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Keys from the Golden Vault Session 3

Starring
Varrow, level 3 gnome Thief Rogue
Stayzie Diamondz, level 3 orc Champion Fighter
Elowen Fernwhisper, level 3 wood elf Circle of the Moon Druid
Chéri Powder, level 3 human Illusionist Wizard
Taveen, level 3 aasimar Warrior of Mercy Monk

The museum was closing, and Stayzie, Elowen, and Taveen walked out with the crowd. After a few moments, they creep to a back alley, finding Varrow’s rope, and begin the climb up to the skylight under cover of night.

They have no idea where Chéri is. Last they saw, he was being personally thrown out of the museum.

Turns out, Chéri’s already inside, magically disguised as Captain Bikram, and about to up to a whole lot of trouble.

Guard Captain Chéri speaks briefly with the receptionist before she heads home for the day, while the guards stay on for the night shift.

The wizard flexes his charisma and deception skills by ordering the guards around, but he’s missing key components: the keys and the pass card, the latter which prevents the alarms from going off.

When Chéri steps up to the front doors to unlock them (think his friends should be waiting on the other side), he triggers the floor trap, and a large weighted net comes tumbling down, ensnaring him (V1).

At the same time, the two statues begin to animate and walk toward him, ready to subdue the intruder.

Despite the predicament, Chéri remains in character, crawling out of the net and calling for aid, blaming malfunctioning security (while claiming to be testing the net trap).

After taking a nasty statue-punch across the jaw, one of the guards finally rushes over to help deactivate the statues, wondering why the captain has lost her pass card.

The noisy mishap draws the attention of the real Captain Bikram upstairs, who calls down before heading down herself. This gives the rest of the party a chance to move in through the attic, retrieve their equipment from the bag of holding Varrow stashed earlier, and move down to the second floor to the hallway by the privies (V15).

There are still guards patrolling the prehistoric exhibit, which leads to the gemstone wing. While the trio debates on how to deal with them. Stazyie attempts to Kool-aid Man her way through the bathroom wall, knowing the Murkmire Stone is just on the other side.

She mostly creates a ton of noise, drawing a guard down the hall. They race back upstairs, then creep down to shove him in the bathroom stall.

The guard yells, drawing another guard. Elowen distracts him with a cantrip, and Taveen grabs him and drags him into the same bathroom — which is really designed for a single occupant!

Stayzie blocks the doorway and the guards shout and attempt to attack her, failing miserably. She turns on her unique brand of friendly intimidation, and the guards surrender. The party collects their things in the bag of holding (like a train robbery, lol), then ties them up to the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Chéri only has a few moments before the real captain is downstairs. He rushes into a nearby office room (V6), and calls the nearest guard inside (the one who has been helping him), and closes the door.

We rolled on the Museum Guard name chart from the book, landing on Billie Quartermile, uptight halfling.

They can hear the Captain’s voice, so Chéri attempts to cast charm person, but Billie makes the save! In desperation, he uses color spray to blind her, grabs her keys and passcard, and drags her to another door.

Chéri learned a few things while disguised, including that the curator keeps a guardian doll in her office that attacks anyone who isn’t her.

Armed with this information, he drags the poor confused, blinded guard into the curator’s office (V5).

Sure enough, a large, creepy doll’s eyes flutter open, locking eyes with the intruders. Chéri makes sure the guard is between he and the doll while he races over to the desk.

The guard screams and tries to bat the doll away as its claws rake into her body.

Chéri quickly loots the office, and the records room, finding a detailed layout of the museum’s security system, a nice gem in a small glass case, and an interesting note in Arkin’s desk that appears to be from the Zhentarim. Something about payment owed, and a crew that will hit the museum after the gala.

Wait, what crew? Their crew? Someone else?

On the second floor, Elowen stealthily makes her way into the prehistoric exhibit (V12). Her elementalism cantrip had drawn a guard from the nearby café, and she was careful to avoid him while getting to the door and vent that leads to the gemstone wing, and the stone.

Taveen then follows, but there’s a problem. At this point, Elowen has a pass card (stolen from Arkin’s clutch), Stayzie has a pass card (emptied from the guards they captured), and even Chéri has a pass card (taken from poor blind Billie).

Taveen does not have a pass card.

When he creeps up next to Elowen, he’s right by the door to the gemstone wing. He sets off the magically hidden alarm spell, immediately triggering the nearby guard, as well as the two guards inside the gem room.

Elowen decides it’s not longer stealth time, as he summons a moonbeam spell on top of the guard. He survives, and moves to attack, shouting for help.

The upstairs party are also unaware of the animated statues, and one of them stabds in the prehistoric exhibit near the stairs. It springs to life, attacking Elowen, who nearly loses concentration of moonbeam.

Stayzie races over to help her, while the door behind Taveen opens (V13). A guard raises his club for a critical hit, but Taveen uses his superior monk skills to deflect and redirect the attack. He knocks the guard out and makes it in the room, where another guard is ready.

But hey, at least someone made it inside the gemstone wing!

And using his last spell slot, Chéri transforms into Billie, awkwardly sinking onto his knees to mimic the halfling guard as he leaves the real one behind, and closes the door.

The party is running out of quieter options. The battle rages upstairs, drawing the attention of the guards throughout the museum, while a certain screaming guard in Arkin’s office is sure to cause a distraction as well.

And Chéri has gathered lots of useful intel, but has been separated from the party this entire time!

Can our intrepid heroes grab the stone and get out before more hell breaks loose?

We’ll find out next time!

Live post-session discussion: 

Next session: Battle at the Museum!

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