Welcome to the seventh session of my swords and sorcery style adventure with my two characters Tilly the Rogue from Jundarr and Moonwane the Cosmic Champion.

The party now consists of four, Anvarn a pirate captain and an eldritch girl who has just discovered her name is Karintha. If we include Whiskers the little black and white winged cat then the party consists of five, six if we also include the butterfly spirit they are following.

In the last session, the party arrived at a ruined tower, at the top of the which they found a statue from which Karintha was able to recall her name, she also found an Eldritch cloak. Some mysterious person left a bunch of poisonous flowers on top of a trap door. Karintha then opened the trap door and went down it. The rest of the party have little choice but to follow.

You can read the first session here https://solorpg.co.uk/through-sunken-lands-part-1-jundarr/ Character sheets for Tilly and Moonwane can be found there.
As I type this session I have no idea what will happen next or where the oracle will lead my characters, I would love you to find out with me and welcome you to read on.

Toolbox

I am using a minimal set for this game
Through Sunken Lands RPG
MUNE GM emulator
Randomlists.com for when I need a random verb or prompt
Dungeon Map I picked up from dicegrimorium.com, a great site for free battle maps
650 City Encounters by Johnn Four Roleplaying Tips if I get stuck for a plot or an encounter
Finally, I have used Nightcafe Studio AI art program to generate the pictures for this post

NPC’s

This session is going to be a mini dungeon dive, at least I hope it is, so there are only two NPC’s this time, Anvarn the pirate captain and Karintha the eldritch girl both in my party.
It is possible that the GM emulator my have other ideas and throw up other NPC’s during game play, indeed it could scupper my hopes for a dungeon bash, so I will just have to see what happens and create the unexpected on the fly this time.

Threads.

Threads remain the same as in session 6. The one thread which has become stronger is who is leaving flowers from poisonous plants for Tilly and how do they always know where to find her.

Possible Monsters

Laestryn, the mouth of the volcano.
Hit Dice: 13d10 (72 HP)
AC: 23
Attack: +15 to hit, 1d10+5 damage (obsidian axe)
Alignment: Chaotic
XP: 8,400
Notes: Amorphous (spirits do not have a set form, and may change their shape), Dangerous Presence (even being in the presence of Laestryn is dangerous), Nature (Laestryn is aligned with Chaos; any ordinary creature who sees her must make a save versus polymorph or be stunned for 1d4 rounds, any cantrip or ritual cast in her presence has a +3 bonus to succeed, and damaging and healing magics cause an additional 1d4 points of damage or healing), Possession (Laestryn may possess mortals), Sorceress (Laestryn may cast cantrips, spells, and rituals as a level 13 mage; assume that she has an Intelligence and Wisdom of 16 for the purposes of casting rolls; she knows many
spells and rituals, but is particularly fond of fire magics, and almost always holds components for the Fireball ritual close at hand), True Name (all spirits have true names, which give their foes power over them)

Stone Men
Hit Dice: 4d12 (26 HP)
AC: 20
Attack: +4 to hit, 1d6+4 damage (stone fists)
Alignment: any
XP: 230
Notes: Control (each stone man has a unique off switch hidden somewhere by its maker), Impervious Stone (non-magical weapons break on a hit roll of 1 on any attack against a stone man)

Skeletons
Hit Dice: 1d8 (4 HP)
AC: 13
Attack: +1 to hit, 1d8 damage (longsword)
Alignment: Neutral
XP: 20
Notes: Dead and Mindless (skeletons are immune to sleep and charm effects)

Magic Items

Blade of Broken Mirror. If Tilly opens up her bag containing her Rouges tools, she will find that she has a piece of the shattered mirror of the cosmos in part if its frame which is fashioned like a dagger. Indeed it acts as a +2 dagger and cause double damage to any chaotic or lawful opponent. If also acts as a mirror of the cosmos.

Scene 12 – The Fire Demons Temple.

Intervention points currently at 2
Oracle Question. Is everything as expected? No.
Random Verbs, Describe, place, rhyme.
Roll on TWENE table gets: Decrease simple element, (I take the darkness as a simple element).

With the trap door wide open, sunlight illuminates the stairway down to the dungeon level of the tower. Karintha runs down the old wood stairs, at the foot of which are two large doors, Moonwane runs after her trying to stop her. There is a strong sulphurous smell down there.

Moonwane makes a dexterity check to see if he can catch the eldritch girl before she reaches the doors, he has fleet as a skill, so gets +2 modifier, needing to roll 12 or less on d20, he rolls 15, a fail.
Oracle question. Can Karintha open the doors? Yes.

