Date:
Lunday, 9th of Basilembrios, 2993 AE
Weather:
Cool, cloudy, chance of rain
Player Characters:
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)Chrysalis (Lasselanta Ashcroft), Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (Archon Shiva)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Chrysalis (Lasselanta Ashcroft), Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (Archon Shiva)
Significant NPCs:
Mariposa, Chrysalis's monkey
Gwelf, deceased dwarven thief
Lyssandra Astorion, Archontean wizard, co-owner of the Arcane Practitioners' Club
Creon, pawnbroker
Flavius Aurelius, Archontean merchant
Several merchant teamster/guards
Several mules
Suspicious bat that transformed into a suspicious worm
4 Settite Guild of Service slavers
Harold, Archontean fighter
Hjalti, Wiskin fighter
Kiglon, Thorcin ranger
The Plan:
- Leave one Teleport Rug in Gosterwick and bring the other along
- Climb the Long Stair to the secret entrance to the Great Cavern
- Go to the top of the rock formation in the southeastern Cavern and explore the shaft down
- Explore the classical temple on top of a rock spire in the southwestern Cavern
- Defeat the Set outpost in the southwestern Cavern, go down the stairs, and defeat the Varumani guards
- Explore as time permits
What Happened:
Uvash led some members of his dwarven flock to bury the fallen dwarf adventurer Gwelf, whose body they had found in a cavern the previous week.
Lyssandra left messages on everyone's apartment doors at the Arcane Practitioners' Club, that livestock and corpses were not permitted on the premises. Also that all apartment tenants must leave by the first of Dikaios, when renovations to the top floor would commence. The lounge, alchemy labs, training rooms, and library on the lower floors would not be affected.
Creon sent Vael a note that he had some newly arrived magical items. The items were a very expensive magical knife, a suit of magical scale armor, and an invisibility potion. Vael didn't buy any of them, but paid Creon a tip for continuing to let him know about interesting items before they went on the shelves. Vael did spot and purchase a couple of items from market peddlers: a mapping kit and a hands-free helmet lamp.
Vael went looking for Wicktrimmer to see if he had any ideas about apartments, but the goblin was not available.
The Right for Riches company left for Arden Vul just after dawn on Lunday. They made it to the base of the waterfall without encountering anyone, but saw a trail of people and mules heading up, about a quarter of the way up the Long Stair. Everyone else stepped through the Rug back to Gosterwick, then Vael Levitated about halfway up the Long Stair to outside the secret entrance to the Great Cavern, and let the others come back through. They waited there for the mule train, which turned out to be a merchant and six armed guards, each leading a mule. Two of the guards came forward to talk. They revealed that they were heading up to the Inn of the Broken Head with supplies. Once he was convinced of their peaceful intentions, the merchant, Flavius Aurelius, came up to chat. He revealed that he and his men regularly brought supplies from Gosterwick up to the Broken Head. Vael asked to exchange contact information so they could talk again sometime in Gosterwick, and Flavius agreed.
Once the mule train was out of sight, the party opened the secret door, and Vallium led them east then north then west through narrow passages into the Great Cavern proper. They repeated the trick with everyone stepping through the Rug, Vallium Levitating up to the top of the rock outcropping, then everyone stepping back out. The shaft they wanted to explore was about 5 feet in diameter and extended beyond the range of their light sources. Vael cast Trace on his Returning Pebble then dropped it into the hole. The spell told him that it fell about 70 feet, bounced a few times, then settled there. Vael was a bit nervous to fly down into the hole alone, so Vallium tied a 100 foot rope around his waist, spiked it in place at the top and had the others hold it, and then climbed down while Vael Levitated. At the bottom was a cavern and there did not appear to be any danger, so Vallium stayed at the bottom to stand guard, while Vael flew up, let everyone step into the Rug, flew down, and let everyone step out.
The group explored the small cave. It was unoccupied, but had a few interesting features. There was what looked like a black flowering plant, impossibly growing in the pitch dark. There was also a sheet spread out on the ground. On the sheet were a couple of flasks of a strange light orange material, a couple of small discs of a strange heavy orange material, some unidentifiable dried fruit, and some unidentifiable and extremely old dried meat. They took the objects, left the old food, and did not disturb the plant.
