DFRPG Arden Vul Session 50: The Iron Circlet of Ghanor

Date:

Demmasday, 7th of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, rainy

Player Characters:

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

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Remagis, un-petrified ancient Thothian priest

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Many goblins

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Yamki, 3-armed giant baboon

Bumpko, 4-armed giant baboon

Many large albino baboons

Many wraiths

Corpse of Neferet, greater mummy

Lady Alexia, ruler of Gosterwick

Freydis the Stern, Lady Alexia's steward

Gribble, Chief of the Goblin Forum

Dworm, Goblin Forum guard and food merchant

Yoburra, Varmani ambassador to the Forum

The Plan:

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

What Happened:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GM's Comments:

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

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

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

Achievements:

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

XP:

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

Next Week:

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

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 49: Demons and Mummies

 

Date:

Demmasday, 30th of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Warm, sunny

Player Characters:

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

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Many goblins

Bottleneck, Goblin sergeant

Temrin, Goblin Royal Artist

Lukor, Ambassador from the Eighth Collegium to the Goblins

Gribble, Chief of the Goblin Forum

Dworm, Goblin Forum guard and food merchant

Yoburra, Varmani ambassador to the Forum

Blood-Seeking Demon

2 Flensing Demons

Alexandros, Librarian of Set

Succubus, disguised as a Set Deacon

3 Wights

Many zombies

Many ghasts

2 Mummies

Spectre

Imprisoned mummy

Rudishva dust ionizer robot

The Plan:

• Get a map from Temrin in the Goblin Market
• Deliver food to the Goblin Forum
• Talk to the Varumani ambassador about the suspected Varumani passport
• Clear more rooms near the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

Rather than taking much time off, the Right for Riches company headed back into Arden Vul the next day.  Uvash could not make it, as he had church.  Before leaving Gosterwick, Ioannes cast Bless on Vallium and got his power item recharged, and Vael bought a wheelbarrow full of food at the Grain Market.

The group went through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon, then shared their delve plan with Basil, who dutifully wrote it all down.  They went through the Rudishva teleporter to the Rudishva Cloister area, then walked over to the slime pit room with the shaft leading up.  There Ioannes stepped back through the Rug to the Beacon, while Vael and Vallium Levitated up the shaft, then north through a secret door to the cavern north of the ruined Temple of Set.

They dropped the Rug and waited for Ioannes to rejoin them, then hiked south through the Temple of Set (past goblin guards), east through the ruined Temple of Thoth (past more goblin guards), and then into the Glory of Weskenim.  There they briefly spoke to Bottleneck, who indicated some trouble with an adventuring band living upstairs.  They headed east, then south and down to the Wet Caves, then down to Goblintown.

Arriving in the Goblin Market, they spoke to Temrin, who went to get their map to the Tablet of the Beacon from the vault.  After chatting with some other merchants, they went south and down a hole to the hidden Embassy of the Eighth Collegium.  Lukor spoke to them briefly, stated that King Weskenim still kept putting off a direct meeting, and asked about what had happened to the Forum of Set.  Lukor asked again that they influence King Weskenim to talk to him.

The group went back up to Upper Goblintown, then west and down the stairs to the Goblin Forum.  There they greeted Gribble, then asked Dworm how their food was selling.  He said it all sold again, with the Varumani buying most of it again.  Vael took his money, then went to an empty room and used the Rug to go back to the Beacon and get the wheelbarrow full of food.  He brought the food to Dworm, and said that he could raise prices 10% and pocket the difference.  Vael talked to the other merchants, who indicated business was slow -- not many non-goblins were visiting the Forum yet.

From the Forum, they headed east then south to the former torturer's room.  When they entered the room, some of the magic candles were still burning, but they started going out again.  Vallium started re-lighting them.  Vael cast Magic Aura and See Invisible, and spotted an invisible chest on an invisible shelf over the door.  He tried to get the chest, found it was too heavy, then asked Vallium to get it.  Vallium took the chest outside the room, and when they all left, the candles stopped going out.  Vael opened the chest and its contents became visible.  Vallium used the Rug to bring the chest back to the Beacon, and warned Basil not to trip over it.  Basil put a bookmark on top of the chest to note its location.

Returning to the Halls, Vallium decided to stay in the room until all the candles went out and see what happened, while Vael and Ioannes stayed just outside the room.  When the last candle went out, a blood-red demon with tentacles appeared.  Vallium waited a second, and the demon gated in two more demons, these ones like large gorillas with tentacles.  Deciding three demons was enough, Vallium attacked, while Vael cast Great Haste on him, and Ioannes, without a Bless spell, hid behind his shield.  Vallium eventually dispatched all three demons.

With that room taken care of, the group went northwest from the Forum to the Library of Set.  Vael briefly talked to Alexandros the Librarian, then borrowed a few more books.  The group then went north to the room whose door had the note from Stephania saying to keep out.  Vallium unlocked the door with a Settite key then stepped inside.  Inside were a bunch of trashed furniture, 3 wights, and a Set Deacon who kept saying he wanted to be friends and trying some kind of charm effect.  All three resisted the Charm effect, while Vallium killed wights, and Vael created fire on the floor to burn the wights.  Once the wights were gone, Vallium went after the Deacon.  The Deacon, realizing the Charm wasn't working, changed to her true form of a beautiful Succubus to see if that would help, but it did not.  Vallium cut her in half, and her body disappeared in a puff of smoke, as she dropped a magic sword.

Alexandros came down the hall to complain about the noise and remind them that that room was dangerous and nobody was supposed to open that door.  Vael told him the danger had been dealt with.  They searched the room and found some poetry about Theskelon and a bounty from Stephania to someone named Kallion the White for varumani heads.  They also found a secret door on the north wall, but decided not to go that way yet.

Vael declared that they needed to clear a safe path to the basket to the south to fully restore trade at the Forum, so they started heading that way.  First Vael dispelled the Settite magical darkness, revealing a statue.  They warned the goblins that the statue was very dangerous and not to touch it, and made chalk marks on the floor indicating the same.  Then they headed south down the Stair of Commerce, and then east to the room where they had previously seen zombies.  They opened the door and the zombies were still there.  Vallium killed them.

Behind the zombies was a freshly dug tunnel leading to a landing, with stairs north and south.  They went south and found a door leading to a storage room they had previously explored from another direction.  They went down some stairs to the southwest and found a room with many sarcophagi and a broken statue of Set.  Ioannes wandered forward and set off a fire trap, but was protected by his Salamander Amulet.  He resolved to stay behind the others, as he still didn't have a Bless spell.

