Date:
Basilsday 25th Lucrios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Warm, foggy, rainy
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Watcher Nataraja
Kronos's guards
Kronos, Innkeeper
Estelle, Innkeeper
Many goblins
Bottleneck, goblin sergeant
Killik, goblin chief
Several ogre guards
Palestrim, goblin majordomo
Weskenim, goblin king
Many baboons
Yamki, three-armed giant intelligent baboon
2 Imperial stone guardians
3 Stone golems
4 Orator constructs
Iron golem
The Plan:
- Commission a map from Temrin in the Goblin Market
- Check the Hall of Shrines to see if the force fields have changed
- Continue exploring beyond the fireball-trapped room
What Happened:
Akla-Chah called Vael on the Command Bracelet. She said that Basil had discovered a hole in the roof over the stairs to the Beacon, and the Watcher Nataraja was gone. Vael sent Message spells to the other members of the Right for Riches Company to meet at the Beacon. They went to the entry room and found Basil watching the new hole in the ceiling with his laser pistol ready.
Forgetting he could see through the Watcher Nataraja's eyes, Vael cast Seeker to see where it was. This gave him a vision of the outside of the Inn of the Broken Head. Vael and Uvash investigated the hole in the roof and decided it had been dug with tools. There was some discussion on whether it was safe to go outside and what they'd do if they met the dragon, with half the party deciding it was a good day to kill the dragon and the others wanting to avoid a fight in the open. Everyone put on their poison-resistance Serpent's Amulets just in case.
Vael sent the others out through the hole with a Teleport Rug, then stayed behind to cast Shape Earth to seal up the hole, then went through the matching Teleport Rug to meet them. The group then piled some debris on top of the newly sealed hole to camouflage it. Everyone then walked north around the lake toward the Inn of the Broken Head. Some of Kronos's guards in a tower along the north wall yelled to them. The guard explained that some evil statue had chased some of their comrades, and everyone should be careful. Continuing to the Inn, they saw the Watcher Nataraja aggressively dancing, facing the inn. Kronos and three of his guards were standing outside the Inn, facing down the Nataraja but not actually fighting it.
Vael used the command word to tell the Nataraja to stand down. He then spoke with Kronos, who said that some of his men had been looking for treasure in the ruins and had been attacked by this statue. They fled and it followed them all the way back. Vael explained to Kronos that the statue was theirs and it was guarding their territory and that he would pay Kronos and his men to forget what they saw and never go back to that island. Kronos asked to step out of the rain into the stable (also away from his guards) to continue the discussion. Vael offered a very large bribe to comply with his instructions, and also said to remember the dead Settites and dead halflings before turning it down. Kronos took Vael's money (actually Vallium's money, as Vallium was the only one carrying that much cash) and then went to give some of it to his men. Kronos promised that he and his men would never return to that island and would never tell anyone what they saw there. He also invited the company into the Inn for a free drink. (Well, a very expensive "free" drink, considering the stack of platinum coins that Vallium had just handed him.)
Ioannes was sad that the Inn didn't have any milk today, and had some water. The others enjoyed some high-quality locally brewed beer. Vael asked Kronos about Craas, and Kronos admitted that they'd had encounters with the dragon, and had come to an agreement where they paid the dragon regular tribute in exchange for leaving the Inn and his men alone. Vael also spoke with Estelle, who told the same story about the dragon.
Vael commanded the Nataraja to follow him, and they all went back toward the Beacon, but stopped at the palace ruins to use the Thothian Teleportation Circle there. Everyone teleported to the Circle in the Hall of Shrines, with Vallium carrying the Nataraja through the teleporter. The force fields had not changed since their last visit. Vael used a Teleport Rug to carry the Nataraja back to the Beacon. The rest of the group used the Teleport Circle to go near the Red Bridge, then Vallium decided it was too long a walk from there, and had them teleport again to the room next to the Glory of Weskenim.
