Date:
Tothsday 18th Ligarios, 2994 AE
Weather:
Warm, cloudy
Player Characters:
Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)
Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)
Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)
Significant NPCs:
Basil, Right for Riches employee
Akla-Chah, Rudishva AI psychologist
Basil Choumnos, Archontean wizard and Castellan of Pol
Unknown halfling with Rudishva laser rifle
Unknown human cleric with a handlebar mustache
Unknown muscular Wiskin warrior with sword and Rudishva laser rifle
Unknown Khumus spear fighter
Unknown female wizard with purple eye patch
Unknown bald Khumus wizard
Unknown cleric with skeletal face paint
Unknown warrior with sword and crossbow
Yamki, 3-armed intelligent giant baboon
Many baboons
Ichthelon, mummy high priest of Thoth
Remagis, priest of Thoth
Many goblins
Several chasm cephalopods
Erist Ellagelsson, elf wizard
Sir Prudence, Sun-Scarred Knight
Many ogre guards
Many varumani
Hallar Ellagelsson, half-elf scribe
Verboka, Thegn of the varumani
Hak, varumani brewer
The Plan:
- Take the Arden-vator up to Arden Vul.
- Sing the Song of Arden to the statue of Arden
- Use Scry Gate to look at the Lady's Asylum and see if the snow has melted
- Contact Basil Choumnos via Message spell about using his teleporter.
- Visit Choumnos in person if needed
- Explore the Drowned Canyon
What Happened:
Three members of the Right for Riches company met in Gosterwick. Uvash had church and no members of the Grudge Brigade were available. They decided to travel overland from Gosterwick to Arden Vul and try the Arden-vator up the Cliff Face. They left at dawn, didn't encounter anyone on the way, flew up to the lowered hand of the statue of Arden, and correctly pronounced the command word "Ardensia". Arden's hand starting grinding upward. When they reached the level of Arden's head, Vallium Levitated off the hand and tried singing the Song of Arden to the statue, but this had no noticable effect. He Levitated up after the others.
The group walked through the ruins of Arden Vul looking for any increased traffic after the death of Craas, but didn't really notice a difference. Vael sent a Message spell to Basil Choumnos, saying they wanted to meet. Choumnos sent a Message back, nothing that it was important to state that they were only visiting and did not want to challenge him. They went over to the Thothian teleportation circle in the ruined palace, where Vallium placed the teleportation tiles in the correct order for the Lady's Asylum, and Vael cast Scry Gate. He saw the Lady's Asylum, but with all the snow and ice melted.
Deciding to re-explore that area with the snow gone, they went through the teleporter. They started heading up the passage to the north. Vael, with See Invisible on, noticed an invisible halfling hiding in a side passage, pointing a Rudishva laser rifle at Vallium's head. He quickly cast Blink Other on Vallium to move him behind the halfling, as the halfling fired the weapon and burned a hole in the wall. Firing the weapon spoiled the halfling's invisibility, and Vallium fast-drew his sword and attacked -- but the halfling somehow dodged all his blows. Vael followed up with a Daze spell, which the halfling failed to resist, and he started into space in a stupor.
However, the halfling wasn't alone. Several of his friends, also invisible, started charging from the north and east. Vael saw some of them coming. The others just heard running. Vael cast See Invisible on Vallium, which let him start fighting, but he was outnumbered. Not liking the laser rifle, Vallium chugged a Resist Fire potion. Ioannes moved up to protect Vael.
Vallium eventually crippled the sword arm of a muscular warrior, causing him to drop his sword and attempt to draw and fire a laser rifle one-handed with his left hand. The Right for Riches company got pushed back. Vael cast Pummelling Fists of Arak-Zhorr into the east-leading hallway where he thought most of the enemy were, causing some minor damage and destruction and a couple of dropped items. As the retreat continued, he cast Grease on the floor in the main hallway, slowing the pursuit. Finally, when Vallium was fighting two warriors and the rest were caught behind by the other spells, Vael cast Wall of Lightning around the two, effectively closing the north-south hallway unless someone was willing to risk lightning damage.
