DFRPG Arden Vul Session 43a: Alpha Strike on the Cult of Set

 

Date: 

Tothsday, 5th of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Warm, partly cloudy

Player Characters: 

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

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Lacrymosa, Elven mercenary archer (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Wicktrimmer, Imperial Goblin merchant and banker

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Craastonistorex, green dragon

Many Set cultists

Many Set guards

Several Set acolytes

Several zombies

Several goblins

A few unknown adventurers

The Plan:

• Invade the Forum of Set from the southern cliff face entrance
• Kill Settites

What Happened:

Vallium returned from his trip to Newmarket, catching a ride with Wicktrimmer and his Imperial Goblin guards on the Palanquin of Thoth.

Leaving Neferet for the moment, the Right for Riches company decided to hire Lacrymosa the archer and invade the Forum of Set.  This time, they would go in from the Cliff Face entrance, rather than down the Sighing Stair from the Temple of Set.

Everyone used the Green Teleport Rugs to return to the Beacon, after dark.  Vael used his new Glass Wall spell to look through the stone roof over the stairs and verify that nobody was around.  Vallum then carried the Purple Teleport Rug to the top of the stairs, where Vael Blinked him through the roof, and then Vallium set the Rug down so everyone else could Rug teleport after him.

The group walked across the bridge to the east, then south and west around the lake to the dam, where the sack containing the chess board and note for the dragon was gone.  They crossed over the Swift River at the dam then continued south to the cliff edge, roughly above the entrance to the Set level.  Ioannes, Uvash, and Lacrymosa stepped back through the Purple Rug to the Beacon.  Once there, Ioannes used the Right of Friendly Defense to turn himself blind and turn Vallium invisible.  Vael used Larel's Cloak to turn invisible.  Then Vael used his Levitation spell, and Vallium used the newly found Boots of Levitation, to fly down about 800' to the Set entrance, which was helpfully lit by a red lantern.

Vael and Vallium flew into the entrance together, silently passing over the heads of some Set cultists who were busy debating theological fine points like whether non-Settites should be killed or merely enslaved.  Vael put the Purple Rug on the floor so the others could come through.  Vallium picked an isolated cultist and stabbed him to death, which turned Vallium visible and let Ioannes see again, alerting him that it was time to come through the Rug.  Lacrymosa started drinking Agility and Strength potions, while Uvash and Ioannes stepped through the Rug, and Vallium kept stabbing cultists.  By the time Lacrymosa came through, about half of the cultists were dead.  She killed a couple more, as the last surviving cultist dived into the basket and started lowering himself down the cliff.  Vallium grabbed the rope and hoisted the basket back up, while Lacrymosa shot the last cultist.  Vael debated sabotaging the basket, but decided that since they were going to want to hand the Forum of Set over to new owners after the Settites were removed, they should avoid excessive vandalism.

The group headed north through some rough cavern passages, then reached a finished room with some Settite statutes and some stairs up.  Lacrymosa fired arrows into the statues in case they were constructs, which had little effect.  At the top of the stairs was a Thothian teleportation circle.  Continuing past it, they found a red granite bridge, flanked by more Settite statues, over a chasm.  In the far corner of the chasm was a torchlit balcony with a view of the chasm, where several cultists were sitting and drinking and enjoying the view.  Lacrymosa started shooting them.  She killed four of the six, and the other two ran away to the north.  Vallium flew across the chasm after them, but by the time he got there, they had escaped.  Rather than chasing them alone, he went back and had the others step through the Rug back to the Beacon, so he can Vael could Levitate across the chasm then Rug-teleport everyone to the balcony.

On the wall of the balcony were a couple of levers, and hanging in the chasm was a chest.  Ioannes couldn't resist pulling levers.  This resulted in a Magic Mouth appearing on the wall and saying something in Mithric about unbelievers dying, while the room filled with gas.  Vael cast Purify Air.  Vallium mentioned that they could try other combinations of lever positions.  Before Ioannes did, everyone else left the room, either flying out into the chasm or going into the exit passage to the north.  Another setting caused more poison gas, which Vael again Purified away.

Vallium flew over to the chest, which was locked.  Vael used Lockmaster to open the lock, but when the chest was opened, a wind trap went off, blowing both Vael and Vallium to the west.  Since both were Levitating, this was a minor inconvenience, and they flew back and took some platinum bars, a magic helmet, and some kind of stone wrapped in chamois out of the chest.

Everyone headed north.  They found a small Settite temple, with nobody there.  Not wanting to waste time with vandalism, they continued north past an empty lounge to a kitchen, where many Set cultists and guards had gathered to make a stand.  A fight ensured, but the cultists weren't very good fighters and weren't wearing any armor.  The guards, while reasonably competent, were few in number and not sword- or arrow-proof, so the Right for Riches company won.

Battle in the Kitchen

A cook ran away.  All the other Settites in the kitchen died.  Vallium looked through the guards' pockets and recovered one key.  Not wanting to spend too much time looting, they started carrying the armored guards through a Rug to the Beacon, and instructed Basil to search them and make piles of valuables.

The door to the north was locked, and the key didn't fit.  Vallium just bashed it open.  Inside were various dried foods.  They used to Rug to steal all those and bring them back to the Beacon for Basil to sort.  By then he was done stripping the guards, so they brought the bodies back out so they could stink up the Settite level rather than the Beacon.

After resting for a couple of minutes, they took a passage to the east, which ended at a locked door.  The guard's key unlocked it.  Beyond the door were a bunch of zombies, which started talking about brains and lurching toward the door.  Deciding today was not the day to fight zombies, Vallium slammed the door and re-locked it with the key.  Vael wrote a note about zombies and stuck it on the door.

To the northeast were three dormitory rooms full of bunk beds.  Two were unoccupied and empty.  The other contained a bunch of goblins, who said they were just there to buy food at the Forum.  Vael warned the goblins that the Forum was about to be a very dangerous place, and they should go back to Goblintown to stay out of the crossfire.  They went into one of the empty rooms and used the Rug to bring all the stolen food that Basil had just finished sorting back, and gave it to the goblins, telling them to let King Weskenim know that the Settites were being invaded.  The goblins took the food and left in a hurry.

