DFRPG Arden Vul Session 54: The Tomb of Marius

Date:

Lunday 30th of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, fair

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, mercenary dwarf (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Fael, Druid

Onyx, Alpha Cat

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Stamelis, Head Librarian of Thoth

Many Bestial Varumani

Publius Lanlius, Oathbound Knight Commander

8 Oathbound Knights

Lepp, Adventurer

Gorlen, Varumani lift operator

2 Varumani lift laborers

4 Spearman Constructs

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Many goblins

The Plan:

• Fight the bestial varumani and explore the area behind them
• Explore the area around the surgical bay
• Explore near the behir caves
• Scry more Thothian teleportation rings

What Happened:

Ioannes hadn't spoken to Onyx in a while, so he hired Fael the druid to cast Speak with Animals.  Fael insisted they go outside the town walls where the urban sprawl wouldn't interfere with nature's karma.  Onyx complained that Wicktrimmer had been out of town too often, and his underlings at the Rarities Factor didn't supply enough variety or quality of fish for Onyx and all the cats in his town.  He also noted that Ioannes was gone through his Rug to this "Beacon" place too often, and that Pelteon was insufficiently attentive because of her own problems with some human.

Vael failed to find anything worth purchasing at Creon's pawnshop, but found a couple of folding ladders for sale at the Demmasday market, and bought both.

The group hired Thronebreaker at the Grudge Brigade, then went through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon.  After giving Akla-Chan and Basil a copy of their delve plan, they went through the Rudishva teleporter to the secure vault near the Cloister.  They crossed the Cloister, went down the secret passage, then went north and east through the caverns, until they reached the sloping passage down.  From there they went west and south to the area where the bestial varumani tried to ambush them.

This time, Vallium didn't bother with diplomacy.  He just waded in and started stabbing varumani.  More came in to reinforce them, but most were unarmed, fighting with bare hands.  Their leader had a huge club and seemed a bit more skilled, but all but one of the varumani went down under attacks from Vallium, Uvash, and Thronebreaker.  The ones that weren't killed by Vallium's flaming sword started regenerating, but he doubled back and singed them before any got back up.

Wanting to find the one that got away, the group explored the surrounding rooms.  To the south they found a room with a few chewed-up fresh adventurer corpses and some treasure.  They quickly looted then pressed on.  They eventually found the cowardly varumani hiding in another room to the east.  He didn't last long.

With all the bestial varumani gone, Vael said they should search the room.  Uvash found a secret door, and Vael found how to open it.  It led down some stairs to a room that was dominated by a pool of yellow water.  Uvash immediately drank some, despite the color, and was rewarded with a magical boon, all his combat fatigue instantly melting away.  Vael, Ioannes, and Thronebreaker then all had a taste.  Vael cast Identify Spell to see what boon each received, and it was a Shield, a Might, and a Protection from Evil.  Vallium declined to drink.

Leaving the pool room, the group found a locked door.  Vael used Glass Wall to peek through and saw a large room full of statues.  He Lockmastered the door open, and they went in and saw that most of the statues were of the great archon Marius Tricotor.  One had a lesser statue of a younger man bowing to Marius, who an inscription identified as Lucius Cornelius, scribe and confidant.

After looking at the statues for a while, the group started search for secret doors, and Uvash saw a crack in the ceiling above the central platform.  This reminded someone of a paper they had back in the Beacon.  They went back to get it and read that it said to twist the ring on the statue's hand.  They did that, and a secret trap door in the ceiling creaked open.

Most of the group went through the Rug back to the Beacon, while Vael and Vallium Levitated through the trap door, then went down a very tight passage north, then slowly lowered themselves through a hole in the floor.  There they were confronted by a squad of ancient knights, wearing yellow tabards labeled "MI".  Vael diplomatically explained that they were honorable visitors, not tomb robbers.  The Knight Commander said that honorable visitors to the Tomb of Marius were permitted as long as they didn't break anything, steal anything, or make too much noise.

Vael and Vallium explored the area, passing three closed doors and opening a door to the west.  There they found a room with eight statues of spearmen, four statues of Marius in various poses with indentations around the skull and eyes and chest, and a huge head of Marius.  They put the Rug down and let the others through.  Everyone spent some time investigating the statues and reading inscriptions and listening to the head give a magical speech.  Eventually they decided that today was not the day to figure this out, and they doubled back to the hallway with the waiting knights.  After asking permission, they started opening other doors.  One led to two sets of stairs up, one spiral and the other straight.  Another led to an empty room.  Another was locked, and the knights said they didn't have the key.

After asking permission, Vallium used Lockmaster to open the locked door.  Inside were some bodies of ancient knights, some magical armor and weapons, a key, and a few maps.  Vael announced that he could take the bodies back to town for a proper burial but he would need privacy to do the teleportation spell.  As soon as the door was closed, Vallium carried the corpses through the Purple Rug to the Beacon, but also took the key.  He went through the Green Rug to Gosterwick, then sprinted to the shop of Theopilos the Locksmith.  Theopolis was in, and Vallium said he needed a key copied immediately.  Theopolis agreed to do it immediately but charged extra for haste.  Vallium ran back to the Green Rug in the Arcane Practitioners Club, hopped through the Purple Rug back to Arden Vul, and put the key back on the table.

Meanwhile, Vael cast the Copy spell on all three maps.  All seemed very old.  One depicted the City of Arden Vul before it was destroyed.  Another showed Burdock's Valley, long ago.  The third showed the area around the Tomb of Marius.

Eventually the knights got suspicious and pounded on the door, but by then everything was back in place and the bodies were gone, so their suspicions were unfounded.  Vallium tested the key in the door, and it fit, so he gave it to the Knight Commander.

Everyone went back west and tried the spiral stairs.  They went up hundreds of feet, to a cellar room just beneath the surface, containing a Thothian teleportation ring.  Looking at their book of Teleportation Ring coordinates, Vallium theorized where this must be, but they popped up the ladder to the surface to be sure.  It seemed to be the northern island with the Donjon, which they had never visited because of warnings from Cronos's men about deadly constructs.  Not wanting to be spotted by the dragon, they immediately went back underground.

They tried the other stairs, which led up a shorter distance to a room containing some spearman statues and several fishman corpses.  The only other exit was some narrow stairs leading to a flooded area, so they went back.

After spending some time looking at the knights' equipment and comparing it to the statues in the Tomb of Marius, they decided they didn't have a good match, and would have to come back another day.  They doubled back to the area where they had fought the varumani, and found a stuck door they hadn't opened.  Vael used Glass Wall to look through it, and saw a human on the other side of the door, leaning against it to hold it closed.  He had also spiked it shut from the other side.  Some yelling through the door convinced him that the varumani were gone.  He pulled the spikes out and introduced himself as Lepp, an adventurer.  He said his group was ambushed by the varumani and he feared some of them might be dead, but he had run away and hid.  The descriptions of his companions matched the bodies they had found, so they told Lepp that his friends were indeed dead, but they would get him out.

