D&D 2015-2016 Campaign Recap

Player characters:

Aluin Timbers, gnome wizard (Eric)
Jillian Highhill, hobbit thief (Karina)
Martin, human cleric (Ed)
Augustus, human fighter (Ed)

Introduction & The Walled City of Ahklop

Having "acquired" a treasure map, our "heroes" traveled by raft down the great, winding River Groob to the city of Ahklop.

The storied Walled City is situated between the mud flats of the river on its east and dense temperate rainforest to its north, south, and west.

Places to visit in Ahklop:

Guild/merchant quarter (including Thieves Guild)
Mud flats/waterfront: fishing community, brick makers, ceramics workshops, shipping/trade
Slum of the undesirables
Temple row
Market/warehouses/stock pens (including giant riding lizard auctions)
Ruling quarter (wealthy residences and potentate's palace)
College of the Learned (sages and magic users)

Hidden Treasure of Lost Ahklop

The party's treasure map led them through the forest to a ruined pyramid decorated with beehive motif. They fought baddies, avoided traps, found some secrets, and got treasure.

Interesting Discoveries:

A glowing pool in the forest with unpredictable effects, including catatonic visions and temporary invisibility
A purple-black stone monolith covered in reliefs depicting human sacrifice
A laboratory with ready-to-hatch space snake eggs
A missive, purportedly from the Grand Potentate of Ahklop City, proposing a treaty with the electric space snakes

Encounters:

Indigenous tribespeople (avoided)
Golden Spheroid (rolling spheres that delivered electric shocks)
Zomboids (mind controlled indigenous tribespeople)
Talking Giant Space Snake with Jacob's ladder electric tail

Treasure looted:

Smashed golden eggs worth 600 gp
An ancient burial mask worth 400 gp
A crucible of semi-solidified gold worth 800 gp

Memorable moments:

Eric's temporarily invisible gnome soloing half the dungeon
Karina's hobbit firing arrows in mid-air acrobatics, only to be snatched from mid-air with a Giant Space Snake fang through her thigh
Ed's fighter disemboweling the Giant Space Snake as it attempted to flee, like unzipping a sausage

Lion Barbican of the Moon Temple

The party spent considerable time wandering around Ahklop, looking for somewhere to unload the burial mask they looted from the beehive pyramid.

Jillian, the hobbit thief, made contact with the local Chamber of Commerce (a.k.a. the thieves guild), where she proposed robbing the Potentate's palace. Crookflag, the head of the guild, suggested she'll need to build her credibility before he could sanction such an action.

At the market, a new patron approached the characters: Penza the Beautiful, riding a rainbow-colored giant lizard. Penza hates Yandax the Corpulent (she spits whenever she says his name), and hired the party to find out what his minions are doing in the forest. She was particularly interested in the recovery of any written records.

Our heroes followed Yandax's cloaked minions to their base of operations in the forest. They sneaked in, found the baboon payroll clerk, put him into a magical sleep, and made off with ledger book and payroll.