Labyrinth of the Blue Gorgon - Campaign Notes
Session 0
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Lanmino, an elf with all the connections, Freeya the Magnificent, a novice painter and apprentice mage extraordinaire, Blotbug, a goblin witch on the run from the death cult who tried to sacrifice him to their dark god, Marlon, a thief and expert con artist, form a thieving crew unlike any other.
Due to their recent exploits, the Crew found themselves taking on their biggest job yet. Breaking into a vault and stealing a painting, the Labyrinth of the Blue Gorgon (painted by Freeya the Magnificent many years ago, or so he claims). They were asked by the wizard who gave them this job to hang the painting in their safehouse at night after stealing it and waiting for the moonlight to shine onto it. Desperate for money, they accepted the odd request.
As the moonlight shined onto the painting, all members of the Crew were pulled into it through some kind of magic. Once inside the Labyrinth, the Crew freed the Ashen Chanterelle, a slave to the Blue Gorgon tasked with guarding the labyrinth. She opened the door leading to the rest of the labyrinth for them.
They met with Lady Crucem Capilli, a winged and horned collector of curios, artifacts and art. She tasked the Crew with bringing her interesting items from elsewhere in the labyrinth and Freeya with painting a scene from the labyrinth.
After much deliberation and frantic movement, the group chose to head west toward the “Gardens”.
Marlon entered the first room to the west with a 10ft pole in hand testing for traps followed by Freeya. Soon after, Freeya found himself badly hurt and at the bottom of a 10ft pit created by the room’s moving light casting a shadow from Marlon’s body.
Marlon’s attempt to pull Freeya up using his 10ft pole failed, just as critically as Freeya’s attempt to not fall in the pit in the first place, leading to Freeya remaining in the pit, now with Marlon’s pole for company.
At this point, a dwarf burst through the western door of the room running for his life, half-clothed, bruised and bleeding. A rushing of footsteps was heard coming from behind him.
Session 1
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The naked dwarf was followed by six hooded and robed humanoid figures who were revealed to be reptilian Chameleon Women (protectors of the labyrinth?).
They attacked the Crew. Forced to defend themselves, they did so. The Crew fell into pits, climbed out of pits and maneuvered themselves using the room’s moving light to throw Chameleon Women into pits.
As they fled, the Chameleon Women spoke of the Mother Librarian (their leader?) and the need to prepare for war against their new mammalian foe.
Lady Crucem Capilli showed her appreciation for the Crew’s efforts by vigorously slow clapping and telling them to rest in the Ashen Chanterelle’s lair to the south.
When they arrived, the Crew noticed that the Ashen Chanterelle had
disappeared. The southern end of the room contained an empty painting (the counterpart to the painting the Crew came in through?).
Before settling down to rest, everyone except Lanmino feasted on Chameleon Woman flesh. Yum yum. Blotbug and Brod suffered from indigestion, upset stomachs and an unsettling feeling (for now). The rest of the Crew were spared from the unpleasant effects of their impromptu feast.
The Crew headed back west toward the region of the labyrinth known as the Gardens. They discovered rooms filled with dry but thriving plant life kept alive in the dark through some unknown magical means.
After scrounging through the garden supply shed where Brod was tortured by the Chameleon Women, Marlon, with Brod’s help, built a “Super Rake”, the head of a garden rake fitted onto a 10ft pole.
Marlon used his “Super Rake” to prod, from a safe distance, some moving vines that were in the shape of a woman’s face. The Crew later found out that these vines were mimicking the form of Zamia Torn, one of the Three Perfect Sisters residing in the labyrinth.
After Freeya’s more intimate encounter with one of these vine things, the Crew ventured south. There they encountered Germander, a friendly but wacky 15ft long gray-pink worm who enjoys reading a good book and talking about everything that he’s learned.
After discussing “the door that shouldn’t be opened”, the Saurian Empire and the Three Perfect Sisters with Germander, the Crew ventured east to explore more of the Garden, leaving Germander to read his books.
They arrived in a room with a stone circle and raised platform in the middle of it surrounded by dense shrubs on all sides with wooden doors leading to the south and east.
As they approached the eastern door, it began rattling violently and the Crew began to hear loud grunting, snorting and meat squelching noises coming from behind it.
