DFRPG Arden Vul Session 75: Sky Sled, Mushrooms, and Statues

Date:

Tothsday 6th Masporios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, 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)

Coinbase, Elven mercenary illusionist (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Kerbog Khan's child automata:

• Corbel
• Milo
• Phoebe
• Cobban (deceased)

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Varumani lift operators

Hal, varumani bartender

Many goblins

Many ogre guards

Temrin, goblin royal artist

Thonk, goblin cook

Spectre

Ochre Jelly

Killik, goblin chief

Gog, varumani outcast

Gribble, goblin prince

Many fungal foresters

Michael, Thorcin mushroom addict

Telepathic lichen

2 intoxicated Xorn 

4 petrified Setties

Pharastina, petrified ancient Thorcin adventurer

Ludrig, petrified ancient Varumani diplomat

2 caterwauls

Many varumani

Varboka, varumani Thegn

The Plan:

• Pick up Temrin's map to the Ring of Jagri-Naz
• Search for secret doors near the black anti-magic doors in Goblintown
• Explore the natural caverns north of the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

Ioannes and Uvash went to check on the child automata and found they were missing, as was the body of Cobban.  Vael cast a Seeker spell and spotted them walking south along the Imperial Road, dragging Cobban's body behind them.  He followed up with a Trace spell, which said they were south of Gosterwick.  The whole Right for Riches Company, with Coinbase in tow, took a trip down the Imperial Road looking for the automata.  They passed a merchant going the other way, who said he had spotted some weird-looking kids a couple of miles south.  Eventually they caught up with the slow-moving automata.  Corbel said that nobody in Gosterwick could fix Cobban, so they were going to Newmarket, where they had heard there might be better wizards.  Ioannes tried talking them out of it, but eventually they decided to let the automata continue on their quest.

They were still within Teleport Rug range of the Beacon, so Vael sent everyone else through the Rug to the Beacon, then picked it up and used Pol's Recall to follow.  After telling Basil and Akla-Chah their plan, Vallium led them through several Rudishva teleporters until they reached the floating garden island in the middle of the Great Chasm.  After casting some Levitation and Walk on Air spells, they started heading up the chasm toward the Arena level.

Ioannes, with See Secrets active, noticed some kind of secret door on the bottom of the higher floating island.  Closer inspection revealed it was a Rudishva iris door.  Vael held the yellow Rudishva identity plaque up to it, and it opened.  Inside was some kind of high-tech Rudishva cart with four large seats and no wheels.  Vallium said it might be the Sky Sled that had been mentioned in the poem about Marius Invictus.  Vael and Ioannes couldn't resist playing with it.  Vael first looked at the controls and read all the Rudishva glyphs he could find, including a power on/off button, levers to go up/down and left/right, pedals to go faster or slower, and a panel on the back saying "Electrocution Risk; Do Not Open If You Are Stupid."  Vael bounced the sky sled off a couple of hanger walls, then managed to make it go down into the Chasm.  After flying it around a bit, they realized they didn't have a way to get it out of the Chasm, and didn't have anywhere better to put it, so they put it back in the hanger where they'd found it, but added a note saying "Property of Right for Riches Company."  Vael tried opening the compartment in the back, but it required some kind of keyed octagonal tool, so he left it for another time.

They continued up to the top of the island then over to the Varumani lifts, where the Varumani lift operator made a snide comment in Varumani about banning flying in the Chasm, as it was bad for business.  Vael understood the comment and tossed the lift operator some coins.  They walked east, then south past the arena (where no fight was ongoing), to Hal's corner bar.  Vael bought a Hak's Special Red ale.  Eyeing the Thothian teleportation circle near the bar, Vallium asked if the bar was always open day and night.  Hal laughed and said that day and night had no meaning underground, and that he was always working when the Arena was busy, and at least had one of his goblins on busy even when he was gone, just in case someone needed a drink.  Vallium led them up the stairs to Goblintown.

The ogre guards opened the portcullis and let them into the Goblin Market.  Temrin was busy rearranging the precedence of wives in a royal portrait, but when the group approached, he found their map and gave it to Uvash.  The group went west to the kitchen area south of the black doors, where Uvash had thought of looking for secret doors.  He struck up a conversation with Thonk, the head cook, who offered him a mushroom snack and then showed him around the kitchen area.  She let Ioannes tag along, but said that it was a working kitchen so the others should stay behind.  Vael turned invisible and followed anyway.  Uvash, Ioannes, and Vael followed Thonk through the kitchens, kitchen workers' quarters, and food storage caves, but didn't see any secret doors.

After giving up on the kitchens, Vallium suggested trying the door east of the Eighth Collegium wizards.  They went down the empty corridor to the door covered with ancient warning graffiti.  Vael cast Glass Wall to look through the door, and saw a large desk covered with papers, with a skeleton in a chair beyond.  The door was locked, so Vallium tried his entire collection of keys, to no avail.  Vael cast Lockmaster and the lock popped open.  When they went in, a sighing sound came from the skeleton.  A few seconds later, a spectral form flew out of the skeleton straight at Vallium.

Vallium fast-drew his Ghost Blade sword, while Ioannes plinked the spectre with a Magical Bolt.  The spectre didn't like that, and re-targeted his wrath on Ioannes.  It flew in and reached out with a ghostly hand, but Ioannes evaded it.  Vallium then Levitated up behind the spirit and chopped it multiple times with the Ghost Blade.  This caused the spectre to become un-undead, and it dissipated.

Vael ran into the room and started ransacking the papers on the desk.  They were mostly boring old ancient documents about organizing goblin slave construction labor.  There was a nice copy of The Lay of Marius Invictus buried under the papers.  As Vael scooped up all the papers into a magic bag, someone noticed a large metal cylinder attached to the bottom of the desk.  Vael went under the desk and tried to remove the cylinder, but it was firmly attached.  He noticed a lock on one side, so Vallium went into action again, trying all his keys.  On the third key, a needle came out of the lock and stabbed Vallium's armored gauntlet, failing to penetrate.  After all the keys failed, Vallium moved aside and let Vael cast Lockmaster.  Inside the cylindrical chest were several gold discs, with holes in the center and groves and pins and small holes all along the discs in a strange pattern.  Nobody knew what the discs were for, but they were gold, so they took them.