Their emergence surprised a goblin guard, who raised the alarm, but Bottleneck came over and realized who it was and told the guards to stand down. The company went through the former halfling portcullis, past the barricade that formerly marked the border between halfling and goblin territory, and down the sloping passage to the Wet Caves. After a brief discussion with Killik, they continued down the passage to Goblintown. They took the long, safe way all the way around the perimeter of Goblintown until they reached the Goblin Court. Palestrim, the king's majordomo, was not in his usual chair outside the King's room. One of the ogre guards explained that the majordomo was talking to the king and the visitors should wait.
Vael got bored of waiting after a couple of minutes, so used a Message spell to tell Palestrim they were outside and wanted a meeting. Palestrim came out a few seconds later in a huff, saying that nagging using magic was Not The Correct Protocol but that the King would see them anyway. He asked them to leave all their weapons with the ogres, though.
King Weskenim was in his room, petting several of his cats. He asked why they wanted a meeting. Vael said they were looking to commission a map from Temrin. The King asked if any of them were married; only Uvash was. He asked Uvash how many wives he had, and after some sputtering Uvash said only one, as Zodarrim commanded. Weskenim noted that he had eighteen wives, and the politics of his harem were vicious. And that, after asking for a group photo, his queen had decided that she wasn't the tallest wife in it, so it had to be redone. And so Temrin's time would be consumed by that for a while, unless the Queen were bribed with serious jewelry.
Vael offered to speak with the Queen, but Weskenim said that no intact males other than himself were allowed to enter the harem, so Vael would not be speaking with the Queen unless he wanted to become a eunuch first. Vael declined. Vael then showed the King his fancy armband and asked if the Queen was looking for something like that. Weskenim agreed, but said the Queen was a bit shorter than Vael so it would need to be a bit smaller.
Leaving the King's room, the group went to their private guest room within Goblintown. Vael used the Teleport Rugs to go from there to the Beacon and then to Gosterwick, then met with Chairduster the jeweler to explain the piece he would like to commission. Chairduster agreed to perform the work, and said that, given the amount of money involved, he could move it to the top of his priority list and finish it within a week if all the necessary materials were available in Gosterwick, or a few weeks if he needed anything brought from Newmarket.
Vael went back to the Arcane Practitioners' Club then through both Teleport Rugs to meet the others in Goblintown. They retraced their steps back up to the Glory of Weskenim, then used the teleporter on top of the indoor pyramid to the other pyramid near the Well of Light. They walked east toward the howling caves, when they heard some loud hooting and then a group of four baboons charged them. As the lead baboon got close, he realized who they were charging, then abruptly stopped, tackled the second baboon, and lead the four baboons running back the way they came.
When the group reached the portcullis near the Howling Caves, they saw a baboon in heating conversation with Yamki. Yamki said that the baboon was apologizing for almost attacking them; he thought they were intruders, not the Bringers of Food, until he got close. Vallium said it was fine, and asked if they could go through the Howling Cave to the Chasm. Yamki said that was permitted, but warned them that the Scary Glowing Orange Room was that way, and to be careful.
The group entered the arcanum geode again, with Ioannes warning everyone that the place might collapse and to be careful, while Vael and Uvash took a quick look for any easily-removed chunks of arcanum. Finding none, they all continued to the Great Chasm. Vael cast Walk on Air on Uvash and Ioannes, and everyone Levitated or Air Walked across the Chasm. The passage leading east showed another baboon staring at them from a nearby cave. Three of them put on Salamander Amulets to avoid fire damage, while Vael hung back. When they entered the room, the illusion of the blonde woman again appeared and told them in Mithric to go away. They ignored her and Vael cast a Lockmaster spell to unlock the secret door, which caused a fireball to go off. Nobody was hurt because of the fire resistance. Vael and Ioannes went through the door, and Vael passed Uvash his amulet to carry back to Vallium, so he could safely cross the room. The illusion of the woman appeared again as Vallium entered the room, but this time no more fireballs went off. Everyone went down the stairs to the east.