They went further south down the passage, with Vael searching for traps, until Vallium triggered a paralyzation glyph that Vael had missed.  Vallium resisted being paralyzed, and Vael used Dispel Magic to eradicate the glyph.  While resting from the fatigue of spellcasting, they heard someone approaching from the south.  It was a gaggle of ghasts, led by a couple of mummies.  Vallium got up and started hitting them with his sword, while Vael cast Great Haste and Blur.  One of the mummies yelled tactical advise in a langauge that nobody knew (but Vael could understand thanks to the Command Bracelet).  Unfortunately for Team Undead, the strategy was to wrestle Vallium to the ground then slowly chew his face off, but his Ring of Free Action made him too slippery to grapple.  It took a while, but eventually the room was rendered undead-free.

The group stopped to rest again, then searched the undead and took some treasures from the mummies, then continued south.  There they found many more sarcophagi, three of which were opened.  The open ones had minor treasure.  Vallium went back through the Rug to the Beacon to grab some crowbars, then started prying more sarcophagi open.  The first few had minor treasure.  The fourth one had a spectre, which Vallium couldn't hurt until Ioannes cast Affect Spirits on his sword.  At that point they decided the risk to reward ratio for opening random sarcophagi wasn't there, and Vael cast Seek Magic and Seek Earth for platinum and gold to look for better treasure.  There was magic and gold in the room to the northwest, and platinum in one sarcophagus.  Vallium opened that one and got a platinum holy symbol, then they went northwest.

This room had one sarcophagus, which was closed and then sealed shut with iron chains.  Vallium used Glass Wall to look inside, and saw a mummy, who seemed aware someone was outside and started clawing at the sarcophagus, then gesturing to be let out.  The group decided to leave the mummy there, while they looted the room.  Under a table was a whole pile of treasure, including several valuable gold items, several magical items, and a bunch of fancy alabaster canopic jars.  They took everything to the Beacon through the Rug, and left the mummy imprisoned.

Vallium said Temrin's map led to the Rudishva Bastion, and indicated that there might be a Tablet of the Beacon there, so they should use the Rudishva Teleporter to go back there and check.  They made their way back to the Cloister, then went through the Rudishva Teleporter back to the Beacon, then went through the other Rudishva Teleporter back to the Bastion.  There was a known fire trap there, so Vael stayed in the Beacon while the others used Salamander Amulets to survive it.  They then dropped the Rug so Vael could join them, and everyone searched the room where they thought the Tablet might be, but didn't find anything.  They re-explored the Bastion, again waving their yellow Rudishva identify plaque at the giant skeletons guarding the shaft to avoid trouble.  They didn't find anything new, just the cleaner robot, which started following them around in case they made a mess.

Vael decided to use the Repair spell to fix some of the damage they did the first time they broke into the Bastion.  He removed the stone slab he had magically created to cover the destroyed Rudishva secret door, then cast Repair to fix the door, and succeeded despite the high-tech nature of the door.  However, the door would not open.  He called Akla-Chah and asked her about the door.  She indicated that the Bastion had a control console that should allow opening and closing the door, if the correct operator card was plugged in.  Vallium went back through the Rug to the Beacon to fetch the black card whose use they had not discovered.  It plugged into the console.  Vallium was able to read enough Rudishva glyphs to find the Open Door button, and opened the secret door into the entry cave.  The entry cave contained a couple of Rudishva point defense arrays, which Vallium had mangled.  Vael used the console to disable to the point defenses (even though they were already broken), then borrowed Vallium's Amulet of Missile Shield just in case, then went into the cave and cast Repair on both point defense arrays.  Despite the high tech nature of the Rudishva defenses, he managed to repair both of them.  He went back through the secret door, used the button to close the door, and used the console to enable the point defenses.

At that point, they went back through the Rudishva Teleporter to the Beacon to start identifying all the treasure they'd found.

GM's Comments:

That was an effective delve.  Lots of demons and undead killed, lots of treasure found, and no casualties.

There was a map glitch that prevented going north through the secret door from the succubus room, but this wasn't a huge deal as there were other ways to explore.  (After the session I fixed the map in about a minute, so maybe I should have fixed it on the fly during play, but I didn't know if it would be a one-minute fix or a half-hour fix and didn't want to risk derailing the session.)

XP:

• Exploration: 5 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: Lots of stuff.  2 XP
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total: 3 XP

Next Week:

I think if they get a full party they'll go after Neferet in the Tower of Scrutiny.  If they don't, they may keep clearing the area around the Goblin Forum, trying to make it safer for commerce.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 48: Thothian Teleportation Rings

Date:

Horasday, 29th of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Warm, sunny

Player Characters:

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

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

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

Significant NPCs:

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Remagis, recently un-petrified ancient priest of Thoth

2 imps

Giant centipede

Many beastmen

Count Skleros, beastman commander

Fear elemental

Wight

Several ghouls

Several zombies

Several Set guards

Set acolyte

Many goblins

Larakim, goblin witch doctor

Harab, goblin sub-chief

Sir Simonet, sun-scarred knight

The Plan:

• Finish exploring and searching the No Mana Zone west of the Well of Light
• Get a map from Temrin in the Goblin Market
• Clear more rooms near the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

Not wanting to give anyone else a chance to loot the no mana zone, the Right for Riches company rested, healed, identified some loot, and then headed right back to the Halls of Arden Vul the next day.  This time they recruited Chrysalis, to provide more protection in areas without spells.  Once again they took the Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister, then went down the secret tunnel to the slime pit room.  Most of the party went through the Teleport Rug back to the Beacon, while Vael and Vallium Levitated up the shaft to the cavern north of the ruined Temple of Set.  They didn't run into any trouble, and set the Rug down so everyone else could rejoin them.

The group headed east through the ruined Temple of Thoth, then south to the indoor pyramid, and used the lever on top to teleport to the other indoor pyramid on the Well of Light level.  They went west, back to the No Mana Zone.  Before going in, Vallium showed Vael the areas they had explored, and suggested that he try analyzing the magical baboon statue.  Vael did so, and found that it was some kind of magical potion making machine, where one put the ingredients in the eye sockets and then the potion dripped out the nostrils.

They looted some jewelry and a key from a ghoul corpse, then Vallium and Chrysalis went west through the broken portcullis into the No Mana Zone.  (The lack of mana was obvious because Vallium's armor got heavier and Chyrsalis's glowing staff stopped glowing.)  Not liking the darkness, Vallium went back and pulled a mundane torch out of Larel's Sack, then they went back in.  They explored several rooms to the north and south, finding a bunch of wrecked furniture and a few more items.  Listening to a locked stone door to the west, Chysalis thought she heard a horse.  Vallium tried the ghoul's key, which fit.  Opening the door revealed a magically lit room with a giant pentagram on the floor, a goat standing in the pentagram making noise, an ivory coffer on the floor, and a Thothian teleportation circle in the corner with a full set of colored glass tiles lined up next to it.

