Date:
Lunday 3rd Ligarios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Warm, mostly sunny
Player Characters:
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Sister Valya "Basilisk" Hushbreaker, halfling monk (Mercenary) (Archon Shiva)
Sister Valya "Basilisk" Hushbreaker, halfling monk (Mercenary) (Archon Shiva)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Several frost ghouls
Frost Mother
Several giant lizards
Many slime zombies
Many slimes
Sumuksu
Unknown adventuring party
The Plan:
- Drink from the Yellow Fountain of Marius
- Explore the cold area south of the Shrine of Marius
- Explore the underside of the floating island in the Great Chasm
- Trade lesser power supplies and kaliyani teeth with the Varumani
What Happened:
Ioannes had to do a favor for Chief Priest Vivian and was unavailable. The group hired Basilisk and figured that, along with Uvash, that was enough clerical help. Uvash used Contingency Casting to Bless Basilisk. They took a Teleport Rug to the Beacon, met with Akla-Chah and Basil, then took a Rudishva teleporter to the Cloister and walked to the area near the Tomb of Marius. They opened a secret door leading to the Yellow Fountain of Marius. Everyone drank from the fountain, with everyone except Uvash receiving a minor benefit, and Uvash taking a bit of internal damage.
They went east to the frosty locked door. Vallium tried some keys and failed to unlock it. Vael used a Lockmaster spell. On the other side of the door were some very cold rooms, with floors covered in ice and snow. Vael wore the magic fur boots of the north and was comfortable. Everyone else was freezing.
They went south, and found a room with the western half thawed and containing a huge statue of a woman's face, with some sayings inscribed in the wall in gold. Uvash briefly considered taking the gold, but did not. Vallium went back to the Beacon through a Teleport Rug and got a couple of Tripods of Heating to try to melt some ice.
They went north to the room with the fountain where they had previously destroyed some constructs. Uvash drank from the fountain, again, and it was bitter, again.
They went east and found a room with several frost ghouls, and the Frost Mother in her stone throne. The frost ghouls surrounded and attacked Vallium but failed to get past his defenses. The Frost Mother unleashed a Cone of Cold at Vallium but failed to hurt him through his armor. She did deposit some very slick ice on the floor, but Vallium hovered over it then stabbed the Frost Mother several times. When she died, all the frost ghouls also collapsed into bones. Meanwhile, everyone except Vael got very cold, and eventually went back to the statue room to warm up. Basilisk tried to Share Vitality on Uvash but critically failed and accidentally vampire drained some of his health, a totally honest mistake that could happen to anyone.
After warming up a bit, Vallium set up a few more Tripods of Heating in the throne room. Meanwhile Vael used Create Fire and Shape Fire to make a portable campfire and move it around so everyone could stay a bit warmer. They explored several other snowy and icy rooms, but found only a few bones on top of the snow.
Southeast from the frost rooms was a cavern, containing a couple of dead giant lizards. Vael investigated the bodies and decided they were probably killed by some kind of powerful fire magic, or maybe dragon breath. The cave passages eventually led to a hole in a Rudishva-architecture passage. There was an iris valve along one wall, and another hole high up on the opposite wall. Everyone flew up to the hole and then went south along another Rudishva wall. They ran into a couple more giant lizards, these ones still alive and angry. Vallium and Uvash stabbed one and bludgeoned and stunned a couple of them, and the others decided to run away.
Continuing around the Rudishva wall, they found a hole leading inside. The floor inside was corroded, as if something had melted the high-tech flooring. Inside was a Rudishva building containing one intact iris door, and then several rooms that appeared to have been quarters, with their doors destroyed and their interiors completely trashed. The intact iris door opened to Vael's yellow Rudishva identity plaque. Inside was a desiccated Rudishva corpse, hung from the neck from a lighting fixture. Searching the room revealed quite a bit of Rudishva equipment, including a communication bracelet. A call to Akla-Chah got her opinion that they had found the Beacon's Residential Pod, where many of the crew lived from the crash until the Kaliyani treason. The deceased crew member appeared to be Mol-Prev, the Beacon's Morale Officer.
The group did a quick search of each room, with Uvash finding a marble statue hand wearing a cheap silver ring. In another room, a huge constrictor snake hiding in the bed jumped out and tried to strangle Uvash. Basilisk stunned it with kiai, Vallium stabbed it, and Vael Blinked Uvash away from the snake's grip.
With the level explored, the group focused their attention on a couple of null-grav shafts leading down. Vallium started down into one, then saw a bunch of slime zombies below and immediately Levitated back up. Vael prepared a couple of large Concussion spells and lobbed them below, causing very loud explosions. Vallium went down again, and all the slime zombies in the immediate area had been destroyed. However, more were circling in. The group gathered on the lower level to fight. Vael used Create Fire to burn a lot of zombies, while Vallium and Uvash stabbed and smashed them, and Basilisk stunned them. A large tentacled creature appeared, sending out long tentacles at Uvash (who avoided them) and Vael (who was facing the other way and was totally defenseless and got grabbed). As the creature started to drag Vael towards its waiting mouth, Uvash crippled one tentacle, and Vael Blinked away from the other one. Vallium, Uvash, and Basilisk converged on the tentacled creature, with Basilisk using a vampiric bite on it then deciding it tasted horrible.
Once all the zombies were gone, there were still several small immobile slimes around the area. They turned out to be flammable, so Vael just drove his fires around burning them. When all the enemies were gone, the company searched the level. They found a dining room, a game room, a gym, and a closed with a large humming device. Most of the Rudishva items were covered with slime, but a few still worked. A conference with Akla-Chah indicated that the humming device was some kind of nuclear power generator and was better left alone, as if it exploded everyone would die.
The game room contained a still-working claw game, with three prizes to grab inside. Vallium played it for a long time until he managed to grab all the prizes, while Basilisk shouted that they could just smash the machine open instead. There was also a magic backpack under a slimed game table, and a magic broadsword stuck in a corner. The group spent some time gathering everything valuable they could find. There was a mysterious pail of some kind of unknown sticky paste-like substance, which Uvash decided to taste. They headed back.
On the way out they explored a few more caves, and found a campsite containing seven adventurers. Vael greeted them diplomatically, but the leader of the other group told him to go away. Vael started bragging about killing Settites, and the others said that they'd killed some Settites too, and they could also kill trespassers, seeing as they had the Right for Whatevers outnumbered seven to three. (He hadn't noticed Basilisk sitting on Uvash's shoulder.) After a brief discussion with Vallium on whether rudeness justified murder, they decided not, and left, and went back to the Beacon.
GM's Comments:
Turns out you can use Concussion for damage, not just for stunning.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 15 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: Depends on what they keep, but they found some good stuff. Probably 1-2 XP
- Achievements: 0 XP
- Total: 2-3 XP
Next Week:
They claim they're going after Craastonistorex the green dragon! Granted, they've been saying that for months, so I'll believe it when I see it, but they sound serious.
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