DFRPG Arden Vul Session 56: 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?

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 55: Varboka the Varumani Thegn

Date:

Lunday 7th of Toternios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Hot, fair

Player Characters:

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

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, mercenary dwarf (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Dragonfly construct of Kerbog Khan

Many Varumani

Gorlen, Varumani lift operator

Trijax, Varumani lift operator

Many ogre guards

Sir Prudence, Sun-Scarred Knight

Beavon, Sir Prudence's varlet

Fat Yeskim, goblin food seller

Jacoby, halfling barkeeper

Lyssandra of Newmarket, Archontean merchant

Coelrith, Archontean alchemist

Chaudri, Archontean relic dealer

Jordan, Thorcin jeweler

Skalla, Wiskin arms dealer

Hallar, Elvish scribe

Varboka, Thegn of the Varumani

6 Varumani housecarls

Poltergeist

3 ogres

Gribble, Goblin prince

Many goblins

Dworm, food merchant

The Plan:

• Meet with the Varumani Thegn
• Visit the Varumani Market
• Explore the cold area near the Varumani Lifts

What Happened:

Vael found a bronze Varumani passport for sale at Cleon's Curios and Pawnshop.  Despite already having an ancient plasteel Varumani passport, he immediately bought it.  The group went to the Grain Hall, where they purchased two live goats and two crates full of live chickens as gifts for the Varumani Thegn. 

The Church of Demma sent letters to all members of the Right for Riches company, asking for donations for the spring anti-childhood-hunger program.  Ioannes donated and got a personal thank-you from High Priest Vivian.  Vael and Vallium did not donate.

Uvash had church business and was not available to adventure.  The others hired Thronebreaker as a backup dwarf and went through the Teleport Rugs to the Beacon.  After sharing their delve plan with Akla-Chah and Basil, they used the Rudishva teleporter to the vault near the Cloister, then proceeded through the secret door from the Cloister to the western part of that level.

However, in the chamber with the slime pits, Ioannes spotted a dragonfly construct, watching and waiting.  Vael spoke to it, and a few minutes later, the distinctive voice of Kerbog Khan emerged.  The Khan seemed happy that the party had led his dragonflies to this secret area for his constructs to explore.  Vael was less happy and told the Khan not to have his dragonfly follow them.  Vael watched behind them as they walked away, but the dragonfly did not appear to be following.

They went down a slope to the level below, then through the cavern where they killed the gray slime and the rooms where they killed the rogue bestial varumani.  They took a detour through a secret door to the magic pool, where Vael and Vallium and Thronebreaker all took a drink.  (Ioannes did not.)  Vael and Vallium got temporary boosts to dexterity, and Thronebreaker got a permanent boost to health.  They continued east until they reached the barricade behind the Varumani Lifts.  They pounded on the barricade until Gorlen the lift operator asked who was there.  After identifying themselves, Gorlen let them through.  After some negotiation about the cost to transport the goats, Gorlen relented and said they could be moved for free if they were marked as the Thegn's property.  He was then rewarded by Vael and Vallium deciding to Levitate rather than paying to ride on the lift, so he only got to charge Ioannes and Thronebreaker.

Arriving at the other Lift station a level down, Trijax asked to see their passport.  Vael showed him both the modern and ancient passports.  Trijax tried to buy the ancient one, but Vael refused.  He said that they could all travel on one passport as long as they stayed together; anyone straying from the group could get in trouble.  He also noted that most of the varumani who didn't have critical jobs like standing guard or operating the Lifts were doing a Cleansing of the Sorrows ceremony today, so the visitors were unlikely to meet anyone important today.  However, they could still walk around public areas or go to the market and buy things from non-varumani shopkeepers.

From the Lifts they headed west past three statues of varumani, reaching a large columned hall.  The hall was quiet, but there was a Sun-Scarred Knight and his varlet present, along with a few ogre guards.  The Knight introduced himself as Sir Prudence, and his varlet as Beuvon.  He said that he was an emissary from the Knights to the Varumani, and asked about the party.  He recalled their names from Sir Sorrow and Sir Simonet.  They spoke a bit about the fall of the Settites and the new Goblin Forum.  Sir Prudence indicated that most of the varumani were doing a private holiday ritual so it would be a bad day to see them, but he pointed southeast and said the market was open.

