by shiva666

My regular group became strangers so...🤔 Players?

by MonkeysWithFire

by TrishaGold

🧑‍🚀
This is a story about a ship.

Each of you has been a crew member on it for years. Each of you has sacrificed to keep it running. You each have countless memories aboard your ship, some of which you may relive shortly.

You fly a colony ship called The Promise, on your way to find a new home.

Whether it’s your pasts catching up to you, a war you're caught in the middle of, or just good old fashioned wear-and-tear doing its slow, destructive work, this much is true: your ship is in danger. Will you put your life on the line to save it?

Let's find out by discovering who you are in this corner of the universe.
🚀

by JohnDevlin

Added in a bunch of characters of each individual race to the game there crap but hopefully people can do them better

by Jay_D

Related Item: Too Many Games!!!

Love this!!!
Erm... I mean BRAAAAAAINS 🧟 🧟 🧟 🧟

by Gorlab

An item RPG Item: Forgotten Gods has been added to the geeklist [Chars] Dark Heresy 2ed - Dark Pursuits by Ryber

by AB2014solo

Related Item: Daggerheart

I hope that's not an expression of fear. Fear causes anger, anger causes hate and hate leads to the Dark Side.... 🙃

by Lux_Bux

Related Item: RPGG News

Have a very happy Birthday, Chris! 🎂🍺🍔

by Donogh

Related Item: Oceania 2084

Hit all 6 games from my list at the start of the year! (strange, but it's been a while since that's happened)
Two more on the books (maybe 3 if I do a solo game when things get quiet...)

by Againsto

Related Item: RPGG News

Huzzah!

by Derang3d

5) Which movie would you suggest for a children's (5-10) scary movie marathon? And which for teens (10-18)?

Doesn't have to be from the movies you've actually watched - but perhaps the funner option would be picking one set from what you've watched and one set freely, for four movies total :).

by Red Wine Pie

Dramatis Personae:
Eric - The Gamemaster
Matt - Dr. Iris von Disdain the High Elven Cleric of the Life Domain
Susan - Drakar Vexborn the Dragonborn Warlock Pact of the Tome
David - Hadrian the Human Warrior Champion
John - Lycara the Tiefling Paladin Oath of Devotion
Peter - Teslen the Lightfoot Halfling Bard School of Lore (Remote)
Callum - Thargrim ‘Tar’ Ironbraid the Dwarf Duellist Warrior Battle Master (Remote)

Further adventures in a short session on Level 14 of the Mad Mage’s Dungeon.

[hr]
One arrow hits Iris in the next volley, doing more physical and poison damage. The boss moves down to attack Lycara, but can’t break through her armour. One arrow also hits Lycara from the western part of the battlefield. Tar rushes up to the boss, landing five blows and making the hobgoblin drop his great axe. Hadrian has a few hobgoblins around him, as he tries to fight his way towards the unarmed boss. Iris reaches the boss first, rolling a solid blow with a Divine Smite behind it. The boss falls, as the water elemental flows about ineffectually. Lycara hits but doesn’t kill one of the bowmen, but Teslen finishes that one off with his poison spray. Drakar moves behind Hadrian for cover, and makes a solid hit with her Eldritch Blow. The hobgoblin is knocked back towards the screeching gas spore, but he manages to recover without hitting the spiky fungus. Tar reaches the same hobgoblin and smacks him backwards again. This time the hobgoblin can’t avoid the gas spore, and it detonates with a loud pop. Spikes fly out of the passage but don’t reach Tar. There are just two hobgoblins left, and Hadrian picks his way through the bodies to finish off the last two with solid blows. The heroes gather themselves together and plan which room to explore next. The battlefield falls silent, except for the quiet gurgling of the ineffectual water elemental… [hr]

Still feeling the buzz of combat, the heroes want to check all the doors off this wide passageway. Teslen checks the double doors at the western end of the southern wall. The halfling can’t hear anything, and he is sure the doors are safe to open. He manages to push one of the doors open, revealing a wide corridor that leads south to a bedroom. A large four-poster bed with canopies is set in the eastern side of the room. An iron chest stands at the foot of the bed, in the centre of the room. West of the chest is a large animal skin rug. Looking closer, Teslen can see that the animal is an impressive owlbear. The southern end of the room has a black curtain drawn across the room on an angle. As Drakar begins to use her Detect Magic ability, Iris marches into the room and says she will take over Teslen’s role in checking and opening the chest. Iris doesn’t find any traps, and notices that there is even an iron key in the lock of the chest. The cleric gives the key a turn, and flips open the lid of the chest. A flash of reflected light from the inside lid catches Iris’ attention, and she drops the lid back in surprise as she feels a magic effect attacking her. The rest of the party look on, shouting at Iris as she stands silently in place in front of the chest. Drakar and Iris quickly try and decide what magic to use on the restrained and slowly petrifying Cleric. Drakar prepares and casts Dispel Magic at a higher level, and this is just enough to break the transmutation magic. Iris has been fighting silently against the spell, but was just at the point of turning to stone when the spell is finally cast. She warns everyone about the mirror in the lid of the chest, and the heroes consider what to do about it, and all the other items in this guest room.

