Date:
Basilsday, 4th of Fidios, 2993 AE
Weather:
Cold, overcast, flurries
Player Characters:
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)Basilisk, Mercenary monk (ArchonShiva)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Many goblins
Gog, exiled varumani
Several orge guards
A Set Deacon and several Set guards
Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes
Skimmel, Reeflik, Palestrim, and Gribble: King Weskenim's advisors
Temrin, goblin Royal Artist
Hama and company, adventurers
6 skeletons
6 skeletal stirges
Many fungal foresters
Many beastmen, loyal to Deino
6 beastmen, loyal to Androsia
2 phase salamanders
Craastonistorex, green dragon
Wyvern, in service to Craastonistorex
Count Skleros, beastman commander
Guardian of Thoth
6 construct spearmen
The Plan:
- Bring the Scepter / Flute of the Goblins to King Weskenim for a reward
- See if the beastmen's stone chest in the Great Cavern could be taken
- Explore the northeast part of the Great Cavern
- Go to the northwest part of the Great Cavern, and defeat Androsia if possible
- Bring Androsia's (possibly charmed) beastmen back to the Children of Deino
What Happened:
With two pairs of Rugs of Instant Access Available, the Right for Riches company set up one pair between their apartments in the Arcane Practitioners' Club in Gosterwick and the secret room of the Beacon. They put one Rug from the other pair in the library of the Beacon, and took the other one with them. They instructed Basil to be ready in the Beacon on adventuring days in case they needed help.
From the Beacon, Vael used Blink Other to teleport Vallium through the roof over the stairs to the surface, then used Blink to follow a few seconds later. There was no trouble, so they set out the Rug to let the others join them. Everyone walked to the Pyramid of Thoth and descended to Upper Goblintown, then down the secret stairs behind the baboon fresco to Gog's Cave, then through the goblins' Wet Caves and down to Goblintown. They took the long, safe way around the level to King Weskenim's court. There were various goblins and even a group of Settites waiting outside, but Palestrim was not sitting in his chair. Vael asked an ogre on guard if they could see King Weskenim, and the ogre eventually told him that Weskenim was down in the Goblin Great Hall dealing with his subjects.
The group circled all the way back around the level to the spiral stairs leading to the Goblin Great Hall. There, King Weskenim was telling a human adventurer named Hama that if he wanted his elven friend freed, he needed to find the Scepter of the Goblins. Or, if he couldn't do that, perform another great service such as opening the Goblin Great Gates to the west. Hama bowed low to the King then took his companions west, presumably to check out the Gates.
Vael told the King that he had important news and asked for a word in private. After shaking the hands of a few followers and making a speech about the new patches that Temrin had completed to award to whichever brave goblins (or possibly goblin allies) found the Scepter of the Goblins, the King stepped around the corner to talk to Vael. Vael pulled the Scepter / Flute out of his bag. The king and his advisors gasped, then discussed whether that was a varumani bone, and how they could keep the Varumani Thegn from being offended by it. King Weskenim said he would like to take it to his Witch Doctors for a close look, then he would meet them in his throne room.
About 30 minutes later, Palestrim admitted the Right for Riches company to the King's throne room. The throne room had new sacks and chests lining the walls, a gold statue of a cat on a shelf of honor, and many copper coins just piled up. King Weskenim said the Scepter was definitely magical and was definitely 100% the real Scepter of the Goblins, made by the great goblin king Trollreaper. He said that Trollreaper's name was not one they mentioned among the varumani, so he would probably only show the Scepter to the goblin people once when no varumani were around, then hide it. He then pointed at his new cat statue, chests and sacks of loot, and piles of coins, and said that the Five Fingers of Destiny had shared a great hoard with him, and that he would be passing much of it on to them as a reward for finding his Scepter.