The Varumani market was a large cave, with elevated wooden platforms and walkways erected about 20' above the floor, and then shops in small side caverns off the main cavern.  The party systematically visited all the shops.  One was a bar run by a halfling named Jacoby, where Vael bought an ale.  Another was a food stand run by a goblin named Fat Yeskim, where Vael and Ioannes got some stew.  They bought a Token of Arden, a book, and a random key from a man named Chaudri.  They got another book and a scroll of Pol's Endless Sneezes from an elf named Hallar.  After they got done shopping, they went back to the long hall and sat on the floor and waited for the varumani ceremony to finish.

Hours later, a few varumani appeared.  One approached the group and then led them north to a comfortable room, where some ogre guards took all their weapons.  A while later, the Thegn came in, flanked by several housecarls.  He dismissed the ogre guards, then greeted the visitors in accented Archontean and thanked them for the gifts of goats and chickens.  He quickly got to business, noting that Kerbog Khan had done unspeakable things to his sister Gevorda and needed to die for his crimes.  He also said that varumani politics were complicated and it was a bad time to declare war directly on the Khan, whose constructs were popular visitors to the Varumani Market, so he would like the outsiders, who had already demonstrated their power by defeating the Settites and Kerbog Khan's Invisible Stalkers and Surgical Construst, to kill the Khan for him.  He said that the Khan was probably also after them for destroying his surgical construct, so that taking him out was in their own best interests as well.  He would reward them with his friendship and any one item from his personal hoard.  (But not the treasure that belonged to the entire tribe.)  He said he had many magic items such as a Rod of Resurrection and Girdle of Strength and some magic armor and weapons sized for little people like them, plus some Rudishva relics including a Sky Sled.  He said that he expected the Khan to have a large stash of Rudishva power supplies, and asked that he receive half of any power supplies found.  He also noted the Rudishva Command Bracelet on Vael's risk and asked if it was for sale.  Vael said that it was not, at any price, and the thegn smiled.

Vael asked to confer with his team in private.  The thegn opened a door to the west and dismissed the ogre guards that were waiting in that chamber, making it available to the party.  They had a long conversation about which reward was best, but they were all in favor of going after Kerbog Khan.  They came back and asked the thegn for more details about the reward items and any intelligence about the Khan.  He said that, if they brought him the Khan's head, he would let them personally analyze the items for magical potency before picking one.  He didn't have much intelligence about the Khan's location beyond knowing it was near the surgical bay where they had rescued Gevorda.  He said the Khan would probably be hiding in his fortress, protected by many of his constructs, including some combat constructs.

After agreeing to the deal, Varboka asked to see the ancient passport that his ambassador had told him about.  Vael showed it to him, and Varboka was impressed.  He offered the group four modern bronze passports for the ancient one, saying the modern ones were just as good for entering varumani territory, but the ancient one was a historical relic of his people.  Vael and Vallium were reluctant to part with anything unique, but agreed to the deal, with the condition that if they found place where they really needed the ancient passport, the thegn would lend it back to them.  Then thegn unlocked a desk drawer and pulled out four modern bronze passports, issuing one to each of them.

With business concluded, Varboka said they could get their weapons back from the ogre guards to the west, and then left the room to the south, escorted by his housecarls.  After recovering their weapons from the ogres, the group went west into a cavern containing a lot of large mushrooms, with a few varumani picking mushrooms and a lot of varumani standing around talking.  They found a worked  passage that looked like Archontean construction, heading north and west from the cavern.  They followed it toward a door.  A varumani popped out of a small side cave and said something in varumani, that Vael caught as "bad juju don't go that way stupid."

Ignoring the possibility of bad juju, they listened at the door.  Vael then used Glass Wall to look through the door, seeing a room full of trashed furniture.  They opened the door, entered, and started poking around.  Some furniture flew at Vael, but went around him due to his Missile Shield amulet and flew at Thronebreaker instead, who dodged it.  There was also an aura of fear, which both resisted.  More furniture flew at Vallium, this time missing and heading for Ioannes, who blocked it.  Both resisted fear.  More furniture flew at Thronebreaker, who parried it, and again was not afraid.  Vallium ran around stabbing where he thought a hypothetical invisible creature throwing furniture at them might be standing.  Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium, while Ioannes started casting Affect Spirits.  Once the See Invisible spell took effect, Vallium spotted an the invisible poltergeist, then Vallium ran up to it and destroyed it with his sword.  It was dispelled with a scream.

