Date:
Lunday 7th of Toternios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Hot, fair
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Thrainor "Thronebreaker" Ironvein, mercenary dwarf (ArchonShiva)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI
Dragonfly construct of Kerbog Khan
Many Varumani
Gorlen, Varumani lift operator
Trijax, Varumani lift operator
Many ogre guards
Sir Prudence, Sun-Scarred Knight
Beavon, Sir Prudence's varlet
Fat Yeskim, goblin food seller
Jacoby, halfling barkeeper
Lyssandra of Newmarket, Archontean merchant
Coelrith, Archontean alchemist
Chaudri, Archontean relic dealer
Jordan, Thorcin jeweler
Skalla, Wiskin arms dealer
Hallar, Elvish scribe
Varboka, Thegn of the Varumani
6 Varumani housecarls
Poltergeist
3 ogres
Gribble, Goblin prince
Many goblins
Dworm, food merchant
The Plan:
- Meet with the Varumani Thegn
- Visit the Varumani Market
- Explore the cold area near the Varumani Lifts
What Happened:
Vael found a bronze Varumani passport for sale at Cleon's Curios and Pawnshop. Despite already having an ancient plasteel Varumani passport, he immediately bought it. The group went to the Grain Hall, where they purchased two live goats and two crates full of live chickens as gifts for the Varumani Thegn.
The Church of Demma sent letters to all members of the Right for Riches company, asking for donations for the spring anti-childhood-hunger program. Ioannes donated and got a personal thank-you from High Priest Vivian. Vael and Vallium did not donate.
Uvash had church business and was not available to adventure. The others hired Thronebreaker as a backup dwarf and went through the Teleport Rugs to the Beacon. After sharing their delve plan with Akla-Chah and Basil, they used the Rudishva teleporter to the vault near the Cloister, then proceeded through the secret door from the Cloister to the western part of that level.
However, in the chamber with the slime pits, Ioannes spotted a dragonfly construct, watching and waiting. Vael spoke to it, and a few minutes later, the distinctive voice of Kerbog Khan emerged. The Khan seemed happy that the party had led his dragonflies to this secret area for his constructs to explore. Vael was less happy and told the Khan not to have his dragonfly follow them. Vael watched behind them as they walked away, but the dragonfly did not appear to be following.
They went down a slope to the level below, then through the cavern where they killed the gray slime and the rooms where they killed the rogue bestial varumani. They took a detour through a secret door to the magic pool, where Vael and Vallium and Thronebreaker all took a drink. (Ioannes did not.) Vael and Vallium got temporary boosts to dexterity, and Thronebreaker got a permanent boost to health. They continued east until they reached the barricade behind the Varumani Lifts. They pounded on the barricade until Gorlen the lift operator asked who was there. After identifying themselves, Gorlen let them through. After some negotiation about the cost to transport the goats, Gorlen relented and said they could be moved for free if they were marked as the Thegn's property. He was then rewarded by Vael and Vallium deciding to Levitate rather than paying to ride on the lift, so he only got to charge Ioannes and Thronebreaker.
Arriving at the other Lift station a level down, Trijax asked to see their passport. Vael showed him both the modern and ancient passports. Trijax tried to buy the ancient one, but Vael refused. He said that they could all travel on one passport as long as they stayed together; anyone straying from the group could get in trouble. He also noted that most of the varumani who didn't have critical jobs like standing guard or operating the Lifts were doing a Cleansing of the Sorrows ceremony today, so the visitors were unlikely to meet anyone important today. However, they could still walk around public areas or go to the market and buy things from non-varumani shopkeepers.
From the Lifts they headed west past three statues of varumani, reaching a large columned hall. The hall was quiet, but there was a Sun-Scarred Knight and his varlet present, along with a few ogre guards. The Knight introduced himself as Sir Prudence, and his varlet as Beuvon. He said that he was an emissary from the Knights to the Varumani, and asked about the party. He recalled their names from Sir Sorrow and Sir Simonet. They spoke a bit about the fall of the Settites and the new Goblin Forum. Sir Prudence indicated that most of the varumani were doing a private holiday ritual so it would be a bad day to see them, but he pointed southeast and said the market was open.
The Varumani market was a large cave, with elevated wooden platforms and walkways erected about 20' above the floor, and then shops in small side caverns off the main cavern. The party systematically visited all the shops. One was a bar run by a halfling named Jacoby, where Vael bought an ale. Another was a food stand run by a goblin named Fat Yeskim, where Vael and Ioannes got some stew. They bought a Token of Arden, a book, and a random key from a man named Chaudri. They got another book and a scroll of Pol's Endless Sneezes from an elf named Hallar. After they got done shopping, they went back to the long hall and sat on the floor and waited for the varumani ceremony to finish.
