DFRPG Arden Vul Session 58: Vertical Exploration

Date:

Basilsday 20th of Toternios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Hot, sunny

Player Characters:

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Sister Valya "Basilisk" Hushbreaker, halfling monk (Mercenary) (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Sanguinette, bat familiar

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Many goblins

Ichthelon, Mummy High Priest of Thoth

Remagis, Assistant to the High Priest of Thoth

Stamelis, Head Librarian of Thoth

Yamki, 3-armed intelligent giant baboon

Many baboons

Ptirisa, friendly ghost

Many stirges

Giant spider

Many huge spiders

Archontean shabti spearman construct

Many chasm cephalopods

Many deranged zombie monks

Many creepy purple-black zombies

Battle Automaton of Kerbog Khan

The Plan:

• Wait for a sunny day
• Go to the bottom of the Well of Light and perform the Litany of Light, to gain See Secrets
• Levitate around the Well of Light, Great Chasm, Cliff Face, etc. looking for secret doors

What Happened:

Ioannes took some time off to supervise Theopilos the locksmith replacing all the cat-hostile doorknobs in the Arcane Practitioners' Club with cat-operable levers, at his cat Onyx's request.  Uvash took the day to celebrate Dwarven Unity Day with his family and the other dwarves of Gosterwick.

Vallium and Vael recruited Valya from the Grudge Brigade to form an all-Levitating party.  They took the purple Teleport Rug from Gosterwick to the Beacon, then the Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister, then went down the secret passage and Levitated up the shaft to the hidden tomb near the Temple of Set.  They went over to the Temple of Thoth, where they said hello to Remagis and Ichthelon and Stemelis and the goblin guards wearing Thothian holy symbols.  After a brief discussion, Vallium went back to the Beacon through a green Teleport Rug and found the Mask of Ptoh-Ristus in one of their treasure chests on the bridge.  He came back through the Rug and presented the Mask to Remagis and Ichthelon.  Ichthelon took it and immediately put it on, then thanked the "Friends of Lord Thoth" for retrieving it and asked where they had found it.

The group went south from the Temple to the indoor pyramid, noticing that the gray-green mist that had formerly filled the area was gone.  The magic mouth talking about Thoth was still there.  They went past the Mouth to the indoor pyramid, then flicked the lever to teleport to the other indoor pyramid near the Well of Light.  They walked over to the Howling Caves to warn Yamki that they would be lighting up the Well of Light area to do the Litany of Light.  Yamki sent a baboon to warn Trefko.  The group went back to the Well of Light and removed the blanket over the mirror on the floor, which bounced light from the Well off all the mirrors in the area.  All three of them then went to the appropriate rooms and performed the appropriate rituals of the Litany of Light, following the book Vallium had brought.  Basilisk and Vael got infravision from the first room.  Vael got a temporary intelligence bonus in the second room.  The third room gave See Secrets to Basilisk and Vael, the real point of the exercise.  Finally, all three did the ritual correctly in the fourth room and were turned Invisible.

With the Litany complete, they walked back over to the Well of Light, which was blindingly bright.  Vallium Levitated the blanket from the ground all the way to the top and covered the opening to reduce the brightness, then Vael and Basilisk slowly flew down the Well looking for secret doors.  Vael spotted a suspicious tile about halfway up.  Fiddling with some nearby tiles revealed one that could be rotated to open a secret door and a rough narrow passage.  After a few feet it opened up into a wider passage lined with hexagonal reflective tiles of an unknown high-tech substance.  This looked like it might be Rudishva in origin, so Vael called Akla-Chah on the Command Bracelet and asked if she knew anything about it.  Akla-Chah replied that Captain Leil-Jor had made that area off-limits due to danger.  That was enough to make the group turn back for today.  They flew back down to the bottom of the well, replaced the blanket covering the mirror, then went back to Yamki's area and yelled that they were done with the light.

Next they went north to the Ruby Chair, then east through a secret door and south through another secret door and west through a secret passage, until they reached the cave with the ghost of Ptirisa.  They were invisible, but their light was not, and Ptirisa asked who was there as they walked past.  They did not reply, but Vael cast The Bracteros Effect on his Continual Light stone to render its light invisible from a distance.  They went west over the bridge over the Great Chasm, then Levitated out over the chasm, looking for any secret doors or holes in the roof.  They found a couple of previously unexplored exits from the Chasm.  One led to a cave full of arcanum.  Vael resisted sticking around to investigate the cave, but couldn't resist going back through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon for a pickaxe, then chopping off a lump of arcanum.  The other exit led to some natural passages near the Howling Caves, some inhabited by baboons.  They decided not to spend more time exploring there, and went back to the Chasm, then down.

Lower in the Chasm, they found a few exits they already knew about, including a couple of large stone thrones.  Concealed behind some creeping vines, they spotted a circular stone door, with the Rudishva glyph for protection and a sign in Archontean saying "Artax-Ris does not wish to be disturbed."  Vael called Akla-Chah on the bracelet and asked her if she knew who Artax-Ris was.  Akla-Chah replied that he had been a scientist on the Beacon, but she had not seen him in many years.  Vael cast Glass Wall to look through the door and spotted several bodies and a sarcophagus.  They decided not to try to open the door.

As they moved away from the door, they were ambushed by a group of stirges.  Vallium stabbed several, Basilisk stunned a couple, and Vael used Shape Air to blow a bunch into the chasm wall.  At that point the remaining stirges decided to fly away and find squishier prey.  The group continued northwest, past some goblin (formerly halfling) rooms, until they reached some spider webs near the northwest end of the cavern.  Basilisk noticed a huge spider hiding in the webs and used kiai to stun it.  Vallium charged into the webs, trusting his Ring of Free Action to avoid getting stuck, and stabbed several spiders, while Basilisk stunned them.  Once they ran out of spiders, Vallium passed the Ring of Free Action to Vael, so he could slide past the webs and look for secret doors.  Vael found both a concealed door and some loot in the webs.  Vallium took his ring back, then used his flaming sword to burn a path through the webs for the others.

The concealed door led to a small passage, then to a shaft in the floor, which went down to a small triangular room.  The room featured a single door with a sign that said “Hithra the Paleologos Rests Within. Visitors are Unwanted.”  On the walls were inscribed 18 Archontean chess boards, with various pieces in various locations.  Finally there were two glowing rows of five glyphs, one row purple and one orange.  The glyphs in both rows were identical: a rod, a winged serpent, a robed priest, a robed wizard, and a shortsword.  Nobody knew much about chess, so Vael spent a few minutes making notes of everything on the walls to research later.  Vallium noted they should learn to use one of the Rudishva gadgets that took pictures, to save time.

