August 17, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Backing off from the giant toads, the party decide to investigate the final, unexplored ledge. However, getting to this ledge requires the entire party to cross the sinkhole - a dangerous undertaking for the less dexterous party members. Considering their options, they decide the best way to handle this is to steal the plank of wood that's lying across the ravine full of bees, and use that to cross.
Starting from the north end of the chamber containing the ravine, Adokas sneaks forward with a rope. Moving silently, he avoids disturbing the bees below, and ties the rope to the end of the wooden plank before retreating back to the rest of the group. Everyone takes hold of the rope, and with one solid tug, they pull the plank past the ravine and halfway across the room.
The commotion rouses the bees, but the party immediately retreat around the corner after their single pull. They hear the agitated bees buzzing around, but the sound doesn't get any closer, and after a few minutes it subsides. Venturing back into the room, the see that the room is clear and the bees have apparently returned to the ravine, allowing them to pull the wooden plank the rest of the way out of the room.
Placing the plank across the sinkhole allows the entire party to cross without too much difficulty, and after they cross they make their way to the ledge and look down it. This ledge is much larger than the previous ones; their lantern illuminates thirty feet down without reaching the floor. Tying the lantern to a rope, then lower it down, discovering that the ledge goes down about fifty feet.
As they lower the lantern towards the floor, a hideous, tentacled centipede-like greater emerges from the darkness (later identified by Tamat as a Carrion Crawler). Attracted by the light, it flails at the lantern with its tentacles, but it is just out of reach. While Sharla holds the lantern's rope, the rest of the party pelt the creature with ranged weapons and two flasks of flaming oil. The first of oil goes wide, but the second strikes it directly. The creature shrieks in pain and retreats into the darkness, but the flaming oil makes it a clearly visible target and the party finish it off with a second valley of missile attacks. The creature explodes in a shower of goo and pus, causing the party to recoil in disgust, despite being over fifty feet away.
With the Carrion Crawler taken care of, Adokas climbs down to investigate the area below. He finds himself in a wide hallway running east-west. To the east is an area full of rubble, which it first glance appears to be a dead end. On closer inspection, the passage does continue past the rubble, although the rubble would need to be cleared out first. The half-eaten corpse of a recently deceased lizardfolk lies near the rubble. Adokas pockets a pouch that it was carrying, which contains several hundred gold pieces and a pair of gemstones. To the west, the passage emerges halfway up the wall of a large chamber. Twenty feet below the opening there is water, and the passageway turns into a narrow and winding ledge that runs along the north end of the chamber.
Adokas climbs back up to report his findings, and the group begin descending from the ledge. Rather than having everyone climb, which could be disastrous for the less skilled climbers, they tie ropes to each individual and lower them down one-by-one. Flossaria, Iriellis, P'hla and Sharla are all lowered, while Tamat, Zedlyn, and Adokas, the three remaining individuals at the top, climb down normally. Everyone reaches the bottom of the ledge safely.
Sharla goes to investigate the rubble, and Flossaria goes as well to keep an eye on her. The rest of the group head to the west, and watch as Adokas heads out onto the ledge, making his way across the room. When he's about thirty feet out, he suddenly hears the sound of something moving rapidly towards him. He turns and starts running back, as two harpies emerge from the darkness and fly towards him!
In his haste, Adokas stumbles and falls, and although he manages to stay on the ledge, the harpies catch up to him and begin tearing into him with their claws. Flossaria and Sharla start running back as the rest of the party pelt the creatures with ranged attack. One of the creatures tears open Adokas's stomach with its claws, dealing him a mortal wound and knocking him unconscious.
The creatures advance on the rest of the party, and Zedlyn steps forward to engage them. One of the harpies is killed by missile weapon fire, but Zedlyn is badly wounded and is forced to retreat. Flossaria, who has just arrived from the other end of the hallway, steps to the front and attacks the creature, badly wounding it and forcing it to flee.
With the immediate danger taken care of, the party approach Adokas to see how bad his wound is. It's bad - the halfling is barely alive, and will most likely bleed out in a matter of minutes without medical attention. None of the spellcasters in the party are skilled enough with healing magic to cure such a serious wound, but casting all of their remaining healing magic at least slows the bleeding process and affords Adokas a few more hours to live. Bandaging him up as best as they can, they take Zedlyn's bedroll to use as a stretcher and, following a suggestion from Tamat, decide to retreat from the dungeon and return to Barar, hoping that the Priests of Kib there will be able to help.
Tamat and Zedlyn climb up the fifty foot ledge first, then use a pair of ropes to pull up Adokas, with the rest of the party following. When they reach the sinkhole, they carry Adokas across. Sharla, in her haste, nearly falls in, but catches herself on a rope that the rest of the party were holding. There are no further obstacles between the party and the exit, so they leave the cave and head back to Barar.
The trip takes several hours, and Adokas's condition remains stable. They arrive at the Temple of Kib and speak with Jalessa, the highest-ranked priestess. Unfortunately, the injury is beyond her skill as well. She advises them to go to Viskha, a three-day journey away. Sharla and Iriellis convince Jalessa to come with them by pointing out that Adokas's injuries were sustained while doing Kib's work, destroying unnatural creatures.
It is already past nightfall at this point, so Jalessa heals Adokas as well as she can, allowing him to survive through the night. Everyone rests and prepares to head for Viskha.
August 20, Year 3488 (SE 118)
After three days of travel, the party arrive at Viskha. The trip was uneventful, and the combined attention of three clerics (Iriellis, Flossaria and Jalessa) and a druid (Tamat) was enough to keep Adokas alive throughout the duration. It is nearly nightfall when they arrive, and, considering their options, they decide to go to the Temple of Kib and speak with the High Priest of Kib.
They present Adokas before the High Priest, and he tells them that he is indeed capable of healing the halfling. However, such an expenditure of time and power will require a substantial donation to the Temple of Kib - nearly 500 gold pieces. The party consider attempting to haggle, but decide to pay the price without complaint. The High Priest casts his spell, and Adokas is healed.
Monday, December 16, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
Session 18: The Fist of Kord, Part 6
August 17, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The party pick the easternmost ledge, closest to their current position, and send Adokas down first. They anchor a rope to the rock nearby using a grappling hook and he climbs down. At the bottom of the ledge is a short passage that leads to a four-way intersection, with a sinkhole directly in the center of the intersection, preventing easy navigation. The rest of the party climb down, and Adokas ties a rope around himself, giving the other end for the party to hold in case he falls. He then shimmies across the walls, exploring the three other passages around the sinkhole.
To the right, the passage opens into a room that ends in another ledge going down. To the left, the passage continues until it reaches a t-intersection. Directly across from where the party entered is a passage that veers to the left into a chamber. Peering down into the sinkhole itself, Adokas's torch doesn't illuminate far enough to see the bottom, but he can see that the hole appears to be filled with some sort of haze or mist. He also catches a glimpse of some sort of movement below, and decides to leave it alone.
Picking the passage directly across from the rest of the party, Adokas soon sees that the room ahead is filled with bats, roosting on the ceiling. As he sneaks forward, the bats begin to get agitated, so he backs off. Conferring with Tamat, the druid tells him that he knows a spell that will calm animals that could be of use in this situation, but the party decide to explore in other directions rather than disturbing the bats.
The group pick the left passage that ends in a tee and send Adokas again. Adokas looks down the left fork of the tee, and see that it's a short passage which connects to another of the ledges they had previously discovered. This discovery allows the rest of the party to get around to his position without having to climb past the sinkhole, so they use this opportunity to regroup.
The right fork of the tee opens into a room filled with spider webs and spiders. The party see several side passages that are blocked with webbing, but there is only one way to follow that doesn't involve hacking through webbing. They follow this direction, which leads them into a large chamber, again filled with spiders and webbing. As they begin to cross the chamber, two giant, monstrous spiders appear out of the darkness ahead of them and attack!
Zedlyn, Adokas, Flossaria, and Tamat charge forward into melee, while Iriellis stays behind them in order to heal and Sharla and P'hla stay back, unable to get a clear shot. Both Zedlyn and Adokas are bitten by the spiders as they fight, but Iriellis' healing keeps them going, and eventually the spiders go down, with Flossaria claiming both killing blows. Tamat identifies the spiders as a breed possessing a paralytic poison, but luckily both Zedlyn and Adokas seem to have fought off its effects.
Adokas works on extracting some of the spiders' venom while the rest of the group explore the area. The discover that two of the webbed-off side passages lead to the two other ledges that they had discovered while exploring the upper level. There are two un-webbed passages at the far end of the room; one to the north and one to the south. Adokas is unsuccessful in extracting the spider venom.
The southern passage opens into a smaller, webbed room - a dead end. This appears to be the lair of the giant spiders, as it is filled with carcasses and scraps. Wary of more spiders waiting in ambush, Sharla conjures up a pair of dancing lights and sends them into the room, but they don't provoke any response. The party advance into the room, and when they are not attacked by anything, they drop their guard and search through the scraps for valuables. The search turns up a pouch of gold coins and a crystal wand. They give the wand to P'hla and share the coins.
Returning to the previous room, they explore the north passage, which leads to a room filled with bones and carcasses, mostly of animals but with a few humanoids mixed in. They again send the ghostly lights in first, but they again provoke no response. Realizing that searching this area would take forever due to the amount of bones and bodies, Iriellis instead casts a spell to detect magic. She uses it to confirm that the wand from the room before is indeed magical, and she also detects something magical under the layer of bone. They pull it out and discover that it's a rope.
Going over their options, the party decide to return to the sinkhole and explore the room full of bats. Adokas and Tamat make their way across the sinkhole, and Tamat casts his spell, which keeps the bats docile as the two adventurers pass. They step into the room, which turns out to be mid-sized and a dead end. Apart from bats and bat guano, there doesn't seem to be anything of value in the room.
They next turn their attention to the sinkhole itself. They tie a torch to a rope and begin lowering it down. This allows them to see that the total depth of the sinkhole is forty feet, and at the bottom are two undead skeletons, reaching up towards the torch. Iriellis's immediate response is to Turn Undead; she charges forward with her holy symbol and drives them back with holy power. The skeletons cower in the corner of the sinkhole as the party decide what to do.
Worried that the mist might have some sort of magical properties that caused the skeletons to animate, they have P'hla cast her Detect Magic spell down into the sinkhole. The skeletons themselves radiate magic, of course, but the mist itself does not. She discovers something else though - at the bottom of the pit is a magical sword. Adokas pelts the skeletons with sling stones from above until they're destroyed, then they head down to retrieve the sword. Apart from the sword, at the bottom of the pit they discover a series of about forty tally marks scratched into the wall - evidently left by the skeletons while they were still alive.
Considering the directions that the lizardfolk could be in, they decide to search the two rooms containing pools of water, as the lizardfolk could easily have passed through underwater passages. The westernmost chamber, closer to the entrance, contains a small, clear pool, only about two feet in depth. Both Adokas and Iriellis strip down and wade in, but their search turns up nothing of interest.
They step into the easternmost pool chamber, and are about to advance when both Zedlyn and Iriellis notice that something is amiss. They realize that two shapes, which on first glance look like plain old boulders, are actually camouflaged giant toads, nearly indistinguishable from the rock. They stop the rest of the party from advancing and retreat to consider their options.
The party pick the easternmost ledge, closest to their current position, and send Adokas down first. They anchor a rope to the rock nearby using a grappling hook and he climbs down. At the bottom of the ledge is a short passage that leads to a four-way intersection, with a sinkhole directly in the center of the intersection, preventing easy navigation. The rest of the party climb down, and Adokas ties a rope around himself, giving the other end for the party to hold in case he falls. He then shimmies across the walls, exploring the three other passages around the sinkhole.
To the right, the passage opens into a room that ends in another ledge going down. To the left, the passage continues until it reaches a t-intersection. Directly across from where the party entered is a passage that veers to the left into a chamber. Peering down into the sinkhole itself, Adokas's torch doesn't illuminate far enough to see the bottom, but he can see that the hole appears to be filled with some sort of haze or mist. He also catches a glimpse of some sort of movement below, and decides to leave it alone.
Picking the passage directly across from the rest of the party, Adokas soon sees that the room ahead is filled with bats, roosting on the ceiling. As he sneaks forward, the bats begin to get agitated, so he backs off. Conferring with Tamat, the druid tells him that he knows a spell that will calm animals that could be of use in this situation, but the party decide to explore in other directions rather than disturbing the bats.
The group pick the left passage that ends in a tee and send Adokas again. Adokas looks down the left fork of the tee, and see that it's a short passage which connects to another of the ledges they had previously discovered. This discovery allows the rest of the party to get around to his position without having to climb past the sinkhole, so they use this opportunity to regroup.
The right fork of the tee opens into a room filled with spider webs and spiders. The party see several side passages that are blocked with webbing, but there is only one way to follow that doesn't involve hacking through webbing. They follow this direction, which leads them into a large chamber, again filled with spiders and webbing. As they begin to cross the chamber, two giant, monstrous spiders appear out of the darkness ahead of them and attack!
Zedlyn, Adokas, Flossaria, and Tamat charge forward into melee, while Iriellis stays behind them in order to heal and Sharla and P'hla stay back, unable to get a clear shot. Both Zedlyn and Adokas are bitten by the spiders as they fight, but Iriellis' healing keeps them going, and eventually the spiders go down, with Flossaria claiming both killing blows. Tamat identifies the spiders as a breed possessing a paralytic poison, but luckily both Zedlyn and Adokas seem to have fought off its effects.
Adokas works on extracting some of the spiders' venom while the rest of the group explore the area. The discover that two of the webbed-off side passages lead to the two other ledges that they had discovered while exploring the upper level. There are two un-webbed passages at the far end of the room; one to the north and one to the south. Adokas is unsuccessful in extracting the spider venom.
The southern passage opens into a smaller, webbed room - a dead end. This appears to be the lair of the giant spiders, as it is filled with carcasses and scraps. Wary of more spiders waiting in ambush, Sharla conjures up a pair of dancing lights and sends them into the room, but they don't provoke any response. The party advance into the room, and when they are not attacked by anything, they drop their guard and search through the scraps for valuables. The search turns up a pouch of gold coins and a crystal wand. They give the wand to P'hla and share the coins.
Returning to the previous room, they explore the north passage, which leads to a room filled with bones and carcasses, mostly of animals but with a few humanoids mixed in. They again send the ghostly lights in first, but they again provoke no response. Realizing that searching this area would take forever due to the amount of bones and bodies, Iriellis instead casts a spell to detect magic. She uses it to confirm that the wand from the room before is indeed magical, and she also detects something magical under the layer of bone. They pull it out and discover that it's a rope.
Going over their options, the party decide to return to the sinkhole and explore the room full of bats. Adokas and Tamat make their way across the sinkhole, and Tamat casts his spell, which keeps the bats docile as the two adventurers pass. They step into the room, which turns out to be mid-sized and a dead end. Apart from bats and bat guano, there doesn't seem to be anything of value in the room.
They next turn their attention to the sinkhole itself. They tie a torch to a rope and begin lowering it down. This allows them to see that the total depth of the sinkhole is forty feet, and at the bottom are two undead skeletons, reaching up towards the torch. Iriellis's immediate response is to Turn Undead; she charges forward with her holy symbol and drives them back with holy power. The skeletons cower in the corner of the sinkhole as the party decide what to do.
Worried that the mist might have some sort of magical properties that caused the skeletons to animate, they have P'hla cast her Detect Magic spell down into the sinkhole. The skeletons themselves radiate magic, of course, but the mist itself does not. She discovers something else though - at the bottom of the pit is a magical sword. Adokas pelts the skeletons with sling stones from above until they're destroyed, then they head down to retrieve the sword. Apart from the sword, at the bottom of the pit they discover a series of about forty tally marks scratched into the wall - evidently left by the skeletons while they were still alive.
Considering the directions that the lizardfolk could be in, they decide to search the two rooms containing pools of water, as the lizardfolk could easily have passed through underwater passages. The westernmost chamber, closer to the entrance, contains a small, clear pool, only about two feet in depth. Both Adokas and Iriellis strip down and wade in, but their search turns up nothing of interest.
They step into the easternmost pool chamber, and are about to advance when both Zedlyn and Iriellis notice that something is amiss. They realize that two shapes, which on first glance look like plain old boulders, are actually camouflaged giant toads, nearly indistinguishable from the rock. They stop the rest of the party from advancing and retreat to consider their options.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Session 17: The Fist of Kord, Part 5
August 17, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Having decided to ambush the lizardfolk, the party approach the clearing by the lizardfolk lair and prepare themselves. The dead lizardfolk is used as bait, placed near the opposite end of the clearing in order to draw the other lizardfolk out. Sharla conjures up an illusion of a demon using her magic, having it loom over the corpse, and Zedlyn prepares to supplement the illusion with a blood-curdling roar, using his natural gnomish abilities.
Everyone else prepares to attack in various ways. Adokas hides in the bushes near the corpse, ready to assassinate one the lizardfolk with his sling. P'hla stands further back away from the clearing, ready to cast a Sleep spell from a distance. Flossaria, Iriellis, and Tamat fan out across the edges of the clearing and prepare to attack with crossbow, sling, and longbow, respectively.
Ten minutes or so pass as the group waits, when finally a few dark figures appear near the cave's exit. However, a few seconds later, they move back into the cave rather than head out into the ambush. Whether they detected the ambush, they were scared off by the demon, or they have some other motive is unclear. The party continue holding their positions, hoping that the lizardfolk will reappear.
