Date:
Tahsday, 14th of Molivios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Cool, rainy
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Significant NPCs:
Tresti Iredell, Half-Elven wizard of the Rarities Factor
Wicktrimmer, Imperial Goblin head of the Rarities Factor
Roger the Rapier, wizard and leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring party
Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes
Temrin, Goblin Royal Artist
Gribble, Lord of the Goblin Forum
Many goblins
Galadnor, Half-Elven merchant
Dworm, Galadnor's guard
Claudine of Narsileon, merchant
Yoburra, Varumani ambassador
Rending demon
Wight
Several zombies
Several zhouls
Several fishmen
The Plan:
- Commission Temrin to make a map to the second Tablet of the Beacon
- Sell food in the Goblin Forum
- Collect another Potion of Chaotic Sweat
- Explore the area southeast of the Temple of Thoth
- Explore the area south of the Goblin Forum
What Happened:
In Gosterwick, Vael got around to returning Tresti's spellbook, which they found long ago. Tresti noted that Wicktrimmer had sent a Message spell from Narsileon about their shopping list. They also bought more food at the Grain Hall for sale at the Goblin Forum.
After taking a Teleport Rug to the Beacon, Vael cast Blink Other on Valium as usual to pop him through the roof with a Rug. This time, Vallium spotted the Five Fingers of Destiny exploring the area. They didn't see him appear, so he walked up as if he had come over the bridge, and asked what they were doing. Roger the Rapier was evasive, and indicated that they were heading to the northern end of the island to explore the ruined palace. Vael got worried that Vallium hadn't put the Teleport Rug down, and Blinked himself through, and they waited until the Five Fingers left the area before dropping the Rug so Uvash and Ioannes could join them. They had a conversation about what they should do if the Five Fingers found the Beacon. For now, Vael left a note inside the staircase room, indicating that this was Right for Riches territory and trespassing was a bad idea.
They crossed the bridge then walked to the Pyramid of Thoth, then took the stairs down to Upper Goblintown, then the sloping passages down to the Wet Caves and then Goblintown. Reaching the Goblin Market, they found Temrin, and presented the voucher signed by King Weskenim entitling them to a map. They asked Temrin to accompany them to their room for some privacy. Once there, they showed him the Tablet of the Beacon and asked him to draw a map to a second one. After many questions, Temrin said he would start soon, after he finished his current map for another customer.
The group went back up to Upper Goblintown then west and down the Sighing Stair to the Goblin Forum. Claudine of Narsileon had moved from the Goblin Market and set up a stall to sell weapons, armor, and dungeoneering equipment. She didn't have anything very interesting to sell, and Vael said that he would loan her money if needed for her business. Dworm said all their food had sold, some to the goblins and most to the Varumani ambassadors, and paid them their share of the proceeds. The company went south to one of the unoccupied guest rooms and used the Rug to bring in more food for Dworm to sell. Vael had a brief conversation with Yoburra, the Varumani ambassador. He indicated that the Varumani were supporting the new Goblin Forum by buying the food from the surface, and would probably be interested in buying more.
Next they went back up the Sighing Stair to the former Temple of Set, then east to the former Temple of Thoth, then north to a cave. Levitating up to a secret door high on the wall, they proceeded to the room with the basin of Chaotic Sweat, and Vael collected a flask of it, using Apportation to avoid touching it. There was a hole in the floor, with handholds. They Levitated down a long way, ending up in a cavern containing some bodies and a pit full of roiling multi-colored slimes. Vael took a Rug back to the Beacon, then another Rug back to Gosterwick, to buy a chicken. When he returned, he threw the chicken into the pit. It tried to fly, didn't fly well enough, landed in the slimes, and dissolved.
Heading north along an underground stream, they found a beach with a broken egg-shaped boat, containing another fish-shaped rod. They extracted the rod. North of there was a pool of rough water with a waterspout coming from above, looking very dangerous to enter. Heading east through rough cavern passages, they found a passage south, filled with purple mist. It blocked vision, but smelled fruity or flowery and didn't appear poisonous. Vael tried a Purify Air spell, which cleared a bit of the mist, but then more appeared. The Rudishva Useful Palm of Cleansing Wind had a similar temporary effect. Using a few spells and Palm charges to clear some mist out of the way, then found the mist was coming out of a magic jug. Vallium reached into Larel's Sack and pulled out a stopper that would fit the jug, which stopped the flow of mist. Unfortunately for Vallium, the 6-armed rending demon on the ceiling didn't like that, and pounced. Fortunately for Vallium, the demon made a chittering noise before it pounced, ruining its chance for surprise, and both Uvash and Ioannes shouted a warning. Vallium got his sword and shield up to block the demon's attacks in time, and then chopped it to pieces. Besides the jug, there were several corpses of the demon's previous victims, which the party looted.
Continuing south, the passage entered into a finished room with Rudishva architecture, which led into a wide Rudishva passage. To the northeast were several bodies. As most of the group headed forth to loot them, hidden turrets in walls on both sides of the passage fired at them. Vallium was missed because of his Amulet of Missile Shield, Vael Blinked back, and Ioannes jumped back as the rapid fire bounced off his shield. Vallium charged one of the turrets and started smashing it with his sword, while Vael used the Rudishva Command Bracelet and told both turrets to cease firing. The turrets obeyed. Vallium had pretty seriously dented one of them by that point, but Vael used a Repair spell, and managed to fix it, despite the penalty for unfamiliar high-tech equipment. The bodies had a magic ring, some fine mail armor that was unfortunately a bit scorched, a piece of Rudishva plasteel with an image of a varumani on one side, and another piece of plasteel with some Mithric writing.