The spearman switched his spear to a long grip and tried stabbling Vallium through the lightning, but didn't connect. The other fighter dropped his sword and unslung a loaded crossbow from a crossbow sling on his back, then started aiming at Vallium. Behind the Grease and the Lightning Wall, two wizards started plunking with Magical Bolt, with one of them slightly wounding Ioannes. The warrior with the laser rifle kept trying one-handed aimed shots, but never managed to do any damage. Both clerics tried Dispel Magic to get rid of all the spells, but failed.
Eventually, everyone went around the corner to get out of line of sight. Vael tried reaching into Larel's Sack on Vallium to try to find the Teleport Rug, but the Sack's magical ability to always find the right object didn't work for him. Vallium reached in, grabbed the Rug, and threw it on the ground behind him. Vael hopped onto the Rug then activated Larel's Cloak to turn invisible, pretending he'd teleported away. He then moved back and kneeleed next to the Rug, ready to grab it. Ioannes ran onto the Rug, said the command word, and teleported to the Beacon. Vallium teleported out next. As soon as Vallium was gone, Vael grabbed the Rug, Levitated back a few feet, then cast Pol's Recall to teleport himself to the Beacon.
Back in the Beacon, Ioannes healed himself, then the group discussed the ambush and their options. It had been eight on three, not great odds, so they decided not to go back to the Lady's Asylum today. Instead they would go visit Basil Choumnos. Vallium pulled out his map and found a roundabout route through several teleporters and stairways that would eventually reach the Drowned Canyon. The trip led through the Rudishva Bastion, so they grabbed the inert Rudishva dust ionizer, planning to drop it off at its charger on the way. About halfway through the trip, Vallium remembered that today was the day that they needed to feed the baboons per the terms of their treaty, so they should modify their route.
Vael called Basil on the Command Bracelet and asked him to prepare a wheelbarrow full of baboon chow. They changed their route to teleport to the Well of Light level, and then used a Teleport Rug to go get the wheelbarrow. They passed the Ruby Chair, and asked Ioannes if he'd found anything about the Ruby Chair in the Thothian book he'd recently read, but he had not. They delivered the food to Yamki, who noted that other baboons had told him of a large gathering of crocodiles in the swamp. They told Yamki that the crocodiles were eating a dead dragon.
With the baboons fed, they resumed their trip to the Drowned Canyon. This took them past the Temple of Thoth, where they briefly talked to Ichthelon and Remagis and the nearby goblins. None of them recognized the description of the group that had ambushed them, though one of the goblins noted that if there was a halfling it was probably one of Plumthorn's evil gang.
They went through a couple of secret doors, down a long staircase, and through a portcullis to reach the Drowned Canyon. While flying over the underground river, they were beset by a pack of chasm cephalpods, but Vael cast Pummelling Fists of Arak-Zhorr on them, and they decided to flee and chase some easier prey. Going west to the area with the statues flanking a magic circle, they noticed that the statue of Kerbog Khan was gone and the statue of Erist Ellagelsson was back. After some discussion about how and why this had happened, they stood in the magic circle and Vael cast a spell. This teleported them to the cavern outside the Tower of Pol. Choumnos was standing on top of the tower. He said some ritualistic words about who came to challenge him, and Vael yelled that it was not a challenge and they were just here to talk.
Choumnos switched to a less formal tone of voice and asked what they wanted. Vael said they wanted to borrow his teleporter to Archontos in a couple of weeks. Choumnos pointed out that it was a one-way teleporter and asked if they had a way back. Vael said that was fine. Choumnos asked how many people wanted to use his teleporter, and Vael said the three of them, plus their dwarven friend Uvash. Choumnos said that he was willing to let them use his teleporter but he needed a couple of things in return. One, he had a couple of overdue library books from the Royal Library that he would like them to return, in case he ever wanted to visit the library again. Ioannes told him that librarians mostly weren't that vindictive about overdue books and he should be fine, but they'd be happy to return the books. Two, his Rudishva sleeping chamber was showing a glyph that his magic deciphered as "low battery" and he wanted them to give him a new Greater Power Supply for it. Vael said they would let him know if they found a new Greater Power Supply. Vallium said he had a Longevity Potion, and Choumnos could have that, as a stopgap in case his bed was out of order for a while. Choumnos agreed, but was sad that Vallium didn't have the potion on him.