King Weskenim asked if they had means of transporting many coins. Vael said they did, but asked for a private room. The King said he didn't have any extra rooms right now, but they could maybe borrow one for a little while. Reeflik, one of his advisors, left for a few minutes, then returned and led the group north to a room with two doors, containing some large bins of mushrooms (Ioannes thought they were mostly white ribs, but one bin contained cloud caps) and some long poles with hooks on the end. He opened the far door, summoned the mushroom-pickers, and told them to not come back into this room until they were told these people were done in there. The Right for Riches company used their Rug to go back to the Beacon and get two wheelbarrows (one normal, one Living) and two shovels. They then used the wheelbarrows to transport many copper coins to the mushroom storage room, and then used the Rug to take them to the Beacon. It took a while, but they eventually got all their coins back to the Beacon.
The Right for Riches company said farewell to the King, went back to the surface, and then went south to the Long Stair. Not wanting to climb down it in the icy weather, everyone except Vael and Basilisk stepped through the Rug, and Vael and Basilisk Levitated down to the secret door. They put the Rug down, and eventually the others joined them, describing how Basil had been industriously sorting all their coins into neatly counted piles, until they told him not to bother since they were just going to put them back in the wheelbarrows and Rug-teleport them to the Rarities Factor for deposit.
Vallium opened the secret door, went west to investigate the big stone beastman chest, and said it was too heavy to lift. Vael searched it for traps, found freshly applied poison on the lock, and used Lockmaster and Apportation spells to unlock and open the chest without touching it. It was full of supplies, nothing very valuable, so they refrained from looting it, and Vael magically closed and locked the chest. Vallium then led everyone east through the side caves, then north through the Great Cavern to the Lake. There everyone again stepped through the Rug, while Vael and Basilisk flew over the lake and up the river to the northeastern tunnels.
Once everyone stepped back out the Rug, Vallium led them east, to a cavern full of skeletons, with some armor behind them that Vael and Ioannes though might be magical. Before they could approach the armor, the skeletons started to rise. Half of the skeletons appeared to be human, the other half stirges, and they all attacked. The battle was fairly quick, with Basilisk stunning skeletons with Kiai, Vallium and Uvash smashing skeletons, Vael using Shape Air to smash skeletal stirges against the wall, and Ioannes mostly hanging back with his shield up.
When all the skeletons were defeated, the group picked up the magic scale armor they had spotted, as well as a few coins and gems and flasks and a scroll case. They then explored a cave to the north, which contained a pool of water. Vallium asked them to have the Rug ready so he could go back to the Beacon to warm up, then dived into the nearly-freezing water, holding his glowing stone in front of him. On the bottom he spotted a limed-over skeleton, wearing a pouch, with some kind of bronze rod on the bottom next to him. He dived twice more, first bringing up the rod, then the skeleton. Freezing, he excused himself and went back through the Rug to the Beacon, where he asked Basil to set up the magical Tripod of Heating. After a few minutes to warm up and dry his clothes, he went back through the Rug where the others were standing guard. The group then took all the treasure through the Rug into the Beacon, and Vael and Basilisk took the Rug and flew out of the side caves, to the northern part of the Great Cavern, above the cliff. They put the Rug down.
As the group reassembled, they spotted some beastmen moving within their caged-off area to the north. Vael mentioned to them that they were going to try to rescue some of their comrades, and asked if they would still be there in a few minutes. Excited, the beastman sergeant said they would remain there on alert. Right for Riches then followed Vallium through a secret door in the west wall of the Great Cavern, then through some western side passages until they reached the cavern of the fungal foresters. Ioannes gestured a desire to go past them to the secret door. The largest forester said something to the others in their strange language, and they all moved south to make room. Vallium opened the secret door into Androsia's cave. Androsia was not there, but a half-dozen of her beastmen were, and they were looking even skinnier than last time. Vael said something about Androsia having some food for them back in the Great Cavern. One beastman was skeptical and said they had guard duty, but the rest said they were going for food and might bring him some back if there was enough, so he relented and said he would go with them.
Right for Riches escorted the beastmen back through the side caves to the Great Cavern. As Vallium opened the secret door to the Great Cavern, the Children of Androsia spotted the Children of Deino on guard in their supply cage, and their sergeant started to yell, but then Vael dropped a Mass Daze spell on the whole group. The sergeant stopped yelling and the beastmen started placidly staring into space. The other beastmen came over, thanked the company, and led their former and possibly future comrades into the cage, then through a door on the north wall of the cage, back toward Deino's territory.
