"The Weave of Flesh"

used to keep track of the ongoing events of Silver's DnD homebrew campaign "The weave of Flesh". This thread will be updated after each session with the story so far.

Chapter 1: Dark Experiments

Our heroes, the Human Paladin Sir Edwin Clarke of Var-Bastrong (East coast hero) and The Human Druid, Aletris Endeis (Mythonian) approach the town of sei-serone after hearing of some troubles...

Arriving at the gates at about the same time, Sir Edwin engages the guards on duty in some friendly conversation. Doing so, he learns of frequent attacks by goblins and orcs, attacking the villagers and capturing some of them. Aletris overhears this, but opts to not investigate, he heads towards the local blacksmith to get some of his equipment repaired. Meanwhile, Sir Edwin heads to the barracks, to join the fight against the goblin menace. Reaching the barracks, he inspires the troops by using his healing magics to heal a wounded civilian in the makeshift triage area. Captain Prachet is grateful for his help, and accepts his offer of help in fighting the goblins. He informs Sir Edwin of a planned raid on the goblin camp happening soon, and instructs him to rest up at the inn. At this point, with their business concluded, both Edwin and Aletris head back to the Inn. Edwin, not used to Aletris' Aloof attitude towards him, tries desperately to strike up a conversation with him and engage with him, however, Aletris ignores these attempts.

Later in the night, Aletris leaves to pick up his repaired equipment, and explores the town a little. The church catches his eye, but after only a cursory exploration, Aletris decides to retire back to his room. Several hours later, Loud noises outside alert Sir Edwin and Aletris, and looking out their windows, they notice Captain prachet leading several guards through the street, shouting for them to follow him. Sir Edwin quickly runs out to the street, while Aletris, though curious at the commotion, stays behind in his room. Upon reaching him, captain Prachet explains to Sir Edwin that their scouts have reported a large goblin raiding party approaching the town, one of the largest yet. Sir Edwin volunteers to join in the battle, and as they reach the edge of the town, battle is joined. Sir Edwin is initially highly confident in their success in the battle, as the guards had superior numbers, equipment, and long range support, however, as the goblins began to reach the guards positions and attack them, he became unnevered. Unused to actual battle, he became terrified of the sight of the bleeding guards, and adopted a... defensive strategy, holding back from the front line. The orcs joining the battle began to turn the tides, Crumpling the guard positions with their charges. The sounds of battle alerted Aletris, who quickly ran out to aid in the defense. Attacking the goblins alongside the captain and Edwin, and causing the Bugbear watching over the battle to retreat upon seeing the reinforcements. The tide began to turn when the crossbowmen supporting them managed to take out the orc commanders, causing the goblins to run away in fear. Aletris attempted to pursue the retreating goblins, catching one of them, but two got away.

At this point, the guards tended to their wounded, Three guards had lost their lives in the attack. Edwin gave a rousing cheer and bought all of the guards a round of drinks at the inn for their efforts. Aletris scavenged equipment from the battlefield, bringing it to the blacksmith and general store and selling it to them. Edwin once again tries to track down Aletris, though fails to capture his attention. Edwin talks with prachet for awhile, and Prachet asks him to assassinate the leader of the goblins, who he assumes to be the bugbear. They both soon retire for the night.

In the morning, they once again hear commotion outside. Aletris however, is not interested, and begins to head out, however, Edwin, at this point angered at being ignored and desperate for the attention he's gained his whole life, confronts Aletris, begging him to stay. Eventually, they work out an arrangement with Edwin paying him 5 gold pieces per day to join him in his battles. They both meet up with Captain Prachet, who was talking with a Merchant who had been attacked the day earlier, his companions and items had been taken in the attack. Gathering what few men could be spared, captain Prachet announced that the raid on the enemy camp would commence. Sir Edwin and Aletris joined them, and the group of six left.

Encountering a goblin patrol in the woods the group prepared an ambush to take them out stealthily. During the discussion, Aletris snuck off further into the woods. He encountered a lone goblin, which he stealthily eliminated, and discovered a large camp with a handful of goblins and an orc. Sneaking up on them, he transformed into a Bear and attacked the camp as the main group launched their ambush. The ambush unfortunately failed, as Sir Edwin was detected while getting into position. Turning into a melee brawl, the remaining guards jumped into the fray, but the goblins, on high alert, managed to get some good hits in, and one guard perished before the goblins were brought down. Aletris, on the other hand, took down nearly all of the small camp's inhabitants by himself. Expelling some healing to help the guards, they took a short rest at the camp before moving onwards.

