Date:
Lunday, 19th of Fidios, 2993 AE
Weather:
Frigid, party cloudy, snowy
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)Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, Dwarven mercenary fighter (ArchonShiva)
Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, Dwarven mercenary fighter (ArchonShiva)
Significant NPCs:
Roger the Rapier, leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring company
Wicktrimmer, Imperial goblin merchant
Tresti Iredell, half-elven mage
Craastonistex, green dragon
Two wyverns, pets of Craastonistex
Many goblins
Bottleneck, goblin sergeant running Upper Goblintown
Killik, goblin sub-chief of the Wet Caves
Several slow-moving constructs
Several varumani lift operators
Several monkey-like animals
Large mimic, disguised as a statue
Two high-tech automated projectile-firing turrets
Rudishva floor-cleaning automaton
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Stamelis, enchanted bust of an ancient Thothian priest
The Plan:
- Use a Clairvoyance potion to spy on Craastonistex's tower
- Follow Temrin's map
- Across the Sundered Span
- Down the Varumani Lifts
- Down some stairs on the side of the Great Chasm
- North across a lake on the floor of the Great Chasm
- West through the wall on the side of the Great Chasm
- Through some rooms to the Yellow Rudishva Identity Plaque
- Investigate west of the Well of Light
What Happened:
Vallium, Vael, and Uvash went looking for Roger the Rapier. They found him in the Stunned Acolyte, the nicest inn in Gosterwick. They agreed to his earlier proposal: if he showed them how he had found the treasury of Thoth, they would give him an ankh key. Roger tried to just tell them, but Vallium insisted that he actually meet them in Arden Vul and demonstrate. Roger said it was too cold to travel to Arden Vul today, but he and the Five Fingers would meet them in the Glory of Weskenim at noon in one week, on the 26th of Fidios.
Returning to the Arcane Practitioners' Club, they ran into Tresti, the mage now working for Wicktrimmer at the Rarities Factor. She said she'd heard the new apartments were ready and she thought she was supposed to get one, but somehow they had managed to cut in line ahead of her and take all four. She tried to get them to sublease one of the apartments to her in exchange for some utility spellcasting, but Vael said he could already make Continual Light stones and cast Analyze Magic on any items they found. She then mentioned that she was usually home and could keep an eye on the area and use the Message spell to alert them if she detected any more intruders. That sounded valuable, and the Right for Riches company agreed to let her sublease one of the four apartments. She then told them that Wicktrimmer wanted to test his new magic item, Thoth's Palanquin, in the cold and snow, and wanted her to come along, so she wondered anyone had a Ring of Warmth she could borrow. None of them did.
They picked up Thronebreaker, the door-busting dwarf mercenary, at the Grudge Brigade headquarters, then went through a Teleport Rug to the Beacon. Vael then blinked Vallium and himself through the roof over the stairs, and after they were sure nobody was watching, they dropped a Rug so the others could join them. They went south and west to the dam and left some token monetary tribute on the roof, along with a note that they were having a chess board crafted but it wasn't ready yet. Vael then Blinked inside the dam, and while there drank a Clairvoyance potion and started magically spying on Craas's tower in the southwestern corner of the ruins. He saw a closed trap door in the roof, a wyvern trying to throw copper coins at chess pieces on the top floor, a sleeping wyvern on the middle floor, a couple of heavy doors on the first floor, and a lot of chests plus the head of a statue of a sorcerer in the cellar. He did not spot the dragon.
Vael Blinked back out of the dam, then they all walked east then north to the Pyramid of Thoth. Once they got inside out of the wind it was a bit less frigid and Vael told the others about the tower. Then ran into a goblin patrol on the stairs, then spoke to Bottleneck in Upper Goblintown. Bottleneck said things had been pretty quiet lately, with no incursions by Settites or undead. He reminded them to keep closing doors behind them. They went south to the Wet Caves, where Killik warned them to move quickly toward the Sundered Span. They hustled to the east as some slow constructs tried to catch them but failed, then turned around. They crossed the bridge (including the plank in the middle where the actual stone bridge had been broken) and reached the top of the Varumani Lifts.
The Varumani operator there quoted them a much higher price than previously. After some diplomatic questioning from Vael, this turned out to be a new first time rider surcharge, as he did not realize they had previously used the Lifts. He lowered the price to the usual 10 silver pieces per leg, or 20 per person since they each had two legs. They paid, climbed into the Lift, and were lowered to the Arena level. The operator there said the Inn was to the north, the Arena was to the northeast, and indicated that if they wanted to continue down to the Varumani level they'd need to take the cross-chasm ferry to the garden island floating in the center of the chasm, walk across the island, continue on the other cross-chasm ferry, then go down on the far side. They agreed. The operator then said the cross-chasm ferry only carried four people, so they needed to split into two groups. Vael said he'd just fly, and the operator seemed skeptical and said that if he hung off the ferry or its cable, he had to pay. Vael Levitated to the island as the others took the ferry.
