Session 11 Recap
The party:
Chert, a dwarf
Callista, an Archontean druid
Thalia, a Thorcin thief
Capdoffer, a goblin
Batengis, a Khumus acolyte of Tingri
Susarra, an Achontean fighter (retainer)
Ebbe, a Thorcin hireling
The message that the page delivered was from Captain of the Guard Neolynda Gastevean and invited them to meet with her at The Kettles, fortified blockhouses that housed the city guard. As the party made their way across town to meet her, they discussed their plan for removing the valuable sarcophagi. Given new revelations about Plumthorn’s halflings, the first complication was making sure not to arouse their suspicion about anything. Someone pointed out that they had most recently accessed the Halls via the halfling’s entrance but had left through the basement, so the first order of business would be returning to the Halls through the basement and leaving past the halflings so that they could then return past the halflings with enough porters to remove the sarcophagi. Having figured out the rather complicated logistics necessary to pull off this subterfuge the party made a vow to themselves to be more mindful of their comings and goings in the future.
Arriving at the Kettles they were ushered in to meet Captain Gastevean. She introduced herself and explained that it was her who had hired Susarra’s adventuring troupe to look into the new poison that had been plaguing Gosterwick of late, and that she would like to extend the same offer to Thoth Patrol: one thousand gold each for stopping the flow of poison into the town. The party readily agreed to this and Captain Gastevean informed them that “the eyes of the Azure Keep are on this matter”, implying without stating that the local ruler Lady Alexia Basileon was keeping tabs on the affair.
Returning to the inn the party bought a round for the house and announced that they were looking to hire eight strong backs for a simple mission to Arden Vul and were willing to pay three gold each per day for a few days work. The generosity of pay attracted more than enough applicants and arrangements were made to leave in the morning. Chert also increased Ebbe’s pay for the time being, and asked her to be sort of a leader for the work gang, an offer she was honored to receive and pleased to accept.
Early on the morning of Dikaios 25th the party, now fifteen strong with the extra porters and the addition of Coco, who had finished her magical research, made the trek back to Arden Vul. Leaving Coco with the newly hired porters at the Inn of the Broken Head the party returned to the Halls through the basement to investigate a few areas before leaving through the halfling area.
The first place on their agenda was the northwest corner of the hallway of burial notes, marked on one of their recovered map scraps as “BRING TOOLS”. Upon reaching this area they discovered that one of the burial notes some twelve feet up near the ceiling was still intact, with a large stone plug bearing the sigil of the Krakteros clan, one of the five ruling familes of the Archotean Empire. Thalia took a crowbar and climbed up the wall to begin the long (and loud) process of removing the stone plug, with the rest of the party prudently retreating around the corner to the north. As she worked a patrol of halflings alerted by the noise came by to investigate but soon left. Four large rats also approached from the south and sniffed around but could not climb the wall and soon went back the way they came. After twenty minutes of prying and bashing Thalia was able to remove the plug, revealing some scattered grave goods and the skeletal occupant of the niche, who immediately animated and attacked, barely missing her.
Leaping to the ground Thalia called for help, and the rest of the party stepped around the corner. Callista injured the creature with a sling stone while Chert, Capdoffer, and Susarra engaged it in combat. Calling upon the power of Tingri to banish the foul creation, Batengis was able to Turn the skeleton, which was quickly brought down by a flurry of blows as it attempted to flee. Searching the burial niche revealed three black pearls and a jade necklace with the Krakteros sigil on it. The party also recovered the well crafted short sword that the skeleton had been wielding.
The party then began to follow the passageway south to investigate a doorway in the southeast corner of the niche-filled hallway. As they approached the southwest corner they noticed a large pile of trash that extended some three or four feet above the rubble choked hallway and from which a series of high pitched squeaking noises issued. As they approached closer a few giant rats emerged, ready to defend their nest. Callista cast Speak With Animals and stepped up to converse with the animals. A brief parley revealed that the rats had amassed a good amount of “shinys” that they would be willing to part with in exchange for food. Removing some cheese, fresh vegetables, and meat from Larel’s Sack, the party was able to trade these foodstuffs for 85 silver coins, four citrines, a large pearl, two aquamarines, a lapis lazuli and gold ring, and a solid gold torch, leaving the majority of the silver coins for the rats. As Chert was splitting the treasure into piles he picked up the golden torch and was dismayed to find he could not set it down again. In addition the torch was now casting a dark gray light around the party in a twenty foot radius.Collecting their treasure as the rats happily moved the foodstuffs into their nest, the party turned east and made their way to the door.
