Demmasday, 21st of Toternios, 2993 AEP
Weather:
Weather:
Cool, cloudy
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Based Cosmo)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Thorne Lasselanta Ashcroft, Half-Elven monk (mercenary) (Archon Shiva)
Significant NPCs:
Margot the Red, innkeeper at the Yellow Cloak Inn
Bricwine, bartender at the Yellow Cloak Inn
Tasha, tailor
Creon, pawnbroker
Unidentified huge flying reptilian beast
Roskelly Winterleaf, halfling underground toll collector lieutenant
Several halfling toll collectors
12 giant rats
When the PCs returned to Gosterwick after their previous delve, Ioannes was confronted by Margot the Red, Innkeeper at the Yellow Cloak Inn, for leaving some sheets with Continual Darkness (accidentally) cast on them in his room and freaking out the maid. Margot informed Ioannes that her husband Bricwine had needed to throw those sheets into Totey Lake before the maid was willing to go back into that room, and that as a result Ioannes owed the Inn 5 silver pieces for some new bedding. And that furthermore spellcasting, even by good clerics of Demma, was not allowed on the premises because Sometimes Someone Makes a Mistake and Look a Demon, and please take that outside the town walls. Ioannes meekly agreed to pay the fee, and retained his right to use the Inn. However, both Ioannes and Vael decided that getting an apartment at the Arcane Practitioners Club made more sense than staying in an inn with such stuffy rules, even it it meant no maid service and needing to walk somewhere to get meals.
Most of the PCs spent a week in Gosterwick, training and identifying and selling loot from their previous adventure and shopping. Michael, however, got bored in town and went on a hunting trip, and was not back in time for this delve. The party managed to recruit another tough-looking fighter, Vallium, to help protect the mages and clerics. They also walked over to the Grudge Brigade Mercenary Company's "Headquarters" (a small building on the outskirts of Gosterwick). Ashe the druid was also not around this time, but a half-elven monk carrying a pike and a couple of long staves named Thorne Lasselanta Ashcroft was willing to accompany the group for a share of treasure.
This time they left a couple hours before dawn, to give themselves more time in the ruins before sunset. Vael had dragged along a wheelbarrow this time, saying it would be easier to push his pack than carry it. Once again the group made the treacherous climb up the Long Stair without anyone slipping and falling to their death. The only encounter on the way up was with some mountain goats, who just watched them curiously and did not cause trouble. When they reached the top of the climb and entered the ruins of Arden Vul between the ruined gate towers, the group had a debate about which way to explore. Suggestions included descending into the darkness of the squat tower, climbing the Pyramid of Thoth, and going west to see what was near the top of the waterfall. The waterfall seemed closest, so the group went west.
One of the ruined buildings on the way looked a bit better preserved than the rest, so the party decided to search it. About an hour of digging around in the rubble without tools generated nothing of interest, and a couple of comments that someone should bring some picks and shovels next time, or, better yet, learn some labor-saving earth magic. Continuing west, they reached the Swift River above the cliff, with a large pond or small lake to their north, a swampy area west of the river, a couple of rotting old bridges spanning the river, a dam separating the lake from the river, and the waterfall going over the cliff to the south, between two towers. They took a look at both bridges and confirmed they looked flimsy and that levitating over the river would be a much safer way to cross. Heading north to the dam, they saw a locked door on the side of it.
Nobody brought lockpicks or lock-opening magic, but the mercenary brought a huge fine quality pike, and decided to start smashing the lock with it. This took about five tries, but the ancient lock gave way. Even with the lock broken, the door was quite stuck, and required the combined efforts of three people for several minutes to open. Inside the dam building were two wheels of some sort of extremely interesting metal. Uvash didn't think it was dwarvish, but it looked to be in remarkably good shape for metal that had sat in a wet place for 1200 years. Vael immediately played with both wheels, and found that one spun freely and did nothing, and the other was very stuck and would not budge, but had ten marks on the side and seemed to currently be set around the middle. The stronger Vallium heaved mightily on the wheel and caused it to move a notch, and then the group went outside to see what that did to the dam.
While they did this, a huge flying reptile with a vicious barb on its tail flew toward the dam from the southwest, turned around high over the party, and unleashed a rather large clump of something gross from its nether regions. The improvised missile missed them and splashed into the lake nearby, and the flying beast flew away back to the west, apparently heading to the tower in the southwest corner of the ruins. The group briefly discussed what kind of beast that was and decided it was big enough to leave alone for now. They returned to the subject of the dam and decided the wheel somehow controlled the amount of water going through it, and Uvash suggested slowing the flow by one notch to see if that made the waterfall a bit less dangerous on the climb. Several minutes of exertion later the wheel was in that position. Vael decided to cast Seek Earth, looking for gold and silver. The spells both pointed southwest, the same direction the flying beast with the stinger had gone. The group decided today was not a good day to try to fight a huge flying reptile and take its treasure. They instead walked south to the top of the waterfall.