A few minutes later, with the party still hoping for the lizardfolk to emerge, a mysterious and beautiful song begins to emanate from the cave entrance. It seems to pull at the listeners, urging them to step forward towards the cave. Flossaria, Sharla, and Iriellis all resist its influence, but Adokas, Zedlyn, P'hla and Tamat all find themselves unwillingly stepping forward.
Sharla thinks back to her bardic training, and realizes that she's heard of something like this before. There are a multitude of creatures, such as Sirens and Harpies, that are said to have hypnotic songs, but the stories say that they can be countered by another song. As Adokas steps towards the cave, Sharla rushes up to him and sings a hymn of his faith into his ear. It works - the second song draws his attention away from the first, and he suddenly snaps back to awareness.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party are having much less luck. Iriellis is trying to slow or trip P'hla, and while she has some success, P'hla continues to rise and move towards the clearing. Flossaria is trying to stop Tamat, but he brushes off her efforts. His Druidic abilities allow him to step easily through the undergrowth, even while in a daze, and soon he is out in the open, in the clearing, where Flossaria doesn't want to follow. No one is trying to stop Zedlyn, but his short stature and heavy armor combine to make his progress through the bushes very slow.
Flossaria and Adokas begin circling the edge of the clearing, making their way towards the cave entrance, hoping to leap out and stop Tamat right before he reaches the cave. Sharla runs to Zedlyn and tries the same tactic she used on Adokas, this time using a soldiers' marching tune. It works a second time; Zedlyn snaps out of his daze and stops moving towards the cave.
Iriellis is still having no luck, and P'hla escapes her grasp and reaches the edge of the clearing, before Sharla shouts out instructions to Iriellis, telling her to sing to counter the effect. Iriellis, lacking Sharla's training, picks a tavern song at random and sings it into P'hla's ear, and is surprised to find that it works - P'hla recovers her senses, leaving only Tamat still moving forward.
The druid is too fast, and he reaches the cave before Flossaria and Adokas are in position, stepping into the darkness. Sounds of combat and cries of pain emerge from the cave, and Adokas throws a torch towards the entrance. It falls short, but illuminates enough for the group to see several figures attacking Tamat. P'hla casts a Sleep spell into the darkness and most of the figures go down. Tamat has apparently regained his senses during the fight; he rushes out of the cave, bloodied but still standing. He turns back and casts a spell that causes roots and vines to burst out of the cave walls, holding fast the one remaining lizardfolk, then puts an arrow through its throat.
During this chaos, the song has stopped, so everyone regroups, with the clerics healing Tamat. Adokas quietly goes to the cave entrance and finishes off the three sleeping lizardfolk that were caught by P'hla's spell. They decide to press their advantage and head into the cave.
The cave turns out to be a large, sprawling affair with many branching passages. The party move quickly, not stopping for a thorough investigation of any of the areas that they encounter. These areas include a ravine that is apparently filled with bees, which the group avoid, two separate caverns containing large pools of water, a cavern that slopes up to a small opening in the ceiling, and a cavern filled with rat dung, presumably the home of some sort of rat colony.
As they explore the cave, the party pass by four different ledges that drop down to a lower section. They finish their cursory exploration of the upper section, and it yields no signs of the lizardfolk lair, so they decide to descend to the lower section and continue searching.
Having decided to ambush the lizardfolk, the party approach the clearing by the lizardfolk lair and prepare themselves. The dead lizardfolk is used as bait, placed near the opposite end of the clearing in order to draw the other lizardfolk out. Sharla conjures up an illusion of a demon using her magic, having it loom over the corpse, and Zedlyn prepares to supplement the illusion with a blood-curdling roar, using his natural gnomish abilities.
Everyone else prepares to attack in various ways. Adokas hides in the bushes near the corpse, ready to assassinate one the lizardfolk with his sling. P'hla stands further back away from the clearing, ready to cast a Sleep spell from a distance. Flossaria, Iriellis, and Tamat fan out across the edges of the clearing and prepare to attack with crossbow, sling, and longbow, respectively.
Ten minutes or so pass as the group waits, when finally a few dark figures appear near the cave's exit. However, a few seconds later, they move back into the cave rather than head out into the ambush. Whether they detected the ambush, they were scared off by the demon, or they have some other motive is unclear. The party continue holding their positions, hoping that the lizardfolk will reappear.
A few minutes later, with the party still hoping for the lizardfolk to emerge, a mysterious and beautiful song begins to emanate from the cave entrance. It seems to pull at the listeners, urging them to step forward towards the cave. Flossaria, Sharla, and Iriellis all resist its influence, but Adokas, Zedlyn, P'hla and Tamat all find themselves unwillingly stepping forward.
Sharla thinks back to her bardic training, and realizes that she's heard of something like this before. There are a multitude of creatures, such as Sirens and Harpies, that are said to have hypnotic songs, but the stories say that they can be countered by another song. As Adokas steps towards the cave, Sharla rushes up to him and sings a hymn of his faith into his ear. It works - the second song draws his attention away from the first, and he suddenly snaps back to awareness.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party are having much less luck. Iriellis is trying to slow or trip P'hla, and while she has some success, P'hla continues to rise and move towards the clearing. Flossaria is trying to stop Tamat, but he brushes off her efforts. His Druidic abilities allow him to step easily through the undergrowth, even while in a daze, and soon he is out in the open, in the clearing, where Flossaria doesn't want to follow. No one is trying to stop Zedlyn, but his short stature and heavy armor combine to make his progress through the bushes very slow.
Flossaria and Adokas begin circling the edge of the clearing, making their way towards the cave entrance, hoping to leap out and stop Tamat right before he reaches the cave. Sharla runs to Zedlyn and tries the same tactic she used on Adokas, this time using a soldiers' marching tune. It works a second time; Zedlyn snaps out of his daze and stops moving towards the cave.
Iriellis is still having no luck, and P'hla escapes her grasp and reaches the edge of the clearing, before Sharla shouts out instructions to Iriellis, telling her to sing to counter the effect. Iriellis, lacking Sharla's training, picks a tavern song at random and sings it into P'hla's ear, and is surprised to find that it works - P'hla recovers her senses, leaving only Tamat still moving forward.
The druid is too fast, and he reaches the cave before Flossaria and Adokas are in position, stepping into the darkness. Sounds of combat and cries of pain emerge from the cave, and Adokas throws a torch towards the entrance. It falls short, but illuminates enough for the group to see several figures attacking Tamat. P'hla casts a Sleep spell into the darkness and most of the figures go down. Tamat has apparently regained his senses during the fight; he rushes out of the cave, bloodied but still standing. He turns back and casts a spell that causes roots and vines to burst out of the cave walls, holding fast the one remaining lizardfolk, then puts an arrow through its throat.
During this chaos, the song has stopped, so everyone regroups, with the clerics healing Tamat. Adokas quietly goes to the cave entrance and finishes off the three sleeping lizardfolk that were caught by P'hla's spell. They decide to press their advantage and head into the cave.
The cave turns out to be a large, sprawling affair with many branching passages. The party move quickly, not stopping for a thorough investigation of any of the areas that they encounter. These areas include a ravine that is apparently filled with bees, which the group avoid, two separate caverns containing large pools of water, a cavern that slopes up to a small opening in the ceiling, and a cavern filled with rat dung, presumably the home of some sort of rat colony.
As they explore the cave, the party pass by four different ledges that drop down to a lower section. They finish their cursory exploration of the upper section, and it yields no signs of the lizardfolk lair, so they decide to descend to the lower section and continue searching.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Session 16: The Fist of Kord, Part 4
August 15, Year 3488 (SE 118)
As the rest of the party slowly rouse themselves, awoken by Adokas' scream, the two lizardfolk strike at the halfling again. This time, he dodges both attacks, and the creatures leap past him, out of the wagon. He strikes one of them with a stunning blow as it rushes past him, and it tumbles out of the wagon and onto the ground, paralyzed.
Flossaria shoots the fleeing lizardman with her crossbow, aiming to cripple it, but while she manages to hit it, she doesn't manage to slow it. Iriellis, having woken instantly from her sleep, runs to the horse and tries to ride it, but in the darkness, without a saddle or any other gear, she cannot get the horse to obey her commands. Zedlyn groggily makes his way out of his tent.
The lizardfolk continues to flee, and Adokas realizes that it will escape into the darkness if he doesn't give chase with his lantern, so he jumps out of the wagon to follow it, attacking with his sling as he runs. Flossaria runs after him in order to heal him, as she can clearly see that he is badly injured. Zedlyn moves to the wagon and, with his trident, pins down the stunned lizardfolk in order to restrain it when it recovers. Iriellis continues to have no luck with the horse; it throws her off in its struggles. Sharla begins to awake, while P'hla remains blissfully asleep.
Just as the stunned lizardfolk is recovering, Adokas strikes the other with a sling stone that drops it. He and Flossaria move forward and find that it's out cold; he gives it a solid punch in order to make sure it doesn't wake up any time soon. Meanwhile, the other lizardfolk struggles, but is unable to break Zedlyn's hold, and it soon gives up. The lizardfolk are once again captives.
Realizing that the lizardfolk were able to cut through the rope with their teeth and claws, this time the party weave their rope through the links of the chain in order to tie up the creatures. They also move the two creatures outside of the wagon for the rest of the night, so that both watchmen can keep an eye on them. The rest of the night is uneventful; the lizardfolk do not attempt a second escape.
August 16, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The group transfer the two lizardfolk into one of the wagons as the caravan sets off again. P'hla and Iriellis ride on the horse this time and Sharla stays in a separate wagon and works on scribing her scroll of Hypnotism that she had purchased, while the three others remain in the wagon and keep an eye on the captives. The day is uneventful, and they arrive at Barar without any further difficulties, shortly before nightfall.
When they arrive, Sharla goes to the Temple of Kib while the rest of the group go to speak to the town's head merchant. Sharla explains their predicament, and wonder if the priests know where the lizardfolk live, as all creatures that dwell upon the world are within Kib's domain. The priestess tells her that lizardfolk are considered to be unnatural abominations by Kib's clergy, so she will gladly help the party fight them, but her purview is limited to Barar itself. There is, however, a small circle of Druids of Kib based near the town, and she will be happy to introduce the party to them. Sharla agrees to meet her the next morning, in order to go visit the druids.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party hand over one of the lizardfolk to the head merchant and explain their findings. The merchant thanks them, pays them 100 gold pieces, and promises them another 200 if they can completely remove the lizardfolk threat. The use some of the money to replace the ropes that the lizardfolk shredded, and Flossaria convinces the caravan merchant to sell her a suit of chain mail for a good price.
The party regroup and rest for the night at the local inn.
August 17, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the party meet with the Priestess of Kib, who escorts them to the druid circle, about 45 minutes' travel from Barar. There, they meet Tamat, the local Druid of Kib. He doesn't know of any lizardfolk village, but he does know of a nearby cave where the lizardfolk are known to gather. He tells them that this cave has a strong unnatural aura, enough that members of his order are not comfortable approaching it. Despite this, he agrees to lead the group there.
As they travel, the characters question him about the lizardfolk and their beliefs. Tamat believes that the lizardfolk gods either don't exist, or exist but aren't gods - they're just extremely powerful aberrant beings. He also tells them that the holy books of Kib describe all of the creatures created by Kib, and lizardfolk, along with many other monsters and beasts, are not included in these descriptions. Thus, they have no part in the natural order and should be destroyed.
The group travel for several hours until they finally approach the cave. As they near, Tamat stops them and says that they should sneak up to get a good view of the cave. Adokas and Iriellis decide to go with him to get a look, while the rest stay with their lizardfolk captive, who is gagged. Tamat, Adokas, and Iriellis make their way up to a hill that overlooks the cave. Tamat points out the cave itself, located beyond a clearing and under a natural ridge from their viewpoint, and Adokas sneaks forward to search for lizardfolk tracks, trying to get a feel for their recent activity.
Back at the rest of the party, Flossaria decides to question the lizardfolk and ungags it in order to do so. As soon as she does this, it starts shouting and making as much noise as possible. Zedlyn attacks it and knocks it to the ground. As it struggles and tries to claw apart its bonds, he impales it with his trident, killing it.
The commotion draws back Tamat, Adokas and Iriellis. Realizing that the other lizardfolk must be alerted now, Tamat advises that they retreat and return at a later time. The characters, however, take the opposite approach: they'll take this chance to ambush the other lizardfolk as they come out to investigate.
As the rest of the party slowly rouse themselves, awoken by Adokas' scream, the two lizardfolk strike at the halfling again. This time, he dodges both attacks, and the creatures leap past him, out of the wagon. He strikes one of them with a stunning blow as it rushes past him, and it tumbles out of the wagon and onto the ground, paralyzed.
Flossaria shoots the fleeing lizardman with her crossbow, aiming to cripple it, but while she manages to hit it, she doesn't manage to slow it. Iriellis, having woken instantly from her sleep, runs to the horse and tries to ride it, but in the darkness, without a saddle or any other gear, she cannot get the horse to obey her commands. Zedlyn groggily makes his way out of his tent.
The lizardfolk continues to flee, and Adokas realizes that it will escape into the darkness if he doesn't give chase with his lantern, so he jumps out of the wagon to follow it, attacking with his sling as he runs. Flossaria runs after him in order to heal him, as she can clearly see that he is badly injured. Zedlyn moves to the wagon and, with his trident, pins down the stunned lizardfolk in order to restrain it when it recovers. Iriellis continues to have no luck with the horse; it throws her off in its struggles. Sharla begins to awake, while P'hla remains blissfully asleep.
Just as the stunned lizardfolk is recovering, Adokas strikes the other with a sling stone that drops it. He and Flossaria move forward and find that it's out cold; he gives it a solid punch in order to make sure it doesn't wake up any time soon. Meanwhile, the other lizardfolk struggles, but is unable to break Zedlyn's hold, and it soon gives up. The lizardfolk are once again captives.
Realizing that the lizardfolk were able to cut through the rope with their teeth and claws, this time the party weave their rope through the links of the chain in order to tie up the creatures. They also move the two creatures outside of the wagon for the rest of the night, so that both watchmen can keep an eye on them. The rest of the night is uneventful; the lizardfolk do not attempt a second escape.
August 16, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The group transfer the two lizardfolk into one of the wagons as the caravan sets off again. P'hla and Iriellis ride on the horse this time and Sharla stays in a separate wagon and works on scribing her scroll of Hypnotism that she had purchased, while the three others remain in the wagon and keep an eye on the captives. The day is uneventful, and they arrive at Barar without any further difficulties, shortly before nightfall.
When they arrive, Sharla goes to the Temple of Kib while the rest of the group go to speak to the town's head merchant. Sharla explains their predicament, and wonder if the priests know where the lizardfolk live, as all creatures that dwell upon the world are within Kib's domain. The priestess tells her that lizardfolk are considered to be unnatural abominations by Kib's clergy, so she will gladly help the party fight them, but her purview is limited to Barar itself. There is, however, a small circle of Druids of Kib based near the town, and she will be happy to introduce the party to them. Sharla agrees to meet her the next morning, in order to go visit the druids.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party hand over one of the lizardfolk to the head merchant and explain their findings. The merchant thanks them, pays them 100 gold pieces, and promises them another 200 if they can completely remove the lizardfolk threat. The use some of the money to replace the ropes that the lizardfolk shredded, and Flossaria convinces the caravan merchant to sell her a suit of chain mail for a good price.
The party regroup and rest for the night at the local inn.
August 17, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the party meet with the Priestess of Kib, who escorts them to the druid circle, about 45 minutes' travel from Barar. There, they meet Tamat, the local Druid of Kib. He doesn't know of any lizardfolk village, but he does know of a nearby cave where the lizardfolk are known to gather. He tells them that this cave has a strong unnatural aura, enough that members of his order are not comfortable approaching it. Despite this, he agrees to lead the group there.
As they travel, the characters question him about the lizardfolk and their beliefs. Tamat believes that the lizardfolk gods either don't exist, or exist but aren't gods - they're just extremely powerful aberrant beings. He also tells them that the holy books of Kib describe all of the creatures created by Kib, and lizardfolk, along with many other monsters and beasts, are not included in these descriptions. Thus, they have no part in the natural order and should be destroyed.
The group travel for several hours until they finally approach the cave. As they near, Tamat stops them and says that they should sneak up to get a good view of the cave. Adokas and Iriellis decide to go with him to get a look, while the rest stay with their lizardfolk captive, who is gagged. Tamat, Adokas, and Iriellis make their way up to a hill that overlooks the cave. Tamat points out the cave itself, located beyond a clearing and under a natural ridge from their viewpoint, and Adokas sneaks forward to search for lizardfolk tracks, trying to get a feel for their recent activity.
Back at the rest of the party, Flossaria decides to question the lizardfolk and ungags it in order to do so. As soon as she does this, it starts shouting and making as much noise as possible. Zedlyn attacks it and knocks it to the ground. As it struggles and tries to claw apart its bonds, he impales it with his trident, killing it.
The commotion draws back Tamat, Adokas and Iriellis. Realizing that the other lizardfolk must be alerted now, Tamat advises that they retreat and return at a later time. The characters, however, take the opposite approach: they'll take this chance to ambush the other lizardfolk as they come out to investigate.
