Shadowdark Thracia 20
Date Played: 11/2/2026
Players:
Bomb - FelineAvian
Zema Zafat - Laumry
ZitDrik - Matt
Skand - Revolter
Delmar RIP/Thimble - Apontius
Snubrash - Tor
Recap:
Curious to see what's up with the invisible wizard's tower in the clouds, the roosters made their way across the desert, arriving underneath the cover of night. Instantly, Bomb could tell that a star above the cloud stood out of place. As a sailor she memorized the star charts and knew this was an outlier. In fact it was no star at all but an artificial light.
Under the cloud, a beam of blue light shot down onto the ground. Bomb entered the beam and was first to ascend, followed by the rest. They were met by a little grey man named Zorn, who claimed to be an extra-planar agent of Ord. He's been monitoring this sector for millenia and feels that Orpheus' presence disturbs the cosmic balance.
He told the party that Orpheus was a creature of hell known as a Rakshasha. He is a collector of strange artifacts and creatures, and currently is hiding out in his pyramid under the desert sands. One could access the pyramid via a hidden cave in the desert where travelers would rest only to be teleported within the pyramid.
Zorn cut to the chase: he would match Orpheus' bounty on the Lich for the capture or elimination of Orpheus himself.
Armed with that knowledge the party rested in Zorn's tower, but awoke on the sands below in the morning. They moved back into the jungle, taking an evening to rest along the way, and proceeded to explore the sinkhole by the lake.
Using all their rope, they descended the sinkhole into the caverns below, finding themselves in a room full of mud. A wall of bubbling mud bisected the room. Half buried in that mud wall were two lizardman corpses, rotting. As Bomb and ZitDrik investigated the mud the corpses animated and attacked.
ZitDrik almost lost his life in the fight, and luckily was not cursed by the Soulless lizardmen. Likewise Bomb narrowly avoided that awful curse of Thracian Mud. The battle was grueling, for these undead were beefy and could tank a lot of damage. During the fight Snubrash showed off the might of Apollo's spear, lighting the journey for the next hour. Skand used burning hands which melted away some of the mud wall to reveal a passage behind.
After the fight ZZ altered himself to gain mole claws which he used to tunnel a passage in the mud wall. They explored south and discovered a side passage that led to a temple and a passage that led to a subterranean river.
Delmar used his climbing skills and some rope salvaged from a raft to climb the cave walls up river, turning a corner to see a natural outflow to the north. At the end of the passage he saw a pool filled with detritus and decided against further examining it, making his way back. Luckily he did not fall into the raging river.
However, when the party investigated the temple they passed earlier. Delmar examined some pressure plates beside an imposing statue, which sat in front of a stairwell leading into darkness. The attempt to disarm was unsuccessful, which triggered the statue to smack Delmar down the stairwell, ending his life instantly.
Bomb went down the stairs with Snubrash to retrieve the body of their fallen thief. They saw a room with two imposing statues of Poseidon but explored no further. Returning up the sinkhole using their rope they made their way back to Minos, encountering some lizardmen on the way. The lizardmen spoke ill of Gruk, the betrayer and shared news that the Lich was recruiting adventurers to venture into the lower levels on his behalf.
Thoughts:
I almost didn't host the session today. Earlier in the afternoon I felt the onset of a panic attack and spent the next 3 hours trying to calm down. It had nothing to do with gaming. Life's been lifing lately and I've been incredibly overwhelmed and more than exhausted.
I am really glad I went ahead with the session anyway. Not because of anything that happened in the game, but because I genuinely felt calmed by playing and socializing. For those two hours I took my mind off my problems and focused on running my weekly game.
It was honest to god therapy. I actually felt ok afterwards.
I never viewed these games as a form of self-care but I think they let me tune out the noise in a way that nothing else can. When I run, my phone is off. I disable email notifications. I "unplug" in a sense, despite running the games online.
These periods of intense stress aren't new for me. I've never coped that well with them. I can't game my problems away. I can only commit to a small number of hours each week because I have so much on my plate. But I do need a reprieve, even if momentarily. I can't take any meaningful time off. Not for a while yet. But I can spend at least two hours a week running Thracia, focusing on something entirely outside my real-world problems. It helps me breathe easier after a shitty Monday.