The guard tower flanking the east side of the waterfall was mostly fallen down, with only the ground floor intact. Remembering how Michael almost got ambushed by spiders last time, the group very cautiously examined the outside of the tower for a few minutes before Vallium peeked his head in, but they did not spot anything of interest this time. The group looked at the waterfall from the top for a bit, then decided to head back toward the Pyramid of Thoth.
After walking for several minutes, they reached the pyramid without encountering any surprises. Once again they said the four pictures of Thoth in various poses on the first four steps, and that the pictures repeated on the higher steps. After a bit of discussion of the pictures the group climbed to the top of the pyramid. There stood a 20' tall statue of Thoth in Ibis-headed form, with a body of purple porphyry stone and a head of white marble, with eyes of green jade. Curiously, while the body of the statue was massive, the arms looked relatively light and appeared to be mounted on pins so that they could rotate up and down. The pyramid was surrounded by purple porphyry columns, holding up a relatively small roof that protected the pyramid from the elements. Finally, one rectangular section of floor was a different color from the rest, and seemed to have a seam around it indicating that it might be able to move, but it sat flush and there were no handles visible so there was no obvious way to open it.
Taking a clue from the statue's spindly arms and the pictures on the lowest step, the group decided to move both arms forward. Sure enough, the door in the floor slid open, revealing some stairs heading down into the pyramid. There was a large handle on the bottom side of the door, showing it might be possible to slide it open from inside. The party tested that handle and confirmed they could indeed move the door using it, then headed down the steps into the pyramid.
After a long descent they saw a small landing where the stairs reversed to continue down in the other direction. All the original plaster on the walls was destroyed, and the bare walls were covered with graffiti in a variety of languages. Ioannes pointed out some graffiti in modern Archontean (surprising some) saying "I told Robin not to touch the eyes. Now his picks are mine." This seemed to confirm Uvash's earlier advice not to steal gem eyes from religious states because their gods don't like that.
After briefly discussing the graffiti, they continued down the next staircase until it emerged into larger landing room, this one with the remains of a fire pit, and lit by orange Continual Light cast on the ceiling. Why the Continual Light was orange, they were not sure. They searched the fire pit and just found some charcoal and bones, nothing interesting.
Continuing down the next flight of stairs, they descended hundreds of feet until the stairs ended in a large room, partially lit by torches in wall sconces, and containing another statue of Thoth. This one was 15' tall, with an open stone offering chest at its feet and movable arms like the statue on top of the pyramid. Glancing around the room for other items of interest, they found a recently dead human corpse against the west wall, with no armor or weapons but still wearing clothing. As they discussed the newly found statue and body, the group was interrupted by some high-pitched talk in Archontean. It was an armed and armored halfling, backed up by five more, walking toward them.
The lead halfling was named Roskelly, and he informed the party that this area under the pyramid was the turf of his boss, Phlebotomas Plumthorn, and that Mr. Plumthorn generously allowed visitors to their territory as long as they purchased an Adventuring License for $25, and also paid a tithe of 10% of any treasure recovered in the Halls. A conversation proceeded, where the PCs tried to figure out whether it was only these 6 halflings or whether they had backup, while the halflings tried to see if the PCs had the money, and whether they would pay, flee back up the stairs, or fight. The PCs told Roskelly they needed to go back up the steps a bit to confer in private, and return with their decision. After a prolonged discussion about whether to fight today or later when they knew more about their opposition, they reluctantly agreed to pay the toll, and handed Roskelly $125 in gold and silver coins. This caused Roskelly and his gang to relax noticably, and they issued five small bronze tokens that they said were the Adventuring Licenses and would allow re-entry. The pointed at the various exits from the room and indicated that the portcullis to the east was the halflings' territory and visitors weren't welcome that way, but they were free to explore anywhere else they wanted, and just to call out before they left to facilitate the smooth and businesslike paying of their tithe. The halflings then withdrew a bit toward their territory and left the party to figure out where to explore.
There was a body to search, another statue to check out, and a large room with a total of nine exits, or seven if they excluded the stairs they'd just come down and the halflings' territory. Vael searched the body, and found that while it had no weapons or armor or coins, there was a scroll in its pants pocket. He scanned the scroll, was happy to see that it appeared to be a spell scroll in Mithric, but then was disappointed that it was a cleric scroll rather than a mage scroll that he could use. It was See Secrets, useful for finding traps and secret doors, and it was a powered scroll that a cleric could use without burning their own mana. Vael handed the scroll to Ioannes.