Friday, November 15, 2013
Session 15: The Fist of Kord, Part 3
August 14, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The party travel along with the caravan for the entire day. Flossaria, Zedlyn, and Iriellis are hiding inside the wagons because their heavily armed and armored appearance might scare off any attackers. Adokas is also inside, because he's worried that attackers might recognize him. This leaves P'hla and Sharla riding outside, sharing the same horse. However, the caravan is not ambushed during the day.
August 15, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The first half of this day is uneventful, as the caravan continues on. In the afternoon, the wagons are making their way through a hilly section of the route, when suddenly five lizardfolk archers rise out of concealment, 100 feet from the road, and let fly with arrows. P'hla and one of the caravan guards are hit and injured badly. As they hear the sound of battle, the rest of the party leap out of the wagons to join in.
As the lizardfolk continue to pelt them with arrows, the party take action. Flossaria gets one lizard-man in the throat with a crossbow bolt, instantly killing it, and Iriellis stands next to her and attacks with her sling. Zedlyn and Adokas advance, Zedlyn throwing a javelin and Adokas attacking with his sling. The wounded caravan guard retreats, while the other charges into battle on his horse, rapidly closing the distance and engaging two of the lizardfolk. Sharla attempts to heal P'hla, while P'hla casts a sleeping spell into the middle of the fray. It catches the guardsman and the two lizardfolk he was fighting, and all three drop to the ground.
Adokas closes the distance and attacks one of the two remaining lizardfolk, while Zedlyn moves back to keep an eye on the caravan. Iriellis and Flossaria continue firing, and P'hla and Sharla ride forward to wake the sleeping guardsman. Flossaria drops another lizardfolk with her crossbow and Adokas injures his foe while taking some injuries himself. After Sharla finishes waking the guardsman, she approaches the last lizard-man from behind and drops it with tendrils of magic.
Adokas ties up the two sleeping lizardfolk, while the clerics heal everyone up and Zedlyn gathers the bodies and searches them. The party take the tied-up lizardfolk and bring them each into different wagons, then P'hla slaps one of them awake and they interrogate it. They try to speak with it in Common, but it just hisses back at them. Unexpectedly, Flossaria responds to it in its own hissing language.
The creature is antagonistic, but Flossaria convinces it to answer their questions. It tells them that it comes from a tribe to the north, home of many lizardfolk, although no amount of cajoling will convince it to give up the exact location. They have made a deal with humans in both Viskha and Barar; these individuals give them advance warning of caravans that are coming through, the lizardfolk attack the caravans, and they split the spoils. It has nothing to say on the subject of the caravan whose occupants simply vanished, except that "they were delicious". Finally, it confirms that they do, in fact, have Iskander's holy symbol of Kord. Apparently, they are quite fond of it.
They try to question the second lizardfolk as well, but it turns out to be much less talkative than the first. It simply tells Flossaria to either kill it or let it go; it won't answer any questions.
Considering what to do next, Adokas and P'hla do some mental math and realize that, based on the time that the suspicious man must have departed from Viskha, and the amount of time the lizardfolk had to arrive at their ambush point, the lizardfolk village can't be more than half a day's travel to the north. The party consider heading there immediately, but eventually decide that they should finish escorting the caravan to Barar and regroup.
They travel for the rest of the day before setting up camp for the night. They chain the two lizardfolk together and move them into the same wagon, so that one person alone can keep an eye on them. They set up a system of guard shifts in which the six party members, plus the two guardsmen, will take turns on watch, two at a time - one outside, keeping an eye out for trouble, and one inside, watching the two lizardfolk. While they'd like to have more than two people watching at a time, they can't; they need to give everyone enough time to rest, and any delay means that the caravan won't make it to Barar the next day.
P'hla and Zedlyn take the first watch shift, which is uneventful. They see nothing suspicious. After two hours, they swap out with Adokas and Flossaria. Flossaria watches the outside of the camp, while Adokas stays inside with the lizardfolk. However, midway through his shift, Adokas' attention starts to wander, and he fails to notice the lizardfolk furtively cutting apart their ropes with their sharp claws and teeth. He also fails to notice when they grab weapons and sneak up behind him. He only realizes that they're behind him just in time to dodge the bludgeon of the first lizardfolk, dodging directly into the bludgeon of the second lizardfolk, which nearly knocks him out cold in a single blow. His scream of pain and surprise sounds across the camp as the lizardfolk heft their weapons and prepare to finish him off...
The party travel along with the caravan for the entire day. Flossaria, Zedlyn, and Iriellis are hiding inside the wagons because their heavily armed and armored appearance might scare off any attackers. Adokas is also inside, because he's worried that attackers might recognize him. This leaves P'hla and Sharla riding outside, sharing the same horse. However, the caravan is not ambushed during the day.
August 15, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The first half of this day is uneventful, as the caravan continues on. In the afternoon, the wagons are making their way through a hilly section of the route, when suddenly five lizardfolk archers rise out of concealment, 100 feet from the road, and let fly with arrows. P'hla and one of the caravan guards are hit and injured badly. As they hear the sound of battle, the rest of the party leap out of the wagons to join in.
As the lizardfolk continue to pelt them with arrows, the party take action. Flossaria gets one lizard-man in the throat with a crossbow bolt, instantly killing it, and Iriellis stands next to her and attacks with her sling. Zedlyn and Adokas advance, Zedlyn throwing a javelin and Adokas attacking with his sling. The wounded caravan guard retreats, while the other charges into battle on his horse, rapidly closing the distance and engaging two of the lizardfolk. Sharla attempts to heal P'hla, while P'hla casts a sleeping spell into the middle of the fray. It catches the guardsman and the two lizardfolk he was fighting, and all three drop to the ground.
Adokas closes the distance and attacks one of the two remaining lizardfolk, while Zedlyn moves back to keep an eye on the caravan. Iriellis and Flossaria continue firing, and P'hla and Sharla ride forward to wake the sleeping guardsman. Flossaria drops another lizardfolk with her crossbow and Adokas injures his foe while taking some injuries himself. After Sharla finishes waking the guardsman, she approaches the last lizard-man from behind and drops it with tendrils of magic.
Adokas ties up the two sleeping lizardfolk, while the clerics heal everyone up and Zedlyn gathers the bodies and searches them. The party take the tied-up lizardfolk and bring them each into different wagons, then P'hla slaps one of them awake and they interrogate it. They try to speak with it in Common, but it just hisses back at them. Unexpectedly, Flossaria responds to it in its own hissing language.
The creature is antagonistic, but Flossaria convinces it to answer their questions. It tells them that it comes from a tribe to the north, home of many lizardfolk, although no amount of cajoling will convince it to give up the exact location. They have made a deal with humans in both Viskha and Barar; these individuals give them advance warning of caravans that are coming through, the lizardfolk attack the caravans, and they split the spoils. It has nothing to say on the subject of the caravan whose occupants simply vanished, except that "they were delicious". Finally, it confirms that they do, in fact, have Iskander's holy symbol of Kord. Apparently, they are quite fond of it.
They try to question the second lizardfolk as well, but it turns out to be much less talkative than the first. It simply tells Flossaria to either kill it or let it go; it won't answer any questions.
Considering what to do next, Adokas and P'hla do some mental math and realize that, based on the time that the suspicious man must have departed from Viskha, and the amount of time the lizardfolk had to arrive at their ambush point, the lizardfolk village can't be more than half a day's travel to the north. The party consider heading there immediately, but eventually decide that they should finish escorting the caravan to Barar and regroup.
They travel for the rest of the day before setting up camp for the night. They chain the two lizardfolk together and move them into the same wagon, so that one person alone can keep an eye on them. They set up a system of guard shifts in which the six party members, plus the two guardsmen, will take turns on watch, two at a time - one outside, keeping an eye out for trouble, and one inside, watching the two lizardfolk. While they'd like to have more than two people watching at a time, they can't; they need to give everyone enough time to rest, and any delay means that the caravan won't make it to Barar the next day.
P'hla and Zedlyn take the first watch shift, which is uneventful. They see nothing suspicious. After two hours, they swap out with Adokas and Flossaria. Flossaria watches the outside of the camp, while Adokas stays inside with the lizardfolk. However, midway through his shift, Adokas' attention starts to wander, and he fails to notice the lizardfolk furtively cutting apart their ropes with their sharp claws and teeth. He also fails to notice when they grab weapons and sneak up behind him. He only realizes that they're behind him just in time to dodge the bludgeon of the first lizardfolk, dodging directly into the bludgeon of the second lizardfolk, which nearly knocks him out cold in a single blow. His scream of pain and surprise sounds across the camp as the lizardfolk heft their weapons and prepare to finish him off...
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Session 14: The Fist of Kord, Part 2
August 12, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Having arrived back to Viskha, the characters spent the day asking questions and gathering information. They ask around with various merchants to learn when the next caravan back towards Barar is leaving; they learn that it will head out in two days' time, on the 14th.
At around noon, they go to visit Iskander and ask him some more questions about the missing holy symbol. He explains that he has contacts and sources all over the land who keep an eye out for rare items for him. The missing holy symbol of Kord was found by one of his contacts to the east, but he doesn't know any details about where it came from before that.
They next go to Lieutenant Hadia, of the Viskhan Police, to ask her about the city's Thieves' Guild, wondering if they might be involved. Hadia tells them that Viskha doesn't have one single Thieves' Guild; it used to, but it was rooted out and destroyed by Queen Ilthai about a decade ago. Instead, there are a variety of smaller, competing guilds and gangs throughout the city now. While it's not impossible that they're involved, she can't act without any sort of evidence.
Finally, everyone except Iriellis talks to various merchants around town, trying to learn what the missing caravans were carrying. From a few different merchants, they get a good idea of what those missing goods are. Iriellis, on the other hand, asks about the symbol of Kord in particular, in case it has ended up for sale somewhere in the city. She is unable to learn anything.
August 13, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Suspecting that the theft of a holy symbol might be related to the mysterious cult whose symbol they found in the Temple of the Iron God, the party head to the police headquarters to speak again with Hadia, who initially warned them about the cult. When they explain the circumstances, she isn't convinced - she points out that the most likely explanation is a particularly well organized group of bandits is hitting caravans, completely unrelated to the cult. She doesn't have a good explanation for the caravan where all the goods and traders simply vanished, though, except to suggest that the bandits might have a wizard in their employ. Regardless, she tells them that her jurisdiction is limited to the city itself, so she can't do much to help them.
In the afternoon, the party split into three groups to ask around town. Adokas and Sharla ask around about the missing goods, trying to discover if any of them have been sold in the city. Flossaria and P'hla do the same thing in a different area of town. Zedlyn and Iriellis follow a different track, and try to find out if Iskander has any rival or rivals who might have orchestrated the theft of the symbol of Kord.
Flossaria, P'hla, Zedlyn and Iriellis are all unsuccessful, learning nothing of interest, but Adokas and Sharla succeed. They discover a local merchant, Rahim, has recently sold several pieces of semi-precious jewelry that were reported missing from one of the caravans. When they confront him, he is evasive, simply mentioning that he doesn't dig too far into where his sources get their items. Switching tactics, Sharla mentions that she is a collector of holy symbols (which is actually true) and that she's looking for a particularly rare symbol. She describes the holy symbol of Kord to him, and Rahim says that he'll keep an eye out, although such a rare item won't come cheap.
As Sharla leaves, Adokas stays behind, discreetly watching Rahim to see what he does. A few hours pass, and around nightfall, a shady-looking individual approaches Rahim as he's closing up his stall. The two talk, and Adokas eavesdrops on them. The stranger is describing various caravans, and asking Rahim if he'd like to purchase any items from these caravans "for cheap". Rahim expresses interest in a few, and the stranger wanders off.
Adokas switches to following the stranger, and watches him as he visits several other merchants and has the same sort of conversation with them, including a sketchy weapons dealer who expresses interest in the caravan that is supposed to leave the next day. Eventually, the stranger heads off through the gates into the Southern Yannreach, with Adokas still following behind.
Adokas continues to follow him through the slums, until he vanishes into an alley. Adokas follows him in, but he doesn't get very far before he is grabbed from behind by two thugs - a big bruiser and a smaller, more agile man. As they roughly question him, asking why he was following the stranger, he discreetly reaches for his poisoned dagger, then stabs the smaller thug when the opportunity presents itself. As the thug staggers off, the larger man charges Adokas and grabs him by the neck, smashing him against the wall. Adokas fights back with his hands and feet, but the smaller thug quickly recovers and attacks him as well with a dagger. Adokas is stabbed twice before he manages to drop the bruiser; he then evades the other thug and flees into the night.
Returning to the inn in Yahn's Market, Sharla heals Adokas to the best of her ability, while Zedlyn and P'hla fetch Iriellis and Flossaria from their respective temples. The two clerics patch Adokas up, and the group discuss what they should do. Despite the fact that it's the middle of the night, they decide to send Adokas, with Flossaria as backup, to the police headquarters to report what they've found to Hadia.
Hadia isn't in, given how it's the middle of the night, but they convince one of the night watchmen to fetch her, and within half an hour she's arrived at the police station. Adokas explains to her what happened, but he isn't able to remember exactly what route he took or where the alley is, so they head out to try to find it, using the trail of blood left by Adokas to track his route.
Unfortunately, they aren't able to find the exact alley, but they do arrive in the general area. Hadia recognizes it, saying that it is the territory of a gang of toughs called the Black Hand Gang. The three of them aren't nearly enough to attack the gang head on, so they return to confer with the rest of the party.
They come to the following agreement: Hadia and the Viskhan Police force will continue to investigate in the city, while the party will head out with the caravan on the next day. They'll conceal themselves, and when the caravan is attacked, they'll reverse the ambush against the attackers.
With the plan decided, the party rest for the remainder of the night.
August 14, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the characters, along with Hadia, head out to meet the caravan before it departs. Hadia explains the situation to the head merchant, who agrees to take the party along in order to protect the caravan. Most of the party hide themselves away in the wagons, so as to not arouse suspicion from the attackers, and the caravan sets off towards Barar.
Having arrived back to Viskha, the characters spent the day asking questions and gathering information. They ask around with various merchants to learn when the next caravan back towards Barar is leaving; they learn that it will head out in two days' time, on the 14th.
At around noon, they go to visit Iskander and ask him some more questions about the missing holy symbol. He explains that he has contacts and sources all over the land who keep an eye out for rare items for him. The missing holy symbol of Kord was found by one of his contacts to the east, but he doesn't know any details about where it came from before that.
They next go to Lieutenant Hadia, of the Viskhan Police, to ask her about the city's Thieves' Guild, wondering if they might be involved. Hadia tells them that Viskha doesn't have one single Thieves' Guild; it used to, but it was rooted out and destroyed by Queen Ilthai about a decade ago. Instead, there are a variety of smaller, competing guilds and gangs throughout the city now. While it's not impossible that they're involved, she can't act without any sort of evidence.
Finally, everyone except Iriellis talks to various merchants around town, trying to learn what the missing caravans were carrying. From a few different merchants, they get a good idea of what those missing goods are. Iriellis, on the other hand, asks about the symbol of Kord in particular, in case it has ended up for sale somewhere in the city. She is unable to learn anything.
August 13, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Suspecting that the theft of a holy symbol might be related to the mysterious cult whose symbol they found in the Temple of the Iron God, the party head to the police headquarters to speak again with Hadia, who initially warned them about the cult. When they explain the circumstances, she isn't convinced - she points out that the most likely explanation is a particularly well organized group of bandits is hitting caravans, completely unrelated to the cult. She doesn't have a good explanation for the caravan where all the goods and traders simply vanished, though, except to suggest that the bandits might have a wizard in their employ. Regardless, she tells them that her jurisdiction is limited to the city itself, so she can't do much to help them.
In the afternoon, the party split into three groups to ask around town. Adokas and Sharla ask around about the missing goods, trying to discover if any of them have been sold in the city. Flossaria and P'hla do the same thing in a different area of town. Zedlyn and Iriellis follow a different track, and try to find out if Iskander has any rival or rivals who might have orchestrated the theft of the symbol of Kord.
Flossaria, P'hla, Zedlyn and Iriellis are all unsuccessful, learning nothing of interest, but Adokas and Sharla succeed. They discover a local merchant, Rahim, has recently sold several pieces of semi-precious jewelry that were reported missing from one of the caravans. When they confront him, he is evasive, simply mentioning that he doesn't dig too far into where his sources get their items. Switching tactics, Sharla mentions that she is a collector of holy symbols (which is actually true) and that she's looking for a particularly rare symbol. She describes the holy symbol of Kord to him, and Rahim says that he'll keep an eye out, although such a rare item won't come cheap.
As Sharla leaves, Adokas stays behind, discreetly watching Rahim to see what he does. A few hours pass, and around nightfall, a shady-looking individual approaches Rahim as he's closing up his stall. The two talk, and Adokas eavesdrops on them. The stranger is describing various caravans, and asking Rahim if he'd like to purchase any items from these caravans "for cheap". Rahim expresses interest in a few, and the stranger wanders off.
Adokas switches to following the stranger, and watches him as he visits several other merchants and has the same sort of conversation with them, including a sketchy weapons dealer who expresses interest in the caravan that is supposed to leave the next day. Eventually, the stranger heads off through the gates into the Southern Yannreach, with Adokas still following behind.