Drakar checks over the large bed and the rug, but there is nothing of interest except for the size of the owlbear. Turning to the curtain, the warlock detects another source of transmutation magic about ten feet beyond the curtain. Iris considers the material of the curtain, and thinks it is fairly new and of decent quality, but not particularly valuable. Teslen pulls the western end of the curtain aside, and peers in to see a stone statue of a blank-faced humanoid against the far wall. A single leather armchair and a crystal decanter on a small table sit facing the statue. Drakar follows Teslen’s lead and detects the magic as coming from the unusual statue. No-one goes too close to the statue, but everyone agrees that it looks like an amalgam of many different people and races. The chair and table are not particularly valuable, but the crystal decanter could be worth 250gp, if the heroes can find a way to recover it without the decanter shattering. They decide to leave it behind in the end. The heroes can’t quite tell what the magic on the statue means, but they wonder if this is a person affected by the chest trap, even though their features are so indistinct. In the end they decide to cast Dispel Magic, rather than Greater Restoration on the statue. Drakar makes a successful casting, and the magical effect on the statue disappears. Nothing else changes in the features or in any other way that the heroes can see. A puzzle the heroes may never figure out.

Teslen returns to the chest, and gets everyone to stand behind it as he uses Mage Hand to flip open the lid. The heroes cover over the mirror with dark cloth they have to hand. The mirror is fixed to the top of the chest. Iris covers the mirror and turns the chest upside down, attempting to shake out the contents. Then Hadrian has the idea of using the mirror as an offensive weapon. He uses his axe Hew to chop off the chest’s hinges, then gets help from the others to make a bag from the curtain to safely carry the mirror. At this point, the heroes realise they are still wounded from the battle against the hobgoblins, and after some healing from Iris they take a short rest in the guest room to regain their health.


How Hadrian wants the petrifying mirror to work

Across from this room are two single doors. Teslen goes to listen at the one straight across the passageway. There is nothing to be heard, and the door is untrapped by Teslen’s reckoning. Iris uses her wand of enemy detection, and finds there’s no-one opposed to the party within sixty feet. He tries the door, but it is too heavy for the halfling. It takes two of the heroes working together to push the door open. Teslen can see a short corridor leading into a domed circular chamber with a number of narrow alcoves built into it. A single shiny metal covers all the walls and floor. Iris decides to wear her purple pirate hat, and pull on her rubber boots before creeping down to the end of the passage. Looking into the round chamber, the elven Cleric sees a total of seven alcoves, with a letter-shaped indentation between the alcoves. Each alcove has a shining light in the ceiling, as does the central dome. Drakar joins Iris, and detects abjuration magic within each of the alcoves. She writes down the symbols shown between each of the alcoves, and finally realises that the heroes were given a mithral key that looks just like one of the symbols. The Y-shaped key given to the party by Alussiarr fits exactly into one of the indentations. The party remembers the Magic Man talking about a powerful weapon that needed six keys to activate. Drakar clicks the key into place, but nothing happens, and nothing changes in the magical detection of the room. The other letter shapes that the heroes are yet to find are a J, an F, a U, a V and an H with a missing top vertical stalk. The heroes take back the Y-key and leave the room. A quick check in the next room to the west confirms that there was only one gas spore, which died when the hobgoblin was hurled into it. The corridor beyond that room leads back to the warlord’s room. The heroes turn back to the east, and go to investigate the double doors a hundred feet north on the east wall. Teslen walks warily up towards the pillars that guard the double doors. Carved on the pillars are hundreds of lidless eyes that cover the entire surface, and look in every direction. Drakar finds no magic, and Teslen decides it is trap free. Drakar uses mage hand to poke several of the eyes, but there is no reaction from either pillar. The bard can hear nothing through the door. Tar and Hadrian take a door each, and push them open with ease. Ten feet past the door, a flight of stairs leads down to the limits of the heroes’ darkvision. Everyone takes a look down the stairway, but there is nothing to be seen here without venturing further into the dark. Iris drops a copper coin down the stairs, and hears it disappear into the gloom without hitting or triggering anything on the way. Drakar detects nothing magical down into the dark. The heroes shut the doors and head north.