The group briefly discussed doing something with the statue, then decided to go through the easternmost door on the north wall. It was unlocked, and some small footprints in the dust revealed that the halflings had probably gone that way before. A bit disappointed that the area had probably already been plundered, the party proceeded, hoping to reach fresh territory with loot. They opened another door, went down a narrow passage north, and found a larger room, lit with orange Continual Light like they had seen on the stairway landing. The walls were lined with sixteen pictures of ibis heads all looking at the same point in the center of the floor, but there was nothing interesting at that point. There were bronze double doors leading north, along with a couple of peepholes in the north wall, and a single wooden door to the west. The double doors were locked. The peepholes lead to a dark room. Vael shoved his Continual Light rock through a peephole to reveal a big empty dusty room with walls painted green. With the doors leading north locked and very strong looking, the group went west through the unlocked wooden door. This led to a bare stone passage, then another door leading to a corridor full of trash and with doors leaving in four directions. Using the maxim of "left for loot" they turned left to the south, went down another stone corridor, can emerged into another small room. This one had a rotted old pouch in one corner, which Ioannes searched. It contained a single silver coin and a small gem. "Left for loot" had worked again, though it wasn't a lot of loot.
There was another door on the south end of the room, and Vael predicted from his map that it would lead back into the room with the statue of Thoth, where the halflings had extracted the admission fees. It indeed did. The halflings came to check out the light and noise, saw it was repeat customers, and went back to their portcullis. This time the group decided to play with the statue. Ioannes put the coin he'd just found into the offering chest, but nothing happened. Vallium suggested adding the scroll they'd just found, but again nothing happened.
There were plenty of places left to check: five unknown exits from this room, two unexplored wooden doors back northwest, and the locked bronze doors to the northeast. They went northwest, and opened the left door. Beyond it was a big oval room, with four pillars helping to hold up the roof, each of them carved with the image of a different god. The two clerics conferred and pooled their theological knowledge and announced that three of the statues were Osiris, Wadjet, and Maat. The three non-clerics showed off the depth of their own theological knowledge by explaining that the fourth one with the ibis head was Thoth. There was an archway to the north with bright orange light coming through it, a dark archway to the west, and a passage heading south to a door. Vael said something about loot being more likely in dark places and also left for loot, so they went south.
This led to an intersection of wide hallways leading south and west, surrounded by looted empty burial niches along the walls. Far ahead to the south was another statue of Thoth, so the group went that way. This statue featured Thoth seated with a book in his lap and a pen in his hand. Again the arms could be moved. A passage to the east led back to the halfling area. After much discussion about the pictures on the stairs, Vael started playing with the arms. Pointing the left arm forward produced a click to the east that two of them heard, so the group went east to the room with the halflings, didn't see what clicked, and went back west. Vael also pointed the right arm forward, and then a pit opened up in front of the statue, where a couple of his friends had been standing a few minutes before. Nobody was standing there now, so nobody fell in. Vael, having lost his own Continual Light rock, called his friends who had light over to help look in the hole. Rather than a vertical pit, it was a chute, sloping down and east, and continuing past the range of the light. After a quick agreement not to go down right now, Vael resumed playing with the statue's arms. Resetting the arms to pointing down closed the lid to the chute with a thunk. Pointing both arms straight up reopened the chute and also 10' deep pits north and south of the statue, with spikes. Fortunately nobody was standing on either when they opened up.
Done opening pits for the monent, the group proceeded south to a closed door, then through the door to an east-west hallway full of an ugly greenish-gray mist. The mist didn't seem harmful. As they entered, an illusory mouth appeared on the opposite wall, said a few sentences in a language none of them understood, and disappeared. They thought they heard the word "Thoth", but otherwise it was gibberish. They proceed west and entered a large room containing a pyramid, this one triangular rather than square. Much smaller than the Pyramid of Thoth high above them, but pretty big for an indoor pyramid, tall enough that they couldn't see the top with their bright Continual Light stones. They discussed climbing it, but then Vael announced that they needed to head back to town soon and had hardly found any loot, so he should try another Seek Earth to see if there was any gold or silver nearby. After much agreement, he cast both spells, and thought he detected both gold and silver to the north. So they went east out of the pyramid room, back north to the hallway with looted burial niches, then turned west into another hallway, sloping down, of looted burial niches, where the spell seemed to point.
The group could have been surprised by giant rats jumping ouf of the niches to ambush them, but they were not. It was about a dozen rats, and they were actually slightly bigger than the halflings, if less heavily armed and armored. The loot apparently already had an owner. The rats charged toward the party. Vallium quickly killed one with his sword. Vael cast Grease on the floor under all the rats, causing much slipping and falling. While the rats were delayed, the rest of the group formed up to fight. Lasselanta stood ready to parry with her staves, and when the rats tried to bite her friends she aggressively knocked them back to slide across the magically slippery floor back to their nest. Meanwhile both clerics tried to get a couple of blows, but not very effectively, and Uvash actually dropped his mace. Vael walked up to prepare more spells, while Vallium killed several rats. Eventually Lasselanta thought the density of rats was low enough for her to go on the offensive as well, and started initiating attacks on the rats rather than waiting for them to attack and aggressively parrying. After a few seconds, there were about a dozen dead giant rats on the floor. The party was fortunately unwounded, as nobody knew what kind of diseases rats that size might carry, but probably nothing good.
