Skullport Tales: Actual Play 14

Following on the heels of the last session, the party arrives at the elven village of Anial to discover it abandoned but in good shape. There is no sign of a fight anywhere. Looking around through the houses, which are in and around trees, doors open and close and items move, leading the party to believe that there may be ghosts. Sorvoxx sniffs out a fresh grave, which has a marker that reads “Revan”. The party knows this is the wizard-leader of the village, and the owner of the Drow pearl that Madblade would like them to acquire.

A phase spider appear, and bites Carkarelia. Crowbar attacks it with his axe, Dagordroth with scorching ray, and Cody with breathe fire. After taking much damage, it phases out and doesn’t return.

Cody uses his magic murder bag* to try to make a potion of neutralize poison, but fails. The party decides to search Revan’s house looking for his spellbook, to see if he has something to reverse the poison in Carkarelia’s system. While most of the party goes up the stairs, Carkarelia spider climbs up the tree. On the stairs, another phase spider attacks. Cody again breathes fire, and Dagordroth again uses scorching ray. They kill it, but before it dies and phases out, it manages to bite Cody. He downs his mutagenic** and shifts into his uglier, sturdier form, which helps him fight off the poison.

Getting to the door first Carkarelia encounters an elf in the house, who says “help me” and phases out. Dagordroth, who is well-studied on the planes, concludes that the villagers may have been kidnapped to the ethereal plane for some reason. He also feels the presence of something trying to possess him, but it fails. Cody and Carkarelia search Revan’s spellbooks and find Neutralize Poison, which Cody spends an hour making into a potion. Crowbar stands guard as Dagordroth search for, and finds, the Drow pearl.

Two phase spiders appear, one of them the original one that was wounded. The party takes them on, and manages to defeat them. Before the end of the battle, the elf Carkarelia saw appears, casts a web spell on Dagordroth and Cody, and touches Dagordroth and inflicts damage. Cody breathes fire in the elf’s face and kills it, at which point it phases out. The party assumes the elf was one of the villages, possessed by some ethereal creature.

Nearly out of spells but in possession of the Drow pearl, the party decides to leave the village and camp in the forest so they can rest. Cody uses the last of his daily formulae to make cure light wounds potions to heal everyone up to almost full points.

Notes:
*What I call Cody’s magic murder bag (a Venture Bros. reference) is a magic item GM John made up that allows an alchemist to pull out the components for and attempt to make any potion he knows to exist. There is a failure chance of 10% x the difference between the level of formula3e the alchemist can make and the spell level of what he’s trying to create a potion from. Cody can make 2nd level formulae, neutralize poison is at its highest a 4th level spell, giving him a 20% chance of spell failure. GM Cinamon said roll low; I rolled a 00.

**Alchemists can make a Jekyll/Hyde potion. Cody’s gives him +4 to CON, -2 to CHA, and +1 natural armor. along with his Resist Poison class ability bonus, it was enough of a boost to allow him to make the FORT saves required to resist the poison.