Vael asked if they could use the magic circle on this side to teleport back, and Choumnos said yes. They did so. After more discussion, Ioannes cast Stone to Flesh on the statue of Erist. It turned back into the elf, who blinked then started asking questions. What year was it, who was currently Castellan of Pol, who had taken out that woman Gemma who had killed him and was now a statue, and was there any news about Lady Ellagel the queen of the elves? They told him the year, that a half-elf named Hallar was looking for him, and that as far as they knew Lady Ellagel was fine. They asked Erist to accompany them to the Varumani Market to see Hellar. Erist agreed. They didn't fully trust him not to do anything stupid, so they stayed close for the trip, Levitating across the underground river then going through a Thothian teleportation circle then crossing from the former vampire territory through some caverns to the Varumani territory. Ioannes, with See Secrets on, thought he spotted a secret door in a rock wall on the south side of the underground river, but they didn't stop to investigate it.
In the Varumani halls, they ran into Sir Prudence the Sun-Scarred Knight, but didn't have time to converse before an ogre guard came up and asked to see their passports. They showed their passports to the ogre, then went over to the Varumani Market, where Hallar was excited to see Erist, who turned out to be his half-brother. Hallar told Erist that they had to go back home to see Mom right now, that she'd been looking for him for decades, but that first he had to let the varumani know that he was leaving. The Right for Riches company left Hallar's stall to go looking for the varumani hunters. They asked a varumani guard, who wasn't very helpful, but then a higher-ranking varumani came over and said that the Thegn himself wanted to meet with these visitors, and to please follow him to the Thegn's meeting room.
Leaving the guard apologizing in their wake, they followed the courtier to the outer guard room, where some ogre guards took their weapons. They then went into the meeting room, where some varumani guards told them to sit and wait for the Thegn. He came in a few minutes later, and had questions about the dead dragon. After they told him that, yes, they had killed Craas, he said it didn't really matter for him as the varumani never went to the surface, but he'd be interested if it increased trade. He asked if they had any kaliyani teeth for his bounty. They handed over the teeth, and he sent a guard to get them some gold. Thegn Varboka asked if they had actually managed to charge his power supply. Vallium fished a power supply out of his bag, and the Thegn gave it to another guard with instructions to have the court wizard test it. The guard returned a few minutes later, saying the power supply was indeed full, and Varboka asked if they could charge more power supplies. Vael said they could swap some fully power supplies for his empty ones if that was easier, and the Thegn agreed. He sent a guard off to fetch some empty power supplies, then gave the company the conference room to themselves so they could do whatever they wanted to do in private. Once everyone was gone, Vallium put down a Teleport Rug and went back to the Beacon and grabbed some full power supplies from a chest on the bridge. The Thegn did not return, but when a guard knocked, they gave him the power supplies and he gave them some gold. They asked to meet with one of the varumani hunters, and the guard said that the Thegn had not ordered that, but he'd see if any of the hunters wanted to see them. A few minutes later, a hunter came over. They told him that they had killed some kaliyani, but had given their teeth to the thegn. They said they knew where more kaliyani were and asked if the hunters wanted to help kill them. The hunter said yes, come back next week and we'll go hunting with you.
With Erist restored to his half-brother and varumani business concluded, they decided to explore the caverns west of the varumani halls. One corner of the largest cavern contained a brewing operation, where a varumani named Hak was making ale. He tried to sell them some kegs, but they said they were in a hurry, but might be back later. Then explored many small caves, some of which were varumani living quarters where they intruded on some private matters, but apologized and avoided conflict. They found a connection across an underground pond back to the former vampire area to the northwest, and from there teleported back to the Beacon, with Ioannes and Vallium using the Teleport Rug then Vael picking up the Rug can casting Pol's Recall.
GM's Comments:
That was a nasty ambush. Eight-on-three, against competent opponents with some spellcasters and high-tech equipment. Fortunately for the Right for Riches Company, Vael had See Invisible on, and spotted the invisible halfling sniper before he shot Vallium. And they figured out a way to teleport out.
Achievements:
- The Resuers: 1 XP for un-petrifying Erist and taking him to his half-brother
XP:
- Exploration: 6 new locations, 1 XP
- Loot: Not much, just some bounties for kaliyani fangs and payment for charging power supplies, 0 XP
- Achievements: 1 XP
- Total: 2 XP
Next Week:
Vallium is unavailable, so plans are unclear, but they mentioned they would like to hunt the kaliyani they found in a secret room near the Forum of Weskenim.
No comments:
Post a Comment