There was a huge rats' nest in the corner where two niche-filled hallways connected. Vael quickly ran up to the next for loot, saw a rather ornate torch that look magic, and grabbed it. It was indeed magic, but as he grabbed it, the area around him went completely dark. Vael, holding the torch, couldn't see anything near him, but could see light outside the area. His friends nearby couldn't see anything. Vael tried throwing the torch away, but it clung to his hand. Oops. After some discussion, Vael retreated from his friends to let them see, while the rest of them searched the nest. The remaining treasure was all mundane shiny stuff: some gold and silver coins, several gems, a pearl, and a gold ring with a lapis inset. Depending on what the gems were worth, probably enough to make this delve worthwhile, even after the expense of paying off the halflings and presumably needing to donate to a temple to detach that cursed torch from Vael.
Taking advantage of the magical darkness, the group put all the gems on Vael where they were impossible to see and had Ioannes just carry the small number of coins they'd found. Most of the halflings found the story of the cursed torch amusing. But Roskelly wasn't sure he believed it, and had a couple of his thugs go into the darkness and try to separate Vael from the torch, which failed, and while the halflings were distracted by the torch and the darkness they failed to pat down Vael for the gems. Ioannes obediently paid $5 out of the $46 in coins they'd found.
The group headed back to Gosterwick. Vael had to stay about six yards away from his friends to let them see. It would have been a dangerous climb down the Long Stair for Vael, since he would be unable to see where he was stepping, but fortunately he had Levitation, so the cloud of darkness just floated down the side of the mountain while everyone else had to hike. There were no dangerous encounters on the way back, and, owing to their early morning start, they made it back to town right around sunset.
GM's Comments:
Another successful week. The PCs didn't pick up nearly as much loot as last time, but it was enough to pay their expenses for a week. They broke into an ancient dam and think they figured out how to manipulate the water level, which may be useful at some point. They saw a terrifyingly huge and rather rude flying reptile high above them, and decided not to go after the hoard that Seek Earth indicated it might be guarding. They figured out how to manipulate the statue to get into the Pyramid of Thoth, paid off some rent-seeking halflings, and found two more statues of Thoth, another pyramid, and a group of angry giant rats with some minor treasure. Finally, they found another amusingly cursed item, and this time found out about the curse the hard way.
The group was lucky not to be standing above any of the three pits they opened when playing with the seated statue. Two PCs had previously been standing atop the lid of the chute to the east, but when some playing with the statue's arms had produced a click to the east, everyone had walked that way to look for the source, and when they came back they didn't stand in the same place. The pits to the north and south looked like pretty simple traps: fall ten feet, land on spikes, bleed. Not fun at all, but probably not lethal for a tough PC with a friendly cleric or two nearby to patch them up. The one with a sloping chute leading down into the darkness, though, nobody could be sure about. Maybe it led to a soft landing and a pile of treasure; maybe it led to molten lava. One way to find out...
As with the spiders last week, the rats failing to surprise the party despite pretty good odds heavily influenced the combat. The group had two strong warriors to kill the rats and parry their bites, Vael's Grease spell to slow down the flow of rat attacks to a level the warriors could more easily handle, and the clerics to help distract the rats from dogpiling the warriors. Uvash missed a rat badly enough to accidentally throw his mace three hexes, demonstrating why four out of five warriors recommend a one-silver-piece lanyard for their friends who critically fail attack rolls. Fortunately the rats were mostly dead by that point so it didn't matter too much.
Achievements:
The statue of Thoth right under the pyramid (the one with the stone collection box, not the one with the book that opens pits when you play with the arms) is the Glory of Thoth, an Arden Vul Iconic Location. This group all got 1 XP for finding it, even though they hadn't heard of it before.
XP:
They haven't identified all the gems or the ring yet, or paid for the Remove Curse on that torch, but this delve will clearly end up in the 1 XP for loot range: enough to pay the bills but not enough to qualify as a great haul. The group explored about 20 new locations, which falls into the 1 XP for exploration range. And the Achievement was 1 XP. So everyone earned 3 XP, a solid week, especially when you consider they were in the red until the very end of the session.
Next week:
Presumably Vael needs a Remove Curse for that torch. The group has some gems and a ring to identify, and then they'll probably head back to the ruins. Possible points of interest include that giant rude flying reptile with the scary tail and possible loot to the southwest, the dam above the waterfall, the square tower they haven't entered yet, the unexplored majority of the ruins, or going back under the Pyramid of Thoth. Under the Pyramid they've got the triangular mini-pyramid to explore, some halflings they've vaguely discussed fighting to take their money back, and a whole bunch of unexplored ways to go.