There were three open bins along one wall, one empty, one containing dirt, and one containing dirt with some orange stuff on top.  Vael and Ioannes both examined the orange stuff and determined it was dehydrated healing potion.  Vael started carefully gathering flakes of healing potion, when an orange goo tentacle came out of the dirt and tried to grab him.  Vael was surprised but managed to reflexively Blink away anyway.  After recovering from surprise, Vallium drew his other sword and started chopping up the orange goo.  The goo was quite difficult to damage, so Coinbase told his two Phantom illusions to grapple the goo.  The goo totally ignored one Phantom, but was totally transfixed by the other, to the point that it just ignored Vallium stabbing it while it wrestled the imaginary attacker.  Eventually Vallium stabbed the goo enough times that it stopped moving.  The flakes of healing potion were at that point totally mixed up with orange goo and dirt, but Vael collected a sample vial anyway.

Ioannes and Vael noticed a secret door on the east wall.  Vael used Glass Wall to peer through it, and saw a barracks full of ogre guards.  Some were sleeping, while others were playing a game that involved throwing dice at each other's faces.  The barracks also contained a Thothian teleportation circle.  Vallium said they should figure out a way to swap rooms with the ogres, so they could have their own teleporter.  They decided not to bother the ogres, and went back to the Goblin Market, then up to the Wet Caves, then over to Gog's cave.

Gog greeted them warmly, hoping for more food, but they didn't have any this week.  He let them use the teleporation circle anyway, noting that they used the same sequence of colors as last time.  They went through the teleporter to just south of the Bridge of Set, then headed north to the Goblin Forum.  Gribble greeted them and said business was picking up, but they still needed more surface merchants to come visit, and also more paint to better mark the safe path from the cliff basket to the Forum.

The group went north from the Forum to the portcullis, which Vallium unlocked.  They went north into the caves, past the pool where they'd killed the boalisk, to a cave full of giant mushrooms tended by fungal foresters.  Some fungal foresters saw their approach and started talking in their mushroom language.  Vael's Command Bracelet translated it, but didn't let him speak it.  Ioannes cast Gift of Tongues so he could talk to the foresters.  They said that the surface bipeds could pass through their territory if they were respectful and peaceful and only took small amounts of the giant mushrooms as needed for food.  They also said that most of the humans were gone, but the the remaining human was on up the ledge to the east.

They flew up on the eastern edge and saw a man whose face was caked yellow with mushroom spores.  He said various incoherent things, mixed with threats about not touching his mushrooms.  Vallium asked Coinbase to hold the man down so he could force-feed him a potion.  Coinbase sent both Phantoms after the man.  He threatened them, called them mushroom thieves, but then eventually got pinned to the floor.  Once the man was pinned, Vallium forced an Elixir of Health down his throat.  A minute later, the man got up, with his mushroom-inflicted insanity cured.  His name was Michael and he was a Thorcin farmer from Thorham who had been captured and enslaved by the Settites, had escaped and joined with the band living in the nearby cave, but had eaten too many of the wrong yellow mushrooms.  Vael took the Teleport Rug back to the Beacon to fetch the Mirror of Life Trapping so they could get Michael out, while Vallium pulled out his mushroom manual and identified the mushrooms as Mind Eaters.  Vael asked Michael to look into the mirror, and Michael did, started to say something about needing some water to wash all those yellow spores off his face, then disappeared.

Vael took the Mirror back to the Beacon, then the group went back down to the larger mushroom cavern.  There was another ledge to the north, which Vael suggested searching.  When they got there, Uvash heard voices in his head, in dwarvish.  The voices said that they needed to be moved to a larger and cooler habitat, and that good dwarves that helped move them would be rewarded with valuable information.  Uvash was pretty sure the voices came from the lichen lining the walls above the ledge.  Uvash asked if anyone else heard the voices, and nobody else did, so they weren't sure about his sanity.  But then Vael started also hearing the voices, telling him to help the dwarf move the lichen and they could share the reward.  Vael was not happy with lichen projecting thoughts into his head, and suggested that everyone get away from the ledge.

They headed south, and spotted a side cave, where two large trilaterally-symmetric rock creatures were eating walls covered in blue lichen.  The rock creatures seemed more interesting in the lichen then in them, so they avoided them.  Uvash said something about rock creatures sometimes containing gold, so Vael cast Seek Earth to see if any gold was there.  The nearest gold was pretty far, so he tried Seek Magic, and detected some magic back to the north.  He declared there was no need to fight the rock creatures, but they should go back north and check out the magic.  He flew back up to the ledge with the telepathic lichen, and didn't see anything magical even with Mage Sense, so he cast Seek Magic again, which told him it was a couple of feet underground.  He cast Shape Earth to dig a hole, and found a skeleton, with a magic greatsword, and also some kind of writ with very fancy Imperial seals, and some kind of huge horn.  He took everything, as the lichen changed their story from "help us and we'll tell you information" to "you only found that stuff because we told you so now you have to help us."  Vael disagreed, refused to help the lichen, and flew away.

They continued south, past the earth creatures, and found a cave with several very high quality statues.  One was an owlbear, one was a varumani (with mail and greatsword), and four were humans.  Of the humans, three were wearing scale armor, and one was wearing leather armor.  Minute inspection of the scale armor revealed some Settite symbols.  The group devised a plan.  Ioannes would cast Stone to Flesh on each Settite, while Vallium and Uvash stood behind them, and killed them.  They executed this plan three times, killing three Settites and taking their stuff.

Ioannes then cast Stone to Flesh on the woman in leather armor, but since she wasn't obviously a Settite, they talked to her instead of murdering her.  She spoke some ancient Thorcin dialect that nobody understood, except Vael with the Command Bracelet.  Vael tried Mithric, and she spoke a bit of broken Mithric.  Her name was Pharastina and she was a Thorcin adventurer.  They tried to ask her what year she thought it was, but they didn't share a common calendar.  Ioannes cast Gift of Tongues to enable more fluent conversation, and explained that she'd been petrified for a very long time, and that they could get her out of the Halls to a local town, but that nobody spoke her ancient Thorcin dialect anymore so she'd be in for an adjustment.  She agreed, the Vael went through the Rug and got the Mirror again.

They repeated the process on the varumani.  His name was Ludrig and he actually spoke decent Mithric.  Again they tried to establish a year to figure out how long he'd been petrified, and he said that Marius was in charge of the humans and that the varumani had decided to ally with the humans against the Heqeti.  They told him that it was many years after his time, but the varumani still lived in the lower Halls, and they could take him there.  Ludrig agreed, and Vael went through the Rug and got the Mirror again.