West from the kitchen was a wide, well-lit north-south passage.  As they reached it, a bunch of Settite guards ambushed them from the south.  Lacrymosa was too alert to be surprised by the guards, and shot several of them for trying to sneak up on her.  Another battle commenced.  This group of Settites was a bit more competent than the previous group, and shored up by a couple of Acolytes, but they were not competent enough, and they all died.  Once again Vael put the Rug down and the others started carrying bodies across to the Beacon for Basil to loot.

After a few minutes of rest, the group went south and found a couple of guard rooms, now emptied of guards, but containing some tables and chairs and dice.  Vael put the Rug down and instructed the others to take all the furniture.  By the time they carried all the tables and chairs to the Beacon, Basil had stripped the bodies of the guards and acolytes, so they brought those back out to keep the Beacon corpse-free.

To the south of the guard rooms was some kind of force field, blocking the entrance from the bridge.  Vallium looked for a way to turn it off, but didn't see one.  They had bypassed it by flying across the chasm to the balcony, so it didn't seem to matter, so they went back north.  On the west wall of the wide passage was a door, spiked shut from this side, with engraved Mithric lettering saying "Set Vanquishes the Serpent" and a hastily painted note in Archontean saying "No access!  Stay out!  This means you!"  Vael used his Glass Wall spell to look through the door, but just saw the passage continuing, nothing interesting.  Deciding today was not the day for side quests, they ignored the door and pressed on north.

The passage led to some more stairs, leading into an area of magical darkness.  On the wall to the right was a plaque.  The first part said "Visitors to the Forum shall advance five paces, turn to the right, and advance another five paces before submitting to inspection. Hostile actions will be met with a swift and severe response. Death, loss, or servitude is the just fate of all who trifle with Lord Set or neglect to adhere to his most reasonable laws."  This was followed by a full list of the Laws of the Forum, which were fairly boring.  Everyone laughed at the Laws.

Vael remembered that he had purchased some magical goggles that could allegedly see through Settite darkness, but he had left them in the Beacon.  He went back through the Rug, to find Basil sitting at one of the newly acquired tables tabulating a list of all the recently taken loot.  Vael rummaged through a pile of random stuff until he found the goggles, then went back through the Rug.  Sure enough, the Goggles let him see into the darkness.  He lent the goggles to Vallium, who stuck his head around the corner and spotted several Settite guards wearing similar goggles.  Vallium went back to the others, and they formed a plan of attack.  Lacrymosa would wear the goggles and shoot all the guards.  Vallium would charge any surviving guards.  The others would follow.

It wasn't a very complicated plan, but Lacrymosa started shooting and then Vallium ran through the darkness after the survivors.  The others followed up more slowly.  Of the original group of seven goggled guards near the darkness, one ran off to the north screaming about invaders and trying to rally more guards.  Five died.  One was still alive at the end of the session.  Lacrymosa also shot some apparent mage off to the north, who made the fatal mistake of not knowing the Blink spell.  (Stay in school kids!)  More guards were gathering to the north and advancing south toward the battle.  We paused there, out of time, ready to resume the battle next week.

Battle of the Darkness of Set

GM's Comments:

This was not a good week for the Cult of Set.  They're down a dozen or so guards, a couple of acolytes, a whole bunch of cultists, a hired mage, the contents of the chest that was inexplicably floating in that chasm, and some food and furniture.  On the bright side, they have more guards and acolytes remaining.

Achievements:

Iconic Location: The Red Bridge of Set

XP:

We stopped in mid-session, so XP is postponed until next week.

Next Week:

The battle against the Settites continues.  Is the nth attempt the one the finally breaks the Settite resistance and gains the Right for Riches company possession of the Forum of Set, or will they be forced to retreat again, or even defeated?  I don't know; that's why we have dice.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 42b: Neferet and the Wraiths

Date: 

Tothsday, 4th Mercedonian Day, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Cold, mostly sunny, snowy

Player Characters: 

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, Dwarven mercenary fighter (Frank)

Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Mariposa, Chyrsalis's monkey familiar

Neferet, Greater Mummy

Several beastmen

Many wraiths

Imperial stone guardian

The Plan:

• Kill Neferet
• Take the Circlet of Ghanor

What Happened:

We resumed in mid-battle.

Battle of Neferet's Tomb

Chrysalis was trapped in one sphere of force.  Uvash, Thronebreaker, and Mariposa were trapped in another.  Ioannes and Vael were free, with Ioannes invisible and Vael controlling a lot of Created Fire using the Shape Fire spell.  Neferet had been pushed back into the entrance hallway, but the only visible and free opponent was Vael, so she was focused on killing him.  Chrysalis was still blind (though this affected her less than most because of her Blind Fighting).

Neferet started growing an Explosive Fireball, planning to chuck it at Vael after it reached lethal size.  However, Vael had other ideas.  He used Blink Other to pop Chrysalis out of the force sphere.  After a second to get her bearings, she started running down the hall at Neferet, striking with her staff.  Neferet had to drop her Explosive Fireball to be able to Blink away.  This continued for several turns, with Chrysalis keeping Neferet on the run and steadily burning her mana with Blink spells, while Vael freed Thronebreaker and Uvash from the domes.  Vael also started sending the Created Fire down the hall after Neferet.

Neferet eventually used a Command spell on Chyrsalis to flee, and rolled a critical success.  Chrysalis fled.  This bought Neferet a couple of seconds, but when Chrysalis reached Ioannes, he cast Bravery on her, fixing the problem.  Meanwhile Thronebreaker and Uvash ran down the hall after Neferet.

Neferet eventually reached the end of the hall, with its Dispel Magic field.  After clearing it and entering the Great Hall, she popped another Invisibility Bead from her necklace and disappeared.  Thronebreaker, Uvash, and Chrysalis ran out after her, with their Bless spells surprisingly intact due to some good rolls by Ioannes, but some of their other spells dispelled.

The PCs used a combination of Chrysalis's Blind Fighting and Uvash's Sense Spirit to find Neferet.  She was running low on mana, and decided to retreat and recover.  Invisibly, she went south across a barricade and started pushing through a hallway clogged with spider webs.  In the Great Hall, Chyrsalis spotted the moving spider webs and gave chase, but Neferet threw a Bead of Force to stop her.  The bead failed to trap or damage Chrysalis, but it did block the hallway.  Many beastmen warriors watched the fight from behind their barricades and arrow slits, but Neferet wasn't visible for long, and none took a shot with their bows.