Before leaving the Great Cavern, Vael suggested exploring the island to the northeast where they had seen a statue and some big lizards. Everyone walked along the edge of the cliff until they were above the island. After some discussion, Vallium attached his magic rope to a handhold and everyone climbed down. It was still too far to the island to safely jump, so Vael cast Flight on Vallium. Vallium, Vael, and Basilisk flew over to the island, while both clerics stayed at the base of the cliff. The two phase salamanders tried to invisibly ambush the intruders, but they had been spotted on a previous visit so the intruders were too alert. Vallium blocked a couple of attacks, Basiliks stunned both salamanders, and Vallium chopped them up. While Vallium skinned the salamanders in case their skins or organs were valuable, Vael investigated the statue, and found a small pile of gear at its base, including a couple of magic torches and a magic statuette of a cat. They once again used the Rug to teleport all the loot to the Beacon. There was some discussion of messing with the vaguely reptilian statue, perhaps putting its head back on top of its body. Vael and Ioannes both wanted to try, but Vallium, the only one strong enough to lift the stone head, declined.
The group then went south across the Great Cavern, again using the Rug to teleport to the Beacon as Vael and Basilisk flew across the lake. Vallium led everyone through the southeastern caves back to the secret exit to the Cliff Face, and Vael and Basilisk Levitated back up to the ruins. The group reformed and started hiking north toward the Pyramid of Thoth, when they heard a loud crash to the west. Walking over to the dam to check on the noise, they saw a sack on top of the dam, along with a lot of small bones. The bones were the skeletons of about a banda of beastmen. The sack contained a single earring and a long note from Craastonistorex. It said that their tribute was sub-par, with trash like a single earring that someone's ex-girlfriend left in their apartment and some chess pieces with no chess board and small piles of tiny little modern coins not being acceptable. It said that Craas was giving them one more chance, as eating them would require training new Wardens of the Dam, but the tribute had better improve. It also said to tell Deino to resume paying her tribute or he'd eat more of her kids, and that the piggies tasted the best.
Vael wrote an insincere apology note to the dragon and put it in the sack. They gathered up all the bones to return to Count Skleros. Vael Levitated up to see if anything else could have caused the loud noise, and spotted a wyvern flying far to the southwest, but nothing else suspicious. They resumed hiking east then north, then descended through the pyramid to the Glory of Weskenim. They proceded south to the border of beastman territory, where Vallium made a lot of noise until a beastman guard came to investigate. Vael asked to talk to Count Skleros. The Count showed up a few minutes later and thanked the group for rescuing his men, who were currently being de-charmed by Mother. Vael gave him the last page of the dragon's note and the sack of bones. Skleros was suddenly much less happy, but said he would bring the note to Mother and they would honorably inter the dead. Vael asked for a meeting in seven days to address the dragon problem, and Skleros said he could do that.
Vallium next wanted to return to the Chamber of Painful Knowledge and ask Thoth a question. They got there, through the gray-green mist, and Vallium asked both clerics to be ready in case he was badly hurt. He then grabbed the obelisk and asked Thoth for one of his secret names. Vallium heard "The Font of Magic!" as he received a severe electrical shock. Somehow he avoided passing out. Ioannes cast Stop Bleeding, followed by Major Healing, and Vallium was better, except for some scorched-off hair.
After a few minutes to recover, Vallium said they should explore the glowing room to the northwest, and led everyone there. There was obvious magical light from the ceiling, and frescoes of the goddess Maat on the wall, handing a feather to a worshipper. There was a marble dais in the center of the room, with an onyx platform on top, and then a magical feature floating in the air above the platform. After some discussion, Vallium grabbed the feather, and another one appeared. Three more people each took a feather.