Opening the door revealed a narrow passageway that went south for fifty feet before ending at another door. Opening this door revealed a ten foot wide passage running east-west. To the west the passageway soon opened into a room in which a large pyramid could be seen. To the east was a door in the south wall of the passage as well as another passage leading to the northeast. As Chert opened the door a Magic Mouth appeared on the wall opposite them and slightly to the east, proclaiming something very confidently in Mythric. Noting all of this for later, the party returned north to the entry room. As Chert gritted his teeth through the halfling’s good natured ribbing about his cursed torch, the party settled up the fee they owed and returned to the surface, making their way to the Inn of the Broken Head to spend the night.
On the morning of the 26th the party, along with their squad of hirelings, assembled to return to the Halls and retrieve the sarcophagi. Callista bowed out, feeling the need to commune with nature for a time and work on her bond with Aja and hopefully teach her a new trick or two. Thalia also bowed out as her close encounter with the skeleton had unnerved her and she wanted a break from the rigors of delving the Halls. Finally Batengis wanted to spend some time researching how to improve holy water so that it might be able to remove curses. At breakfast they were approached by a young cleric of Lucreon named Julia Scipia. The fame of Thoth Patrol had reached her and she had sought them out to inquire about joining. The party happily invited her along and they set out.
Not long after leaving the inn Julia quickly proved an asset to the group as she noticed someone furtively following them. Stopping and calling out to the individual (who was somewhat dismayed that he had been seen) the party asked him what he wanted. He admitted somewhat brazenly that he had been following them to Arden Vul hoping to loot their corpses after they were killed, but hastened to add that he had no plans on killing them himself. Somewhat amused and impressed by his candor and initiative they extended an offer to him to join the party and he accepted as well, introducing himself as Bjorn.
Descending through the pyramid into the entry room, the halflings were impressed and a little wary at seeing the fourteen-strong party arrive. Wanting to clear off some question marks on his map before getting down to the boring but lucrative task of removing the sarcophagi, Chert led the party to the southeast corner of the entry room. Opening a door here revealed a twenty foot square chamber filled almost waist high with trash. Offering a bonus payment to anyone who found something of value, six of the hirelings decided to join the party in searching and the twelve of them together made short work of the task, with one of the hirelings excitedly shouting “I found something!” Oohs and ahh were muttered all around as Chert removed a nearly flawless and artfully cut star sapphire from where it had been lodged in a skull. The bonus payment was dutifully paid out and the party moved to examine another door in the southwest corner of the entry room. This led to a passageway that travelled south for a short distance before turning to the west, and the party left this area for another time and turned their attention to the sarcophagi.
Returning to the burial niche hallway the group made their way to the secret tomb. As they approached it some rats emerged from the nest to see who they were. Upon seeing the party, one of the rats showed them a piece of cheese in its paws, and the rats waved and returned to the nest.
The removal of the sarcophagi was straightforward, though also backbreaking (for the hirelings) and slow. After painstakingly removing them from the hidden tomb, they party settled up with the halflings (who were equally amused and impressed at the party’s resolve) and began the long slow walk up the stairway out of the Halls. Moving at such a slow speed allowed them to read what graffiti that had not yet discovered on the way, but little of value was learned.
Moving at such a slow pace found them only halfway back to Gosterwick when night fell, and so they made camp along the side of the road. The night was cold but luckily no rain fell nor wind blew, and after quick breakfast on the morning of the 27th the group restarted their journey, arriving in town in the late afternoon and attracting a bit of a crowd of people curious about these objects from Arden Vul. Asking around about who might be interested in purchasing such objects the general consensus was that Creon’s Curios and Pawnshop would be their best bet.
Arriving at the large dusty shop, Creon was delighted to see them. After a little haggling a price was agreed on and Creon invited them to browse his shop while the hirelings brought the sarcophagi inside. The party looked for a match to the silver ankh key and supple leather boot they had found to no avail. The party was about to take their leave when Chert noticed something interesting in a far corner. A few minutes of moving items revealed an eight inch square black glass pane, different only in color from the blue one they had found previously and had theorized was related to the teleportation circles they had found scattered around the Halls. Creon said that he had taken it in pawn from an adventuring party that never returned to redeem it and was willing to part with it for a hundred gold coins. The party eagerly accepted Creon’s offer and set about finishing up their business in town.
Further stops were made at the gem merchant, money changer, and finally the Rarities Factor to get their magic items identified. The short sword from the skeleton was found to be of least enchantment and was given to Bjorn. The cursed torch carried by Chert was identified by the sage being a Blacklight Torch, an item that originates from a statue of Anubis deep within Arden Vul. While still attached to the statue the torch casts sunlight in a twenty foot radius, and repels demons, devils, and undead; when removed from the statue however the torch becomes cursed, casting a black light and attracting instead of repelling the creatures. A quick trip to the Temple of Lucreon saw Chert removed of his curse and the party returned to the inn to spend the night.