Chrysalis tried pushing the force bead after Neferet, but Neferet tired of slowly pushing through the web and instead set them on fire with a Flame Jet, then was able to run at full speed.  The PCs ended up waiting a minute for the Force Spheres to dissipate.  By then Vael and Ioannes had caught up, with Vael using Blink Other then Blink to get them past the Dispel area, and Mariposa appeared a few seconds later.  Vael cast Seeker on Neferet, then followed up with Trace, so he knew exactly where she was: well up some stairs to the southwest.

The Right for Riches company debated whether to go back and loot Neferet's Tomb first and chase her later, or chase her immediately and loot later.  They decided to press the chase.  They went up the spiral stairs to the level immediately above the Great Hall, west of the southern baboon caves.  The Trace spell showed her going up more stairs to the west, so they followed that way.  A wall blocked their way, but they remembered a secret door they had found and bashed open before, and bashed it open again.  (At this point it had been bashed enough that it wasn't so secret.)

Another spiral staircase up took them to the Tower of Scrutiny, to a room with spiked doors north and west.  Trace showed Neferet about ten yards northwest and not moving.  Thronebreaker forced the western door open, revealing a hallway with several wraiths and one of the Imperial stone constructs.  The wraiths and construct reacted started heading at the intruders.  Vael put up a Wall of Lightning, which killed one wraith.  He then used Shape Air to try to blow the other wraiths in the hallway toward the Wall.  This was less effective than he'd hoped, as the diffuse wraiths were hard to blow around.  One more wraith got blown into the Wall and destroyed, while the construct stupidly ran right into it and took a severe shock, while Chrysalis smashed it through the Wall with a wooden staff.

The remaining wraiths regrouped out of sight and waited for the Wall and the Shape Air spells to expire, with one wraith far away peeking around the corner to watch.  When the Wall went down, a swarm of wraiths came down the hallway.  Thronebreaker, standing in front, got attacked a lot, but the wraiths' ranged attack was resisted by Will and he was implacable.  Vael and Chyrsalis also got attacked, and didn't resist as well.  Ioannes cast Affect Spirits on Chrysalis's staff, which then became more effective against the diffuse wraiths, and she killed a couple.  By then, however, the Right for Riches Company was in trouble, with Uvash and Vael badly wounded and several PCs without Luck or Bless.  They fled down the stairs, and Vael put up another Wall of Lightning to block pursuit.

They staggered back to the Beacon, intending to come back and fight their way past the wraiths to Neferet as soon as possible.

GM's Comments:

Neferet was pretty badass, but she did have limited FP, and once it was almost gone, she had to run to recover it.

Hilariously, the players never figured out that Neferet had Resist Fire up for the entire fight, and kept trying to burn her.  She pretended to be hurt to encourage such tactics.

Wraiths are no joke.  Especially swarms of them.  Wall of Lightning was a good way to slow them down, but the wraiths were too smart to just charge into it, and had effective ranged attacks that go past it.

Vael was pretty sure Neferet was only about ten yards away and not moving, but they never actually spotted her in the Tower of Scrutiny.

Achievements:

None.  (The Circlet of Ghanor was so close, but close isn't an achievement.)

XP:

• Exploration: 6 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: Some jade jewelry, Boots of Levitation, and a few scrolls.  Probably 0 XP because they'll almost certainly keep the Boots rather than selling them for loot XP.
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 1 XP.

Next Week:

They want to heal up and go right back after Neferet and the wraiths, but they also want to wait for Vallium to return from his trip to Newmarket.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 42a: Neferet

Date: 

Tothsday, 4th Mercedonian Day, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Cold, mostly sunny, snowy

Player Characters: 

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, Dwarven mercenary fighter (Frank)

Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Mariposa, Chyrsalis's monkey familiar

Onyx, cat genius

Secondary cats

Fael, Half-Elven Druid

Statuette of Bastet, Goddess of Cats

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Many goblins

Yamki, 3-armed giant intelligence baboon

Many baboons

Temrin, Goblin Royal Artist

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Killik, Goblin Boss of the Wet Caves

Several ogre royal guards

Several goblin royal guards

Palestrim, Goblin Majordomo

King Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes

Gribble, Goblin chief

Construct of Kerbog Khan

Lukor, Thorcin mage of the Eighth Collegium

Other mages and fighters of the Eighth Collegium

Several beastmen

Mummy

2 Shadows

Neferet, Greater Mummy

The Plan:

• Hire Fael to translate, make an offering to Bastet, and ask the statuette of Bastet questions
• Drop off the fancy chess board as tribute to Craastonistorex
• Travel to the Well of Light, deliver food to the baboons, and perform the Litany of Light
• Travel to the Goblin Market, and commission a map to another Command Bracelet from Temrin
• Talk to the mysterious wizards near the Goblin Market
• Travel to the Great Hall and look for secret doors leading to Neferet
• Explore west of the Well of Light

What Happened:

Vallium announced he needed to take a trip to Newmarket on personal business.  Not wanting to venture into Arden Vul without sufficient bodyguards, the Right for Riches company went to the Grudge Brigade and managed to hire both Thronebreaker and Chysalis.  (Hiring two mercenaries for the same mission was a violation of Grudge Brigade policy, but business was slow during the winter, and Coinbase was out of town.)  Ioannes Blessed both mercenaries.

Vael, Uvash, and Ioannes hired Fael the druid to translate Cat for them.  Fael asked that they go outside the oppressive (even though only 5% finished) town walls where it was easier to commune with nature.  Onyx and a couple of other cats followed.  When they got to an area she thought was sufficiently pristine, Fael cast Beast Speech on Vael.  He made an offering of fish then asked the Statuette of Bastet three questions.  A shimmering avatar of Bastet the cat goddess appeared.  Bastet didn't know how Horus died and resented the insinuation that every dead bird was a cat's fault.  She also indicated that her way of dealing with Set was to get away from him and hide.  She had no idea who Neferet was.  The avatar of the cat goddess, and the fish, disappeared.  Vael then turned to Onyx and asked if he had any input.  Onyx said that their apartment needed better security when the big guy wasn't there, to protect the cats.