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Thorne Lasselanta Ashcroft, Half-Elven monk (mercenary) (Archon Shiva)
Significant NPCs:
Margot the Red, innkeeper at the Yellow Cloak Inn
Bricwine, bartender at the Yellow Cloak Inn
Tasha, tailor
Creon, pawnbroker
Unidentified huge flying reptilian beast
Roskelly Winterleaf, halfling underground toll collector lieutenant
Several halfling toll collectors
12 giant rats
When the PCs returned to Gosterwick after their previous delve, Ioannes was confronted by Margot the Red, Innkeeper at the Yellow Cloak Inn, for leaving some sheets with Continual Darkness (accidentally) cast on them in his room and freaking out the maid. Margot informed Ioannes that her husband Bricwine had needed to throw those sheets into Totey Lake before the maid was willing to go back into that room, and that as a result Ioannes owed the Inn 5 silver pieces for some new bedding. And that furthermore spellcasting, even by good clerics of Demma, was not allowed on the premises because Sometimes Someone Makes a Mistake and Look a Demon, and please take that outside the town walls. Ioannes meekly agreed to pay the fee, and retained his right to use the Inn. However, both Ioannes and Vael decided that getting an apartment at the Arcane Practitioners Club made more sense than staying in an inn with such stuffy rules, even it it meant no maid service and needing to walk somewhere to get meals.
Most of the PCs spent a week in Gosterwick, training and identifying and selling loot from their previous adventure and shopping. Michael, however, got bored in town and went on a hunting trip, and was not back in time for this delve. The party managed to recruit another tough-looking fighter, Vallium, to help protect the mages and clerics. They also walked over to the Grudge Brigade Mercenary Company's "Headquarters" (a small building on the outskirts of Gosterwick). Ashe the druid was also not around this time, but a half-elven monk carrying a pike and a couple of long staves named Thorne Lasselanta Ashcroft was willing to accompany the group for a share of treasure.
This time they left a couple hours before dawn, to give themselves more time in the ruins before sunset. Vael had dragged along a wheelbarrow this time, saying it would be easier to push his pack than carry it. Once again the group made the treacherous climb up the Long Stair without anyone slipping and falling to their death. The only encounter on the way up was with some mountain goats, who just watched them curiously and did not cause trouble. When they reached the top of the climb and entered the ruins of Arden Vul between the ruined gate towers, the group had a debate about which way to explore. Suggestions included descending into the darkness of the squat tower, climbing the Pyramid of Thoth, and going west to see what was near the top of the waterfall. The waterfall seemed closest, so the group went west.
One of the ruined buildings on the way looked a bit better preserved than the rest, so the party decided to search it. About an hour of digging around in the rubble without tools generated nothing of interest, and a couple of comments that someone should bring some picks and shovels next time, or, better yet, learn some labor-saving earth magic. Continuing west, they reached the Swift River above the cliff, with a large pond or small lake to their north, a swampy area west of the river, a couple of rotting old bridges spanning the river, a dam separating the lake from the river, and the waterfall going over the cliff to the south, between two towers. They took a look at both bridges and confirmed they looked flimsy and that levitating over the river would be a much safer way to cross. Heading north to the dam, they saw a locked door on the side of it.
Nobody brought lockpicks or lock-opening magic, but the mercenary brought a huge fine quality pike, and decided to start smashing the lock with it. This took about five tries, but the ancient lock gave way. Even with the lock broken, the door was quite stuck, and required the combined efforts of three people for several minutes to open. Inside the dam building were two wheels of some sort of extremely interesting metal. Uvash didn't think it was dwarvish, but it looked to be in remarkably good shape for metal that had sat in a wet place for 1200 years. Vael immediately played with both wheels, and found that one spun freely and did nothing, and the other was very stuck and would not budge, but had ten marks on the side and seemed to currently be set around the middle. The stronger Vallium heaved mightily on the wheel and caused it to move a notch, and then the group went outside to see what that did to the dam.
While they did this, a huge flying reptile with a vicious barb on its tail flew toward the dam from the southwest, turned around high over the party, and unleashed a rather large clump of something gross from its nether regions. The improvised missile missed them and splashed into the lake nearby, and the flying beast flew away back to the west, apparently heading to the tower in the southwest corner of the ruins. The group briefly discussed what kind of beast that was and decided it was big enough to leave alone for now. They returned to the subject of the dam and decided the wheel somehow controlled the amount of water going through it, and Uvash suggested slowing the flow by one notch to see if that made the waterfall a bit less dangerous on the climb. Several minutes of exertion later the wheel was in that position. Vael decided to cast Seek Earth, looking for gold and silver. The spells both pointed southwest, the same direction the flying beast with the stinger had gone. The group decided today was not a good day to try to fight a huge flying reptile and take its treasure. They instead walked south to the top of the waterfall.
