DFRPG Session 52a: Ichthelon and the Temple of Thoth

Date:

Basilsday, 22nd of Deuterios, 2994 AE

Weather:

Cool, fair

Player Characters:

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Significant NPCs:

Freydis the Stern, Lady Alexia's steward

Lady Alexia Basileon, ruler of Gosterwick

Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI

Stamelis, Librarian Emeritus of Thoth

Dragonfly Automaton of Kerbog Khan, archmage

Many goblins

Remagis, priest of Thoth

2 Guardians of Thoth
Gribble, Chief of the Goblin Forum
Dworm, Goblin Forum guard and food merchant
Yoburra, Varmani ambassador to the Forum
Several wights
Many ghasts

Many ghouls

Stone Golem of Set
Several mummies
Ichthelon, mummy and priest of Thoth

Behir

The Plan:

• Give the (second) Tablet of the Beacon to Lady Alexia
• Bring food to the Goblin Forum
• Finish clearing the tombs southeast of the Goblin Forum
• Use See Secrets in the cleared tombs
• Explore west and south from the tombs

What Happened:

The Right for Riches company decided to return the second Tablet of the Beacon to Lady Alexia without disabling it first, but without giving her any documentation.  They resolved to go back to where they found it and destroy all the frescoes on the walls that gave clues about finding the Beacon.

They all walked over to the Azure Keep and told the footman they had something important for Lady Alexia.  He put them in a waiting room until Freydis arrived, and they told Freydis they had found another of the Lady's Regalia, so Freydis sent a page to get Lady Alexia herself.  Lady Alexia was impressed by the Tablet and let Vael show her which button turned it on.  She asked a lot of questions about where they found it and if they knew more about it.  They were honest about finding it in a secret room to the northwest of the bottom of the Great Chasm, but didn't share any secrets about the Rudishva or the Beacon.  Lady Alexia paid a large finders' fee for recovering her Tablet, and also paid for the ebony box it came in, and for both signet rings inscribed "MT", which she thought might actually have belonged to Archon Marius Tricotor, based on where they were found.

With the reward in hand, they returned to the Arcane Practitioners' Club, where Ioannes cast Bless spells on Vael and Vallium then had his power item recharged.  They then went through the Teleport Rug to the Beacon, where Basil awaited.  Basil suggested moving the purple Teleport Rug to Akla-Chah's room to simplify communication, and the company agreed.  Stamelis asked if he could be taken to the Temple of Thoth to check on Remagis, and the group, though Vael asked Stamelis to keep the secret of the Beacon.

Everyone went through the Rudishva teleporter to the Secure Treasury, through the Cloister, then through the secret passage to the slime room with the hole leading up to the cavern near the Temple of Set.  At that point both clerics stepped through the Rug, and Vael and Vallium Levitated up.  As they emerged from a secret door into the cavern, they spotted and were spotted by a clockwork dragonfly construct.  The dragonfly flew up to them, and a human-ish voice identifying himself as Kerbog Khan spoke to them.  He congratulated them for finding that secret door, which he had not previously known about.  He mentioned that he was an archmage and could sell information or spells or even teleportation, but all deals must be sealed in blood.  Vael tested Kerbog Khan's knowledge by speaking in Rudishva, and Kerbog Khan seemed to understand it.

When the dragonfly departed, they put the Teleport Rug down so the clerics could rejoin the party, then everyone went south through the Temple of Set, then east to the Temple of Thoth.  There Remagis had done quite a bit of restoration work.  He warned them not to enter without a holy symbol of Thoth, as the newly awakened Ibis Guardians of Thoth were somewhat hostile to those without one.  The goblin guards handed them some cheap wooden Guest Holy Symbols to brandish, while Remagis showed them around.  The pool that had formerly contained a Slime Kraken, then cloudy disgusting liquid, now seemed to hold pure clean water, and Remagis said it had healing properties.  He had worked out a deal with Bottleneck and the goblins of Upper Goblintown, exchanging healing for food.