Back in Gosterwick, Vael picked up the fancy silver and ivory chess board he had commissioned from Chairduster the jeweler.  They gathered both mercenaries and a monkey, then went through the green Teleport Rug to the Beacon.  Chyrsalis grabbed a purple Teleport Rug and Vael Blinked her through the roof over the stairs, up to the surface ruins.  Not seeing any trouble, she put the Rug down, and the others came through to join her.  They all hiked south to the dam, where Vael left the chessboard and a note.  They then turned around and hiked northeast to the Pyramid of Thoth, then went down many stairs to Upper Goblintown.

Bottleneck welcomed them and said it had been a pretty quiet week, only one zombie attack, with only a couple of goblins lost.  They went southwest to the indoor pyramid, then pulled the lever on top to teleport to the other indoor pyramid near the Well of Light.  Everyone walked east through the Well of Light, whose main mirror was covered by a blanket.  When they reached the rooms north of the Howling Caves, they saw Yamki, who greeted them in booming baboon-accented Archontean.  Vael said he'd have their food in a minute, then set down the purple Rug and teleported back to the Beacon.  He came back in a minute with a levitating Living Wheelbarrow full of food.  Yamki had a few baboons unload it.  Vael said they would be doing the Litany of Light so all the mirrors would be lit up for a little while.  Yamki yelled out a warning to the other baboons.

Vael stowed the wheelbarrow back in the Beacon, then they all went west to the Well of Light and removed the blanket, lighting everything up brightly.  The group then visited all four stations of the Litany of Light.  Ioannes performed the Thothian rituals correctly, temporarily gaining an intelligence bonus, infravision, the ability to see secrets, and invisibility.  Vael copied everything Ioannes did, and also gained all four bonuses.  Uvash tried copying the heretical rituals, but failed to finish because he knew Zodarrim would not approve.  He did not gain any bonuses.

They went back through the pyramid teleporter to Upper Goblintown, then down the ramp to the Wet Caves.  Killik asked Uvash where the rest of his company was, and when invisible Vael said something, Killik told him to be careful with that, as not everyone appreciated unseen visitors.  They continued down to the Goblin Market, where some human merchants were trying to hire goblin guides.  Vael spoke to Temrin to try to commission a map, but Temrin indicated that as Royal Artist he was only allowed to take commissions approved by the King.  Everyone went upstairs to try to meet the King.  When they reached the Royal Court outside the King's room, one of the ogre guards smelled one of the invisible visitors, and yelled for the other goblin and ogre royal guards.  One ogre almost managed to grab Vael, but he blinked away.  Another did manage to grab Ioannes.  Palestrim came out to see what was happening, and told the ogres to treat Vael and Ioannes gently, but that they could not visit the King while invisible without an ogre holding onto them.  Eventually everyone was admitted to the King's chamber, where he sat on his bed petting a cat.  He said he had news for them: Sir Sorrow had departed, freeing up his Royal Guest Room, and they were invited to stay there.  He would have his brother Gribble show them their room.  Vael asked the king if he could have Temrin draw a map.  The King said it might be possible to hire the Royal Artist, but his services were highly in demand and thus expensive: $5000, payable only in silver or gold, no copper.  (The room was still full of stacks of copper coins from the Treasury of Thoth.)  Vael agreed, and said they'd have the payment soon.

Gribble grumbled about making the king's own brother do work, but led them to their guest room, and gave them a key.  Once in the room, Vael put the purple Rug on the floor, and Uvash stepped through to the Beacon, went through the green Rug to Gosterwick, walked over to Rarities Factor, withdrew a bunch of gold coins, then returned.  They went back to King Weskenim's room and, after being made to wait for a bit, the King took their coins and gave them a note for Temrin.

They went back down to the Goblin Market, where a small bipedal construct of some sort was talking to the Thorcin merchants.  The construct claimed to be Kerbog Khan, and claimed to know more about the Halls than anyone else living, but said that All Deals Must Be Sealed in Blood.  The merchant didn't want to give the construct a blood sample and asked one of his guards to deal with the construct for him.  The construct said "no, principals only, your bodyguard's blood is not enough."  Vael was curious but focused on the business at hand, and dropped both the Royal Commission and the Command Bracelet on Temrin's table, where they became visible.  Temrin said he was happy to make a map at his King's command, and asked if he could keep the bracelet.  Vael said no, he needed it back, but Temrin could make a sketch of it.  Temrin asked if the other bracelet was also red, and Vael wasn't sure, so he put the bracelet back on and remotely asked Akla-Chah.  Akla-Chah said that both the Captain's and First Officer's Command Bracelets were red, but she wasn't sure about any others as she'd only seen those two.  That was good enough for Vael, and he told Temrin to find another red bracelet just like this one.  Temrin traced the bracelet, and drew a quick sketch of it, and copied the glyphs on the back, then set it back down and said "All right, I'll try to have your map ready in a few days."

The group went west then south past a couple of ogre guards into an empty passage, then up through a hole.  Beyond was a door to a secluded room.  They knocked on the door.  When asked who was there, they identified themselves, and Vael said that two of them were invisible.  The person on the other side said to wait a minute.  A minute later, the door opened.  Inside was Lukor, the mage they had met earlier, along with five companions, who appeared to be two more mages and three warriors.  Lukor looked right at Vael as though he wasn't invisible, and asked them to come in.  They closed the door, and Lukor said that he had been waiting for their visit, as he needed their help.  Vael had a lot of questions.  Lukor said he couldn't answer too many questions yet, but he could refer to them as the Eighth Collegium.  They wanted a direct meeting with King Weskenim: they had been sitting here for weeks, occasionally meeting with Palestrim but never the King.  He would pay a thousand silver if they could arrange the meeting.  They could also provide invisibility, silence, or a distraction if the King wanted to meet secretly.  Vael asked questions about alliances with Settites and Varumani.  Lukor said they mostly avoided the Settites and would like to be friends with the Varumani.  And they would also like to be friends with the goblins, if they king would meet with them.