Vael pressed both eyes of the statue, which opened the secret door straight ahead. They went east down a rough passage to the room where they'd destroyed the Orator constructs a week before. Vallium asked if they had properly searched the room, and nobody was sure, so they searched it again, and didn't find anything. There was a portcullis on the far wall. As they approached it, a couple of statues on the far side of the portcullis animated and started blasting them with Magical Bolts.
Vael cast Blink Other on Vallium then Uvash, to teleport them past the closed portcullis. Vallium and Uvash smashed the constructs with sword and mace until they stopped firing Magical Bolts. They didn't find a lever to open the portcullis, so they lifted it instead. While Vallium held it up, Uvash got a chunk of broken construct to place under it to hold it up while the others crawled under. When Vael entered the room, with his See Secrets spell running, he spotted a secret door to the north and a hidden button on the wall. Pushing the button raised the portcullis. There was also an obvious wooden door to the east.
Vael pushed on the secret door and it just opened, with no tricks required. This led to another rough passage, which ended in a blank wall. Vael spotted a stone secret door there, and a button on the floor. He stepped on the button, and the wall swung open, leading to a narrow balcony inside a huge vertical shaft, with walls of some kind of reflective crystal. In front of them was a magical statue of a woman, with a plaque saying that she was Placida Gorgitrex, a judge. Ioannes investigated the statue closely and noticed that the head, of a smiling young woman with short hair, could be moved up and down. Vael Levitated up and actually removed the head, which was on a pin.
Their Continual Light rocks didn't throw off enough light to see the top or bottom of the shaft, so Vael cast Dark Vision. This revealed that the shaft went up around 40' and down about 70' from where they were standing. The bottom of the shaft featured a sandy floor, with some statues on plinths, and some kind of roof over a structure in the center, and four corpses on the floor around the structure.
They decided to explore around the shaft. They found three more balconies, each with a statue. Some of the statue heads didn't match the bodies. They spent some time trying to figure out which head went with which body, and moving the heads around. When they put the correct head on the correct body, it loudly clicked into place, and would no longer move. There was also another secret door, near the north balcony, but there was no obvious way to open it. Vael used a Glass Wall spell to look through the secret door and saw a lever on the far side. He used an Apportation spell to remotely activate the lever and open the door.
The group went west down another rough corridor, until they reached a large room with three large statues facing away from them. The statues appeared to be of a man in robes, a woman with long blonde hair, and a snakelike gold dragon. Vallium Levitated toward the statues. When Ioannes followed him, actually walking on the ground like some kind of farmer, he detected that the floor was an illusion, by falling through it. He tried grabbing the floor behind him, but missed, and fell past it. Vael cast Blink Other, and was quick enough to bring Ioannes back up a few yards, giving him a second chance to grab the floor. This time Ioannes latched on and then pulled himself up to safety.
Vallium and Vael Levitated down through the illusory floor, and found an empty pit about 60' deep. The statues were actually on solid ground in the middle of the room. They flew up out of the pit and near the statues to take a look. The statue in the middle looked like Priscus Pulcher, and the statue to the north looked like the same blonde woman from the fireball room. All three statues had valuable-looking gems for eyes. Vael cast Walk on Air on Ioannes and Uvash again, so they could cross the pit. When everyone was in the center of the room, Vallium used his knife to pry one of the blue sapphire gems out of the Pulcher statue.
At that point the statues got angry and attacked. Two of the statues tried magic on Vallium and one on Uvash, but all resisted. A melee ensued, and Vallium and Uvash eventually smashed all three statues. When the statues stopped fighting back, they took the rest of their gem eyes.
The room continued beyond the statues. Everyone looked for, and found, a matching illusory floor pit trap. This pit was also empty. Everyone flew over it and down a passage to the west. It eventually dead-ended, with a secret panel in the ceiling. Vael noticed that there was a gasket of gum around the panel. He used Glass Wall to look up through the secret panel, and saw a murky fountain above. Everyone realized where they were, under the room where they had taken the Mirrors of Life Trapping. They decided not to bother opening the secret panel and getting wet, and turned around and went back to the balconies around the shaft.