Adokas continues to follow him through the slums, until he vanishes into an alley. Adokas follows him in, but he doesn't get very far before he is grabbed from behind by two thugs - a big bruiser and a smaller, more agile man. As they roughly question him, asking why he was following the stranger, he discreetly reaches for his poisoned dagger, then stabs the smaller thug when the opportunity presents itself. As the thug staggers off, the larger man charges Adokas and grabs him by the neck, smashing him against the wall. Adokas fights back with his hands and feet, but the smaller thug quickly recovers and attacks him as well with a dagger. Adokas is stabbed twice before he manages to drop the bruiser; he then evades the other thug and flees into the night.
Returning to the inn in Yahn's Market, Sharla heals Adokas to the best of her ability, while Zedlyn and P'hla fetch Iriellis and Flossaria from their respective temples. The two clerics patch Adokas up, and the group discuss what they should do. Despite the fact that it's the middle of the night, they decide to send Adokas, with Flossaria as backup, to the police headquarters to report what they've found to Hadia.
Hadia isn't in, given how it's the middle of the night, but they convince one of the night watchmen to fetch her, and within half an hour she's arrived at the police station. Adokas explains to her what happened, but he isn't able to remember exactly what route he took or where the alley is, so they head out to try to find it, using the trail of blood left by Adokas to track his route.
Unfortunately, they aren't able to find the exact alley, but they do arrive in the general area. Hadia recognizes it, saying that it is the territory of a gang of toughs called the Black Hand Gang. The three of them aren't nearly enough to attack the gang head on, so they return to confer with the rest of the party.
They come to the following agreement: Hadia and the Viskhan Police force will continue to investigate in the city, while the party will head out with the caravan on the next day. They'll conceal themselves, and when the caravan is attacked, they'll reverse the ambush against the attackers.
With the plan decided, the party rest for the remainder of the night.
August 14, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the characters, along with Hadia, head out to meet the caravan before it departs. Hadia explains the situation to the head merchant, who agrees to take the party along in order to protect the caravan. Most of the party hide themselves away in the wagons, so as to not arouse suspicion from the attackers, and the caravan sets off towards Barar.
Friday, November 8, 2013
Lieutenant Hadia
Lawful Good Female Half-Elf (Human Lineage) Fighter / Rogue, Level 4 / 4
Str 15 Dex 16 Con 11 Int 13 Wis 12 Cha 9
HP 15 AC 15 Prime Attributes Strength, Dexterity
Height 5' 8" Weight 145 lbs Age 33 years
Race Abilities Attribute Check Modification (Intelligence), Empathy, Spell Resistance, Spot Hidden Doors
Class Abilities Back Attack, Cant, Climb +2, Combat Dominance, Decipher Script, Hide +2, Listen +2, Move Silently +4, Open Lock +2, Pick Pocket +2, Sneak Attack, Traps +4, Weapon Specialization (Longsword, +1)
Equipment Longsword, 3 daggers, lightcrossbow, 20 bolts, leather armor
Description The two best words to describe Hadia would be "practical" and "severe". Of slightly above-average height for a half-elf, she keeps her hair short and well-cropped, and dresses simply and practically. While on duty, she is generally found armed and armored, wearing the uniform of the Viskhan Police above her leather armor. She is impeccably neat.
Biography Hadia has yet to talk much about herself. Obviously, she is a lieutenant in a Viskhan Police force, but as of now, any details of her past and her story are unknown to you.
Str 15 Dex 16 Con 11 Int 13 Wis 12 Cha 9
HP 15 AC 15 Prime Attributes Strength, Dexterity
Height 5' 8" Weight 145 lbs Age 33 years
Race Abilities Attribute Check Modification (Intelligence), Empathy, Spell Resistance, Spot Hidden Doors
Class Abilities Back Attack, Cant, Climb +2, Combat Dominance, Decipher Script, Hide +2, Listen +2, Move Silently +4, Open Lock +2, Pick Pocket +2, Sneak Attack, Traps +4, Weapon Specialization (Longsword, +1)
Equipment Longsword, 3 daggers, lightcrossbow, 20 bolts, leather armor
Description The two best words to describe Hadia would be "practical" and "severe". Of slightly above-average height for a half-elf, she keeps her hair short and well-cropped, and dresses simply and practically. While on duty, she is generally found armed and armored, wearing the uniform of the Viskhan Police above her leather armor. She is impeccably neat.
Biography Hadia has yet to talk much about herself. Obviously, she is a lieutenant in a Viskhan Police force, but as of now, any details of her past and her story are unknown to you.
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Session 13: The Fist of Kord, Part 1
August 7, Year 3488 (SE 118)
After three days of travel, the party have arrived at Barar, shortly after noon. Barar is a small but prosperous town of under 1000 inhabitants. Its location along the route between Viskha and Agrodaun makes it a good stop for traders and caravans.
Soon after the party arrive, they decide to split up and investigate, searching for clues as well as pursuing personal interests. Flossaria, finding that the town contains a temple of Mung, goes there to ask questions. Sharla also asks around at the local temples, which turn out to include temples of Mung, Slid, and Kib. She focuses on the temple of Kib, since she hasn't been to a temple of that God yet, and purchases a holy symbol at add to her collection.
Zedlyn goes to talk to the local town guards, hoping his experience as a mercenary will allow him to fit in with them. P'hla goes to the local tavern to question the common people. Finally, Iriellis goes directly to the merchants in town to ask them.
Of all the characters, only Iriellis meets any real success. From the merchants in town, she learns that caravans have indeed been regularly going missing on the road between Viskha and Barar over the last few months - about one in ten has been disappearing. Two of the missing caravans were recently discovered. The first showed very obvious signs of combat, with blood and gore all over the wagons and all valuables and individuals missing. The other was much stranger - the traders and the cargo missing, but the rest of the caravan untouched, as if the traders had just grabbed their cargo and walked off, leaving their wagons in the middle of the road.
Furthermore, Iriellis learns that a caravan from Agrodaun is expected to reach Barar the next day. So, after regrouping, the party decide to rest for the night and check out this caravan when it arrives.
August 8, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the characters again follow their own leads while waiting for the caravan to arrive. Flossaria switches temples and asks around at the temple of Kib. Iriellis decides to ask around about the half-closed eye symbol that they found in the Temple of the Iron God. P'hla switches to the one other tavern in town, and Zedlyn continues to try to befriend the town guards. Sharla, meanwhile, sequesters herself in the inn and studies the spell of Hypnotism that she had purchased at Viskha.
Unfortunately, none of the characters learn anything of interest, although Sharla does make some progress on understanding her scroll. In the afternoon, the expected caravan arrives and the characters head to meet it, along with Nazim, the unofficial leader of the town's merchants.
The caravan turns out to be a mid-sized affair with three wagons, headed by a middle-aged woman named Zayna. It is carrying goods and relics from the sacred mount Agrodaun. They explain the situation of the missing caravans to Zayna; she is upset to learn that the merchants of Barar have apparently been covering this up, as this is the first she's heard about missing caravans, despite having travelled through Barar several times in the past few months.
The characters offer their services as guards, hoping that the caravan will be attacked and they will find out what's going on. Zayna is hesitant to trust them, but they manage to convince her to take them along, aided by their agreeing to work without pay.
Zayna tells them that the caravan will be leaving shortly after sunrise the next morning, so the group head off to rest and prepare for an early start.
August 9, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the caravan heads out as planned, with the party travelling alongside it. As they are leaving, they notice someone lurking between two buildings, watching them. The watcher backs away into the alley as they head out, and they decide not to pursue him (or her).
August 12, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next three days pass uneventfully. Sharla studies her scroll from the back of one of the wagons while the rest of the party ride alongside the caravan. The caravan is not attacked, which is good for Zayna but bad for the party. They arrive at Viskha in the morning, having learned nothing about what's causing the caravans to disappear.
After three days of travel, the party have arrived at Barar, shortly after noon. Barar is a small but prosperous town of under 1000 inhabitants. Its location along the route between Viskha and Agrodaun makes it a good stop for traders and caravans.
Soon after the party arrive, they decide to split up and investigate, searching for clues as well as pursuing personal interests. Flossaria, finding that the town contains a temple of Mung, goes there to ask questions. Sharla also asks around at the local temples, which turn out to include temples of Mung, Slid, and Kib. She focuses on the temple of Kib, since she hasn't been to a temple of that God yet, and purchases a holy symbol at add to her collection.
Zedlyn goes to talk to the local town guards, hoping his experience as a mercenary will allow him to fit in with them. P'hla goes to the local tavern to question the common people. Finally, Iriellis goes directly to the merchants in town to ask them.
Of all the characters, only Iriellis meets any real success. From the merchants in town, she learns that caravans have indeed been regularly going missing on the road between Viskha and Barar over the last few months - about one in ten has been disappearing. Two of the missing caravans were recently discovered. The first showed very obvious signs of combat, with blood and gore all over the wagons and all valuables and individuals missing. The other was much stranger - the traders and the cargo missing, but the rest of the caravan untouched, as if the traders had just grabbed their cargo and walked off, leaving their wagons in the middle of the road.
Furthermore, Iriellis learns that a caravan from Agrodaun is expected to reach Barar the next day. So, after regrouping, the party decide to rest for the night and check out this caravan when it arrives.
August 8, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the characters again follow their own leads while waiting for the caravan to arrive. Flossaria switches temples and asks around at the temple of Kib. Iriellis decides to ask around about the half-closed eye symbol that they found in the Temple of the Iron God. P'hla switches to the one other tavern in town, and Zedlyn continues to try to befriend the town guards. Sharla, meanwhile, sequesters herself in the inn and studies the spell of Hypnotism that she had purchased at Viskha.
Unfortunately, none of the characters learn anything of interest, although Sharla does make some progress on understanding her scroll. In the afternoon, the expected caravan arrives and the characters head to meet it, along with Nazim, the unofficial leader of the town's merchants.
The caravan turns out to be a mid-sized affair with three wagons, headed by a middle-aged woman named Zayna. It is carrying goods and relics from the sacred mount Agrodaun. They explain the situation of the missing caravans to Zayna; she is upset to learn that the merchants of Barar have apparently been covering this up, as this is the first she's heard about missing caravans, despite having travelled through Barar several times in the past few months.
The characters offer their services as guards, hoping that the caravan will be attacked and they will find out what's going on. Zayna is hesitant to trust them, but they manage to convince her to take them along, aided by their agreeing to work without pay.
Zayna tells them that the caravan will be leaving shortly after sunrise the next morning, so the group head off to rest and prepare for an early start.
August 9, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the caravan heads out as planned, with the party travelling alongside it. As they are leaving, they notice someone lurking between two buildings, watching them. The watcher backs away into the alley as they head out, and they decide not to pursue him (or her).
August 12, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next three days pass uneventfully. Sharla studies her scroll from the back of one of the wagons while the rest of the party ride alongside the caravan. The caravan is not attacked, which is good for Zayna but bad for the party. They arrive at Viskha in the morning, having learned nothing about what's causing the caravans to disappear.
Friday, October 25, 2013
Session 12: Arrival at Viskha
August 1, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Several weeks have passed since Hassan's caravan, party included, set out from the village of Asuna. The caravan has finally arrived at Viskha, the largest and most powerful city in Ember. The caravan enters the city through the main gate and into Yahn's Market, the main commercial district of Viskha. Here, the party are paid and released from their service by Hassan, their contract to guard the caravan complete.
Arik's condition has deteriorated throughout the trip, as he turns out to be even less able to stand the heat of the desert than the heat of the jungle. By the time he arrives at Viskha, he is once again effectively bedridden. The party take rooms at a respectable inn in Yahn's Market, and Arik retires to his room to recover, as he did before in Asuna. He tells the rest of the party members to take the remainder of the day and the day after to themselves. Afterwards, they are to assemble back at the inn, where Arik will have further instructions for them.
The rest of the day is spent taking advantage of Viskha's vast markets, as the party sell off most of the valuable items that they acquired in the Temple of the Iron God. They also head to the Arcane University and commission a wizard to identify the various magical items that they'd found, and divide the money and magical items amongst themselves.
August 2, Year 3488 (SE 118)
During their day off, the party members split and take care of separate tasks. Zedlyn, who originally comes from a fishing village, decides to head down to the docks and start meeting the community and learning his way around. He investigates the price of housing and real estate in the area, but decides to wait until he has a bit more money.
Flossaria checks in at the temple of Mung and gets to know the local priests. She spends the first half of the day praying and talking with the priests. In the afternoon, she wanders about Yahn's Market, asking about recent events. It seems that, with the harvest season coming to an end, Viskha is once again preparing for war - once the Yann begins to flood, the city's warships will sail again.
Iriellis, like Flossaria, decides to spent half the day checking in at temples. She wants to visit the Grand Temple of Slid, but it is located in the Palace District, which closed to outsiders. She tries to convince the guards that, as a priestess of Slid, she should be allowed in, but fails, so she is forced to visit one of the smaller temples around Yahn's Market. In the afternoon, she asks around town about a halfling bard, but no one has seen the individual she describes.
Adokas spends the day asking around town to learn if it houses an outpost of his religion, the Faith of the Sun. Unfortunately, his brusque manner doesn't get him very far, and he is unable to learn anything.
Finally, Sharla spends the morning perusing the city's markets and bazaars, searching for magical scrolls. She finds and purchases a scroll of Hypnotism, although she doesn't yet have time to study and scribe it into her spellbook. In the afternoon, she sets up shop in front of the Temple of Roon in the docks and uses her illusion magic to perform a few fake miracles and solicit donations. She makes a bit of money while managing to avoid the notice of the priests inside.
In the evening, the party regroup at the inn and rest for the night.
August 3, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the party assemble at Arik's room, as requested. With Arik is a young half-elf woman, who he introduces as P'hla. He explains that he felt that the group required more magical support, and so he had messengers seek out an adventuring wizard who was willing to join the group. P'hla introduces herself, explaining that she is looking for a magical amulet and hopes that joining the party will help her in that goal, as they are also investigating ancient relics and artifacts.
With P'hla introduced, Arik moves on to his orders for the day. First of all, he wants them to continue to investigate the strange holy symbol that they found on the dead caravan guard in the Temple of the Iron God. Secondly, he wants them to continue asking around about the Eye of Ranorach. Finally, he needs them to help him find a solution to his inability to withstand Ember's climate. He explains that he hired people to ask around for him, and has discovered that a retired priest named Iskander apparently owns a ring that allows the wearer to resist heat. He asks the party to go to Iskander and try to obtain the ring from him.
The party split into two groups, with Sharla and Flossaria going around the various temples in town to ask about the mysterious holy symbol and the Eye of Ranorach, and the rest going to visit Iskander at his home. Sharla and Flossaria have little success - no one knows anything about the holy symbol. The priests of Sirami in particular are perplexed by its resemblance to their own god's holy symbol, but know nothing about it. Similarly, the only thing that they learn about the Eye of Ranorach is that it is supposedly the resting place of an ancient god, located somewhere in the deserts to the east. While they're visiting the temples, Sharla purchases a holy symbol of each god.
The rest of the group visit Iskander's home, which turns out to be a large, luxurious building in one of the nicer sections of Yahn's Market. Iskander himself is an old man, about 60 years of age, dressed in fine robes, carrying a staff, and of a cranky disposition. After they explain that they've come to ask him about the ring, Iskander invites the group into his home.
Iskander explains that he is quite wealthy, due to his performing certain services for the nobility (exactly what services, he doesn't say, as a woman's voice from upstairs cuts him off before he finishes the sentence) and thus isn't particularly willing to sell it for money. The party ask if they can instead perform a service for him, and he realizes that indeed they can. He explains that he is something of a scholar, and in particular he is researching the relationship between the western pantheon of the Second Empire and the eastern pantheon of Ember. To this end, he had located a particular holy symbol of Kord, a god foreign to Ember, and was having it shipped to him. However, the caravan that was transporting it never made it to its destination; it was last seen at Barar, a town that is a few days' journey from Viskha.
The party agree to retrieve this holy symbol, in return for Iskander's ring. They try to convince him to give them the ring in advance (so that Arik is able to accompany them), but he isn't willing to do so without them leaving a deposit of at least half the ring's value - 7000 gold pieces, which they do not have. They do manage to convince him to allow Arik to stay at his home and wear the ring while they're gone, so that at least Arik will be comfortable.
This discussion takes up the morning, so the four adventurers have the afternoon free. Zedlyn returns to the docks and continues getting to know the area. Adokas, unable to find any outposts of his religion, decides to start acting independently, and cases out the nearest temple, which turns out to be the temple of Sirami. P'hla is new to this land, so she spends the afternoon asking around town, trying to get an overall feel for the city.
In the evening, everyone once again regroup at the inn and share their accomplishments. They decide to head out to Barar the next morning.
August 4, Year 3488 (118 SE)
In the morning, the party decide the trip will be shorter if they make it on horseback, so they head out to purchase steeds. While they are split up to search for appropriate mounts, Sharla and Flossaria, who decide to share a horse, are approached by a street urchin, who tells them he has a message from Lieutenant Hadia of the Viskhan Police. She apparently wishes to meet with them as soon as possible, and says that they may be in danger. Sharla and Flossaria decide to check this out immediately. They purchase their horse, and pay the seller to deliver it to the inn along with a message to the rest of the party explaining where they've gone.
Down at the police headquarters, they are escorted to Hadia's office; the lieutenant turns out to be an athletic, no-nonsense woman in her mid-thirties, dressed in leather armor and wearing the uniform of the Viskhan Police. She immediately starts asking them questions about the mysterious holy symbol that they found in the Temple of the Iron God - things like where they found it, and what they know about it. The two adventurers answer her questions truthfully, to the best of their ability. She also asks about them personally, and the two explain that they are both travellers from out of town.