Leaving, the group went back up to Upper Goblintown, then south to the Beastman barricade.  Vael cast Thunderclap to get the guards' attention.  When a guard came out to investigate, Vael said they wanted passage to the Great Hall.  The guard got his sergeant, who agreed that their group could traverse their territory to the Great Hall, and warned them about gargoyles.  Once they reached the Great Hall, the whole group slowly circled the huge room, examining the walls.  Looking up, Ioannes noticed a gargoyle swooping toward Mariposa the monkey, and yelled a warning.  Mariposa dodged the attack, and Chyrsalis and Thronebreaker smashed the gargoyle.  With the threat dealt with, they continued circling the room, triggering a magic mouth, which said something about Priscus Pulcher and some eyes.  Near the magic mouth, Vael and Ioannes spotted two secret doors.  Vael managed to open the southern one.

Thronebreaker went into the narrow hallway first, and a few feet in, something dispelled his Continual Light and Bless spells.  He came back out and they had a discussion, then Chysalis and Mariposa went in.  The permanent light on her Staff of Blue Light did not go out, but her Bless went away.  She made it down the hallway, past a few charred corpses, into a room containing a large sarcophagus.  There were alcoves north and south, with three more smaller sarcophagi.  Nothing jumped out, so she returned to the others.  Vael put the purple Rug on the floor, and he and Uvash and Ioannes stepped through to the Beacon.  Chrysalis and Thronebreaker went back to the tomb and dropped the Rug, where the others joined them.  Ioannes re-Blessed both mercenaries, then everyone sat down to rest for a while.

When everyone felt rested, they started examining the room.  The central sarcophagus had some Mithric inscriptions on the sides indicating that it belonged to Neferet, Beloved of Thoth, and a picture of a woman on top.  The others were blank.  They went to the northern alcove, where Thronebreaker used Power Blow and knocked the lid off the sarcophagus.  A mummy jumped out at him.  Everyone expected something like that, and nobody was surprised.

A battle ensued with the mummy.  During the battle, a couple of spells came from an unknown direction, blinding Chrysalis and failing to blind Thronebreaker.  Chrysalis was a good enough blind fighter that this was a minor inconvenience, and they continued smashing the mummy.  Eventually it went down.  Vael cast Mage Sight and saw that the western wall of the room was magical.  Chrysalis eventually investigated and went right through it, not that she could see.  Meanwhile a couple of shadows appeared from the south end of the room and went after Mariposa.

Another mummy, this one a female one wearing Thothian robes and a magic circlet, was in the western part of the room behind the illusory wall, throwing spells.  This was clearly Neferet.  Once she realized she had been found, she pulled out a magic bead, and threw it in the middle of the four visible opponents (and her two shadows).  This exploded into a dome of force, killing one of the shadows.  Thronebreaker, Uvash, and Mariposa, trapped in the force dome with the other shadow, eventually defeated it, with a critical hit by Thronebreaker stunning the shadow and hastening its demise.  Neferet cast Darkness over the southern half of the room, effectively blinding everyone there.  Chrysalis, with Blind Fighting, kept going after Neferet, who kept Blinking away from her attacks.  Thronebreaker tried breaking the dome, and he couldn't get through it, but he could move it around the room.  Thronebreaker and Uvash then started shoving the dome toward where they thought Neferet was, trying to pin her in a corner and crush her.

Neferet pulled a bead off her necklace and swallowed it, turning invisible.  She then blinked out of danger while Chrysalis, still blind, went around the room trying to detect her with her other senses.  Uvash cast Sense Spirit, which gave him a fix on Neferet's location regardless of her invisibility.  Vael cast Create Fire where Uvash said Neferet was, losing his invisibility.  Neferet screamed something about burning in Mithric, then blinked away again.  She threw another bead, making a second dome of force, this one damaging Chrysalis.  Vael cast Shape Fire and started moving the fire around the room to try to trap Neferet, while Ioannes cast Stop Bleeding on Chrysalis.  Neferet had to Blink again to avoid the fire, and ended up in the passage to the east.

We paused there, with everyone except Ioannes and Vael trapped in the two Beads of Force, and Neferet still fighting having used two Beads of Force, two Beads of Invisibility, and presumably a ton of mana.  A lesser mummy and two shadows were also down.

Battle in Neferet's Tomb

GM's Comments:

Invisibility is definitely double-edged, if you use it in civilized areas.  It makes everyone suspicious.

Using the Teleport Rugs to let three PCs bypass the Dispel effect was clever.

It was funny watching Thronebreaker use Power Blow to try to do massive damage to shadows, which were diffuse.  (Of course he didn't have their stats, so he couldn't be sure it wouldn't help.)

Sense Spirits and Blind Fighting were both really useful partial counters to Neferet's Darkness and Invisibility.

Beads of Force are super fun if you have them.  Maybe less fun if your opponent has them.

Achievements:

None yet, stopped in mid-session

XP:

None yet, stopped in mid-session

Next Week:

The thrilling conclusion of the epic battle.  Do the PCs defeat Neferet and gain the Iron Circlet of Ghanor?  Does Neferet defeat the PCs and line her tomb with all their stuff and make Vallium recruit a new group of allies?  Or does Neferet escape?  I have no idea.

DFRPG Arden Vul: Start of 2994 Summary Post

The PCs in DFRPG Arden Vul have survived to the start of the year 2994 AEP, so it's time for another campaign summary.