Session 2
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The Crew avoided the snorting noises coming from the eastern door and chose to go south instead. There they found letter from L.G. and a chest with a scroll of Feather Fall and a Cloak of Avoidance fit for Marlon. The letter contained a warning for Blotbug to beware against the Cult of the Shattered Moon trying to find him and sacrifice him (again). Interestingly, Blotbug doesn’t know anyone going by “L.G.” and due to the preparation he went through prior to his narrowly escaped ritual sacrifice, he doesn’t remember why the Cult of the Shattered Moon was sacrificing him in particular but he has no reason to doubt L.G. warning that they’re still coming for him.
The Crew chose to carry the chest all the way back to the Labyrinth’s entrance (and their temporary home away from home). With Brod dragging it across the floor of the moving light trap room to avoid falling into pits. Doing so caused a chorus of clangs and scraping unlike anything the Labyrinth has heard in the aeons of its existence. Yet, no one and no thing came to investigate…
The Crew returned to the door with all this grunting and snorting and opened it from a distance by attaching a rope to the door handle and pulling. A comically small pot-bellied pig charged through the opening of the door and as it approached the Crew, it gradually grew in size until it was 10 feet tall and proportionally wide.
A few tramplings and gorings later, the Crew dispersed away from the pig forcing it back into its regular size and allowing Freeya to finish it off with a magic missile. Brod carried the pig, Obelix style, back to the Crew’s lair and the Crew feasted on its cooked flesh and converted the remains into rations.
Freeya, critically, reacted to consuming the pig’s flesh and seems to have gained more from it than just sustenance.
The Crew returned the Gardens, once again, found some strong herbicide and returned to the room with face (and now body)-forming vines. Brod poured a bit of herbicide onto the vines and they reacted poorly to it, screeching and retracting away from this room. This revealed a concealed door leading west, deeper into the Gardens.
The Crew entered the adjacent room, hearing regular deep pulsating bassy sounds and vibrations coming from the south and constant maniacal laughter coming from the west. The Crew chose to the west first and were greeted by Carnifex, a demon of chaos, banging on pipes with his steampunky wrench and, in doing so, preventing the Gardens from completely overflowing with Zoimantic plant life.
Marlon greeted Carnifex, leaving the demon curious about the Crew and giving Freeya the opportunity to, critically, convince Carnifex of the Crew’s usefulness as chaos causing agents themselves. Brod requested some equipment for causing chaos and Carnifex provided him with a bag to be opened when chaos is desired. Blotbug asked Carnifex about any particular chaos-prone opportunities in the Labyrinth. Carnifex told them that killing the Blue Gorgon would cause the most chaos possible but that he might have more opportunities for the Crew later once they’ve proven their chaos-causing worth [retcon].
The Crew moved west through Carnifex’s pipes room and found themselves in a well-lit gothic cathedral-esque place of worship with a robed man-like plant hybrid with a pope hat obsessed with performing ceremonies rushing them. Brod and Blotbug arms were grabbed by the “priest” and thus he began a ritual of some kind. The Crew could hear screams to the north: “Killllll hiiiiimmmmm”.
Brod was able to retract his arm from the “priest”’s grip and smash him with his shield. And, the sound of rushing footsteps could be heard coming from the west. Something bursts through the door.
Session 3
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- 4 hulking ghouls burst through the door followed by a “Spear and orb-wielding mummy without a spear but maybe it was a spear this whole time” (AKA the Negamancer).
- Lanmino fled the fight as it began, later revealed that he was “taken” by Levalliant G.
- the vine pope gave up trying to marry 2 PCs together and tried and succeeded in combining 2 ghouls together into a unholy Junji Ito Spiral Beast while the PCs were busy dealing with the other 2 ghouls and the Negamancer.
- Many crossbow bolts shot, gremlin-spewing bags opened, lassos thrown and successful arson attempts later the Negamancer fled while his ghouls re-perished at the hands of the PCs (with some help from the Gremlins).
- The Crew returned to their lair to recover their health and ressucitate Blotbug who almost died in his efforts to subdue the Negamancer but was stabilized in the nick of time by Freeya.
- While the rest of the crew rested, Marlon began training his ability to perform ranged backstabs on enemies flanked by his allies.
Session 4
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- Freeya continued growing really big while he slept, forcing everyone else out of the lair, eventually waking up and shrinking back down to regular size.
- The Crew ventured back to the cathedral-like holy place and found the ceremonial dagger that previously attached to the Negamancer’s staff. Freeya’s Detect Magic spell showed him that it was magical. Marlon grabbed it and tried stabbing it into the wooden altar to no special effect. Feeling, magically, repulsed by it, he handed it off to Blotbug. The dagger reacted to Blotbug’s touch and spewing dark wisps of smoke from its serrated edge.
