DFRPG Arden Vul Session 30: The Tomb of Theskalon

Date: 

Lunday, 9th of Basilembrios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Cool, cloudy, chance of rain

Player Characters: 

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Chrysalis (Lasselanta Ashcroft), Half-Elven mercenary martial artist (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Mariposa, Chrysalis's monkey

Gwelf, deceased dwarven thief

Lyssandra Astorion, Archontean wizard, co-owner of the Arcane Practitioners' Club

Creon, pawnbroker

Flavius Aurelius, Archontean merchant

Several merchant teamster/guards

Several mules

Suspicious bat that transformed into a suspicious worm

4 Settite Guild of Service slavers

Harold, Archontean fighter

Hjalti, Wiskin fighter

Kiglon, Thorcin ranger

The Plan:

• Leave one Teleport Rug in Gosterwick and bring the other along
• Climb the Long Stair to the secret entrance to the Great Cavern
• Go to the top of the rock formation in the southeastern Cavern and explore the shaft down
• Explore the classical temple on top of a rock spire in the southwestern Cavern
• Defeat the Set outpost in the southwestern Cavern, go down the stairs, and defeat the Varumani guards
• Explore as time permits

What Happened:

Uvash led some members of his dwarven flock to bury the fallen dwarf adventurer Gwelf, whose body they had found in a cavern the previous week.

Lyssandra left messages on everyone's apartment doors at the Arcane Practitioners' Club, that livestock and corpses were not permitted on the premises.  Also that all apartment tenants must leave by the first of Dikaios, when renovations to the top floor would commence.  The lounge, alchemy labs, training rooms, and library on the lower floors would not be affected.

Creon sent Vael a note that he had some newly arrived magical items.  The items were a very expensive magical knife, a suit of magical scale armor, and an invisibility potion.  Vael didn't buy any of them, but paid Creon a tip for continuing to let him know about interesting items before they went on the shelves.  Vael did spot and purchase a couple of items from market peddlers: a mapping kit and a hands-free helmet lamp.

Vael went looking for Wicktrimmer to see if he had any ideas about apartments, but the goblin was not available.

The Right for Riches company left for Arden Vul just after dawn on Lunday.  They made it to the base of the waterfall without encountering anyone, but saw a trail of people and mules heading up, about a quarter of the way up the Long Stair.  Everyone else stepped through the Rug back to Gosterwick, then Vael Levitated about halfway up the Long Stair to outside the secret entrance to the Great Cavern, and let the others come back through.  They waited there for the mule train, which turned out to be a merchant and six armed guards, each leading a mule.  Two of the guards came forward to talk.  They revealed that they were heading up to the Inn of the Broken Head with supplies.  Once he was convinced of their peaceful intentions, the merchant, Flavius Aurelius, came up to chat.  He revealed that he and his men regularly brought supplies from Gosterwick up to the Broken Head.  Vael asked to exchange contact information so they could talk again sometime in Gosterwick, and Flavius agreed.

Once the mule train was out of sight, the party opened the secret door, and Vallium led them east then north then west through narrow passages into the Great Cavern proper.  They repeated the trick with everyone stepping through the Rug, Vallium Levitating up to the top of the rock outcropping, then everyone stepping back out.  The shaft they wanted to explore was about 5 feet in diameter and extended beyond the range of their light sources.  Vael cast Trace on his Returning Pebble then dropped it into the hole.  The spell told him that it fell about 70 feet, bounced a few times, then settled there.  Vael was a bit nervous to fly down into the hole alone, so Vallium tied a 100 foot rope around his waist, spiked it in place at the top and had the others hold it, and then climbed down while Vael Levitated.  At the bottom was a cavern and there did not appear to be any danger, so Vallium stayed at the bottom to stand guard, while Vael flew up, let everyone step into the Rug, flew down, and let everyone step out.

The group explored the small cave.  It was unoccupied, but had a few interesting features.  There was what looked like a black flowering plant, impossibly growing in the pitch dark.  There was also a sheet spread out on the ground.  On the sheet were a couple of flasks of a strange light orange material, a couple of small discs of a strange heavy orange material, some unidentifiable dried fruit, and some unidentifiable and extremely old dried meat.  They took the objects, left the old food, and did not disturb the plant.

There was another shaft heading down.  Vael again cast Trace on his Pebble and dropped it.  This time it fell around 170' before bouncing around a bit.  That was longer than any rope they had, so Vael sent down a Wizard Eye spell to explore.  The spell revealed a cavern complex, with one large cavern containing a pool of water, and another tunnel sloping down.  It looked unoccupied, so Vael had everyone step into the Rug, flew down, and let everyone step out.

The group thoroughly explored the cave.  They didn't find any occupants or treasure, or any exits except for the tunnel sloping down.  Vallium swam around in the chilly pool, which appeared to be fresh water, about 30' deep.  Eventually they took the tunnel down, but then turned back around before exploring the deeper level.  Everyone climbed back up, then stepped into the Rug, and Vael flew all the way up to the rock then back down to the surface of the Great Cavern, and everyone stepped back out.

They walked west a bit to the base of the pillar atop which Vael had seen some kind of classical temple.  He flew up to take a look, then repeated the Rug trick to teleport everyone else up.  There was what looked like a classical marble temple on top of the pillar, and in the center of it was a large sarcophagus.  It was surrounded by 8 urns, about 4' in diameter and 4' tall.  There was a Mithric inscription on the sarcophagus:

Here rests Ptarmis

loyal servant of Thoth

seeker of hidden ways

who destroyed the loathsome ones

raised his children from spores

and opened this cavern

Those who disturb his sleep

Will be returned to the mulch

from whence they came.

This was a bit confusing, since they'd met a man named Ptarmis, on the throne a bit to the east, who was very much alive.  Vael looked over to see if he was there, and he was.  He flew over to chat.  Ptarmis indicated that the temple was his, like everything in the Great Cavern was his, and that they should leave it alone.  Surprisingly, the party complied, and left without opening the sarcophagus or the urns.

Next they continued west to the Settite outpost.  Vael used Larel's Cloak to turn invisible, and cast Infravision so he could hide his light, and flew over to check it out.  There were no guards on the landing.  He kicked the rope ladder down so the others could climb up, and explored into the tunnel to the west.  The stores of food were gone, and then all the furniture in the Settite guard lounge room was gone.  It looked like the Settites had abandoned the area.  The door north was locked, but Vallium had a key, and unlocked it, then another door north, then another door west, to find the stairs leading down to the Forum of Set level.

The group snuck down the stairs, wary of the Varumani guards they saw last time, but this time they didn't see any varumani in the octagonal crossroads room.  There was just one bat, suspiciously orbiting the room.  Chrysalis decided she didn't like the bat, and used her long staff to knock it down, fatally.  When it hit the ground, its corpse changed from a bat into a strange worm, and remained dead.

They explored a few tunnels until they found a large room to the south.  There were 6 plinths, with name plaques.  5 of them contained statues, with 4 of the statues complete and one of them headless, with colorful magical sparks shooting out of its neck.  There was a separate smaller platform in front of each plinth.  There were large letters in Mithric on the south wall "Let the Worthy Illuminate the" and then the sentence was rudely interrupted by a hole in the wall.  The missing statue was "Priscus Pulcher, the Arch-Sortian" and there were some fresh flowers there.  The intact statues were "Licinia the Seer", "Plotinus Quartus Claudino, Archon", "Yeth, Who Sought to Bring Law to Chaos", and "Horatius Interfector, Sorcerer."  The headless statue with the spark show was "Thrygga the Mighty", and he was wearing some impossibly fantastic armor, a bit similar to what the Sun-Scarred Knight Sir Sorrow had worn.  Some of these names were vaguely familar but none of the party was a historian.  Vael tried putting Continual Light stones near each statue, which didn't seem to do anything.  He also put a piece of paper in the spark shower and succeeded in setting it on fire.