They headed west and then down a sloping passage.  Hundreds of feet down, it reached a cavern containing a bunch of human bones which appeared to have been picked clean by something.  Vallium spotted a bone scroll case mixed in with the bones.  While everyone was looking at it, the caterwauls who were responsible for all the bones attacked the group from behind.  Ioannes and Uvash each took a hard claw swipe from behind, but their armor stopped most of the damage.  Vallium quickly took down one caterwaul.  One of Coinbase's Phantom spells held down the other one, while Uvash and Vallium smashed and stabbed it.  It unleashed a howl that seriously injured everyone's ears, but only once, then Vallium finished it off.

Ioannes cast several healing spells, but unfortunately one of his Stop Bleeding spells critically failed and caused Uvash to Start Bleeding from the nose and mouth and eyes, to match the blood already coming out of his ears.  Fortunately Uvash stayed calm while Ioannes followed up with a Major Healing to fix the damage.  Once everyone was in walking shape, the group headed east, finding a path to the former vampire lair.  Once they got close to varumani territory, Vael went through the Teleport Rug to fetch the Mirror.  They went through some varumani caves and asked one of the varumani for a meeting with Thegn Varboka.  He said the Thegn was very busy and couldn't meet right now.  Vael skipped the protocol by casting a Message spell to inform Thegn Varboka that they had found an ancient petrified varumani and wanted to reunite him with his people.  That cause the Thegn to appear a few minutes later, surrounded by a phalanx of housecarls.  He pointed them into his meeting room, where the ogre guards took everyone's weapons.

Vael explained more about how they had found Ludrig, then used the command word to free Ludrig from the Mirror.  Ludrig and Varboka started talking, and Varboka dismissed the group.  They recovered their weapons, then went back to the former vampire lair, and from there teleported back to the Beacon.

GM's Comments:

I hope all those statues that were summarily executed for wearing apparently Settite armor were actual evil Settites, not people drafted against their will or in disguise or using the captured armor of their enemies.

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for rescuing Michael from mushroom insanity and Pharastina and Ludrig from petrification.

XP:

• Exploration: 10 rooms, 1 XP
• Loot: Some, probably 1 XP depending on what they sell
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: probably 3 XP

Next Week:

They plan to experiment with the Rudishva Forge.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 74: Heqeti and the Boalisk

Date:

Tothsday 30th Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, 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)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Mistral, intelligent sword

Cers, intelligent sword

Many goblins

Killik, goblin chief

Temrin, goblin royal artist

Narbo, elf mage, prisoner of the goblins

Elena, warrior, prisoner of the goblins

Carloman, halfling, prisoner of the goblins

Jobim, goblin brewer

Palestrim, goblin majordomo

Rast, goblin kid

Gog, varumani outcast

Gribble, goblin prince

Many giant lizards

4 heqeti

Boalisk

Escaped former slaves of the Cult of Set:

• Hexameros, Archontean fighter
• Theophrastus, Archontean cleric of Demma
• Jostri, Wiskin skald
• Isthak, lizardman
• 3 goblins
• pig-headed beastman
• 20 Thorcin farmers and villagers

The Plan:

• Visit the Goblin Market
• Hire Temrin to make a map to the Ring of Jagri-Naz
• Use Seeker to find the floating bronze head previously found near the Glory of Weskenim
• Explore the natural caverns north of the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

After leaving Mistral, Cers, and the sword with eyes on its blade in a room together all week, Vallium asked Mistral about the other swords.  Mistral said that Cers still needed melting down and the other sword didn't say anything all week.  Vael talked to Cers, who suggested melting down Mistral, had no opinion about the other sword, and said that it could help them find great treasures if they would just follow instructions.  The sword with eyes continued to say nothing.

Vallium led the group through a series of Rudishva teleporters until they reached the floating garden island in the middle of the Great Chasm.  Vael cast Levitation and Walk on Air, and everyone headed up to the Wet Caves.  There was a net there to keep things from the chasm out, but a goblin guard spotted them and alerted his sergeant, who let them in.  They briefly spoke to Killik, chief of the Wet Caves, then went down to Goblintown.

In the Goblin Market, they spoke to Temrin, who indicated that Major-domo Palestrim had authorized him to paint something for them, as soon as he finished some changes to a group portrait of King Weskenim's harem.  Vael provided him with a copy of a picture of the Ring of Jagri-Naz and asked Temrin to make a map to it.

The group went upstairs to their private room in Goblintown.  Once they had privacy, Vael cast a Seeker spell for the floating bronze head, and saw it floating next to a second bronze head.  He cast Trace and found that the head was down a bit and northeast.  They headed back down to the goblin market and started wandering around as if sightseeing, trying to find the head without being obvious about it.

They wandered west and found a room with several prisoners in cages, along with some huge black doors.  One of the prisoners was an elf named Narbo, who said he had been imprisoned due to false accusations of shoplifting from Jobim the brewer, and would reward them with his spells if they got him out.  After some questioning they decided he was actually guilty of shoplifting and had been sentenced to a year in the cage.  Vael and Vallium discussed paying Jobim to drop the charges and let him go, but Ioannes and Uvash didn't see the point.

They went north to another room and saw some more prisoners tied to the walls.  One was a woman named Elena who was the sole survivor of a group of adventurers who had attacked Upper Goblintown.  Another was a halfling named Carloman who used to be Plumthorn's second in command, and was now missing an eye and an ear.  They tried to go through a door, but the goblin jailer said that way was restricted.  Vael Glass Walled that door, and beyond it saw some prisoners digging a tunnel.

Returning to the big black doors, the group recalled that the area around the doors was a no mana zone, and stepping too close disenchanted their spells and magic items.  Vallium took off everything magical and closely investigated the door, finding no keyholes but a wide slot with some prongs inside it.  He went through his key rings and did not find any key of the correct shape.  Vael also stripped off all his magic and investigated, and discovered his magic was of no use against the door.  Uvash took off his magic then grabbed a pickaxe out of Larel's Sack and took a swing at the door, leaving no mark.  Weskenim's majordomo Palestrim came over while they were looking at the doors, and said that if someone figured out how to open them, the king would reward them.

Eventually, they gave up on the doors, went to talk to Jobim in the goblin market, and bought some drinks including Jobim's Lichen Ale (good) and Demon Purple Wax Ale (an acquired taste).  They resumed wandering around, looking for the floating bronze head.  A goblin kid named Rast approached them and said that he was an expert tour guide and would give them all a tour of Goblintown for a coin.  Vael gave him 5 silver pieces, so Rast showed them the statue they called The Pointer, the Big Fire Pit, many goats, and the bronze floating heads King Wesky the First and King Wesky the Second.  He also led them through a couple of caves full of goblins, including the one where he lived.  Finally he showed them a portcullis, behind which were some ogre guards (who were very serious and who he tried to make laugh) and the stairs to the Arena.