Arriving at the main camp, Aletris put a plan into motion to cause chaos in the camp, sending forth one guard to set fire to the tents, and moving to release the prisoners and give them weapons to fight with. Sir Edwin, however, felt enraged at his past failures, and feeling like he now had something to prove, walked into the camp to challenge the bugbear to one on one combat. Though initially afraid of him, the goblins deemed to overwhelm him with their numbers and attacked en masse. The bugbear did not rise to the challenge of the duel. Sir Edwin fought valiantly against the goblins alongside the Captain, with support from a far from magics and crossbow bolts from the guard and Aletris, however, after a short while of fighting, the bugbear was finally roused from his tent and joined the fray, alongside his two pet wolves. This very quickly turned the tide of battle against our heroes, the wolves jumped the captain while he was distracted holding off the goblins, and he quickly fell to the ground, mortally wounded. The bugbear himself focused on Sir Edwin, and alongside his goblins, brought the knight to his knees. Sir Edwin, however, managed to get a massive hit on the bugbear before falling, severely wounding him. However, he collapsed alongside the captain. Aletris, at this point, once again used his shape shifting magic to turn into a Tiger, and pounced on the bugbear. The surprise attack knocked him to the ground, and due to the hit he sustained earlier, he was unable to defend himself well, and Aletris ripped out his Jugular. Panic spread amongst the remaining goblin forces, and they all attempted to scatter as their commander fell.

Finishing off the remaining enemies, they explored the remains of the camp that weren't on fire, finding a note detailing the cooperation of a large goblin warren many miles away, and a unknown person in the nearby crypts, they also find a reasonably sized stash of gold.

Upon taking the note to the captain, the captain seemed confused. He states that the crypts had been sealed for many generations at that point, after a "Great beast" had taken up residence there with powerful magics. He didn't understand how anyone had broken in to use it as a base of operations, but thanks them for the information. Sir Edwin said a prayer over the bodies, and then they moved back to town. Arriving late in the day, Aletris went to sell off some of the equipment he scavenged, and then they both retired to their room for the day. Captain Prachet headed to the mayor's house to alert him of the note that was found, and the prisoners that were saved rejoined with their companion, though their trade goods had already been sent away from the goblin camp at that point, and were unrecovered.

Now, captain Prachet has decided to organize a party to head to the nearby crypts and investigate this unknown person and has sent outriders to the nearby settlements to warn them of the crypt and send news of the goblins defeat....

The night after the defeat of the bugbear and his goblins, Aletris finds himself in an unknown area. Surrounding him is a circular platform covered in a strange fleshy substance, with large tendrils reaching up from the darkness around him and resting on the platform. Upon moving, he's assailed by claws reaching up from the ground. Destroying these easily, he attempts to move again, only for the same to happen. This time, however, a zombie crawls over the edge of the platform, and begins to amble towards him. After he fights it off, two more crawl up and advance on him, followed soon after by a third as he transforms into a bear after taking several hits. Eventually, Aletris defeats his attackers, and a swarm of clawed hands rip up out of the floor, and begin grabbing at him. It's at this moment when everything goes black, and he hears a strange message from a disembodied voice warning him of the future. He wakes up back in the inn in the middle of the night, in a cold sweat, pondering the meaning of this strange dream... Perhaps his future adventures will be able to shed more light on this.....

Captain Prachet woke Edwin the next morning, informing him of an expedition to the crypts. Edwin hastily agreed to come with, and together they left to find Aletris. Finding him quickly, the trio left first thing, and soon arrived at a camp that had been recently erected around the crypt. There, they found Norixius and Dain, two adventurers who came alongside a host of guards from nearby towns to investigate. After hanging around for awhile, captain prachet brought the group inside. Most of the guards stayed outside to guard the entrance from any attacks by anything that might still be outside, such as goblins. Captain prachet as well. Engaging in combat immediately, our heroes fought their way through hordes of zombies, skeletons, and crawling claws. Soon after, they encountered the flesh for the first time. A giant pillar, which took up most of the room. Attacking it without question, it immediately responded by birthing undead from within itself to attack. Fighting through wave after wave of undead, and calling for reinforcements from the guard outside, they eventually defeated the pillar, burning it with flame. though, not without casualties. By this time, one of the guards had died, and all of our adventurers were worse for wear, wounded and without spells. Prachet called for a strategic retreat.