Tiring of the statues, the group explored a few more tunnels, then went west, to a big blue pillar they had seen before.  The pillar had statues on several sides: of a handsome man, a woman, a varumani, a Thothian priest, and a goblin.  Vallium had made a note to bring old coins, but had not actually brought any.  Fortunately they had the teleport rugs, so he walked through one back to their apartments, grabbed several coins and gems, and came back.  He determined that the woman's eyes were a perfect fit for gold solidi, and the priest's eyes for ancient silver pennies.  The handsome man's eyes, varumani's mouth, and goblin's nose also had holes, but none of those matched the size of any coins or gems in their collection.  Vallium put two solidi in the woman's eye holes, and the whole group was instantly half-blinded by bright light as they were teleported outside, near the old Archon's palace.  Unfortunately they were about ten feet above the ground, so everyone (except Vael, who still had Levitation on) fell to the ground with a painful thump.  While Ioannes healed falling damage, Uvash mentioned that he had seen a short obelisk on the other side of the palace wall, before they fell.  Vael Levitated up and saw that the obelisk was covered with lunar symbols and had an ankh-shaped hole, much like the Obelisk of the Sun near the entrance to Arden Vul, except this one had been broken and only the bottom 10 feet remained.

Remembering something they had read about sun and moon and stars, the group determined that if they'd found the moon obelisk, they should see if they could find the star obelisk to complete the set.  Vael looked for a third obelisk on the line between the others but didn't see it.  He then tried a Seeker spell, concentrating on the moon obelisk, to find another one like it but with stars.  He was rewarded with a vision of the Obelisk of the Stars, in the swamp to the southwest.  He flew up and looked that way, until he also spotted it with the naked eye.  They considered visiting all the obelisks now, but something in the story they remembered had said "mid-day", and it was already afternoon, so they decided to come back another day before noon in case the exact timing mattered.

The group decided to go back to the Blue Pillar.  They walked east across the bridge toward the Pyramid of Thoth, south through the Forum, past the scary Tower of Scrutiny, past the Obelisk of the Sun, and down the Long Stair to the secret door.  They then retraced their steps across the Great Cavern to the west, climbed the rope ladder into the former Set outpost, went down the stairs, and went west again to the Blue Pillar.  After all that walking, and with no significant loot found, Vael announced that it was time to look for treasure, and cast Seek Earth looking for platinum.  He sensed some, a bit to the northwest.  There were no passages going that way, and nobody found any secret doors, so they went east then north up some stairs, hoping they could loop around.  The stairs went up a long way, and there were periodic frescoes of faces in agony.  There were also some magical noses on the walls, which started sniffing as they passed.  No enemies came, so the group ignored the noses and pressed on.

Ahead, they heard some conversation, as if someone was searching for someone.  They snuck up and saw four Settites, facing the other way toward a closed door.  Wordlessly, they ambushed the Settites.  Vallium shield-rushed one to the ground, chopped him up, then chopped another one.  Mariposa the monkey tied one of the Settites up in cloaks, while Chrysalis smashed him with a staff.  Uvash paused for a second to activate his Divine Grace, then ran up behind a wounded Settite and smashed his skull in.  The last surviving Settite tried to surrender, but nobody wanted to deal with prisoners, and he died under a hail of cuts and blows from all sides.

Vallium forced open the door to the west, and there was a large man hiding behind it.  Seeing they were not dressed like Settites, he came out and revealed that his name was Harold and that he'd been hiding from the slavers.  He had come to the Halls with an adventuring group to explore old tombs and take treasures that their owners no longer needed.  But then their leader, Gillen, had decided to turn bandit, capturing travelers and selling them to the slavers.  Harold considered himself a respectable tomb robber, not an evil bandit or slaver, so left the group.  Unfortunately he had gotten lost and had attracted the attention of the Settite "Guild of Service" and thought he was about to be captured and thrown into a slave pit, until the Right for Riches company came and killed the slavers.  They believed his story, and offered to guide him out.

Everyone continued north up the stairs to another room, in which two badly wounded men were stapled to a punishment frame.  One was missing both hands, unconscious, and bleeding to death.  The other was in better shape, and identified himself as Hjalti.  He said the other man was Kiglon.  Ioannes healed both of them, then they let both men down.  Neither looked to be in any shape to walk far, so he cast more healing spells until both men were able to walk a bit better and Kiglon woke up.  Then they told both men that they would be able to teleport them to a temple in Gosterwick where they would be safe, if they promised not to reveal the secret of the teleportation.  Both men agreed, as did Harold, and then Ioannes took all three of them through the Rug, back to an apartment at the Arcane Practitioner's Club in Gosterwick, then to the Temple of Demma.  Ioannes came back through the Rug alone about 30 minutes later, and the others had not been interrupted.

Vael tried another Seek Earth spell and detected platinum again, this time to the southwest.  Figuring they'd missed a secret door, he pulled out the Wand of See Secrets and used a charge.  It immediately found a secret door to the southwest.  He ran around the previously explored territory until the spell ran out, but didn't find any more secrets.  Returning to the secret door that the wand had found, Vael was able to see the outline of the door, but not a handle or a catch or a keyhole or any way to open it.  Everyone else looked, and nobody else found anything either.  Vael used Shape Earth to just rip a hole in the wall, which worked.

A narrow passage and a few steps down led to a room with several empty sarcophagi and a workbench with some tools and jars.  The jars contained some kind of embalming spices.  There was an obvious door north, but some searching found a secret door south.

Behind the secret door was a small room containing a blood-encrusted altar.  Both clerics felt the sanctity level dip to Pure Evil.  The non-clerics searched the altar but didn't find anything.  Ioannes exorcised it, which made him feel better but didn't diminish the feeling of evil.  Eventually Chrysalis got suspicious and figured out the altar was a scary illusion, and put her staff through it.  Once she pointed it out, the others were able to see it as well, and they searched the room and found another secret door leading south.

The room to the south contained a big block of granite, like a sarcophagus but with no obvious lid or way to open it.  It had a small hemispherical depression on the top.  It was inscribed "Theskelon is in me I am in Theskelon" and "Let Set devour the rays of his old rival".  The plastered walls had several Settite images that were a combination of flat painting and three dimensional sculpture, with some real objects incorporated.  There was a black boar with a sun in its jaws, a crocodile eating a heron, a Set animal squatting on a turtle, and a human priest of Set chopping a baboon with an axe.  The sun, the boar's eye, the heron's legs, the turtle shell, and the axe head were distinct objects.

Everyone got into position, and Vallium tried smashing the granite block, which did nothing.  Chrysalis then tried a Power Blow to smash the block harder, still nothing.  Finally Vael told the warriors to stand aside and used a Shape Earth spell to open the block, which also failed.

Someone asked about the size of the sun versus the depression, and the sun was a bit too big to fit.  Vallium ripped the sun off the wall and started peeling the plaster off the outside, revealing a golden orb that would fit in the depression.  Once he inserted it, the granite shell exploded into dust, revealing a smaller gold and lapis sarcophagus, shaped like a Settite priest with folded arms.

