Date:
Tahsday, 7th of Molivios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Warm, rainy
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Significant NPCs:
Arcane Vengeance, Elven adventurers
Alexandros, Set librarian
Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes
Palestrim, Weskenim's majordomo
Gribble, Lord of the Goblin Forum
Many goblins
Galadnor, Half-Elven merchant and spy
Dworm, Galadnor's guard
Horace Trych, Archontean merchant and spy
Yoburra, Varumani ambassador
Basil, Right for Riches employee
King Weskenim of the United Goblin Tribes
Gribble, Weskenim's brother
3 Giant Scorpions
2 Wild Boars
Wraith
The Plan:
- Bring food to the Goblin Forum to try to get commerce restarted
- Get Temrin's map to a second Command Bracelet
- Buy whatever interesting items Horace and Galadnor have to sell
- Search the Library of Set
- Explore more of the area around the Forum, looking for treasure
- Figure out where the Guild of Service went
What Happened:
Uvash was helping resettle some formerly enslaved refugees at the at the Temple of the Gods, and Lacrymosa was spending some of her newly acquired loot on a vacation trip. The rest of the Right for Riches company bought a lot of food in Gosterwick, then went back through a Teleport Rug to the Beacon. Whey they surfaced they heard a loud grinding noise to the southeast, near the top of the Long Stair. Investigating, they found Arcane Vengeance in the area, along with a platform next to the Stair that hadn't been there before. Arcane Vengeance said they would answer questions about the platform in return for large quantities of arcanum, but Right for Riches declined to trade. They considered staying to spy on Arcane Vengeance, but decided to go with their current plans.
They went north through the rain to the Pyramid of Thoth, then down through the Pyramid to Upper Goblintown, then down through the Wet Caves to Goblintown. King Weskenim was holding court in the goblin market, telling all his subjects about the newly conquered Goblin Forum. Temrin was at his easel, working on a map. Vael interrupted him to ask if the previously purchased map to the Command Bracelet was done. Temrin said it was, and got Master Leifcrim to open the vault to get it. The map appeared to lead to the Arena. Vallium tried to commission another map, but Temrin said that he was still not allowed to sell maps; only the King could do that. Vael asked Palestrim, who said he was authorized to take the money and write a royal order for Temrin to make another map. Vallium told Leifcrim that he could like to purchase his Magic Ring of One Wish Left. Leifcrim was a bit surprised that anyone had that kind of cash, but carried Vallium's platinum to the vault and brought back a magic ring. Vael got King Weskenim's attention and indicated that the secretive wizards to the south really wanted a meeting and he would appreciate it if the King would meet with them. The King said he would consider it. Some of the merchants were discussing whether they would move upstairs to the Forum, or stay in the established Goblin Market, or split their time between the two.
The group headed back upstairs to the Forum. Gribble was supervising a few dozen goblin guards. He said things had been pretty quiet since all the former slaves had left. The goblins were concentrating on making the route from Upper Goblintown to the Forum through the temples of Thoth and Set safe, rather than exploring or clearing more of the level. Vallium said they would be exploring more of the level, and marking safe areas with a circle and dangerous areas with an X.
They ducked into one of the unoccupied guest quarters for privacy and used a Teleport Rug to bring out the food they'd purchased, then brought it up to the Forum for sale. Gribble asked Dworm, Galadnor's guard, to run the food stall until another merchant moved in. He said that he was a fighter, not a merchant, but he could keep an eye on the stall.
Vael, having seen Horace's and Galadnor's items in the vault, bought most of their interesting stock. This was several Sortian eyes, several Thothian teleportation squares, some magic black sand, and a Rudishva power disc.
When they were done in the Forum, Vallium led the group north to an unexplored area, which turned out to be a pantry. They pulled the food out and gave it to the goblins. When done there, they went northwest to the Library of Set. Alexandros was still there, sorting books. After an extended conversation, he gave them a list of all the books available, and Vael used the Copy spell to make a second copy of Alexandros' own book On the Location of Priscus Pulcher. Vallium went back to the Beacon and returned with a couple of books in a language none of them could read, which Alexandros confirmed was the secret language of Set, which he could read. He indicated that both books were very interesting and they should leave them with him for research purposes, but they said maybe later.