- The Crew continued exploring west, finding another room with giant vines leading to elsewhere in the labyrinth and finding a room with a gigantic yellow rose in it. Freeya using his botanical skills perceived the danger of the rose and countered it by producing temporarily creating skunk scent glands on himself and using them to fill a flask of counter-smell. Allowing for Marlon and Freeya to poke around the flower and eventually through a direct application of fire, burst open the rose’s sack filled with the treasure of people who fell for this trap (Goblin Key, Head of a Morningstar smelling of fresh meat and some gold).
- The Crew, feeling distraught at not having yet been able to give any books to Germander, returned to speak with him and ask for his help. He told them to start by venturing north of the light/pit room and eventually they’d find themselves in the labyrinth’s library, tended to by mummy-like reptilian custodians, usually friendly than their non-mummy cousins (chameleon women, etc).
- The Crew explored the area Germander pointed them to, meeting with the oldest man alive, Sanguifluus with three swords pierced through his body. He asked the Crew to help him by removing these swords from his body because they’re causing him intense pain. But his constant coughing produced 3 gaseous beings who want the swords to remain where they are. A fight ensues.
- Through some miracle, Marlon dissipated 1 of the gaseous beings completely using a surprise attack with his crossbow. Freeya twirled and twirled spewing flames at their enemies. Brod manages to pull one sword out of Sanguifluus’s body but breathed in poisonous gas and was electrocuted a few times as a reward for his efforts. Blotbug tried and eventually succeeded in hitting one of these gaseous forms with his newly acquired dagger, leading to the dark smoke transferring from the blade to the gaseous form he hit with the dagger.
Session 5
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- The Crew survived the encounter with the gaeous Guards by pulling out the swords from Sanguiflus. Freeya helped with camel spit, Brod used his strength and Blotbug his luck, Marlon healed Brod with 1 hp
- The Crew crossed the rope bridges room using Rat to scout it then by tying themselves together with rope with Blotbug keeping the scroll of Feather Fall ready to cast just in case and Freeya prepping to cast Fixed Object a spike to stop the Crew from falling to their deaths.
- Blotbug communed with the psychic chess pieces to understand their plight. Freeya cast Fixed Object on a caltrop to give the Gorgonite child indigestion and thus expel the chess pieces it had previously tried to eat. Blotbug developed the art appreciatior/critic inside himself by being moved and commenting on the visions given to him by the psychic chess pieces.
- The Crew ventured through the black line room, Marlon and Brod were scarred by their deepest fears (destitution, and drowning respectively). Freeya and Blotbug managed to mostly avoid theirs (art critics, and wolves respectively).
- The Crew were ambushed by the chameleon women while they’re split up.
Session 6
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- The chameleon women ambush failed spectacularly with the demon they tried to summon Beelzebub turning against them. But before being stung to death by hordes of insects, they managed to take down the dwarven mountain of healthy constitution, Brod, only to have him get back up again. Levalliant G. left a letter in the Yu-gi-oh style forearm disk dueler handing it off to Freeya despite Blotbug hobbiest demonology expertise (“Just trust me bro”).
- The Crew were greeted by a group of robed mask wearing custodians caring for the dungeon and carting off an adventuring party (Brod old one). Meeting these people and talking to them unlocked some Brod Lore for Brod, clearing up some of his amnesia. TLDR Brod Lore, these are his people but he chose to go against their ways (worshipping the dungeon’s inhabitants as gods and caring for the dungeon in small but significant ways) and became an outcast.
- The Crew were shown a stairway back to the “real world”, they rested there (with Brod learning how to stand his ground and fight accurately like the pit fighter he’s always dreamed of being) and were told to not venture away from the entrance to the Labyrinth of the Blue Gorgon.
- While Marlon dreamed and pontificated on various ways of conning the dungeon’s friendly caretakers they just met, the Crew chose to re-entere the dungeon. They discovered a magical painting of a white sea and a black sun that reacted to being touched by simmering and “stealing” time from Marlon, making his nails grow before his eyes. Freeya used this painting to turn grape juice into finely aged wine (to present as a gift to a denizen of the labyrinth).
- The Crew ventured forth, navigating past the white sea, black sun painting room and entering into a gigantic ornate room with 50’ vaulted ceilings built like an amphitheater such that the gentle voice of the woman at the center of it carried throughout the room to the Crew. “Visitors, oh what a unique pleasure… Have you any news from the rest of the dungeon?”