Vallium opened the inner sarcophagus, but as he did a fire trap exploded, burning him.  All the others who were foolishly standing too close had to dive out of the way, but none were injured.  Ioannes healed Vallium's burns, and then they looked inside the sarcophagus.  It contained some human bones with gold signet ring (inscribed "Theskelon the Master") around one finger.  There were also three copper plaques with maps on them, along with glyphs in an unknown language and notes in Mithric.  There were three books, one in Mithric (about creating mummies) and two in unknown languages.  Finally, there was a key, which Vallium immediately added to his huge keyring.

Uvash cast Final Rest on the bones, hoping that would stop them from going undead and attacking.  Vallium set up the Rug and carried the gold and lapis inner sarcophagus (which was too big to fit in Larel's Sack and too heavy easily carry home) through, then came back.  They gathered up the other treasure in Larel's Sack, then retraced their steps back to Gosterwick.

GM's Comments:

This blog is starting to feel like an infomercial for the Rugs of Instant Access.  ("But that's not all!  If you order in the next ten minutes we'll throw in a third Rug!")

For the second week in a row, we had some technical difficulties in Foundry VTT.  Last week it was the PCs trying to visit a map that wasn't ready, my fault.  This time, the map they wanted to visit was ready, but a new module I'd added to Foundry (Map Coordinates) was causing problems loading large maps, including that one.  So they had to turn around before exploring that new level, and we also had to do the Arden Vul Ruins part (when the blue pillar teleported them to the surface) theater-of-the-mind since that map wouldn't load either.  I figured out the problem after the session was over and removed that module, so now they're clear to visit those maps again.

This session was fairly light on combat (just two one-sided fights against the single bat-worm and the four surprised Settite slavers) and loot (just that one tomb, plus the slavers' stuff and a few odd items they found in a cave), but the PCs explored a lot and rescued three more people from the Settites.

Achievements:

• The Rescuers, for rescuing Harold and Hjalti and Kiglon, 1 XP

XP:

• Exploration: 16 new locations, good for 1 XP
• Loot: orange objects, slavers' gear, stuff from tomb, good for 1 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total:  3 XP

Next Week:

Will they go back down to one of the deeper levels that they've been foiled from visiting by technical issues, or will they stick to the surface ruins and try to figure out the Obelisks?  Will they find a new place to live that's more tolerant of live goats and dead giant beetles?  Will the Rugs of Instant Access demand a full share of loot and XP?

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 29: The Tower of Scrutiny

Date: 

Horasday, 26th of Besemios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Cool, cloudy, chance of rain

Player Characters: 

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Ethereum "Coinbase" Thuringwador, Elf Illusionist (Mercenary) (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Craastonistorax, large ancient green dragon

4 Wraiths

Yamki, giant 3-armed intelligent baboon

Goat

Trefko, giant 4-armed intelligent baboon

Many baboons

Bottleneck, goblin master sergeant

Many goblins

Gwelf, deceased dwarven thief

Ghoul

Mummy

Many large spiders

3 giant boring beetles

The Plan:

Vallium's plan for the week was:

• Leave one Rug of Instant Access at an apartment in the Arcane Practitioners' Club in Gosterwick and then teleport to it from the other Rug every mile or so on the way to Arden Vul, to find the Rugs' maximum range.
• Leave the set of silver chess pieces they found last week on the dam as tribute for Craastonistorax.
• Try exploring the square tower next to the Forum in the ruins of Arden Vul.  First try to get in the front door, then search for secret doors, then see if the Eyes of Set allowed seeing through the darkness on the stairs down from the roof, then try using ropes or magical flight to send someone down the stairs.
• Go through the Pyramid of Thoth to the Well of Light, check on Yamki and the baboons, give the baboons some food if they're behaving, and trade Trefko a live goat (teleported in from Gosterwick using the Rugs) for his Dwarven Life-Stone.  Give Trefko a sheet to cover the mirror at the bottom of the Well when the party isn't using it, rather than having baboons poop on it.
• Explore the exit up from the Well of Light, northwest of the Ruby Chair.
• Explore the Howling Caves beyond the portcullis.
• Go shopping at the Goblin Market.

What Actually Happened:

The Right for Riches company, without Vael or Michael but with Coinbase the head Grudge Brigade Mercenary, left Gosterwick just before dawn on Horasday.  They had a Rug of Instant Access spread out in one apartment, and a live goat left in another apartment (not the same one with the Rug).  On the ten-mile walk to the Cliff Face below Arden Vul, they stopped every mile or so, spread out the Rug, and used it to teleport someone to Gosterwick and back.  When they reached the Cliff Face, everyone except Coinbase stepped through the Rug, Coinbase Levitated up the Cliff Face with the Rug, and then everyone stepped back through the Rug to join Coinbase at the top of the cliff.  Overall, playing with the Rugs took a couple of minutes, but not having to walk all the way up the Long Stair saved over an hour, so this shortened the trip by about an hour while proving that the Rugs' range was at least ten miles.

After reaching the ruins, they walked over to the dam and left a silver Archontean chess set as tribute for the dragon.  They then walked over to the squat square tower by the Forum, where they had long ago found locked doors, bodies on the roof, and stairs down into impenetrable magical darkness.  This time the doors were still locked, and none of the many keys on Vallium's keyring fit.  The whole group circled the base of the tower looking for secret doors, and Uvash found one on the back side of the tower.  Everyone took a close look and nobody saw an obvious way to open it, until Ioannes found a small keyhole.  None of Vallium's keys fit, and nobody had lockpicks or a Lockmaster spell, and the door looked like very sturdy stone that they would not be able to break through, so they gave up on opening the secret door.

Next Coinbase Levitated everyone up, one at a time, riding in the Living Wheelbarrow.  The group assembled above the dark stairs and tried using the Eyes of Set to see through the darkness, but they did not work.  Vallium then borrowed the Ring of Climbing from Uvash, tied a rope around his waist, wrapped the rope around the ibis-head statue, and had Uvash hold onto the other end of the rope.  Vallium then went down the rickety wooden stairs, through the magical darkness, until he came out the other side into a stone passage where his Continual Light stone worked.  He yelled up that he was fine and they could send the next person down.

Ioannes came down next, again with a rope around his waist, but this time the wooden stairs collapsed under him.  Fortunately, Uvash was attentive with the rope and pulled to keep Ioannes from falling more than a couple of feet.  Uvash pulled Ioannes back up, and they switched to Plan B, where Ioannes and Uvash stepped through the Rug, then Coinbase Levitated down the broken stairs with the Rug, with a rope connecting him to Vallium.  Once Coinbase arrived next to Vallium, he laid down the Rug and the others stepped through.

Ioannes noticed that the Sanctity level was low; this place felt evil.  Uvash agreed.  There was a closed door to the north and a passage going south then east, which they followed.  The passage ended at a doorway where the door had been destroyed.  Beyond was a small room containing some destroyed desks, destroyed chairs, destroyed office supplies, another destroyed door on the far side, and a couple of old corpses.  Ioannes tried to diagnose the cause of death and didn't see any obvious wounds.

After failing to find any treasure, they continued north through the other broken door, then west to an intact door, then opened it to find a small room with a spiral stairway going down.  The other door had some writing in blood: "Do not open the doors below! They are waiting!"  Everyone was a bit creeped out, but they went down the stairs anyway.