To the north was a wall of fire, and to the south was an imposing pair of huge obsidian doors. As they approached the fire, a dancing flaming nataraja appeared in the center of it. Vael pulled out his yellow Rudishva ID, and the nataraja vanished, leaving a gap in the flaming wall. Everyone else pulled out their Rudishva IDs too, as they moved through the gap into the room beyond. It was a huge and well-lit Rudishva chamber, with two daises, a pool of green liquid, four Rudishva teleporters, and two niches with stone nataraja dancer statues. Everyone waved their IDs at the statues, and they stayed in their niches.
The southern dais appeared inert. However, when the northern one was approached, a hologram of a Rudishva appeared on it and started reciting instructions to the crew of the Beacon. Vael was able to understand the instructions, thanks to both his own study of Rudishva and the Command Bracelet, and he translated for the others. “Fellow crewmembers of the Shining Beacon! The alien slime-mongers have infiltrated our defenses. The varuda nests are corrupted and have been quarantined by order of Captain Leil-Jor. The loyal varumani gather to repel the hopping hordes. Report to your designated crisis station in the weapons pod or crew chamber. Await further orders. Remain calm, for the Beacon shall light the way!”
The pool of green liquid had two dozen buttons next to it, with Rudishva glyphs. Vael only knew a couple of them, so he called Akla-Chah on the Command Bracelet and described the glyphs for her to translate. He then pushed each button. Only ten of them worked, and each of them caused the pool to show an image from a different area. They recognized a few of them: the Rudishva cloister nearby to the west, the Arena, the Sundered Span, the garden island floating in the Great Chasm, and some kind of Rudishva room with vertical coffins that they had seen on a camera feed from the Beacon. The others were unfamilar: a pyramid, an underground cavern, an underwater area, and some kind of octagonal shaft.
Vael used a Returning Pebble, a Scry Gate spell, a Trace spell, and (once he remembered) a Continual Light spell to see where the four teleporters went. One went to the cloister nearby. Another went to an unknown Rudishva room south on this level, and the other two went down several hundred feet to other unknown rooms. Seeing an opportunity to create a path from the Beacon to the Halls without going outside, the group took the teleporter to the cloister, then went over to the treasury, which had a yellow-ID-only teleporter to the Beacon, behind a one-way door. Vael was able to bypass the one-way door using a Blink spell or by using a Teleport Rug to go back to the Beacon then coming through in the other direction. Happy with this discovery, they went back to the slime pit room, and then Levitated back up the shaft to the cave north of the Temple of Thoth.
They went southeast to a secret door they'd found but never opened, and figured out how to open it. Behind it was a cave containing a large arcanum pocket. Vael felt around the walls until he found a small chunk that he could easily take. There was a hole in the floor, which led to a storeroom. When looking through all the stuff there, a voice rang out saying to leave Thoth's stuff alone. The group obeyed and stopped looting the room.
Nearby was a room with a zombie strapped to a table with a magical white stone in its mouth. Vael Apportated the stone away, and the zombie died. A few nearby rooms contained a wight, some zombies, some zhouls, and some minor treasure. Vallium and Uvash killed all the undead and took their stuff, while Ioannes and Vael stood back and observed. Ioannes made a disparaging comment about how week the monsters were in this area. They also found another secret door that connected this area to the rest of the level without going through the Arcanum pocket, but they left it closed to discourage others from finding too much.
There was a stairway down to the south. They took it down several hundred feet. It ended at a locked iron grating. Vael unlocked it with a Lockmaster spell. Beyond was a huge underground cave, with a rushing river to the south, and a floor finished with cobblestones.
To the west of the rock formation containing the stairs was a five-foot tall statue of a head, with an open grinning toothless mouth. The statue was magical but they had no idea what it did. They took some stairs down to the west, and found a platform with high-quality statues of two dueling wizards. At the foot of each wizard was a name and a number of years. Not knowing what was going on, they took notes. There was a pentagram in the middle of the platform, and several columns.
The group went north into a cavern and spotted a huge natural looking rock column. Several previously-unseen fishmen threw bone-tipped javelins at Vallium from surprise. Unfortunately for them, his Amulet of Missile Shield caused all of them to miss. He pulled out his Returning Javelin and hurled it at the lead fishman, badly wounding it. The other fishmen readied a second volley of javelins and hurled them all at Vallium. When they all missed again, the fishmen seemed to decide that some Bad Juju was happening, and all but the wounded one retreated out of sight. Meanwhile, the wounded one passed out and fell off the column with a loud crash. It was a bit late to pursue and possibly begin a larger fight, so Vallium took all twelve of the javelins, then the company retreated back up the stairs, then back to the Beacon.
Once they reached the Beacon, Vael spent some time figuring out a couple of pieces of Rudishva technology. The Repli-Cube was an audio-visual recording and playback device, interesting but not obviously useful. The Rudishva Point Defense Array was a stationary ranged weapon, which the group immediately decided could be useful for killing the dragon.
GM's Comments:
This session was mostly exploration, finding some new parts of previously explored levels, and one new level. There were two major threats, the rending demon and the Rudishva point defense turrets. The demon blew its surprise roll, and Vael quickly disabled the point defense array with the Command Bracelet, so neither threat ended up causing serious problems. Two major discoveries included a Varumani Passport (which the group has been looking for forever) and a Rudishva teleporter route from the Beacon to the known parts of the Halls, avoiding the need to travel outside.
Achievements:
- Arden Vul Iconic Location: The Drowned Canyon
XP:
- Exploration: 22 new locations, 2 XP
- Loot: Fine mail, Jug of Purple Mist, many potions and scrolls, 2 XP
- Achievements: 1 XP
- Total: 5 XP
Next Week:
Several players can't make it because of the Easter holiday, so we might take the week off, or we might do a small-party session with just Ioannes and some Grudge Brigade mercenaries.
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