With that room discovered, Vallium said they should explore the northeast part of the level next. They went east to the room with the locked bronze doors with peepholes. Vael had everyone else go through the Rug, then Blinked through the door, using the peephole to see where he was going, then dropped the Rug and had the others rejoin them. They crossed the bridge over the Great Chasm (not so wide this far north, but very deep) to the room with the statue of Thoth with the movable arms. They started manipulating statue arms to every combination of positions to try to open another door. This summoned an ibis guardian of Thoth, which Vallium dispatched, but then the door eventually popped open.
Going through the door, they found passages connecting to the magic fountain where Uvash got his donkey ears and to a room with some looted sarcophagi and a tunnel leading south to the Great Chasm. From the pool room, there was a door south, which led to a cave containing many bones and a creepy obelisk, with the ceiling well out of sight. Vael thought he remembered this room, and flew up to verify that it was the same obelisk he'd seen a level up. They avoided touching the obelisk, but Vael took some notes of the odd runes on it. They also searched the bones and found a spear.
From the obelisk room, they went back north past the pool room, then east to a door, a corridor, and another door. At the second door they heard a sizzling sound and felt heat. Beyond was a large round pool of magical fire. Some investigation showed a golden key in the middle of the fire, along with some kind of fire creature, and some Mithric writing: "The fire of Truth cleanses the mind and transports the body of those faithful who proclaim that Thoth Rules!” After multiple failed attempts to talk to the fire creature, Ioannes yelled "Thoth Rules!" and a path appeared through the fire to the key. Ioannes entered the fire and heard a voice in his head "Thoth values your love. Do you wish to be cleansed or to be transported?" Ioannes answered "cleansed" and felt something magical and pleasant wash over him, but did not notice any real effects. He was able to grab the golden key, though.
Nobody else played with the fire, and they searched the walls for secret doors. Uvash found one, with a small hidden keyhole. Ioannes tried the newly found key in it, and it fit. Opening the door revealed a passage south that turned east and revealed a wide passage between two rows of statues. There were three mosaics on the floor, each showing a blue knot. As Ioannes stepped out to investigate, the statues animated into constructs, and one tried to spear him from behind. As Ioannes strugged to get his shield up, Vael used Blink Other and moved Ioannes out of the line of fire.
A fight began against 6 spearman constructs. Basilisk and Uvash both used their holy abilities to become faster and tougher. Vael cast Blur on Uvash. Basilisk then rushed around at high-speed repeatedly stunning the constructs with Kiai, while Vallium and Uvash bashed them. The constructs were tough, but had a hard time getting any attacks in, as they kept getting stunned. Two of were destroyed outright, and the other four knocked out. Basilisk tried her Vampiric Bite on an unconscious construct and was disappointed that it did not work. At that point they destroyed the four unconscious constructs.
The eastern wall had a large picture of a middle aged man with empty eye sockets, very similar to those they had seen on the magical face statues, but this one was not magical. There were also two doors. But at that point the group felt like they had explored enough for one day, and turned back for the exit.
GM's Comments:
King Weskenim seemed to appreciate the Scepter / Flute, though the form of his reward was a bit inconvenient, and would have been even less convenient if the group had lacked teleportation magic.
Count Skleros seemed to appreciate getting his lost troopers back, though this did not yield an immediate reward, and the news about the dragon attacks seemed to upset him.
This session involved a bit of combat, a bit of exploration, and a bit of treasure, but no huge discoveries. Right for Riches seems committed to typing up loose ends before starting any large new tasks.
Achievements:
- One Beastman's Rescue Is Another Beastman's Kidnapping: 1 XP for whatever that was
XP:
- Exploration: 6 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: A few coins and several minor magical items, 1 XP
- Achievements: 1 XP
- Total: 3 XP
Next Week:
- Meet with Count Skleros about the dragon
- Get their award patches from King Weskenim for recovering the Scepter / Flute
- Open those doors behind the Pit of Fire
- Explore the other unexplored room they know of in the northeastern part of the Glory of Thoth level
- Try their Secret Name of Thoth on the Ruby Chair
- Look for a Secret Library near the librarian's quarters
- Explore the western part of the Well of Light level, looking for a teleportation circle
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