Having found the floating bronze head, the group decided to leave Goblintown.  They went back up to the Wet Caves, then over to Gog's Cave.  Vael went through a Teleport Rug back to the Beacon and grabbed some food for Gog.  They spoke briefly to Gog, gave him the food, then used his Thothian teleportation circle, as Gog appeared to closely study the permutation of colored squares they used to teleport.

Appearing near the Bridge of Set, they saw some new paint blazes on the walls, marking a north-south path.  They went south and east, then changed their mind and went north to the Goblin Forum.  Gribble greeted them and told them that business had picked up a bit since King Weskenim lent him a couple of ogre guards to operate the basket on the cliff face, and they'd marked a safe trail from the basket to the Forum.

They went north to the locked portcullis leading to some natural caverns.  Vallium found the key to the portcullis on one of his keyrings.  They went down a cliff, up a different cliff, and followed a fast underground stream.  At that point they got ambushed by a couple of giant lizards.  Vallium and Uvash killed them, then Vallium cut them open hoping for swallowed treasure, but mostly finding half-digested vermin.

Continuing north and west they found some human corpses that had been mostly eaten by lizards, and a bit of loot.  Vael and Ioannes, both with See Secrets spells running, spotted a secret door at the same time.  Vael tried to open it, but it was stuck.  Vallium opened it, and on the other side was a room with slimy pebbled walls, a mysterious well on the floor, and four amphibian bipeds with primitive bone spears.  The heqeti immediately attacked.  They were pretty tough, but Vallium and Uvash killed three of them.  The fourth jumped into the well and disappeared.  Ioannes said the well looked magic to him.  Vael wasn't sure, but cast Scry Gate on it, and saw that it was indeed a teleporter leading to some underground swamp.  They decided not to go in.

Some investigation to the south showed some shadows across a river, so they doubled back northeast, finding several more giant lizards.  Another fight started.  This time Vael cast Lightning Wall behind the lizards to prevent their escape, and one of the lizards tested the wall and suffered a serious shock.  Vallium and Uvash eventually killed all the lizards, then Vallium and Ioannes cut them up and failed to find any treasure inside.  They did find some nests with some huge eggs, which they took.

Heading northwest, they entered a small cave and Vallium and Uvash were hit by a stone deadfall trap, but both had hard enough helmets that their heads were not damaged by the falling rocks.  Continuing northwest, they saw light in the distance, and a couple of human faces, way up on a cliff face on the other side of a pool of water.  As they approached someone yelled "Look out for a giant snake in the pool!  Don't come close or it will use its gaze attack!"  Not needing a second hint, everyone flew as high as possible over the pool, over to the lit cave.

Within were a couple of dozen people, mostly humans, but with a few goblins, a beastman, and a lizardman.  They were all former slaves of the Settites, who had escaped to this cave complex, but were hunted by a giant snake in the pool.  Apparently the snake had killed at least six of their companions, so now they only left their elevated cave to find food when they knew the snake was away.  Vael told them that he had good news, that the Cult of Set was gone, and that he had teleportation magic that could get them out.  He flew back out of sight and used a Teleport Rug to go back to the Beacon and grab the Mirror of Life Trapping.

As they flew over the pool, the giant snake (actually a boalisk) appeared and tried using its gaze attack on them, but they were too high to reach.  Vael tried using the mirror to reflect the gaze, which failed.  Vallium flew high out of range and started using the Returning Javelin to take potshots at the snake.  He hit it three times, knocking it unconscious.  Meanwhile, Uvash, with no effective ranged weapons and not wanting to approach the boalisk, instead urinated on it from high above, while Ioannes reconsidered his decision to associate with dwarves.  Vallium flew down and cut the unconscious boalisk to death, then gutted it and failed to find any treasure.

Vael flew back to the cave and demonstrated the Mirror of Life Trapping on Hexameros, one of the escaped slaves' leaders.  Hexameros went into the mirror, then was released, and declared it didn't hurt.  Vael then had eighteen (the mirror's capacity) prisoners look into the mirror and get pulled in, then Rug Teleported to the Beacon then to Gosterwick, then let all the prisoners out into the hallway in the Arcane Practitioners' Club.  He told Tresti that he'd be right back, then teleported back to the Beacon and the cave, and brought the last five human prisoners back to Gosterwick.  He led them out of the Club, pointed at the Rarities Factor, and wrote them a writ for $100 each to help with resettlement.

Teleporting back to the Beacon then to the cave, Vael rejoined the others.  They led everyone to the Goblin Forum and dropped off the goblins, then took the Beastman up the Sighing Stair, over to Upper Goblintown, and down to Deino's territory.  Finally they led the lizardman south until he recognized the way back to his own territory and left them.  Finished, they went back to the Forum, where everyone but Vael Rug-teleported back to the Beacon, then Vael grabbed the Teleport Rug and cast Pol's Recall to join them.

GM's Comments:

Giant lizards with ST 19 and HT 14 take forever to kill.

Note to monsters without flight or long-range attacks: don't live in caves with really high ceilings.  Flying PCs will kill you from above with ranged weapons.  While also peeing on you for some reason.

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for getting all those escaped slaves out past the boalisk

XP:

• Exploration: 19 rooms, 1 XP
• Loot: Not much, probably 0 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 2 XP

Next Week:

They plan to explore the Rudishva Forge, message Choumnos about the Greater Power Supply they found, pick up Temrin's map, or explore more caverns near the Goblin Forum.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 73: The Bad Neighbors

Date:

Tothsday 23rd Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Warm, clear

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)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

The Bad Neighbors:

• Klibo, cleric and leader
• Haldor, muscular Wiskin fighter
• Idris One-Eye, female Thorcin wizard
• Uriel Bean, halfling thief
• Wotar the Puny, Khumis spear fighter
• Qid of Qon, Khumus wizard
• Diomedes, cleric of Debellaton
• Cyricus, fighter
• Gyrde, female Wiskin wizard
• Four Thorcin bearers in green berets

Yamki, three-armed giant intelligent baboon

Many baboons

Many varumani

Many ogre guards

Two rust monsters

Two Lurkers Above

The Plan:

• Cast Seeker and Trace on Klibo
• Find and kill the Bad Neighbors if possible
• Feed the baboons
• Check the Hall of Shrines for changes
• Explore the area above the Well of Light
• Explore the deep area found last delve

What Happened:

The Right for Riches Company tried to hire a mercenary from the Grudge Brigade, but none were available.  They gathered at the Beacon, where Vael cast a Seeker spell for Klibo, leader of the Bad Neighbors.  Surprisingly, it showed him on the surface, surrounded by many of the Bad Neighbors, fighting another group of adventurers.  Vael followed up the Seeker with a Trace so they could follow Klibo, and then the group headed for the surface.