They escorted Lepp east to the barricade that they were pretty sure led to the Varumani Lifts.  They knocked on the barricade until Gorlen the lift operator opened it.  He let them through, and asked where Lepp's friends went.  Everyone explained that someone bad had happened, but nobody mentioned that bestial varumani were involved.  The company paid Lepp's lift fees and said that he should tell the goblins at the top that the Right for Riches company sent him, and that they would give him an escort home.

One narrow and rough passage led to a hole in the floor, which seemed to go a long way down.  Vael dropped a Continual Light rock, and it fell into some water, which looked like a constructed spillway.  He cast Wizard Eye and had it explore the spillway.  The water flowed west to east.  To the east, the spillway eventually narrowed, turned northeast, and then flowed to the edge of the Great Chasm, where it became a waterfall.  To the west, it went up a waterfall, then became the Drowned Canyon.  The wizard eye spotted a Thothian Teleportation circle to the south of the river, but something destroyed it before it saw anything else.

Near the barrier to the Varumani Lifts was a locked door, with snow and frost coming from under it, and a sign in Varumani.  Ioannes used Gift of Letters to read the sign, which said "Entrance Forbidden!  This means you!"  Ignoring the sign, Vael used Lockmaster to open the door.  Ioannes went back to the Beacon to get the Boots of the North, which would provide warmth and good footing.  The group went south down a snowy passage, then west into an icy room with a suspiciously thawed fountain in the center.  There were four statues of spearmen in the corners of the room, and two larger statues of legionaries with drinking cups, pouring water into the fountain.  Uvash kneeled right down and drank from the fountain.  The water tasted bitter, and the four spearmen immediately animated and attacked.

The spearmen were very tough, but had a hard time hitting anyone.  Vallium and Uvash and Thronebreaker smashed them, while Vael cast Great Haste on Vallium and Ioannes mostly hung back and defended himself, until he had a chance to take a cheap shot on a stunned guardian.  Eventually all four spearmen were defeated.  At that point everyone except Ioannes was pretty cold, so they decided that was enough of these frozen rooms for today.  They went back to the Varumani Lifts, but decided not to pay the fare, instead having most of the group take the Rug back to the Beacon, while Vallium and Vael flew up to the Sundered Span, then hiked through goblin territory back to the Glory of Weskenim.  They asked the goblins if they had seen Lepp, and the goblins said he had gone up the stairs to the Pyramid of Thoth.  The group went up the stairs but saw no sign of Lepp, and assumed he'd gone back to Gosterwick on his own.

The group asked Bottleneck for private access to the northeastern room with the teleportation circle.  They used the Rug to bring the others back from the Beacon, then they placed the combination of tiles that the book said led to the "Ancient Hall of Set."  Vael tried scrying the gate, but it was dark on the other side.  He then cast Continual Light and Trace on a Returning Pebble and put it through.  This showed a large room, with some statues near the Ring.  The Trace revealed that the room was down and west.  Some kind of spectral figure appeared near the gate and threw the glowing rock down a tunnel, out of the room, making the area around the gate dark again.

At that point they were getting tired, so they retraced their route back to the Beacon, then took the Rug back to Gosterwick.  All the bonuses from the magic fountain went away over the next few hours, except for Ioannes's increased strength, which remained.

GM's Comments:

Two big fights, with nobody hurt.  Found a bunch of rooms, a bit of treasure, the Tomb of Marius, and a few more connections between levels.  Seemed like a pretty good week.

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for rescuing Lepp from the bestial varumani

XP:

• Exploration: 15 rooms, 1 XP
• Loot: The varumani had a decent haul.  1-2 XP depending on what they sell.
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Fountain: Ioannes got a permanent +1 ST, worth 10 XP

Next Week:

They plan on visiting the varumani market and trying to meet the varumani Thegn.

DFRPG Arden Vul Sessions 52b and 53: Behir, Varumani, and the Surgical Construct

Date:

Basilsday, 22nd of Deuterios through Lunday 23rd of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, fair

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Sister Valya "Basilisk", mercenary Halfling clerid

Significant NPCs:

Behir

Lurker Above

Gribble, Prince of the Goblin Forum

Many goblins

Dragonfly Construct

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Remagis, Priest of Thoth

Ichthelon, Mummy of Thoth

Stamelis, Head Librarian of Thoth

Vivian, Chief Priest of Demma in Gosterwick

Gray Ooze

Many Bestial varumani

Surgical Construct

2 Invisible Stalkers

Gevorda, captured Varumani

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Gorlen, Varumani lift operator

2 Varumani lift laborers

The Plan:

• Kill the behir
• Take any treasure it has
• Give the key to the cleared tomb to Gribble's keymaster
• Go back to Gosterwick and get Set's Curse removed from Vael
• Recruit a mercenary
• Go to the Rudishva Cloister and clear or secure the area
• Clear more of the area near the behir
• Scry some teleporters

What Happened:

The group gave up on outrunning the behir and turned to fight.  Vallium stabbed it very hard several times.  Uvash hit it too.  Eventually the behir decided to retreat back into its electrified mist, but it was too late, and it went down with its head still outside the mist.  Vallium tried dragging the body out of the mist, but it was far too heavy.  Eventually he ventured into the mist, and felt a mild shock, but wasn't actually hurt.  He commenced skinning the behir.  That took a long time.  Vael cast Seek Magic and detected something magical inside the behir.  Vallium went back into the misty cave and cut the behir's guts open, looking for whatever magic Vael had spotted.  He came up with a magic gem and spotted several other gems while he was in there.  At that point he decided that where there are several gems there might be more, and spent an hour completely cutting the behir's digestive system apart.  That disgusting job found a few dozen more gems, plus a fancy comb and a ring.

Vael cast Seek Magic again and said there was more magic a few yards south.  Vael followed Vallium into the misty cave, where the electrical shocks were now less severe.  He spotted the source of the magic, a small golden statue of a camel.  They took that, searched the cave a bit more, and found nothing else.

They went back west to the cave full of (mostly) giant rat corpses, which they assumed was the behir's pantry.  They sorted through the disgusting mess but didn't find any treasure.  Vael cast Seek Magic again and spotted something south of the electrified misty cave.  After some circling around they found an old skeleton in corroded red mail, and a magical mace and a pouch full of coins.  They looted it.  They found a rough passage heading down and followed it to an area they had previously explored, south of the Cloister.  Having connected their maps, they went back up.

Heading through a worked room leading back to the Red Bridge of Set, a Lurker Above hidden on the ceiling decided to drop on Vael and then constrict him.  This was fairly effective, gravely wounding Vael but not quite killing him.  Vallium and Uvash started hacking at the creature to try to kill it without hitting the part with a wizard-sized bulge.  Ioannes tried to blindly heal Vael through the creature enveloping him.  Vael was still just conscious enough to cast a Blink spell, and blindly teleported himself out of the creature.  He ended up about three yards to the south, and immediately passed out.  Vallium and Uvash hacked the Lurker Above to bits, then Ioannes and Uvash healed Vael.  Remembering the behir, Vallium cut the Lurker Above apart, and was rewarded with a small, corroded coronet inside its gullet.