Marwin the flumph told the heroes about the room with the mindflayer, which is the next chamber to the north. This creature was an apprentice of Arcturia’s, before she removed his head. Teslen sees the double doors into this room as the main passage bends north-west and then west. Teslen listens with great concentration at the doors, and thinks he can hear the sounds of people moving about and leafing through books. He doesn't find any traps, so signals for Hadrian and Tar to push open the doors and ready for what is inside. Drakar doesn’t detect any magic around the door. The two warriors push open the doors to reveal a crowded chamber, thirty feet long by forty feet wide. A large table stands in the centre of the room, covered in alchemical paraphernalia and a slumped, headless body. A mindflayer head lies on the table. Two unusual statues stand in opposite corners - featuring an Ogre turning into giant flies. Looking through books and papers are three Drow, who turn with concern when they see the heroes - but do not immediately point their weapons or wands at the heroes. ‘What are you looking for?’, asks Hadrian. ‘We might ask you the same, surface dwellers’, replies one of the Drow, as the others look at each other. ‘We are Vanar, Hulziin and Yrrprek and have come seeking magical knowledge from this level run by Arturia, an apprentice of Halaster.‘ The Drow then make some subtle signs, which Iris manages to interpret as them being members of House Freth. Iris is quick to tell the Drow of the heroes’ work for House Freth in their battle against House Auvryndar, her Intimidation impressing them, though she doesn’t mention their killing of House Freth Drow who were enslaving other humanoids.


The headless mindflayer at his desk

While the Drow are warming to the heroes and negotiating about what to tell them, Drakar has been quietly checking for magic around the room. The table has a strong hit, and there is another trace from under the table. Each of the Drow have some magical items, but the weird statues are not magical. But Drakar does detect three other sources beside each of the Drow. Drakar’s experience with using Detect Magic allows her to see that the magical effect is probably due to the invisibility spell cast on some hidden creature or item. When he sees one of the magical traces move to the other side of the Drow, Drakar is sure they are creatures. The warlock interrupts the discussion to ask the Drow about the hidden creatures, and they answer smoothly enough that they are simply their ‘familiars’. They point at the flumph, who is hovering near the open door and say, ‘much like your creature there.’ Lycara is not sure about the idea of fiends being left undestroyed, but Iris manages to smooth things over enough for the heroes and the Drow to resume friendly negotiations.


Surprising the Drow

The heroes ask about any metal letter-shaped keys or mimics, but the Drow say they haven’t seen either on this level. The Drow are after spell scrolls, and promise to leave any keys they find on the table in exchange for spell scrolls that the heroes find. On the table there is a black box, about a foot cubed. The edges are framed in ebony, while the faces are of smoked black glass. Drakar detects an aura of transmutation magic from the box. The grey blanket it is sitting on is unusually rubbery, and Iris figures out it is the hide of a doppelganger. A strange collection of magical ingredients covers the rest of the table. There is a jar of cockatrice tongues, a block of soft clay in a moist cloth, and a wooden box labelled ‘Polymorph’ in Common, which has a dozen caterpillar cocoons. The mindflayer head has been ripped off the neck by sheer force, if the rough edges of skin and vertebrae are anything to go by. While Iris takes the black box and the clay, Drakar and Teslen begin to investigate the area under the table. The bard finds there is no trap, but it then takes some searching even with the Warlock’s magical aid for him to find the edge of the tile that flips up. In the hidden space, Teslen finds a fine jade circlet worth 1500gp, and a bone scroll case. The heroes want to take a look before they hand it over to the Drow, but pretend to put the scroll back in the case without looking when the Drow ask them to. Teslen snuck enough of a look to be sure the scroll is for the Polymorph spell.

The heroes decide to move on, and ask the Drow about the connecting doors and passages. The Drow say they haven’t been through the north or east doors, though they have heard something moving about to the north. They came from the west and south, and tell the heroes there is a pit trap past the corner of the west passage, and that there is a clattering noise coming from behind the northern door further along that passage. The heroes decide to take the east door first. Teslen gears nothing behind the door, and it opens easily into a short passage that then bends to the north. Starting at the bend, and moving along the walls to cover all of the room are sculpted tentacles, dotted with the odd carved human skull. The centre of the room has an oval pool full of dark, slimy liquid. Standing silently facing the far eastern corner is a human male in a leather harness and loincloth. As the heroes approach the strange figure doesn’t move or react at all. Teslen uses his Mage Hand to touch the man and tap his shoulder, but there is no reaction. He is breathing though, and a line of drool runs down one side of his mouth. The man looks thin and underfed, but has no obvious wounds.