Searching the room found nothing beyond broken furniture.  The group exited through a door to the west and saw a dead-end corridor.  Ioannes immediately said "obvious secret door" and everyone searched, but didn't find one.  They headed north, and found a room with some spiral stairs going up, and three ogres guarding it.  One ogre starting loudly banging on a cowbell, while the other two readied large round maces and attacked.

The ogres didn't last very long.  Vallium and Thronebreaker downed two of them quickly, then Thronebreaker terrified the third one into running away, and Vallium cut him down.  The ogres had a sack holding a mix of rotten apples, rotten potatoes, and gold coins.  The group took the sack, the maces, and the cowbell.

They went north and found a little side corridor with an Archontean teleportation ring.  They continued north and found a spot they had already mapped, where they had fought some wights.  They went east and found a room that looked like an old shrine to Isis, with a pile of bodies on the floor and a low-quality statue of Isis.  Ioannes investigated the bodies and decided that at least all the fresher ones had had all their blood drained.  The group investigated the walls for secret doors and the statue for anything interesting, but didn't find anything.  The floor felt a bit unstable, but didn't collapse.

They left and went back to the teleportation ring, then inserted some teleportation tiles in the correct order to teleport to south of the Red Bridge, near the Goblin Forum.  They walked north over the Red Bridge to the Forum, talked to Gribble and Dworm, went to their room nearby, and went through the Rug to the Beacon to get another wheelbarrow full of food.  They brought the food to Dworm to sell, keeping commerce flowing through the Forum.  They then went back to the Beacon, then back to Gosterwick.

GM's Notes:

This session was mostly talking to the merchants in the Varumani Market and to Varboka.  There was a decent amount of exploring Varumani territory, but very little treasure was found.  The poltergeist and the ogres didn't last long.

XP:

• Exploration: 19 rooms, 1 XP
• Loot: very little, 0 XP
• Achievements: none, 0 XP
• Total: 1 XP
• Note: Thronebreaker got +1 HT from a fountain, good for 10 XP

Next Week:

The PCs plan to possibly use a Seeker spell on Asrotelion, the mage they think was sent after Kerbog Khan, to help locate Kerbog Khan.  They will then try to find and kill Kerbog Khan.

GURPS / DFRPG Foundry Configuration Update

A few weeks ago, my Foundry VTT instance started crashing a lot.  Turns out I was running it on a t2.micro AWS VM with only 1 GB of RAM, and Foundry's minimum server memory requirement is 2 GB, so this was my fault.  It worked fine for the first few months with that amount of memory, but as I added more maps and tokens and modules and updated versions, it started getting flaky, and eventually stopped working completely.

Anyway, I made a backup of my Foundry configuration and rebuilt everything on a t3.small AWS VM with 2 GB of RAM.  It's stable again.  While I was in there I updated to Foundry v13, and then bumped the versions of everything else to the latest that worked with v13.  So here's the current configuration.  This is for Arden Vul, so we've got dozens of maps and hundreds of tokens.  So it'll probably work for most GURPS games.

Core VTT Software:

FoundryVTT v13 Stable, build 351

Game System:

GURPS Game Aid, v.0.18.18

Modules:

About Face

Controls token facing, for games where facing matters.  Works great.  Sometimes the little arrows it projects into adjacent hexes to show facing get lost, though.  You can tweak the size and color of the arrow, but I'd really like one that automatically contrasted with the current background color.

Chat Portrait

Shows a picture of whoever is talking.  We don't do a lot of text chatting so maybe we don't need this.

Combat Booster: Turn Marker, Recent Actions and more

The "Turn Marker" module didn't get updated for v12, so I tried this one instead, and it does indeed mark the token whose turn it is.  I'm not using the other features.

Dice So Nice!

Animated pretty configurable dice.  This is probably the most popular Foundry module, so if you've used Foundry you probably know about it.

Hide GM Rolls

In base Foundry, if the GM makes a private roll, the game tells the players that the GM rolled dice, just not the exact roll.  This properly shuts that up, so I don't have to waste time making fake die rolls to keep my players guessing about when I'm actually making hidden Per or wandering monster checks.