There was another shaft heading down. Vael again cast Trace on his Pebble and dropped it. This time it fell around 170' before bouncing around a bit. That was longer than any rope they had, so Vael sent down a Wizard Eye spell to explore. The spell revealed a cavern complex, with one large cavern containing a pool of water, and another tunnel sloping down. It looked unoccupied, so Vael had everyone step into the Rug, flew down, and let everyone step out.
The group thoroughly explored the cave. They didn't find any occupants or treasure, or any exits except for the tunnel sloping down. Vallium swam around in the chilly pool, which appeared to be fresh water, about 30' deep. Eventually they took the tunnel down, but then turned back around before exploring the deeper level. Everyone climbed back up, then stepped into the Rug, and Vael flew all the way up to the rock then back down to the surface of the Great Cavern, and everyone stepped back out.
They walked west a bit to the base of the pillar atop which Vael had seen some kind of classical temple. He flew up to take a look, then repeated the Rug trick to teleport everyone else up. There was what looked like a classical marble temple on top of the pillar, and in the center of it was a large sarcophagus. It was surrounded by 8 urns, about 4' in diameter and 4' tall. There was a Mithric inscription on the sarcophagus:
Here rests Ptarmis
loyal servant of Thoth
seeker of hidden ways
who destroyed the loathsome ones
raised his children from spores
and opened this cavern
Those who disturb his sleep
Will be returned to the mulch
from whence they came.
This was a bit confusing, since they'd met a man named Ptarmis, on the throne a bit to the east, who was very much alive. Vael looked over to see if he was there, and he was. He flew over to chat. Ptarmis indicated that the temple was his, like everything in the Great Cavern was his, and that they should leave it alone. Surprisingly, the party complied, and left without opening the sarcophagus or the urns.
Next they continued west to the Settite outpost. Vael used Larel's Cloak to turn invisible, and cast Infravision so he could hide his light, and flew over to check it out. There were no guards on the landing. He kicked the rope ladder down so the others could climb up, and explored into the tunnel to the west. The stores of food were gone, and then all the furniture in the Settite guard lounge room was gone. It looked like the Settites had abandoned the area. The door north was locked, but Vallium had a key, and unlocked it, then another door north, then another door west, to find the stairs leading down to the Forum of Set level.
The group snuck down the stairs, wary of the Varumani guards they saw last time, but this time they didn't see any varumani in the octagonal crossroads room. There was just one bat, suspiciously orbiting the room. Chrysalis decided she didn't like the bat, and used her long staff to knock it down, fatally. When it hit the ground, its corpse changed from a bat into a strange worm, and remained dead.
They explored a few tunnels until they found a large room to the south. There were 6 plinths, with name plaques. 5 of them contained statues, with 4 of the statues complete and one of them headless, with colorful magical sparks shooting out of its neck. There was a separate smaller platform in front of each plinth. There were large letters in Mithric on the south wall "Let the Worthy Illuminate the" and then the sentence was rudely interrupted by a hole in the wall. The missing statue was "Priscus Pulcher, the Arch-Sortian" and there were some fresh flowers there. The intact statues were "Licinia the Seer", "Plotinus Quartus Claudino, Archon", "Yeth, Who Sought to Bring Law to Chaos", and "Horatius Interfector, Sorcerer." The headless statue with the spark show was "Thrygga the Mighty", and he was wearing some impossibly fantastic armor, a bit similar to what the Sun-Scarred Knight Sir Sorrow had worn. Some of these names were vaguely familar but none of the party was a historian. Vael tried putting Continual Light stones near each statue, which didn't seem to do anything. He also put a piece of paper in the spark shower and succeeded in setting it on fire.
Tiring of the statues, the group explored a few more tunnels, then went west, to a big blue pillar they had seen before. The pillar had statues on several sides: of a handsome man, a woman, a varumani, a Thothian priest, and a goblin. Vallium had made a note to bring old coins, but had not actually brought any. Fortunately they had the teleport rugs, so he walked through one back to their apartments, grabbed several coins and gems, and came back. He determined that the woman's eyes were a perfect fit for gold solidi, and the priest's eyes for ancient silver pennies. The handsome man's eyes, varumani's mouth, and goblin's nose also had holes, but none of those matched the size of any coins or gems in their collection. Vallium put two solidi in the woman's eye holes, and the whole group was instantly half-blinded by bright light as they were teleported outside, near the old Archon's palace. Unfortunately they were about ten feet above the ground, so everyone (except Vael, who still had Levitation on) fell to the ground with a painful thump. While Ioannes healed falling damage, Uvash mentioned that he had seen a short obelisk on the other side of the palace wall, before they fell. Vael Levitated up and saw that the obelisk was covered with lunar symbols and had an ankh-shaped hole, much like the Obelisk of the Sun near the entrance to Arden Vul, except this one had been broken and only the bottom 10 feet remained.