The Mindless Mage and the pool of slime

Drakar can detect that there is an enchantment acting upon the man. There is nothing else magical in the room. The slime pool is unappealing but not magical, and it is not deep enough to hold any creatures. There is a single door in the north-western wall. Drakar has regained her spells from the recent short rest and considers casting Dispel Magic on the man. Iris, Teslen and Marwin think this may be an effect they can undue without risk by using Greater Restoration, and eventually everyone agrees to try that first. Everyone else in the party stands back as Teslen casts the spell and touches the ensorcelled man. He blinks, shakes, and then turns slowly to face the party. ‘Oh gods’, he moans. ‘Now I remember. No more. No more working for mad mages. I’m getting out of here!’ Then he looks down and realises what he is wearing. He tries to cover himself with his hands, before asking if the heroes can give him some clothes. As Drakar digs a red velvet cloak from his pack, the heroes give Ellix Gaspar some rations, and some drink from the magical jug. The cleric also heals Ellix back to half his full health. Finally the heroes hear the whole tale of how Ellix came to be an abandoned gimp in Arcturiadoom.

At first Ellix felt proud to have been chosen from the magical academy Dweomercore on Level 9 by Arcturia herself, to be her latest assistant. Unfortunately their working relationship soon went sour, and after a couple of months the arch-mage cast Feeblemind on Ellix and gave him over to her mind flayer assistant. He barely recalls (with a shudder) the things he did for the mind flayer while he was reduced in intellect. At some point he was left in the corner with no-one coming to give him instructions or food. The heroes tell Ellix that his last master is dead, killed by Arcturia herself. At this, any rage that Ellix was building up deflates, and he repeats that he just wants to get out of the Undermountain. Once he is refreshed, the mage remembers the way he came here from the surface, and resolves to make his way back on his own. Ellix says he hasn’t seen any mimics, or any metal keys. The heroes think for a moment about asking if Ellix wants to go to Phandalin to work for them, but his grating voice and the uncertainty about his alignment mean they let the mage go his own way.

Teslen checks and opens the door, revealing a corridor the heads away to the north east, and another door opposite. Teslen can easily hear the clanking of chains and something large thrashing about beyond the new door. The door seems safe and unlocked. Teslen and Iris open the door, with Hadrian and Tar close behind. Inside there is a ghastly admixture of life, a surgical and magical combination of an Ogre’s body and the head of a Carrion Crawler held down by chains on the stone floor. It reaches towards the off-cuts of its bodies, an Ogre head and the remains of a Carrion Crawler, which are piled in the northern corner. Another door leads south into the laboratory where the heroes met the Drow. The heroes joke about freeing the thing, though that doesn’t seem the best idea for this mindless monstrosity. Hadrian has an idea and gets everyone to step back while he draws out his new bag, and pulls out the magical mirror. Thrusting the mirror towards the creature on the floor, Hadrian looks on in delight as the magic takes hold and petrifies the monster into a stone statue. The only things of note in the now silent room are a roll of keys to the locks on the chains, and the stench of the rotting meat in the corner of the room. Another grim monument to the unhinged experiments of Arcturia.

The heroes head back out to the long passageway, following Teslen as he carefully moves down the left side wall. The passage bends to the north, then turns ninety degrees to the west. A short bend to the north then ends at a door. Teslen listens but doesn’t hear anything. The door is easily opened into a chamber with a door on the west wall, and the passage carrying on through the north wall. There is some rubbish in the centre of the floor, and a closed door on the western wall. The heroes quickly notice the arch gate on the eastern wall, which has the image of an open book carved into the keystone. The heroes fish around in their packs for an unimportant book they have, and Iris produces an old book on the history of Phandelver near Phandalin that she is still carrying. She opens the book and walks towards the arch gate. As she gets to within five feet of the gate, the surface clears and shows a bare stone chamber beyond. At the same second, the book in Iris’ hand crumbles into dust and drifts to the floor. The heroes study the room through the door for a minute, until the image fades. It is not a location the heroes recognise. There is no lighting, and the only feature of interest is a door on the left wall. The long wall opposite, and the door to the right are both featureless stone, as is the floor and ceiling. The heroes decide not to step through the gate, and ready themselves for more exploration on Level 14.

https://rpggeek.com/wiki/page/fstngamers_undermountain