Session 7
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- Crew spoke with Chronia Torn, learning about her immortality, her time sucky wucky powers, her loneliness and desire to learn about the party’s travels. The Crew mentioned Germander in an attempt to ship Chronia with the friendly worm and thus she wrote a letter for the Crew to bring back to Germander.
- The Crew visited Chronia Torn’s library in hopes of being able to copy a book to bring back to Germander. Freeya did so while the rest of the crew were big chillin’ and Blotbug read through “Bob’s Journey to the Magic Castle”. They met the sub-luminary busy business man Torgos Zooth, underling of the Blue Gorgon. The Crew tried to get an appointment with Blue Gorgon but Torgos Zooth simply wasn’t having any of it. But, he mentioned that if the Crew can find his sons, the Blue Gorgon hid them somewhere in the labyrinth, then he’d be willing to arrange a meeting.
- Freeya with the help of the demon Naberius learned “Non-Hostile Summoning” using his demon summoning deck and thus making it less of a risky proposition.
- The Crew ventured into the Gallery in search of books for Germander. They gazed upon fine works such as “Serious Ape” (an ape in a cage), “Skull Gate” (an arch built from hundreds of living undead goat skulls) and “Discord” (a golden apple on a pedestal). Messing about with that last one cursed each member of the Crew some good ole’ fashioned psychic damage.
- Powering through the trauma, the Crew continued through the gallery, seeing some bloody milk in a gigantic vat. Also, they came upon a group of ghoulish looking humanoids wearing rags and bearing bone knives, two of whom, Blemphin and Bon Clerk, seemed to be their leaders (they were wearing crowns) and they were enthralled by the debate on the finer points of art and specifically what they each believed their lost brethren Alex Whiteclay Mulqueen would think.
- Marlon acting as the master con artist he is managed to both unify these two factions bringing them together, right in the center. It all started with his description of one of Freeya’s unsigned/anonymous illustrations as a new kind of art “mid art” as opposed to “low art” and “high art” and bing bang boom the Crew had an “in” with these folks.
- Marlon requested a trade of information, trading this “mid art” for some answers to some questions. The Crew learned that these people have a very literal interpretation of death of the author and are cannibals who eat most of those who venture into the Gallery and most of the artists who’s work is on display there.
- The Crew continue exploring the Gallery in search of the library of the Ancient Saurids. Maybe one day they’ll find a book?
Session 8
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- As they continued to explore the Gallery, Blotbug and Brod and Freeya were deeply (negatively) affected by the work of Milo de Fretwell (specifically “You Fucking Whore” and “The Screaming Face of My Wife”)finding themselves weeping and wailing for a few minutes (Marlon was fine).
- Freeya dug through a moist sentient-ish wickerman puppet and found a moist book in there.
- [Spell failures galore, no spells were successfully cast this session. No Detect Magic, No Cauldron, No Floating Disk, life’s hard].
- Brod addressed the Cannibal Critics asking for information about Milo de Fretwell (he’s not in the Gallery and the Cannibals haven’t eaten him) and about the Library (North of the Gallery).
- Marlon spent some time building a super Rake 2.0 (easier to climb) after it broke in half when he tried to climb it last (Thanks Freeya).
- As the Crew returned from their rest, they witnessed 9 Corvid mask wearing humanoids called the “Oku” and the “Curator”, a giant-sized hand made of marble. The leader of Oku addressed the “Curator”: “Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu have foiled our plans for the last time, vile Curator.” Hearing these words, the hands began to move.
Session 9
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- The Crew watched as the “Oku” fought for their right to steal art from the Gallery by taking on the Gallery’s protector, the Curator, a gigantic hand statue made of marble.
- Initially, the Crew tried to sneak around the fight. Seeing the “Oku” put up a good fight, Freeya tipped the balance of power in their favor by using his Non-Hostile Demonic Summoning ability to summon Valefar (“Die Cop!”), a dog-like familiar demon who’s really into thievery.
- With Valefar’s help, the “Oku” shattered the Curator into pieces, while suffering a few losses (reduced with Freeya’s help). The “Oku” leader Devil-Bit Scabious expressed his thanks for helping his Crew kill the Curator, granting them a bird call whistle to use whenever the Crew we’re interested in helping out with a heist or killing God, etc.