Vallium and Chyrsalis spent some time examining the goat, which appeared hungry but not hostile.  Suspicious, they doubled back to talk to the others, then had everyone else step through the Rug back to the Beacon.  They went back to the pentagram room and put the Rug down so everyone else could join them, without walking through the No Mana Zone and losing their Bless and Continual Light spells.

Vael cast Mage Sight and saw that the goat was magical, probably not a real goat.  It tried stealing his food.  He also noticed a rat they hadn't spotted before, also magical.  After a lot of poking around, the goat tried biting Vael and he Blinked away, then Vallium stabbed it, and the dead goat transformed into a dead imp.  They also killed the rat, which was also an imp.  With both imps dead, they turned their attention to the coffer.  It was magical, and Vael avoided touching it and instead used Apportation to stick it in a bag.

The Thothian teleporation circle with the glass squares lined up next to it had a shimmering field, unlike the other similar teleporters they had seen.  Vallium experimented by removing one of the colored glass squares, and the field went away a few seconds later.  He put the square back and the field came back.  Using a combination of Scry Gate spells and a Returning Pebble with Continual Light and Trace on it, they tried every combination of colored glass squares they had found, and noted where each combination went.  They recognized one location as the Thothian shrine with the pneuma, which they thought was a safe place to try, so Vael and Vallium set the squares to that location then picked them up and went through the teleporter.  This worked, and they found themselves in the shrine.  There they put the squares in the order that went with the pentagram room, waited for the teleport field to appear, picked up the squares, and teleported back.  Now that they had figured out how to use the teleporters, they decided to visit one where Vael had spotted unguarded treasure.

Unfortunately, after everyone teleported through, they didn't see any treasure.  Vael's Scry Gate spell had misled him.  They just saw a room with ugly yellow paint on the walls.  A few seconds later an elderly beastman guard ran in and started yelling about intruders.  Vael said that they were friends, not invaders, and accidentally hit a teleport trap.  The beastman got his sergeant, who got Count Skleros, who asked some questions about the teleport trap, assigned a couple of guards to watch the room with the teleport circle in case anyone else came through, then escorted the group out of Deino's territory.

Vael said that, since they were in the neighborhood, they should check on Neferet's tomb.  After some discussion, they all headed west to the Great Hall, then re-opened the secret door leading to the tomb.  Knowing there was another No Mana Zone there, everyone went through the Rug, then Chyrsalis carried the Rug down the tunnel until her staff started glowing again, they put the Rug down so everyone could rejoin her.  Neferet wasn't in her tomb.  The group set to looting all the sarcophagi, but they were all empty, and a couple had been smashed open.  Vael said he thought other looters had beat them there.

Returning to the Great Hall, Vallium went south and west to map the path to the stairway that Neferet had fled up.  They didn't go up the stairs, but instead went through another unexplored door to the west.  There were some glyphs on the floor, which Vael thought were designed to provoke fear, but everyone resisted the urge to run.  Some kind of spectral elemental appeared and tried to scare everyone, but thanks to their rings of protection and Uvash's amulet of bravery, nobody was affected, and Vallium and Chrysalis and Uvash dispatched the elemental.

An open door to the west led to a room with three sarcophagi.  Two of them were open.  The third was magical and closed.  Ioannes poked around one of the open sarcophagi and a giant centipede popped out and tried to bite him, but he saw it and jumped back, then Vallium killed it.  Everyone set up around the closed sarcophagus expecting undead, then Vallium took the lid off, and a wight popped out.  Ioannes tried scaring it with the Feather of Maat, which had no effect.  Vallium and Chrysalis beat it to death instead.

Vael searched the room for secret doors, and found one to the west.  It opened easily.  Behind it was a room containing several ghouls and zombies.  Vallium and Chyrsalis killed them.  North was a closed door.  Vael used Glass Wall on it, and saw it was barricaded shut from the other side, and there were several people in red Settite armor inside.  Vael said something about rescuing them, and the Settites started dismantling the barricade.  Vallium pushed the door open, and Vallium and Chrysalis killed them.  Uvash wasn't feeling well, and went back through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon to lie down.

Turning back to the south, they found another closed door, and Vael used Glass Wall to look through it and saw several scared-looking goblins.  They opened the door and told the goblins that they came in peace and had killed all the undead and Settites.  The goblins rejoiced and asked for food.  After eating all the party's rations, they let the group lead them north past the Beastmen to the Glory of Weskenim and the other goblins.

Returning to the newly explored area, they found another room with a magic sink.  With Uvash not around, Vael drank some of the liquid, but it appeared to just be fresh water.  Continuing south, they found a room containing a wounded Sun-Scarred Knight, Sir Simonet.  Simonet was conscious but not yet ready to walk.  Ioannes offered to heal him, but Simonet was distrustful and said to stay back.  Vael explained that they had cleared out the Forum of Set and given it to the goblins, which Sir Simonet seemed to find hilarious.  After some more conversation, Sir Simonet said that he had reconsidered and would let Ioannes heal him, as he had to go back to his Order and report the news to his commander.  Ioannes healed him, and the knight left.

After Sir Simonet left, Vael noted the stone chest against one wall, and decided to search it for traps.  Unfortunately, he missed one, and he, Vallium, and Chyrsalis were engulfed in a flaming explosion.  Vallium was fine because of his heavy armor, but the others were badly burned.  Ioannes healed both of them until they were no longer in danger.  Vael grabbed the unburned contents of the chest, and everyone headed back to the Beacon.

GM's Comments:

It took almost 50 delves, but the Right of Riches company finally figured out the Thothian Teleportation Circles.  They also rescued some goblins, killed some more undead and Settites, and mapped more of the Well of Light and Glory of Thoth levels.

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for rescuing the cut-off and starving goblins

XP:

• Exploration: 14 new locations, 1 XP
• Loot: Quite a few minor treasures and a nice magic cloak, probably 1-2 XP depending on what they sell
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 3-4 XP

Next Week:

They're planning on securing more of the unexplored areas around the Goblin Forum.  After that, they'll decide between going after Neferet and the Iron Circlet of Ghanor, or trying to kill the green dragon Craastonistorex.