Hours later, a few varumani appeared. One approached the group and then led them north to a comfortable room, where some ogre guards took all their weapons. A while later, the Thegn came in, flanked by several housecarls. He dismissed the ogre guards, then greeted the visitors in accented Archontean and thanked them for the gifts of goats and chickens. He quickly got to business, noting that Kerbog Khan had done unspeakable things to his sister Gevorda and needed to die for his crimes. He also said that varumani politics were complicated and it was a bad time to declare war directly on the Khan, whose constructs were popular visitors to the Varumani Market, so he would like the outsiders, who had already demonstrated their power by defeating the Settites and Kerbog Khan's Invisible Stalkers and Surgical Construst, to kill the Khan for him. He said that the Khan was probably also after them for destroying his surgical construct, so that taking him out was in their own best interests as well. He would reward them with his friendship and any one item from his personal hoard. (But not the treasure that belonged to the entire tribe.) He said he had many magic items such as a Rod of Resurrection and Girdle of Strength and some magic armor and weapons sized for little people like them, plus some Rudishva relics including a Sky Sled. He said that he expected the Khan to have a large stash of Rudishva power supplies, and asked that he receive half of any power supplies found. He also noted the Rudishva Command Bracelet on Vael's risk and asked if it was for sale. Vael said that it was not, at any price, and the thegn smiled.
Vael asked to confer with his team in private. The thegn opened a door to the west and dismissed the ogre guards that were waiting in that chamber, making it available to the party. They had a long conversation about which reward was best, but they were all in favor of going after Kerbog Khan. They came back and asked the thegn for more details about the reward items and any intelligence about the Khan. He said that, if they brought him the Khan's head, he would let them personally analyze the items for magical potency before picking one. He didn't have much intelligence about the Khan's location beyond knowing it was near the surgical bay where they had rescued Gevorda. He said the Khan would probably be hiding in his fortress, protected by many of his constructs, including some combat constructs.
After agreeing to the deal, Varboka asked to see the ancient passport that his ambassador had told him about. Vael showed it to him, and Varboka was impressed. He offered the group four modern bronze passports for the ancient one, saying the modern ones were just as good for entering varumani territory, but the ancient one was a historical relic of his people. Vael and Vallium were reluctant to part with anything unique, but agreed to the deal, with the condition that if they found place where they really needed the ancient passport, the thegn would lend it back to them. Then thegn unlocked a desk drawer and pulled out four modern bronze passports, issuing one to each of them.
With business concluded, Varboka said they could get their weapons back from the ogre guards to the west, and then left the room to the south, escorted by his housecarls. After recovering their weapons from the ogres, the group went west into a cavern containing a lot of large mushrooms, with a few varumani picking mushrooms and a lot of varumani standing around talking. They found a worked passage that looked like Archontean construction, heading north and west from the cavern. They followed it toward a door. A varumani popped out of a small side cave and said something in varumani, that Vael caught as "bad juju don't go that way stupid."
Ignoring the possibility of bad juju, they listened at the door. Vael then used Glass Wall to look through the door, seeing a room full of trashed furniture. They opened the door, entered, and started poking around. Some furniture flew at Vael, but went around him due to his Missile Shield amulet and flew at Thronebreaker instead, who dodged it. There was also an aura of fear, which both resisted. More furniture flew at Vallium, this time missing and heading for Ioannes, who blocked it. Both resisted fear. More furniture flew at Thronebreaker, who parried it, and again was not afraid. Vallium ran around stabbing where he thought a hypothetical invisible creature throwing furniture at them might be standing. Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium, while Ioannes started casting Affect Spirits. Once the See Invisible spell took effect, Vallium spotted an the invisible poltergeist, then Vallium ran up to it and destroyed it with his sword. It was dispelled with a scream.
Searching the room found nothing beyond broken furniture. The group exited through a door to the west and saw a dead-end corridor. Ioannes immediately said "obvious secret door" and everyone searched, but didn't find one. They headed north, and found a room with some spiral stairs going up, and three ogres guarding it. One ogre starting loudly banging on a cowbell, while the other two readied large round maces and attacked.
The ogres didn't last very long. Vallium and Thronebreaker downed two of them quickly, then Thronebreaker terrified the third one into running away, and Vallium cut him down. The ogres had a sack holding a mix of rotten apples, rotten potatoes, and gold coins. The group took the sack, the maces, and the cowbell.
They went north and found a little side corridor with an Archontean teleportation ring. They continued north and found a spot they had already mapped, where they had fought some wights. They went east and found a room that looked like an old shrine to Isis, with a pile of bodies on the floor and a low-quality statue of Isis. Ioannes investigated the bodies and decided that at least all the fresher ones had had all their blood drained. The group investigated the walls for secret doors and the statue for anything interesting, but didn't find anything. The floor felt a bit unstable, but didn't collapse.
They left and went back to the teleportation ring, then inserted some teleportation tiles in the correct order to teleport to south of the Red Bridge, near the Goblin Forum. They walked north over the Red Bridge to the Forum, talked to Gribble and Dworm, went to their room nearby, and went through the Rug to the Beacon to get another wheelbarrow full of food. They brought the food to Dworm to sell, keeping commerce flowing through the Forum. They then went back to the Beacon, then back to Gosterwick.
GM's Notes:
This session was mostly talking to the merchants in the Varumani Market and to Varboka. There was a decent amount of exploring Varumani territory, but very little treasure was found. The poltergeist and the ogres didn't last long.
XP:
- Exploration: 19 rooms, 1 XP
- Loot: very little, 0 XP
- Achievements: none, 0 XP
- Total: 1 XP
- Note: Thronebreaker got +1 HT from a fountain, good for 10 XP
Next Week:
The PCs plan to possibly use a Seeker spell on Asrotelion, the mage they think was sent after Kerbog Khan, to help locate Kerbog Khan. They will then try to find and kill Kerbog Khan.