Unfortunately, since they had covered the exit to the surface with too much rock to easily Blink through, this meant taking a Rudishva teleporter to the Bastion, then another one near the Engine Room, then walking over to the former vampire lair, using Levitation and Walk on Air spells to cross a chasm, to reach a Thothian Teleportation Circle.  Once there, Vallium inserted the activation squares in the correct order to reach the ruined palace on the surface.

When they teleported through, Vael confirmed that Klibo was still on the surface, somewhere to the northwest.  Everyone put on Salamander Amulets, except Vallium who drank a Fire Resistance potion and an agility potion.  Vael used Larel's Cloak to turn invisible.  They emerged from the ruined palace and saw most of the Bad Neighbors walking south, south of the Pyramid of Thoth.  As they crossed the river, the halfling thief Uriel Bean spotted them and warned his companions.  He and Haldor started aiming laser rifles, while the other fighters readied crossbows and throwing weapons, and the wizards and clerics prepared spells.  Right for Riches charged in, with Vallium in the lead.  Vael, still invisible, first cast Great Haste on himself, then started building up a giant Mass Daze spell.  The bearers ran away, to the northeast and southeast.

Uriel Bean and Haldor opened fire first, but their lasers didn't affect the fire resistant targets, who tried to dodge anyway to keep them wasting shots.  They shifted targets several times until they figured none of them could be hurt.  Vallium eventually closed with Wotar and killed him with a few hard sword cuts.  Vael cast his massive Mass Daze and caught most of the Bad Neighbors in the area of effect.  All of them failed to resist, but all were protected by Bless spells, which sacrificed themselves to prevent the Dazing.  Vael was briefly visible after casting the spell, and the enemy ranged weapons switched to target him.  Vael used Blink to dodge an attack straight up (with Levitation on so he could stay there), then used Larel's Cloak to disappear again, and started casting another Mass Daze.

About halfway through the fight

Uvash faced off with Cyricus in a battle of mace versus halberd.  After a few seconds he decided he needed help and prayed to Zodarrim for Divine Grace and Divine Might, which raised his strength and dexterity significantly.  Haldor, who had been jumping around swinging his sword in the air hunting for the invisible Vael, gave up and decided to help fight Uvash.  A couple of the wizards start effectively attacking with Magical Bolts, which caused Vallium to switch targets and attack first Qid of Qon then Idris One-Eye to make them stop.

Vael finished building a second Mass Daze and cast it.  He dazed both Klibo and Diomedes, taking them out of the fight.  Vallium moved over to help Uvash, and seriously wounded Cyricus.  The almost-dead Cyricus dropped his halberd and surrendered.  Vallium switched targets and he and Uvash finished Haldor.

Uriel Beam was still running around ineffectively shooting fire-resistant targets with a laser rifle, so Vael cast Daze on him and stopped that nonsense.  With all the Bad Neighbors present dead, dazed, unconscious, surrendered, or fled, the battle was over.  Ioannes healed Vael and Uvash.  Uvash killed the Dazed Uriel Bean with a skull hit.  Vallium killed both evil clerics with skull hits from behind.  Vael flew after the fled bearers, telling them that if they returned with whatever they had been carrying they would be allowed to live, but if they kept running away, they would be killed.  They returned.

Vallium told the surrendered Cyricus to take off his armor, but he was so hurt he passed out halfway through the process.  Vallium finished stripping him, while Ioannes healed the wounded prisoner.  They stripped all the Bad Neighbors of anything valuable, then threw the dead ones in the lake to feed the crocodiles.  Both bearers were allowed to leave after showing where they had dropped their loads.  Vael even gave them some money.

Cyricus eventually woke up and was questioned.  He claimed that he was just an adventurer and all the evil stuff was Klibo's fault, and that he had wanted to quit but Klibo would have killed him.  He gave directions to their current camp, deep down in the Halls.  Vael used the Teleport Rug to go back to the Beacon and fetch the Mirror of Life Trapping, then commanded Cyricus to look at it and be sucked inside.  He said that if his story checked out, he'd be released in town later.  Cyricus complied.

After gathering up all the Bad Neighbors' gear into their magic bags, they remembered they needed to feel the baboons.  So Uvash and Ioannes stayed with the loot, while Vael and Vallium Levitated down the Well of Light, then went through a Teleport Rug to the Beacon to get a wheelbarrow full of food, then brought the food to Yamki and the baboons.  After a brief conversation with Yamki, they flew back up to the surface.  After rejoining the others, they went back into the ruined palace and used the Thothian Teleportation Circle there to go to the Nether Reaches, deep within the Halls, where they had killed the shadows.  After some confusion, Vael remembered how to get to the area where Cyricus had said the camp was.  They flew up the Great Chasm to the Varumani level, then worked their way to the Varumani Market.  A guard there let them fly over to the Thegn's Porch, and from there they went east and north until they found a sloping passage down.  It led to the room with the two bells and the riddles, but this time they ignored the bells and just flew down the cliff.  North and west led to a cave, with a low wall separating it from the passage.

Inside the cave was Gyrde, the last Bad Neighbor, plus two more bearers in green berets.  Gyrde didn't want to fight one-against-four, but didn't initially believe that Klibo and the others were dead.  Vael started pulling Bad Neighbor equipment out of his bag until she believed him.  At that point Gyrde also pleaded not-evil-just-tricked-by-Klibo.  Vael told her to hand over all her equipment and she'd be allowed to live.

While the group was distracted by Gyrde, a couple of rust monsters snuck up behind them and tried to feast on Vallium's delicious Imperial field plate armor.  They were so excited by all that high-quality steel that most of their attacks missed.  One managed a solid hit on the backplate, but the magical armor only rusted a bit rather than falling apart.  Vallium eventually recovered his wits and spun around and killed both rust monsters, as Vael yelled out a warning about not using his metal sword.  (It turned out that only the rust monsters' antennae rusted things, so stabbing them in the torso was safe.)

As the rust monsters died, Gyrde mentioned that they had left the rust monsters alive as guards and that they didn't come over the wall.  She handed over most of her gear, but didn't take off a magic ring.  Vael pointed at the ring, which Gyrde claimed was an heirloom from her father that she couldn't part with.  Vael thought she was lying and said to give up the ring or die, so she surrendered the ring.  At that point Vael went around the corner to use a Teleport Rug back to the Beacon to get the Mirror of Life Trapping again.  He told Gyrde and the two bearers that if they went into the mirror, they'd be released in town.  They complied.