They went back up the shaft and back over to the Great Chasm, then down.  Moving southeast along the chasm wall, Vael found a plaster plug obscured by creepers.  There was a 6' diameter hole in the plaster.  Looking inside, he saw a body, smashed by a stone block.  Searching carefully for traps, they investigated the corpse and the block and saw there was a gap in the ceiling where the block had fallen.  He suspected that the block had been a trap rather than just shoddy construction.  Continuing down the passage, they spotted an open sarcophagus ahead and a secret door to the right.  Vael figured out that poking the eyes of a painting on the wall opened the secret door.  Going down the secret passage revealed a small room containing gilded ancient furniture, several shabti statues, and a chest with some copper coins.  Vallium set up a Teleport Rug and started carefully carrying the furniture and statues back to the Beacon.  Meanwhile Vael found another secret door and the button to open it.  This one led to a room with some canopic jars with gold and lapis lids, and more shabti statues.  Vallium carried the lids (but not the ceramic jars) and the additional statues through the Rug as well.  Around the corner was a room with a fancy sarcophagus and writing on the wall "Sethu Lives in the Breath of Thoth."  The word Breath had Vallium going back through the Rug to the Beacon to get a Rudishva breather.  As they stepped into the room, a trap was triggered and gas started coming out of the far wall, but Vael used a Purify Air spell to clear it.

Once the gas was gone, Vael thought the plaster walls to the left and right might be concealing something.  He used Glass Wall to look through one and saw a statue sitting on a chair.  Looking through the other revealed a stone wall with a stone door behind the plaster wall, and a room with treasure behind the stone wall.  Vallium smashed through the plaster wall to the treasure room with a pickaxe, then Vael used Lockmaster to unlock the door, and they went into the treasure room and took everything out.

Crossing the room to the other plaster wall, Vallium started smashing that one too, but then heard "Oh Yeah!" in Mithric as the statue that had been sitting in the chair ran through the wall to his right.  The construct attacked Vallium with its spear.  Vallium parried the attack then destroyed the construct.  The room that the construct had come from contained nothing except the chair.

Vallium then took the lid off the sarcophagus.  Inside was an inert mummy and some treasure.  Vael searched the mummy and retrieved an amulet and a couple of platinum rings.  With the secret tomb looted, they went back out to the entrance tomb, and found it mostly empty, with only a few copper coins and a junky old sword.  They decided this was a decoy tomb, but took the copper and sword anyway.

Crossing the Great Chasm, they spotted a couple of previously unexplored caves on the west side.  One was full of chasm cephalopods.  Basilisk stunned them and Vallium stabbed them.  They cave also contained a backpack, with a magic jade cup and a note in Thorcin.  Nobody read Thorcin, so they decided to have it translated in town.

Continuing south down the Great Chasm, they passed the Varumani Lifts, then found some side passages that led to a secondary chasm to the east.  There were a couple of landings off that one.  As they landed on one, some crazy looking guys who might have been thousand-year-old monks or might have been zombies charged them.  They decided that they didn't want this fight today, and flew back out across the chasm to another landing on the northwest of the side chasm.  A worked passage led to a low barricade, then Vael found a secret door on the right wall.  He couldn't figure out how to open it, so he used Glass Wall to look through, which revealed a stairway up.  He cast Blink Other to send Vallium through it.  Vallium smashed into the door from the other side, which opened it.  They went up the stairs and found they led to some previously-found stairs a level up, which they'd never taken.  They went back down.

Continuing north, they spotted a suspiciously high quality statue of a varumani wearing mail and carrying a mattock.  Vallium suspected petrification, but nobody had Stone to Flesh, so they left the statue alone.  Going east from there led to a landing overlooking a large room, lit with torches, containing a 20' tall statue of a nataraja, with a pool at the bottom full of red liquid.  The room looked suspicious enough that nobody wanted to go in, but Vael Apportated a flask down to the pool and took a sample of the liquid.  They continued north to another door.  Glass Wall revealed a featureless passage, so they went in.  This ended in another door.  Vael cast Glass Wall on that one too.  Beyond were a bunch of purple-black zombie-looking creatures, standing around like they were waiting to ambush someone.  Not wanting to fight, the group turned back.

The passage to the north ended at another door.  Vael used Glass Wall yet again, to reveal and octagonal room with two statues, of a man and a woman.  The door was locked and none of Vallium's keys fit, so Vael used Lockmaster to open the door.  Upon closer examination, the statue of a man was clearly Larel One-Eye.  But he had two magical yellow crystal eyes, one under a cloth patch.  Nobody was quite sure who the woman was, though Vallium thought she might be Jacinth the Rose.  She had two magical red crystal eyes.  There was an oval marble plaque in the middle of the floor, saying "To proceed one must sometimes adopt a new perspective."  Vael switched the eyes between the two statues, and the floor opened up, revealing some stairs down.

They went down the stairs, leading to a Rudishva-architecture room with iris doors north and south.  Vallium guessed north, and Vael used the yellow Rudishva identity plaque to open the door.  A formerly worked, now partially caved in passage led north, to a room with some blast marks on the floor, and a Kerbog Khan battle automaton investigating the scene.

The automaton spotted them rounding the corner and immediately attacked with its flamethrower and lasers.  Vael Blinked away from the flames, which left Basilisk (who had been riding on his shoulders) and Sanguinette (who had been sitting on Basilisk) hanging in space.  Each flew a different way to dodge the flames.  The bot followed up with several blasts of laser fire at Vallium, which he avoided.  Kerbog Khan was clearly inhabiting the construct, as he unleashed some threats in his distinctive voice, followed by a spell cast at Vallium.  Vallium initially failed to resist the spell, then his Bless saved him, indicating that it had been deadly.

Vallium immediately fled back toward the iris door.  Vael Levitated after him, facing north toward the bot.  Basilisk, missing the message to flee, stayed near the construct and stunned it using kiai.  This stopped the bot for a second, but Kerbog Khan was not stunned, and unleashed his death spell on Basilisk.  She failed to resist, and was not Blessed, and died a grisly death, with some of her organs being magically removed.  Vallium and Vael continued fleeing toward the closed iris door.  The bot recovered and sprayed some laser fire into Vallium's back, but his armor absorbed it.  Vael used Blink Other to put Vallium through the door, then Blink to follow, hoping Kerbog Khan's construct lacked a way through.