• Number of sessions: 46
• Number of weeks with no session: 2
• Number of distinct delves: 41
• Number of PCs: 11
• Current Right for Riches Company Members: 4
• Former Right for Riches Company Members: 1
• Grudge Brigade Mercenaries: 6
• Number of PCs killed: 1
• Number of PCs resurrected: 1
• Number of PCs given donkey ears: 1
• Highest PC Point Total: 259 (Ioannes and Vallium)
• Entrances to the Halls of Arden Vul found and used: 12
• Pyramid of Thoth, statue arms forward, stairs to Glory of Thoth
• Well of Light
• Over 200' down, requires magical flight or a lot of rope
• Pyramid of Thoth, statue arms up, stairs to pit to scorpion teleporter
• Teleported to Great Hall
• Teleported to Gog's Cave
• Teleported to Ruby Chair
• Beastman secret entrance from Long Stair to Great Cavern
• Cistern leading to tunnels to Howling Caves
• Tunnel plugged using Shape Earth, may no longer be usable
• Underwater tunnels behind waterfall plunge pool
• Found using Water Vision spell
• May require super-human swimming or water breathing to survive
• Ruined basement to hidden staircase northwest of Glory of Thoth
• Found by Dalton's Darlings, secret shared by Jost
• Basket up the Cliff Face west of the Swift River to the Forum of Set
• Chimney from Arden Vul ruins to Well of Light level
• Cliff Face entry to Lesser Baboon Caves
• Stairs from warehouse to behind Pit of Fire northeast of Glory of Thoth
• Hidden Stairs to Beacon to Rudishva Teleporters
• Rudishva Secure Treasury
• Rudishva Bastion
• Arden Vul Iconic Locations found: 13
• The Pyramid of Thoth
• The Glory of Thoth
• The Well of Light
• The Great Hall
• The Great Cavern
• The Great Chasm
• The Howling Caves
• The Archon's Palace of Arden Vul
• The Court of the Goblin King
• The Forum of Set
• The Sundered Span (a.k.a. The Imperial Span)
• The Arena
• The Great Cavern at the Base of the Great Chasm
• NPCs rescued from the Halls: 24
• Klisko
• Versania
• Samantha the Red
• Jost
• Tresti
• Susarra
• Gribble
• Eadgithu
• Geleg
• Grist
• Aelfred
• Ragnar
• Basil
• Bobo
• Bifki
• Harold
• Hjalti
• Kiglon
• Anaximander
• Egrk
• Ketil
• Marco
• Thalia
• Burris
• NPCs who ran off and got killed while being rescued from the Halls: 1
• Gwelf
• Number of distinct teleportation methods used: 7
• Blink spell
• Scorpion teleporter, in the Pyramid of Thoth
• Pyramids of Venerable Age, near Glory of Thoth and Well of Light
• Blue Pillar on Set level
• Rugs of Instant Access 
• Portals between Tikun Thane's room and the Tower of the Ape
• Rudishva Teleportation Network
• Number of teleportation methods discovered but not used: 2
• Thothian Teleportation Rings
• Pit of Fire
• Number of Levels of The Halls Visited: 9
• Number of Sub-Levels of the Halls Visited: 6
• Number of Mapped Areas outside the Halls Visited: 6

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 41: Theft and Counter-Theft

 

Date:

Tothsday, 27th of Fidios, 2993 AE

Weather: 

Cold, party cloudy, snowy

Player Characters: 

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Significant NPCs:

Arcane Vengeance, elven adventuring party

Five Fingers of Destiny, adventuring party

Roger the Rapier, mage and leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny

Jenks, halfling member of the Five Fingers of Destiny

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Computer of the Beacon

Many Varuda Zombies

Varuda Guardian statue

Tresti, half-elven mage, working for the Rarities Factor

Onyx, cat genius

Many Set guards

Many Set cultists

Stephania, Set High Priestess

Unknown male goblin thief

Unknown female human thief

Several Kaliyani

The Plan:

• Meet with the Five Fingers of Destiny to exchange an ankh key for the secret of the Thoth treasury
• Explore southwest of the Rudishva garden area beyond the Rudishva teleporter

What Happened:

The Right for Riches company had an appointment to meet the Five Fingers of Destiny at noon by the Glory of Weskenim, to exchange an ankh key for the secret of the Treasury of Thoth.  Suspicious and not wanting to be tracked from the Beacon, they hiked from Gosterwick to Arden Vul rather than using their Teleport Rugs.  Halfway down the Pyramid of Thoth to the Glory of Weskenim, they ran into Arcane Vengeance, who were resting after casting some detection spells.

They continued down to the Glory of Weskenim, where the goblins let them enter.  The Five Fingers of Destiny were there waiting for them.  Roger proposed that Bottleneck hold the ankh key, and give it to the Five Fingers after they showed the secret of the Treasury.  This was agreeable to everyone, and Roger gave Bottleneck a gold piece for his assistance.

Roger led both parties east through the former halfling portcullis, then north to the guard room adjoining the Great Chasm.  There he asked Jenks to light up the statue on the other side.  Jenks pulled a sling bullet with Continual Light out of his pouch, and slung it across the chasm into the darkness.  It handed a couple of yards away from the ibis-headed statue of Thoth on the other side.  Roger Levitated across the chasm, with Vael following.  Roger lifted the statue's left arm until it was facing straight ahead, retrieved the Continual Light bullet, and flew back across.

Roger then led both groups west, past the Glory of Weskenim, to the western Thoth ibis statue.  Again he raised the left arm to eye level.  He turned around and went east to the Glory of Weskenim, but as he started his speech, one of the goblin guards ran up to the central ibis statue and raised the left arm.  This caused the statue to slide aside with a loud grinding noise, as Roger glared at the goblin.

Recovering, Roger pulled out the Continual Light bullet and held it up as he want down the stairs, then down a long passage to the northwest.  This led to a room with a smashed Thothian construct.  Roger pointed to the door and said that it had been trapped, but Jenks had found and disabled the trap.  He led them inside to a larger room, with frescoes of baboons on the walls.  He said the room had been full of ancient coins, mostly copper.  He then showed them a secret door on the eastern wall, leading to an empty, undecorated room.  He said the best treasure, including the golden cat statue now owned by King Weskenim, had been hidden there.

The Right for Riches company explored the empty treasure rooms for a bit, and Vael used a charge on his Wand of See Secrets to look for more secret doors, but they did not find anything, and returned to the Glory of Weskenim.  Roger collected his ankh key from Bottleneck, then led the Five Fingers back east toward the Great Chasm, saying they had more exploration to do.

The PCs went back up the stairs through the Pyramid of Thoth, but Arcane Vengeance was gone.  Once they reached the surface, they went southwest then crossed the small bridge over the Swift River to the Beacon.  Everyone but Vael then stepped through the Rug, and Vael scooped up the Rug then Blinked through the hidden roof over the staircase down to the Beacon.

