Game-Summaries:7/28/2017 Recollections

Recollections by Ci

On my last day at the Monastery, as I prepared my things to leave, Master Poe came to me to give his blessing on my pilgrimage. “May I ask, master?” I said,“ When I leave the temple, what will be expected of me?” Master Poe replied, “To walk the roads of the land, and use what you have learned for the needs and benefit of the people.” That road let me to the Magistery, and to this first test.

Our test began with a curious artifact that sent us to a unknown location where a voice spoke to us of destroying eyes and a beast. The meaning of the eyes soon became clear. We made our way through the dungeon fighting a few creatures and destroying a number of eyes. Along our Journey we faced a floating sword, a horde of pitiable creatures beyond both death and reason, a devious creature in the shape of a chest, an oozing cube - slow but deadly, and finally a creature with eyes on stalks, impervious to magical attacks.

Master Lee’s words “Fear is the enemy, Trust is the Armor” were in my mind this day. My Trust was enough, but only barely. The beast that would be a chest, was nearly my end… I had forgotten Master Poe’s words “the wise man is guided by what he feels, not by what he sees.”

Our impetuous Paladin Cassio rushed to meet threat after threat this day. Though none may question his bravery, as the cube of green gathered honey rolled over him knocking him unconscious, I was reminded of the story of the unfortunate gambler who had lost a finger in a wager:

"All because I was a rascal and a fool.” said the gambler. "I gambled away all the months rent from my tenants. I Bought wine for everyone and paid the flower girls for their song. There was nothing left. At last they goaded me into it. I bet my finger. Mao threw the dice. And I lost!! It hurts, Master…it hurts!”

"And what would you have won if the dice had been otherwise?" asked the Master

The man answered, "Four pieces of silver. As many as I have fingers left."

The Master asked, "And with the four pieces of silver, you would have bought more wine and the flower girls, would you not?"

The gambler nodded.

"Then perhaps with the finger, you have bought wisdom. And that would be well worth the price."

I believe we all gained some wisdom this day... for my own part, in the future I will trust not only in my own abilities, but also in that which my eyes cannot see - my heart… and that of my companions.

Recollections by Sakura no kaze

It's been a week since my foray outside the Magistery. I've been distressed since, but I must continue on and believe that things will rectify themselves. I meet a group of initiates whom I've not yet had a chance to even talk to, perfect to test our mettle in another Training Dungeon.

First let me introduce this bunch.

Cassio, the Bravaso of our bunch seemed a single-minded sort. He truly believes that everything can be solved with his sword. I will have to take extra precautions next we group together. His sort need to be watched carefully lest they destroy your perfectly crafted plans.

Ember is the oddest Druid I've ever met. She reminds me of those sorcerers that are imbued with the power of a Phoenix. Simply put, she's a pyromanic.

Ci is a simple type in his robes. This suits me perfectly well. His martial abilities are excellent and he punches as well as he swings a sword. He's a good one to know.

Finally we have another unique individual - Amon. He constantly mutters to himself, which has made it difficult for me to understand the spells he casts, but he certainly seems to know his trade. Another good one to have near by it seems. Though it seems that he's clinging to his hermit ways - I'll need to see if I can educate him a bit about society.

Back to the story!

We meet in the library and as Zanna has observed, there seem to be an infinite supply of clerks! This one is named Novel and he is just as gruff as the previous one I've met. He's utterly unimpressed by our group and after hearing our requests runs off to find the person on duty. The person on duty is a massive specimen of a humanoid that goes by the name Odinson and he is the Headmaster Brown. After discussing our desire to go into the training dungeon he informs us that he has a Special Training Dungeon for us. I can't help be a bit concerned at this point. Most of my group hasn't done anything aside from chores!

We head down and I try to pay attention to the route (it's the same, as far as I can tell), but I still don't quite recall how we reach the training dungeon altar. Yes, I'm lost again. I'm sure I'll get it down next time.

For a Headmaster, Odinson seems somewhat absent minded. If I hadn't asked him for amulets, he would've forgotten to give them to us! Additionally he left without telling the newbies how to enter (which was everyone except me). I tell everyone what has to be done and we enter the dungeon as per my last time.

"Destroy the eyes, destroy the beast" is the invocation given when we entered the dungeon. What an odd mission, but so be it!

This was a curiously windy and odd dungeon. We went down various hallways that seemed constructed purely for this purpose (duh!). I'll quickly summarize. Most of the hallways had odd floating eyeballs. Initially we thought that they would be quite powerful, but it seems any single hit on them made them explode, like a water balloon. However in some cases the eyeballs were accompanied by other various monsters.

1. Floating Sword

• Fairly easily dispatched. Amon and Ember cast a bunch of nonsense, as far as I could tell, but that nonsense is enough to destroy the eye (we didn't know yet that the eyes were so vulnerable). My flowers of doom easily dispatched the floating sword after the eye was destroyed.

2. Swarm of brainless (literally) zombies

• Not as easily dispatched as the Sword, but easier than the Mimic (see below). They moved quite slowly and I was happy to pick them off. As did others. We also learn that part of Cassio's attack strategy is to yell his name as loudly as possible. As I said earlier, he's an odd one.

3. Living Treasure Chest (called a mimic)

• If you his this thing, you might get stuck to it - as Ci found out.
• Takes a hell of a beating.
• Frozen Flowers is a fantastic spell.

4. Gelatinous Cube

• This thing is an odd massive cube of...translucent jelly like substance
• It will run you over and spit you out dead. Best to stay away.
• Cassio's goal of cutting everything down with his sword is a strategy that was met with complete failure against the Cube. As a result he very nearly died.

We enter a very large room with an alter on an 8-pointed star. We can see that there are two eyeballs left remaining (6 of the eyes on 6 of the points have been cracked). The next eye we find is next to an Illithid, who has very clearly lost his (her?) mind. I very much wanted to talk to the creature, but Amon immediately attacked. This type of behaviour is exactly why the past week was distressing to me and this continues into today. I question the so-called justice that the Magistry aims to enforce. Ember, taking the rational road, attempts to talk to the creature and it tells us that it is fine and is choosing not to attack the "water balloon" (referring to the eye). I destroy the eye and then it starts nearly yelling at us telling us that it's a superior being and that we are inferior. Clearly this thing is mad. Cassio does Cassio and charged into the Illithid, who then tried to eat Cassio's head! What a fascinating creature this thing. Very shortly after it attempts this it explodes and concusses me! See, this is why we shouldn't blindly attack everything!

This leaves us with a single eye, unattached to any odd monsters. The rest of the group surrounds the alter while I pop the final eyeball. As soon as I pop the eye, the alter unravels itself into a strange spherical floating creature with several stalks coming out of it that have eyes at the end of the stalks! Holy shit, this thing is ugly. And in a couple of seconds, I discover incredibly powerful. The two spells that we cast at it reflected right back at the respective spell caster! I had no idea my spells were so powerful! I'll have to remember never to try to do that to myself again. We revert to Cassio's method of fighting and pommel it. My trusty crossbow nails it in one of the eyes and I slay the floating bag of reflecting eyeballs and it promptly explodes into gold pieces.

It was a rather difficult dungeon, with several monsters, and plenty of gold to satisfy our needs and build up our treasury. It is rather odd that we go in to this "fake" place (though I question if this is fake or real) and we return with actual gold! I can only surmise that there is some sense of reality to this given that our physical selves are present in both the mind and body and that we do actually leave with the things that we obtain in these, so-called Training Dungeons.

Right back where we started, but with heavier pockets and with knowledge that we didn't have before.