RPG Party Disaster Recovery Planning

In the last session of DFRPG Arden Vul, the Right for Riches company came pretty close to a total party kill.  (It would not have been the whole company, as Vael wasn't there.  But both Vallium and Uvash were out of the fight and at the mercy of undead, in a no-mana zone.)

Since then, the players have been reviewing the tactics that almost led to their defeat.  But they're also making plans for party continuity if they do get wiped out.

The Right for Riches company has three assets that many less experienced adventuring parties do not: money, allies, and communications.  So these ideas won't work for every group, but some of them might.

Money is great because it pays for things like Resurrection spells and bounties to recover your body.  If you have enough money, someone will probably be motivated by it.  Crucially, the money has to actually be available; if it's all on your body, and nobody knows where your body is, then it's not so useful.  Gosterwick has pretty solid banking services from three different merchant Factors, and each member of the Right for Riches company has substantial deposits at them, so they have this covered.

Money isn't enough though, as someone needs to coordinate paying it out.  That's where non-adventuring allies come in.  Right for Riches have three key allies to help with disaster recovery.  The first is Akla-Chah, the Rudishva AI in the Beacon, with whom they can communicate with their Rudishva Command Bracelet.  As long as they remember to call her often enough, she knows where a search should begin.  The second is Barnaby Goodbarrel, their lawyer in Gosterwick, who can write binding legal documents such as wills and contracts.  The third is Basil, their employee, who can travel between the Beacon and Gosterwick and coordinate rescue or recovery efforts.

Not every group has the ability to frequently communicate back to base, but next best is just telling someone your planned route before you leave, and then sticking to the plan as closely as possible.  Right for Riches designs a plan for every delve, and sharing it with Akla-Chah and Basil gives them a starting point for a search, even if they forget to call with updates.

While rescue is ideal and resurrection is second best, sometimes really bad things happen and nobody can ever find the bodies.  At that point you need a succession plan.  Right for Riches has a couple of levels of that.  First, the company is legally incorporated in Gosterwick and can own assets, so much of the group's property belongs to the company rather than its members, so if the party is wiped out, at least the property they own back at the Beacon still belongs to the company.  Second, they have a plan to allow Basil and Barnaby to hire new adventurers to reform the company if the current members are missing long enough.

Finally, for personal property, there are wills.  Does your personally owned stuff pass out of the game, or to your close friend or relative who just happens to be your next PC?  So far Uvash is the only PC with a designated successor, his son.

Ultimately this is all a meta play.  The GM has to decide what's too cheesy to allow.  But Right for Riches are at least making an attempt to spin things so that, if they get wiped out, their replacement PCs get to keep some of their stuff.  We'll see how it plays out, if things ever reach that point.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 47: The No Mana Zone

Date:

Tahsday, 28st of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Warm, cloudy, rainy

Player Characters: 

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

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Coinbase, Elven Mercenary Bro (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Wicktrimmer, Imperial Goblin merchant

Roger the Rapier, Leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring company

Bottleneck, sergeant in charge of Upper Goblintown

Many goblins

Yamki, 3-armed giant intelligent baboon

Many baboons

Construct spearman

Remagis un-petrified ancient priest of Thoth

Stamelis, Head of Thoth librarian

Basil, Right for Riches employee

Many ghouls

Many skeletons

Many zombies

The Plan:

• Warn the Five Fingers of Destiny away from the Beacon
• Deliver food to the baboons
• Explore the western part of the Well of Light level
• Explore the Howling Caves
• Pick up Temrin's map to the second Tablet of the Beacon

What Happened:

Wicktrimmer returned from Narsileon with some items.  Vallium and Ioannes met with the Five Fingers of Destiny, explained about the ankh-key puzzle and (just a bit about) the Beacon, and said their base was very dangerous and the Five Fingers should stay away.  Vallium then bought food for the baboons and took it through a Teleport Rug to the Beacon.

Everyone teleported through the Rug to the Beacon, then used a Rudishva Teleporter to go down to the Cloister level.  They propped the one-way door open.  They went through the Cloister then down a secret passage to the slime room, where Vallium and Coinbase Levitated up to the cave near the old Temple of Set, then the others came back through the Rug to join them.  From there they went east through the old Temple of Thoth to the Glory of Weskenim, briefly talked to Bottleneck, then went through the indoor pyramid teleporter to the Well of Light.

Everyone headed east to Yamki's room near the Howling Caves, and Vallium talked to Yamki.  They went into an empty room to set up a Rug to teleport all the baboon food out from the Beacon.  After giving the food to Yamki, they warned him that they would be exploring to the west.

The first newly discovered room contained a bunch of broken furniture and general trash, plus a fancy model of a raven on a perch.  When Coinbase approached it, it said something in Mithric.  That was interesting enough that they grabbed the bird and took it back to the Beacon.

Further south, they found a room containing many small wooden dormitory cubicles, plus a very detailed sculpture of a Thothian priest.  Coinbase suggested it might actually be a petrified priest.  Uvash tried Stone to Flesh, and it turned into an ancient Thothian priest named Remagis, who only spoke Mithric and was pretty confused about what was happening.  After some conversation in broken Mithric, Ioannes cast Gift of Tongues on Vallium so he could explain things more thoroughly.  Once Remagis calmed down a bit, they showed him how to use the Teleport Rug then took him back to the Beacon, where Stamelis could talk to him and Basil could take care of him.

Continuing north, they found a locked door.  Vallium and Uvash used Vallium's new portable battering ram to smash it.  Inside was an entire wizard's lab full of junk, plus a construct spearman with a huge black iron spear.  The construct attacked.  Vallium destroyed it.  They looted the lab of everything that looked valuable and portable.

They continued west to a closed portcullis.  There was a throbbling light from the west.  There was a lever on the wall that appeared designed to open it, but the lever was rusted.  They tried forcing the lever, which broke.  Not wanting to break the portcullis in case they needed to close it, they tried passing the Teleport Rug through it, then Ioannes could open it up with Apportation and Uvash could step through the Rug from the Beacon.  The rolled-up Rug fit between the bars, but the Apportation spell failed as soon as the Rug went through.  And then Uvash didn't come through the Rug.  Vallium managed to reach through the bars and grab the Rug back, and then it worked and Uvash came through.  Coinbase cast Silence, and Vallium and Uvash used the ram to break the portcullis.  They stepped into the room, their Continual Light rocks went dark, Vallium's Levitation boots stopped Levitating, and their magically lightened armor got heavier.  They stepped back out and had a long conversation about what to do next.