- Underneath the remains of the Curator, the Crew found magical map of the Gallery allowing them to navigate more easily within it.
- Brod, leading the group, initially chose to use the map to navigate to Milo de Fretwell, quickly changing his mind and choosing to find the Gallery’s exit to the Library. The Crew followed the map quickly finding a man trapped in a house made of wire (An art piece by Milo De Fretwell and Xanthoceras).
- Through Freeya’s constantly surprising charismatic abilities, the Crew discovered that this man was in fact Milo de Fretwell despite him claiming otherwise. Milo also claimed if anyone were to kill him they would as a result be imprisoned in his stead. Using a Detect Magic spell, Freeya confirmed that the house was magical, that it could be dispelled and that the magic served to imprison an individual and keep them from escaping through any means.
- Freeya, addressing Milo, said: “Can you give us a single reason why we should keep you alive?”
Session 10
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- The Crew tried to kill Milo by revealing his location to the Cannibal Critics, some ferals broke open his cage and entered his prison only to become imprisoned themselves, allowing Milo to escape.
- The Crew shimmied excruciatingly slowly across his prison in pursuit of Milo but they weren’t quick enough to catch him.
- They arrived at the entrance to the saurid empire’s archive, a labyrinth within a labyrinth. With Freeya using his 4D chess skills to allow the crew to avoid getting lost.
- They met the reptile king, a friendly Elden Ring boss, proudly reminiscing about his past by inspecting his severed body parts. Freeya used his psychic pig powers to find out the story of a leg (it kicked lightning back into the sky) and, in doing so, impressed the Reptile King enough with this forgotten knowledge granting the Crew passage through to the Archives.
- The Crew met with Naja Natrix (cookbook mummy) and he led them through his office.
- The Crew patiently waited to speak with Emys Orbicularis (math mummy) who was completely observed by his studies. While the Crew waited, they were ambushed by a group of Chameleon Women. The Crew almost died but managed to fight them off with the help of Naberius and Emys, woken up by Naberius, who wiped the floor with the Chameleon Women.
- Emys let the Crew pass through to the rest of the Archives despite not having written permission to do so due to their good will.
- The Crew were beckoned over by Scripta Elegans (? mummy) puzzled by a Gate. Freeya tried to use his psychic pig powers to gain insight on the situation they found themselves in only to find himself passing out from the strain.
- Marlon brought him back from the brink of death.
- Will the Crew be able to leave Archives unscathed with many (non-moist) books for Germander?
- [level up opportunity, hand off all books except one + mask to level up, the book that you can be used to heal someone’s psychic damage during a rest ]
Session 11
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- The Crew chose to hand in their books and Milo’s mask to the mummy librarians, letting them add these items to the Archives, to level up. Blotbug rolled 1HP again…
- The Crew performed their second precarious bridge crossing in the labyrinth with Brod leading the charge.
- Brod tamed a “pet rock”, like the one Chronia Torn has, by “letting it” suck his blood.
- The Crew ventured forth propelled by the screams of the dead into a big black rose. The scent of the rose thrust the crew into heated arguments, compelling them to bring up any and all previous minor squabbles and pet peeves as if they were world ending. Freeya avoided the scent of the rose by holding his breath allowing him to uncork his previously bottled up skunk anal gland scent to wake the rest of the crew up from their stupor.
- This curfuffle was a great start to the Crew’s encounter with a big Elden Ring-esque Necromancer Skeleton Guy howling in laughter. Freeya successfully used his psychic pig powers to gain insight on Draco the Laughing Lich’s backstory and desires (he likes to laugh and thinks his unlife is meaningless).
- Freeya and Marlon standup comedied their way through their encounter with Draco the Laughing Lich who rewarded them with a Golden Shit Swirl and an Amulet of Slapstickification (presumably a bodycam-like device that Draco can see through) and with safe passage through his lair.
- The Crew searched through a laboratory finding a journal with detailed information on the various kinds of magical plant life present within the labyrinth as well as plans for releasing a “Were-Titan” imprisoned in the labyrinth.
- The Crew ventured forth into a kitchen with a pot of boiling blood stew. They noticed some immobile humanoid shadows lurking in an adjacent room but chose to ignore them.
- Brod pulled the Crew back from stepping on any pit traps in another adjacent room.
- The Crew were greeted by one of the humanoid shadows gliding towards them (on closer inspection it seemed to be in the shape of a fully kitted out retiree): “Cheerio old chaps! We’re playing Bocce ball, would you care to join us?”