After a brief discussion, they decided to go back and destroy the bot and recover Basilisk's body.  Vallium replaced his Amulet of Missile Shield with a Scarab of Protection, which was supposed to stop death magic.  He also drank a Potion of Resist Fire.  Vael cast Great Haste on Vallium, then used the yellow Rudishva identity plaque to open the iris door.  The bot was waiting on the other side, and opened up on Vallium with flamethrower and lasers, but his Resist Fire stopped both.  Kerbog Khan got off two death spells before Vallium could destroy the bot, but the Scarab of Protection stopped both.  Vallium then kept smashing the construct for several more seconds to be very sure that Kerbog Khan couldn't use it.

Once the construct was destroyed, Vallium recovered Basilisk's body and took it back through a Rug to the Beacon, where they instructed Basil to take her to the temple and get her resurrected.  He went back through the Rug and picked up the destroyed bot.  They retraced their path back to the Beacon.  When they passed the pit full of multi-colored slimes, Vallium through the wreckage of the bot in, to make extra sure that Kerbog Khan could not fix it.

GM's Comments:

That's the second PC death of the campaign.  Also the second Resurrection.  Death is fixable if you have the cash and friends who can take your body to the Temple of Mitra.

The plan to get See Secrets from the Litany of Light then fly around looking for secret doors was pretty effective, until it was interrupted.  It's hard to explore in peace in Arden Vul.  Especially if you're at war with Kerbog Khan.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 19 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: Depends on what they keep, but there was quite a bit in that tomb.  1-2 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 2-3 XP

Next Week:

They plan to go to the Drowned Canyon, put the Collar of Servitude on the statue of Basil Choumnos, cast Stone to Flesh on the statue to hopefully get a non-petrified and helpful Basil Choumnos, then interrogate him about the Tower of Pol and Kerbog Khan.  Then use that information to figure out how to kill Kerbog Khan.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 57b: The Engine Room

Date:

Basilsday 13th of Toternios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Hot, overcast

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Significant NPCs:

Battle Automaton of Kerbog Khan

Rudishva Stone Nataraja

Laegel the Forsworn, Priscian war mage

2 more Priscian war mages

2 Priscian conversi

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Dust monster

2 Giant Rudishva skeletons

Gray ooze

Spectre

3 Zombies

Wight

3 Bestial Varumani

Cinna Minux

2 Ogres

2 more Bestian Varumani

4 human? allies of Cinna Minux

Many slime zombies

Pelteon, wizard

Barnaby Goodbarrel, halfling lawyer

The Plan:

• See what's happening in the room ahead
• Put the Collar of Servitude on the statue of Basil Choumnos.  Cast Stone to Flesh.  Interrogate Choumnos about Kerbog Khan and the Tower of Pol
• Consider challenging or ambushing Kerbog Khan
• Explore the Drowned Canyon
• Explore teleporters

What Happened:

The Right for Riches company continued southeast down the passage toward the sound of battle.  They walked past two mostly destroyed constructs and entered a large two-level room with Rudishva architecture.  The room contained a mixed group of wizards and warriors, with a couple already down, fighting against one of Kerbog Khan's battle automatons.  There was also a Rudishva stone nataraja, though it wasn't sure which side it was on.

As Vallium led the company into the room, Kerbog Khan's voice attempted a death spell on him, targeted through the automaton.  Vallium resisted it.  The automaton followed up with several laser blasts, which Vallium dodged.  Kerbog Khan then promised all the treasure in the room to the Priscians if they helped him defeat the Right for Riches Company of Automaton Murderers.  Laegel, the leader of the Priscians, responded that he'd split the treasure in the room fairly with the Right for Riches company if they helped eliminate Kerbog Khan's automaton that had just killed two of their friends.

Uvash prayed to activate his Heroic Might and Grace.  Vallium closed with the automaton and started hacking at it.  A couple of the wizards lobbed in some magical bolts to assist.  Vael waved the yellow Rudishva captain's identity plaque at the stone nataraja and told it that they were friends and not to attack, which was effective.  Ioannes hung back.

Kerbog Khan tried another death spell through the automaton, this time targeting Uvash.  He failed to resist, even after using Luck, but was saved by his Bless spell.  Kerbog Khan whined about the dwarf unfairly cheating death.  Vallium stabbed the automaton a couple more times, as the Priscians continued pounding it with magical bolts.  This stunned the automaton, causing it to fall to the floor and stop firing its lasers.  Uvash smashed it, and then Vallium finished it off.

With the automaton disabled, Vallium moved to dismember it beyond repair, but Laegel, the leader of the Priscians, asked him to stop, as it might have valuable parts.  Vael said that they were worried about Kerbog Khan fixing any broken automata and preferred to mangled them beyond any hope of repair.  Laegel countered that this one obviously had gems for eyes and appeared to have some interesting weapons that might be salvaged.  Vael appraised the gems, decided they weren't too valuable, and stated that Laegel's side could have the destroyed automaton as part of their share of the treasure, but that Kerbog Khan might come after it so they should be careful.

Vael and Laegel introduced themselves to each other, with Laegel not sharing very much information, other than being a part of the same group of wizards that had an embassy near the Goblin Market.  Vael started looking at the Rudishva consoles, and cautioned the Priscians not to touch anything.  He explained that he could read Rudishva and would like to figure out what was here before risking anything.  Laegel agreed, but stayed near Vael to see what he was doing.  Vael Levitated down into the pit in the center of the room, followed by Laegel.  The pit contained two skeletonized Rudishva, with a total of three Rudishva identity plaques between them, plus a GnuCoder 1000 data tablet.  Vael checked the tablet and saw that it had both a lesser power supply and a data crystal installed.  Turning on the tablet, he saw that it contained directions on how to open up the engines and remove the drive cores, and instructions to bring two drive cores to Lieutenant Svar-Loj in the shuttle bay.

Wanting a second opinion, Vael said that he needed to communicate remotely with an associate, and asked Laegel for privacy.  Heading for the opposite corner of the room, Vael called Akla-Chah on the Command Bracelet and told her about the drive cores and the tablet.  Akla-Chah confirmed that the drive cores were needed for interstellar travel, and that Captain Leil-Jor had planned to move a drive core to a shuttlecraft to attempt to fly it back to Rudish, when they were interrupted by the Kaliyani and Heqeti attack.  She also said that the drive cores contained an incredible amount of energy and that if one were damaged it would destroy the entire area.

Vael followed the instructions on the tablet, which opened up the drives and allowed removing the six drive cores.  After some negotiation with Laegel, the Priscians took two of the cores and one of the identity plaques, in addition to the wrecked battle automaton.  Right for Riches got four cores, two plaques, and the tablet.  The Priscians left, taking their dead and their loot out.

Once the Priscians were gone, Vallium Levitated down into the pit and used a Teleport Rug to bring the four drive cores back to the Beacon, where they were securely stored in chests in the bridge.  Vallium returned, then Uvash went back to the Beacon and then to Gosterwick, to help his wife and son with some family matter.