The conclusion was to send Vallium and Uvash in, while Coinbase and Ioannes stayed back with the mana.  Vallium found a torch, and they went forward into the room.  There was an ivory coffer in the center of the floor, with creepy tongues engraved on it.  Moving the box around did not seem to affect the mana level.  They took the box and brought it back to the Beacon, putting it in a Bag of Holding inside a chest for safekeeping.  There were doors north, west, and south.  A map they had found indicated only a single room north, so they went that way.  The door was locked, so they smashed it with the ram, without benefit of Silence this time.  As they started looking into the room to the north, the door to the south opened, and many skeletons, zombies, and ghouls started streaming out.

Vallium and Uvash headed back east toward the mana, but both were slower than usual without their Lighten spells.  The ghouls and skeletons mobbed them.  Vallium killed several of each, but then one ghoul hit Vallium's face, which was no longer protected by his magical Torc of Protection.  Neither was he Blessed.  Vallium was paralyzed!  Uvash activated his Heroic Might and Heroic Grace and tried to fight off all the undead.  Meanwhile, Ioannes started taunting the ghouls with religious rituals, trying to draw them out into the mana.  Some of them charged him.  (The skeletons and zombies didn't care.)

Three somewhat separate battles happened.  One was Ioannes versus some ghouls, with Coinbase contributing multiple buff spells.  One was Uvash versus ghouls and skeletons and zombies.  And one was skeletons and zombies that couldn't reach anyone else bashing on Vallium while he was paralyzed and (except for the heavy armor over most of his body) defenseless.

Uvash took down a lot of undead, almost winning the battle and saving Vallium, until one of the zombies landed a lucky critical hit and knocked him unconscious.  Meanwhile, Ioannes, not really strong enough to efficiently kill ghouls, focused on aiming at their feet and crippling them.  Coinbase cast Great Haste (twice), Haste, and Flight on Ioannes, and otherwise Levitated horizontally near the ceiling so the ghouls had to jump to try to lay a claw on him.

When Uvash went down, the last few skeletons and zombies ran out to get Ioannes, and he managed to cripple all of their feet.  Once no undead were left standing, they went into the No Mana zone and dragged the unconscious Uvash and paralyzed Vallium out, then Ioannes cast multiple healing spells on both of them.  Uvash woke up a few minutes later, and Vallium was able to move again.  Everyone staggered back to the east, then reversed their path to the Beacon.  They didn't run into anything hostile on the way, so they made it.  It had been very close though; with both Vallium and Uvash knocked out, a pack of undead in a no-mana zone had almost ended the Right for Riches company.

   

GM's Comments:

When Vallium went down I thought there was a decent chance of a total party kill.  Uvash, Ioannes, and Coinbase managed to win the fight, but it was close.  No mana zones are not a joke.

Achievements:

The Rescuers: 1 XP for un-petrifying and rescuing Remagis

XP:

• Exploration: 4 new locations: 0 XP
• Loot: a few magic items from the Wizard's Lab, plus the magic coffer: 1 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 2 XP

Next Week:

They're planning on heading right back to the western Well of Light area to finish exploring there.  They will then go down to the Goblin Market to get their Temrin map to the second Tablet of the Beacon.  They may then return to the Goblin Forum and try to clear more rooms on that level.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 46: The Arena Lord and the Inn of the Lost

Date:

Tahsday, 21st of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Warm, rainy

Player Characters: 

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

The GOAT, Imperial Goblin Mercenary Druid (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Tresti Iredell, Half-Elven wizard of the Rarities Factor

Temrin, Goblin Royal Artist

Gribble, Lord of the Goblin Forum

Many goblins

Dworm, human guard/merchant

Yoburra, Varumani ambassador

Several ogre guards

Many arena guards

Hal, Varumani bartender

Yerk, human gladiator

Basil, human gladiator

Nisdis, elven gladiator

6 giant beetles

The Arena Lord, Rudishva

Ida and Odile, twin gamblers

Razor Face, gambler

Varumani Lift operators

Virgoolian, goblin chemist

Swiddy, baker

Aebbe Long-Nose, cleric

Philippous, weapons dealer

Thegan White-Mane, Innkeeper, Inn of the Lost

Boots, Barkeeper, Inn of the Lost

Aethgrim, Entertainer, Inn of the Lost

Akla-Chah, hologram psychologist

Basil of Narsileon, Right for Riches company employee

Various summoned goats, bats, bears, and an elephant

The Plan:

• Sell food in the Goblin Forum
• Visit the Arena and learn things

What Happened:

After finding the Five Fingers of Destiny poking around above the Beacon, Vael got worried and started looking for a way to prevent them from scrying or teleporting in.  He asked Ioannes to help with the research, and Ioannes found a text suggesting lead-lined walls as a solution for both problems.  The party split up, with Vael, Vallium, Uvash, and Basil looking for large quantities of lead roofing tiles, while Ioannes would make the weekly food delivery to the Goblin Forum, then head down to the Arena to gather information on the Rudishva Command Bracelet that Temrin's map indicated was there.

Ioannes hired the goblin mercenary GOAT for help, then went down to the Grain Hall and bought a wheelbarrow load of assorted foods.  Without a Blink spell to easily get from the Beacon to the surface, they decided to just hike from Gosterwick to the Cliff Face, then walk up the Long Stair to the ruins.  GOAT summoned a goat to pull the wheelbarrow, a bat swarm for scouting, and a couple of cave bears for protection.

After trudging though the rain for ten miles then climbing the Long Stair, the duo walked north to the Pyramid of Thoth then went down through the Pyramid to Upper Goblintown.  There, Bottleneck greeted Ioannes and said the goats were fine but bears were not allowed in goblin territory.

They went west through the not-so-secret-anymore door to the ruined Temple of Thoth, then through the also ruined Temple of Set, then down the Sighing Stair to the Goblin Forum.  There Gribble greeted them, thanked them for bringing more food, and directed them to Dworm the Food Merchant.  Dworm repeated that he was a guard, not a merchant, but wrote down the food they brought and gave them a receipt, and paid them for their previously sold food.

Gribble mentioned that the Set animal statue in the center of the Forum was still  emitting some kind of weird gas that caused one of his guards to face plant after standing in the wrong place.  Ioannes and GOAT offered to take a look.  First GOAT cast Shape Earth to seal up the statue's nostrils and make the gas stop coming out.  Then he decided to go for a more complete solution, Levitated up to the ceiling, and summoned an Irthuin elephant.  The huge animal materialized in mid-air then crashed down onto the statue, causing extensive damage to both the statue and the elephant.  GOAT dismissed the wounded elephant as he and Ioannes looked at the wrecked statue.  The head had been knocked off the body, and gas was again coming out of a couple of small holes in the neck.  Not wanting to spend too much more time here, GOAT sealed off the holes.  A Varumani ambassador came out to check on the noise, saw it was just adventurers wrecking more Settite stuff, had a brief conversation with Ioannes, and went back to his room.