After a few words with Basil, they used the yellow Rudishva identity plaque to activate the eastern teleporter to the secure treasury.  They used the steel bars they had left there to prop the one-way iris door open, then went south through the main treasury, then west through the garden.  There Vallium used a silver identity plaque to open the secret door to the southwest, then led the group down a narrow tunnel, and again used the silver plaque to open another secret door at the end, to the room where they had killed the zombies last delve.

They saw an iris door to the south, and again it opened to Vallium's silver plaque.  Beyond was a narrow passage partly blocked by a rockslide.  As they went through, they heard some hissing conversation to the south.  A group of lizardmen had spotted them, and one of them said something in a language they did not know.  Vael's red command bracelet translated it for him as a desire for peace.  Vael tried speaking and gesturing at the lizardmen, but they didn't understand him very well.  The lizardmen left the room to the east.

After searching the room for a bit and not finding anything, the PCs followed to the east, and spotted some stairs down to the north, the passage continuing east, and a passage south to a loud room.  The loud room contained a couple of gratings, with spinning blades beneath, creating airflow.  Uvash had a few bizarre theories for what those devices did.  Vael called Akla-Chah on the command bracelet, who said they sounded like air circulation fans.  The group bypassed the stairs down and went east then south.  There they found three recently deceased corpses, with some arrows sticking out of them.  A close look at the arrows revealed the arrowheads were bone.  The corpses were mostly looted, but two of them had scroll cases.  Ioannes read both scrolls inside, said one was a mage scroll and the other was a clerical scroll, and took both.

They went north from there, to a large room with a high ceiling, containing many pillars and ledges at different heights.  Two the west were a couple of alcoves containing Rudishva teleporters, but both were disabled, by the combination of a slab of marble placed over the disc on the floor, and a piece of transparent material covering the silver square on the wall.  Vael used Scry Gate on both.  One teleporter led to a dark room, and the other to a dimly lit passage with another teleporter nearby, but nothing else visible.  After a brief discussion, they decided not to re-enable these teleporters yet.  They took a passage northeast, which ended at another iris door.  Vallium's silver ID opened it.

Beyond the iris door was a large octagonal room.  On a plinth across from them was a huge bird statue, about 20' tall, which reacted to their appearance by moving toward them.  Vallium held up the silver card, and the statue turned around and went back to its platform.  He kept an eye on the statue while the others explored the area.  There was an open door to the west, a closed door south, wide passages north and southeast, a pool of water to the northwest, and several dead dwarves on the ground around the statue.  Checking the dwarf corpses, Ioannes was pretty sure they'd all been killed by a large piercing weapon, such as a giant stone beak.  Around the corpses were some weapons, including an axe, a couple of warhammers, and a magic pick.  The dwarves also wore mail, and one had a few gems and a copper plaque with a rough map and some dwarven runes.  Uvash translated the runes, then they took everything and put the weapons and armor in a Bag of Holding.

Leaving the bird statue, they went west down some stairs into a large natural cave.  There was a stream running through the cave, widening to a pool in the center, and there was a pile of bodies in front of the pool, in various unnatural colors.  As Vallium left the stairs, the bodies started to rise, as zombies, but a variety of bright colors.  It appeared they were once bird-men, as some still had beaks and wings.  Vallium and Uvash fought them, while Vael cast first Wall of Lightning to do some damage, then Shape Air to knock the zombies back into the lightning once they came through it.  The combination destroyed all the zombies within a few seconds.  Vallium then dove into the pool and came up with some decayed Rudishva laser weapons, some bronze daggers, and the bones of one of the bird people.  He was very cold, and went through a Rug to to Beacon to dry off by the magic Tripod of Heating.

The central cave was surrounded by many smaller caves high up on the sides.  Vael Levitated up to explore them.  Most were empty, but one contained a few bodies of the bird men.  One was wearing some kind of high-tech full-face helmet with a transparent face plate and holding a laser pistol.  Another held a high-tech dart-thrower.  Vael Levitated Ioannes up, who looked at the bodies and declared that the one with the helmet had died to multiple dart wounds, but it was not clear why the bird men had fought each other, or what had killed the other one.

They flew back down to the main cave, then took a passage north to a worked room with Rudishva architecture.  To the east were a couple more teleporter alcoves.  Vael tried Scry Gate and saw darkness, then tried sending a Continual Light pebble through and found the teleporters did not work.  The central room contained a table with many small machines similar to the one in the Beacon's lounge, which Vael's command bracelet said were NutriVore food machines.  To the west was a container producing heat and light, and holding the skeletons of six baby bird-creatures.  Again the command bracelet was able to talk to the machine, and indicated that it could be turned off or the temperature raised or lowered.

There was an inscribed plaque on the wall, in some alien glyphs that looked somewhat like Rudishvan, but which Vael could not puzzle out.  Ioannes cast Gift of Letters to get a translation "Varuda! We soar ahead of the rest! We locate the enemy! We report! We always serve with faithful loyalty!"

Vael and Ioannes sat down to rest and recover from their spellcasting.  While they were resting, Ioannes heard a message inside his head: "This is Tresti.  Your cat is at the Rarities Factor, freaking out.  He wants to take me back to the Arcane Practitioners Club.  I'll go check that out, after I finish this thing I'm working on."  Ioannes explained the message to the others, and said he had to go back to Gosterwick and check on his cats.  They pulled out the purple Rug, and he and Uvash took the purple Rug back to the Beacon, then tried to take the green Rug back to Gosterwick, but the green Rug failed to teleport them.

Meanwhile, Vael and Vallium retraced their steps back to the Secure Treasury, removed the steel bars propping the iris door open, and took the teleporter back to the Beacon.  Once everyone was reunited, Vael tried the green Rug again, confirmed it didn't work, the cast Seeker looking for the other green Rug.  It wasn't in their apartment at the Arcane Practitioner's Club.  Somehow, it was underground, in a room, where a male goblin and a female human they didn't know were talking to a red-haired middle-aged woman Vael had seen once before, in the Temple of Set.  He followed up the Seeker with a Trace, which said the Rug was down and west, probably somewhere on the Set level.