Remembering something they had read about sun and moon and stars, the group determined that if they'd found the moon obelisk, they should see if they could find the star obelisk to complete the set. Vael looked for a third obelisk on the line between the others but didn't see it. He then tried a Seeker spell, concentrating on the moon obelisk, to find another one like it but with stars. He was rewarded with a vision of the Obelisk of the Stars, in the swamp to the southwest. He flew up and looked that way, until he also spotted it with the naked eye. They considered visiting all the obelisks now, but something in the story they remembered had said "mid-day", and it was already afternoon, so they decided to come back another day before noon in case the exact timing mattered.
The group decided to go back to the Blue Pillar. They walked east across the bridge toward the Pyramid of Thoth, south through the Forum, past the scary Tower of Scrutiny, past the Obelisk of the Sun, and down the Long Stair to the secret door. They then retraced their steps across the Great Cavern to the west, climbed the rope ladder into the former Set outpost, went down the stairs, and went west again to the Blue Pillar. After all that walking, and with no significant loot found, Vael announced that it was time to look for treasure, and cast Seek Earth looking for platinum. He sensed some, a bit to the northwest. There were no passages going that way, and nobody found any secret doors, so they went east then north up some stairs, hoping they could loop around. The stairs went up a long way, and there were periodic frescoes of faces in agony. There were also some magical noses on the walls, which started sniffing as they passed. No enemies came, so the group ignored the noses and pressed on.
Ahead, they heard some conversation, as if someone was searching for someone. They snuck up and saw four Settites, facing the other way toward a closed door. Wordlessly, they ambushed the Settites. Vallium shield-rushed one to the ground, chopped him up, then chopped another one. Mariposa the monkey tied one of the Settites up in cloaks, while Chrysalis smashed him with a staff. Uvash paused for a second to activate his Divine Grace, then ran up behind a wounded Settite and smashed his skull in. The last surviving Settite tried to surrender, but nobody wanted to deal with prisoners, and he died under a hail of cuts and blows from all sides.
Vallium forced open the door to the west, and there was a large man hiding behind it. Seeing they were not dressed like Settites, he came out and revealed that his name was Harold and that he'd been hiding from the slavers. He had come to the Halls with an adventuring group to explore old tombs and take treasures that their owners no longer needed. But then their leader, Gillen, had decided to turn bandit, capturing travelers and selling them to the slavers. Harold considered himself a respectable tomb robber, not an evil bandit or slaver, so left the group. Unfortunately he had gotten lost and had attracted the attention of the Settite "Guild of Service" and thought he was about to be captured and thrown into a slave pit, until the Right for Riches company came and killed the slavers. They believed his story, and offered to guide him out.
Everyone continued north up the stairs to another room, in which two badly wounded men were stapled to a punishment frame. One was missing both hands, unconscious, and bleeding to death. The other was in better shape, and identified himself as Hjalti. He said the other man was Kiglon. Ioannes healed both of them, then they let both men down. Neither looked to be in any shape to walk far, so he cast more healing spells until both men were able to walk a bit better and Kiglon woke up. Then they told both men that they would be able to teleport them to a temple in Gosterwick where they would be safe, if they promised not to reveal the secret of the teleportation. Both men agreed, as did Harold, and then Ioannes took all three of them through the Rug, back to an apartment at the Arcane Practitioner's Club in Gosterwick, then to the Temple of Demma. Ioannes came back through the Rug alone about 30 minutes later, and the others had not been interrupted.
Vael tried another Seek Earth spell and detected platinum again, this time to the southwest. Figuring they'd missed a secret door, he pulled out the Wand of See Secrets and used a charge. It immediately found a secret door to the southwest. He ran around the previously explored territory until the spell ran out, but didn't find any more secrets. Returning to the secret door that the wand had found, Vael was able to see the outline of the door, but not a handle or a catch or a keyhole or any way to open it. Everyone else looked, and nobody else found anything either. Vael used Shape Earth to just rip a hole in the wall, which worked.