After resting for the night, our weary band of heroes hesitantly moved back into the crypts for another go at it. They cleared most of the western areas, Finding several treasures along the way. They found a +2 sword of anti-gravity in a room filled with dozens of reanimated severed hands, a sword affected by a strange reverse gravity. They found A ring, which bound itself to the flesh of Edwin, and all they know of it is it cannot be removed, and provides some kind of healing magic. They found a throwing dagger, which seems normal to them, several healing potions, a scroll of identify, and several gold.
However, during one of the last battles, during an ambush, Edwin attempted to rush to the aid of balthazar, only to put him into more harm and severely wounding him. After this, Edwin suffered a crisis of faith, Believing himself unfit to be an adventurer, recounting other times where he's failed at his job. He attempted to leave the camp, but was stopped by his comrades. After much discourse, he agreed to pray on the decision, and everyone called it for the night. Later in the night, he experiences a vision from his god, reminding him of everything at stake. The villagers, back at sei-serone, how many were killed, or kidnapped and brought here. Everyone who's relying on him to try his hardest, and be brave for them. Edwin, filled with a combination of renewed vigor and desperation, to prove himself, to to save everyone, went back alone into the crypt. Here, he approached a large metal door, sealed with arcane runes, and began to attack it. Each strike blew him back with arcane force, and brought him to the brink of death, but through divine intervention, he persisted long enough to overpower the arcane runes. He borrowed Dane's hammer, and worked his way through the wall around the door, digging his way through. Eventually, opening up a path, though Dane's hammer was damaged in the process.

Gathering everyone up from their slumber, he revealed his efforts, and convinced everyone to continue onwards and downwards, to try and put an end to the source of the evil deep in the crypt. After a quick debate on whether or not to head down into the lower levels of the crypt, they decided to head down and explore upon the result of a coin flip. Gaining initial confidence after a skirmish with some cultists, who were easily defeated, they went to press on, however, one of the cultists got away and alerted enemies further inside. A wight, and several shadows intercepted the pursuing heroes, severely wounding and draining several of them. They had to call off their pursuit, and return to the surface to address their wounds. They decided to clear out more of the upper levels for various reasons, and began clearing the remainder of the rooms. They found several treasures, including gold, healing potions, a ring, with a corrupted enchantment that allows the user to teleport the ring to any place they visualize, and a pendant with an unknown enchantment. Prachett was mortally wounded by a ghast during a fight with several flesh pillars, and was brought back to camp, stabilized. The guards have also decided to remain back in the camp. Here, they decided to turn in for the night, with little progress made in clearing out the crypt, but plenty of new combat experience. The slow slog through the undead has started to wear on the morale of our heroes.

Late in the night, The cultists ascended from the crypt, seeking to destroy those who have disupted their rituals. Attacking while our heroes slept, they dealt severe damage to the lot, but were eventually fought off, with the help of a mysterious stranger who appeared near the end of the battle and wielded magic. This stranger confronted our heroes after the battle, introducing himself as talric, and they learned that it was he who locked the lower levels of the crypt to seal away the cultists. He was currently studying the phenomenon known to our heroes as 'the flesh' in his laboratory deep within the crypts, in an attempt to learn how to create it, and twist it to his own purpose. Several of heroes seemed unsettled by this, though others, saw oppurtunity. He invited them down to his laboratory, and then turned and left. Our heroes followed him, and arrived just in time for him to open up a dimensional doorway and walk through, leaving them unable to follow him. However, They saw the room littered with the bodies of cultists. The guards, realizing how outmatched they were, left to gather reinforcements.

Progressing back through the first floor of the dungeon, they learned a horrifying truth. They saw that the bodies of the things spawned by the flesh, were themselves forming flesh creations, and the pillars they had already slain were rising back up. They vowed to put these things down for good, and went back through and cleared the previous rooms they had been in before. Advancing further into the crypts, They came across the body of a massive beholder. They speculated that it must have been the 'great beast' that originally chased the humans out of the crypt, and Seeing scorch marks all along it's body, they assumed that Talric was the one who slayed it, making him far more powerful than they originally thought. They took some time to rip off an eye of the beholder for each person, and Dane took several scales as well. Nearing the end of the first level, they decided to spend some time to cover their tracks, and used radiant and flame based attacks to clear all traces of the flesh in the rooms they passed, burning the bodies and the remnants on the floor. At this, they left to tend to their wounded and exhausted. Dane, at this point, was exhausted to the point he could barely move, and Prachet in one of the most recent fights, brought to the brink of death.