They thoroughly searched the Settite bedrooms, and decided to take a bed back to the Beacon for Basil. While searching, Vallium found an invisible book under a bed, which they took back to the Beacon and put on the conference table, with a chalk square around it so they didn't lose it.
They then went south to the area with sand on the floor, where Vallium suggested magically searching for treasure. Vael cast Seek Earth for platinum, gold, silver, and arcanum, as well as Seek Magic, while Ioannes restored his mana. There was gold, silver, and magic under the sand, platinum a bit to the southwest, and arcanum to the northeast. Vael cast a Whirlwind spell to try to dig up the sand and reveal the treasure. This caused three giant scorpions who had been hiding under the sand to run up to the whirlwind and investigate.
Vallium eventually went down to the sandy area, and the scorpions attacked him. They failed to penetrate his armor with their claws and stingers, and he eventually killed all three, while Vael and Ioannes watched from the bridge above. Once the scorpions were eliminated, Vael continued stirring up sand with the whirlwind, and eventually revealed a strongbox, containing some gold solidi, a couple of keys, and a scroll case.
Returning to the room with the statue of a boar and a couple of caged actual boars, they decided to kill the boars and give the meet to the goblins, and search the statue. Vallium used the Returning Javelin from a dead Settite to kill the boars without getting within melee range. The boar statue didn't contain anything interesting but its ivory tusks, which they didn't take. But they found a secret door to the west. The secret door led to some narrow spy tunnels, with peepholes into several rooms. There were also there doors. The first door led to a room with several maps, and a few small gems.
Behind the second door was a corpse, which arose as a wraith and attacked. Vallium tried cutting it with his sword, but it dodged. The wraith blasted Vallium with a ranged attack and wounded him. Vael surrounded the wraith with a Wall of Lightning then tried using Shape Air to blow it into the wall, but the wind passed through the wraith. He then tried Create Fire under the trapped wraith, then they slammed the door. When they opened the door again, the area where the fire had been was burned, but the wraith had somehow escaped. Vallium charged in again, this time brandishing a Feather of Maat. The wraith backed away to suck him in, then blasted him with more evil ranged attacks. Vallium poked the wraith with the feather, and it responded by punching him. Badly wounded, Vallium fled the room, Vael slammed the door behind him, and Ioannes healed him. They decided to leave the wraith alone for now.
The third door contained a skeleton holding a platinum goblet. Vallium didn't trust the skeleton and poked it with his sword, causing it to drop and spill the goblet. Vael picked up the goblet, which turned out to be covered in something nasty, but survived. He also got the rest of the matching platinum serving set. The skeleton appeared to have written something in a language they didn't understand, as well as information about many ancient nobles in Mithric. They took everything and went back to the library, where Alexandros was able to read the writing.
With the immediate area searched, they went southeast toward the long stairs down from the Guild of Service area. There were several locked doors off the stairs. Behind one was a large cave full of bodies, with a ledge containing a creepy amphibian statue of a sort they had seen before. Behind the statue was a secret door leading to a gate. There was a note in a language they didn't read next to the gate; Ioannes used Gift of Letters to read it, and indicated that it was nobody who went through the gate had returned. Vael used Scry Gate to reveal that it led to a place full of demons. They decided not to go through.
Another exit led to a chasm, across which was a room full of arcanum geodes. Vael and Ioannes managed to not investigate the arcanum for too long, though Vael took off an easily extracted hunk of arcanum as a souvenir. South was another chasm, and crossing that one revealed an ancient statue. Not wanting to investigate it too deeply, they kept going. Exploring further south connected their maps. Some stairs down led to the Arena. The varumani barkeeper there said that he hadn't seen any Settites lately.
Done exploring for the day, everyone went back to the Beacon. Vael disabled a trap on a box they'd found earlier in Stephania's vault, revealing two different magical decks of ivory cards. At that point they decided to take a week off.
GM's Comments:
This was a fairly calm week of mostly exploration and negotiation, after the protracted fights against the Cult of Set. The wraith was a tough fight they ended up fleeing from, but otherwise they didn't run into any serious difficulties.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 12 new locations, 1 XP
- Treasure: Gold necklaces and solidi, dinnerware, lots of books, probably 1 XP
- Achievements: 0 XP
- Total: probably 2 XP
Next Week:
They have a lot of options. I have no idea where they are going yet.
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