Date:
Tothsday 25th Ligarios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Warm, mostly sunny
Player Characters:
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Lasselanta "Chrysalis" Ashcroft, Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (ArchonShiva)
Significant NPCs:
Mariposa, Chyrsalis's monkey familiar
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Many goblins
2 Guardians of Thoth
Ichthelon, mummy high priest of Thoth
Remagis, priest of Thoth
Bottleneck, goblin sergeant
Killik, goblin chief
4 stone constructs
Many varumani
Many ogre guards
Sir Prudence, Sun-Scarred Knight
Livod, varumani hunter
Palestrim, goblin majordomo
Weskenim, King of the United Goblin Tribes
Gribble, goblin prince
Several chasm cephalopods
Many shadows
Roger the Rapier, leader of the Five Fingers of Destiny adventuring party
Lucrotus, Jenks, Tressa, Adelrod, Hixonius: Five Fingers of Destiny adventurers
2 flesh golems
4 giant boring beetles
The Plan:
- Meet with the Varumani Hunters
- Bring the Varumani Hunters to hunt the kaliyani near the Forum of Set
What Happened:
Vael was late and the others got tired of waiting for him, so Ioannes grabbed the yellow Rudishva identity plaque and they took the Rudishva teleporter from the Beacon down to the Secure Vault, then walked over to the Cloister and then through the secret door to the hole in the ceiling. There, they remembered that not all of them could fly. At that point Vael sent a Message spell saying that he was in the Beacon and asking why they left without him. They dropped a Teleport Rug so Vael could join them, and he cast Levitation on himself and Walk on Air on Ioannes and Uvash, and Chrysalis went through the Rug to grab the Levitation Boots that Vallium had left in the Beacon. (Basil apologized for not having gotten around to cleaning them, so they still smelled like Vallium's feet.)
With flight enabled, everyone flew up the hole to the Dripping Chamber near the Temple of Set, then over to the Temple of Set, then Vael guided them south and east to the Temple of Thoth. As they entered the temple, the two Guardians of Thoth started stirring, but before the Right for Riches company could even pull out their Thothian holy symbols, Ichthelon the High Priest waved at the Guardians and they went back to their niches. Vael and Ioannes had a brief disucssion with Ichthelon, then went south and east to the Glory of Weskenim.
Bottleneck spotted them in the Glory of Weskenim and approached with questions. He had heard that Craastonistorex was dead, but rumors had attributed the slaying to both Right for Riches and Dalton's Darlings. Which was true? Vael assured Bottleneck that they had killed the dragon, while Ioannes was laughing too hard to get his insults about Dalton's Darlings straight.
The group continued east through the portcullis then south over the barricade, then down the sloping passage to the Wet Caves. There they met Killik, who told them about a new treaty between King Weskenim and the Varumani, and mentioned that King Weskenim had gotten married, again. He also reminded them that if they were going to the Sundered Span, they should not dawdle in the room with the statues.
They went north to the statue room, then east across the Sundered Span, then past the suspiciously high quality statue of a varumani to the upper Varumani Lifts. There the operator told them that it was 10 silver per leg to go down, and they each had 2 legs, so 100 silver total. Chrysalis said that her monkey actually didn't have any legs; they were all arms. Mariposa helpfully picked up cloaks in all four of her limbs to demonstrate that all were equally dextrous. Vael, having recently read Spindledor's classic anatomy text Locomotion in Animals and Humanoids, piled on with some magesplaining about the technical distinction between arms and legs. The varumani relented and said the legless monkey could travel for free and it would be 80 silver for the other four.
When the Lift reached the level below, they paid another 40 silver for the Lift across to the west side of the Great Chasm, then 40 more silver for the Lift down to the Varumani level. There Vael complained to the operator that the guy two levels up had overcharged them. He then asked for the best way to reach the Varumani Hunters. The supervisor said the hunters lived in a restricted area, but, if they had a passport, he could sent a messenger to ask the hunters to meet them in the Court of the Thegn. Vael showed their passport, and the lift supervisor sent one of the ogre guards through the door to the south.
The company went west into the Court of the Thegn, and started a conversation with the Sun-Scarred Knight Sir Prudence. A varumani interrupted their conversation and said he was Livod the hunter. Vael explained that they were here to hunt kaliyani. Livod said that sounded fun and asked where the kaliyani were. Vael said they were near the Goblin Forum, and Livod said that, due to the new peace treaty with the goblins, varumani could no longer visit the Goblin Forum. Vael said that he would talk to King Weskenim about that, then send a Message spell to Livod. Vael sent a Message spell to Palestrum, saying that they were on their way to Goblintown and would like an audience with King Weskenim.
The group went back up the Lifts, then down from the Wet Caves to Goblintown, then over to the Goblin Court. Palestrim was sitting in his chair in front of the Royal Quarters, and asked how Vael had put his voice in his head, and how one could stop that from happening in the future if it got annoying. Vael said it was a Message spell, and he didn't know of a countermeasure, and asked if any of the goblin wizards knew it. Palestrim said he wasn't sure but nobody had ever used that spell on him before, and while he could see its uses, it was also terrifying. He said that the King had granted them an audience, and opened the door.