The guard tower flanking the east side of the waterfall was mostly fallen down, with only the ground floor intact. Remembering how Michael almost got ambushed by spiders last time, the group very cautiously examined the outside of the tower for a few minutes before Vallium peeked his head in, but they did not spot anything of interest this time. The group looked at the waterfall from the top for a bit, then decided to head back toward the Pyramid of Thoth.
After walking for several minutes, they reached the pyramid without encountering any surprises. Once again they said the four pictures of Thoth in various poses on the first four steps, and that the pictures repeated on the higher steps. After a bit of discussion of the pictures the group climbed to the top of the pyramid. There stood a 20' tall statue of Thoth in Ibis-headed form, with a body of purple porphyry stone and a head of white marble, with eyes of green jade. Curiously, while the body of the statue was massive, the arms looked relatively light and appeared to be mounted on pins so that they could rotate up and down. The pyramid was surrounded by purple porphyry columns, holding up a relatively small roof that protected the pyramid from the elements. Finally, one rectangular section of floor was a different color from the rest, and seemed to have a seam around it indicating that it might be able to move, but it sat flush and there were no handles visible so there was no obvious way to open it.
Taking a clue from the statue's spindly arms and the pictures on the lowest step, the group decided to move both arms forward. Sure enough, the door in the floor slid open, revealing some stairs heading down into the pyramid. There was a large handle on the bottom side of the door, showing it might be possible to slide it open from inside. The party tested that handle and confirmed they could indeed move the door using it, then headed down the steps into the pyramid.
After a long descent they saw a small landing where the stairs reversed to continue down in the other direction. All the original plaster on the walls was destroyed, and the bare walls were covered with graffiti in a variety of languages. Ioannes pointed out some graffiti in modern Archontean (surprising some) saying "I told Robin not to touch the eyes. Now his picks are mine." This seemed to confirm Uvash's earlier advice not to steal gem eyes from religious states because their gods don't like that.
After briefly discussing the graffiti, they continued down the next staircase until it emerged into larger landing room, this one with the remains of a fire pit, and lit by orange Continual Light cast on the ceiling. Why the Continual Light was orange, they were not sure. They searched the fire pit and just found some charcoal and bones, nothing interesting.
Continuing down the next flight of stairs, they descended hundreds of feet until the stairs ended in a large room, partially lit by torches in wall sconces, and containing another statue of Thoth. This one was 15' tall, with an open stone offering chest at its feet and movable arms like the statue on top of the pyramid. Glancing around the room for other items of interest, they found a recently dead human corpse against the west wall, with no armor or weapons but still wearing clothing. As they discussed the newly found statue and body, the group was interrupted by some high-pitched talk in Archontean. It was an armed and armored halfling, backed up by five more, walking toward them.
The lead halfling was named Roskelly, and he informed the party that this area under the pyramid was the turf of his boss, Phlebotomas Plumthorn, and that Mr. Plumthorn generously allowed visitors to their territory as long as they purchased an Adventuring License for $25, and also paid a tithe of 10% of any treasure recovered in the Halls. A conversation proceeded, where the PCs tried to figure out whether it was only these 6 halflings or whether they had backup, while the halflings tried to see if the PCs had the money, and whether they would pay, flee back up the stairs, or fight. The PCs told Roskelly they needed to go back up the steps a bit to confer in private, and return with their decision. After a prolonged discussion about whether to fight today or later when they knew more about their opposition, they reluctantly agreed to pay the toll, and handed Roskelly $125 in gold and silver coins. This caused Roskelly and his gang to relax noticably, and they issued five small bronze tokens that they said were the Adventuring Licenses and would allow re-entry. The pointed at the various exits from the room and indicated that the portcullis to the east was the halflings' territory and visitors weren't welcome that way, but they were free to explore anywhere else they wanted, and just to call out before they left to facilitate the smooth and businesslike paying of their tithe. The halflings then withdrew a bit toward their territory and left the party to figure out where to explore.
There was a body to search, another statue to check out, and a large room with a total of nine exits, or seven if they excluded the stairs they'd just come down and the halflings' territory. Vael searched the body, and found that while it had no weapons or armor or coins, there was a scroll in its pants pocket. He scanned the scroll, was happy to see that it appeared to be a spell scroll in Mithric, but then was disappointed that it was a cleric scroll rather than a mage scroll that he could use. It was See Secrets, useful for finding traps and secret doors, and it was a powered scroll that a cleric could use without burning their own mana. Vael handed the scroll to Ioannes.