They went back up to Upper Goblintown, then down through the Wet Caves to the Goblin Market.  Ioannes went over to the Temrin, the Royal Artist, and asked if he knew the way to the Arena.  Temrin said it was down the stairs to the west, but he never went to the Arena himself because he didn't like violence.  He also noted that Vael's new map was ready.  Ioannes thanked Temrin, and he and the GOAT went east.  Ioannes asked an ogre guard a few questions about rooms nearby, then they went down the stairs to the arena level.

Ioannes talked to Hal, the bartender at the Arena Corner Bar.  Hal said that today was a Spectacle Day and they should get their drinks, place their bets, and take their seats for the show.  Ioannes tried to order milk, but Hal didn't have any.  Ioannes settled for water and a mushroom cake.  Meanwhile, GOAT cast Rider Within on a bat and had it explore the level with its dark vision and echolocation.  The bat found some large skeletons and goblin corpses across a small chasm to the west, then found a wall of fire with some kind of flaming nataraja dancer, which eventually threw a fireball at the bat, killing it.  He sent out another bat, which explored a chasm until it was surprised and eaten by a giant spider.

After finishing his mushroom cake, Ioannes led GOAT north and west to the arena bleachers.  The bleachers were mostly full of goblins.  The Arena Lord appeared in his box on the far side of the Arena and announced a Spectacle, three heroic gladiators against six ferocious giant beetles.  The Arena Lord was larger and thinner than a human, with two small horns on his head, and was wearing a purple jumpsuit, a white scarf, and a red bracelet.  After a while, three gladiators entered the arena sands from the south.  They strutted during their introductions, then the door on the north end opened and some arena wranglers pushed 6 giant beetles out onto the sand.  The beetles walked around sniffing and looking confused, while the gladiators slowly approached, showing off with spins and kicks and twirled weapons.  Then as they got to melee range, one of the gladiators stopped showing off and just brutally killed four of the beetles as fast as possible.  Each of the others killed one.

Ioannes talked to one of the goblins in the crowd, who said the gladiator who killed four beetles was Yerk, who was currently the #3 ranked gladiator in the arena, and a crowd favorite because he was "a total psycho."  The goblin also said he had bet on Yerk to get the most kills.

Ioannes and GOAT left the bleachers and west north east to where the gamblers were settling their bets.  Two of the gamblers were female and looked like twins, so Ioannes tried talking to them.  After a few minutes they got tired of answering his questions about the Lord of the Arena, so he talked to another gambler, a man with a scarred face with no nose or ears who compensated with a large beard.  Ioannes didn't get much good information from him either.

They headed north and west, then opened an unlocked door.  GOAT sent another summoned bat in to scout, and found rows of cages full of various monsters: more giant beetles, hell hounds, mephits, undead, a manticore, a chimera, and some owlbears.  They went west farther and found some old statues and a booming voice welcoming them to the Arena and telling them violence was not allowed outside the sands, then repeating (presumably) the same message in two languages they didn't know.

They reached the Varumani Lifts.  Ioannes asked the operators about the area nearby.  The varumani said the Inn was that way, the Arena was back the way they came, and that the Lifts could take them to the Floating Gardens or all the way across the Chasm.  Ioannes chose the Inn.  He saw a large door with a sign in Mithric saying "House of Isocorax" and another sign in Archontean saying it was the "Inn of the Lost."  There was a passage to the northeast.  Going that way, they found a Rudishva-architecture room with four merchant stalls set up: a chemist, a baker, a cleric, and a weapons dealer.  There was a passage leading north and a door to the east.  Ioannes asked what was to the north, and the chemist answered "death, don't go that way."  Ioannes asked what potions he had to sell.  He had the usual healing potions and such, plus Virgoolian's Special Brew, which he said would mess you up.  Ioannes declined to drink any, but bought one for GOAT.  GOAT drank it and was indeed messed up, as he started hallucinating.  GOAT decided to take a nap in the wheelbarrow, while Ioannes checked out the Inn.

The Inn door was unlocked.  Ioannes was greeted by the proprietor, an old white-haired man named Thegan.  Thegan said he had private rooms available, or a bed in a bunkroom, as well as good food and drink.  Ioannes went into the dining room, tipped the bard to play a song, and had another small mushroom-based snack.  There weren't any other guests in the common room; the barkeeper said it was a Spectacle day so they were probably at the Arena.

Vael finished looking for lead and went through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon looking for Ioannes.  Ioannes wasn't there and Basil said he hadn't been there, so Vael teleported back to Gosterwick and went to the Rarities Factor.  There he paid Tresti to cast a Message spell to Ioannes, asking him to meet at their room.  Ioannes left the Inn, went back to get the GOAT, and they went down some passages until they had some privacy to use a Teleport Rug.  GOAT stayed to watch the Rug while Ioannes went back to the Beacon and met Vael.  After bringing Vael up to date on the Arena Lord, they went to talk to Akla-Chah.  She confirmed that not all Beacon crew members were accounted for, and it was possible some were still alive, though the Beacon crashed a long time ago.  Ioannes went through the crew roster until he thought he recognized the Arena Lord as Entertainment Officer Crellik-Var.  Ioannes and Vael then went back through the Rug to rejoin GOAT in the Halls.

They followed a passage to the northeast, where they saw some corpses (six human, two varumani) stacked up near a chasm.  Suspecting a trap, GOAT sent a summoned bat to explore.  It flew over the chasm, down a passage, up another passage, and then was killed by a sword-swinging statue.  Still suspecting a trap, Vael asked GOAT to summon an animal to drag the bodies back for looting.  GOAT summoned two goats, who started dragging the bodies back.  One of the goats spotted a giant worm in the chasm, but dodged its attack and loyally kept dragging bodies back.  Vael and Ioannes looted the bodies of their armor (the only thing they had).  They decided not to venture toward the chasm today.

Instead, Ioannes led Vael back to the Inn so he could see it for himself and meet Thegan, then they went over to the merchants and Vael talked to all four.  They then went through the door to the east, which the merchants said led to a cave-in.  They found the cave-in, but Vael thought he heard some whispering in Rudishva there.  He tried a Glass Wall spell on the cave-in, but it was too thick to see through.  He dug a bit with Shape Earth and tried again, spying the passage continuing to the north, then a Rudishva-architecture room with a statue in it.

