Date:
Lunday 26th Lucrios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Cool, sunny
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Lacrymosa, Elven mercenary archer (Archon Shiva)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Harfang, Owl
5 Invisible Stalkers
Dire Wolverine
Vivian, Chief Priest of Demma
Many baboons
Yamki, three-armed giant intelligent baboon
Bumpko, four-armed giant intelligent baboon
Stone Nataraja
Several ogres
The Plan:
- Use the Teleport Rug to travel back to the gold dragon statue
- Search the area around the gold dragon statue
- Use Analyze Magic on the four magic statues
- Use Seek Earth and Seek Magic to find treasure
- Finish exploring passages off the Great Chasm near the Well of Light
What Happened:
The Right for Riches company decided to avoid taking their usual week of downtime between delves, and to instead return the next day. However, this did not fit Uvash's church schedule, so he could not attend the delve. They recruited Lacrymosa from the Grudge Brigade as a substitute.
The group went back to the Beacon, then through the green Teleport Rug to the gold dragon statue. Vael pointed at the secret door on the plinth of the statue, which was slightly ajar. This revealed a 5' wide vertical shaft with handholds, descending into darkness. They could not see the bottom with their Continual Light stones, so Vael used Dark Vision, and verified that it went down about 30', and the floor below was covered in silver coins.
Vallium and Vael Levitated down, Ioannes descended using Walk on Air, and Lacrymosa climbed down the handholds. They reached the bottom and saw several tables covered with items, some of them apparently magical. One table held a disarticulated human skeleton.
Vael reached down and deliberately picked up a silver coin from the floor. Immediately, four Invisible Stalkers who had been hiding under the coins rose up to attack him. Vael had See Invisible up, so saw them coming. He yelled a warning to the others, as he Blinked away from the first attack. Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium, Lacrymosa, and Ioannes. Meanwhile Vallium hacked up the Stalkers, while Lacrymosa filled them with arrows. The Stalkers appeared to be diffuse, not taking much damage from sword or arrow, so Ioannes tried casting Affect Spirits on Vallium's swords. This didn't seem to help; perhaps they were not spirits.
The first couple of Invisible Stalkers finally went down, but then one landed a nearly fatal stab on Lacrymosa. She managed to stay on her feet, barely, as Iaonnes healed her. Vallium and Lacrymosa finished off the last of the Stalkers. The room contained enough coins that they used Teleport Rugs to go back to the Beacon for shovels and extra bags, then started shoveling them all up. There were a few ancient gold and platinum coins mixed in with the silver. The shelves contained various treasures, which Vael briefly glanced at while shoving them into a Bag of Holding.
With the secret room cleared, the group went back up the shaft. There were more exits from the sandy room, on the north, south, east, and west walls. They decided to start at the north. The door was locked, and none of Vallium's keys fit the lock. Vael used a Lockmaster spell. Beyond was a storeroom containing many 4' tall amphorae, sealed with wax. Vallium opened a couple, one of which contained some kind of fish paste, and the other wine. They re-sealed the amphorae (Vallium using a flaming sword, Vael using a Repair spell), then pulled out a Teleport Rug so that Vallium could carry them all to the refrigerated room in the Beacon.
Next they tried the east room. This one had double doors. One of the keys they had found in the secret room actually fit. Beyond was a large bedroom, office, and meeting room. There were a couple of statues, of male and female Archontean artistocrats in togas. There was a single bed, a dresser, and armoire, a few settees, a small table, and a couple of Tripods of Heating. Searching the furniture revealed some dirty clothes, some formal silk robes of the Order of Thoth, and a couple of rings. One said "CP" and had an amethyst carved into the image of an Archontean man. The other was a gold signet ring with the image of Priscus Pulcher.
The south room had a door that required magic to unlock. It was a storage room, with piles of furniture. There was a magical stringed instrument, which shocked Ioannes when he picked it up. Vael used Apportation to put it in a bag without touching it. They took the most valuable appearing carpets and furniture, and left the rest.
Finally, the west room opened to the other key that Vallium had found in the basement. It was the mirror image of the east room. The statues flanking the entrance were Priscus Pulcher and the familiar woman whose illusion had warned them away from the fireball trapped room. The furniture included a double bed, some nice carpets, and more Tripods of Heating. There was quite a bit of jewelry around, along with some women's clothing, a few magic items, and some stone bins full of coins and gems.
With everything on this level looted, Vael suggested going upwards from the four bodies around the dragon statue, looking for where they fell from. They group flew up to the top of the shaft, where the center of the ceiling did not reflect light the same way as the rest of the walls and ceiling. Vael probed with his staff, which went right through the illusory ceiling. Flying up through it revealed a storeroom, full of crates and barrels, with a mosaic of Pricsus and Isadora in the center of the floor. The mosaic was an illusion, and stepping onto it would result in a fatal fall. Searching the crates and barrels just found spoiled food, but Vael saw a secret door on the west wall, leading to spiral stairs up.
At the top of the stairs was another secret door, which led to a foul-smelling room. When they opened it and went through, they were attacked by a wolverine the size of a grizzly bear. Vallium managed to parry its attack despite being surprised, and then he and Lacrymosa destroyed the beast. Vallium skinned the wolverine, while the others searched the room and picked up a few minor treasures. There were some stairs up, that led to a ruined villa, to the northeast of the ruined walls of Arden Vul. While they were up on the surface, they heard a the call of a wyvern from above, and immediately dove back down the stairs. The location of the villa seemed to match the map they had found on one of the corpses near the dragon statue.