Both clerics stepped through the Teleport Rug, then Vael and Vallium Levitated over the chasm to the Red Bridge.  They put the Rug back down so the clerics could rejoin them, and everyone walked back north.  They stopped back at the tomb they had looted before, where Vallium decided to cut the marble and gold and lapis head off the Set animal statue they had destroyed.  It took three tries, and each time Vallium got a lightning bolt for his trouble, but none of them hurt him very badly, and eventually the head was severed.  It was over 300 pounds, but Vallium was strong enough to roll it onto the Teleport Rug, then deadlift it and say the command word while holding it, then roll it across the floor of the Beacon while telling Basil to stay away from it because it might shoot lightning bolts.

With the tomb's last known treasure secured, they went back to the Goblin Forum and gave a key to the tomb to Gribble's keymaster.  They then headed up the stairs to the old Temple of Set, then headed to the caves north of the temple, but looked carefully for spies before taking their secret route to the Cloister.  Sure enough, they found a dragonfly construct hovering in one of the northern lobes of the cavern, watching them.  They decided not to take their usual route, and instead doubled back through the Temple of Set to the Temple of Thoth.  Vael asked Ichthelon if he could remove the Settite curse, but Ichthelon said that sadly his clerical abilities had not yet returned and he had not yet received an answer from Thoth.  They went back through the Temple of Set, back down to the Forum, and back south to the behir caves.  There they used the newly discovered route down, and then navigated north and west through a few Rudishva iris doors to reach the Cloister without passing the dragonfly construct.  From the cloister they went to the Secure Treasury and used the Rudishva teleporter there to return to the Beacon.

From the Beacon they used a Teleport Rug to return to Gosterwick, where Ioannes immediately took Vael to the Temple of Demma to get a Remove Curse.  Vivian, the chief priest, perhaps noting Vael's extremely expensive robes, noted that the Pillar of the Community Level Donation for Remove Curse had increased to $1000, and that this money would be used to help dozens of poor children.  Vael whined while paying the money, and Vivian removed the curse, so Vael was no longer compelled to zap someone (or himself) every hour.

After a day of resting and identifying some of the loot they had taken from the tomb and the behir, the group decided to head back to Arden Vul.  They visited the Grudge Bridage headquarters and hired Basilisk, the halfling cleric.  They went back through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon then through the Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister.  They re-searched the whole cloister area, wanting to make sure they didn't miss any loot, in case Kerbog Khan's dragonfly spies got in and found something they'd missed.

In the auditorium room, Vael found a previously unseen button on the arm of the central chair, which caused images to appear on view screens around the room.  The first image was some kind of underground pyramid, with amphibian creatures with spears standing on it.  The second image was a large underground Rudishva chamber containing two very large and vaguely draconic-looking pieces of equipment, one in the center of the room and another off to one side.  The room also contained a man-sized spherical construct, levitating around.  The third image was another Rudishva chamber, this one containing several vertical coffins, some of them broken open, others with creatures apparently inside, but with details impossible to see.  He found a couple of other less interesting buttons.  One controlled some lights, and the other amplified his voice.

In the library room, they had already taken everything small, but there were still a couple of large GnuCoder data readers, which were powered off and inoperable.  They were too large to lift or move through a Teleport Rug, so they left them.  Vael used a charge on the Wand of See Secrets then dashed around the whole Cloister area again looking for secret doors, but didn't find any beyond the one they already knew about.  They left the Cloister thorough the secret door, then went north and east to a room they hadn't explored before.  They found it has two exits, a passage leading down to the northwest and another passage leading down to the southeast.

They took the passage down to the northwest.  After a long descent, they ended up in a cave with a scary amphibian statue and three exits: east, west past the statue, and up to the northeast.  In front of the statue was a fresh human body, with a pouch.  They looted the pouch of some coins and a scroll.  They explored east and found the passage ended at a huge chasm.  Far down and south they spotted a brightly lit garden hanging in the chasm, so they realized this was the Great Chasm.  Back to the west, they found a room with a pool containing some thrashing multi-colored slimes.  They gave the slimes a wide berth and contined south, but were ambushed by a gray ooze.  The ooze didn't survive long, but it corroded Vallium's and Uvash's weapons a bit.  Vael wanted to take a sample of ooze, so he borrowed Ioannes's surgical kit, put some ooze in a glass vial, then cast Repair to fix the damage to the kit.

Further south they heard some rough grunting in Varumani.  They advanced toward it, with Vallium brandishing their Varumani passport.  A large number of varumani gathered, most of them naked and unarmed, one with a huge club.  The one with the club looked briefly at the passport then told everyone to attack.  The group didn't want a war with the varumani, so they defended themselves but avoided offensive action.  Sister Valya stunned the leader and another aggressive varumani in the front with Kiai shouts, and then everyone withdrew to the north while the varumani were confused.  The varumani did not follow them into the room recently occupied by the gray ooze.

The gray ooze room had another exit, a passage sloping down that both Vael and Uvash noted as incredibly well dug.  The passage was a perfect circle, like something that would be found in a dwarven palace, not in a random cavern.  The passage went down a long way.  There was a crack in one side leading to a (less perfect) side passage sloping up, and then the passage led into a Rudishva-architecture room, containing many triple bunk beds.

They searched the room, but it contained only the bunk beds and some empty cabinets.  There was an iris door on the far wall.  After a lot of discussion, they decided to advance through the iris door.  This led to a Rudishva hallway.  There was a passage to the right, a closed iris door ahead, and a propped half-open iris door to the left.  Through the open door was a strange room, with an unconscious varumani strapped to a table and surrounded by some kind of semi-transparent gel,  a construct with multiple arms leaning over the varumani, and a couple of high-tech varumani consoles.

After a few attempts to speak to the varumani and the construct, they entered the room, at which point Vallium was ambushed by two invisible stalkers.  Sadly for the invisible stalkers, his armor was mostly impervious to their attacks.  A fight began, with Vallium and Uvash fighting creatures they couldn't see but which couldn't really hurt them.  Sister Valya, whose bat familiar gave her sonar, could make out the outlines of the stalkers well enough to kiai stun them, while Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium and Uvash.  Vallium and Uvash then started hitting the stalkers much more effectively, while Vael piled on with Create Fire to singe a stunned Stalker.  At some point the surgical construct decided to join the fray and tried to stab Vallium in the eye with a needle, but Vallium parried the attack, then started smashing the construct.  After a bit, both stalkers were dismissed and the construct was broken.

Vael looked at the consoles to try to see what was happening with the varumani.  He was able to read a few Rudishva glyphs, then called Akla-Chah on the command bracelet to try to get her input.  She said that she was a psychologist, not a surgeon, but that, based on classes she had taken and hospital-themed holographic entertainment she had viewed, this sounded like a surgery chamber, and the gel around the Rudishva was probably medicaderm, which Rudishva used to prevent infections during surgery.  Vael and Akla-Chah discussed the glyphs on the consoles, and decided that one console controlled the chambers beyond iris doors to the north and south, and the other dealt with the equipment in this room.  There were two buttons referring to permeability, so Vael tried one, and then was able to push his staff through the gel and contact the varumani.  He unstrapped the varumani, and then Vallium pulled the varumani off the table and set her on the floor.