Once she is satisfied with their answers, Hadia agrees to answer their questions in return. She explains that she heard from her sources that the two of them were seen asking about the holy symbol in various temples about town. She is in charge of the investigation into what appears to be a murderous cult - several murderers have been captured in town, all bearing the same holy symbol as the one the party found. Furthermore, they appear to be exclusively targeting newcomers to Viskha. However, the captured murderers appear to have no memory of the deed, and are completely unable to answer any questions when interrogated. Hadia is satisfied that Sharla and Flossaria aren't cultists, based on their answers to her questions, so she warns them that, as travelers who have been publicly seen asking around about the holy symbol, they may be in danger.
Sharla indicates that they might be interested in coming back later to interrogate some of these prisoners themselves, but for now they thank Hadia for her warning and head back to the inn. The rest of the party agree that they should warn Arik and Iskander about the cult before they leave, and they go do so. At first Iskander is concerned that having Arik, a traveller, stay at his home might make him a target, but Sharla convinces him that the cult wouldn't dare attack such a public and prominent area.
Since Iskander is apparently something of a religious scholar, they show the holy symbol to him. He doesn't recognize it, although he immediately catches the resemblance to the symbol of Sirami. The party tell him that the priests of Sirami knows nothing, but he points out that it still might represent a legitimate splinter cult of that god. After all, Sirami is the God of Forgetting, so it makes sense that the cult's agents forget everything after they're captured, and that no one seems to remember anything about the cult. Sharla guesses that perhaps there is some sort of conflict going on between Sirami and Roon, the God of Travelers, which would explain why only travelers and newcomers are attacked. Eventually, they decide that they don't have enough information yet to figure out what's going on, so the party head out for Barar to go retrieve the holy symbol of Kord.
Several weeks have passed since Hassan's caravan, party included, set out from the village of Asuna. The caravan has finally arrived at Viskha, the largest and most powerful city in Ember. The caravan enters the city through the main gate and into Yahn's Market, the main commercial district of Viskha. Here, the party are paid and released from their service by Hassan, their contract to guard the caravan complete.
Arik's condition has deteriorated throughout the trip, as he turns out to be even less able to stand the heat of the desert than the heat of the jungle. By the time he arrives at Viskha, he is once again effectively bedridden. The party take rooms at a respectable inn in Yahn's Market, and Arik retires to his room to recover, as he did before in Asuna. He tells the rest of the party members to take the remainder of the day and the day after to themselves. Afterwards, they are to assemble back at the inn, where Arik will have further instructions for them.
The rest of the day is spent taking advantage of Viskha's vast markets, as the party sell off most of the valuable items that they acquired in the Temple of the Iron God. They also head to the Arcane University and commission a wizard to identify the various magical items that they'd found, and divide the money and magical items amongst themselves.
August 2, Year 3488 (SE 118)
During their day off, the party members split and take care of separate tasks. Zedlyn, who originally comes from a fishing village, decides to head down to the docks and start meeting the community and learning his way around. He investigates the price of housing and real estate in the area, but decides to wait until he has a bit more money.
Flossaria checks in at the temple of Mung and gets to know the local priests. She spends the first half of the day praying and talking with the priests. In the afternoon, she wanders about Yahn's Market, asking about recent events. It seems that, with the harvest season coming to an end, Viskha is once again preparing for war - once the Yann begins to flood, the city's warships will sail again.
Iriellis, like Flossaria, decides to spent half the day checking in at temples. She wants to visit the Grand Temple of Slid, but it is located in the Palace District, which closed to outsiders. She tries to convince the guards that, as a priestess of Slid, she should be allowed in, but fails, so she is forced to visit one of the smaller temples around Yahn's Market. In the afternoon, she asks around town about a halfling bard, but no one has seen the individual she describes.
Adokas spends the day asking around town to learn if it houses an outpost of his religion, the Faith of the Sun. Unfortunately, his brusque manner doesn't get him very far, and he is unable to learn anything.
Finally, Sharla spends the morning perusing the city's markets and bazaars, searching for magical scrolls. She finds and purchases a scroll of Hypnotism, although she doesn't yet have time to study and scribe it into her spellbook. In the afternoon, she sets up shop in front of the Temple of Roon in the docks and uses her illusion magic to perform a few fake miracles and solicit donations. She makes a bit of money while managing to avoid the notice of the priests inside.
In the evening, the party regroup at the inn and rest for the night.
August 3, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next morning, the party assemble at Arik's room, as requested. With Arik is a young half-elf woman, who he introduces as P'hla. He explains that he felt that the group required more magical support, and so he had messengers seek out an adventuring wizard who was willing to join the group. P'hla introduces herself, explaining that she is looking for a magical amulet and hopes that joining the party will help her in that goal, as they are also investigating ancient relics and artifacts.
With P'hla introduced, Arik moves on to his orders for the day. First of all, he wants them to continue to investigate the strange holy symbol that they found on the dead caravan guard in the Temple of the Iron God. Secondly, he wants them to continue asking around about the Eye of Ranorach. Finally, he needs them to help him find a solution to his inability to withstand Ember's climate. He explains that he hired people to ask around for him, and has discovered that a retired priest named Iskander apparently owns a ring that allows the wearer to resist heat. He asks the party to go to Iskander and try to obtain the ring from him.
The party split into two groups, with Sharla and Flossaria going around the various temples in town to ask about the mysterious holy symbol and the Eye of Ranorach, and the rest going to visit Iskander at his home. Sharla and Flossaria have little success - no one knows anything about the holy symbol. The priests of Sirami in particular are perplexed by its resemblance to their own god's holy symbol, but know nothing about it. Similarly, the only thing that they learn about the Eye of Ranorach is that it is supposedly the resting place of an ancient god, located somewhere in the deserts to the east. While they're visiting the temples, Sharla purchases a holy symbol of each god.
The rest of the group visit Iskander's home, which turns out to be a large, luxurious building in one of the nicer sections of Yahn's Market. Iskander himself is an old man, about 60 years of age, dressed in fine robes, carrying a staff, and of a cranky disposition. After they explain that they've come to ask him about the ring, Iskander invites the group into his home.
Iskander explains that he is quite wealthy, due to his performing certain services for the nobility (exactly what services, he doesn't say, as a woman's voice from upstairs cuts him off before he finishes the sentence) and thus isn't particularly willing to sell it for money. The party ask if they can instead perform a service for him, and he realizes that indeed they can. He explains that he is something of a scholar, and in particular he is researching the relationship between the western pantheon of the Second Empire and the eastern pantheon of Ember. To this end, he had located a particular holy symbol of Kord, a god foreign to Ember, and was having it shipped to him. However, the caravan that was transporting it never made it to its destination; it was last seen at Barar, a town that is a few days' journey from Viskha.
The party agree to retrieve this holy symbol, in return for Iskander's ring. They try to convince him to give them the ring in advance (so that Arik is able to accompany them), but he isn't willing to do so without them leaving a deposit of at least half the ring's value - 7000 gold pieces, which they do not have. They do manage to convince him to allow Arik to stay at his home and wear the ring while they're gone, so that at least Arik will be comfortable.
This discussion takes up the morning, so the four adventurers have the afternoon free. Zedlyn returns to the docks and continues getting to know the area. Adokas, unable to find any outposts of his religion, decides to start acting independently, and cases out the nearest temple, which turns out to be the temple of Sirami. P'hla is new to this land, so she spends the afternoon asking around town, trying to get an overall feel for the city.
In the evening, everyone once again regroup at the inn and share their accomplishments. They decide to head out to Barar the next morning.
August 4, Year 3488 (118 SE)
In the morning, the party decide the trip will be shorter if they make it on horseback, so they head out to purchase steeds. While they are split up to search for appropriate mounts, Sharla and Flossaria, who decide to share a horse, are approached by a street urchin, who tells them he has a message from Lieutenant Hadia of the Viskhan Police. She apparently wishes to meet with them as soon as possible, and says that they may be in danger. Sharla and Flossaria decide to check this out immediately. They purchase their horse, and pay the seller to deliver it to the inn along with a message to the rest of the party explaining where they've gone.
Down at the police headquarters, they are escorted to Hadia's office; the lieutenant turns out to be an athletic, no-nonsense woman in her mid-thirties, dressed in leather armor and wearing the uniform of the Viskhan Police. She immediately starts asking them questions about the mysterious holy symbol that they found in the Temple of the Iron God - things like where they found it, and what they know about it. The two adventurers answer her questions truthfully, to the best of their ability. She also asks about them personally, and the two explain that they are both travellers from out of town.
Once she is satisfied with their answers, Hadia agrees to answer their questions in return. She explains that she heard from her sources that the two of them were seen asking about the holy symbol in various temples about town. She is in charge of the investigation into what appears to be a murderous cult - several murderers have been captured in town, all bearing the same holy symbol as the one the party found. Furthermore, they appear to be exclusively targeting newcomers to Viskha. However, the captured murderers appear to have no memory of the deed, and are completely unable to answer any questions when interrogated. Hadia is satisfied that Sharla and Flossaria aren't cultists, based on their answers to her questions, so she warns them that, as travelers who have been publicly seen asking around about the holy symbol, they may be in danger.
Sharla indicates that they might be interested in coming back later to interrogate some of these prisoners themselves, but for now they thank Hadia for her warning and head back to the inn. The rest of the party agree that they should warn Arik and Iskander about the cult before they leave, and they go do so. At first Iskander is concerned that having Arik, a traveller, stay at his home might make him a target, but Sharla convinces him that the cult wouldn't dare attack such a public and prominent area.
Since Iskander is apparently something of a religious scholar, they show the holy symbol to him. He doesn't recognize it, although he immediately catches the resemblance to the symbol of Sirami. The party tell him that the priests of Sirami knows nothing, but he points out that it still might represent a legitimate splinter cult of that god. After all, Sirami is the God of Forgetting, so it makes sense that the cult's agents forget everything after they're captured, and that no one seems to remember anything about the cult. Sharla guesses that perhaps there is some sort of conflict going on between Sirami and Roon, the God of Travelers, which would explain why only travelers and newcomers are attacked. Eventually, they decide that they don't have enough information yet to figure out what's going on, so the party head out for Barar to go retrieve the holy symbol of Kord.
P'hla El Hajj Malikus
Female Half-Elf (Human Lineage) Wizard, Level 1
Played by Annie
Str 11 Dex 9 Con 10 Int 14 Wis 12 Cha 17
HP 4 AC 9 Prime Attributes Intelligence, Charisma
Height 5' 4" Weight 120 lbs Age 25 years
Racial Abilities Empathy, Move Silently, Spot Hidden Doors, Secondary Attribute (Dexterity), Spell Resistance
Spells Detect magic, light, open/close, message, charm person, identify, sleep
Equipment Spellbook, sling, 10 stones, staff, dagger, backpack, bedroll, 5 candles, canteen, metal file, ink, small steel mirror, 20 pieces of parchment, quill, rope (50 feet), sealing wax, sewing kit, 3 vials, whistle
Description Short blonde pixie hair. Tallish and kind of lanky, but regular for a half-elf. Elven pointy features, purple eyes because of magic. Always wrapped in sandy-beige robes. 25 years old so very young for a half-elf.
Biography P'hla was a wizard that had a lot of ambition, and she was studying her craft at a nearby magic school. It was like a boarding school. She had been looking for an amulet of great power and it was her goal in life to attain it. She had been studying hard to find ways to locate this amulet and a means to get to it when she stumbled upon a book that made portals. While she was trying things out, she accidentally made a portal that teleported her to a mirage oasis in the middle of a desert. Shortly after, the oasis disappeared and without the book, she was unable to find a way back. Luckily she had managed to walk to the nearest city which happened to be Viskha.
Now she's trying to find people who can help her find out where she is in regards to where she came from. This entire area is completely unknown to her, but she's hoping that she can somehow find ways and people who can help her ultimately find the amulet.
Played by Annie
Str 11 Dex 9 Con 10 Int 14 Wis 12 Cha 17
HP 4 AC 9 Prime Attributes Intelligence, Charisma
Height 5' 4" Weight 120 lbs Age 25 years
Racial Abilities Empathy, Move Silently, Spot Hidden Doors, Secondary Attribute (Dexterity), Spell Resistance
Spells Detect magic, light, open/close, message, charm person, identify, sleep
Equipment Spellbook, sling, 10 stones, staff, dagger, backpack, bedroll, 5 candles, canteen, metal file, ink, small steel mirror, 20 pieces of parchment, quill, rope (50 feet), sealing wax, sewing kit, 3 vials, whistle
Biography P'hla was a wizard that had a lot of ambition, and she was studying her craft at a nearby magic school. It was like a boarding school. She had been looking for an amulet of great power and it was her goal in life to attain it. She had been studying hard to find ways to locate this amulet and a means to get to it when she stumbled upon a book that made portals. While she was trying things out, she accidentally made a portal that teleported her to a mirage oasis in the middle of a desert. Shortly after, the oasis disappeared and without the book, she was unable to find a way back. Luckily she had managed to walk to the nearest city which happened to be Viskha.
Now she's trying to find people who can help her find out where she is in regards to where she came from. This entire area is completely unknown to her, but she's hoping that she can somehow find ways and people who can help her ultimately find the amulet.
Sharla Veile
Chaotic Neutral Female Gnome Bard / Illusionist, Level 1 / 1
Played by Alan
Str 11 Dex 10 Con 11 Int 15 Wis 11 Cha 15
HP 7 AC 12 Prime Attributes Intelligence, Charisma
Height ? Weight ? Age ?
Racial Abilities Animal Empathy, Combat Expertise, Darkvision, Enhanced Hearing, Spells
Class Abilities Decipher Script, Disguise, Exalt, Legend Lore, Sharp Senses, Spells
Spells Change self, first aid, ghost sound, influence, minor dark chaos, prestigiditation, silent image
Equipment 5 daggers, leather armor, 80 gp
Description
Biography
Played by Alan
Str 11 Dex 10 Con 11 Int 15 Wis 11 Cha 15
HP 7 AC 12 Prime Attributes Intelligence, Charisma
Height ? Weight ? Age ?
Racial Abilities Animal Empathy, Combat Expertise, Darkvision, Enhanced Hearing, Spells
Class Abilities Decipher Script, Disguise, Exalt, Legend Lore, Sharp Senses, Spells
Spells Change self, first aid, ghost sound, influence, minor dark chaos, prestigiditation, silent image
Equipment 5 daggers, leather armor, 80 gp
Description
Biography
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
The Reckoning of Years and the Seasons of the Yann
In the lands far to the west of Ember, in domains once claimed by the Second Empire (and the surrounding lands), the years are counted based on the date of the founding of the Second Empire. Thus, in those lands, the current year is 118, the one-hundred and eighteenth year since the Empire was founded. The fact that the Empire collapsed decades ago and lasted under a century is, of course, irrelevant.
In Ember, the years are counted from a different starting point: the original beginning of civilization, when Kilooloogung first taught agriculture to the fishermen and hunter-gatherers who lived along the banks of the Yann, and founded the first ever village (or so the story goes). The truthfulness of this story and the identity of that first village are lost, although every major city along the Yann has, at some point, claimed to be the original settlement. Regardless, though it is the year 118 in the Second Empire, it is the year 3488 in Ember.
The climate around the Yann is quite different from other parts of the world, and the seasons are dominated by the flooding and receding of the mighty river. There are only three seasons, which are the Flood Season, the Planting Season, and the Harvest Season.
The Flood Season is when the waters of the Yann are at their highest. The fields are flooded and agriculture cannot be performed, so instead this is a season of travel, trade, and war, as the width of the Yann allows the fastest and sturdiest ships to sail. It occupies the months of September to December.
The Planting Season follows the Flood Season, and last from January to April. In this season, trade is at its lowest point, as the farmers return to their fields to plant the year's crops, and traders and travellers return to their home cities. The lower waters of the Yann make travel along the river more difficult.
Finally, the Harvest Season lasts from May to August. In this season, crops are harvested and stored away for the rest of the year, local trade increases as farmers come into market, and merchants and travellers lay their plans for the coming flood season. In times of war, the farmers and craftsmen are called to train and prepare, for when the Flood Season returns, mighty war galleons will sail down the Yann once more.
In Ember, the years are counted from a different starting point: the original beginning of civilization, when Kilooloogung first taught agriculture to the fishermen and hunter-gatherers who lived along the banks of the Yann, and founded the first ever village (or so the story goes). The truthfulness of this story and the identity of that first village are lost, although every major city along the Yann has, at some point, claimed to be the original settlement. Regardless, though it is the year 118 in the Second Empire, it is the year 3488 in Ember.
The climate around the Yann is quite different from other parts of the world, and the seasons are dominated by the flooding and receding of the mighty river. There are only three seasons, which are the Flood Season, the Planting Season, and the Harvest Season.
The Flood Season is when the waters of the Yann are at their highest. The fields are flooded and agriculture cannot be performed, so instead this is a season of travel, trade, and war, as the width of the Yann allows the fastest and sturdiest ships to sail. It occupies the months of September to December.
The Planting Season follows the Flood Season, and last from January to April. In this season, trade is at its lowest point, as the farmers return to their fields to plant the year's crops, and traders and travellers return to their home cities. The lower waters of the Yann make travel along the river more difficult.
