Tim's Outlanders: Mansion of Illusions, Session 5 - April 6 to 13, 18 IC

[This session took place September 16, 2000.  We were playing Champions 4th Edition with the Second Edition Fantasy Hero supplement.]

Player Characters

Dangar Stonekleaver - male dwarf from the Northern Dwarven Kingdom
Max Lucas - human male ranger from the Bayern District
Arturo of the Brambles - male human monk of the Order of the Brambles
Tarquin the Mad - male human fighter, traveling companion to Rory

NPCs

Monteflurio the Sage - male human sage from Freegate
Rory the Red - Wizard and graduate of Outlands University, traveling companion to Tarquin

Pira the Seer - female human seer from Fordsway, accompanied by her apprentice

Session Begins, April 7, 18 IC

After killing the griffins, the expedition decided to investigate their nest and look for eggs.  They marched to the base of the rock formation and made camp.  Then Tarquin, Rory, and Dangar started climbing the rock formation, taking a half-day's worth of food with them.

By the end of the day they were only part way up the formation having seriously underestimating its height and the difficulty in climbing it.  Rather than return and possibly lose access to baby griffins or griffin eggs, they huddled on a small ledge for the night.

April 8

Tarquin, Rory, and Dangar achieved the summit near the end of the day.  They found live griffin chicks and rescued one of them.  [My notes don't say what happened to the others, but they likely died of starvation.]  They camped in the nest for the night, cold and hungry.

April 9

It took them nearly the full day to climb back down with the griffin hungry chick.  By the time they returned, they and the griffin chick were starving and they spent time eating and feeding the chick.  Max spent time hunting additional food for the griffin chick and then training it not to bite him.

April 12

After three more days of travel through the mountains, the party arrived in the vicinity of the Scooped Mountain.  Rory had them delay entering the valley until the next morning so they could "see an interesting sight."

April 13

The following morning, before dawn, the expedition crossed the ridge into Flat Valley.  The mountain on the far side of the valley had a large void in its side where it appeared part of the mountain had been scooped out.   When the sun came up, the Scooped Mountain acted as a parabolic mirror and created the illusion of the sun hovering inside the scooped area.  This gave things in the valley odd double shadows pointing in opposite directions.  Down on the very flat valley floor, near the center, they saw a small hillock, the only raised part of the valley floor.

A Couple Hours Later

When the expedition reached the valley floor they discovered a small surprise – it radiated an anti-magic field of noticeable strength.  Investigating further, they also discovered that all the animal tracks they could find veered away from the valley floor.  Finally, the wide flat valley floor had no trees – it was covered only by three foot tall grass.

The expedition decided to leave the wagon and the majority of their supplies on the mountain slope outside the anti-magic zone and proceed on foot.  Pira and her apprentice stayed with the wagon and the griffin chick.  Tarquin, Dangar, Max, Arturo, Rory, and Monteflurio hiked the thirty minutes to the hillock out on the valley floor.

Once at the hillock, they discovered a small cave-in on the back side of the hill that provided access to the interior.  Sticking a torch into the hole, they discovered that the cave-in lead to a stairwell.  They spent some time widening the hole with their shovels before entering.

End of Session

Happening Off-Stage

The Northern Horde fended off several attacks from the Imperial 1st Legion cavalry and the Perothian Militia while it marched northeast.

DM Discussion

[I'm really pleased with the unusual nature of this valley.  I know exactly why it looks like this, but the players will not learn why until next session.  I'll go into more detail in the next post.]

[The delay for this post was I needed time to read the notes better.  I thought there was a gap in the notes due to a hard drive crash that happened in 2014.  When I finally had time to sit down and read the notes, I realized there was no gap in the notes, but my time-keeping was flawed.  I've had to adjust the dates to match the time that passes in the notes.  I was off by a day at the end of this session and I'm not certain why.]

Tim's Outlanders Landing Page

Mansion Of Illusions

Session 4

Session 6 [Not yet typed up]