Sister Valya cast Awaken on the varumani, who instantly woke up and then said she needed to kill the Khan.  Some questions revealed that her name was Gevorda, and that she had come to make a deal with the Khan, but he had instead knocked her unconscious with a spell and kidnapped her and had his disgusting construct do medical experiments on her without her consent, so now she had to kill him.  Vael said that sounded like a good idea but maybe she should slow down and plan.  Gevorda reluctantly agreed that, since the Khan was an archmage, she should probably find another sword and some more armor before she killed him.  She asked them to show her the way back to Varumani territory so she could re-equip.  They described the hostile varumani they had met, but Gevorda said those sounded like renegades, not proper Thegn-following varumani, and recommended staying away from them.  She asked to instead be taken to proper varumani territory, or the varumani lifts that led to it.  They agreed, but asked if she knew the Thegn and if she could put in a good word with him for rescuing her.  She said that of course she knew the Thegn, all proper respectable varumani knew the Thegn.  While Vael talked to Gevorda, Vallium grabbed the wrecked construct and carried it through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon.

They all headed back up the suspiciously perfect passage, then north and east to the Great Chasm.  There Vael told Gevorda that he could cast a Flight spell on her, but it would only last a minute, so she should fly straight to the floating garden.  Gevorda agreed.  She tested the Flight for a few seconds in the passage, then leapt out into the cavern and flew toward the floating garden.  But then she unexpectedly veered to the west side of the cavern.  Vael and Vallium, moving more slowly with Levitation, eventually caught up with her there.  She was at a varumani lift station, talking to the operator of the lift, telling him to lend her his sword and armor because she didn't want to show up in Varumani territory naked and unequipped.  He operator eventually agreed and started taking off his armor.  After she put it on and strapped on his greatsword, she got on the varumani lift (without paying) and the varumani laborers turned the winches to lower her to the varumani level.

At that point the company decided to retrace their path back to the Cloister, then took the teleporter back to the Beacon.  When they got there Vael decided to play with more of the Rudishva equipment they had discovered, and managed to figure out how to work a Rudishva dart thrower without hurting himself or anyone else.

GM's Comments:

There was a fortune in gems hidden inside the behir's digestive system, and the group never would have found them except that one of them was magical and Seek Magic found it.  Some goblin butcher almost got very rich.

It was amusing that after they spent months looking for a varumani passport, the second group of varumani who saw it did not respect it at all and attacked them anyway.

Things seem to be escalating quickly with Kerbog Khan, from "we don't want his dragonfly spies finding our base" to "it appears he kidnaps varumani and does medical experiments on them without permission."  

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for rescuing Gevorda from the surgical construct

XP:

• Exploration: 12 new locations in the first session, 8 in the second, 2 XP total
• Loot: Lots in the first session, little in the second.  Probably 2 XP total.
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: Probably 5 XP

Next Week:

They're planning to fight the renegade varumani who didn't respect their passport.  Then they will explore that area, then more of the Rudishva area around the surgical bay.  If time remains they'll explore more around the behir caves, and maybe test some teleporters.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 52a: Ichthelon and the Temple of Thoth

Date:

Basilsday, 22nd of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, fair

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Significant NPCs:

Freydis the Stern, Lady Alexia's steward

Lady Alexia Basileon, ruler of Gosterwick

Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Stamelis, Librarian Emeritus of Thoth

Dragonfly Automaton of Kerbog Khan, archmage

Many goblins

Remagis, priest of Thoth

2 Guardians of Thoth
Gribble, Chief of the Goblin Forum
Dworm, Goblin Forum guard and food merchant
Yoburra, Varmani ambassador to the Forum
Several wights
Many ghasts

Many ghouls

Stone Golem of Set
Several mummies
Ichthelon, mummy and priest of Thoth

Behir

The Plan:

• Give the (second) Tablet of the Beacon to Lady Alexia
• Bring food to the Goblin Forum
• Finish clearing the tombs southeast of the Goblin Forum
• Use See Secrets in the cleared tombs
• Explore west and south from the tombs

What Happened:

The Right for Riches company decided to return the second Tablet of the Beacon to Lady Alexia without disabling it first, but without giving her any documentation.  They resolved to go back to where they found it and destroy all the frescoes on the walls that gave clues about finding the Beacon.

They all walked over to the Azure Keep and told the footman they had something important for Lady Alexia.  He put them in a waiting room until Freydis arrived, and they told Freydis they had found another of the Lady's Regalia, so Freydis sent a page to get Lady Alexia herself.  Lady Alexia was impressed by the Tablet and let Vael show her which button turned it on.  She asked a lot of questions about where they found it and if they knew more about it.  They were honest about finding it in a secret room to the northwest of the bottom of the Great Chasm, but didn't share any secrets about the Rudishva or the Beacon.  Lady Alexia paid a large finders' fee for recovering her Tablet, and also paid for the ebony box it came in, and for both signet rings inscribed "MT", which she thought might actually have belonged to Archon Marius Tricotor, based on where they were found.

With the reward in hand, they returned to the Arcane Practitioners' Club, where Ioannes cast Bless spells on Vael and Vallium then had his power item recharged.  They then went through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon, where Basil awaited.  Basil suggested moving the purple Teleport Rug to Akla-Chah's room to simplify communication, and the company agreed.  Stamelis asked if he could be taken to the Temple of Thoth to check on Remagis, and the group agreed, though Vael asked Stamelis to keep the secret of the Beacon.

Everyone went through the Rudishva teleporter to the Secure Treasury, through the Cloister, then through the secret passage to the slime room with the hole leading up to the cavern near the Temple of Set.  At that point both clerics stepped through the Rug, and Vael and Vallium Levitated up.  As they emerged from a secret door into the cavern, they spotted and were spotted by a clockwork dragonfly construct.  The dragonfly flew up to them, and a human-ish voice identifying himself as Kerbog Khan spoke to them.  He congratulated them for finding that secret door, which he had not previously known about.  He mentioned that he was an archmage and could sell information or spells or even teleportation, but all deals must be sealed in blood.  Vael tested Kerbog Khan's knowledge by speaking in Rudishva, and Kerbog Khan seemed to understand it.

When the dragonfly departed, they put the Teleport Rug down so the clerics could rejoin the party, then everyone went south through the Temple of Set, then east to the Temple of Thoth.  There Remagis had done quite a bit of restoration work.  He warned them not to enter without a holy symbol of Thoth, as the newly awakened Ibis Guardians of Thoth were somewhat hostile to those without one.  The goblin guards handed them some cheap wooden Guest Holy Symbols to brandish, while Remagis showed them around.  The pool that had formerly contained a Slime Kraken, then cloudy disgusting liquid, now seemed to hold pure clean water, and Remagis said it had healing properties.  He had worked out a deal with Bottleneck and the goblins of Upper Goblintown, exchanging healing for food.