There was a chest and several sacks full of treasure.  Vael found a poison needle trap on the chest's lock.  They used a key from Klibo's body to open the chest.  After gathering up all the loot, Vael returned the bulky mirror to the Beacon.  Worried about the rust spots on his armor, Vallium asked Vael to cast a Repair spell, which seemed to work.

They went east through some cave passages and spotted a cavern with some old bones and some magic armor.  As they stepped in, an unseen Lurker Above on the ceiling decided to drop on and smother Vael.  It achieved total surprise and gave him a good squishing, but he didn't pass out.  When Vael recovered his wits, he cast Blink to escape from the lurker's crushing embrace.  Ioannes healed him, while Vallium stabbed the lurker several times until it stopped moving.  A second lurker had been closing from the north, but when it saw Vallium completely gutting the other lurker, it turned around and fled to the north around a corner.

The party decided not to chase it.  They gathered the treasure they saw in the cave, then took the Teleport Rug back to the Beacon.  Finally, Vael picked up the Rug, then used the Pol's Recall spell to join them.

Later, they went through the other Teleport Rug to Gosterwick with the Mirror of Life Trapping.  First they let both bearers go.  Once the bearers were out of sight, they let Cyricus and Gyrde go, with a warning never to return to Gosterwick or Arden Vul.

 

GM's Comments:

I pre-roll the first random encounter for each level during weekly prep, to save time during play and also to give myself time to figure out why each random encounter is there and what it's doing, so they seem a bit less random.  When I rolled for the surface ruins, I rolled an NPC adventuring party, then randomly rolled the Bad Neighbors.  Yeah, I know, it sounds unlikely, but dice are like that sometimes.  Anyway, I decided that they were going back to Newmarket (not Gosterwick, as Klibo was not welcome there) for supplies and training.  And also that, on the way, they'd encountered and murdered a low-skill new adventuring party, because that's how the Bad Neighbors roll(ed).

Since figuring out both the Thothian and Rudishva teleportation networks, Right for Riches doesn't spend much time on the surface, so I wasn't sure they'd actually encounter the Bad Neighbors there, but when Vael cast Seeker, it was on.

This was a very high treasure session, as they got all the Bad Neighbors' gear, plus everything the Bad Neighbors had looted recently.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 2 new locations, 0 XP
• Loot: Lots, 2 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 2 XP

Next Week:

They plan to go to Goblintown to commission a map from Temrin, then cast Seeker on the floating bronze head that used to be near the Glory of Weskenim before the goblins moved it, then check in with Gribble in the Goblin Forum and explore more of that level.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 72: Shadows

Date:

Tothsday 16th Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, light rain

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)

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

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Kaliyani scout

2 Off-white runny slimes

Rust-colored jelly-like slime

Unknown man with crossbow

Ecath, Varumani lift operator

2 Bestial Varumani lift assistants

Many shadows

Many vorantes demons

Greater vorantes demon

3 skeletal wights

Nalgi, Varumani hunter

The Plan:

• Cast Seeker and Trace on Klibo
• Find and kill the Bad Neighbors
• Search the nearby area

What Happened:

The Right for Riches company hired Chrysalis to help them hunt down the Bad Neighbors, the group that had ambushed them and forced them to flee.

Using a blood samples from Kerbog Khan's blood bank, Vael cast Seeker on Klibo, the alleged leader of the Bad Neighbors.  He saw Klibo and several other people they recognized in a cavern they didn't recognize, as some men in green berets tried to pull a dead body off a meat hook.  He followed up the Seeker with a Trace, so he could home in on Klibo's location.  From the Beacon, Vael felt like Klibo was below him.

From the Beacon, they used the Rudishva teleporter to teleport to the Bastion, off the bottom of the Great Chasm.  Vael felt like Klibo was above him and southeast.  Next they teleported to the Rudishva prison area.  From there, Vael thought Klibo was about the sample level, and southeast.  They teleported again to the Rudishva area where they'd killed the black goo, and Vael said Klibo was down and east. They teleported to the garden island floating in the Great Chasm, and Vael felt Klibo was down and southeast.

After all that teleporting, they decided to just fly down the Chasm.  Vael cast Levitation on himself and Walk on Air on everyone except Vallium (who had his Boots of Levitation) and then the group descended until Vael thought they were on the same level as Klibo.  At that point they started exploring along the edge of the Great Chasm, starting at the southeast.  They found a natural passage into the rock.  There was a sloping passage down, which they felt went too deep, so came back up.  There was a concealed door heading north.  Vael cast Glass Wall and saw a room with some of the small round Vorantes Demons, so they didn't go that way.

Doubling back, they flew up a ledge, where Vael's See Invisible spell spotted a kaliyani hiding on the floor.  He didn't respond to anything they said, except by throwing a javelin at Vael.  Chrysalis parried it.  Vael cast Wall of Lightning around the kaliyani, who tried throwing more javelins through it.  Eventually they tired of the kaliyani and Vael cast Shape Air to blow it through the Wall of Lightning, doing damage.  Vallium then killed it.  They took its fangs, javelins, and silver jewelry.

They went back out to the Great Chasm and kept exploring along the walls, when they were ambushed by three slimes.  Two of them were off-white and running, while the other was rust-colored and jelly-like in consistency.  Vallium killed two of the slimes, Chrysalis killed the other, and they continued exploring the Chasm.  Eventually they found an offshoot of the Chasm to the east, which ended at an arrow slit.  Looking within, Vael spotted a man with a crossbow, looking south through a different arrow slit.  The man didn't look like a Bad Neighbor, so they decided to keep exploring.

They went south and found a landing, with graffiti on the walls.  They read one, which said "The First Adept will pay for specimens of plants and animals" in Varumani.  They heard conversation in Varumani to the south, and went that way and found the bottom terminus of the Varumani Lifts.  The operator there was named Ecath.  He asked how they got down there without taking the Lift, and they said they flew.  Vael asked if he had seen their "friends" and he said he had not.  They asked him for information, and he said there was an old temple to the north, and they had better bring good lights if they went east.