The group briefly discussed doing something with the statue, then decided to go through the easternmost door on the north wall. It was unlocked, and some small footprints in the dust revealed that the halflings had probably gone that way before. A bit disappointed that the area had probably already been plundered, the party proceeded, hoping to reach fresh territory with loot. They opened another door, went down a narrow passage north, and found a larger room, lit with orange Continual Light like they had seen on the stairway landing. The walls were lined with sixteen pictures of ibis heads all looking at the same point in the center of the floor, but there was nothing interesting at that point. There were bronze double doors leading north, along with a couple of peepholes in the north wall, and a single wooden door to the west. The double doors were locked. The peepholes lead to a dark room. Vael shoved his Continual Light rock through a peephole to reveal a big empty dusty room with walls painted green. With the doors leading north locked and very strong looking, the group went west through the unlocked wooden door. This led to a bare stone passage, then another door leading to a corridor full of trash and with doors leaving in four directions. Using the maxim of "left for loot" they turned left to the south, went down another stone corridor, can emerged into another small room. This one had a rotted old pouch in one corner, which Ioannes searched. It contained a single silver coin and a small gem. "Left for loot" had worked again, though it wasn't a lot of loot.
There was another door on the south end of the room, and Vael predicted from his map that it would lead back into the room with the statue of Thoth, where the halflings had extracted the admission fees. It indeed did. The halflings came to check out the light and noise, saw it was repeat customers, and went back to their portcullis. This time the group decided to play with the statue. Ioannes put the coin he'd just found into the offering chest, but nothing happened. Vallium suggested adding the scroll they'd just found, but again nothing happened.
There were plenty of places left to check: five unknown exits from this room, two unexplored wooden doors back northwest, and the locked bronze doors to the northeast. They went northwest, and opened the left door. Beyond it was a big oval room, with four pillars helping to hold up the roof, each of them carved with the image of a different god. The two clerics conferred and pooled their theological knowledge and announced that three of the statues were Osiris, Wadjet, and Maat. The three non-clerics showed off the depth of their own theological knowledge by explaining that the fourth one with the ibis head was Thoth. There was an archway to the north with bright orange light coming through it, a dark archway to the west, and a passage heading south to a door. Vael said something about loot being more likely in dark places and also left for loot, so they went south.
This led to an intersection of wide hallways leading south and west, surrounded by looted empty burial niches along the walls. Far ahead to the south was another statue of Thoth, so the group went that way. This statue featured Thoth seated with a book in his lap and a pen in his hand. Again the arms could be moved. A passage to the east led back to the halfling area. After much discussion about the pictures on the stairs, Vael started playing with the arms. Pointing the left arm forward produced a click to the east that two of them heard, so the group went east to the room with the halflings, didn't see what clicked, and went back west. Vael also pointed the right arm forward, and then a pit opened up in front of the statue, where a couple of his friends had been standing a few minutes before. Nobody was standing there now, so nobody fell in. Vael, having lost his own Continual Light rock, called his friends who had light over to help look in the hole. Rather than a vertical pit, it was a chute, sloping down and east, and continuing past the range of the light. After a quick agreement not to go down right now, Vael resumed playing with the statue's arms. Resetting the arms to pointing down closed the lid to the chute with a thunk. Pointing both arms straight up reopened the chute and also 10' deep pits north and south of the statue, with spikes. Fortunately nobody was standing on either when they opened up.
Done opening pits for the monent, the group proceeded south to a closed door, then through the door to an east-west hallway full of an ugly greenish-gray mist. The mist didn't seem harmful. As they entered, an illusory mouth appeared on the opposite wall, said a few sentences in a language none of them understood, and disappeared. They thought they heard the word "Thoth", but otherwise it was gibberish. They proceed west and entered a large room containing a pyramid, this one triangular rather than square. Much smaller than the Pyramid of Thoth high above them, but pretty big for an indoor pyramid, tall enough that they couldn't see the top with their bright Continual Light stones. They discussed climbing it, but then Vael announced that they needed to head back to town soon and had hardly found any loot, so he should try another Seek Earth to see if there was any gold or silver nearby. After much agreement, he cast both spells, and thought he detected both gold and silver to the north. So they went east out of the pyramid room, back north to the hallway with looted burial niches, then turned west into another hallway, sloping down, of looted burial niches, where the spell seemed to point.
The group could have been surprised by giant rats jumping ouf of the niches to ambush them, but they were not. It was about a dozen rats, and they were actually slightly bigger than the halflings, if less heavily armed and armored. The loot apparently already had an owner. The rats charged toward the party. Vallium quickly killed one with his sword. Vael cast Grease on the floor under all the rats, causing much slipping and falling. While the rats were delayed, the rest of the group formed up to fight. Lasselanta stood ready to parry with her staves, and when the rats tried to bite her friends she aggressively knocked them back to slide across the magically slippery floor back to their nest. Meanwhile both clerics tried to get a couple of blows, but not very effectively, and Uvash actually dropped his mace. Vael walked up to prepare more spells, while Vallium killed several rats. Eventually Lasselanta thought the density of rats was low enough for her to go on the offensive as well, and started initiating attacks on the rats rather than waiting for them to attack and aggressively parrying. After a few seconds, there were about a dozen dead giant rats on the floor. The party was fortunately unwounded, as nobody knew what kind of diseases rats that size might carry, but probably nothing good.