One level down, they entered a room with three bodies on the floor, two doors (one of them spiked shut from this side), and the spiral stairs continuing down.  The bodies looked from their equipment like a warrior, a wizard, and a Thothian priest.  The equipment included some magic mail armor, a magic shield, a silver scroll case, a magic staff, a greatsword, and a pouch full of small gems.  Vallium shoved all of that into Larel's Sack.  Ioannes examined the bodies and again did not see an obvious cause of death.

They opened the unspiked door and went east then south until they reached a locked door.  Vallium slammed into it hard enough to break the lock.  Inside the room were pegs with ten different magical Thothian masks on them, picturing humans and baboons and ibises.  Nobody felt like trying one on, but they were all magical, so all of them went into the sack.  The door on the other side of the room was locked, and Vallium could not break this one.  They doubled back to the room with the stairs, took all the spikes out, and opened the southern door, which was only stuck not locked.  It led south then east to the other side of the locked door they could not open, so they figured they were done with this level and went back to the spiral stairs and down.

The spiral stairs led to another small room with two exits, and continued down further.  On the floor were a coil of magical rope, a lantern, and some lamp oil.  Vallium put the magic rope in the sack but left the other stuff.  Both doors were locked.  Vallium shouldered both of them hard, but failed to get either one open.  However, he had a file, so he went to work destroying hinges.  The hinges failed before the file broke, so the eastern door was destroyed.

They went east then south to another locked door.  Vallium used the file on this one too.  The southeastern room contained a trap door in the floor, with no obvious locks.  It also had a bunch of pegs on the walls, most of them with the tattered remains of orange Thothian robes, and one containing a bright orange silk robe in good shape, with blue embroidery.  It did not appear magical, so people were suspicious how this robe survived, but Vallium shoved it into the sack anyway.  Vallium then destroyed the hinges on another door, and led the group west.

They could now see the huge brass double doors at the front of the tower from the inside.  There was also some kind of central shaft in the middle of the tower, with a pillar in the middle with Thothian images, and a corpse on the floor in front of it.  The corpse had magical leather armor, a shortsword, and a pouch, so Vallium started taking its stuff and putting it in the sack.  While he did that, he was rudely interrupted by a floating spectral creature coming out of the central shaft.  It reached out with a ghostly hand to touch him.  Vallium fast-drew his sword to parry, but the creature's hand went right through the sword.  Coinbase, standing right next to Vallium, tried a sacrificial block with his magic shield, and that did stop the attack.  So it appeared the wraith was affected by magic shields but not non-magical swords.

A fight began, where Vallium and Coinbase both shield-bashed the wraith (because they had magic shields but not magic weapons), Ioannes started casting Affect Spirits on Vallium's sword, and Uvash moved into position.  They hit the wraith a few times but didn't seem to hurt it much.  In addition to its ghostly touch attack, it also did some kind of ranged contest of Will against Uvash that did enough damage to blow his Bless spell off, and everyone standing near it felt some kind of ghostly toxic effect that was not actually poison.

And then a second wraith appeared.  The fight continued.  Vallium got a good hack in once his sword could Affect Spirits, and Uvash pounded a wraith with Finisher, his mace enchanted against undead.  But that was not enough to stop a wraith.

And then a third wraith appeared.  At that point Coinbase said it was probably time to run.  And everyone did.  And the wraiths pursued.  As a fourth wraith appeared.

The whole group ran south, then east, then north, then west to the spiral stairs, then up two levels, with the wraiths sniffing behind.  Coinbase, the fastest runner, got far enough ahead that he stopped for a couple of seconds to cast Flight on Vallium.  Once they reached the top of the spiral stairs, they ran around the upper level to the bottom of the broken wooden stairs leading to the roof.  By then there was some distance to the wraiths, so Vallium picked up Ioannes and carried him to the roof, then came back and carried Uvash up, while Coinbase Levitated himself to the roof.  Nobody had any safety ropes this time, but they were pretty sure the mana level was fine based on their entry, and nobody thought they could afford the time to set up ropes.

Once everyone reached the roof, Vallium and Coinbase ferried them to the ground at the base of the tower.  No wraiths appeared to be following them, so Ioannes took a few minutes to heal everyone of their wraith wounds, then rested for a few minutes.  That was enough of the Tower of Scrutiny for one day, so the group walked north to the Pyramid of Thoth, manipulated its arms to open the trap door, and went down the steps to the Glory of Thoth.

Vallium knocked on the door and announced himself, and the goblin guards let them in.  There were even more goblins in Upper Goblintown than last time, and many of them were holding small orange gourds full of alcohol.  The giant ibis-headed Thoth statue was wearing a pink turban, sort of resembling the one King Weskenim wore.  Vallium mentioned to Bottleneck that this was the goblins' third week in a row of partying, and Bottleneck said that it was because they had continued to expand their territory, and also it was a goblin holiday celebration.

The group went south and west to the indoor pyramid, flipped the control rod to teleport to the other indoor pyramid on the Well of Light level, and then walked over to visit Yamki.  Yamki said that Trefko was still in his room and was still grumpy but was not causing trouble.  He said that Sisko's harem were still rude but they did not appear to have destroyed anything.  Vallium was satisfied with Yamki's story and gave him a large pile of meat that he pulled out of Larel's Sack.  Yamki gave some of the meat to each of the nearby female baboons, then headed south to the Howling Caves to feed the others.

The group headed north and west to Trefko's room.  They knocked on the door and Trefko opened it.  Trefko asked if they had his goat.  Vallium said to wait a minute, then went around a corner, spread out the Rug, walked through to the apartment in Gosterwick, went to the apartment next door with the goat, grappled the goat, and carried it back through the Rug.  He carried the squirming goat over toward Trefko.  Coinbase tried a Levitation on the goat to make it float peacefully, but the goat stubbornly resisted the spell.  Trefko ended the commotion by reaching out with two of his huge arms to grab the goat.  He then removed his dwarven life-stone necklace with his other two hands, and gave it to Uvash.  The life-stone said "Schist Corundam" in Dwarven Runic, which Uvash identified as a dwarven name, with Schist being the given name and Corundam a clan name.  Vallium asked Trefko how things were going, and he said he preferred his quiet room to all the noisy kids in the Howling Caves.  Vallium said that was fine, as long as Trefko kept the others from vandalizing the mirrors.  He gave Trefko a sheet that he could use to cover the mirror when it wasn't being used.

The party then went north and west to the hole in the ceiling.  Vallium pulled a ladder out of Larel's Sack to make it easier to reach, and everyone went up. They went north through a narrow natural cavern passage, until it opened into a cavern.  The cavern contained a half-eaten dwarf corpse, which Ioannes recognized as Gwelf, the dwarf they had freed from Gerrilad's prison, who had then run off.  Gwelf appeared to have taken a fatal blow from a large cutting weapon.  Uvash cast Final Rest on Gwelf, while Ioannes cast Bless on Uvash to replace the Bless that had absorbed a wraith attack.

The room also contained a couple of statues, a 4' marble whippet and a 5' bronze Ptah.  The bronze statue took all of Vallium's strength to budge.  Uvash spotted a single ancient gold solidi coin on the floor.  Coinbase cast Lighten Burden to make it a bit easier to manage, and Vallium took both statues and Gwelf's body through the Rug to their apartment.  While he was there, he dumped a bunch of newly found loot out of Larel's Sack.

There were two exits from the cavern, a passage north at ground level and a passage west about 25' up.  Coinbase Levitated up to take a look, but didn't see much.  The group decided "Right for Riches" meant north, and then they turned right at a fork.  This led to a passage that went down a long way, as the passage got drier.  After about half a mile of descending, the party decided to turn around and went back.