King Weskenim was waiting, and said he had heard rumors about the death of the dragon, and wondered if Right for Riches had killed it, or if it had been Five Fingers of Destiny. Ioannes almost fell over on the floor laughing at the idea of Five Fingers of Destiny killing the dragon, and started repeating line items of all the tribute they had paid, without even needing to pull out the dragon's ledger. Vael interrupted Ioannes's gloating to ask about the new peace treaty, and tried to get permission for Livod the hunter to peacefully transit the Forum on the way to kill some kaliyani. The King said that, while he might work out a passport system in the future to allow varumani to visit the Forum, he didn't want to allow exceptions yet, because he wanted to make sure the varumani took the terms of the treaty seriously. Vael failed to change the King's mind on this. Changing the subject, Vael handed Weskenim a very large and gaudy piece of jewelry, and said this was a gift for the Queen, and also they would like permission to commission a map from Royal Artist Temrin. Weskenim said that if the Queen liked the jewelry, perhaps Temrin could take a short break from updating all the Official Harem Portraits with his newest wife to do a map.
After leaving the Royal Quarters, Vael sent a Message spell to Livod saying sorry, King Weskenim would not budge. The group then conferred and decided not to hunt kaliyani today. Instead, they would go to the Goblin Forum then work their way south to the basket on the cliff face, trying to ensure a safe path for commerce. The group walked back up to the Wet Caves, then back up to the Glory of Weskenim, then back west to the Temple of Set, then down the stairs to the Forum. After a brief conversation with Gribble, they headed south.
While they crossed the Bridge of Set, a large group of chasm cephalopods rose up from the chasm to ambush them. Vael cast Pummeling fists of Arak-Zhorr on the cephalopods, doing serious damage. Chrysalis lashed out with her staff a couple of times, knocking a couple of the closer cephalopods out of the sky and sending them tumbling down. That was enough to make the others flee.
They continued south, where Ioannes, who had a See Secrets spell up, spotted a secret door to the west. Vael figured out how to open it, then magically unlocked it with a Lockmaster spell. Behind the secret door was a spiral stairway, which went up about 600 feet. At the top was another door, this one heavy and metal. It was also locked. Vael cast Lockmaster, and as the lock started opening, a strong stream of water came out. Vael quickly indicated that nobody should open the door, and cast Lockmaster again to re-lock it. They went back down the stairs. At the bottom, Vael wrote in chalk "Door above dangerous do not go."
As they came back out the secret door, and Vael re-locked it, Ioannes spotted another secret door to the east. This one was not locked, and opened when Vael kicked the correct brick, at floor level on the right. It led to a featureless ten-foot-square room. Vael and Ioannes, both with See Secrets spells, raced to find the secret door that had to be there, and both pointed at it simultaneously. Vael again found which brick to kick to open it (it was the same design as the previous door, but the lever-brick was to the left). Uvash led them through the secret door. Some stairs down to the south led into some kind of small temple, where at least a dozen shadows were stirring and starting to rush toward them. Uvash screamed a warning, unfortunately in Dwarvish. The gist was understood, and Vael cast Wall of Lightning across the top of the stairs, to keep the shadows off them while they retreated. There was another door to the east, though, so with the shadows contained behind the lightning, they decided to explore it.
On the other side of the door were some stairs down leading to a cave-in, but Ioannes discovered another secret door on the south wall. Vael figured out how to open it, and it led down some narrow stairs to a room, containing a smal wooden table. On the table was a bowl of liquid metal, with a couple of eyeballs floating in it. Vael had seen this item before: the Eyes of Pol, which were connected to Pol's Book of Scrying, which had once ripped his eyes out. He dropped a Teleport Rug on the floor and carried the Eyes of Pol through to the Beacon, then returned.
When he got back, Ioannes was pointing at yet another secret door, on the north wall. Vael figured out where the hidden switch was an opened it. This led to a room that they had previously looted, with the sarcophagus that had once contained Ichthelon. With their maps connected, and not wanting to go back near the shadows, the group went east, then north through a lot of sarcophagi, then west past some once-zombified corpses, until they were back on the main north-south Stair of Commerce. Ioannes carefully looked for more secret doors the whole way, but didn't spot any.
They went south over the Bridge of Set again, but this time no chasm cephalopods rose to attack them. They continued south to the room with the soggy Set statues, and heard someone coming. Everyone tried to hide, then another adventuring party approached from the south. It was the Five Fingers of Destiny. Roger the Rapier congratulated them for defeating Craas, and said that he had been formulating a plan to do that himself, but they had beat him to the punch. Ioannes laughed at him. Roger asked if they had found a pair of golden Thothian statues of an ibis and a baboon in the hoard. Vael said no. Roger wondered if maybe the dragon had traded them for something else.