Vael asked the others to step through the Rug back to the Beacon, turned invisible with Larel's Cloak, then Blinked past the cave-in.  On the other side, he dropped the Rug so the others could join him.  They found a room with a statue that turned out to be a kaliyani, with four eyes that were amber gems.  The statue wasn't magical, so they took the eyes.  There were iris doors north and west, but Vael and Ioannes agreed that they'd pressed their luck enough for today, so they turned around and went back home.

GM's Comments:

We only had two out of five players due to the Easter holiday, so they decided to go on a low-danger information-gathering mission to the Arena.  They got a look at the Arena Lord and found the Inn of the Lost, and didn't engage in any fights (unless you include summoned bats getting killed).

Achievements:

• Arden Vul Iconic Location: Inn of the Lost (Ioannes only)

XP:

• Exploration: 19 new locations (for Ioannes and GOAT, fewer for Vael), 1 XP (for all)
• Loot: four suits of armor (one magical) and four gems, 1 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP (Ioannes only)
• Total: 3 XP for Ioannes, 2 XP for Vael

Next Week:

There should be more players next time, so they can explore more boldly.  The plan is to bring food to the baboons, then investigate the Ruby Throne and explore more of the Well of Light level.  If time permits they will also pick up their Temrin map to the second Tablet of the Beacon, and clear more rooms near the Goblin Forum.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 45: Purple Mist and the Drowned Canyon

Date:

Tahsday, 14th of Molivios, 2994 AE

Weather: 

Cool, rainy

Player Characters: 

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

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Significant NPCs:

Tresti Iredell, Half-Elven wizard of the Rarities Factor

Wicktrimmer, Imperial Goblin head of the Rarities Factor

Roger the Rapier, wizard and leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring party

Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes

Temrin, Goblin Royal Artist

Gribble, Lord of the Goblin Forum

Many goblins

Galadnor, Half-Elven merchant

Dworm, Galadnor's guard

Claudine of Narsileon, merchant

Yoburra, Varumani ambassador

Rending demon

Wight

Several zombies

Several zhouls

Several fishmen

The Plan:

• Commission Temrin to make a map to the second Tablet of the Beacon
• Sell food in the Goblin Forum
• Collect another Potion of Chaotic Sweat
• Explore the area southeast of the Temple of Thoth
• Explore the area south of the Goblin Forum

What Happened:

In Gosterwick, Vael got around to returning Tresti's spellbook, which they found long ago.  Tresti noted that Wicktrimmer had sent a Message spell from Narsileon about their shopping list.  They also bought more food at the Grain Hall for sale at the Goblin Forum.

After taking a Teleport Rug to the Beacon, Vael cast Blink Other on Valium as usual to pop him through the roof with a Rug.  This time, Vallium spotted the Five Fingers of Destiny exploring the area.  They didn't see him appear, so he walked up as if he had come over the bridge, and asked what they were doing.  Roger the Rapier was evasive, and indicated that they were heading to the northern end of the island to explore the ruined palace.  Vael got worried that Vallium hadn't put the Teleport Rug down, and Blinked himself through, and they waited until the Five Fingers left the area before dropping the Rug so Uvash and Ioannes could join them.  They had a conversation about what they should do if the Five Fingers found the Beacon.  For now, Vael left a note inside the staircase room, indicating that this was Right for Riches territory and trespassing was a bad idea.

They crossed the bridge then walked to the Pyramid of Thoth, then took the stairs down to Upper Goblintown, then the sloping passages down to the Wet Caves and then Goblintown.   Reaching the Goblin Market, they found Temrin, and presented the voucher signed by King Weskenim entitling them to a map.  They asked Temrin to accompany them to their room for some privacy.  Once there, they showed him the Tablet of the Beacon and asked him to draw a map to a second one.  After many questions, Temrin said he would start soon, after he finished his current map for another customer.

The group went back up to Upper Goblintown then west and down the Sighing Stair to the Goblin Forum.  Claudine of Narsileon had moved from the Goblin Market and set up a stall to sell weapons, armor, and dungeoneering equipment.  She didn't have anything very interesting to sell, and Vael said that he would loan her money if needed for her business.  Dworm said all their food had sold, some to the goblins and most to the Varumani ambassadors, and paid them their share of the proceeds.  The company went south to one of the unoccupied guest rooms and used the Rug to bring in more food for Dworm to sell.  Vael had a brief conversation with Yoburra, the Varumani ambassador.  He indicated that the Varumani were supporting the new Goblin Forum by buying the food from the surface, and would probably be interested in buying more.

Next they went back up the Sighing Stair to the former Temple of Set, then east to the former Temple of Thoth, then north to a cave.  Levitating up to a secret door high on the wall, they proceeded to the room with the basin of Chaotic Sweat, and Vael collected a flask of it, using Apportation to avoid touching it.  There was a hole in the floor, with handholds.  They Levitated down a long way, ending up in a cavern containing some bodies and a pit full of roiling multi-colored slimes.  Vael took a Rug back to the Beacon, then another Rug back to Gosterwick, to buy a chicken.  When he returned, he threw the chicken into the pit.  It tried to fly, didn't fly well enough, landed in the slimes, and dissolved.

Heading north along an underground stream, they found a beach with a broken egg-shaped boat, containing another fish-shaped rod.  They extracted the rod.  North of there was a pool of rough water with a waterspout coming from above, looking very dangerous to enter.  Heading east through rough cavern passages, they found a passage south, filled with purple mist.  It blocked vision, but smelled fruity or flowery and didn't appear poisonous.  Vael tried a Purify Air spell, which cleared a bit of the mist, but then more appeared.  The Rudishva Useful Palm of Cleansing Wind had a similar temporary effect.  Using a few spells and Palm charges to clear some mist out of the way, then found the mist was coming out of a magic jug.  Vallium reached into Larel's Sack and pulled out a stopper that would fit the jug, which stopped the flow of mist.  Unfortunately for Vallium, the 6-armed rending demon on the ceiling didn't like that, and pounced.  Fortunately for Vallium, the demon made a chittering noise before it pounced, ruining its chance for surprise, and both Uvash and Ioannes shouted a warning.  Vallium got his sword and shield up to block the demon's attacks in time, and then chopped it to pieces.  Besides the jug, there were several corpses of the demon's previous victims, which the party looted.