They took a few more right turns and then entered a huge underground graveyard.  There were sarcophagi scattered all over, some with blank lids, others with gisants with pictures of people and sometimes names carved in Mithric, always "Brother Someone."  Coinbase tentatively flew around to map the room, and found several mausoleums along the north and south walls.  The room felt creepy, with Low Sanctity.  After much discussion, they decided to take the lid off a sarcophagus near the entrance where it would be easier to run.  Inside was an inert mummy and some ancient silver coins.  They decided not to rob the grave, and opened a second one.  This one contained a ghoul, who attacked them.  It was four on one, so the ghoul didn't last long.  There was also some silver in this one, and they decided to take it, since the ghoul had attacked them.

After more discussion, they decided to open the door of the mausoleum in the southwest corner.  Inside was a platform with a mummy on it.  The mummy sat up, and everyone ran -- after a recent fight with two mummies, and fleeing for their lives from four wraiths, they didn't feel like a fight with one mummy plus a possibly large number of its friends.  Once they left the graveyard room, nothing seemed to follow.

They took another right turn and went northeast, to where they spotted three giant beetles munching on the corpse of a bull-headed biped.  Coinbase summoned a couple of semi-illusionary phantoms, and they grappled the beetles while Vallium stabbed them.  There was no treasure, but Vallium rug-teleported the half-eaten minotaur corpse and one of the beetle corpses back to their apartment.

They then went west until they found a room with a lot of spider webs.  Some large spiders started jumping down and bit one of Coinbase's illusions, actually dispelling it.  There were enough spiders that the group decided they should leave rather than contining the fight, and they fled from the third battle of the delve.

The group found a crossroads with three exits, labeled "E" and "W" and "N" in big red letters.  They continued in the direction they thought was southeast (despite the labels) until Vallium accidentally discovered a pit trap and started to fall in.  He used his Luck to reroll his DX check then caught himself on the edge.  After he climbed out, they pulled the cover off and looked in the pit.  Not finding any treasure, they continued and found a second covered pit.  There was nothing inside that one either.  After bypassing the pits, they made it back to their entrance to this level, and went back to the Well of Light.  They visited the Library to grab the broken tripod for the mirror, and put it in Larel's Sack to bring it back to Gosterwick for repair.  Then they walked back home.

GM's Comments:

They escaped the Tower of Scrutiny without dying.  The wraiths are no joke.  They found the Tower back in Session 1 with 125 point PCs, and if they'd gone in back then, it probably would have been a TPK.  But now they're powerful enough to run away more effectively.  (Also, props to Coinbase for calling for retreat at the right time.  Another couple of turns and they might not have made it.)

When the party found that deeply descending tunnel and turned around, they didn't actually want to turn around.  I told them the map they were approaching wasn't ready, so they had to turn around (or pause there), but it would be ready for next session.  This is the first time this has happened in this campaign, so they got an achievement for it.  (It's a one-time-only achievement as I don't want them deliberately trying to exceed the limits of the mapped area.)

The Rugs of Instant Access are the kind of magic item that totally changes the game.  They players are still figuring them out, but got a lot of use out of them.  (Including questionable uses like teleporting random monster corpses back to their apartments.)

Achievements:

• Outsmarted the GM: 1 XP for reaching an area where the map wasn't ready (one time only)

XP:

• Exploration: 1 XP for 15 new locations
• Loot: It sounds like they'll sell enough of the magic armor and masks to get 2 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 4 XP

Next Week:

My guess is they won't go back to the Tower of Scrutiny.  They might resume exploring the tunnels above the Well of Light, or try to finish the unexplored parts of the Well of Light or Halls of Thoth, or go looking for the Troll Lifts, or something else.  They keep finding new places to explore faster than they finish exploring old places.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 28: Teleport Rugs and Baboons

Date: 

Tahsday, 18th of Besemios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Cool, rainy

Player Characters: 

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Thronebreaker (Thrainor Ironvein), Dwarven mercenary fighter (Archon Shiva)

Significant NPCs:

Creon, pawnbroker

Theopilos, locksmith

Egill Flat-nose, tavern owner

Wicktrimmer, Imperial goblin merchant factor

Grugga, cavewoman leader

Many cave people

Stamelis, animated head, formerly Librarian of Thoth

2 crocodiles

otyugh

Yamki, giant 3-armed intelligent baboon

Trefko, giant 4-armed intelligent baboon

Many baboons

2 goblin women who are honorary baboons

Burris, Thorcin warrior

3 mantari

Ghost of Ptirasa, priestess of Thoth

Skalla, skeleton warrior

Bottleneck, goblin master sergeant

Many goblins

The Plan:

Vallium's plan for the week was to trade with the cave people to the west of the waterfall below Arden Vul, see if the Rugs of Instant Access had enough range to bypass climbing the Long Stair, clear out the pits near the Ruby Chair and find the control rod for the indoor pyramid teleporter, test the indoor pyramid teleporter, perform the Litany of Light again, talk to Yamki and Stamelis, donate a lot of alcohol to the goblins, and explore more of the Well of Light or Halls of Thoth levels.

What Actually Happened:

Vael got a tip from Creon the pawnbroker than an interesting item was available, and it turned out to be the Eyes of Set, some goggles that allegedly allowed seeing through magical darkness cast by Settites.  Vael purchased them.

Vallium went to Theopilos to have copies of Plumthorn's keys made for the goblins.  He also went to Egill at the Baliff's Truncheon tavern and purchased several barrels of moonshine for the goblins.  He also bought several axes for trade with the cave people.

Wicktrimmer sent the Right for Riches Company a note that he had information about their shopping list.  Vallium, Vael, and Uvash showed up at the Rarities Factor, where Wicktrimmer told them that his agents in Narsileon had found a magic broadsword that Vallium might like and some magic scale armor that might meet Michael's requirements, but that neither Bracers of Force nor any giant spider silk had been found.  Vallium and Vael (speaking for Michael, who was off in the woods somewhere on another hunting trip) approved the purchases, which Wicktrimmer said should arrive via mule train in a few weeks.

Wicktrimmer then said that His Sources had revealed the presence of strong teleportation magic in Gosterwick, and asked if they knew anything about that.  Vael admitted the existence of the teleportation rugs but said they hadn't told Wicktrimmer because they were still testing how well they worked.  Wicktrimmer asked for a description of the rugs, and said they sounded like Rugs of Instant Access, which Sligo the Devious famously used to assassinate Leonidas of Archontos.  He asked for an update after the rugs were tested, and said that if they had enough range to teleport someone from Gosterwick to Narsileon, he would pay a whole lot of money for them.

Trying to avoid being predictable, someone rolled a 7-sided die to figure out the day of their next delve.  It came up Tahsday, so very early Tahsday morning they set out for the caves west of the Swift River.  There were several cavemen standing guard outside their cave, They called into the cave for reinforcements, and a couple dozen more people came out.  Nobody shared a common language or had language magic, but Vallium gestured a desire to trade, and pulled 5 good quality metal axes out of Larel's Sack.  The cave people were impressed by the axes, and their older female leader (who turned out to be named Grugga) sent someone back into the cave to get something.  A few minutes later he emerged carrying a metal axe head, and being yelled at by a women who apparently didn't want him to trade the axe head.  Vael saw that the axe head was magical, and so told Vallium that trading 5 whole axes for that one axe head was a good deal.  The trade was made, and then the Right for Riches company tried gesturing back and forth with the cave people for a while but gained no significant information (beyond the gestured version of "snake people basket fall down go boom", which they already knew because they had been the ones to make the basket fall down), before leaving.