Remagis and Stamelis started conversing in a secret Thothian language, that Vael was able to understand because of the Rudishvan Command Bracelet's translation ability.  Remagis said he didn't know where the statue's eyes were, and asked if Stamelis knew.  Stamelis did not.  Vael cast Seeker for the location of the eyes, and detected that they were in one of the formerly crocodile-infested pools in the Temple of Set.  He followed up with Trace to track the exact location, then the group doubled back to get the gems.  Vael pointed to the correct spot, and Vallium dove in to grab a leather bag.  Vael opened it up, revealing two huge sapphires.  He pulled one out to get a better look and received a minor shock.  After a brief discussion, the group decided to give the gems to Remagis rather than selling them.

Returning to the Temple of Thoth, Vael gave the bag with the eye sapphires to Remagis, who was overjoyed.  He tried climbing the statue to replace the gems, but it was a difficult climb.  Vael cast Flight on Remagis, who flew up and replaced the eyes.  At that point all of the clerics felt like the sanctity level of the temple had increased.

The group went back west through the Temple of Set, then down the Sighing Stair to the Goblin Forum.  They had a brief discussion with Gribble, who said that he would assign one of the rooms for their use before goblins claimed them all.  They then spoke with Dworm, who said the food was still selling, some to goblins and mostly to Varumani.  They then went to talk with the Varumani ambassadors.  This time Yoburra had one of his assistants deal with them.  Asked if they needed more food, they said yes.  Asked if they had a preference, the Varumani said they liked goat.  The group went back to their newly assigned room, then took a purple Teleport Rug back to the Beacon and a green Teleport Rug back to Gosterwick, and bought a live goat at the Grain Hall.  They carried the goal back through the Teleport Rugs to the Forum, where one of the goblin food merchants immediately offered to buy it, but the Varumani outbid him.  The Varumani put the goat in an unused room and closed the door, saying a runner would be summoned to take it to the Varumani territory soon.

The group went south from the Forum into, then east to the room labeled "Dead Inside."  The door was, surprisingly, unlocked.  They headed east, then north, and found a bunch of sarcophagi and a huge black stone statue of a Set animal, with a white marble head, golden ears and snout, and lapis eyes, holding a golden ankh and a silver flail.  Uvash cast Sense Spirits looking for undead in the sarcophagi, and didn't find any.  The group explored east past a bunch of burial niches.  They found another group of sarcophagi, and again Uvash cast Sense Spirits.  This time he registered some mummies and wights inside some sarcophagi, and a bunch of ghouls and ghasts hiding behind sarcophagi.  As he warned the others, the undead jumped out and attacked.

A long battle began.  Vallium waded into a swarm of undead, hacking them down, then occasionally using the combination of Boots of Levitation and the Ring of Free Action to pop out of the swarm and get them all on one side of him.  Uvash fought several more, and eventually got surrounded.  Vael cast Wall of Lightning around Uvash and the ghouls and ghasts, then used Blink Other to pop Uvash outside the wall, leaving the undead trapped there.  Eventually, all of them tried breaking through the Wall and got severely shocked.  Uvash also managed to knock a couple of ghouls back into the Wall for extra damage.  There were enough ghouls that some broke through to Ioannes, who killed a couple.  Vael Blinked away from the ones that attacked him, and eventually used Larel's Cloak to become invisible.

As the fight continued, they heard the sound of heavy footsteps from the west.  Eventually, the Set animal statue they had seen earlier entered their light radius, now animated and hostile.  Vallium and Uvash engaged it, as it swung its flail.  The statue was quite tough, but several blows from Vallium's armor-piercing sword eventually took it down.

With all the visible undead finished, Uvash cast Sense Spirits again so they could mark exactly which sarcophagi contained undead.  One had two mummies, another had one mummy, and another had a wight.  The group formed up by each sarcophagus with weapons ready, then had Vael used Apportation to pop off the lid, then quickly attacked the supine and not fully awake inhabitants.  This was very effective.  Once all the undead were finished off, they set to looting all the sarcophagi and putting all the treasure into Larel's Sack, then, when that was full, took it back to the Beacon, using the purple Teleport Rug.