Finally, the Harvest Season lasts from May to August. In this season, crops are harvested and stored away for the rest of the year, local trade increases as farmers come into market, and merchants and travellers lay their plans for the coming flood season. In times of war, the farmers and craftsmen are called to train and prepare, for when the Flood Season returns, mighty war galleons will sail down the Yann once more.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Zedlyn Rathdor
True Neutral Male Gnome Fighter, Level 2
Played by Adje
Str 14 Dex 10 Con 13 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 13
HP 13 AC 16 Prime Attributes Strength, Dexterity
Height 3' 8" Weight 70 lbs Age 138 years
Racial Abilities Animal Empathy, Combat Expertise, Darkvision, Enhanced Hearing, Spells
Class Abilities Weapon Specialization (Trident)
Equipment 2 tridents, 10 javelins, chainmail, Potion of Plant Control, Potion of Healing
Description
Biography Zedlyn was born in a small gnomish town in a land far the west of Ember on December 4th. He lived there for the first few years of his life... a short time even by Gnomish standards (about 10 years). One day, after playing outside, he found a mob outside his house who were shouting about a witch. It turns out that Zedlyn's mom, who was a healer, had been accused of witchcraft. The angry mob grabbed her and pulled her out of their home; Zedlyn's dad resisted and was slain. His mom screamed as they beat her to death. The whole time, Zedlyn was hiding behind some trees on the outskirts of their property.
The villagers eventually found Zedlyn as he scavenged through the refuse during the night, trying to find food. They debated on what to do with him, considered killing him, but eventually decided to sell him to a mercenary captain that was passing through their town.
The mercenaries had a headquarters in a coastal trading town. Zedlyn spent his younger days spear fishing as directed by the mercenaries in order to help feed the troops. It was a tough life devoid of caring - a daily fight for survival.
As Zedlyn grew older, he went on numerous campaigns with the mercenaries. He faced many near death situations, which scarred him physically, but just made him tougher mentally as he had already been through enough serious trauma as a child to deal with most anything. Zedlyn became respected by the rest of the mercenary group for his fighting prowess, his direct and logical approach to problems and his tactical abilities.
Eventually, Zedlyn bought his own freedom with the money he had made. He briefly considered becoming a fisherman, but instead decided to become a freelance sell-sword. After many more adventures, he was eventually hired by Arik.
As a mercenary, Zedlyn spent time fighting various common humanoid races. This is why he's fluent in Goblin. He holds none of his peoples' animosity towards them as he was not raised by Gnomes.
Played by Adje
Str 14 Dex 10 Con 13 Int 12 Wis 12 Cha 13
HP 13 AC 16 Prime Attributes Strength, Dexterity
Height 3' 8" Weight 70 lbs Age 138 years
Racial Abilities Animal Empathy, Combat Expertise, Darkvision, Enhanced Hearing, Spells
Class Abilities Weapon Specialization (Trident)
Equipment 2 tridents, 10 javelins, chainmail, Potion of Plant Control, Potion of Healing
Biography Zedlyn was born in a small gnomish town in a land far the west of Ember on December 4th. He lived there for the first few years of his life... a short time even by Gnomish standards (about 10 years). One day, after playing outside, he found a mob outside his house who were shouting about a witch. It turns out that Zedlyn's mom, who was a healer, had been accused of witchcraft. The angry mob grabbed her and pulled her out of their home; Zedlyn's dad resisted and was slain. His mom screamed as they beat her to death. The whole time, Zedlyn was hiding behind some trees on the outskirts of their property.
The villagers eventually found Zedlyn as he scavenged through the refuse during the night, trying to find food. They debated on what to do with him, considered killing him, but eventually decided to sell him to a mercenary captain that was passing through their town.
The mercenaries had a headquarters in a coastal trading town. Zedlyn spent his younger days spear fishing as directed by the mercenaries in order to help feed the troops. It was a tough life devoid of caring - a daily fight for survival.
As Zedlyn grew older, he went on numerous campaigns with the mercenaries. He faced many near death situations, which scarred him physically, but just made him tougher mentally as he had already been through enough serious trauma as a child to deal with most anything. Zedlyn became respected by the rest of the mercenary group for his fighting prowess, his direct and logical approach to problems and his tactical abilities.
Eventually, Zedlyn bought his own freedom with the money he had made. He briefly considered becoming a fisherman, but instead decided to become a freelance sell-sword. After many more adventures, he was eventually hired by Arik.
As a mercenary, Zedlyn spent time fighting various common humanoid races. This is why he's fluent in Goblin. He holds none of his peoples' animosity towards them as he was not raised by Gnomes.
Sunday, October 20, 2013
Session 11: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 11
(Apologies if I've forgotten anything. It's been a while since the game and I don't remember all of the details.)
The party return to the room to the north, which they didn't fully investigate before. Searching the alcoves reveals a few coins but little else. They decide to take the southernmost of the two west exits from the room.
This exit, after a short passage, opens into a small room; a dead end containing more alcoves, and dominated by a pile of decomposing goblin corpses. Rummaging through, they find about a dozen goblins in various states of decomposition, ranging from approximately a week old to a month old. All seem to have died violent deaths, mostly to weapon wounds but also to claw and bite marks. There are no trails along the floor or any other indication of how the goblins got here, and the party are unable to determine exactly what happened. The alcoves contain a necklace, but otherwise the room has nothing else of interest.
The party next take the other western passage from the previous room. This passage contains a branch to the north, and also turns north at the end. Taking the branch to the north, the party discover that it ends in a dead end. Taking the time to search it, they find a secret door that opens into the room with 100 alcoves that they'd already explored.
Backtracking, they head to the end of the passage where it turns north, and follow it. The passage continues for about 50 feet before opening into a room, but as the party step in, they are ambushed by a pack of skeletons that emerge from around a corner. As the skeletons charge the side of the party's ranks, a second pack of skeletons emerge from further down the room, for a total of ten skeletons. The party sustain some injury, but after a few moments of confusion, Iriellis and Flossaria hold off the creatures, allowing the rest of the party destroy them.
Searching the room, the party find more alcoves and a passage to the north. A search of the alcoves reveals nothing, but the party do find a large gem rattling around inside one of the skeletons' skulls. The north passage is a dead end; searching it reveals a secret door into a hallway the party had already explored.
At this point, barring any secret passages that the group may have missed, the lower catacombs are completely explored. Iriellis stops to think for a moment, and realizes that she no longer feels the same compulsion from the Iron God that she did before. Thus, the party assume that those skeletons must have been the last of the undead within the catacombs. They decide to head back to visit the Iron God.
Returning to the Iron God's chambers, they find them essentially unchanged from when they first visited. They speak with the Iron God, who confirms that the undead have been purged and that their mission is complete. It informs them that it is weak now, and intends to enter a period of sleep for a very long time. Thus, despite Arik's pleas, it cannot leave to go with him.
With the undead in the catacombs dealt with, Arik decides that there is no further use to exploring the monastery, as the Iron God will not leave to come with them. They return to the village of Asuna and rest for the night. The next morning, Hassan's caravan sets out, and they continue their journey towards the city of Viskha.
The party return to the room to the north, which they didn't fully investigate before. Searching the alcoves reveals a few coins but little else. They decide to take the southernmost of the two west exits from the room.
This exit, after a short passage, opens into a small room; a dead end containing more alcoves, and dominated by a pile of decomposing goblin corpses. Rummaging through, they find about a dozen goblins in various states of decomposition, ranging from approximately a week old to a month old. All seem to have died violent deaths, mostly to weapon wounds but also to claw and bite marks. There are no trails along the floor or any other indication of how the goblins got here, and the party are unable to determine exactly what happened. The alcoves contain a necklace, but otherwise the room has nothing else of interest.
The party next take the other western passage from the previous room. This passage contains a branch to the north, and also turns north at the end. Taking the branch to the north, the party discover that it ends in a dead end. Taking the time to search it, they find a secret door that opens into the room with 100 alcoves that they'd already explored.
Backtracking, they head to the end of the passage where it turns north, and follow it. The passage continues for about 50 feet before opening into a room, but as the party step in, they are ambushed by a pack of skeletons that emerge from around a corner. As the skeletons charge the side of the party's ranks, a second pack of skeletons emerge from further down the room, for a total of ten skeletons. The party sustain some injury, but after a few moments of confusion, Iriellis and Flossaria hold off the creatures, allowing the rest of the party destroy them.
Searching the room, the party find more alcoves and a passage to the north. A search of the alcoves reveals nothing, but the party do find a large gem rattling around inside one of the skeletons' skulls. The north passage is a dead end; searching it reveals a secret door into a hallway the party had already explored.
At this point, barring any secret passages that the group may have missed, the lower catacombs are completely explored. Iriellis stops to think for a moment, and realizes that she no longer feels the same compulsion from the Iron God that she did before. Thus, the party assume that those skeletons must have been the last of the undead within the catacombs. They decide to head back to visit the Iron God.
Returning to the Iron God's chambers, they find them essentially unchanged from when they first visited. They speak with the Iron God, who confirms that the undead have been purged and that their mission is complete. It informs them that it is weak now, and intends to enter a period of sleep for a very long time. Thus, despite Arik's pleas, it cannot leave to go with him.
With the undead in the catacombs dealt with, Arik decides that there is no further use to exploring the monastery, as the Iron God will not leave to come with them. They return to the village of Asuna and rest for the night. The next morning, Hassan's caravan sets out, and they continue their journey towards the city of Viskha.
Districts of Viskha
The Docks
The docks are the only district of Viskha that is actually outside of the city's walls. As the name implies, the docks are a warren of wharves, warehouses, and taverns that cater to the many travelers and traders who visit the city.
Although the main thoroughfares are well patrolled, the docks are known to be the most dangerous section of Viskha as soon as one steps off the beaten path, even more so than the lower-class slums inside the city's walls. However, they are also the most lively and varied district as well.
The water level of the Yann increases drastically during flood season. Viskha's docks are built to accommodate the flood season, which is when the most travel and trade occurs. During the off-season, temporary docks and facilities are set up lower down the riverbank.
Palace District
The Palace District encompasses the Royal Palace of Viskha, but it also functions as the overall upper-class district of Viskha. Most of the nobles, rich merchants, and other powerful individuals of the city live in this district. Its streets are lined with luxurious manors and well-tended parks.
Apart from the Royal Palace itself, the other major landmark of the Palace District is the Grand Temple of Slid, the only temple afforded a place in the district. Other temples are generally found in Yahn's Market or the Yannreach.
The Palace District is lavishly decorated and strictly patrolled; order is well-kept here. Additionally, this district is not open to commoners. Only residents of the district, those with explicit invitations from residents, or people who work within the district are allowed in.
The Yannreach
The Yannreach actually consists of two separate districts: North Yannreach and South Yannreach. What these two districts have in common is that they are the slums of the city, where the poorest inhabitants of Viskha live.
The Yannreach also once included a third district, called West Yannreach. However, this district was re-purposed by Queen Ilthai in order to create the Barracks District. Because of this, the two districts of the Yannreach are even more overcrowded than a typical slum.
The standards of order are much more lax in these districts, and crime and poverty are much more common here. While officially, the Thieves' Guild of Viskha was destroyed over a decade ago, shortly after Queen Ilthai came to power, rumours persist that the Guild, or a new Guild (stories vary) thrives still in the Yannreach.
Barracks District
Once called the West Yannreach District, this district was cleared out and essentially rebuilt by order of Queen Ilthai, in order to be re-purposed for military use. The aptly-named Barracks District houses Viskha's large professional army, as well as the various support and upkeep staff that it requires.
Like the Palace District, entry into the Barracks District is restricted, although less so. In general, anyone who can get into the Palace District can get into the Barracks District, along with any member of the military and anyone on official military business.
The Barracks District was once connected to the two Yannreach District via gates, but when the district was re-purposed, the gates were torn down and closed off.
Yahn's Market
Named after the God of Wealth, Yahn's Market is both the commercial district and the overall hub of Viskha. It is the only district from which all other districts are available, and it is the busiest district of the city, rivaled only by the docks. Because of this, Yahn's Market sees a great variety of people, from rich merchants and noblemen making large purchases to peasants coming in to sell their goods.
Yahn's market is home to traders, craftsmen, and merchants of all sorts, as well as most of the city's temples, guilds, and other services. In terms of law and order, it is better than the docks or the Yannreach, but worse than the palace or the barracks.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Session 10: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 10
Backing away from the horde of skeletons, the characters stop to consider their plan. As they ponder, they are rejoined by Sharla, who declines to explain her absence. Several ideas are tossed back and forth until Sharla suddenly recalls the barrels full of embalming fluid they found in the monastery basement above. Knowing its extreme flammability, the party retreat back up to that level, retrieve the three barrels, then return to the skeletons.
After a small amount of further discussion, they put their plan into action. They open two of the barrels and pour their contents all over the hallway leading to the skeletons, then retreat around the corner, taking up positions behind the six animated statues. The trap set, Flossaria steps forward and fires at one of the skeletons with her bow before retreating behind the relative safety of the statues.
The skeletons, finding themselves under attack, respond instantly. Marching in disciplined ranks, they charge around the corner and engage the statues. As the fight begins, Iriellis hurls a lit torch over the combatants, and in a few moments, the front ranks of the skeletons are engulfed in a roaring inferno which quickly consumes them.
Skeletons, being mindless beings, are completely obedient to their last orders, and apparently whoever gave these skeletons their last order failed to consider this situation, as the orderly ranks of skeletons continue to march two-by-two directly into the fire. Many of them don't even make it to the statues to fight, and those that do are held off by the iron beings, although two of the statues are destroyed in the fight.
As the embalming fluid begins to burn out, with no end to the skeletons in sight despite dozens having been destroyed, Arik and Flossaria hurl the third barrel over the combatants after unstoppering it first. The inferno is re-lit and many more skeletons are destroyed.
As the fire runs out, the skeletons are still coming, but the party hope that their numbers have been sufficiently reduced so that the remainder is manageable. The statues keep fighting, but eventually all six are destroyed by the advancing skeletons. Arik and Zedlyn step forward to fight, but at this point there are only four or five skeletons remaining, few enough to be easily mopped up by the pair of warriors. Zedlyn suffers minor wounds which are healing by Iriellis, but otherwise the party has managed to destroy 50 skeleton warriors with no other injuries - although their animated statue escort is now completely destroyed.
After destroying so many undead creatures, and with no other obvious passages to explore, the party wonder whether their task is now complete. Iriellis prays and attempts to ask the Iron God directly; while it doesn't respond with words, she feels a sensation in the back of her mind that their work is still not done, in the eyes of the Iron God.
Leery that the room could be the prison of the Eater of the Dead, and taking heed of the poem that they found earlier stating that "he who sees him frees him", the party enter the chamber with their eyes pointed directly at the floor and attempt to search the room in this manner. Sharla quickly grows frustrated with this, and uses her mirror to scan the room, hoping that seeing the Eater of the Dead indirectly through the mirror will protect her from whatever would normally happen. She doesn't get to find out, because her inspection quickly reveals that the Eater of the Dead isn't here, a fact that she informs the rest of the party of.
Taking the time to thoroughly search the room and the remains of the skeleton warriors, the party make several discoveries. Amongst the skeletons, they find a gold bracelet as well as a finely made shield. Among various alcoves in the room, they find a dagger, five gems, a potion, and a wand, all unidentified (and since none of the spellcasters prepared the proper spell, they cannot tell if any or all of them are enchanted). Finally, Arik discovers a secret door leading to the south.
As there are no other directions to take, the group head through the secret passage, which winds its way to the west before depositing them in a small chamber with many exits. In addition to the passage they came from, the room contains two western passages and a southern passage. They are about the start searching the room when Flossaria catches the sound of shuffling movement coming from the south. Assuming the noise to be that of the undead, the party put aside the current room and head to the south.
After a short passage, the south exit opens into a larger room that is crawling with zombies - about 20 of them. Shouting a battle cry, Arik charges into the fray and attacks, with Zedlyn not far behind him. As the zombies begin to swarm around them, Flossaria and Iriellis call on their respective deities to drive the creatures back. Between them, over a dozen zombies are affected; combined with the zombies that Zedlyn and Arik had already cut down, this leaves only a few left to fight them, which they easily finish off. Adokas joins the two warriors, and the three of them systematically cut down the remaining zombies one-by-one, as Iriellis and Flossaria hold them back with their holy power.
With the zombies dealt with, the party investigate the room, which turns out to contain about 100 alcoves in the walls along with three large sarcophagi sitting on the ground to the south. Investigating carefully, they discover a trapped latch on the center one. Adokas attempts to disarm it, but is unsuccessful. The party stop to decide how to handle the trap, but impulsively, Arik throws caution to the wind, walks up, and flings the sarcophagus open.
A clicking sound precedes a cloud of gas spraying out of the coffin, and moments later Arik stumbles out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering but otherwise unharmed. After the gas clears, the party step forward and search the contents of the sarchophagus. Inside is nothing but a plain, unadorned skeleton, but Zedlyn finds a false bottom, concealing a small cache of gold coins and a magical scroll. The other two sarcophagi are untrapped. The first contains a skeleton fully bedecked in gold and silver jewellery, which the group take, and the second contains a skeleton wearing a gem-studded necklace, which they also take. Finally, a search of the alcoves reveals a ruby gem, which the party take as well.