There was a huge rats' nest in the corner where two niche-filled hallways connected. Vael quickly ran up to the next for loot, saw a rather ornate torch that look magic, and grabbed it. It was indeed magic, but as he grabbed it, the area around him went completely dark. Vael, holding the torch, couldn't see anything near him, but could see light outside the area. His friends nearby couldn't see anything. Vael tried throwing the torch away, but it clung to his hand. Oops. After some discussion, Vael retreated from his friends to let them see, while the rest of them searched the nest. The remaining treasure was all mundane shiny stuff: some gold and silver coins, several gems, a pearl, and a gold ring with a lapis inset. Depending on what the gems were worth, probably enough to make this delve worthwhile, even after the expense of paying off the halflings and presumably needing to donate to a temple to detach that cursed torch from Vael.
Taking advantage of the magical darkness, the group put all the gems on Vael where they were impossible to see and had Ioannes just carry the small number of coins they'd found. Most of the halflings found the story of the cursed torch amusing. But Roskelly wasn't sure he believed it, and had a couple of his thugs go into the darkness and try to separate Vael from the torch, which failed, and while the halflings were distracted by the torch and the darkness they failed to pat down Vael for the gems. Ioannes obediently paid $5 out of the $46 in coins they'd found.
The group headed back to Gosterwick. Vael had to stay about six yards away from his friends to let them see. It would have been a dangerous climb down the Long Stair for Vael, since he would be unable to see where he was stepping, but fortunately he had Levitation, so the cloud of darkness just floated down the side of the mountain while everyone else had to hike. There were no dangerous encounters on the way back, and, owing to their early morning start, they made it back to town right around sunset.
GM's Comments:
Another successful week. The PCs didn't pick up nearly as much loot as last time, but it was enough to pay their expenses for a week. They broke into an ancient dam and think they figured out how to manipulate the water level, which may be useful at some point. They saw a terrifyingly huge and rather rude flying reptile high above them, and decided not to go after the hoard that Seek Earth indicated it might be guarding. They figured out how to manipulate the statue to get into the Pyramid of Thoth, paid off some rent-seeking halflings, and found two more statues of Thoth, another pyramid, and a group of angry giant rats with some minor treasure. Finally, they found another amusingly cursed item, and this time found out about the curse the hard way.
The group was lucky not to be standing above any of the three pits they opened when playing with the seated statue. Two PCs had previously been standing atop the lid of the chute to the east, but when some playing with the statue's arms had produced a click to the east, everyone had walked that way to look for the source, and when they came back they didn't stand in the same place. The pits to the north and south looked like pretty simple traps: fall ten feet, land on spikes, bleed. Not fun at all, but probably not lethal for a tough PC with a friendly cleric or two nearby to patch them up. The one with a sloping chute leading down into the darkness, though, nobody could be sure about. Maybe it led to a soft landing and a pile of treasure; maybe it led to molten lava. One way to find out...
As with the spiders last week, the rats failing to surprise the party despite pretty good odds heavily influenced the combat. The group had two strong warriors to kill the rats and parry their bites, Vael's Grease spell to slow down the flow of rat attacks to a level the warriors could more easily handle, and the clerics to help distract the rats from dogpiling the warriors. Uvash missed a rat badly enough to accidentally throw his mace three hexes, demonstrating why four out of five warriors recommend a one-silver-piece lanyard for their friends who critically fail attack rolls. Fortunately the rats were mostly dead by that point so it didn't matter too much.
Achievements:
The statue of Thoth right under the pyramid (the one with the stone collection box, not the one with the book that opens pits when you play with the arms) is the Glory of Thoth, an Arden Vul Iconic Location. This group all got 1 XP for finding it, even though they hadn't heard of it before.
XP:
They haven't identified all the gems or the ring yet, or paid for the Remove Curse on that torch, but this delve will clearly end up in the 1 XP for loot range: enough to pay the bills but not enough to qualify as a great haul. The group explored about 20 new locations, which falls into the 1 XP for exploration range. And the Achievement was 1 XP. So everyone earned 3 XP, a solid week, especially when you consider they were in the red until the very end of the session.
Next week:
Presumably Vael needs a Remove Curse for that torch. The group has some gems and a ring to identify, and then they'll probably head back to the ruins. Possible points of interest include that giant rude flying reptile with the scary tail and possible loot to the southwest, the dam above the waterfall, the square tower they haven't entered yet, the unexplored majority of the ruins, or going back under the Pyramid of Thoth. Under the Pyramid they've got the triangular mini-pyramid to explore, some halflings they've vaguely discussed fighting to take their money back, and a whole bunch of unexplored ways to go.
I find these little halfling bastards immensely fun haha!
ReplyDeletePretty sure every PC who's ever met them hates them.
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