Vallium noted some runes on the Set statue's leg.  Vael took a close look and determined that there were four runes and that they could be arranged in various orders.  He tried a random order, and the statue gave him the gift of being able to zap people once per hour.  Unfortunately the gift was not optional, and Vael felt compelled to zap someone.  With no enemies nearby, he tried zapping an inanimate object, but that wasn't good enough and he ended up zapping himself.  Ioannes healed him.  Vael also picked up the statue's magical flail, which shocked him.  Ioannes healed him again, and Vael used Apportation to pick up both the flail and the ankh without touching them.  He took them back to the Beacon through the Rug, and warned Basil not to touch them.

The group went back west to the burial niches, and looted those as well.  They then returned to the first group of sarcophagi and also emptied those.  They went south to the group of sarcophagi they had found but not completely looted a few weeks before, and found that someone else had completed the looting.  All the southern sarcophagi and burial niches were empty.

They continued southwest to the sarcophagus that was chained shut, that they had determined contained some kind of undead.  The occupant heard them and started scratching and pounding on the lid and asking to be let out.  Vael used Lockmaster to unlock both chains, and they warily removed the lid.  Inside was a mummy, but this one did not attack.  He said his name was Ichthelon, and that he was a priest of Thoth who the Settites had kidnapped, used for some horrible ritual, and imprisoned in the sarcophagus.

After some discussion they decided to disguise Ichthelon to make it not so obvious that he was a mummy, then take him to the Temple of Thoth and let Remagis and Stamelis deal with him.  On the way out of the tomb, they removed the "X" on the floor and the "dead inside" sign, noting that the area was now safe for goblins.

Wanting to explore a bit more, the group headed back down to the Forum, and went south again.  They bypassed a spiked-shut door on the west of the hallway, deciding it might contain something dangerous that they didn't have time for today.  They went all the way south to the Red Bridge of Set.  There, both clerics went through the Rug, and Vallium and Vael Levitated west to the edge of the chasm, then northwest to a previously unexplored area.  There was a pool of clear water there.  Vallium swam around in it a bit, but didn't find anything.  They followed passage north.  North from there was a room containing many giant rats, so they didn't go that way.  West was a cavern holding many bodies, mostly rats, some other creatures.  East then south was a very misty cave.

Suddenly, out of the mist came a huge cone of lightning.  A critical hit on the party!  Everyone except Vael had their Luck, so everyone except Vael averted the critical hit.  Vael was injured, but not too badly.  The group decided to flee.  They all ran west and south, with Vallium acting as rear guard.  The creature responsible for the lightning attack emerged from the mist.  It was a behir, a huge multi-legged draconic beast, and it breathed lightning again, hitting everyone except Ioannes who was fully around the corner.  This time, it failed to achieve complete surprise, so everyone partially dodged the cone of lightning.

At that point we were out of time, so we paused in mid-combat.

GM's Comments:

The big fight against many ghouls and ghasts took a while, but both Vallium and Uvash have heavy enough armor that ghouls and ghasts have a hard time hurting them, so it wasn't actually very challenging.  The Set statue was more challenging, but there was only one of it, and it didn't reach them until the undead were mostly finished off.  Using Sense Spirits to find exactly which sarcophagi contained undead made finishing them off pretty easy.

The PCs had heard that Lella and the Rippers had a map to a tomb, and later that they had made a big score and sold some of the treasure to the merchants in the Forum, but now they know which tomb that map led to.

The players pressed their luck, trying to explore a few new rooms at the very end of the session, and got a fight they didn't want.  Fortunately the behir rolled poor damage on its surprise breath attack, and nobody failed their stun check.

Achievements:

None

XP:

None, stopped in the dungeon.

Next Week:

They plan to fight the behir, search for treasure, and go back to Gosterwick.  They would like to spend a day identifying treasure and fixing Vael's Gift from Set, then continue clearing the area south of the Forum.  If they clear a path all the way to the baskets on the cliff face, they would next scry some Thothian teleporters.  Finally, they would like to return to the Cloister area and make sure they got all the loot, since Kerbog Khan's dragonflies would probably be exploring there.