There was an iris door to the south, which opened to the yellow captain's card.  Off the side of the passage was a Rudishva teleporter.  Vael used Scry Gate to reveal that it led to a dark room.  He cast Continual Light on his Returning Pebble and sent it through, then cast Scry Gate again to find that the teleporter led to a small room with no obvious exits.  Vallium thought this might be near the vault in the Cloister, so they went through and confirmed that it indeed led there, and that there was a secret door from the teleporter room to the larger vault.  They went back through the teleporter and continued south through another iris door.  This led to an octagonal room with a pool of opalescent sparkly liquid, like they had seen in the Bastion.  Another iris door led to a room with two stone thrones with giant Rudishva skeletons, guarding a 40' diameter shaft, with walls of marble bricks and silvery mortar.  The skeletons rose from their thrones to challenge the intruders, but Vael waved the yellow identity plaque at them, and they went back to their thrones.

The group went back north through the engine room then explored east, finding a room with a sandy floor.  Vallium and Vael flew over it, suspiciously, as Ioannes hung back.  A dust monster formed out of the sand and tried to engulf Vael.  Vael saw it and Blinked away.  Vallium hacked at it with his sword, but did little damage to the sand.  But then he connected just right, and the dust monster dissipated into the sand.  Hoping to find some treasure under the sand, Vael cast Seek Magic, then Seek Earth for both platinum and gold, but there was none.  On the other side of the sandy room was a narrow passage leading to the Great Chasm.

Heading back west, they found a passage sloping up, which led to a cavern with a privy shaft in the ceiling and a pile of fossilized feces on the floor.  Ioannes walked up to inspect the pile, and a large gray ooze that had been hiding in the shaft attempted to drop onto his head and engulf him.  Ioannes was alert enough to the threat to avoid the attack and fight back with his axe.  Vallium was a bit surprised and took a second to notice the threat, then started hacking at it.  The gray ooze's acid caused some smoke to erupt from Vallium's magic sword, which made him reluctant to keep stabbing the ooze and maybe damage his weapon.  Vael solved that problem by engulfing the ooze in a powerful Wall of Lightning.  The part of the ooze that touched the Wall was shocked, which stunned the ooze into unconsciousness, and then the wall continued to cook the ooze into an unrecognizable mess.

With the ooze destroyed, they recognized the privy shaft as the one that Michael had flown down, months ago.  To the south there were some steps up, leading to a slated-paved area with some fancy mosaics, an elaborate porphyry sarcophagus with silvery Mithric writing, and three burned bodies.  Noting the burned bodies, Vael and Vallium put on Salamander Amulets, matching the one Ioannes was already wearing.

They examined the mosaics.  One showed the construction of a pyramid.  One showed a man in Imperial field plate riding a dragon over the city of Arden Vul.  The last one showed people looking at cave mouths from which dragon heads protruded.

They read the writing on the sarcophagus.  The writing on top said "Julian Grex, archon, he who first located the  Obsidian Doors, plumbed the secrets of the Great Travelers, and revealed the properties of arcanum."  Vallium said that he'd heard that Julian Grex was buried near almond trees, and asked if there any almond trees around, but there were not.  The writing on the sides said "Great Architect", "Humble Overseer", "Beloved Father," "Intrepid Explorer", and "Favored Rider of the Old Ones."

With suspicion, Vallium pushed the top off the sarcophagus.  Fire shot out from everywhere, which the Salamander Amulets resisted.  All three burned corpses stood up and attacked.  Meanwhile, a spectre popped up from the sarcophagus and started trying to drain Vallium's energy.

Ioannes got punched by a zombie, which failed to penetrate his armor.  Vallium tried stabbing the spectre, but his sword passed right through it.  Ioannes hit a zombie hard enough to knock it down, while Vallium destroyed the other two.  Ioannes then backed up to cast Affect Spirits on Vallium's sword, while Vallium finished off the downed zombie.  Vallium closed in on the spectre, which sensed that something was amiss and tried to dodge his sword, but failed.  The enchanted sword dissipated the spectre.  There was some treasure in the sarcophagus, including a map on brass, a couple of circular gold discs with grooves and holes, and a magic longbow and arrows.

After looting the sarcophagus, they took a passage east, which led to the Great Chasm.  Doubling back, they went back down the sloping passage to near the engine room, then headed west to the smaller chasm.  Flying west then south across it, they re-visited the room with three sarcophagi, where they had previously killed two wights let one escape.  Vallium tried taking the lid off the sarcophagi to see if the wight was back, but could not budge it.  With help from Ioannes, he removed the lid and found the first sarcophagus was empty.  The second one was also empty.  The third one had a very sticky lid, and they also needed help from Vael to remove it.  The wight popped out of that one.  Vallium fast-drew his sword and destroyed it.

Heading south, they spotted the room with the spiral stairs where they had previously met some ogres.  This time, it was occupied by three bestial varumani.  One tried to punch Vallium, and he parried the punch with his sword, crippling the varumani's arm.  He quickly downed two of the varumani, and the third one ran.  Vallium chased it, but wasn't quite fast enough to catch it.  Vael cast Haste on him, which made Vallium a bit faster, and he caught the fleeing varumani and cut him down from behind.

They found a room with some fresh food on a table and a couple of well-made human-sized beds, along with a couple of closed chests.  They spent some time searching the room but decided not to loot it, as they weren't sure who lived there.  Nearby was another room whose door had six small holes drilled in it, and no obvious keyhole.  The door would not budge, so Vael Blinked Vallium through it, and Vallium unbarred it from the far side.  That room contained a couple of basic sarcophagi and some treasure.  One table contained a bowl of mercury with a couple of eyes, which Vael remembered as a scrying device for Pol's Treatise on Scrying, the book that had ripped his eyes out.  The holes and sarcophagi made everyone suspect vampires, but they didn't find anything except dirt in the sarcophagi.  They looted the room.  Then they went back to the other room and looted that one too, assuming that anyone who lived that close to vampires probably deserved it.

Continuing west, they found a room with a magic pool.  Vael drank from it and felt very brave.  They headed north and saw a dining room to the west, with a large statue of Osiris.  There were five people, two ogres, and two varumani sitting at the tables.  The man in the center stood up and said "I am Cinna Minux.  Please join us for dinner and explain why you have destroyed my wights and ogres."  The Right for Riches company declined his dinner invitation and fled to the east, then back across the chasm, with Vael Magelocking a door behind them to deter pursuit.