The island was a garden of various tropical plants (not normally found this far north), lit by some very bright (but non-magical) globes overhead. There was a hill in the middle. The group spent some time walking around looking at the plants, and Vael flew up to look at the light globes. There was a pool of green water on top of the hill. Nobody drank any, but they took a sample to look at later. Vael stopped to cast Seek Earth for gold and platinum and Seek Magic. He detected gold and magic inside the hill, and platinum back near the varumani lift operators. They decided not to poke around too much with the varumani watching, and took the next leg of the ferry over to the west side of the Chasm.
On the west side was another Lift operation, with a Lift going down to the varumani level, a giant stone chair, and a gate behind the chair. The operator here appeared to be in charge of the Lifts, as he had a gold baton of office. He indicated that behind the gate were scary ice monsters, and didn't recommend going that way. He said that if they insisted on going back there, he would charge them to open the gate, and suggested also giving him the rest of their money for safekeeping, since they probably wouldn't need it anymore. Vallium asked about varumani passports, and the operator said they were needed to enter actual varumani territory, but anyone could ride the Lifts as long as they folllowed the rules. They decided to just take the Lift down.
The next level down had the landing spot for the Lift, but no actual machinery. It was the end of this line. There were several ogre guards keeping anyone without a passport from going into varumani territory to the west. The varumani in charge said they were free to ride the Lift back up, or take the stairs down the side of the Chasm, but could not pass west without a passport. Vael asked about the process for getting a passport, but the varumani was not very helpful and said they might not be giving out any more. He said he would ask the thegn next time he saw him.
Vallium led the group down the stairs. A bit down, Vael spotted some handholds along the wall. He flew up to investigate, found a hidden door at the top of the handholds, and went past it to find a dead-end passage. He thought the dead-end passage probably led into varumani territory, so decided not to explore farther. He came back down and the group resumed going down many stairs.
Eventually, the stairs switchbacked away from the chasm wall to the east then back west, as shown on Temrin's map. They found a statue of Wadjet where the map indicated there would be one. It was magical, so Vael analyzed it and found that it could provide protection. Ioannes beseeched Wadjet for protection and the statue cast a protection spell on the group. They headed north to some sticky mud flats, then northeast through some mushroom groves, which appeared too regular to be wild. The mushroom groves ended to the north at more mud. Seeing the mud would be no fun to traverse, and they needed to cross a lake afterward, three members of the group went back through the Rug, and Vael cast Walk on Air on Vallium so the two could fly above the mud flats then above the lake. There was a large pillar in the center of the lake, and they went around it to the left.
On the north shore of the lake, they found a stone causeway. Following their map, they went west, to a plateau covered in trash. They laid out the Rug and Vael stepped through to get the others. Everyone searched the plateau, then Vael cast Seek Magic, and found a magic statue buried in the trash. Digging it out revealed a statue of Chibalba, the ancient Lord of the Deeps. Analyzing the statue revealed summoning magic, but nobody wanted to try it. They moved west against the wall and started looking for secret doors. Vael used Shape Earth to start moving stone away from the wall, making it into a couple of statues.
While resting from spellcasting, they were rudely awakened by several monkey-like creatures, making a lot of noise. Ioannes tried Gift of Voices but they were animals, not speaking an actual language, so it failed. One of the monkeys started going for their bags, and Vael decided that was enough and cast Thunderclap. That scattered the monkeys.
Another Shape Earth revealed a cave to the west. Vallium went in and found a fallen statue of a human warrior. Everyone else came in and started searching for secret doors. Vael found one on the west wall, but not how to open it. Giving up, he tried a Lockmaster spell, and then all hell broke loose.
The fallen statue turned out to actually be a mimic, which tried to sneak up behind Ioannes and pummel him. Fortunately Ioannes saw it coming and blocked the blow. Vallium and Thronebreaker both smashed the mimic, but then secret doors in the north and south walls opened and some kind of technological projectile weapons emerged. One of them malfunctioned and then spun in place with nothing coming out. The other one destroyed the mimic, then shot tiny projectiles at Vael, who Blinked out of the way, and at Vallium, whose Amulet of Missile Shield seemed to cause all of them to miss.
Vallium smashed the working sentry machine, while it kept trying to shoot him, and kept missing. (His friends were fortunate that none of the missed shots accidentally hit them.) Vael turned Invisible. Uvash powered up his Heroic Grace. But before anyone else could help, Vallium hit the turret enough times that it stopped moving and shooting.
Vallium then went north to the malfunctioning turret, and pulled it out of its alcove into the middle of the room. It kept pointing its barrels at him and making noises, but nothing came out. Vael used Shape Earth to build a stone box around the turret, as they discussed how to capture it. But eventually something inside the stone box started working again, and the box started to break as it absorbed many projectiles. Vallium decided that was enough playing and went to smash the turret, while the others hid around the corner. It got a few shots off before he broke it, but again his Amulet prevented any hits.
With both turrets and the mimic defeated, they went back to the western secret door, which Vallium's Lockmaster spell had failed to open. Thronebreaker got out his portable battering ram, asked the others to grab handles and help, and powered up a Power Blow. He unleashed the kind of damage that would vaporize most doors, but this door was so strong that it only poked a small hole. Vael saw that the hole was enough to look through, and used a Continual Light stone to see the an unoccupied Rudishva room on the far side. He used Blink Other to send Vallium across, and then the others used the Rug to follow.