After a small amount of further discussion, they put their plan into action. They open two of the barrels and pour their contents all over the hallway leading to the skeletons, then retreat around the corner, taking up positions behind the six animated statues. The trap set, Flossaria steps forward and fires at one of the skeletons with her bow before retreating behind the relative safety of the statues.
The skeletons, finding themselves under attack, respond instantly. Marching in disciplined ranks, they charge around the corner and engage the statues. As the fight begins, Iriellis hurls a lit torch over the combatants, and in a few moments, the front ranks of the skeletons are engulfed in a roaring inferno which quickly consumes them.
Skeletons, being mindless beings, are completely obedient to their last orders, and apparently whoever gave these skeletons their last order failed to consider this situation, as the orderly ranks of skeletons continue to march two-by-two directly into the fire. Many of them don't even make it to the statues to fight, and those that do are held off by the iron beings, although two of the statues are destroyed in the fight.
As the embalming fluid begins to burn out, with no end to the skeletons in sight despite dozens having been destroyed, Arik and Flossaria hurl the third barrel over the combatants after unstoppering it first. The inferno is re-lit and many more skeletons are destroyed.
As the fire runs out, the skeletons are still coming, but the party hope that their numbers have been sufficiently reduced so that the remainder is manageable. The statues keep fighting, but eventually all six are destroyed by the advancing skeletons. Arik and Zedlyn step forward to fight, but at this point there are only four or five skeletons remaining, few enough to be easily mopped up by the pair of warriors. Zedlyn suffers minor wounds which are healing by Iriellis, but otherwise the party has managed to destroy 50 skeleton warriors with no other injuries - although their animated statue escort is now completely destroyed.
After destroying so many undead creatures, and with no other obvious passages to explore, the party wonder whether their task is now complete. Iriellis prays and attempts to ask the Iron God directly; while it doesn't respond with words, she feels a sensation in the back of her mind that their work is still not done, in the eyes of the Iron God.
Leery that the room could be the prison of the Eater of the Dead, and taking heed of the poem that they found earlier stating that "he who sees him frees him", the party enter the chamber with their eyes pointed directly at the floor and attempt to search the room in this manner. Sharla quickly grows frustrated with this, and uses her mirror to scan the room, hoping that seeing the Eater of the Dead indirectly through the mirror will protect her from whatever would normally happen. She doesn't get to find out, because her inspection quickly reveals that the Eater of the Dead isn't here, a fact that she informs the rest of the party of.
Taking the time to thoroughly search the room and the remains of the skeleton warriors, the party make several discoveries. Amongst the skeletons, they find a gold bracelet as well as a finely made shield. Among various alcoves in the room, they find a dagger, five gems, a potion, and a wand, all unidentified (and since none of the spellcasters prepared the proper spell, they cannot tell if any or all of them are enchanted). Finally, Arik discovers a secret door leading to the south.
As there are no other directions to take, the group head through the secret passage, which winds its way to the west before depositing them in a small chamber with many exits. In addition to the passage they came from, the room contains two western passages and a southern passage. They are about the start searching the room when Flossaria catches the sound of shuffling movement coming from the south. Assuming the noise to be that of the undead, the party put aside the current room and head to the south.
After a short passage, the south exit opens into a larger room that is crawling with zombies - about 20 of them. Shouting a battle cry, Arik charges into the fray and attacks, with Zedlyn not far behind him. As the zombies begin to swarm around them, Flossaria and Iriellis call on their respective deities to drive the creatures back. Between them, over a dozen zombies are affected; combined with the zombies that Zedlyn and Arik had already cut down, this leaves only a few left to fight them, which they easily finish off. Adokas joins the two warriors, and the three of them systematically cut down the remaining zombies one-by-one, as Iriellis and Flossaria hold them back with their holy power.
With the zombies dealt with, the party investigate the room, which turns out to contain about 100 alcoves in the walls along with three large sarcophagi sitting on the ground to the south. Investigating carefully, they discover a trapped latch on the center one. Adokas attempts to disarm it, but is unsuccessful. The party stop to decide how to handle the trap, but impulsively, Arik throws caution to the wind, walks up, and flings the sarcophagus open.
A clicking sound precedes a cloud of gas spraying out of the coffin, and moments later Arik stumbles out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering but otherwise unharmed. After the gas clears, the party step forward and search the contents of the sarchophagus. Inside is nothing but a plain, unadorned skeleton, but Zedlyn finds a false bottom, concealing a small cache of gold coins and a magical scroll. The other two sarcophagi are untrapped. The first contains a skeleton fully bedecked in gold and silver jewellery, which the group take, and the second contains a skeleton wearing a gem-studded necklace, which they also take. Finally, a search of the alcoves reveals a ruby gem, which the party take as well.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Session 9: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 9
Before heading to sleep for the night, Arik, Zedlyn, and Adokas discuss how they will handle the head merchant, Hassan, in order to convince him to give them another day (Iriellis and Flossaria being at the healer's, and Sharla being nowhere to be found). While he can surely be compensated with gold to convince him to delay, they attempt to find a cheaper solution.
For their first attempt, they try to make a mild poison, just strong enough to make him too sick to travel. Adokas and Zedlyn purchase the needed reagents from the healer, claiming that they need them for an antidote. Unfortunately, Adokas fails to make the poison in the short amount of time they have.
Next, they go speak to Hassan and attempt to convince him to drink with them at the common room, hoping to get him drunk enough to be hung over the next morning. However, Hassan's tastes are too refined and he has no interest in partaking of the local ale.
They then try explaining to him that they've made a bargain with the Iron God to clear out the catacombs, and given that the God has already shown itself to be vengeful against those who betray it, they would be risking disaster by leaving without fulfilling the bargain. Hassan is unhappy to hear that they've entered a bargain that conflicts with their duties as guards, and he is unconvinced by their argument. He reasons that if the Iron God takes any sort of vengeance, it will be against them and not himself.
With all their ideas exhausted, the trio finally fall back on their last option, simply compensating the merchant for any profits lost due to the delay. After a short haggling session, they agree to compensate him 140 gold pieces for each day they delay.
With another day secured before the caravan needs to leave, everyone beds down for the night, with several characters making use of the healer's services once again. Bright and early the next morning, they head out to the monastery and back into the catacombs.
Back in the catacombs, the characters return to the central dial room, and head through the western passage. Beyond are several passages which lead to two rooms full of alcoves, and well as four different dead ends. Three of these dead ends are searched, with no results, but the fourth one is protected by a pit / pressure plate, spotted by Flossaria. They decide to leave this particular dead end alone for now, as it would be very difficult to search it while skirting the pit.
Inside the first alcove room, Flossaria catches a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye as they're inspecting the area, and she moves to investigate, holding out the pole-mounted ceremonial lantern to light up the alcove where she saw it. This turns out to be a good choice, as a giant, foot-long centipede leaps out of the alcove and attacks the lantern. Iriellis hurls a flask of embalming fluid at the lantern, which hits it directly and explodes, charring the creature to a crisp. Searching the rest of the alcoves, the party find nothing more than a smattering of coins, which they take.
The second alcove room contains about 60 alcoves and is uninhabited. Searching all the alcoves, the party find two items of interest: a scroll case and a small book entitled "Hymns to the Iron God". The scroll case contains a single piece of apparently blank parchment; they party try several different ideas intended to reveal hidden writing but are unable to make anything of it. The hymns appear to be mostly prosaic and uninteresting, but as Iriellis is reading it, one particular hymn catches her eye, entitled "The Eater of the Dead", and reading as follows:
"Fear the Eater of the Dead,
Stalker, tomb-walker,
Clothed in stone.
He who find him cannot bind him,
He who leads him soon feeds him,
He who sees him frees him."
The group spend some time discussing the implications of this hymn, ultimately deciding to completely avoid the Eater of the Dead if possible, and to take special care to not look at it.
With this area fully explored, the party head to the northwest from the dial room, heading to the passageway where they heard movement the previous day. As they step forward into a room, they are ambushed by a ghoul, but its clumsy steps mean that nearly everyone hears it coming; only Flossaria is caught by surprise. Iriellis commands the creature back as Arik steps forward and takes a swing at it, but as it retreats, its four zombie allies advance and attack the red-skinned warrior. The party has some difficulty getting everyone into the room to fight, with their bulky statue allies blocking the hallway, but with the aid of Iriellis and Flossaria's holy power, they make short work of the creatures, with only Arik sustaining minor wounds.
With the undead dealt with, they take a closer look at the room, which turns out to be yet another room full of alcoves (about 30 of them). Searching the room, they find two items of interest - a stack of 4 silver plates, and a heavy mace in perfect condition. The party assume that its perfect condition means that it must be magical and take it; they take the plates as well. Finally, each corpse in the room has two silver pieces placed over its eyes, for a total of 60 silver pieces. They discuss taking these as well, but, remembering the cursed bowl of silver pieces from the floor above, they decide not to risk it.
The party return to near the room where Iriellis was poisoned the previous day, taking the western branch instead of the eastern branch. The western passage leads to a long, narrow room containing about 100 alcoves. They again take the time to search through the alcoves, but this time they turn up nothing of interest; the alcoves contain nothing but decomposing bodies.
At this point, they know of only a single passage left unexplored, the eastern passage at the bottom of the long north-south passage near the dial room. Stepping through the passage and peeking around the corner, they look into a room containing dozens (or more) of armed and armored skeletons, standing in orderly ranks. The skeletons either don't notice them or don't react to their presence, but the group is left with the question - how exactly will they handle taking on so many undead creatures at once?
For their first attempt, they try to make a mild poison, just strong enough to make him too sick to travel. Adokas and Zedlyn purchase the needed reagents from the healer, claiming that they need them for an antidote. Unfortunately, Adokas fails to make the poison in the short amount of time they have.
Next, they go speak to Hassan and attempt to convince him to drink with them at the common room, hoping to get him drunk enough to be hung over the next morning. However, Hassan's tastes are too refined and he has no interest in partaking of the local ale.
They then try explaining to him that they've made a bargain with the Iron God to clear out the catacombs, and given that the God has already shown itself to be vengeful against those who betray it, they would be risking disaster by leaving without fulfilling the bargain. Hassan is unhappy to hear that they've entered a bargain that conflicts with their duties as guards, and he is unconvinced by their argument. He reasons that if the Iron God takes any sort of vengeance, it will be against them and not himself.
With all their ideas exhausted, the trio finally fall back on their last option, simply compensating the merchant for any profits lost due to the delay. After a short haggling session, they agree to compensate him 140 gold pieces for each day they delay.
With another day secured before the caravan needs to leave, everyone beds down for the night, with several characters making use of the healer's services once again. Bright and early the next morning, they head out to the monastery and back into the catacombs.
Back in the catacombs, the characters return to the central dial room, and head through the western passage. Beyond are several passages which lead to two rooms full of alcoves, and well as four different dead ends. Three of these dead ends are searched, with no results, but the fourth one is protected by a pit / pressure plate, spotted by Flossaria. They decide to leave this particular dead end alone for now, as it would be very difficult to search it while skirting the pit.
Inside the first alcove room, Flossaria catches a bit of movement out of the corner of her eye as they're inspecting the area, and she moves to investigate, holding out the pole-mounted ceremonial lantern to light up the alcove where she saw it. This turns out to be a good choice, as a giant, foot-long centipede leaps out of the alcove and attacks the lantern. Iriellis hurls a flask of embalming fluid at the lantern, which hits it directly and explodes, charring the creature to a crisp. Searching the rest of the alcoves, the party find nothing more than a smattering of coins, which they take.
The second alcove room contains about 60 alcoves and is uninhabited. Searching all the alcoves, the party find two items of interest: a scroll case and a small book entitled "Hymns to the Iron God". The scroll case contains a single piece of apparently blank parchment; they party try several different ideas intended to reveal hidden writing but are unable to make anything of it. The hymns appear to be mostly prosaic and uninteresting, but as Iriellis is reading it, one particular hymn catches her eye, entitled "The Eater of the Dead", and reading as follows:
"Fear the Eater of the Dead,
Stalker, tomb-walker,
Clothed in stone.
He who find him cannot bind him,
He who leads him soon feeds him,
He who sees him frees him."
The group spend some time discussing the implications of this hymn, ultimately deciding to completely avoid the Eater of the Dead if possible, and to take special care to not look at it.
With this area fully explored, the party head to the northwest from the dial room, heading to the passageway where they heard movement the previous day. As they step forward into a room, they are ambushed by a ghoul, but its clumsy steps mean that nearly everyone hears it coming; only Flossaria is caught by surprise. Iriellis commands the creature back as Arik steps forward and takes a swing at it, but as it retreats, its four zombie allies advance and attack the red-skinned warrior. The party has some difficulty getting everyone into the room to fight, with their bulky statue allies blocking the hallway, but with the aid of Iriellis and Flossaria's holy power, they make short work of the creatures, with only Arik sustaining minor wounds.
With the undead dealt with, they take a closer look at the room, which turns out to be yet another room full of alcoves (about 30 of them). Searching the room, they find two items of interest - a stack of 4 silver plates, and a heavy mace in perfect condition. The party assume that its perfect condition means that it must be magical and take it; they take the plates as well. Finally, each corpse in the room has two silver pieces placed over its eyes, for a total of 60 silver pieces. They discuss taking these as well, but, remembering the cursed bowl of silver pieces from the floor above, they decide not to risk it.
The party return to near the room where Iriellis was poisoned the previous day, taking the western branch instead of the eastern branch. The western passage leads to a long, narrow room containing about 100 alcoves. They again take the time to search through the alcoves, but this time they turn up nothing of interest; the alcoves contain nothing but decomposing bodies.
At this point, they know of only a single passage left unexplored, the eastern passage at the bottom of the long north-south passage near the dial room. Stepping through the passage and peeking around the corner, they look into a room containing dozens (or more) of armed and armored skeletons, standing in orderly ranks. The skeletons either don't notice them or don't react to their presence, but the group is left with the question - how exactly will they handle taking on so many undead creatures at once?
Friday, September 6, 2013
Session 8: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 8
As the session begins, the party are standing to one side of an open pit trap, with Zedlyn and Flossaria just having been rescued from it and healed of their injuries. The statues cannot pass the trap, but Adokas slips by to inspect the room beyond. It turns out to be a mid-sized room with no exits and no occupants, filled with alcoves like so many other rooms in the catacombs. Adokas gives the alcoves a cursory inspection but finds nothing obviously amiss. The group discuss performing a more thorough search of the room, but Arik points out that their time is running short, so they should focus on more important exploration.
The characters head back to the wide north-south passage that they passed by shortly before, and head to the south. The bottom of the passage has openings leading to the east and west, along with another pit trap that is spotted by Iriellis (which fortunately doesn't block either of the openings). The group pick the western opening, which leads to a passage the turns south then opens into another room full of alcoves.
A small side area of this room leads to a single, slightly larger alcove, which Iriellis steps forward to investigate. A clicking noise sounds out, and a dart shoots out of the wall at her, penetrating her armour and striking her shoulder. Iriellis collapses and the rest of the party rush forward to help her. Flossaria is unable to determine what's wrong with her, but Adokas takes a look at the dart and recognizes the substance that it's coated it. It's a poison distilled from a type of local spider, slow acting and not particularly powerful, but in rare cases, potentially fatal. Since Iriellis has a fairly weak constitution, everyone agrees that she needs immediate attention.
Unable to care for Iriellis here, the party decide to take her back to Asuna to get help from the healer. Arik points out that they don't all need to go; half of the party can stay behind to investigate areas that they skimmed over earlier. Flossaria lifts Iriellis's unconscious body to go and Zedlyn joins her, leaving Arik, Adokas, and Sharla behind.
As Flossaria and Zedlyn head out, the remaining group decides to head to the room full of inscriptions in the upper catacombs, so that Sharla can attempt to translate them. Arik and Adokas stand guard while Sharla works, a process that takes about an hour and a half. She identifies the runes as an archaic script used to write the Common tongue; the inscriptions themselves seem to be nothing more than a list of names. Sharla notes a few of the most recent names, to ask about back in town.
Meanwhile, Flossaria and Zedlyn have made it to the healer with Iriellis. He gets to work immediately, with Flossaria aiding him. After an hour or so of applying poultices, tonics, and remedies, he announces that the poison seems to be defeated and Iriellis should be fine, although she will not awaken for another few hours and definitely shouldn't adventure for the rest of the day.
Back at the monastary, the remaining trio head nearby to loot the chest of coins near the Eater of the Dead's apparent prison. While they're there, Sharla takes the opportunity to investigate the area of magical darkness some more. As she steps in, she hears something new: the faint, clicking sound of metal footsteps pacing. As she steps towards them, they stop, but she doesn't venture the courage to reach out and touch the source of the noise; instead, she attempts to address it.
At first, Sharla's attempts are completely unanswered, but after a dozen or so questions, the thing finally responds, telling her that she's wasting her time, and that it is merely a guardian against the Eater of the Dead. Questioning it along this line of inquiry finally gets it to respond more freely. When Sharla points out that there's actually a room between the darkness and the prison, where the Eater of the Dead could easily escape to the rest of the temple, the guardian responds that it knows the creature will come this way, because the Iron God lies beyond the darkness.
Sharla asks how they can pass through the darkness, and the guardian responds that they must merely "step forward with faith". She steps back and relays this information to Arik and Adokas, and they decide to try the guardian's suggestion. Stepping boldly forward into the darkness, the quickly pass through to the other side into a passage they've never seen before. There are a few short branches, but the main passageway leads forward to a smooth, solid iron wall, containing a featureless iron door with no obvious handle or other means of opening.