Remagis and Stamelis started conversing in a secret Thothian language, that Vael was able to understand because of the Rudishvan Command Bracelet's translation ability.  Remagis said he didn't know where the statue's eyes were, and asked if Stamelis knew.  Stamelis did not.  Vael cast Seeker for the location of the eyes, and detected that they were in one of the formerly crocodile-infested pools in the Temple of Set.  He followed up with Trace to track the exact location, then the group doubled back to get the gems.  Vael pointed to the correct spot, and Vallium dove in to grab a leather bag.  Vael opened it up, revealing two huge sapphires.  He pulled one out to get a better look and received a minor shock.  After a brief discussion, the group decided to give the gems to Remagis rather than selling them.

Returning to the Temple of Thoth, Vael gave the bag with the eye sapphires to Remagis, who was overjoyed.  He tried climbing the statue to replace the gems, but it was a difficult climb.  Vael cast Flight on Remagis, who flew up and replaced the eyes.  At that point all of the clerics felt like the sanctity level of the temple had increased.

The group went back west through the Temple of Set, then down the Sighing Stair to the Goblin Forum.  They had a brief discussion with Gribble, who said that he would assign one of the rooms for their use, before goblins claimed them all.  They then spoke with Dworm, who said the food was still selling, some to goblins and mostly to Varumani.  They then went to talk with the Varumani ambassadors.  This time Yoburra had one of his assistants deal with them.  Asked if they needed more food, they said yes.  Asked if they had a preference, the Varumani said they liked goat.  The group went back to their newly assigned room, then took a purple Teleport Rug back to the Beacon and a green Teleport Rug back to Gosterwick, and bought a live goat at the Grain Hall.  They carried the goat back through the Teleport Rugs to the Forum, where one of the goblin food merchants immediately offered to buy it, but the Varumani outbid him.  The Varumani put the goat in an unused room and closed the door, saying a runner would be summoned to take it to Varumani territory soon.

The group went south from the Forum into, then east to the room labeled "Dead Inside."  The door was, surprisingly, unlocked.  They headed east, then north, and found a bunch of sarcophagi and a huge black stone statue of a Set animal, with a white marble head, golden ears and snout, and lapis eyes, holding a golden ankh and a silver flail.  Uvash cast Sense Spirits looking for undead in the sarcophagi, and didn't find any.  The group explored east past a bunch of burial niches.  They found another group of sarcophagi, and again Uvash cast Sense Spirits.  This time he registered some mummies and wights inside some sarcophagi, and a bunch of ghouls and ghasts hiding behind sarcophagi.  As he warned the others, the undead jumped out and attacked.

A long battle began.  Vallium waded into a swarm of undead, hacking them down, then occasionally using the combination of Boots of Levitation and the Ring of Free Action to pop out of the swarm and get them all on one side of him.  Uvash fought several more, and eventually got surrounded.  Vael cast Wall of Lightning around Uvash and the ghouls and ghasts, then used Blink Other to pop Uvash outside the wall, leaving the undead trapped there.  Eventually, all of them tried breaking through the Wall and got severely shocked.  Uvash also managed to knock a couple of ghouls back into the lightning for extra damage.  There were enough ghouls that some broke through to Ioannes, who killed a couple.  Vael Blinked away from the ones that attacked him, and eventually used Larel's Cloak to become invisible.

As the fight continued, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps from the west.  Eventually, the Set animal statue they had seen earlier entered their light radius, now animated and hostile.  Vallium and Uvash engaged it, as it swung its flail.  The statue was quite tough, but several blows from Vallium's armor-piercing sword eventually took it down.

With all the visible undead finished, Uvash cast Sense Spirits again so they could mark exactly which sarcophagi contained undead.  One had two mummies, another had one mummy, and another had a wight.  The group formed up by each sarcophagus with weapons ready, then had Vael used Apportation to pop off the lid, then quickly attacked the supine and not fully awake inhabitants.  This was very effective.  Once all the undead were finished off, they set to looting all the sarcophagi and putting all the treasure into Larel's Sack, then, when that was full, took it back to the Beacon, using the purple Teleport Rug.

Vallium noted some runes on the Set statue's leg.  Vael took a close look and determined that there were four runes and that they could be arranged in various orders.  He tried a random order, and the statue gave him the gift of being able to zap people once per hour.  Unfortunately the gift was not optional, and Vael felt compelled to zap someone.  With no enemies nearby, he tried zapping an inanimate object, but that wasn't good enough and he ended up zapping himself.  Ioannes healed him.  Vael also picked up the statue's magical flail, which shocked him.  Ioannes healed him again, and Vael used Apportation to pick up both the flail and the ankh without touching them.  He took them back to the Beacon through the Rug, and warned Basil not to touch them.

The group went back west to the burial niches, and looted those as well.  They then returned to the first group of sarcophagi and also emptied those.  They went south to the group of sarcophagi they had found but not completely looted a few weeks before, and found that someone else had completed the looting.  All the southern sarcophagi and burial niches were empty.

They continued southwest to the sarcophagus that was chained shut, that they had determined contained some kind of undead.  The occupant heard them and started scratching and pounding on the lid and asking to be let out.  Vael used Lockmaster to unlock both chains, and they warily removed the lid.  Inside was a mummy, but this one did not attack.  He said his name was Ichthelon, and that he was a priest of Thoth who the Settites had kidnapped, used for some horrible ritual, and imprisoned in the sarcophagus.

After some discussion they decided to disguise Ichthelon to make it not so obvious that he was a mummy, then take him to the Temple of Thoth and let Remagis and Stamelis deal with him.  On the way out of the tomb, they removed the "X" on the floor and the "dead inside" sign, noting that the area was now safe for goblins.

Wanting to explore a bit more, the group headed back down to the Forum, and went south again.  They bypassed a spiked-shut door on the west of the hallway, deciding it might contain something dangerous that they didn't have time for today.  They went all the way south to the Red Bridge of Set.  There, both clerics went through the Rug, and Vallium and Vael Levitated west to the edge of the chasm, then northwest to a previously unexplored area.  There was a pool of clear water there.  Vallium swam around in it a bit, but didn't find anything.  They followed a passage north.  North from there was a room containing many giant rats, so they didn't go that way.  West was a cavern holding many bodies, mostly rats, some other creatures.  East then south was a very misty cave.

Suddenly, out of the mist came a huge cone of lightning.  A critical hit on the party!  Everyone except Vael had their Luck, so everyone except Vael averted the critical hit.  Vael was injured, but not too badly.  The group decided to flee.  They all ran west and south, with Vallium acting as rear guard.  The creature responsible for the lightning attack emerged from the mist.  It was a behir, a huge multi-legged draconic beast, and it breathed lightning again, hitting everyone except Ioannes, who was fully around the corner.  This time, it failed to achieve complete surprise, so everyone partially dodged the cone of lightning.