The secret door had closed behind them, and the panel hidden behind an illusory wine cask had some letters "ORCUSAIDSPAIRS". Vael hit a few letters at random, and another Invisible Stalker appeared and attacked. Once again, Vallium and Lacrymosa fought it fairly ineffectively at first, until Vael cast See Invisible on them, then they wrecked it. After some perusal of the letters, Vael tried spelling "PRISCUS", which did not open the door. After more investigation, he tried "ISADORA", which also failed. Eventually he tried "PRISCUSISADORA" and the door opened. They went back down, then flew through the illusory floor mosaic to the middle balconies.
Vael cast Analyze Magic on the western statue a couple of times, which revealed that the head and body were a key and were connected to the other statues. Vallium opined that they'd probably already solved the statue puzzle, and that's why the secret door below had been ajar.
They flew back down to the sand level, where Vael cast Seek Earth for gold and platinum, getting a null reading each time. He then dropped a silver coin in the sand, cast Seek Earth for silver and did not ignore the coin he knew was there. The spell still didn't find anything. He concluded the area was secured against scrying, which might explain why all the treasure had still been there. He wanted to look under the sand for more treasure, but couldn't think of another available spell to use, so they gave up and flew back up to the balcony level.
They decided to go back to the west, but the secret door could not be opened from this side, so Vallium Blinked through it. They went back west to the smashed constructs, and spotted a door they had never opened. Vael Lockmastered it open, revealing a passage with a wooden chest at the far end. This looked suspicious. Vael Levitated down the passage, tapping his staff on the floor. When he reached the area near the chest, tapping on the floor triggered a pit trap, opening the floor. Nobody fell in. A quick look into the pit didn't spot anything. Vallium also flew over, and Vael Lockmastered the chest, revealing a bunch of silver coins.
While they were shoveling silver coins into their bags, Vallium suddenly started babbling like a child. He had a silver coin stuck to his hand that he could not drop. Vael used Mage Sight and noted that Vallium actually had three magical coins. Since Vallium already appeared cursed, he had Vallium keep picking up the silver, while watching carefully with Mage Sight for more magical coins. He spotted two more, and Apportated them away.
When they were done picking up coins, Ioannes took Vallium through the Teleport Rugs back to Gosterwick, to the Temple of Demma. He went looking for the Chief Priest, Vivian, who would have the best chance of removing a curse. Vivian agreed that he could probably help, in exchange for a donation to help feed all the children of the area. He blasted Vallium with a Remove Curse spell, which let him drop the first Cursed Penny, the one that had reduced his intelligence. Back to his usual mental state, Vallium noted that they had some Remove Curse scrolls and could remove the other curses for free. Ioannes said he preferred to make a donation to a a good cause, and save the other scrolls. Vivian removed the other two Cursed Pennies, while Ioannes helped restore his mana. Ioannes and Vallium went back to the Arcane Practitioners' Club then back through the Teleport Rugs.
The group went back out through the fireball trapped room, using Salamander Amulets to avoid getting burned. They explored some nearby passages near the Howling Caves and the Great Chasm. They found a group of baboons who could speak broken Archontean, in a cave with a magic fountain. The baboons said that it was their fountain and that only those who brought great gifts of food could drink from it. Vael went back through the Rugs to Gosterwick, returning with a wheelbarrow full of food. As the baboons divided up their take-out order, everyone drank from the fountain, and felt a bit smarter. (Sadly the effect was temporary.)
Another cave nearby was full of less friendly baboons. They charged, and Vael cast a Thunderclap spell to intimidate them. This worked, and they ran back to the Howling Caves. Both Bumpko and Yamki eventually met the group to mediate, and combat was avoided. The group explored the Howling Caves further, finding another of the creepy salamander statues, which Yamki said was "bad juju" and best avoided.
With the day's main goals achieved, the group went west to the Well of Light, then north to the Ruby Chair, then east to a Thothian teleporter. Vallium pulled out the book of teleporter addresses and mentioned a few they had not scried yet. Vael cast Scry Gate on three of them. Two ended up being fairly featureless Archontean-architecture hallways. They went through one of them, and ended up back in the lair of the (mostly dead) vampires. Another one was a creepy room with corpses and Set bas-reliefs on the walls, which Vallium noted as a good place for future exploration, but not today. Another looked like the quarters of a group of ogres. They went back to the Engine Room, where a stone nataraja ran toward them, but was deterred by Vael's yellow Rudishva identity plaque. South of the Engine Room was a Rudishva teleporter leading to the Vault near the Cloister, where there was another teleporter back to the Beacon.
GM's Comments:
That was a lot of treasure.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 10 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: Lots, 2 XP
- Achievements: 0 XP
- Total: 3 XP
Next Week:
The plan is to drink from the Fountain of Marius, then explore the snowy and icy area near there. Then explore the underside of a Floating Island in the Great Chasm, looking for some gold that had been detected. Then visit the Varumani, to gather rewards for Kaliyani teeth and recharging Rudishva power supplies.
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