They walked a bit into the woods and spread out one Rug of Instant Access across the ground, then Vael cast Levitation and flew to the top of the cliff, holding the other Rug.  Vael spread out his Rug across the ground at the top, then stepped on it and said the command word "viator", and appeared on the other Rug near the others.  The others then used the lower Rug to teleport to the upper Rug, one at a time.  Finally Vael grabbed the lower Rug and flew up to the top of the cliff with the others.  The total time for two flights up the cliff was about six minutes, compared to well over an hour to climb the Long Stair (depending on climbing skill, load carried, and risks taken), so everyone agreed this was a success.

The group walked north through the ruins of Arden Vul to the top of the Well of Light.  Vael dropped a Continual Light rock down the Well and didn't see a bright reflection at the bottom, which indicated that the bottom mirror had probably been covered.  He Levitated down the shaft carrying one Rug, saw that the fixed mirror was indeed covered in muck and the portable mirror and stand were gone, but didn't see anything dangerous in the area.  He landed, spread out the Rug, teleported through it, sent the other 3 through the top Rug, then grabbed the top Rug and flew down the Well again to rejoin the others.  They spent several minutes cleaning baboon feces off the fixed mirror, then went south to visit the head of Stamelis in the Library of Thoth.

Stamelis seemed happy to see them, but didn't have a lot of news.  Nothing had come into the locked Library, though he had heard some baboons hooting.  He was annoyed that he had a whole library of books to read but no ability to fetch books or turn pages, and requested that the group find a nice priest of Thoth to assist him.

Everyone headed north to the Hall of Judgment.  They pushed studs on the Ruby Chair until both pits opened.  One still contained 2 crocodiles, though they weren't moving much, possibly due to hunger.  The other contained some kind of creature with tentacles, and that was the pit that Vael's Seeker spell had said the pyramid control lever was in.  The tentacles weren't long enough to reach the top of the pit, so Vael decided to un-sportingly use Wall of Lightning in the water-filled pit to electrocute the monster from afar.  This worked, and after a while the whole room smelled of an unholy combination of wet dog and burned fish.  Vael rested for a while, then Vallium tied a long rope around the punishment pillar, and Vael levitated down into the pit while Uvash climbed down the rope to guard him.  Vael spotted the control rod for the pyramid and a magic wand and grabbed both.

The group discussed whether they should also kill the crocodiles, and then thought there might be treasure in that pit too, so they had to.  Vael repeated the remote electrocution trick.  This time Vallium went into the pit with Vael, because he wanted to try using his survival skills to try to extract valuable crocodile skin, and also see if there was anything valuable in their stomachs.  He failed to skin them cleanly, destroying the hides.  He also didn't find anything valuable inside them.  He did, however, make a giant stinky mess.  Meanwhile Vallium picked up a few silver coins.  The missing mirror was also in the pit, along with its stand, which was broken into two parts but looked fixable.  Vallium loaded the heavy mirror into the Living Wheelbarrow and Levitated it up.

With both pits cleared, the group turned their attention to the Ruby Chair.  Both dwarves agreed it sure looked like it was carved from one giant hunk of ruby, but that was impossible as rubies didn't get that big.  Vael cast Seek Earth for ruby, and it pointed right at the chair.  Thronebreaker tried using his considerable strength to move the chair, but it didn't move.  There was a Mithric inscription behind the chair that said “Speak the Secret Name and Claim Thy Reward.”  Vael read the inscription out loud, which did nothing.  He didn't know any secret name, but they thought Stemelis might, so they went back to the library to talk to him.  Stamelis didn't tell them any secret names.  Vael started looking through the books hoping one would have the secret name, but most of the books in the Thoth section were written in the Secret Language of Thoth, which Stamelis would not teach him because Thoth's Secrets Are For Thoth's Children.  After various attempts to trick, fast-talk, or persuade Stamelis, they left again.

Wanting to test the pyramid control rod, the Right for Riches company went west to the indoor pyramid, where Vallium installed the rod.  They then flipped the rod and appeared on top of the nearly identical pyramid one level down.  They they moved the matching rod there, and were back on the Well of Light level.

The group headed east toward the Howling Caves, and found Yamki the Three-Armed in a room just north of the portcullis leading to the Caves.  At that point there were some pointed questions about how the mirror got re-pooped.  Yamki said he didn't do it and his loyal baboons didn't do it but there might be some renegade baboons who didn't respect his authority and management was hard.  Vallium offered Yamki a bunch of meat in exchange for leaving the mirror alone and telling them who had vandalized it.  Yamki wasn't sure exactly who, but said that Trefko the old four-armed baboon, and several female baboons who had formerly been Sisko's harem, were still living to the west of the Hall of Judgment, and didn't listen to him.  The group headed that way to talk to the other baboons.

They went north past the Ruby Chair, the west past a trap door up with a rope hanging out of it, which they had seen before but hadn't explored.  They declined to explore it again and went south.  Eventually they listened at a door and heard loud snores behind it.  Opening the door found Trefko stumbling to his feet.  Trefko said that he hadn't been the one pooping on the mirror, but he didn't want to live in the Howling Caves because there were too many young baboons there and they were too loud.  He would stay in his room.  He agreed to not cause any trouble with the mirrors, in exchange for meat.  He also wanted a contract that said he was in charge of all the baboons, but Vallium said that was impractical and they had to work that out among themselves.  Uvash and Thronebreaker noticed that Trefko was wearing a Dwarven Life Stone around his neck, and asked whether he'd be willing to trade it.  He said that might be possible, for gems or large quantities of meat.  Vallium said they'd bring him a whole live goat next time.

Heading south, the group found the room with Sisko's former harem, which consisted of 4 baboons and 2 goblins.  They had a human male prisoner manacled to the ceiling.  These baboons couldn't talk, but the goblins could, and said they considered themselves part of the baboon tribe and didn't need rescuing, and also that King Weskenim sucked.  Also that Sisko was the king of the baboon tribe, so with his death they were the reigning queens, and they could poop wherever they wanted as this was their territory.  Vael went with diplomacy trying to talk sense into them to avoid violence, while Thronebreaker went with intimidation and ripped the prisoner's chains apart.  With the harem somewhat cowed by this display of brute force, Vallium told them that they had given Yamki a bunch of food to avoid further vandalism of the mirror, and that if the harem wanted some of it they should go over there to get it.  Once they left, Uvash healed the prisoner, a Thorcin warrior named Burris.  Vael levitated up to search two sacks hanging from the ceiling, and it turned out one was full of coins and the other full of miscellaneous treasure.  All of that went into the Bag of Holding.  Someone felt a bit bad for taking all the stuff, and suggested leaving some of the booze that was intended for the goblins in exchange.

Vael searched for secret doors, and found one on the east wall.  It was very hard to figure out how to open it, but a critical success on a Lockmaster spell did it.  Beyond the secret door was a narrow cobwebby corridor that looked like it had been unused for centuries.  Everyone explored it and found a tunnel heading east and a suspicious dead end to the north.  The dead end found another secret door, near the Ruby Chair, so once they opened that one to confirm they had a safe exit, they closed the first one so the harem wouldn't know about the secret passage.  Everyone then took the tunnel east.  Thronebreaker lent Burris an axe, just in case.