Continuing south, the passage entered into a finished room with Rudishva architecture, which led into a wide Rudishva passage.  To the northeast were several bodies.  As most of the group headed forth to loot them, hidden turrets in walls on both sides of the passage fired at them.  Vallium was missed because of his Amulet of Missile Shield, Vael Blinked back, and Ioannes jumped back as the rapid fire bounced off his shield.  Vallium charged one of the turrets and started smashing it with his sword, while Vael used the Rudishva Command Bracelet and told both turrets to cease firing.  The turrets obeyed.  Vallium had pretty seriously dented one of them by that point, but Vael used a Repair spell, and managed to fix it, despite the penalty for unfamiliar high-tech equipment.  The bodies had a magic ring, some fine mail armor that was unfortunately a bit scorched, a piece of Rudishva plasteel with an image of a varumani on one side, and another piece of plasteel with some Mithric writing.

To the north was a wall of fire, and to the south was an imposing pair of huge obsidian doors.  As they approached the fire, a dancing flaming nataraja appeared in the center of it.  Vael pulled out his yellow Rudishva ID, and the nataraja vanished, leaving a gap in the flaming wall.  Everyone else pulled out their Rudishva IDs too, as they moved through the gap into the room beyond.  It was a huge and well-lit Rudishva chamber, with two daises, a pool of green liquid, four Rudishva teleporters, and two niches with stone nataraja dancer statues.  Everyone waved their IDs at the statues, and they stayed in their niches.

The southern dais appeared inert.  However, when the northern one was approached, a hologram of a Rudishva appeared on it and started reciting instructions to the crew of the Beacon.  Vael was able to understand the instructions, thanks to both his own study of Rudishva and the Command Bracelet, and he translated for the others.  “Fellow crewmembers of the Shining Beacon!  The alien slime-mongers have infiltrated our defenses.  The varuda nests are corrupted and have been quarantined  by order of Captain Leil-Jor.  The loyal varumani gather to repel the hopping hordes. Report to your  designated crisis station in the weapons pod or crew chamber.  Await further orders.  Remain calm, for the Beacon shall light the way!”

The pool of green liquid had two dozen buttons next to it, with Rudishva glyphs.  Vael only knew a couple of them, so he called Akla-Chah on the Command Bracelet and described the glyphs for her to translate.  He then pushed each button.  Only ten of them worked, and each of them caused the pool to show an image from a different area.  They recognized a few of them: the Rudishva cloister nearby to the west, the Arena, the Sundered Span, the garden island floating in the Great Chasm, and some kind of Rudishva room with vertical coffins that they had seen on a camera feed from the Beacon.  The others were unfamilar: a pyramid, an underground cavern, an underwater area, and some kind of octagonal shaft.

Vael used a Returning Pebble, a Scry Gate spell, a Trace spell, and (once he remembered) a Continual Light spell to see where the four teleporters went.  One went to the cloister nearby.  Another went to an unknown Rudishva room south on this level, and the other two went down several hundred feet to other unknown rooms.  Seeing an opportunity to create a path from the Beacon to the Halls without going outside, the group took the teleporter to the cloister, then went over to the treasury, which had a yellow-ID-only teleporter to the Beacon, behind a one-way door.  Vael was able to bypass the one-way door using a Blink spell or by using a Teleport Rug to go back to the Beacon then coming through in the other direction.  Happy with this discovery, they went back to the slime pit room, and then Levitated back up the shaft to the cave north of the Temple of Thoth.

They went southeast to a secret door they'd found but never opened, and figured out how to open it.  Behind it was a cave containing a large arcanum pocket.  Vael felt around the walls until he found a small chunk that he could easily take.  There was a hole in the floor, which led to a storeroom.  When looking through all the stuff there, a voice rang out saying to leave Thoth's stuff alone.  The group obeyed and stopped looting the room.

Nearby was a room with a zombie strapped to a table with a magical white stone in its mouth.  Vael Apportated the stone away, and the zombie died.  A few nearby rooms contained a wight, some zombies, some zhouls, and some minor treasure.  Vallium and Uvash killed all the undead and took their stuff, while Ioannes and Vael stood back and observed.  Ioannes made a disparaging comment about how week the monsters were in this area.  They also found another secret door that connected this area to the rest of the level without going through the Arcanum pocket, but they left it closed to discourage others from finding too much.

There was a stairway down to the south.  They took it down several hundred feet.  It ended at a locked iron grating.  Vael unlocked it with a Lockmaster spell.  Beyond was a huge underground cave, with a rushing river to the south, and a floor finished with cobblestones.

To the west of the rock formation containing the stairs was a five-foot tall statue of a head, with an open grinning toothless mouth.  The statue was magical but they had no idea what it did.  They took some stairs down to the west, and found a platform with high-quality statues of two dueling wizards.  At the foot of each wizard was a name and a number of years.  Not knowing what was going on, they took notes.  There was a pentagram in the middle of the platform, and several columns.  

The group went north into a cavern and spotted a huge natural looking rock column.  Several previously-unseen fishmen threw bone-tipped javelins at Vallium from surprise.  Unfortunately for them, his Amulet of Missile Shield caused all of them to miss.  He pulled out his Returning Javelin and hurled it at the lead fishman, badly wounding it.  The other fishmen readied a second volley of javelins and hurled them all at Vallium.  When they all missed again, the fishmen seemed to decide that some Bad Juju was happening, and all but the wounded one retreated out of sight.  Meanwhile, the wounded one passed out and fell off the column with a loud crash.  It was a bit late to pursue and possibly begin a larger fight, so Vallium took all twelve of the javelins, then the company retreated back up the stairs, then back to the Beacon.

Once they reached the Beacon, Vael spent some time figuring out a couple of pieces of Rudishva technology.  The Repli-Cube was an audio-visual recording and playback device, interesting but not obviously useful.  The Rudishva Point Defense Array was a stationary ranged weapon, which the group immediately decided could be useful for killing the dragon.

 

GM's Comments:

This session was mostly exploration, finding some new parts of previously explored levels, and one new level.  There were two major threats, the rending demon and the Rudishva point defense turrets.  The demon blew its surprise roll, and Vael quickly disabled the point defense array with the Command Bracelet, so neither threat ended up causing serious problems.  Two major discoveries included a Varumani Passport (which the group has been looking for forever) and a Rudishva teleporter route from the Beacon to the known parts of the Halls, avoiding the need to travel outside.

Achievements:

• Arden Vul Iconic Location: The Drowned Canyon

XP:

• Exploration: 22 new locations, 2 XP
• Loot: Fine mail, Jug of Purple Mist, many potions and scrolls, 2 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 5 XP

Next Week:

Several players can't make it because of the Easter holiday, so we might take the week off, or we might do a small-party session with just Ioannes and some Grudge Brigade mercenaries.