They went east. down some stairs, and then through a room with columns down the center and raised areas north and south.  The room was brightly lit with orangish Perpetual Light.  The raised areas contained eight circles of rose quartz.  They powered past the room, ignoring the circles.  On the far side, some stairs down led to a statue of Anubis, holding an ebony staff in one hand and a magical golden torch in the other.  Beyond the torch's light, the room beyond was pitch black.  As they approached the darkness, the light from their Continual Light stones didn't penetrate the darkness.  Vael cast Dark Vision on everyone, and then they could see into the darkness.  He then grabbed the torch, which welded itself to his hand.  It was another one of those cursed blacklight torches.  As he took the torch, another one appeared in the statue's hand.

In the darkness they saw some shadows moving around, staying back from the torch.  Vallium readied his Ghost Weapon broadsword, while Ioannes cast Affect Spirits on several other weapons.  Vallium threw the Returning Javelin at a shadow, wounding it.  When the javelin returned, all the shadows fled to the edges of the room.

Deciding they could not just kill all the shadows from range, the group advanced into the darkness.  The shadows charged them.  The blacklight torch in Vael's hand didn't work in the darkness.  A long fight ensued, but the combination of Dark Vision and Affect Spirits negated the shadows' main advantages, and they were defeated.  However, as the last shadowsl, some skeletal wights entered the room from the east, along with some vorantes demons from the south.  The battle continued, and as the wights and demons fell, some more shadows attacked.  Finally, some more of the small vorantes demons poured in, along with one larger vorantes demon.  When those were defeated, the attacks stopped.

Vallium led the group back to the light of the statue to rest and recover.  While they were there, they heard the call of a varumani from the west.  It was Nalgi, one of the hunters, and he was looking for kaliyani.  Vael informed him of the kaliyani scout they had killed to the south, and Nalgi offered to buy the kaliyani's fangs and save them a trip to varumani territory.

After Nalgi went back to the Lift, the group decided to temporarily suspend their search for the Bad Neighbors to search and loot the area.  They didn't find any more enemies.  They did find a dozen rooms, including two secret rooms.  There were a bunch of mundane weapons and armor, a couple of suits of magic armor, a magic broadsword that shocked both Vallium and Vael when they picked it up, a magic crossbow missing its string, a pile of gold coins, a few gems, some potions and scrolls, some rugs and furniture, and an odd book called The Honey Project about raising giant bees.  They also found a Thothian Teleportation Circle, which Vallium found in their book of teleportation circle addresses, so they could return to it.

After thoroughly looting the area, everyone but Vael went through a Teleportation Rug back to the Beacon, then Vael turned off all his spells, picked up the Rug, and cast Pol's Recall to join them.  They had failed to find the Bad Neighbors.  However, they had found, cleared, and looted a new area.

GM's Comments:

I think this combat had the most groups of reinforcements since the PCs took down the Forum of Set.  It's amusing when the players think they're about to win, but then it's time for More Shadows.  It wasn't that hard a combat, though, because of the ability to spam Dark Vision and Affect Spirits.  Without those spells, it would have been brutal.  (But the shadows didn't want to get too close to the statue, so retreat would have been an option.)

The way I interpret the Trace spell, it gives a direction but not a distance.  So it helps a lot to find someone, but doesn't make it completely trivial, if the local terrain is complicated enough.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 21 new locations, 2 XP
• Loot: A decent amount, 1-2 XP depending on how much they sell
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3-4 XP

Next Week:

No game; GM on vacation.

In Two Weeks:

They're planning to resume their pursuit of the Bad Neighbors.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 71: Exploring the Rudishva Teleportation Network

Date:

Tothsday 9th Jelenios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, mostly sunny

Player Characters:

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist

Rudishva dust ionizer

Black goo creature

2 black goo skeletons

Several chasm cephalopods

Stone nataraja

2 Rudishva point defense arrays

Several heqeti slime zombies

Many baindara

2 giant rudishva skeletons

2 wraiths

Ghost of Paimu the Chanter

Fire nataraja

Many goblins

Ichthelon, Ptoh-Ristus of Thoth

Remagis, priest of Thoth

2 Guardians of Thoth

Many ogre guards

Many varumani

Otyugh

The Plan:

• Explore as much as possible of the Rudishva teleportation network
• Search for non-Rudishva loot

What Happened:

Uvash had church business.  The rest of the Right for Riches company decided to explore the Rudishva teleporters.  Vallium compiled their maps and noted teleporters that they had not yet taken.

First they used the teleporter from the Beacon to the Bastion.  They used Salamander Amulets to bypass the fire trap, then recovered the dust ionizer bot, which they had brought to the Bastion to charge.  They also brought a palm-locked chest to try opening it with the hands of Rudishva corpses in the Bastion, but this failed.

Next, they took the eastern teleporter in the Bastion, which took them to a teleport nook near the a prison facility.  They went through the other teleporter there, which led to a previously unexplored area full of destroyed Rudishva technology.  While there, a creature made of black goo animated two skeletons with some of its goo, then both the primary blob of goo and its two skeletons attacked.  Vallium stabbed them a lot, while Vael lobbed Magical Bolts from a wand at them, until they were destroyed.

Ioannes and Vael searched a large pile of debris nearby and found several minor treasures and Rudishva artifacts, while Vallium stood guard, facing a nearby small chasm.  Some chasm cephalopods rushed Vallium from the chasm, but he was alert, and rushed forward to stab the largest one.  This knocked it out and caused it to fall into the chasm, and then all the smaller cephalopods fled.  Vallium Levitated back up using his magic boots.  When Vael and Ioannes declared that they were done searching, they all flew across the chasm, and on the western side of the chasm found some stairs leading up.  They led to an iris door.

When Vael opened the door using his yellow Rudishva identity plaque, a stone nataraja on the other side jumped at them, ignoring the plaque, and attacked Vael with its scimitar.  Vael Blinked away, while Vallium chopped it to bits.  On the far side of the door was a Rudishva room containing a Nutri-vore food dispenser, a couple of non-functional entertainment consoles, and a Rudishva board game.  They grabbed some Desert Avian Flavored nutrient cakes from the Nutri-vore, then explored the rest of the complex.  There were five more rooms.  One was a laboratory, with some destroyed consoles and some intact futuristic lab equipment.  One was a bedroom, with a video recorder and a few data crystals.  One of the crystals indicated that they had found the correct chemical reaction to fuel a shuttle for interstellar flight.  One was a bunkroom, with a couple of bulky green sealed suits.  One was a control room, with a destroyed console, some Rudishva and Kaliyani bodies, and some kind of one-person high-tech vehicle with skis mounted on brackets to the wall.  Vallium was able to lift the vehicle, and carried it through a Teleport Rug back to the beacon.  The final room was an entry corridor with a couple of point defense arrays.  They tracked the group but did not fire.  Vallium cautiously backed out of the room, drank a Potion of Fire Resistance, put on his Amulet of Missile Shield, then entered the room alone.  The arrays fired many small projectiles at him, which all missed thanks to the amulet.  Vael then saw the arrays on his Command Bracelet, and told them to stand down.  He then reprogrammed them to not fire at anyone holding a Rudishva identity plaque.  There were some stairs out of the entry corridor, but they decided not to go that way.