They went back through the engine room to the Rudishva teleporter, then took it to the Cloister, then took the other teleporter in the Cloister to the room with four teleporters.  Vael scried one of the unexplored teleporters and saw that it led to a small room with an iris door.  They teleported there, and Vael used Glass Wall to look through the iris door.  On the other side was a destroyed hallway with some kind of obvious yellowish fumes in the air.  They dropped a Teleport Rug and went back to the Beacon to grab a Battle Helmet and a Rudishva Breather.  They came back to the room and used the yellow captain's card to open the iris door.  As they emerged into the yellow fumes, they saw some kind of slime zombies approaching from both the north and the south.  Not in the mood to fight slime zombies, they went back through the iris door, closed it behind them, and went back through the teleporter to the Cloister, then through another teleporter to the Beacon.

From the Beacon, they went through a Teleport Rug back to Gosterwick.  Ioannes saw Pelteon was free, and asked if they could have a meeting about showing her the Beacon.  Vael said he was okay with it, if she would sign a non-disclosure agreement.  Vallium said he wouldn't object.  Ioannes told Pelteon that the others had agreed to let her through the Rug, if she first came to their lawyer's and signed an agreement not to tell anyone.  She rolled her eyes but agreed.  After signing the document, they all went through the Rug.  Pelteon first met Akla-Chah and saw the Nutri-Vore 2500 food and drink dispenser.  She then went up through the null-grav shaft and saw the bridge.  She continued down the hall and saw their extensive library.  Finally, they went out into the entrance stairway, where Basil revealed that he'd been practicing with a laser pistol, and fired several laser beams into a dragonfly-shaped target he had painted on the wall.  Pelteon was a bit overwhelmed by all the weirdness, and went back to Gosterwick to process things.

GM's Comments:

Another Kerbog Khan battle bot down, though at the cost of another Bless blown off.  The strange wizards have been revealed to have another name, the Priscians.  The Right for Riches company got some drive rods.  They defeated a spectre, found (and fled from) some possible vampires, mapped a few more teleporters, and found (and fled from) some slime zombies.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: Uvash explored 7 rooms and got 1 XP.  The others explored 20 rooms and got 2 XP.
• Loot: They found a bit, probably enough for 1 XP each depending on what they sell.
• Achievements: 0 XP

Next Time:

Ioannes and Uvash are both busy, so it will just be Vallium and Vael, possibly with Valya the mercenary.  The V team plans to wait for a sunny day, do the Litany of Light, then Levitate all around the Great Chasm (and possibly some other areas) looking for secret doors.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 57a: Kerbog Khan and the Tower of Pol

Date:

Basilsday 13th of Toternios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Hot, overcast

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Kerbog Khan, wizard

Heqeti undead warrior

The Plan:

• Find and kill Kerbog Khan

After taking a day to identify treasure, the Right for Riches company headed back into Arden Vul to resume searching for Kerbog Khan.  Thoth had said that he was in the Tower of Pol near the Drowned Canyon, so they went to Upper Goblintown, then southwest to the stairs down to the Drowned Canyon.  When they reached the bottom, the grating was locked, so Vael Lockmastered it open.

Heading west to the statue of dueling wizards, they noticed that the statue of the elf inscribed "Erist Ellagelsson, Zero years") had been replaced by a statue of a human labeled "Basil Choumnos, 37 years."  (The other statue, of the human female "Gemma of Arcturos, 173 years" was still there.)  Ioannes noticed some small Mithric writing on the white marble pentagram between the statues: "The Tower of Pol shall be revealed to those who demonstrate their art."  Ioannes cast a Light spell, and the whole group was teleported.

They appeared in a brightly lit cavern, containing an octagonal tower with no obvious doors or windows, a pool of water, and a long narrow pit carved into the rock floor.  A few seconds later, an old man appeared.  He said "I, Kerbog Khan, am the rightful lord of the Tower of Pol.  Who challenges my right?"  He then took a look at the company and said "Oh, good, it's you poo-poo heads.  Which one do I get to kill first?"

After a quick discussion, the company declined the chance for one of them to duel Kerbog Khan one-on-one.  Kerbog Khan mocked their cowardice, muttered a threat about coming after them after he figured out his tower, then disappeared.  The group explored the cavern and found a pool of water and an exit passage leading down.  Vallium Levitated up to look at the tower from above, and found a trap door on the roof.  After some discussion of breaking in, they decided today was not the day, and went down the passage.

After descending for a while, the passage led to a smaller cavern with a couple of bodies, an elf and a human.  They searched the bodies and found a scroll wrapped around the elf's calf, under his clothes.  They also found a small gem in a pocket.  East of the room was a small chasm that they recognized.  After sending the others through the Rug to the Beacon, Vael and Vallium Levitated across to an unexplored exit on the east side.

After the others rejoined them, they continued to a north-south passage with strange oily pebbled walls.  There was a partly broken stone door to the south.  Vallium forced it open.  Beyond was a crypt, with the skeleton of some kind of man-sized amphibian biped lying on a small four-step pyramid, along with some grave goods.  There was a statue of a large salamander head on the south wall.  As they entered the room, the skeleton arose and tried to stab Vallium with his stone-tipped spear.  Meanwhile, three green tongues of energy came out of the statue and tried attacking Vallium and Uvash.  Vallium and Uvash dodged, blocked, or parried all the attacks from the undead heqeti, then destroyed it.  They then proceded to destroy all three tongues.  Treasure included a magic stone-tipped spear, some small pyramids of copper and silver, a platinum necklace, a string of human scalps, and three odd magical rocks.  They declined to take the human scalps, but took the other treasure.

Going back out the broken door, they took a narrow passage southeast.  On the floor were a couple of destroyed stone constructs, with two torsos, two heads, four legs, and eight arms visible.  One of the constructs still appeared a bit active, as its eyes tracked Ioannes as he entered the room.  As they moved to investigate the constructs, they heard the sounds of some kind of conflict to the south.

After a quick discussion, they decided to press on and see what was happening to the south.  We paused there.

GM's Comments:

They found Kerbog Khan; looks like the decision to use Thoth's Chamber of Painful Knowledge was a good one.  However, they declined his offer of single combat.  We'll see if they go back and challenge him to a fair fight, or try to engage him in an unfair fight, or do something else.

It's not clear what destroyed the two stone constructs or what's happening to the south, but we'll probably find out next week.

Achievements:

None

XP:

They stopped in mid-delve, so this will be resolved next time.