Arising on the 28th of Dikaios the party returned to Arden Vul and entered the Halls through the halflings’ entry room to further explore the passageway in the southwest corner. Going south and looking to the west revealed another door. The party approached the door and opened it without listening or examining the door, as they had become accustomed to doing lately, a lapse of procedure that would end in tragedy this time. As Chert opened the door it was discovered to be nothing but a facade, and a trap door opened underneath the first four members of the party, plunging Chert, Capdoffer, Bjorn, and Ebbe into a twenty foot deep pit. Ebbe was killed instantly, with Bjorn left bleeding and unconscious but stable after first aid was rendered by Chert. The rest of the party lowered a rope and helped the survivors bring up Ebbe’s body and the unconscious Bjorn.
Pressing on, the party stopped to investigate the area around the statue of Thoth in the burial niche hallway, where Chert found a pit trap north the statue, which he hypothesized would be activated during manipulation of the statue’s arms. Continuing to the south they passed the magic mouth which triggered once again, and Coco was able to tell them that it said “Behold the Glory of Thoth! Mysteries of past, present and future are known to those who speak his name and direct his arms. Knowledge is power!”. They then proceeded east to the intersection with the passageway leading northeast. As they reached this hallway, another magic mouth appeared to the east, this one proclaiming in a sneering voice in Archontean “The followers of the ibis are dead and gone; their power is faded and their secrets lost. Neither power nor knowledge is to be shared. Beware!”.
Following this passage to the northeast they came to a three way intersection, with a short passageway that led north back to the entry room and a third passage leading to the southeast. The southern wall of the intersection featured a fresco of a baboon, some six feet tall and four feet wide, squatting on the ground and staring forward with bared teeth.
Recalling that a map scrap they had recovered had a cryptic note in this area that was just a pair of eyes, Chert began to examine the eyes of the fresco. After a few minutes he found that when pressed simultaneously the entire section of wall that the fresco was on slid up into the ceiling, revealing a circular stone stairway leading down.
With this knowledge the party sadly returned to the Inn of the Broken Sign where they solemnly dug a grave in the communal cemetery that had been established nearby and interred Ebbe. Spending the night to let Bjorn recover, they were able to acquire the services of another hireling, a Thorcin woman named Alba.
On the morning of the 29th the party was able to pry Batengis away from his studies long enough to heal Bjorn and the party decided to further investigate the sunken barge among the dilapidated cement docks in the lagoon north of the lake. The water had cleared further, and in addition to the barge, the party saw a large marble torso which likely belonged to the erstwhile statue of Arden that had occupied the nearby large pediment. A few crocodiles were sunning themselves on the shoreline of the lake proper but showed no signs of stirring on the chilly morning as the party approached the dock area. Removing their armor and most of their possessions, Chert and Capdoffer dove into the water to investigate.
As they approached, a medium sized electric eel emerged from the ruins of the sunken barge. Engaging the beast, Capdoffer was able to wound it with Larel’s Pin, slowing the creature enough to allow him and Chert dispatch it before it was able unleash its electric jolt. Returning to the surface for air, the pair dove down again and found one intact portion of the barge with two sealed stone chests. A few more dives saw the chests tied up with rope and the rest of the party began to pull the chests to shore while Chert and Capdoffer warmed themselves by a fire.
Opening the chests revealed a plethora of interesting items. The first chest contained three potions which quick sips showed to be two potions of water breathing and one potion of watery form and four sets of silk ceremonial clothing, two of Set and two of Thoth. The second chest was found to contain 10,000 ancient copper bits and a sealed scroll case with two spells (Cleophalus’s Look-Away Spell and Dameon’s Shadow Spell Book). As the chest contains the coins was quite heavy the party decided to stash it in the hidden hole which was nearby to the south.
Along the way the party stopped by the large lake and tossed in a few chickens that they produced from Larel’s Sack, hoping to gain more information on the large creature that they had caught a glimpse of in the water before. Their efforts were soon rewarded when an enormous snapping turtle, fully fifteen feet across, breached the surface and swallowed all the chickens in a single gulp. The party filed this information away for later and retired to their abandoned basement hidey hole to discuss their next moves.
R.I.P.:
Ebbe, a Thorcin hireling
Fell to her death in a pit in the Halls of Arden Vul
Foes defeated:
One tough skeleton
One electric eel
Great job! What levels are the adventurers now?