At that point we were out of time, so we paused in mid-combat.

GM's Comments:

The big fight against many ghouls and ghasts took a while, but both Vallium and Uvash have heavy enough armor that ghouls and ghasts have a hard time hurting them, so it wasn't actually very challenging.  The Set statue was more challenging, but there was only one of it, and it didn't reach them until the undead were mostly finished off.  Using Sense Spirits to find exactly which sarcophagi contained undead made defeating those ones pretty easy.

The PCs had heard that Lella and the Rippers had a map to a tomb, and later that they had made a big score and sold some of the treasure to the merchants in the Forum, but now they know which tomb that map led to.

The players pressed their luck, trying to explore a few new rooms at the very end of the session, and got a fight they didn't want.  Fortunately the behir rolled poor damage on its surprise breath attack, and nobody failed their stun check.

Achievements:

None

XP:

None, stopped in the dungeon.

Next Week:

They plan to fight the behir, search for treasure, and go back to Gosterwick.  They would like to spend a day identifying treasure and fixing Vael's Gift from Set, then continue clearing the area south of the Forum.  If they clear a path all the way to the baskets on the cliff face, they would next scry some Thothian teleporters.  Finally, they would like to return to the Cloister area and make sure they got all the loot, since Kerbog Khan's dragonflies would probably be exploring there.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 51: The Vengeance Aspect

Date:

Basilsday, 15th of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, rainy

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Remagis, un-petrified ancient Thothian priest

Two tenebrous worms

Three Imperial stone guardians

Several feral cats

Vengeance Aspect

Many ghouls

Several chasm cephalopods

3 Wights

3 Ogres

Many goblins

Gribble, Chief of the Goblin Forum

Dworm, Goblin Forum guard and food merchant

Galadnor, Half-Elven merchant

Yoburra, Varmani ambassador to the Forum

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant of the Glory of Weskenim

The Plan:

• Travel to the Rudishva Bastion using the Rudishva teleporter in the Beacon
• Travel north from the Bastion along the floor of the Great Chasm, following Temrin's map
• Recover the second Tablet of the Beacon
• Clear more rooms near the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

Vael took Remagis to Gosterwick, where he could practice his broken Archontean on various shopkeepers.  Vael gave Remagis some spending money, which he spent on holy water, cleaning supplies, food, and several simple wooden holy symbols of Thoth.

The Right for Riches company gathered in the Beacon, then used the Rudishva Teleporter to the Bastion, using Salamander Amulets to walk through the fire trap unharmed, then using Teleportation Rugs to bring the people without Salamander Amulets through.  The group walked to the entrance to the Beacon, where Vael used the black command card and the Rudishva command console to open the secret door and set the Rudishva Point Defense Arrays to "don't shoot anyone with a Rudishva ID" mode.  Everyone went out through the secret door, and Vael used Apportation on the big red button to close the door behind them.

Vael cast Shape Earth to open a hole from the cave leading to the Bastion into the wider Great Chasm floor.  He cast Bracteros Effect on a Continual Light rock to render its light invisible to those far away, and then the group hiked  north.  They scrambled down from a plateau to a natural floor, into the western edge of a giant mushroom grove.

There they were ambushed by two tenebrous worms.  The worms failed to achieve ambush, and Vallium and Uvash hacked the worms apart, while Vael and Ioannes stayed back.  The worms' poisonous spikes didn't manage to hurt anyone.  Uvash was curious as to the nature of the poison, but not enough to risk taking a sample.

The group continued north and saw a raised pediment, with a couple of ballistae sticking over the edge.  They warily climbed some stairs up to the pediment, and were charged by three Imperial stone guardians, like the ones that had been guarding the Beacon.  Once again, Vallium and Uvash fought the enemies, while Vael and Ioannes hung back.  There was a fourth stone guardian that was intact and appeared magical but was completely inert.  The group decided to leave it alone.

Exploring the pediment, they found a few other sets of stairs down to the cavern floor, and an Archontean teleportation circle in the northwest corner.  They also found a crack in the western wall leading to a natural passage, as Temrin's map indicated.

The passage opened into a long room with the ceiling supported by columns.  There were many old, burned corpses scattered around the floor.  One corpse looked newer than the others, and had some magical mail armor and a pouch.  The group quickly looted that corpse, then they followed their map and went through a door to the north.

Beyond the door was a passage narrow enough to require squeezing through.  It led to a room, which contained a sand table with some lead toy soldiers.  Under the sand table was a chessboard and a lacquered box containing some fancy Archontean chess pieces.  There was a huge fresco of Marius Trocotor and some of his comrades along one wall, and a pile of cloth in one corner.  The cloth started moving.  Vael used a Whirlwind spell to blow the cloth away, and a pile of cats emerged from the cloth, ran in random directions, and hid.

After taking everything that looked valuable, they searched for a secret door on the western wall where the map said to go, and found one, but it required a one-inch rod to open.  Vael reached into Larel's Sack and produced a rod of the right diameter.  This revealed a narrow passage, ending in another similar secret door that opened the same way.

Beyond the secret passage was a room containing a camp bed, a simple desk, and a fancy ebony box on a pedestal.  The box contained a Tablet of the Beacon, identical to the one they had previously found in the Bastion.  It also contained an ancient Archontean instruction manual for the Tablet, though this didn't have any information they hadn't already figured out.  There was a fresco on the wall showing three obelisks and a hole opening in the ground.  Once again the group saw that this helped them solve a puzzle they had already solved.  Rifling through the desk found a couple of gold signet rings with the initials "MT", several historical books about various Archons, and a list of twenty Thothian teleportation addresses and the rooms they led to.

After taking everything that looked valuable and portable, the group doubled back.  When they reached the room with all the corpses, they saw a ghostlike figure with short hair.  It was a Vengeance Aspect, a particularly terrifying type of ghost.  The ghost started pointing at corpses, which became ghouls.  It then pointed at the party and blinded all of them.  This began a long fight, which was made more difficult by nobody being able to see.  The ghost threw some fire bolts at the party, but three of them were wearing Salamander Amulets and Vallium was wearing a lot of armor, so they weren't as effective as they could have been.  It also summoned a Symbol of Death on the floor, which ended up killing a ghoul rather than a PC.  Vael managed to drop a Dispel Magic on Vallium, which dispelled the blindness on him and let him fight more effectively.  Vael tried several more Dispels but failed to make anyone else not blind.  He did manage a lot of collateral damage, taking out his own Levitation (leading to a fortunately very short fall), Continual Light, Bracteros Effect, and Bless.  Vallium killed several ghouls, and Uvash killed a couple.  While blind, Ioannes managed to cast Affect Spirits on Vallium's sword, which let him injure the ghost.  The ghost was still hard to hit due to its spectral quickness, but Vallium eventually managed a solid hit to slow it, then a few more hits to kill it.  When the ghost was destroyed, all the ghouls collapsed to the floor and everyone could see again.