Karintha runs down the rotting old wooden stairs and gets to the doors before Moonwane is able to stop her. She shouts excitedly, “I know how to open these door”, and she speaks a short rhyme in an ancient tongue none of the others understand. Moonwane tries to stop her but he is too slow, the doors open. Anvarn and finally Tilly reach the open doors as well. The place they have walked in to can only be described as a temple of molten lava and fire.

Karintha walks further in to the temple, oblivious to any possible danger, she is convinced that answers as to who she is will be found here. Moonwane’s attention is taken by what he sees up ahead of him. Tilly and Anvarn to seem mesmerised by what they see.

The temple is a large open area. Walled pathways 20 feet wide surround ponds of molten lava. One path leads into a open center area where something sits on a Ruby throne. 4 statues made of stone, 2 in each of the ponds either side of the ruby throne, seem to be hurling molten lava through the air towards the throne.

Tilly is the first to speak “A demon! Moon, stop the girl, we all need to leave this place”.

Moonwane makes a dexterity check to see if he can stop Karintha from going deeper into the temple. He get +2 bonus for his Fleet skill, so needs to roll 12 or less on d20, this time he rolls 3, success.
The Demon is Laestryn, a powerful chaos demon.
All four take 1hp damage just for being in the presence of Laestryn.

Moonwane is one step ahead of Tilly, he takes hold of Karintha and pulls her back towards the door. Tilly and Anvarn both realising the demon is to powerful to fight, turn around to head out of the temple.

Oracle Question. Are the doors still open? Yes, but…

The doors are still partially open but are rapidly closing again. Both Anvarn and Tilly realise that even if they make it out, the doors will be fully closed before Monwane and Karintha get to them.

6 (1d6+4) skeletons armed with short swords are walking three abreast towards them.

Moonwane has his battleaxe ready for the advancing Skeletons, Tilly runs forward and takes Karintha by the arm pulling her away from the danger. Anvarn tries to pull the doors open again.

Oracle question. Can Anvarn open the doors? Yes.
Oracle question. Is there anything behind the doors (unlikely)? Yes, and… (+1 intervention point, now at 3. Intervention. Entity positive)
Roll on possible NPC table (see previous post) is a 5, Trader and his Wife. (Well, I wasn’t expecting that!)

All four characters take a further 1hp each just for being in the presence of the demon of Chaos.

Intervention points reset to 0

The trader speaks clearly and forcefully “Get out of there you fools, you are being drawn towards certain death”.

Oracle question. Can Moonwane make it to the doors before the skeletons reach him? (Likely) Yes, and… (+1 intervention point, now at 1)

They all make it to the doors and out of the temple before the skeletons reach them and the traders wife casts some sort of spell which closes and magically seals the doors preventing anything else from getting out and anyone else from getting in to the temple.

The trader leads them all up back up the rickety old wooden stairs and out of the tower, Tilly and the traders wife are the last to leave. The spirit butterfly is waiting for them outside the tower and Whiskers the little winged cat sits on one of the traders two carts.

Tilly turns to the traders wife, “how did you know we were in danger and how did you get here?”

The traders wife points to Whiskers, “we have a mutual friend in that little cat, and we are on our way to Zfonroon, the little town not far from here, indeed you may have seen it as you sailed by, good trade to be done there my dear”

Tilly asks, “Whiskers came to you to help save Karintha?”

The traders wife looks Tilly in the eyes, “maybe the eldritch girl is not the important one”.

Tilly stares back in to the Traders wife’s eyes, “someone left more poisonous flowers, here, do you know who, seems more than a coincidence them being left and then you turning up”

Oracle question. Does the traders wife know who left the flowers? No.

“A coincidence it would seem indeed, but sadly Tilly, I cannot answer your question, I know not who leaves the flowers nor why they leave them or if they are truly meant for you”.

The party leave the ruined tower. The spirit butterfly leads them out of the forest and along a coastal road. Moonwane with Whiskers on his shoulders along with Anvarn and Karintha are sat in leading cart, the trader leading the horse along, his wife leads the second horse and cart with Tilly beside her, “seems that spirit is taking us to Zfonroon, we are all headed in the same direction, there’s a thing”.

Oracle question. Does anything happen on the road to Zfonroon? No.

After several hours walking the party reach the outskirts of the Allonian sea town known as Zfonroon.

And that is where I will leave this session. The oracle did indeed help thwart my plan for a dungeon bash but perhaps for the best, at least as far as the characters go. Both Moonwane and Tilly have taken 2 hp each and they all need a rest. Allonia does not welcome strangers though and Zfonroon may not be a place of safety for them.

Next post, Zfonroon.