Next Time:

The plan is to see what's happening to the south, then go back to Gosterwick and talk to Wicktrimmer about why Kerbog Khan has his blood.  After that, they plan to go back to the Drowned Canyon and use Stone to Flesh to bring the statue of Basil Choumnos to life, then ask him about the Tower of Pol and Kerbog Khan.  With any information learned from Wicktrimmor or Choumnos, they will decide whether and how to deal with Kerbog Khan.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 56b: Searching for Kerbog Khan

Date:

Demmasday 12th of Toternios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Hot, overcast

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Lacrymosa, Elven mercenary archer (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Asrotelian, formerly a wizard, now a wraith

Nalfeshnee demon

Rudishva dust ionizer

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Remagis, priest of Thoth

Ichthelon, mummy priest of Thoth

Stamelis, head Librarian of Thoth

Paratus, Head of Thoth, former logothete

Many goblins

Many baboons

Yamki, 3-armed intelligent giant baboon

Small Fire Elemental

2 Child constructs of Kerbog Khan

The Plan:

• Feed the baboons
• Find and kill Kerbog Khan

What Happened:

Kerbog Khan's eastern storage room had some stairs up to the south and a suspiciously perfect 6' diameter circular tunnel down to the north.  The Right for Riches company headed up the stairs.  At some point they were surprised by an eerie chill, and then a wraith that had been hiding on the ceiling dropped toward Lacrymosa while attempting to drink her life force.  She was badly drained, but her yell gave the rest of the group time to react.  Ioannes cast Affect Spirits on Vallium's sword, and Vallium ran up and bisected the wraith with his sword before it managed to kill anyone.  Ioannes healed Lacrymosa and the group continued up the stairs.

A bit further up the stairs from the wraith was the corpse of an older man who appeared to have died from blunt trauma.  He had a magical staff, a platinum signet ring with the letter "A", and some magical beads strung around his neck.  A thorough search revealed a paper in his boot, with seals from both the College of Cinders and the Imperial House of Sight in Narsileon.  Vael wanted to read the paper without opening the seals, so he used Glass Wall to look through the paper.  This worked well enough to confirm that this was Asrotelian (who they had met before, but who wasn't recognizable after death and decay) was charged with bringing back "the rogue wizard Cerbactos otherwise known as Kerbog Khan alive or dead to Narsileon to face charges".

They continued up the stairs until they reached a dead end.  Searching found a secret door, which led into a burial niche in the Catacombs of Thoth, northwest of the Glory of Weskenim.  They had actually found this secret door before from the other side, but never opened it.

Not having pressing business with the goblins, they closed the secret door and went back downstairs to Kerbog Khan's domain.  They then took the perfectly bored tunnel down.  It led into a small cell with a cot, with no occupant, walls, or door.  There was a similar cell across a narrow hall, which led north to a large room.  The room featured Rudishva-style architecture with rounded corners, and what looked like a destroyed Rudishva console and some smashed lockers.  It also featured a large angry ugly demon with hooves and impractically tiny wings, which tried and failed to ambush the group.

Vallium waited in place while Lacrymosa put arrows into both of the demon's eyes and one of its hoofed feet.  This didn't put it down because it flapped its tiny wings to stay upright, but did seem to affect its vision.  Vallium and Uvash then ran forward to engage the demon, while Lacrymosa shot one of its wings.  Having both a foot and a wing crippled caused it to fall, and then Vallium and Uvash started pounding on it.  Eventually the demon stopped moving.  There was nothing particularly interesting in the room, as everything was smashed.  However there were a lot of mangled bodies to the east, some with treasure.  There were also some more cells to the north.  Searching all the cells revealed a couple of bodies, a female elf with magical elven mail, and a Rudishva in an orange jumpsuit with a bronze Rudishva identity in her boot.

After looting the area, the group continued east and spotted some natural caverns further east, and a Rudishva iris door to the south.  The door was locked, but opened to their yellow Rudishva identity plaque.  Beyond the door was a small room with two Rudishva teleportation discs.  Vael used Scry Gate on one, but it was closed.  He touched the panel on the wall to activate it, without standing on it, and then scried it again, to reveal that it led to the Rudishva Bastion, right next to two other teleporters and a fire trap.  Remembering that they wanted the Rudishva Dust Ionizer from the Bastion, they went through that teleporter.  Uvash put on a Salamander Amulet to make sure he was immune to the fire trap, then walked through.  The Dust Ionizer immediately came over to clean up the mess he was leaving behind him, and he picked it up (despite its beeped protests) and took it back through the fire trap into the teleporter vestibule.  Vael used the yellow ID to open the force field to the other teleporter to the Beacon, and they all went through.  Uvash put the Dust Ionizer down, and it immediately started cleaning the floors.

Basil came out to greet them and seemed happy that someone other than him was cleaning the floor.  He said he had written down all the names on Kerbog Khan's blood samples, and presented the list to Vael.  Names they recognized included Kerbog Khan himself, Wicktrimmer, Balthazar, Gog, and Killik.  There were a lot of other names they didn't know.

Everyone went down the null-grav shaft to the lower level to see Akla-Chah.  They gave her and Basil an update, then said they were going back to find Kerbog Khan.  They took the Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister, then went through the secret passage toward the shaft up.  The ones who could Levitate went up the shaft to the cave north of the Temple of Set, then brought the others through the Rug.

They walked through the Temple of Set to the Temple of Thoth, where they took out the head of Paratus and left it next to the head of Stamelis.  Stamelis was not impressed.  They said they were heading for the Chamber of Painful Knowledge.  Remagis said he had wanted to visit the Chamber to ask Thoth a question and asked if he could come with them.  They agreed to take Remagis, hoping he might know something helpful.  They walked through goblin territory, where many of the goblins were friendly with Remagis, down past the sludgy pool to the Chamber of Painful Knowledge.  Vallium grabbed the magical pillar and asked Thoth where Kerbog Khan was.  He received a shock, but no answer.  Ioannes and Remagis healed him.  Ioannes asked the pillar the same question, and Thoth answered him.  "Kerbog Khan is now Castellan of the Tower of Pol, near the the Drowned Canyon."  He also received a shock, so Remagis healed him too.  Remagis grasped the pillar and asked what Thoth would like him to do.  Thoth's answer boomed out "Ichthelon is now the High Priest of Thoth in Arden Vul and should seek out the Mask of Ptoh-Ristus.  You are now Assistant to the High Priest and should aid him."  Remagis also got a shock, but didn't seem to mind.  Vael also tried asking Thoth a question, but got no answer, just the shock.

On the way out, Remagis poured some holy water into the nearby dirty, sludgy pool.  It cleared up a bit but still looked pretty gross.  He took a drink, and said that its healing properties appeared to be restored.  A couple of the others also took a drink, and were somewhat healed from their shocks.