Ioannes healed Vallium, and then everyone searched all the corpses, finding nothing.  The group explored west, finding a corridor that sloped up.  They went back and explored to the south, finding a room with an altar of Sekhmet, with a blazing magical flame.  In front of the altar was a charred corpse wearing Imperial field plate, with a longsword at its feet.  There were several other charred lumps in the room, each with some ancient gold and silver coins nearby.  After looting everything they could find, the group explored a few other nearby rooms, finding some minor treasure.  They then searched for secret doors and failed to find any.

With the area looted to their satisfaction, the group took the ramp up to the west, which led to a small chasm.  Vallium flew out using his Boots of Levitation to explore it, and was attacked by several chasm cephalopods.  He quickly killed one, and the others decided that this was not an easy meal, and flew away.

The chasm had several exits, with one to the south leading to a room featuring three plain sarcophagi.  Vallium flew back to the group, and they used the Teleporation Rugs to ferry the non-flying party members back to the Beacon, then brought them back out on the other side of the chasm.  Everyone was suspicious of the sarcophagi.  Uvash cast Sense Spirits looking for undead, and found a wight in each sarcophagus, waiting in ambush.  He tried Turn Zombie to terrify the wights.  The wights emerged, then started running to the south.  Vallium cut two of them down, and a third one escaped.

Meanwhile, some ogres appeared from the south, having heard the combat.  One ogre started ringing a cowbell.  Not wanting a protracted fight, the group retreated back to the room with the sarcophagi, where Vallium slammed the door and Vael Wizard Locked it. They then looted the sarcophagi, and headed back north across the chasm, then back down to the room where they had fought the ghost.

They decided to use the teleportation circle to return to the Forum of Set.  Vael flipped through the book of teleporter addresses and found one led to the Bridge of Set.  They used that permutation of glass activation squares (black-red-blue-white-yellow-green) and were teleported to an area just south of the Red Bridge of Set.

The group crossed the Red Bridge.  Their footsteps echoed loudly as they crossed it, but there were no Settite guards left alive to respond.  On the north side of the bridge was a plaque with a riddle, and a red force field preventing passage.  Vael ignored the riddle and spammed Dispel Magic spells at the force field.  The first two tries failed, but the third attempt was a critical success, and the force field went away, opening the path to the Goblin Forum.

They hiked north, where the goblin guards recognized them and let them into the Forum.  Dworm told them the last week's food had sold, again mostly to the Varumani.  Galadnor told them that some adventurers had some through buying and selling, after looting a tomb.  One of the things they had found and sold to her was a deed to a house in the faraway capital, Archontos.  Vallium wasn't sure whether it was still valid, but bought it anyway.

Vael met with Yoburra and the other Varumani ambassadors again, then went through a Teleport Rug back to the Beacon, then through the other Rug to Gosterwick to buy another load of food for Dworm to sell.  Remagis helped carry food, and asked if he could come through the Rug to the Temple of Thoth.  Vael said it was fine as long as he promised not to reveal any of their secrets.  Gribble said that the Temple was Bottleneck's territory, not his, but he was fine with Remagis going there if Bottleneck didn't mind.  They took Remagis up the stairs, through the Temple of Set, then through the passages to the Temple of Thoth.  After introducing him to Bottleneck, the Right for Riches Company returned to the Beacon.

After identifying all the loot, Vael cast a Repair spell on the ancient and somewhat decayed Imperial Field Plate, and somehow managed to botch the spell and completely destroy the armor.  Oops.

GM's Comments:

The Vengeance Aspect was nasty, with its blindness and Symbol of Death and fire attacks and ability to raise lots of ghouls.  The combination of Salamander Amulets, Dispel Magic, Affect Spirits, and Vallium and Uvash having enough armor to be mostly ghoul-proof carried the battle.  Dispel Magic is a rather blunt instrument though, as it tries to dispel all the magic, not just the magic you want gone.

The book of teleporter addresses was a welcome find.  The party has been discussing trying all the permutations of addresses for a long time, but having a directory should save them some time and effort.

Achievements:

Regalia: 1 XP for bringing the Tablet of the Beacon to Lady Alexia

XP:

• Exploration: 12 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: a pretty good amount, plus the reward for the Tablet, 1-2 XP depending on what they sell
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 3-4 XP

Next Week:

They're going to try to clear more rooms around the Goblin Forum, opening it up for easier and safer commerce.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 50: The Iron Circlet of Ghanor

Date:

Demmasday, 7th of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, rainy

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Remagis, un-petrified ancient Thothian priest

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Many goblins

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Yamki, 3-armed giant baboon

Bumpko, 4-armed giant baboon

Many large albino baboons

Many wraiths

Corpse of Neferet, greater mummy

Lady Alexia, ruler of Gosterwick

Freydis the Stern, Lady Alexia's steward

Gribble, Chief of the Goblin Forum

Dworm, Goblin Forum guard and food merchant

Yoburra, Varmani ambassador to the Forum

The Plan:

• Attack Neferet and the Wraiths in the Tower of Scrutiny and recover the Iron Circlet of Ghanor
• Explore more rooms south of the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

Uvash's wife and son arrived in Gosterwick, as part of a group of several dwarves travelling from Khazildor.  Ioannes started spreading propaganda, telling the merchants of Gosterwick that they could earn great profits selling to the Goblin Forum of Arden Vul.

The group hired Chrysalis and then teleported through the Rug to the Beacon.  There they saw Remagis teaching Basil how to tie a tourniquet.   Basil explained that Remagis was teaching him First Aid, in exchange for Basil teaching Remagis Modern Archontean.

Vael gave Basil a copy of their delve plan, and then the through went through the Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister, then flew up the shaft to the caves north of the Temple of Set.  Ioannes tried using the Cloak of the Bat to fly up, and found that the cloak would not function if he were holding a very bright Continual Light stone, but worked when Vael gave him a dim one.

From the cave, the group went south through the ruined Temple of Set, then east through the ruined Temple of Thoth to Upper Goblintown.  They said hello to Bottleneck and the goblin guards, then went south and west to the indoor pyramid, then used the lever on top to teleport to the other indoor pyramid on the Well of Light level.  They walked to the Well but saw there wasn't much sunlight coming down the shaft, so didn't attempt the Litany of Light.  They headed east toward the Howling Caves.  Bumpko was happy to see them, as he didn't expect a food delivery today.  He asked if it were some kind of special extra food holiday.  Vael went through the Teleporting Rug back to the Beacon and grabbed a wheelbarrow full of food for the baboons.

While the baboons were sharing the food, the group went south through the Howling Caves to the secret door heading into the old Thothian area above the Great Hall.  They noticed that all the gargoyles along the bridge were gone.  They found the secret door leading to the spiral stairs up to the Tower of Scrutiny.

There, Vael pulled out the two Teeth of Pol, and bandaged them to his wrists.  He immediately became even smarter, and much ruder.  He ordered the others to guard him, while he cast Wizard Eye and made it invisible and then cast Infravision and Mage Sight and See Invisible on himself.  He sent the Eye upstairs to the Tower, where it was blocked by closed doors north and west.

