Caress Melani Raw Session Notes

Lost Mines of Phandelver/Tyranny of Dragons raw session notes

Caress's Journal Page

Cover of Darkness - Caress Melani Journal - Session 21

 Hidden Space and Serpentine Wiles

Caress braced herself as Mythram's suddenly pulled against her at the other end of the rope. Lyra and Ravyn being pulled sharply aside in the same moment. The sorcerer glanced back toward the keep and then turned to the other adventurers.

"Doesn't look like the guards have noticed anything strange about us yet."

The yuan-ti nodded and then breathed a sigh of relief as Mythram gripped the edge of the walls again and started their climb again, this time making it to the first arrow slit with little difficulty. Then came a tug on the rope to signal she was ready. The paladin hung back, waiting for the sorcerer and warlock to make it across before securing the rope on their end, hiding it in the mortar in a way to keep it clear of any sharp edges.

"Ibjeet saw the arrow slits on the floor above this were the ones that were blocked by darkness and planks of wood," Ravyn said.

"We find the vampire, stake her and be ready, she'll probably have some other defenses," Mythram reminded them. "I'll move up ahead first, listen for my signal."

Caress nodded then reached out, whispering a prayer on her lips alongside Mythram's own and an incantation from Lyra, layering protective enchantments upon the rogue before they crept silently up the stairs. There was a long, stretch of stressful silence before an abrupt gurgling swept down towards them followed by a screech.

"Mistress!!!"

Benefits of Stealth

 

Hidden Space and Serpentine Wiles - Caress Melani's Journal - Session 20

Danger Looms Large 

Caress watched as Mythram scaled up the giant-sized bricks of ice kept magically frozen and resilient, beside her Lyra's eyes followed the process as well and produced a subdued "Hmm" as they watched the rogue seem to suddenly slipped on to the roof.  The paladin almost hadn't noticed it, and probably wouldn't have if the sorcerer had not reacted.

"Well, that's odd."

In the distance, Mythram looked over the edge of the roof down at them with similar confusion.

"She... skipped the forbidden floor, am I right?"

"Yes, sort of a crimp in space, just...zip right along they went."

"I think I just missed something," Ravyn said, reminding them that her sight and hearing were currently up with her familiar Ibjeet. "We're on the roof. And there are ogres. Mythram is lowering a rope."

There were indeed ogres on the roof, tending a massive siege weapon, larger than anything she'd ever seen on the walls of Neverwinter or Waterdeep. Granted those had been defensive installations, built by people size like her and the elves. This thing, felt like a weapon of war and destruction.

Sneaky sneak

 

Danger Looms Large - Caress Melani's Journal - Sessions 18 & 19

To the Point of Exhaustion

It was a moment before Caress realized that the windows in the room were actually arrow slits. She looked about at the masterwork weapons around the room and the walls which Lyra had said were enchanted to disappear at a command. Tomorrow, this giant's castle was set to rise up into the sky and fly off to some unknown distant location at the behest of the cult leaders that had taken up residence here.

To the point of Exhaustion - Caress Melani - Session 17

Welcome Brawl at the Lodge 

There wasn't any time to take a break or recover from the conflict with the troll. No sooner did the four-armed killer's body flare up into flames after Lyra shoved them into the fireplace, than Mythram darted out to chase down the cultist that had fled the fight, taking him down with a single arrow. Unfortunately his cries had already alerted others and Caress could hear the shouts confronting Mythram.

"Invaders! For what reason do you intrude on these grounds! Surrender now or your suffering shall be a lesson for the children in future days."

The cry of pain that followed, in a different voice, told Caress what Mythram's response to that was. For her part, the yuan-ti tapped into the divine font through her connection to Sharess and felt some of her injuries knitting closed. She darted out into the courtyard and caught sight of a pair of kobolds with feather dusters staring down at her.

"I'd advise you to either surrender or flee," she called out in draconic, seeing one of the two drop to the ground in response.

"I could use a little help," Ravyn called from behind her and Caress darted back to the warlock's side to provide her the healing she could. 

Blasts, Heals, and Blades

 

Welcome Brawl at the Lodge - Caress Melani - Session 16

Worms and Ringers 

Castle Naerytar certainly looked like the sort of place that legend said you'd find a black dragon. There was a pervasive atmosphere of decay and a corrosive taste to the air that was beyond unpleasant. The Order of the Gauntlet guards within were more than happy to direct the group on toward the portal that the cultist leader had fled through. They all geared up to get ready for the trip, worried that the other side would be held against them by prepared cultists and perhaps another dragon.

Instead on sending Ijit through to investigate Ravyn reported that it seemed to be an unguarded exit and that there was nothing in the area aside from a nearby hunting lodge which currently seemed to be empty. Cautiously they moved through the portal.

"It's a little bit cold."

Caress nodded in agreement and shivered, wishing her tattoos helped guard her against the elements as well as it held off the bite of blades and fangs. Moving closer to the reported hunting lodge, they came to find it, standing tall with at least four levels of windows visible on the face. There was a great foundation of stone below a framework of wooden walls and high-arched roof with embedded windows. At first they could find nothing of interest, no activity even, but then they came to find the sign of trolls in the back rigging up a number of human-sized lizards for use as hunting animals.

