eventually crawled out the swamp laden in loot. 

It took much longer than it should have but they did get back to the surface and their impatient client Nap Talfor. Nap was almost drooling when the hobos reappeared, Tell me you have it! For a moment or two there was some thought towards not giving up Doomcreeper but a deal is a deal. The blade was handed over. Nap was very happy— malevolently happy! When he grasped the sword his skin began to turn a pale greenish hue and he started to hideously laugh saying things like, "at last.. AT LAST!" and "I have the Power!". A gust of wind then arose from nowhere engulfing Nap & all his "workers" as they turned to smokey dust and vanished. 

Hmm, that can’t be good.

Nothing we can do about that now.

Nope, might as well get our loot back to Helix.

I need a vacation.

I thought we were on vacation..

 

Here ends ‘Tomb of the Sea Kings’, for better or for (most likely) the future worse.

 

ROLECALL

Bunny the Raconteur (T8) 135372 xp <160001> +10% CRT 1d20/II

            Light wound: permanent loss of pinky finger, off hand

Nara the Nearly Naked Purple Siddha Girl (P6) 37383 xp <66000> +5% CRT 1d8/I

Biff Bartley the Half-Orc Cutthroat (HO5) 22856 <28000> +5% CRT 1d12/II

‘BOB’ the Shadow Dancer (N5) 22216 <22400> +5% CRT 1d14/II

Felix Ignatius Hemlock the Skeletal Criminalist (I6) 21457 <20001> +5% CRT 1d12/II

 

The EXTRAS

Mason the Prefect of Yrrrg. (C5) 21460 <25000> CRT 1d8/III

Charles in Charge the Hero of Colour Commentary (F5) 16581 <16000> +10% CRT 1d14/III

Yasser Imaphat the Djinn (D4) 11621 <9600> CRT 1d6/II

Elapsed Campaign Time

270 days at beginning of session (also applies to recuperation) 

Join us for session One-Hundred-and-Twenty-Two when we get the band back together:

Tale of the Tape

Felix even sucks at being a living skeleton

KILLS

Swamp Elemental (8HD) 1570

Gorloth the Tree God (20HD) 5250

LOOT

• 3 × gems (10gp)
• 5 × gems (50gp)
• 5 × gems (100gp)
• 5 × gems (500gp)
• 2 × gems (1,000gp)
• piece of jewellery (600gp)
• 2 × pieces of jewellery (700gp)
• 3 × pieces of jewellery (800gp)
• 2 × pieces of jewellery (1000gp)
• 4 × pieces of jewellery (1100gp)
• 2 × pieces of jewellery (1200gp)
• 2 × pieces of jewellery (1300gp)
• 3 × pieces of jewellery (1500gp)
• piece of jewellery (1600gp)

·       Value in gp: 27,180

• 40,000gp
• piece of jewellery (600gp)
• piece of jewellery (900gp)
• 3 × pieces of jewellery (1000gp)
• piece of jewellery (1100gp)
• 2 × pieces of jewellery (1200gp)
• piece of jewellery (1300gp)
• piece of jewellery (1400gp)

Value in gp: 50,700