What Lies Beyond Reason – Session 1 (Difficult Circumstances)

This is the first post of the current group of players I have running through the What Lies Beyond Reason adventure path.

The group roster includes

• Bree Greenbole (Sarah) – Female Halfling Ranger
• Celadir Nailo (Wil) – Male High Elf Wizard
• Dart (Christian) – Male Human Rogue
• Felix Marston (Cameron) – Male Human Sorceror (Gold Dragon Ancestory) & Lawyer (he wears suits and carries a briefcase)
• Mutt (Daniel) – Male Human Monk (and Librarian)
• Kahma (Lachlan) – Male Halfling Monk

Difficult Circumstances by Dante Cifaldi

Session 1 – Difficult Circumstances

On a dark and stormy night, our heroes all crowded into a nasty, ramshackle Inn at a crossroads a week’s travel north of the Eternal City of Anduria. Each had their own reasons for being there, and none had met before.

The inn of the Sleeping Dog held an interesting array of characters, including the PCs, plus;

• Bob (the old and surly bartender)
• Melissa (the naive barmaid)
• Thorgrim (a scholarly dwarf warrior)
• Lucious (a young and overly dramatic troubadour)
• Duran and James (travelling merchants)
• Rufus and Faldor (shady mercenaries)
• Theric (a tight lipped trapper)
• Barret (a jovial gambler)

The PCs engaged each other and the occupants in conversation, learning the following;

•  Lucious responded to flattery, longs to see his talent recognised, and was on his way to Anduria to become famous. He seemed to find the thought of street performing, commoners and the poor confronting, he protected his prized lute, and was wary of Kahma. Ofcourse it might simply have been Kahma’s aggressive forwardness that was off putting.

•  The Merchants Duran and James were guarded about their wares and their travel plans, and while briefly interested in business arrangements with the noble houses of Anduria, have a keen eye for a con or ‘exaggeration’, and did not warm to Dart’s charms.

•  Thorgrim seemed reserved at first, but soon opened up on discussions surrounding scholarship, libraries and filing systems. He and Mutt found common ground quickly.

•  Felix ingratiated himself into a card game with Rufus, Faldor, Theric and Barret. His atrocious playing was matched only by his ability to engage with the players. Rufus and Faldor are brothers that take paying jobs, regardless of the morals of said job. They took Felix’s card. Therric is a local trapper that comes to the crossroads to sell furs, play cards and drink. Barret’s poker face was exceptional, and Felix feels he may actually have been out-“lawyered”. While he could draw nothing interesting from Barret, it was clear the man’s card skills were exceptional, and while he was almost certainly cheating, Felix and Dart couldn’t pick it specifically. Barret was definitely out of place in the wilderness setting, striking Felix more as a city man.

As the night wore down, everyone slept as best they could while the storms lashed the sodden inn. The PCs seemed to have a collective (or at least disturbingly similar) nightmare of twisted creatures, chaotic weather and much pain and suffering. It had the feel of something more than a dream, like a secret was just out of reach.

The inn collapsed, dumping the inhabitants into a deep pool of water in a cavern below, the hole blocked by the congested rubble of the destroyed structure. Taking a quick headcount, Bob, Duran, Theric and Melissa were missing, though Melissa turned out to be injured on a ledge above the pool.

Fall Cave by Dante Cifaldi

While Kahma’s spelunking skills came to the fore, the fiery Halfling was unable to mount a heroic rescue of the damsel, who objected to the proposed plan of A) jumping or B) rope bondage (which of course was a misunderstanding, the Halfling’s words amounting to “I only want to tie you up for your own good” coming across more sinister than the angry hero intended). Melissa was rescued, though it took some smooth convincing from the Felix, as well as a magical demonstration from Celadir, to achieve. 

Kahma also spotted a strongbox on another ledge, but this was left in place.

Examining their options (with Mutt testing the water several times – yep – still wet!) the PCs found their way into a savage art gallery of rather unpleasant subject matter (cave paintings of death and slaughter), and on into a geode-like cavern, where brittle crystal reflected and amplified the light of a runed, twisted metal ring (around 8 inches across). Celadir pocketed it, but not before noticing that several of the group eyed it with more avarice than curiosity.

The group encountered some very wet and angry spiders the size of dogs, and infact these were only babies to a large arachnid that lay concealed in a size passage. While the threat of poison, fangs and was significant, the group found that sticks, fists, feet, giant hammers, arrows, fire breath and knives were to giant spiders as rolled up newspapers are to normal ones, and the arachnids were vanquished. The eagle-eyed Bree discerned an opportunity with some loose rocks suspended in the webbing, and Dart obliged in dropping them with a well timed arrow, ending the peril of ‘mummy’ spider.

Spider Attack by Dante Cifaldi

Further investigation of the larger spider lair turned up a vein of gold, and while the group lacked the necessary tools to extract it, they did manage to chip out a small amount while Felix unconvincingly tried to hide the improvised mining by shouting “WHAT NOISE? I CANT HEAR ANY NOISE” above the noise. Luckilly the NPCs were otherwise occupied and did not investigate.

Session End