Looking back, they saw the rolling mist circulating about the portal and then glanced ahead towards the hunting lodge. Advancing carefully, Mythram walked up to the door and knocked upon it. A moment later, the door was opened to reveal a white kobold sticking its snout out into entrance. 

"What does it want?"

A second kobold stepped forward to the first and performed a gesture towards the party.

"No, they make the gesture, not us. What does it want?"

Ravyn, recognizing the gesture for what it was, a praise of Tiamat, takes the opportunity to step forward.

Sneaky Mythram, Tricksy Ravyn

The Second Rounds - From Bazzozan to the Rise - Sessions 7-9

(Going to summarize because I've missed several sessions on this and if I don't do this it'll be harder to do detailed narrative journals as I move on)

After the battle with the gibbering mouthers, the Second Rounds moved around the town looking into things. At the edge of the town crematorium Esoh traded a schematic for a radiant bonfire creator in exchange for reputation and help as well as some bullets for Snype.

Elara had a discussion with one of the local priests at the infirmary, a nice lady, but a little bit on the thirsty side. 

Worms and Ringers - Caress Melani - Session 15

Shields, Scales, Shadows, and Shit 

The hull of the Grand Shanty was a bit too thoroughly infested for them to easily handle. Not in the sense that it would be difficult to kill the hull worms that had infested that part of the ship so much as it was that if they did kill the worms, then the ship would probably sink. They had replaced far too much of the structure of the ship. Though perhaps this needed explanation so rewinding a bit.

Talk on the Grand Shanty

When they had been swept up by the parade of ghosts, they found themselves escorted into the heart of a sailing ship that had been converted into a tavern and inn. And the entertainments were quite top notch. The food and company were high quality indeed with a lovely man behind the bar by the name of Sharkbite Sam who had a lot of advice to give about what to order.

Shields, Scales, Shadows, and Shit - Caress Melani Journal - Session 16

 Much Sadness About Larry

(Hero Forge coming later... NaNoWriMo is a thing) 

Caress looks over the shield carefully and then back towards Lyra. "This shield allows me to do, what?" 

"It lets you transfer some of the pain of a blow to one of your allies."

The idea seems counter-intuitive and it was likely that the blank expression on her face betrayed that thought somewhat as the eladrin leaned forward to explain the matter a bit more clearly.

"A lot of us are in the backfields, out of the line of battle, and, not to put her under the the catapult," she glanced toward the warlock who shrugged and then let her continue. "But Ravyn is probably hardier than you are."

Much Sadness about Larry - Caress Melani Journal - Session 15

Squashing a Spider

 "Five hundred coins to clean the latrines?" 

Their party member seemed a bit incredulous at Ravyn's news though Caress nodded.

"They are quite... advanced in their..." her nose crinkled in visible distaste, "...state of decay."

"Larry seemed resigned to the news himself," Ravyn commented. "Which matches with what we've seen so far. Things unrepairing themselves. The disease and poison that Caress sensed in the kitchen..."

"Disease and poison which you said did not touch any of the food," Mythram noted directing her attention to Caress.

"Correct," she confirmed. "Nor was he willing to leave the tavern for sort of break or companionship. He spoke of a time when his son was cooking for them."

"I found some more about that," the rogue noted. "Larry's sons left the tavern and encountered... "

'Bad luck?" 

"Not so much bad luck as it was that they were no longer blessed. If you've lived your entire life with divine fortune then normal luck feels bad to you. Something protects this place, there's marks here warning thieves away."

"I have to admit that I didn't think to ask about the tavern during my visit to the local chapter of the Order of the Gauntlet.

"How did that go by the way?"

Meeting at Sad Larry's

 

Squashing a Spider - Caress Melani Journal - Session 14

Plans Ghoulish and Guarded

Ravyn and Caress sat and caught their breaths, attending to their injuries as Mythram and Lyra scoured the cavern for any sign of interesting things. Somewhere in the darkness of a passageway, another doppleganger passing as drow lay in a mindless heap, body catching up to brain in the race toward death after the sorcerer had ripped their mind to pieces. Bugbear corpses lay about the scene of the fight. destroyed by forces divine and eldritch.

"I think that this may be what they were looking for," Lyra suggested as she indicated a long dead dwarven corpse embedded mostly into the mud. "These gauntlets have a bit magic to them. I think they might make someone stronger."

"My first thought is to give that to Caress, but..." Mythram looked over to the yuan-ti.

"Sharess guides my arm, I'm not sure enhanced strength will do me much good."  

"Yeah that's what I thought," the rogue said. 

"Well, we'll set aside for a bit later," Lyra said. "And I guess the next question is to which direction we should turn to after this."

"It looks like this passage will give us another route past those doors from before," Mythram said, pointing past the doppleganger's corpse.

Rest and Reconnaissance

"The big ones set up to be very portentous and noisy when opening?" Ravyn asks.