The tunnel led to a rough cavern, with an old corpse and some ancient rotted food.  There were dead end passages northeast and southeast.  The one northeast led to a secret door, which Thronebreaker opened.  That led to a room with a sarcophagus, but before anyone could explore it, three mantari (small flying ray-shaped creatures with stingers) ambushed Thronebreaker.  One of them actually hit and slightly wounded him, and then he and Vallium killed one and scared the other two into flying away.  The sarcophagus was empty, but there was a bridge over the Great Chasm (which was pretty narrow here) further east.

Crossing the bridge led to a room with a bunch of funerary gisants and some rotted crates.  After a bit of poking around, a ghost appeared and did not attack.  She revealed that she was Ptirasa, a priestess of Thoth, and warned the others that Arpostas was a traitor.  They had no idea who Arpostas was, though.  She also revealed that there were some nasty bugs in the crates and they should stay away from them.  Vael used Create Fire to keep the bugs away, and then the group found a secret door to the east, leading to a north-south passage they'd found before.

With exploration to the east complete, they doubled back to the west and explored more secret passages.  They eventually found a room with a pile of baboon skeletons on the floor, along with one human skeleton with an apparently magical axe, and a female elf skeleton on a bed.  Someone tried to take the axe, and the human skeleton predictably stood up and fought them.  However, it was four on one, and when the skeleton turned to face Vallium, Thronebreaker got behind it and did a Power Blow plus Rapid Strike from behind.  The skeleton managed to avoid one of the blows, but the other hit it hard enough to shatter its brittle bones.

With the skeleton no longer a threay, Vael started searching the room for magic, and they grabbed the magic axe and nonmagical mail and shield from the human skeleton, plus a magic pouch, a single magic gauntlet, a couple of magic arrows, and a spellbook from the elf skeleton.  There was a stone chest under the bed, but it was empty.  Nobody wanted to believe that, so an intensive search ensued.  When that didn't find anything, the whole stone chest went into the Bag of Holding for further investigation.

With little time left in the session, Vallium still hadn't delivered the booze to the goblins.  So the group went back to the small pyramid, flipped the lever, and ended up in Upper Goblintown (formerly the Halls of Thoth).  As they headed toward the Glory of Weskenim (formerly the Glory of Thoth), they greeted each squad of goblins they met and gave each of them a small barrel of liquor.  By the time they reached Bottleneck Halfling-Slayer, Master Sergeant of Upper Goblintown, they had a fan club of a few dozen already drunk goblins following them, while a few Designated Sober Guards had to stay behind.  Vallium tried to get some information from the goblins, and learned that Gislu the False Prophet had last been seen in the Forum of Set.

GM's Comments:

The plan to trade with the cave people actually worked, despite having no language in common.  It appears that even people who don't know your language know that getting 5 whole axes for one axe head is pretty good.

The party confirmed that the Rugs of Instant Access were useful for skipping the long climb up the Long Stair, at least if someone with Levitation was available.

The Seeker spell once again proved its worth by finding the pyramid control rod in the pit (and incidentally helping find some other treasure in that pits).  But the party already knew of two stairways between the Well of Light level and Upper Goblintown, so this was mostly completionism.

The baboons once again showed that, left unattended, some them will eventually poop on the mirrors.  (I once lived in a huge all-male freshman dorm, so I can confirm this is true.)

Everyone (especially the dwarves) seemed very interested in the Ruby Chair but nobody found a way to move it or break parts off it.

The head of Stamelis seemed to know things, but also seemed reluctant to share Thoth's secrets with random tomb robbers.  Similarly, the ghost of Ptirasa was a mix of helpful and obscure.

Vallium's plan to give goblins $500 of moonshine was a roaring success.  For most of the goblins anyway.  The ones who got Sober Guard Duty with the promise they could have some leftover moonshine later probably didn't like it much.

Achievements:

• The Rescuers: 1 XP for freeing Burris from the baboon harem

XP:

• Exploration: 9 new locations: 1 XP
• Loot: magic axe head, magic axe, Bottomless Purse, Wand of Illumination, coins, etc: 2 XP
• Achievements: 1 XP
• Total: 4 XP

Next Week:

I expect more testing of the teleport rugs.  Vallium is still looking for a priest of Thoth.  There are still unexplored areas on both the Well of Light and Upper Goblintown levels.  Ioannes may be able to help with some of the mysteries of language or religion that stumped the others.  And if they run out of other things to do, they can always resume their war with the Cult of Set, or explore deeper.

DFRPG Arden Vul Session 27: The Tomb of Ptoh-Ristus

Date: 

Mitrasday, 10th of Besemios, 2993 AE 

Weather: 

Cool, dry

Player Characters: 

Vael Sunshadow, Half-Elven mage (Kyle)

Vallium Halcyon, Archontean fighter (Greybrown)

Ioannes Grammatikos Byzantios, Archontean cleric of Demma (Demented Avenger)

Uvash Edzuson, Dwarven cleric of Zodarrim (Cosmo)

Sister Valya "Basilisk" Hushbreaker, Halfling mercenary monk (ArchonShiva)

Significant NPCs:

Vivian, priest of Demma

Wicktrimmer, Imperial Goblin banker and trader

Sanguinette, Basilisk's bat familiar

8 Set cultists

Bottleneck, goblin sergeant

Lots and lots of goblins

4 huge spiders

2 animated spearman constructs

2 mummies

Uvash, Vael, and Ioannes were all very sick.  Ioannes had no idea what it was but suspected something magical, so they went to the Temple of Demma, where the head priest Vivian diagnosed them with a magical curse and cast a Remove Curse spell on each of them, in exchange for a suitable donation to feed the poor.  They were never quite sure where the curse came from, but the spell seemed to fix it.  They grumbled about the cost anyway.

Vael went to visit Wicktrimmer at the Rarities Factor, found out that there was no news on their shopping list in Narsileon, and discussed whether Wicktrimmer would be willing to take over running the Forum of Set if the Right for Riches company successfully destroyed the Settites.  Wicktrimmer was non-committal.

Trying to keep their delve dates and times unpredictable, the Right for Riches company left at midnight on Demmasday.  Uvash wasn't happy about having to get up in the middle of the night.  The lights were shining in the entrance to the Set level, so Vael turned invisible and Levitated up to spy on the Settites, with Basilisk climbing the wall nearby and Basilisk's bat familiar Sanguinette flying beside.  The Settites charged with raising and lowering the basket were out of sight from outside.  Then some red-robed Set cultists started waving lanterns and torches below, and the Settites at the top lowered the basket and hoisted 4 of them up.  After a brief whispered discussion with Vael, Basilisk cut the rope, and the basket and its four cultists fell a very long way and smashed into the ground below.  The remaining cultists who had been waiting for their turn in the basket ran away, but the Right for Riches company chased them down and killed them.

With their daily quota of Settites eliminated, the PCs crossed over the Swift River at the northern bridge, then climbed up the Long Stair toward the ruins of Arden Vul.  They left a Hand of Glory (an evil Settite magic item they didn't think they could safely use) on top of the dam as tribute to Craas the green dragon, then headed for the Pyramid of Thoth.  They manipulated the statue arms to open the trap door to the safer set of stairs down, and went down into the pyramid.  At the first large landing below they met a guard party of goblins, who said this was now goblin territory.  Vael said something about how they were the Right for Riches company and were allowed, and the goblin sergeant checked his notes and said they were indeed expected and should check in with Master Sergeant Bottleneck near the Glory of Weskenim.

