Rift Walker Luminvale Campaign - Overview and Thoughts (Sessions 25-26)

Crossing the Caves of Chaos

Heading into the Caves of Wonder, the group navigated successfully to the Caves of Chaos the Wyrd Temple. Entering the first space, they found a group of robed cultists horribly moving before teleporting on a small pad out of the room. After reading some of the ancient Rift Walker text around the walls, the group realized they needed to navigate this temple by using the teleporting pads that were in each space. They navigated a few of the rooms, but quickly broke away from each other to make up, lost ground. DJ first went into the rotten temple, a room of scripture that had a large reflecting pool in its centre and a massive ritual table along the side. They too saw more of these robed cultures, hurrying off and disappearing. They learned a lot about this temple, and the fact that the cultists in here were once followers of the Maestro himself splitting over to one of the other rooms, Barnaby and Fish headed into the fungal sanctuary, which was a room of many potions in its centre, surrounded by large mushrooms that sprayed spores everywhere. Seeing more of these people disappear, Barnaby snuck a couple of the potions before heading into a room known as misty visions with gushing statues. Not taking the time to explore in here the group we’re anxious to get back in touch with DJ after finding the truth out about the cultists. DJ was the first to enter the oily throne room or known as the room of trials. DJ was excited to sit in this giant throne room that sat in the middle of this otherwise quite oily room. They realized that they were surrounded by a creature that they couldn’t really hear or see in anyway, but had left footprints in the oil. Barnaby, after drinking a couple of the potions realized he could see it and punch it while the other cultists who would ask the group to join them in their love of the Maestro and completing a ritual to allow them to escape; were upset when they were rejected by the group. A fight broke out where DJ and Fish hurried to try and take out as many of the cultus as they could while Barnaby took on the the giant ooze like creature that was attempting to engulf him. After a fierce battle, they were successful in taking them out and finally jumping into the final room. Fish had to make a choice about the seal of the Caves of Wonder known as the mystical helm filing inform they took the path of the tree, gaining the gem of alacrity and adding it to the helmets powers. The group only had one temple to go before their final fight with the Maestro. they had confirmed while here that a ritual was needed to protect the citizens of Luminvale from the Maestro‘s melancholy in chaos.

I am the Lizard Queen

The group was set to investigate the stone temple. Dorak told him that if they would’ve spent too long in this tomb that they would turn to stone like the fixtures already in there. Dorak  told them that there were three known entrances to this place. One was the slowest, but also the safest route that took them under the mountain of Iron Peaks. One was the fastest but the deadliest and they took them through the Enduring Wastes desert, and the last was the middle of the road path that took them through the city of the halls of the Under King. The group opted for the third option after making an audience with the Chief of the Stone Giants, had found out that an invading force had taken and killed the Under King himself and most of his patriots. They realized that this group was who they had met up with in Subterranova. They seem to be working for the Maestro by the way that they were wearing robes and we decked out with more equipment. Knowing  it wasn’t time for them to investigate this, but they had to push on with their journey through the temple. They were successful through their travels making their way to the tomb they came through the center room of a three-tiered area. The center room had a giant lizard named Gus, who would throw boulders at them playfully, while they navigated a puzzle of different height pillars being used to not only open the way down below, but to allow them to jump up to the area above in this area. They found a door that they needed to navigate to that had four missing key pieces that of a crystalline lizard like creature. Opening up the area underneath, they found a sand filled area with a talking stony skeleton lizard, like creature who was very loud and obnoxious, but somewhat helpful throughout the dungeon. DJ found two of those key boxes and successfully open them to bring them up to place them in the door slots meanwhile, Barnaby and Fish traveled to the upper area where After getting past Gus, they found a viney humid area where some gliding lizards attack them Barnaby was able to navigate and grab the last two boxes while Fish successfully made friends and broke the morale of one of the lizards after doing some exploring, and finding out more about the contents of the tomb itself, they finally entered, seeking out the ghost of the Lizard Queen herself, she gave them some information about the choice that was made in order to empower the final seal the seal of the Touched, Barnaby made his choice, selecting protection and gaining the Mountains Inheritance. Heading back through the Iron Peaks they engaged with the remaining dwarf kin who said that they wanted to join them in the fight up ahead. After convincing them that they didn’t need to fight for the moment, but they would call upon them when they needed to the group left off to plan what they would do for their final assault against the Maestro.

Thoughts

The Wyrd temple was super fun nd gave forth some funny shenanigans, however I noticed I over prepped here too much. I used a bunch of fun sources for inspiration and was reminded about focusing on less prep for 2 hours of play time. It felt like I needed to rush the final fight a bit. I was happy with the Stone temple, as it was entirely in initiative turn order. They had a timer set up to get all they needed done before turning to stone. What a fun temple. I am excited for the final fight. I plan to do it in person with our group which will need a little travel but I think it is worth it for the excellence of the session. I am trying to get all I need for it. Everything that we have done in this 2 segment campaign has lead up to the moment.