With the Rudishva area explored and looted, they went back down the stairs.  They took another set of stairs up, which led to an area they had explored, near the Rudishva Cloister.  They went back down and took the last teleporter in the area, which led to a dark room containing two teleporters and an iris door.  They opened the iris door and found that they were on a floating island in the center of the Great Chasm.  There were a few of the baindara (small creatures that looked like a cross between monkeys and flying squirrels).  A couple of the other hills on the island also had iris doors.

They opened the northern one and entered a Rudishva room and were immediately attacked by some slime zombies.  After dispatching the zombies with sword and fire, they removed a few Rudishva artifacts from the room, and found that one of the consoles still worked.  It showed an image of an underground ziggarut, with several creatures that looked like heqeti moving on it.  Some Rudishva glyphs on the screen gave a direction and distance reading.  With Akla-Chah's help, they were able to translate it to about 100 yards south-southwest.

They opened the southern door and found another Rudishva room, this one with no zombies or working consoles, just a few minor Rudishva items to take.  They went back to the central hill and went through the other teleporter.  It led to a Rudishva room with two teleporters and a pool full of sparkly opalescent liquid.  Nearby was an iris door.  Vael opened it with the yellow Rudishva identity plaque.  Inside were two giant Rudishva skeletons on stone thrones, who whirled and barked a challenge.  Vael brandished the yellow ID at them, while Vallium and Ioannes showed them silver IDs.  The skeletons sat back down.  On the far side of the skeletons was a large vertical shaft.  Having seen a Rudishva video describing the transit shaft, Vael explained that you needed to fully coat and object in the sparkly liquid from the fountain, and then it could levitate up and down in the shaft.  Vael submerged himself in the fountain then dove into the shaft, with his Levitation spell ready in case the video lied.  He was able to Levitate without his spell.  Ioannes then also covered himself with the liquid.  Vallium declined and said he preferred his Levitation Boots.  All three levitated up to the top of the shaft.

The room at the top contained another fountain full of the sparkly liquid, plus iris doors west and southwest.  They chose the west door.  After opening it, they saw the desiccated corpses of three men in Thothian robes on the floor.  They also saw two wraiths rushing to attack them, while a ghost yelled in Mithric to run away from the wraiths.  Vallium fast-drew his new Ghost Weapon sword and started hacking the closer wraith.  Both wraiths used their ranged Drink Life attack on Vael, and failed to damage him.  They switched targets to Vallium, and mostly failed to hurt him as well.  Vallium started taunting the wraiths to attack him instead, as he thought he had the best resistance.  Vallium kept chasing the first wraith, which kept dodging him, until he got one good hit in and slowed it, then it didn't last much longer.  The second wraith was similar, except Ioannes came up to help, and the surrounded wraith could no longer retreat.  When both wraiths were destroyed, the ghost thanked them for their help.  He said the three of them had been priests of Thoth, but in death the others had become evil wraiths, while he had been cursed to haunt the hallway until his ring was taken to the Temple of Thoth.  He pointed to his corpse and asked the group to take his ring.  They did, and also looted the other corpses.

From there they visited a couple of storage closets and took a few items.  They also found the Rudishva forge that Vael had seen a video about, and looked at a lot of lava, but didn't try to manipulate any controls.  They continued west to the fire nataraja, which was dismissed when Vael waved his yellow identity plaque at it.  They stepped through the hole into the transport nexus room and took the teleporter that led to the Cloister.  From there they took the well-known path past the slime pit, through a hole in the ceiling up to the Temple of Set, then over to the Temple of Thoth.  There they gave the ghost's ring to Ichthelon, who told Remagis to hold onto it for him.

With the ghost's task complete, Vallium suggested going to the Varumani level to get a reward for all the kaliyani fangs they'd just found.  They went east past the Glory of Weskenim to the room with the Thothian teleportation circle, then used the correct sequence of glass activation tiles to teleport to the former vampire lair.  From there they went southeast through the Varumani caves to the Varumani court.  One of the ogre guards checked their passport.  They spoke with a Varumani courtier, who said that Trijax, the overseer of the Varumani Lifts, could take the fangs and give them their reward.  They went over to the lift and showed the fangs to Trijax.  He said he didn't quite have enough gold on him for 32 fangs, but sent an ogre running to another part of the complex to get more.  The ogre returned a few minutes later with a pouch containing the rest of their reward.

They Levitated off the Varumani Lift platform into the Great Chasm, exploring southeast.  Vael's See Secrets spell spotted a concealed door on the edge of the Chasm.  This led to a rough passage, ending in a secret door.  Opening it, they reached the quarters of the Varumani Hunters.  Several hunters confronted them.  Surprisingly, the hunters forgave their trespassing and apologized for not being allowed to hunt kaliyani near the Goblin Forum, due to the Thegn's new peace treaty with the goblins.

They left the hunter's room and went back to the Chasm, and contined exploring east.  They found another cave leading south off the Chasm.  The cave smelled awful.  While they were complaining about the smell, a many-tentacled creature dropped from the ceiling and ambushed Ioannes from behind.  Fortunately for Ioannes, its attack failed to penetrate his armor.  Ioannes yelled and healed himself, while Vallium whirled around and stabbed the creature to death.  Ioannes thought it was an otyugh.  Vallium decided to dissect it in case it had any valuables inside, but it smelled even worse on the inside, and he eventually agreed it wasn't worth it.

Vael didn't want to put their Teleport Rug on the disgusting floor of the cave, so he used a Create Fire spell to scorch a section of the floor with fire for a few minutes, and a Purify Air spell to clear the air.  After the floor cooled enough to not set their Rug on fire, they put the Rug there.  Vael picked up the Rug and cast Pol's Recall to teleport back to the Beacon.  After arriving at the Beacon, he tried a Seeker spell to find the legendary dwarf Zhorek, but the spell failed.

GM's Comments:

That was a lot of exploration.  They went through several unexplored teleporters, explored several new areas, and made some new connections on their map.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 25 new locations, 2 XP
• Loot: A lot of Rudishva stuff, which they don't like to sell.  A few other things.  1 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3 XP

Next Week:

They plan to go after the Bad Neighbors.