The group snuck quietly up the stairs, where Vael cast Blink Other on his Wizard Eye to get it past the western door.  It then snuck around the cellar of the tower, spotting many wraiths, and the corpse of Neferet, wearing the magical iron circlet, hunched over near the central pillar.  Nobody believed she was really dead.

The group went back down the stairs out of earshot of the wraiths, and concocted a battle plan.  It basically consisted of everyone drinking strength and agility potions, then using Affect Spirits and Great Haste spells, then killing a lot of wraiths.  The plan worked pretty well.  With the Affect Spirits spell, the diffuse wraiths were much more vulnerable to weapons.  Vallium, Uvash, and Chrysalis waded into the wraiths, destroying many of them.  The wraiths retreated from melee, using their Drink Life ability to try to injure from afar.  Uvash's Protection from Evil spell made him almost immune, but Vallium and Chrysalis were both badly wounded.

Vallium reached Neferet's body, stabbed it a lot, then dragged it back to the stairs.  The others retreated there with him.  Vael used Apportation to take the Iron Circlet without touching it.  Ioannes cast some healing spells, then they re-cast some buffing spells and sent Vallium and Uvash after the remaining wraiths.  Some had flown up the central shaft of the tower out of each reach, but Flight spells solved that.  The last few wraiths hid in the magical darkness near the top of the shaft.  Vallium and Uvash didn't want to go in there, so Vael turned invisible using Larel's Cloak, then Levitated up and used Dispel Magic to get rid of the darkness.  Able to see again, Vallium and Uvash killed two of the last three wraiths, while the third one decided to flee out the top of the tower, despite the daylight outside.  Unfortunately for the wraith, it wasn't quite cloudy enough for it to survive out there.

With all the wraiths eliminated, they searched the tower.  There were a lot of coins and a few weapons on the floor in the center of the cellar.  Neferet's body had a magical necklace and a magical gem.  A bedroom had some furniture and a few scrolls and keys, plus a magic ring.  A closet contained some orange silk.  There was an ibis head in the basement with handles, that could be used as a periscope to look out the roof of the Tower in any direction.

With the Tower of Scrutiny cleared, the group paused to let Vael fully analyze the Iron Circlet of Ghanor, which had several beneficial magical effects, but also a drawback.  They decided to give it to Lady Alexia in Gosterwick.

Vael removed the Teeth of Pol from his wrists.  His intelligence went back to normal, but his surliness remained.  Knowing he wasn't fit for talking to anyone, he asked Ioannes to take him to the Temple of Demma in Gosterwick and see if they could fix him.  One of the priests cast Remove Curse, but charged a high price for it.

With Vael in less danger of saying something that might get them executed, the group went over to the Azure Keep to give the Circlet to Lady Alexia.  After a brief discussion with her guards and a longer discussion with her steward Freydis, Lady Alexia came into the room.  She asked where they had found her Circlet.  She was somewhat amused that it had been so close to the surface.  She asked if they wanted any particular reward, but neither of Vael's ideas were practical, so she just had Freydis give them a lot of gold coins.

The group bought more food for the Goblin Forum, then teleported back to the Beacon and took their usual complicated underground path to the Forum.  Gribble greeted them and said he had awards for them.  He gave each of them a patch depicting an elephant crushing a statue of a Set animal, and also gave each of them a rock which he said was an authentic piece of the actual destroyed statue.

Dworm said that the Varumani had bought all the surplus food from last week, but had complained about the price increase.  Vael went over to the Varumani embassy to tell Yoburra that he couldn't subsidize the food forever and that prices would gradually return to normal.  Yoburra said that if prices went up, the Varumani might not buy all the extra food.  He then returned to his card game with the junior ambassadors.

The group went south from the Forum, to the Set statue that was still standing.  Vael tried Dispelling the magic on the statue, then grabbed the gem eyes, which shocked him, but not very badly.  A sound spell calling for guards and warning about thieves also triggered, but since the only guards in the area were friendly goblins, it didn't matter.  Vael took the onyx ears and ivory teeth from the statue, then told the goblin guards that the statue was still somewhat dangerous and he didn't recommend touching it.  One guard dared another guard to touch it anyway, and he did and got non-fatally shocked, to the amusement of all the other guards.

Vallium led the group further south, to a room with a fireplace that had not been searched to his satisfaction.  Vael sent a Continually-Lit Wizard Eye up the chimney.  Just a foot above the fireplace, the Eye spotted a soot-covered ring hanging on a nail.  Vael reached in and grabbed the ring, which felt magical.  He then sent the Wizard Eye all the way up to the surface.  It emerged in the swamp in the southwest corner of Arden Vul.  A giant frog spotted the glowing eye and tried to eat it.  Vael tried leading the frog all the way to the dragon's tower, but the frog declined to leave the swamp.

Vallium pointed out another room on the map, with an altar to Set.  The room contained two flimsy Set statues, which they trashed, finding nothing interesting inside.  It also had a makeshift stone altar.  In one corner were some rocks stacked on top of a bunch of boards.  Lifting them up revealed a hole down, to a room full of sarcophagi.  Vael Levitated down and recognized the room as a tomb they had recently partly looted.  He flew back up, then used Shape Earth to seal the hole with stone from the altar, to reduce the chance that someone else would enter the tomb and find any loot there before they could.

Deciding that was enough exploration for one day, the group went back to the Beacon.  There Vael experimented with two Rudishva artifacts, a membrane that fit over the face, and a futuristic helmet.  The membrane seemed to filter out smoke, but did not allow breathing underwater.  The helmet was a helmet, providing excellent protection to the head, and even a translucent visor to protect the eyes.  It also had a stud on one side, which when pressed gave the wearer infravision, despite the helmet not appearing magical.  Finally, the helmet also filtered out smoke, as the membrane had.

GM's Comments:

Despite scrying Neferet's corpse in the Tower of Scrutiny multiple times, the players refused to believe she was actually dead.  They thought that's how mummies rested, or that was a fake decoy Neferet, or something.  But, no, it was actually her, and fleeing into the Tower of Scrutiny had been a poor tactical choice, as not all undead are on the same team.

The wraiths had forced the group to retreat twice, but this time they were buffed to the point where the wraiths could not stand against them.

Foundry broke hard this session, so we ran things theater of the mind.  I found tracking hit points, spell durations, turn order, everyone's positions, etc. in a text file a bit annoying, but doable.  I think maybe it's just using too much memory for the dinky little AWS VM I'm running it on, and I might need to move it to one with more memory, or run it locally on my PC.

Achievements:

Regalia: 1 XP for finding the Iron Circlet of Ghanor and returning it to Lady Alexia

XP:

• Exploration: 3 new rooms, 0 XP
• Loot: Lots, plus the reward for the Iron Circlet, 2 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 3 XP

Next Week:

They're going after the second Tablet of the Beacon, following Temrin's map from the Bastion to an unknown area.