The room contained some kind of technological machine on a desk to the south, with a large chair in front of it. To the north was a closed iris door. Following Temrin's map, they ignored everything and went west. As they did, a small round automaton came down the hall toward them. It beeped as it approached them. They let it go and it continued to the door and started cleaning up the mess that Thronebreaker's ram had left on the floor. Deciding the cleaning device was not a threat, they continued west.
To the south was a room with a large table and six corpses: two Rudishva behind the table, two six-armed creatures near the north entrance, and two amphibian bipeds near the east entrance. Ioannes looked at the bodies and it appeared all six had severe burn damage, with the two amphibians being more charred than the others. They searched the bodies. The Rudishva had several oval identity plaques between them: platinum, silver, sky blue, and the yellow card they had come for. One also had a rectangular black card. They also had a couple of long technological artifacts that appeared melted, and a satchel containing two large flasks of unknown liquid. The other corpses weren't carrying anything.
Vallium investigated to the east, and found a small room with three niches. Two of them had silver discs on the floor and silver square panels on the wall, and the third was behind some kind of force wall. Vallium walked in to look closer, then jumped back as a fire trap went off and engulfed him in flame. He survived without too much damage thanks to his armor, and Ioannes healed him. Vallium asked to borrow the fire resistance amulet from Ioannes, and went back into the trap. The amulet was effective and prevented any damage. Vallium investigated and found that the yellow card dismissed the force field, and behind it was another silver disc on the floor and a yellow square on the wall. Nobody actually tried any of the discs, as they feared they were teleporters to unknown places. A minute after Vallium stepped out, the force field reappeared.
Deciding to stop exploring for the day, they dropped a Rug and everyone except Vallium went back to the Beacon. Vallium then took the Rug into the niche behind the force field where it was less likely to be disturbed, and teleported back. A few minutes later, Vael went back through the Rug to use a scroll of Mystic Mist for good measure: anyone who got near their Rug would have to deal with fear and confusion.
GM's Comments:
We had a tech failure, with Foundry VTT working fine for the GM but crashing hard when the players joined. So, after some debugging failed, we played this whole session Theater of the Mind. Went fine, though I think the players would have preferred a battlemap for the fight. (After the session, we debugged more and figured out that the Antigravity browser extension seems to crash Foundry. So if the player who just installed that extension disables it before joining, we should be fine.)
I think the battle with the mimic and the sentry guns was the first three-sided fight of this campaign. The mimic's plan was to stay still until everyone turned their back, then attack with surprise. The sentry guns were programmed to stay hidden until someone tried to bash down or magically open a secret door, then shoot them. It turned out both events happened at the same time, so rather than two distinct battles we got one big mess.
Those sentry guns were quite lethal and I thought it was likely that several PCs could die before Vallium (whose Missile Shield amulet meant he was basically immune to them) finished them off. So the north sentry gun's critical failure was possibly the luckiest thing that happened to the PCs in this campaign so far. It rolled an 18 to critically miss, then a 15 on the critical miss table, which is "you strain your shoulder and can't use your weapon arm for 30 minutes." Sentry guns don't have shoulders, but I ruled this meant it malfunctioned and could not attack for 30 minutes, then would self-repair. This meant the Vallium only had to fight one working sentry gun rather than two. Its crucial first round of attacks was targeted randomly and I rolled Vallium, Vael, and the mimic. After that Vallium was the only one right next to it attacking it, so I ruled a 5 in 6 chance for each attack to shoot Vallium, until the sentry gun figured out that he was un-hittable. And Vallium smashed it before it figured that out. Every (automatic) miss still had a chance to hit someone behind Vallium, but I didn't roll low enough for any accidental hits. They spent a bit too long playing with the other sentry gun, but after it repaired itself and started shooting through the stone box they had built around it, Vallium decided to stop messing around and finished it off.
Thronebreaker vs. the Rudishva Security Door was one of those unstoppable force vs. immovable object problems. I ruled he needed to do 100 HP to poke a small hole all the way through, and he did. I don't think they could have actually opened the door without Thronebreaker, so they probably chose the right mercenary this week.
The fire trap was also pretty nasty, but Vallium went first and he has a lot of armor and made his Perception check to sense the hidden trap in time to Dodge, then his Dodge roll, so he wasn't hurt too badly. And Ioannes has an Salamander Amulet that protects from fire damage, so once they knew it was a fire trap, they could deal with it.
This was a pretty light session in terms of combat (just the one fight) and loot (several Rudishva identity plaques, a few flasks of mystery liquids, and not much else), but they accomplished their goals of scouting the dragon tower and finding the yellow identity plaque, so it was a successful delve.
Achievements:
Iconic Location: Great Cavern at the bottom of the Great Chasm, 1 XP
XP:
- Exploration: 18 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: not much, 0 XP
- Achievements: 1 XP
- Total: 2 XP
Next Week:
They left a Rug in the Rudishva Bastion, so they're planning on going right back. In fact, they've decided not to take their usual week of downtime, and will go back the next day, since they have a meeting with Roger the Rapier in a week.
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