Next everyone flew down to the bottom of the shaft. When they got closer they realized the four statues in the corners of the room looked like the orator constructs they had fought last week, but were currently dormant. There were four doors out of the room. In the center of the room were four columns holding up a roof, and under the roof was a large plinth, holding a huge golden statue of a gold dragon. Ioannes checked out the corpses on the floor, and decided they had died from falling from a great height. He noticed that one of the bodies was wearing magical mail armor, which led the whole group to start searching and looting the victims of gravity.
While they were searching the bodies, Uvash was eyeing the gold dragon statue. Eventually his greed got the better of him, and he asked for the pickaxe from Larel's Sack, then smashed it into the statue's golden eye. It sunk right in, so the statue was definitely softer than steel. He removed a chunk of statue and examined it closely, then decided it was iron pyrite, not real gold. Oh well.
The unprovoked attack on the defenseless dragon statue woke up the orator statues in the corners of the rooms, which all started pelting Uvash with magical bolts. Meanwhile, the sand to the west of the statue started rumbling and shifting. Vallium charged the orator in the northwest corner of the room, while Vael followed him to cast buffing spells. Uvash charged the one in the southwest corner, while Ioannes healed him. The orators sent magical missiles at everyone, with Uvash getting more than his fair share. Uvash and Ioannes were both hit a few times and badly wounded. Vallium reached the construct in the northwest corner as Vael finished casting Great Haste on him, and just slashed it to bits. Uvash, badly wounded, took longer to wound the southwest statue.
The rumbling sand disgorged a huge iron golem, which came after Vallium with a huge greatsword. Vallium chose not to parry the huge weapon, dodging it instead. Under the effect of Great Haste he hit the golem about half a dozen times before it went down. Meanwhile both Uvash and Ioannes were bleeding a lot and reaching for healing potions. Ioannes almost passed out, and was saved by his Bless spell, which went away. Vael used Larel's Clock to turn himself invisible and make the orators stop shooting him, then cast Invisibility on Ioannes as well, and Haste on Vallium to make him even faster.
Vallium ran around the room, killing the two eastern orator constructs while dodging their magical attacks. Uvash stayed conscious and got a few blows in on the southwestern construct, almost finishing it off, before Vallium came rushing back over and landed the final blow. With all four constructs and the iron golem down, they took a quick look around the room. Vael magically spotted a secret door on the eastern side of the dragon statue's plinth, but they decided to come back and open it tomorrow, when they were rested.
They dropped a Teleport Rug on the floor and just teleported back to the Beacon. When they got there, they remembered that they wanted to test the Mirror of Life Trapping. (They had found three of them, but had sold two and only kept one.) Vallium volunteered to be the test subject. He looked deeply at his reflection in the mirror, and disappeared, leaving a pile of equipment and clothing behind. Vael used the mirror's command word and managed to make the mirror release Vallium. (It didn't know him by name, but "prisoner one" worked.) Vallium looked into the mirror again, and this time Vael tried summoning "prisoner one" to the front of the mirror for conversation. This worked, and Vallium's image appeared in the mirror. He was able to talk to Vael, but he was not able to command the mirror to release him from inside, even with the command word. Vael told the mirror to release him again, and Vallium got dressed. Vael commanded the Watcher Nataraja to follow him back to the room with the stairs and resume standing guard.
GM's Comments:
That was a lot of angry statues. The Orator Constructs did a lot of damage, hitting every member of the party with their magical bolts, and severely wounding both Uvash and Ioannes. The iron golem looked huge and strong and mean, but didn't actually manage to hit with its oversized greatsword before Vallium destroyed it. The stone guardians and stole golems didn't do as much damage.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 10 new areas, 1 XP
- Loot: They found gem eyes and some loot on the bodies. Probably 1 XP since they won't sell everything.
- Achievements: 0 XP
Next Week:
They plan to go back to the bottom of that shaft the next day, rather than taking their usual week of downtime. They want to fully explore the area around the dragon statue, including the secret door and the four doors around the room. If they finish exploring that area, they will go back to the Well of Light level and continue exploring the tunnels off the Great Chasm.
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