Hurry Up! Combat Timer

Puts a timer on each token's turn in combat.  By default it's 5 minutes, which is forever, but at least it reminds everyone why combat is slow.  (Quit complaining about traffic if you are traffic.)  If things bog down I'll gradually reduce the time limit.

Instant Counter

This module is GURPS specific.  If you put a number status on a token, it'll decrement it every combat turn, so you can use numbers to track the duration of spells or powers or other effects.  It also has a Luck timer, which puts a four-leaf clover status icon next to a token if its Luck is active, and lets you configure Luck timers by token.  The text for configuring the Luck timers is in Portuguese; I should probably contribute some English translations.

libWrapper

A dependency for other modules.  I don't use it directly.

Monk's Wall Enhancement

Adds support for one-way doors.  It doesn't do every kind of one-way doors though.  For example, you might want a realistic door that only opens from one side, but once it's open, you can pass through either way.  But if a one-way door is more restrictive than it should be, the GM can move tokens for players.

It also has other features, like if you drag an intersection point of two walls, it moves both walls, not just one.  But the one-way doors were why I added it.

Ownership Viewer

Puts player colors next to tokens, journal entries, etc. to show who has permissions.  Permission issues are annoying so making them easier to spot is good.

PopOut!

Lets you put a character sheet in a separate browser tab or window.  This is a huge quality-of-life improvement for some players.  (Less so for GMs because we need to juggle lots of sheets.)

Raise My Hand

This puts a hand icon in the toolbar.  If you click it it makes a noise for everyone.

Simple Calendar Reborn

Simple Calendar didn't get updated to v13 so someone forked it.  Because it's a new module I had to re-enter all the configuration, which was mildly annoying because that's a lot of day and month names to type.  But it only took a few minutes.

socketlib

Another dependency that we don't use directly.

Token Attacher

Lets you attach a wheelbarrow token to a PC token and then when the PC moves, the wheelbarrow also moves.  And then you can attach the halfling token to the wheelbarrow token and now the PC is pushing the halfling around the map.  You can do much more with it, like building complex prefabricated objects out of lots of tokens, but that's the basic idea.

Tokenizer

This is an easy way to attach portraits and token pictures to tokens, and reuse one image for both.  The UI isn't amazing, but once you figure it out, it's pretty quick.

Universal Battlemap Importer

Lets you import a .dungeondraft file as a scene with the walls and lights intact.  Manually walling a complex scene is a lot of tedious work, so if a map was built in Dungeondraft and the wall data is already there, better to use it.  (But many of the maps I'm using are plain image files so I'm sometimes stuck manually adding walls.)

Z Scatter

If you put multiple tokens in the same hex, it offsets them a little so you can see and click on them rather than playing the "which token is my token hiding under?" game.  This is great and should be the default.  Seems to work better in v13 than it did in v12.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 54: The Tomb of Marius

Date:

Lunday 30th of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, fair

Player Characters:

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

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

Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, mercenary dwarf (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Fael, Druid

Onyx, Alpha Cat

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Stamelis, Head Librarian of Thoth

Many Bestial Varumani

Publius Lanlius, Oathbound Knight Commander

8 Oathbound Knights

Lepp, Adventurer

Gorlen, Varumani lift operator

2 Varumani lift laborers

4 Spearman Constructs

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Many goblins

The Plan:

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

What Happened:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GM's Comments:

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

Achievements:

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

XP:

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

Next Week:

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

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

Date:

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

Weather:

Cool, fair

Player Characters:

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

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

Sister Valya "Basilisk", mercenary Halfling clerid

Significant NPCs:

Behir

Lurker Above

Gribble, Prince of the Goblin Forum

Many goblins

Dragonfly Construct

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Remagis, Priest of Thoth

Ichthelon, Mummy of Thoth

Stamelis, Head Librarian of Thoth

Vivian, Chief Priest of Demma in Gosterwick

Gray Ooze

Many Bestial varumani

Surgical Construct

2 Invisible Stalkers

Gevorda, captured Varumani

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Gorlen, Varumani lift operator

2 Varumani lift laborers

The Plan:

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

What Happened:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GM's Comments:

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

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

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

Achievements:

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

XP:

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

Next Week:

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