The Caves of Almar, 10/17/2020

DM's Notes
After session, I promised to make a map of the caves for references' sake. I have come to realize a several mile long, snaking path with offshoots every 10-15ft is literally impossible to do on a map with any program. Thus, I'll make up a more feasible map, incorporate the elements that the party was able to discover, and post a link here to said map. But, if it needs saying, I do intend for this cavernous system to be a megadungeon for re-exploration by future groups.

The puzzle on the first door the party encountered is on the right, represented with quarters.

Riley/Normythe
I arrived on this planet and was soon ushered to the Gem Saloon where the barkeep, Dan, intoned we should head upstairs to speak with the proprietor. We passed a mustached dude (with the middle of his stache just beneath his nose shaved off-can't believe I remember this detail...).

We met with Theo who told us our mission. We were to try to find the source of the nightly Wailing in the Caves of Alimar while also making sure the Caves were safe and stable for people to enter. We left without inquiring around what time the wailing generally happened.

As we walked down the path to the Caves I picked Herbs. Hextia(Hestia?). Got about 2 lbs. Got to know my group members a bit better. The short Artificer thoroughly studied our Warforged Druid. I remained mostly silent.

We came upon a big Arch. We studied it for signs of magic but neglected to see if there were any cameras or mechanical means of detection. The arch had a lot of symbols carved into it, possibly language.

We passed through the Arch and were attacked by a giant Tree that seemed to be split in two from the top to around the middle, and in that split we saw glowing eyes. It regenerated a bit each turn until I hit it with Fire attached to my Mace. We dispatched of it quite soon after. Our Warlock complained of a possible concussion for the rest of our adventure.

When we found the Caves, we discovered that there was a 3-4 mile long path that eventually lead to a much warmer area that smelled of, what we found out was, Uranium. We quickly left that room. Along the main path were MULTITUDES of offshoots and rooms sealed by Stone Doors that also seemed to have a magic seal. On each door there were words in several different languages. I speak Celestial so I was able to read what appeared to be a riddle on one of the doors. Another door (closer to the entrance) had 6 circles formed in two rows of 3. We were not able to decipher how to open this door.

The celestial worded door opened with a single word. Inside we found Stalagmites and Hieroglyphics all over the walls of Bibedal bug creatures, presumably the size of humans, doing everyday things like building, communicating, etc. It looked like a History of sorts.

We were attacked as we were leaving by a creature posing as a Stalagmite. It had a LOT of teeth in a wide mouth (which hurt...I can say from experience) and 4 Tentacles that tried to grapple and restrain us.

We were successful in defeating it and found: 420gp, Potion of Resistance (Necrotic), Quiver of Ehlonna, Wand of Magic Missiles, Dark Shard Amulet, presumably all things the creature couldn't digest that had been left from victims previously not as lucky as us.

We took etchings in this room and left. We opened another door, this one a riddle in Elvish, and found more hieroglyphics of the Bug-creatures, this time involving some where we believe they met Asgardians. We took more etchings and left the Caves.

I believed we should stick around all night to hear the Wailings but was also nervous to suggest this course of action because we were weak from the two fights and I didn't have much magic remaining. We used the Gem given to us by Theo to teleport back to Rhea and recounted what had happened to him.

Todd/Kathros
So, the group met up at the Gem Saloon for the first time. The bar keep Dan seemed a little out of place in that position, but one could not guess where he would have fit in. We were then bought up to see Mr. Theodore Keeting. We had a drink some of us did anyway. We listened to Mr. Keeting talk about the two paths to get to the caves neither was ideal as on trails the people who have gone before came back bloody. After listening to Mr Keeting, he gave us each the equivalent of 20 g per person. We grabbed some more supplies and headed out.

The first leg of the journey was fine nothing to worry about and Normythe. We had decided on the path away from the graveyard as that just seemed a lot of possibilities for things to go wrong. Glad we picked it but soon enough we encountered our first Challenge it was a Tree Monster. It has a shield where one hand would be, and a club in the other. It was resistant to piercing damage, but it was still taking some even though for some reason I could only hit it once. Not sure what happened to my excellent aim, but I was really embarrassed missing so much.

We had come upon a Arch earlier as well and everyone was looking at me like I was possibly a little off since my senses were heightened due to all the animals in the forest that would move and I would dart my head to look. I must have looked like a maniac moving my head from one area to another rapidly as if we were going to be attacked any minuet. I let my guard down after a while and sure enough we got hit by that tree creature.

Anyway, we kept walking and finally came to the mouth of the cave. We light a torch, and another person had a light as well and we headed into the cave. As we were walking in, we could see doorways and halls branching off from the main hallway. We went down for a little while and then took a serious look at one of the doors it had 5 circles on it and the circles could move from side to side but we could not get into the door so we moved on. We then after a long while came to where it was getting warmer and I noticed that same burning sensation in my nose I knew we had to get out of there immediately as there was Uranium in the air, just like at the temple we visited last week.

This tunnel was snaking back and forth, and we must have at the point ended up right under the mountain I would guess. We headed towards the front of the cave and looked at another door on the way back. This one was a riddle in Celestial. One of our party members who is good at puzzles figured it out. The door opened and we all went inside. Yeah, I know we should have left some outside in case there was anything in the room and unfortunately, we did not think about that. Sure, enough there was a creature in the room. The creature attacked us as we were leaving, but before we left, we found some hieroglyphics and some party members took etchings, and that was about it until the creature attacked.

None of us were doing all that well against the creature we would no sooner get free of it tentacles that were over the 30 feet long (the room size was 30x30 roughly) then you were grappled again. We finally just kept attacking it even though many of us were grappled. I was finally able to get free and go behind the creature and deal the final blow by charging with my sword out and ramming it into the back of the creature and it started coming out of the mouth. The creature was dead and as we took stock of everyone and everything, we found the following: 420gp, Potion of Resistance (Necrotic), Quiver of Ehlonna, Wand of Magic Missiles, Dark Shard Amulet. After picking up all the loot assumingly that the creature could not swallow, we moved on and decided to try one more door. Once again, our puzzle expert figured it out in no time, and we went inside. This time I was a little more hesitant but still went in and looked around we found more hieroglyphics and a bunch of broken furniture. We moved out to the hallway again and one of the party attuned to the necklace given to us by the city administrator for a rapid return.(edited)

Before we went back, we wanted to see if we could hear the wailing that we were told others could hear at night. We stayed for about an hour after dark and nothing, so we headed back to the city with the transposition necklace. While we recounted everything to Mr Keeting he asked to see the etchings that the others had taken and while he looked at one of them he pulled them all over to himself kind of like a kid trying to be sly not showing he really wants the.. I knew what the meant he was going to keep them he saw profit in them proving another race had lived here before. The Elves who had gifted this planet to us had told us that no one had ever lived here and now we know differently. After another drink we said our good byes and I went back to the In where I paid my fee for the things found and ate some much needed diner and then retired for the night another day of adventuring down and did not die that is a good thing at least I hope it is.