At that point the Right for Riches company abandoned their previous plans and decided to go get their Rug back.  They discussed the plan of attack a bit.  Frontal assault seemed slow, so they decided to try stealth.  Vallium had an invisibility potion and a flight potion, and Vael had Larel's Cloak and his Levitation spell.  They would go through the Great Cavern to the secret passage leading to the Settite jail, then Ioannes and Uvash would go back to the Beacon through the purple Rug, Vael and Vallium would try to sneak past the Settiite guards to the room with their Rug, then they would do whatever it took to get it back.

There were four Set guards halfheartedly guarding the top of Set's Way between the Temple of Set and the Forum of Set.  Vallium and Vael managed to invisibly fly past them.  However, near the bottom of the stairs, the frost giant head mounted to the wall detected them and started yelling about invisible intruders.  While guards ran up the steps yelling to get someone who could see invisible intruders, Vael cast Lockmaster to try opening a lock in a gate to a side passage leading toward the Rug.  One of the guards almost stumbled into him while he was casting the spell, so Vallium had to attack the guard to protect Vael.  He dispatched the guard with one sword blow, but this caused him to become visible.  Vallium started flying west, with several guards in pursuit.  When he got out of sight he used the Ring of Illusion Disguise to disguise himself as a Settite guard, and then when some guards came around the corner, he pointed north.

This bought enough time for Vael to unlock another locked door to the west.  They went through a large round room with sand on the floor, flying near the ceiling in case something was under the sand.  They went through a couple more hallways before finding the room where the Trace spell said the Rug was.  Vael opened another locked door and they went inside, then set down the purple Rug so Ioannes and Uvash could join them.

They were in a fairly opulent room, with a table with a couple of ewers of wine, a scroll case, an empty armor rack, a writing desk, and some screens blocking off the south end of the room.  Their Rug was in one corner, tightly rolled up.  Vael grabbed the Rug.  Vallium explored beyond the screens and found a bed, an armoire, and a scary devil head.  Uvash drank some of the wine, which appeared to be poisoned!  His dwarven constitution let him survive, and he dumped out the rest of the wine on the floor.

Vael Magelocked the door, and they set out a Rug and started stealing everything small enough to carry.  That included the ewers, the crystal wine glasses, the scroll cabinet, the devil head (which appeared magical), and an entire armoire.  There was some makeup sitting on a shelf.  Rather than taking it, Vallium stepped through the Rug to the Beacon and grabbed some of the poison they had taken from Plumthorn's halflings, then came back and tried to poison some lipstick.

With the room well-looted, Vael used a charge from the Wand of See Secrets to find secret doors, and found two, on the east and south walls.  The one on the east wall was difficult to open, and led to a small room full of treasure.  There were three open stone bins, full of gold coins, platinum coins, and small gems.  Vallium deadlifted each bin and carried it through the Rug to the Beacon.  There was also a magical suit of heavy plate armor, a magic bow, another magic helmet, and a small metal box.  The See Secrets spell revealed a hidden trap on the metal box, so they just left it, in case it might explode or something.

With the treasure room looted, they took the other secret door to the south, which led west, to a room containing several of six-armed snake-men, presumably the kaliyani they had heard bad things about.  The group immediately turned around and closed the secret door, rather than engaging.  They decided to sneak out the same way they snuck in.  Uvash and Ioannes would go back to the Beacon through the Rug, where Ioannes would put on a Ring of Friendly Defense and turn himself blind to make Vallium invisible.  Vael and Vallium would then sneak back up the stairs.  This time, the guards were on alert, hunting for them, but apparently not many Settites could See Invisible, as they flew right past a lot of them.  The magic giant head was still yelling, and the four guards at the top of the stairs were alert but not alert enough to catch them.

When Vael and Vallium reached the Beacon, the group decided that was enough delving for one day, and they sat down to test some Rudishva technology.  Vallium alerted both clerics to keep an eye on him, then took one of the Rudishva Pep Pills.  This made him very fast for a few seconds, then slow and sleepy for a couple of hours.  He wandered into the library to take a nap on the couch.

Vael took a Rudishva laser rifle to the bridge and asked the computer for schematics and instructions until he though he understood the basic operation.  Then he took it out to the stairway where he couldn't hit anyone or anything important, installed a power cell, took off the safety, pointed the laser rifle at a wall, and pulled the trigger.  A bright beam came out and scorched the wall.  Vael draw a target on the wall with chalk and tried another shot, missing the target but getting in the right general direction.  He thought he now understood the laser rifle enough to safely practice with it.  He then repeated the process with one of the laser pistols, a similar but smaller weapon.  The scorch mark it made on the wall was smaller, but otherwise it was similar in operation.

Vael grabbed the belt which the computer had identified as a "personal defense array", asked the computer questions and looked at schematics, then put the belt on and pushed the button.  A shimmering field appeared around him.  He asked Uvash to test it.  Uvash, not wanting to hit Vael with his magical mace, went to get a torch from his bag.  But then Vael realized he could not breathe.  The air inside the field was getting stale.  He reached for the power button, but the field would not turn off.  Quickly thinking, Vael cast a Purify Air spell, which let him breathe while he continued trying to turn the belt off.  It took a couple minutes of fiddling and another casting of Purify Air, but he eventually managed to disable the field, and could breathe again.  He labeled the Personal Defense Array as broken and dangerous.

That was enough playing with high technology for one day.  They waited until Vallium was rested enough to walk, then hiked back to Gosterwick to check on the cats.

GM's Comments:

The sneak attack to recover the Rug went better than I expected.  The PCs were lucky that the room with the Rug was temporarily empty and that the guards kept missing rolls to find them.  (Granted, being invisible and flying above the floor makes you harder to find.)  Using the wand to find the secret doors was also a good move, as they would have been difficult to detect manually.

In addition to running around a scary number of Settite guards, the PCs dodged two potentially fatal traps, the poisoned wine and the defective force field belt.  Saved by dwarven poison resistance and the Purify Air spell, respectively.

It appears the war against the Settites has escalated.  Killing their friend Susarra was one thing, but stealing one of their best magic items really crossed a line.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 17 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: A lot.  2 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3 XP

Next Week:

Vallium will not be around, so the war against the Settites will await his return.  In the meantime, the others will talk to their cats and the magic cat statue, try to find out who robbed their apartment for the Settites, make their monthly food delivery to the baboons, and explore more of the Halls.