Vallium said they should feed the baboons.  They went back to the Glory of Weskenim.  Remagis excused himself and went back to the Temple of Thoth.  Vael asked the goblin guards to give them some privacy in the room with the Thothian Teleportation Ring, then they used their glass activation squares to teleport northeast of the Well of Light.  They went through the secret door, past the Ruby Chair, past the Well of Light, then over toward the Howling Caves.  They stopped to put down a Teleport Rug and went through to the Beacon to grab a wheelbarrow full of food for the baboons.  As they approached the baboons, a guard baboon noticed them and ran to get Yamki.  Yamki walked up and thanked them for bringing the food.  They asked Yamki if he knew anything about the Drowned Canyon.  He did not, but said he had some news.  One of the other baboons had seen some elves using the hand of the huge statue of a human woman by the waterfall to go up the cliff!  Yamki said that he hadn't seen it himself but this baboon was usually reliable, and they could talk to him themselves if they spoke baboon.

They didn't have a druid who would speak to animals with them, so they declined to interview the baboon, and headed back to Kerbog Khan's lair.  They took another pass over the area, taking some items they had missed on the first pass, and looking harder for secret doors using a Wand of See Secrets.  Vael used Analyze Magic on Kerbog Khan's forge, which revealed that the heat source was an imprisoned small fire elemental.  Vael used Dispel Magic on the forge, which freed the elemental, which immediately fled while they tried to talk to it.  The two child constructs that they had spared were still hiding in the privy.  They grabbed the destroyed automata and took them back to the Beacon for more thorough destruction.  They decided to take a day to analyze treasure, then go back after Kerbog Khan.

GM's Comments:

Using the Chamber of Painful Knowledge to find where Kerbog Khan was hiding was a nice idea.  And while taking Remagis along didn't seem to give them any help with Thoth, it did give him a chance to ask Thoth for guidance, and a chance to repair the healing fountain.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 24 locations, 2 XP
• Loot: Kerbog Khan had a lot of stuff.  1-2 XP depending on what they sell.
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3-4 XP

Next Time:

The Right for Riches company plans to head for the Drowned Canyon and look for the Tower of Pol, so they can finish Kerbog Khan.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 56a: War Against Kerbog Khan

Date:

Demmasday 12th of Toternios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Hot, overcast

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Lacrymosa, Elven mercenary archer (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Pelteon, Archontean wizard and co-owner of the Arcane Practitioners' Club

Onyx, cat

Fael, half-elven druid

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Dragonfly construct of Kerbog Khan

Explorer constructs of Kerbog Khan

Battle constructs of Kerbog Khan

Doorkeeper construct of Kerbog Khan

Nurse construct of Kerbog Khan

Borer construct of Kerbog Khan

2 Child constructs of Kerbog Khan

Paratus, Head of Thoth, former logothete

The Plan:

• Feed the baboons
• Find and kill Kerbog Khan

What Happened:

Ioannes had a scheduled therapy session with Akla-Chah, who diagnosed that he was afraid of women, and prescribed a medicinal dose of Rudishva aquavit from the Nutri-Vore 2500.  Fortified with the aquavit, Ioannes teleported back to the Arcane Practitioners' Club and asked Pelteon to go for a walk with Onyx and him.  They had a nice walk, and she brought Onyx a whole lake trout in her Bag of Holding.  Pelteon told Ioannes that he was a good guy but she had two conditions if he wanted to date.  She wanted joint custody of Onyx even if things didn't work out, and he had to tell her where the mysterious Rug of Instant Access in their room led.

Ioannes then paid Fael for a Speak with Animals spell so that he and Pelteon and Onyx could have a conversation.  Onyx said that he liked Pelteon as a person and was happy to spend more time with her, but he needed to speak to her as his landlord.  The Arcane Practitioners' Club had too many interior doors that he could not open, and he either needed some of them removed or cat-sized holes made in them, so that he could freely move about his territory without having to constantly ask people for help.  Pelteon said she'd have to ask Lyssandra about the doors.  Ioannes said he'd have to ask the rest of his Company about sharing the secret of the Rug.

The whole Right for Riches company was at the Gosterwick Market on Demmasday, spread out looking for anything interesting, when the Command Bracelet alerted Vael of an incoming call from Akla-Chah.  She said that Basil had been in the library and had heard noise in the workshop, like something knocking things off of shelves.  He thought it could just be rats, but he wasn't sure, so he hadn't opened the door and had gone to tell Akla-Chah instead.  Vael started sending Message spells to the rest of the Company and to Lacrymosa at the Grudge Brigade to meet at the Arcane Practitioners' Club and go check on the Beacon.  

Vallium, the fastest runner in the company, didn't wait for the others.  He sprinted to the Arcane Practitioners' Club, then up the stairs to their rooms, where Basil was standing next to the Rug.  Basil repeated the story about noise in the workshop and said that Akla-Chah had told him to teleport to Gosterwick.  Vallium went thorough the Rug, then ran south down the passage to the workshop.  Inside were a dragonfly automaton watching the door and a spider-shaped exploration automaton, which was scooping up their entire collection of Rudishva laser rifles.  The exploration automaton teleported out with the stolen artifacts, while Vallium chopped the dragonfly automaton in half.  The rest of the group rushed in a few seconds later.

Vael tried a Seeker spell to find the location of Kerbog Khan, using the broken dragonfly construct as a focus, but it didn't work.

Knowing that Kerbog Khan had found the Beacon, the company went back to Akla-Chah on the lower level, and Ioannes went back through the Rug to get Basil.  They announced a new plan: skip feeding the baboons, and just go find Kerbog Khan.  They assigned Basil to watch the workshop in case any of Kerbog Khan's constructs returned, but told him to have his Lover's Token ready so he could alert Vael if they did, and then to just run back to Akla-Chah's room and close doors behind him to keep any intruders from the most sensitive parts of the Beacon.

The group went through the Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister, then went through the secret passage and down a level, then over to the magic pool of disturbingly yellow liquid near the Tomb of Marius.  Everyone except Ioannes drank from it.  Vael and Uvash and Vallium got buffs, but Lacrymosa got her dexterity reduced.  Next they climbed up the suspiciously perfectly round sloping passage toward the Rudishva medical pod.  They went back to the room where they had fought the invisible stalkers and the surgical construct and freed Gevorda, and tried the exits they had not tried before, but both were locked.  Not wanting to waste time, they searched a few more rooms then found some vertical lift shafts, which were disabled.  Vael and Vallium Levitated up, Ioannes flew up using the cloak with magic bat wings, and Vallium dropped a rope so Uvash and Lacrymosa could climb up.