A narrow passage and a few steps down led to a room with several empty sarcophagi and a workbench with some tools and jars. The jars contained some kind of embalming spices. There was an obvious door north, but some searching found a secret door south.
Behind the secret door was a small room containing a blood-encrusted altar. Both clerics felt the sanctity level dip to Pure Evil. The non-clerics searched the altar but didn't find anything. Ioannes exorcised it, which made him feel better but didn't diminish the feeling of evil. Eventually Chrysalis got suspicious and figured out the altar was a scary illusion, and put her staff through it. Once she pointed it out, the others were able to see it as well, and they searched the room and found another secret door leading south.
The room to the south contained a big block of granite, like a sarcophagus but with no obvious lid or way to open it. It had a small hemispherical depression on the top. It was inscribed "Theskelon is in me I am in Theskelon" and "Let Set devour the rays of his old rival". The plastered walls had several Settite images that were a combination of flat painting and three dimensional sculpture, with some real objects incorporated. There was a black boar with a sun in its jaws, a crocodile eating a heron, a Set animal squatting on a turtle, and a human priest of Set chopping a baboon with an axe. The sun, the boar's eye, the heron's legs, the turtle shell, and the axe head were distinct objects.
Everyone got into position, and Vallium tried smashing the granite block, which did nothing. Chrysalis then tried a Power Blow to smash the block harder, still nothing. Finally Vael told the warriors to stand aside and used a Shape Earth spell to open the block, which also failed.
Someone asked about the size of the sun versus the depression, and the sun was a bit too big to fit. Vallium ripped the sun off the wall and started peeling the plaster off the outside, revealing a golden orb that would fit in the depression. Once he inserted it, the granite shell exploded into dust, revealing a smaller gold and lapis sarcophagus, shaped like a Settite priest with folded arms.
Vallium opened the inner sarcophagus, but as he did a fire trap exploded, burning him. All the others who were foolishly standing too close had to dive out of the way, but none were injured. Ioannes healed Vallium's burns, and then they looked inside the sarcophagus. It contained some human bones with gold signet ring (inscribed "Theskelon the Master") around one finger. There were also three copper plaques with maps on them, along with glyphs in an unknown language and notes in Mithric. There were three books, one in Mithric (about creating mummies) and two in unknown languages. Finally, there was a key, which Vallium immediately added to his huge keyring.
Uvash cast Final Rest on the bones, hoping that would stop them from going undead and attacking. Vallium set up the Rug and carried the gold and lapis inner sarcophagus (which was too big to fit in Larel's Sack and too heavy easily carry home) through, then came back. They gathered up the other treasure in Larel's Sack, then retraced their steps back to Gosterwick.
GM's Comments:
This blog is starting to feel like an infomercial for the Rugs of Instant Access. ("But that's not all! If you order in the next ten minutes we'll throw in a third Rug!")
For the second week in a row, we had some technical difficulties in Foundry VTT. Last week it was the PCs trying to visit a map that wasn't ready, my fault. This time, the map they wanted to visit was ready, but a new module I'd added to Foundry (Map Coordinates) was causing problems loading large maps, including that one. So they had to turn around before exploring that new level, and we also had to do the Arden Vul Ruins part (when the blue pillar teleported them to the surface) theater-of-the-mind since that map wouldn't load either. I figured out the problem after the session was over and removed that module, so now they're clear to visit those maps again.
This session was fairly light on combat (just two one-sided fights against the single bat-worm and the four surprised Settite slavers) and loot (just that one tomb, plus the slavers' stuff and a few odd items they found in a cave), but the PCs explored a lot and rescued three more people from the Settites.
Achievements:
- The Rescuers, for rescuing Harold and Hjalti and Kiglon, 1 XP
XP:
- Exploration: 16 new locations, good for 1 XP
- Loot: orange objects, slavers' gear, stuff from tomb, good for 1 XP
- Achievements: 1 XP
- Total: 3 XP
Next Week:
Will they go back down to one of the deeper levels that they've been foiled from visiting by technical issues, or will they stick to the surface ruins and try to figure out the Obelisks? Will they find a new place to live that's more tolerant of live goats and dead giant beetles? Will the Rugs of Instant Access demand a full share of loot and XP?
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