Saying goodbye to the Five Fingers, they continued south. Ioannes flew up onto a large rock, that he remembered had had some adventuring gear on top. It was still there. They took it all, including a couple of eleven-foot poles. They kept going south until they reached the cliff face. The basket and its long ropes were still there. They then worked their way east, looking for any more threats to commerce. They heard some rats, but didn't see them. They found an ancient corpse wearing damaged Imperial Field Plate armor, which they took. Finally, they spotted a hole in the floor, which they had never explored before. Holding a Continual Light rock next to the hole revealed that there was a large room, about 30 feet down.
Vael cast Wizard Eye, and they sent the eye down to explore. It was dark below and the eye couldn't see anything. Vael cast Dark Vision, and then the eye could see a large room containing two large fleshy constructs, a golden throne, and several giant beetles nibbling on purple fungus. One of the constructs noticed the eye and started chasing it, but the eye was faster and outran its pursuer, until it ducked into a small niche on the eastern side of the room, where the large construct would not fit. Vael dismissed the eye. The golden throne sounded interesting, so they decided to go down. Vael cast Invisibility on everybody, and they all Levitated or Air-Walked down into the room. One of the giant beetles heard or smelled someone, despite their invisibility, and approached them. Uvash stabbed it with his pick, becoming visible. This drew the attention of both flesh golems and two more giant beetles. (The final beetle kept eating purple fungus.)
A battle begun, where everyone attacked Uvash because he was the only one visible, but Chrysalis kept parrying for him. Uvash got his pick stuck in one beetle, then gave up on it and pulled out his mace. He used his Divine Might and Divine Grace then started smacking beetles and golems around with his mace. Chrysalis eventually decided that just parrying for Uvash was boring and used her Uninterrupted Flurry, then started smacking beetles and golems with her staff. Ioannes and Vael and Mariposa the monkey stayed invisible and let the other two fight. Vael tried a Great Haste on Uvash, but if failed, and all the opponents were down before his second attempt finished. The final beetle just ignored them and kept eating purple fungus, so they let it live.
Vael decided that the chair was actually made of gold. Uvash could just barely lift it by himself, so they put the Teleport Rug on the floor and Uvash picked up the chair and stepped on the Rug and said the command word to take it back to the Beacon. There was also a skeletal corpse on the floor with a magical headband (with Khumus writing) and a magical backpack (pink, with a unicorn on the back), which they looted. After searching the room and not finding anything else of interest, they flew back up.
They explored a passage to the northeast, marked by a skull on a spear, with some bone darts shoved into it for good measure. The See Secrets spell revealed three different pit traps in the passage, which then sloped down to another level. Vael cast Wizard Eye and Dark Vision and sent the eye down the passage to explore. It found several caves, one of which contained some kind of amphibian humanoid. That was enough for Vael to declare that level as a place of future interest, but there wasn't time to explore it today.
They went back north to the Forum. Greeting Gribble, they said the route to the Cliff Face was mostly clear, and they could show some goblins the way. Gribble picked a half-dozen goblin guards and told them to follow Vael. They led them to the basket and back. One of the goblins said something to Gribble, who announced that the basket looked a bit heavy, so he would ask his brother for a couple of ogres to help lift it up and down. Vael warned him that there might still be minor dangers like chasm cephaolpods or giant rats, and to stay on the path rather than exploring off to the sides. Gribble said that maybe they should get some chalk or string to mark the path. Vael suggested paint. Gribble went over to the merchants to see if any of them had any paint, but they did not.
Tired from the day's exertions, the group retired to their room across from the Varumani embassy. They put the Teleport Rug on the floor, everyone but Vael went through, then Vael picked up the Rug and cast Pol's Recall to join them in the Beacon.
GM's Comments:
Vallium's player is their usual navigator, but wasn't there this week. Vael has Absolute Direction, which means the PC gets navigational hints from the GM even if the players are lost, but he wasn't there at the start of the session, and then his player had limited Foundry access. So Ioannes was handling party navigation for the first time. The downside of this is that routing around the map was a bit slower than usual. The upside was that Ioannes and Vael both had See Secrets spells going, and Ioannes carefully explored around the edges of the map, so they found a bunch of stuff (secret doors, some magic armor, the hole in the floor leading to treasure) that they had missed on multiple previous visits to the area.
Of course some of the stuff they found could have killed them, but it didn't, so it was a successful session.
Also, for any GMs using Foundry, the Crunch My Party! module is great. I have been manually switching between a single PCs token for map navigation and individual tokens for combat or other scenarios where detailed placement matters. Crunch My Party! automates this. You put the included macro in your hotbar and then it's one click to toggle between one PCs token and individual tokens. Now, the individual token placement is kinda random when you explode the PC token, so you need to give players a bit of a grace period to fix their formation, but otherwise it's exactly what I wanted.
Achievements:
None
XP:
- Exploration: 9 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: A golden chair and some interesting magic items on a corpse, probably 1 XP
- Achievements: 0 XP
- Total: Probably 2 XP
Next Week:
They plan to borrow Basil Choumnos's teleporter in the Tower of Pol to visit the Imperial capital, Archontos.
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