They explored a bit of the upper level of the medical pod, and found a looted room with a hole in the ceiling.  Levitating up through the hole, Vael and Vallium found they were on the algae-covered roof of the medical pod, and there was water to the north.  They flew around a bit and found a porch to the north, with some kind of construct in front of a strong door.  The construct started reciting some Kerbog Khan spiel about trade and how all deals must be sealed with blood.  They flew back to talk to the others.  Everyone except Lacrymosa drank a Resist Fire potion, and Vael cast See Invisible.  The others then stepped through the Rug to the Beacon, then Vael and Vallium flew north to the porch and brought the others through the Rug to join them, then Vallium walked over and stabbed the Doorkeeper construct until it stopped moving.

Vael tried a Lockmaster spell on the door, but it resisted.  Deciding Kerbog Khan's Magelock was too strong to defeat, they first considered a Shape Earth spell to make a hole in the wall, but decided that would be too expensive.  They switched tactics to brute force, and pulled a four-person portable battering ram out of Larel's Sack.  Everyone but Vael grabbed a handle, with Uvash pointing out where to aim the ram, and the door yielded after several blows.

Everyone followed Vallium down a passage to the north.  He spotted a construct ahead, which resembled a statue of a nurse.  Vallium paused to drink an agility potion.  Uvash stepped past him into the room and saw four more constructs waiting in the corners to ambush him.  Three of them were battle bots, and they started firing lasers at Uvash.  Enough lasers hit him that he probably would have been seriously burned, except for the Resist Fire potion.  Uvash feigned injury to encourage the bots to keep using the ineffective lasers.  Vallium joined Uvash in the room and they started attacking the battle bots.  Kerbog Khan, inhabiting one of the bots, cast some kind of death spell on Vallium, which defeated his resistance and his Luck, but Vallium was saved by his Bless.

One of the battle bots tried using its flamethrower on the group bunched up in the hallway.  Everyone except Lacrymosa had Resist Fire, but she had missed the message to drink a potion and got burned.  She fell, stunned.  Vallium and Uvash gradually defeated the battle bots and a bipedal exploration bot.  The nurse bot fled the room to the west and apparently disappeared.  Ioannes cast Stop Bleeding and Minor Healing and Awaken on Lacrymosa to bring her back into the fight.  Ioannes then re-Blessed Vallium.

With all visible constructs defeated, they explored the area.  There was a grille on the north wall, with a small enchanted varumani head behind it.  There was a small room to the west with a couple of statues and some spare parts on tables.  There were some stairs to the east, leading to a closed portcullis.  Uvash found a couple of levers, one of which opened the portcullis.  This led to a flimsy wooden bridge over the water to the east, then another portcullis.  Uvash hit the other lever and opened that one.

Beyond the second portcullis was a storage room full of stuff, some of it interesting looking.  As Vael and Vallium started investigating, a large construct shaped like a giant drill bit attempted to ambush them and bore holes in them.  It wasn't very stealthy, they saw it coming, and Vallium chopped it up.  There were exits north and south, but Vael thought Kerbog Khan was probably back to the west since that's where the levers were.  They grabbed only the lightest and most obviously valuable loot from the storage room, and went back west.

More searching revealed a secret door on the northern wall of the western room, which they could not open.  Vael Blinked blind through it, then found a handle on the other side and opened it.  A narrow passage led to a larger passage with many doors.  There were doors east and west, a door south back toward the grille room, and double doors leading north.

They went east and found a luxurious bedroom with carpets on the floor, walls, and ceiling.  Nobody was there, so they spent a bit of time searching the room, and took the most obviously valuable treasure.  East was a door to a stinky privy.  Vallium stepped inside so he could say he'd been in that room, they immediately left.  West was a sturdy locked door, that they ignored for the moment.

The double doors led to a large workshop.  Inside was the nurse construct, through which Kerbog Khan cast a death spell at Vael.  Once again, it defeated his resistance and Luck, but Bless saved him.  Lacrymosa filled it with arrows.  There were a couple of child-sized bipedal constructs hiding in a corner.  Vallium ran over and asked if Kerbog Khan could cast spells through them.  They said no, and Vallium spared them but told them to run away from the room.  Vael said this seemed like a poor decision to him, but did not attack the constructs.  They searched the room and found Kerbog Khan's Build-a-Bot workshop, a magical forge, a couple of summoning circles, some tools and building materials, a bunch of Rudishva power supplies, and what Vael identified as a power supply charger.  There was no sign of Kerbog Khan himself.  They found the broken body of the surgical bot, next to the pile of laser rifles that had been stolen from their workshop.  They retrieved their rifles.

Doubling back to the west room, they found it was colder than expected, due to a couple of magical cold balls up against a cabinet on the north wall.  On the south side of the room was a desk containing a crystal ball and an arcanum sphere with a finger-sized slot in it.  The cabinet contained many glass vials full of blood, with names on them.  The slot on the arcanum sphere seemed to match a vial.  The arcanum sphere was too heavy to take in one piece, so Uvash went through a Teleport Rug back to the Beacon to get a pickaxe.  He broke the arcanum sphere into smaller pieces, breaking one pickaxe in the process.  They took all the blood vials, the cold balls, the crystal ball, and the arcanum chunks back to the Beacon.  

Finally, they went through the south door.  In addition to the enchanted varumani head they had seen through the grille, there were many other heads in the room.  Most of them were just statue heads, but there were a few magical heads as well.  One was a Head of Thoth of some bureaucrat named Paratus.  One was a very foul-mouthed and rude shrunken head, which they destroyed.  They also destroyed the varumani head, with fire.  They kept an enchanted demon head and an enchanted devil head, but worried about both.

With all the known doors explored, they went back to the bedroom and used the battering ram to break the secure door.  This caused some screams from the privy; checking revealed the child constructs were hiding in there.  Beyond the secure door were five large stone bins, full of coins and gems.  They looted everything except the copper pieces.

With Kerbog Khan still not found, the group went back to the east, and found that the northern exit led to a slope down and the southern exit led to stairs up.  We paused at that point.

GM's Comments:

Kerbog's Khan's battle bots were not the best design, as their ranged weapons were lasers and a flamethrower, both stoppable by Resist Fire.  And their melee weapons were a spinning cutting blade and a needle, both stoppable by heavy armor.  Vael's decision to use a goat to test if Resist Fire was effective against laser fire was a good one.  Lacrymosa forgetting to drink her Resist Fire potion when everyone else drank theirs was a mistake, but she survived.

Whatever death spell Kerbog Khan cast was serious; it almost killed Vallium twice and Vael once.  They were both lucky to be Blessed.

Though they smashed several of his bots and took a lot of his treasure, the Right for Riches company has still not actually laid eyes on Kerbog Khan.

Achievements:

None yet, will be resolved next week.

XP:

None yet, will be resolved next week.

Next Week:

We paused in mid-delve, with the group still hunting for Kerbog Khan.  Will they find him?