When they reached the bottom of the stairs, there was a closed door with a little window in it, and a goblin guard watching through the window.  After they announced themselves, the guard went to get Bottleneck, who let them in.  He seemed happy to see them, and gave Vael, Vallium, and Ioannes similar embroidered patches featuring a goblin impaling a halfling, commemorating the liberation of Upper Goblintown from the evil halflings.  (Uvash and Basilisk didn't get patches.)  Bottleneck pointed around the new goblin territory, warned the PCs about a couple of pit traps and the dangers of wandering zombies and Settites to the west, and said they were welcome to visit anytime.  He asked them to tell any other surface dwellers who wanted to visit the new goblin territory to bring booze.

Vael suggested a slight detour to the southwest to the small inside pyramid, because Vael wanted to cast Seeker to see if he could find the teleport control lever for the other pyramid on the Well of Light level, and figured that doing so while looking at an identical lever would improve his odds.  Sure enough, he got a vision of a lever sitting at the bottom of a wet pit, next to some kind of slimy monster, in the room with the Ruby Chair.  The group briefly discussed going after that lever, but decided that finding treasure in the new goblin territory was more urgent, in case the goblins found it first.

They went east, through the gray smelly mist, past the disgusting pool that the goblin guards called their new swimming pool, through a couple of secret passages, and into a room full of pillars.  They went east to where there were two adjacent doors that both led to known traps.  They opened the eastern door, which they knew led to a pit trap.  Vallium spiked it open, worried about self-closing doors.  They avoided the known pit trap, went to the end of the hall, tried to open a false door, and opened the known pit plus three previously unknown ones.  They were somewhat prepared for this, with Vallium secured to Uvash by a rope and Vael Levitating, so nobody actually fell in.  After verifying that none of the pits had anything useful inside and that the door was actually false, they went back out.

From there Vallium led them east toward the room of Prior Jacobus, which he said they'd never searched for treasure since helping Jacobus's ghost to his final rest.  Sure enough, when they found the room they found some very small orange Thothian robes, a key, a ring, and a couple of maps.  Vallium led the others through the rest of Jacobus's area, but they didn't find any other treasure.

Vael then cast Walk on Air on everyone, and everyone flew back across the Great Chasm to the west and searched the rooms there.  They found a magic stone chair again, but didn't sit in it.  They found a porch overlooking the chasm, with some abandoned rope and spikes.  There were also some stairs down, which they didn't take, but while they were searching the area, some huge spiders dropped from above and tried to eat Vallium.  Unfortunately for the spiders, his scale armor was stronger than their teeth, and he quickly recovered from surprise and killed all of them.

Going south from the porch, Ioannes found a secret door, and Vallium went through it and fell in a pit trap.  It hurt a bit, but his armor cushioned the fall.  The pit was full of a bunch of corpses and their equipment, so Vallium started looting, and Vael flew in to help identify the treasure.  The pit closed over their head before they were done, but they yelled up to have the others re-open it, then came out.

Continuing west, they found another secret door, leading them back to the giant stone chair overlooking the Chasm that Ioannes had previously sat in.  This time they avoided the chair and Vael cast more Walk on Air spells to help everyone fly up the chasm.  The spotted a room on the far side with another, much bigger stone chair.  That room had a large stela on the floor, featuring a carving of some kind of large biped with horns, surrounded by some glyphs in a totally unknown language.  Vael thought the language looked similar to the one on the orange oval object he had purchased in the goblin market.  They decided not to explore that room or its exits and went back to the Chasm.

Continuing north and west up the Chasm, they spotted a narrow passage heading east that Vael's Wizard Eye had spotted last week, but didn't follow it.  They then found a secret door on the west wall, in the area where they were hoping for treasure based on Seek Earth and Seek Magic castings.  Everyone went into the short secret passage, and Ioannes found a second secret door, into a room with treasure piled on the floor.  Vael opened it, and a needle trap failed to poke through his armor.  There was a big chest full of ancient coins, a matched pair of magic rugs, a bunch of alabaster vases and a silver ibis and a golden feather, a cleric scroll with a previously unknown and powerful spell to raise the sanctity level of an area, and a book in an unknown language.  They shoveled all the treasure into their magic bags.

A dead end passage south looked like an obvious place for another secret door, but there was no obvious way to open it.  Everyone looked, and then Vael tried a Lockmaster spell, but nothing worked.  Uvash suggested a pickaxe, but that seemed like too much effort so Vael used a Shape Earth spell.  That opened a hole into a larger room, containing two normal-sized white marble sargophagi and a huge black basalt sarcophagus.  There were also a couple of man-sized statues of spearmen.  When Vallium went into the room, the statues animated and charged.

A short fight ensued, where Vallium stabbed the statues while Basilisk glided down from the ceiling while attempting to stun them with kiai yells.  Once both constructs were smashed, the group continued into the room to look at the large sarcophagus.  It had a Mithric inscription saying “Ptoh-Ristus, Servant of the Lord Thoth, Knower of Secrets and Founder of these Halls”.  Vallium removed the lid, at which point the lids of the other two sarcophagi popped off and two mummies came out.

There were then two somewhat separate fights, with Vallium and Vael fighting the southern mummy and Uvash and Ioannes fighting the northern one, with Basilisk gliding around and yelling kiai at whichever one was closer.  One of the mummies hit Uvash pretty hard once, then knocked his Bless spell off with another punch.  Vael cast Great Haste on Vallium, who finished off one mummy then ran across the room to help with the other one.  Eventually Vallium downed it, while Uvash and Ioannes cautiously defended themselves.

The large sarcophagus contained another mummy, this one inert, with a magical golden death mask.  It also held some coins and some doll-sized furniture, including a tiny magic chair.  The group took everything that looked valuable, but Vael was suspicious they might be missing something, so used a charge from the Wand of See Secrets.  This didn't find any more treasure, but it showed a secret door in the southeast of the room, a huge falling stone block trap inside the secret door, and a bunch of poison dart traps along two walls.  Vael avoided touching any of the trapped areas and used magic to open the secret door, then Levitated down the secret passage to finish mapping the area.  It led back to an area he already knew, so he returned to the group.

With a decent amount of treasure found and everyone feeling tired, the group rested a bit, then Vael cast Walk on Air on everyone again.  They continued north up the Chasm until they reached a goblin-occupied room, where they greeted the goblin guards then walked over to the Glory of Thoth and up the stairs to the Pyramid of Thoth.  They then headed back to Gosterwick.

GM's Comments:

The players knew (due to knowledge magic) there was gold, platinum, and magic in the area southeast of the former halfling territory, but not exactly where, but they did a pretty good job of staying on target and using their map to search for secret doors until they found it.  They actually found the "back door" from the chasm to the Tomb; the "front door" that they didn't find until the end was actually much more dangerous as it had the worst traps, including the 10'x10'x10' stone block of "if this lands on you, you are just dead.  We don't need to roll the damage."

Two of the magic items they found in the tomb were very interesting.  The pair of magic rugs were Rugs of Instant Access, which allow teleportation from one to the other.  This seemed very useful, but they weren't sure about the exact limits yet.  The Death Mask of Ptoh-Ristus had a bunch of useful powers (Infravision, See Secrets, Will bonus, bonus to detect lies and illusions), but also some remaining magic that appeared very difficult to identify, as Vael and Lyssanra and Pelteon all failed.  We'll see if the Right for Riches company sells these items or keeps them for use.

Achievements:

None

XP:

• Exploration: 6 new locations, good for 1 XP
• Loot: Looks like 1 XP if they don't sell the good magic items, 2 XP if they do
• Achievements: 0 XP
• Total:  Probably 2 XP