Sharla steps forward and announces that they wish to speak with the Iron God. This causes the door to smoothly slide upwards into the ceiling, and they step into the room beyond. It is a massive, circular iron chamber, lit by the glow of machinery placed all along the perimeter of the room. The chamber is dominated by a massive iron pedestal topped by a huge glass cylinder containing a near-opaque, greyish fluid. Tubes and wires run everywhere, connecting everything together.
The voice of the Iron God rings out from all around, questioning the characters as to why they have come. Sharla and Adokas question the Iron God, trying to get any information they can out of it, but it is reluctant to speak on most topics. It tells them that it can still sense the presence of many undead creatures in the catacombs, although not their exact locations. They request that it reverse the curse that turned the books in the library and the hidden chests to iron, but it refuses.
The Iron God rapidly grows tired of the conversation, requesting that the characters leave and continue their appointed task. Before they go, Arik steps forward and explains his predicament, asking if the Iron God would be willing to leave and accompany him to his homeland. The Iron God refuses, saying that it is bound to this place, and despite the trio's efforts, it apparently cannot be dissuaded. Arik dejectedly leaves the chamber, with Sharla and Adokas following.
Arik is upset that all of this effort is apparently wasted, since the Iron God will not leave this place, but Sharla points out that they have at least made some progress - at least Arik knows now that there are gods out there that can be directly met and spoken to. This one was unwilling to join him, but perhaps others in the future will be different. Furthermore, they have not yet accomplished the Iron God's task, so perhaps it will be more amenable to suggestions once they have finished clearing out the catacombs.
It is now evening, so the three adventurers decide to return to Asuna to rest up. When the rejoin the rest of the group, they divvy up the treasure and head to the inn to rest. The next morning, they'll need to meet with the merchant in charge of the caravan and convince him to stay in Asuna for another day.
The characters head back to the wide north-south passage that they passed by shortly before, and head to the south. The bottom of the passage has openings leading to the east and west, along with another pit trap that is spotted by Iriellis (which fortunately doesn't block either of the openings). The group pick the western opening, which leads to a passage the turns south then opens into another room full of alcoves.
A small side area of this room leads to a single, slightly larger alcove, which Iriellis steps forward to investigate. A clicking noise sounds out, and a dart shoots out of the wall at her, penetrating her armour and striking her shoulder. Iriellis collapses and the rest of the party rush forward to help her. Flossaria is unable to determine what's wrong with her, but Adokas takes a look at the dart and recognizes the substance that it's coated it. It's a poison distilled from a type of local spider, slow acting and not particularly powerful, but in rare cases, potentially fatal. Since Iriellis has a fairly weak constitution, everyone agrees that she needs immediate attention.
Unable to care for Iriellis here, the party decide to take her back to Asuna to get help from the healer. Arik points out that they don't all need to go; half of the party can stay behind to investigate areas that they skimmed over earlier. Flossaria lifts Iriellis's unconscious body to go and Zedlyn joins her, leaving Arik, Adokas, and Sharla behind.
As Flossaria and Zedlyn head out, the remaining group decides to head to the room full of inscriptions in the upper catacombs, so that Sharla can attempt to translate them. Arik and Adokas stand guard while Sharla works, a process that takes about an hour and a half. She identifies the runes as an archaic script used to write the Common tongue; the inscriptions themselves seem to be nothing more than a list of names. Sharla notes a few of the most recent names, to ask about back in town.
Meanwhile, Flossaria and Zedlyn have made it to the healer with Iriellis. He gets to work immediately, with Flossaria aiding him. After an hour or so of applying poultices, tonics, and remedies, he announces that the poison seems to be defeated and Iriellis should be fine, although she will not awaken for another few hours and definitely shouldn't adventure for the rest of the day.
Back at the monastary, the remaining trio head nearby to loot the chest of coins near the Eater of the Dead's apparent prison. While they're there, Sharla takes the opportunity to investigate the area of magical darkness some more. As she steps in, she hears something new: the faint, clicking sound of metal footsteps pacing. As she steps towards them, they stop, but she doesn't venture the courage to reach out and touch the source of the noise; instead, she attempts to address it.
At first, Sharla's attempts are completely unanswered, but after a dozen or so questions, the thing finally responds, telling her that she's wasting her time, and that it is merely a guardian against the Eater of the Dead. Questioning it along this line of inquiry finally gets it to respond more freely. When Sharla points out that there's actually a room between the darkness and the prison, where the Eater of the Dead could easily escape to the rest of the temple, the guardian responds that it knows the creature will come this way, because the Iron God lies beyond the darkness.
Sharla asks how they can pass through the darkness, and the guardian responds that they must merely "step forward with faith". She steps back and relays this information to Arik and Adokas, and they decide to try the guardian's suggestion. Stepping boldly forward into the darkness, the quickly pass through to the other side into a passage they've never seen before. There are a few short branches, but the main passageway leads forward to a smooth, solid iron wall, containing a featureless iron door with no obvious handle or other means of opening.
Sharla steps forward and announces that they wish to speak with the Iron God. This causes the door to smoothly slide upwards into the ceiling, and they step into the room beyond. It is a massive, circular iron chamber, lit by the glow of machinery placed all along the perimeter of the room. The chamber is dominated by a massive iron pedestal topped by a huge glass cylinder containing a near-opaque, greyish fluid. Tubes and wires run everywhere, connecting everything together.
The voice of the Iron God rings out from all around, questioning the characters as to why they have come. Sharla and Adokas question the Iron God, trying to get any information they can out of it, but it is reluctant to speak on most topics. It tells them that it can still sense the presence of many undead creatures in the catacombs, although not their exact locations. They request that it reverse the curse that turned the books in the library and the hidden chests to iron, but it refuses.
The Iron God rapidly grows tired of the conversation, requesting that the characters leave and continue their appointed task. Before they go, Arik steps forward and explains his predicament, asking if the Iron God would be willing to leave and accompany him to his homeland. The Iron God refuses, saying that it is bound to this place, and despite the trio's efforts, it apparently cannot be dissuaded. Arik dejectedly leaves the chamber, with Sharla and Adokas following.
Arik is upset that all of this effort is apparently wasted, since the Iron God will not leave this place, but Sharla points out that they have at least made some progress - at least Arik knows now that there are gods out there that can be directly met and spoken to. This one was unwilling to join him, but perhaps others in the future will be different. Furthermore, they have not yet accomplished the Iron God's task, so perhaps it will be more amenable to suggestions once they have finished clearing out the catacombs.
It is now evening, so the three adventurers decide to return to Asuna to rest up. When the rejoin the rest of the group, they divvy up the treasure and head to the inn to rest. The next morning, they'll need to meet with the merchant in charge of the caravan and convince him to stay in Asuna for another day.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Session 7: Tomb of the Iron God, Part 7
The party discuss their next action, and decide that they're still well enough to continue onwards without returning to Asuna. With Zedlyn and Flossaria recovered from the ghoul paralysis, they return to the second level of the catacombs to search the area where the ghouls attacked them. They find nothing of value on the ghouls themselves, although Zedlyn chops off a ghoul's hand, hoping to be able to somehow extract the paralytic poison from it. The room contains about 40 alcoves with corpses, so they get to work searching all of them, with Zedlyn keeping watch as the others search.
A few minutes into the search, Zedlyn catches a sound in the distance, a sort of oozing, squishy sound. He alerts the others, but they decide that they only need a few more minutes to finish their search, so he stays on guard, keeping an eye out for whatever might be making the sound. The source of the noise turns out to be a huge, nearly transparent ooze creature making its way down the hall. Its transparency means that Zedlyn doesn't see it until it's too late; he only has time to shout a warning before it engulfs him.
The rest of the party turn to attack this new foe. The melee fighters and the statues advance to attack, while others pelt it with missiles. Adokas hurls his grappling hook at the creature, which penetrates into it and lodges itself near Zedlyn. Inside the creature, Zedlyn is being eaten away by acidic ooze, and he struggles to turn and grab Adokas's rope. The creature advances towards the first rank of statues and engulfs them as well, but the party's attacks are starting to show as large pieces of the creature are being lopped off. Just as Zedlyn manages to grab the rope, Sharla hits the creature with a dagger, which turns out to the last straw, causing it to collapse into a pile of slime and discharge its contents.
Freed from the ooze creature, Zedlyn's body is covered in acid burns and much of his clothing and equipment are destroyed; however, the acid doesn't seem to have had any effect on metal. His armor is still wearable for the moment, but the haft of his trident is destroyed, so he arms himself with Iriellis's old flail and Flossaria's old shield. The statues, being made entirely of metal, seem to be unharmed by their brief exposure to the ooze.
Arik takes over on watch as they party complete their search of the alcoves. Most of the bodies inside seem to have been chewed on, which the party assume to be the work of the ghouls. In terms of valuables, they find a bag containing 80 silver pieces, and a box inlaid with ivory (empty, but likely of some value on its own). One of the alcoves contains not a body, but a dozen hands, all severed at the wrist. The group are puzzled by the hands, but eventually decide that they must be the severed hands of convicted thieves, due to the fact that there are more right hand than left hands, and no matching pairs.
Continuing their explorations, the party check the western passages near the ghoul lair; both are dead ends, but a careful search of the second reveals a secret door, similar to the one they found earlier. Passing through it leads to a concealed room, containing two iron chests placed in alcoves. On closer inspection, the chests are actually fused shut, and not easily accessible. The party decide that, hopefully, they will be able to break the curse on the monastary, which will turn the chests back into wood, as they are far to heavy to carry in their current state. They leave them behind for now.
The secret room eventually leads to a west-facing exit, protected by a pit trap which Flossaria spots. The party circumnavigate the trap, but are again forced to leave the statues behind. The exit is the back side of another concealed door, which opens into the largest room yet seen in the lower catacombs. The room contains four exits, in addition to the concealed door through which they enter; one on each wall. The southern exit is a stairway leading up, and a quick trip confirms that this is the stairway from the upper level that they hadn't investigated yet.
The main feature of this room is a ten-foot wide circular table in the center, with an iron spike mounted on it that points to the north. On closer inspection, the top of the table is covered in runes, and it is mounted on a circular track that allows it to rotate. Sharla mentions that she could probably translate these runes as well, but time is still at a premium. The party decide to take the northern passage, hoping that it'll reconnect with the area that they'd explored previously.
The passage does indeed connect to a room they'd already been to, where Sharla left an empty flask on the ground as a marker. The passage also continues to the west, so they collect the flask and continue onwards. Listening as they go, they can hear footsteps from further down the passage, and they assume these belong to zombies. They decide to back off, due to them not having their statue escort with them.
Back in the room with the circular table, they head to the east, hoping to find a passage that will allow them to bring the statues through into the room. The short passage leads into a much larger north-south passage that runs farther than their torchlight illuminates to the south. As with many other areas in the catacombs, it is stuffed with alcoves. There's an eastern passage almost directly across from where there came in, so they head through there, ignoring the southern passage for now.
Heading east, they enter a small chamber which they don't have much time to admire, because they are immediately ambushed by a pack of two ghouls and three skeletons. The undead creatures get the drop on them and attack, but with the aid of Flossaria and Iriellis's holy power, they are able to drive back the creatures and default them fairly easily. Zedlyn is struck by one of the ghouls, but he manages to resist the numbing paralysis.
Searching the room, they find one very unusual occupant in one of the alcoves - a golden skeleton. Unlike the iron skeleton from before, this one is very realistic and life-like. Zedlyn scratches a bit of the gold off, revealing that it's actually a gold-plated skeleton. The party pack up the entire skeleton to take with them, figuring that it must be quite valuable.
At this point, the party decide not to explore the southern hallway, as it will only take them further away from the statues. They instead return to the hallway where they were first attacked by ghouls and explore the south end of that. The end of that hallway has both eastern and western passages. The western passage is an apparent dead end, but close inspection reveals a secret door, which leads them right back to the room they just left, where they found the golden skeleton.
As they explore the eastern passage, Zedlyn and Flossaria trigger a pit trap, with both of them falling in and sustaining damage. The rest of the group help them out, and Flossaria and Iriellis use most of their remaining healing magic to remove the injuries caused by the fall. At this point, with their healing spells nearly used up, the group decide to move Arik to the front of the marching order and continue on.
A few minutes into the search, Zedlyn catches a sound in the distance, a sort of oozing, squishy sound. He alerts the others, but they decide that they only need a few more minutes to finish their search, so he stays on guard, keeping an eye out for whatever might be making the sound. The source of the noise turns out to be a huge, nearly transparent ooze creature making its way down the hall. Its transparency means that Zedlyn doesn't see it until it's too late; he only has time to shout a warning before it engulfs him.
The rest of the party turn to attack this new foe. The melee fighters and the statues advance to attack, while others pelt it with missiles. Adokas hurls his grappling hook at the creature, which penetrates into it and lodges itself near Zedlyn. Inside the creature, Zedlyn is being eaten away by acidic ooze, and he struggles to turn and grab Adokas's rope. The creature advances towards the first rank of statues and engulfs them as well, but the party's attacks are starting to show as large pieces of the creature are being lopped off. Just as Zedlyn manages to grab the rope, Sharla hits the creature with a dagger, which turns out to the last straw, causing it to collapse into a pile of slime and discharge its contents.
Freed from the ooze creature, Zedlyn's body is covered in acid burns and much of his clothing and equipment are destroyed; however, the acid doesn't seem to have had any effect on metal. His armor is still wearable for the moment, but the haft of his trident is destroyed, so he arms himself with Iriellis's old flail and Flossaria's old shield. The statues, being made entirely of metal, seem to be unharmed by their brief exposure to the ooze.
Arik takes over on watch as they party complete their search of the alcoves. Most of the bodies inside seem to have been chewed on, which the party assume to be the work of the ghouls. In terms of valuables, they find a bag containing 80 silver pieces, and a box inlaid with ivory (empty, but likely of some value on its own). One of the alcoves contains not a body, but a dozen hands, all severed at the wrist. The group are puzzled by the hands, but eventually decide that they must be the severed hands of convicted thieves, due to the fact that there are more right hand than left hands, and no matching pairs.
Continuing their explorations, the party check the western passages near the ghoul lair; both are dead ends, but a careful search of the second reveals a secret door, similar to the one they found earlier. Passing through it leads to a concealed room, containing two iron chests placed in alcoves. On closer inspection, the chests are actually fused shut, and not easily accessible. The party decide that, hopefully, they will be able to break the curse on the monastary, which will turn the chests back into wood, as they are far to heavy to carry in their current state. They leave them behind for now.
The secret room eventually leads to a west-facing exit, protected by a pit trap which Flossaria spots. The party circumnavigate the trap, but are again forced to leave the statues behind. The exit is the back side of another concealed door, which opens into the largest room yet seen in the lower catacombs. The room contains four exits, in addition to the concealed door through which they enter; one on each wall. The southern exit is a stairway leading up, and a quick trip confirms that this is the stairway from the upper level that they hadn't investigated yet.
The main feature of this room is a ten-foot wide circular table in the center, with an iron spike mounted on it that points to the north. On closer inspection, the top of the table is covered in runes, and it is mounted on a circular track that allows it to rotate. Sharla mentions that she could probably translate these runes as well, but time is still at a premium. The party decide to take the northern passage, hoping that it'll reconnect with the area that they'd explored previously.
The passage does indeed connect to a room they'd already been to, where Sharla left an empty flask on the ground as a marker. The passage also continues to the west, so they collect the flask and continue onwards. Listening as they go, they can hear footsteps from further down the passage, and they assume these belong to zombies. They decide to back off, due to them not having their statue escort with them.
Back in the room with the circular table, they head to the east, hoping to find a passage that will allow them to bring the statues through into the room. The short passage leads into a much larger north-south passage that runs farther than their torchlight illuminates to the south. As with many other areas in the catacombs, it is stuffed with alcoves. There's an eastern passage almost directly across from where there came in, so they head through there, ignoring the southern passage for now.
Heading east, they enter a small chamber which they don't have much time to admire, because they are immediately ambushed by a pack of two ghouls and three skeletons. The undead creatures get the drop on them and attack, but with the aid of Flossaria and Iriellis's holy power, they are able to drive back the creatures and default them fairly easily. Zedlyn is struck by one of the ghouls, but he manages to resist the numbing paralysis.
Searching the room, they find one very unusual occupant in one of the alcoves - a golden skeleton. Unlike the iron skeleton from before, this one is very realistic and life-like. Zedlyn scratches a bit of the gold off, revealing that it's actually a gold-plated skeleton. The party pack up the entire skeleton to take with them, figuring that it must be quite valuable.
At this point, the party decide not to explore the southern hallway, as it will only take them further away from the statues. They instead return to the hallway where they were first attacked by ghouls and explore the south end of that. The end of that hallway has both eastern and western passages. The western passage is an apparent dead end, but close inspection reveals a secret door, which leads them right back to the room they just left, where they found the golden skeleton.
As they explore the eastern passage, Zedlyn and Flossaria trigger a pit trap, with both of them falling in and sustaining damage. The rest of the group help them out, and Flossaria and Iriellis use most of their remaining healing magic to remove the injuries caused by the fall. At this point, with their healing spells nearly used up, the group decide to move Arik to the front of the marching order and continue on.
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