At the dawn of the next day, our group Pushed through the rest of the first floor, and discovered Talric's Lab. There, they found him peering over his work and learned more about the Flesh. Rather than an undead creation, it was a living creature, built out of necrotic energies woven together, and it Copied those around it, shaping itself in a mimicry of any nearby living or, in this case, undead things around it to defend itself. It spreads, consuming biological mass nearby and regrowing itself if not destroyed with certain types of damage. After learning more about their new enemy, they took a short rest, and norixius studied under him to learn some of the powerful magics he knew, learning the spell hellish rebuke, which was all that could be taught in that time. They also identified several magical items in their possession. They descended further into the second level, this time with Talric alongside them. There, they encountered the largest infestation of flesh yet, and after a hard fought battle against seemingly hundreds of undead, they finally vanquished them, and witnessed how powerful Talric really was, as he used multiple spells far above their level, taking legendary actions, and defeating throngs of undead with each blow. Continuing onwards, they found a hallway with an imposing figure at the end. This figure identified himself as the leader here, and the whole hallway began to shake. He, visibly angered, Demanded they leave or die. Edwin charged ahead towards the figure, and the hallways collapsed in behind him. Edwin began to fight the figure alone, before being quickly overwhelmed. He fled through the first door he could find, only to be caught by the numerous cultists throughout the maze. He was dragged back to the room he entered, feigning unconsciousness. There, the cultists began interrogating him upon his awakening. Meanwhile, the remainder of the group raced to try to find another way deeper into the crypt. Ahead, they found a room with multiple caged ghouls, which were ignored due to the urgency of their situation. Yet further ahead, they encountered numerous floating skulls, which ambushed them, and attacked them with powerful magics. Talric destroyed one instantly with his powerful racial abilities to absorb the magic out of any location, but was too worn out from the fighting to use any further racial powers. Fighting the traditional way was a hard fight, though our heroes ended up victorious, though, almost at a severe cost. Dane went down, and was seconds away from death by the time help arrived. Everyone was too wounded and worn down to continue, and Talric left to recover, forcing the rest of our heroes to turn back for the night. Aletris put the ghouls out of their misery as they left.

Starting up the sixth day, The party made one final push through the dungeon. With the arrival of some extra reinforcements, they were able to completely clear the second level of the crypts except for the final room, where the leader of the cultists waited. Before it, they found a shrine to bahamut, where they decided to rest for just a short while before ending things.

Meanwhile, Edwin, waking up from a night of torture, Bargained for his freedom, agreeing to betray his comrades. Originally intending to deceive his captors, he bargained for more power, stepping through a newly opened portal into a strange castle, where he Bargained with a vampire lord. Though, his bargaining failed, he was deemed useful enough to be kept alive, and was charmed for 24 hours. As his compatriots progressed through the dungeon, he went back to the cultists leader, and began forming plans to destroy them alongside new allies.

After their short rest, The party decided to head into the final room of the crypt, and as they moved out, they heard large explosions coming from inside. Entering, the found the vampire spawn waiting for them inside, with most of the room collapsed. Aletris quickly noticed movement among the debris, spotting cultists, and Edwin himself, hiding in the rubble. The two sides quickly engaged in battle, and though the cultists were quickly defeated, the vampire spawn called forth a beholder from a massive portal behind him. Edwin was hesitant to fight his former party, attempting to talk them down, A futile effort considering their current predicament. Eventually, he engaged the sorcerer Norixius in combat. He was handedly defeated, but Norixius lost a lot of his power in the fight, and was weak for the fight with the beholder. Prachet ended up dealing the final blow on Edwin, angered at his betrayal. Aletris, meanwhile, transformed into a bear, and charged the beholder, using his increased strength to pull it around and close the portal with the beholders anti-magic ray, sealing off the vampire lords keep. The beholder, disorientated from it's appearance inside the enclosed crypt and the immediate assault, fired off rays wildly at all that moved, to minimal effectiveness. He did manage to force Talric's retreat however, after the latter used up his most powerful spell slots fighting the beholder, and disabled many of the party.

The vampire spawn was defeated, leaving only the beholder left to fight the party. Edwin regained consciousness, and passing through the anti-magic field of the beholder, the charm over him was temporarily lifted. Feeling great confusion, he turned to his god for guidance, and recognized the beholder as an enemy. Joining forces with his old party temporarily, he fought against the beholder with them. Weakening the beholder, they caused it to go into a frenzy, disabling even more of the party, but in it's panic, it shot itself with one of it's most powerful eyes, dealing the final blow to itself. However, the beholder collapsed on top of Edwin, Aletris, and Dane, mortally wounding all three of them, and destroying their armor, weapons, and bones. Those left standing quickly pushed the beholder off of them, and cast healing magics on them. Surprisingly, not a single casualty was sustained in the fight, however Prachet and Edwin were both unconscious, even after the healing. Jim, the Legendary town guard, offered to bring Prachet back to camp and prep to move out back to sei-serone. Meanwhile, Talric re-appeared before the group, congratulating them on their flawless win.

Talric offered them a job working for him, to track down other magical creatures such as the beholder that he could study. Aletris brought Edwin back to the shrine of Bahamut that they rested at, and leaving him there, the group went back to camp to discuss Talric's job offer. Agreeing to accept it, they prepared to move through Talric's prepared portal to meet an "acquaintance" of his on the other side.

END OF CHAPTER 1.