Session 27 recap
Session 27
The party:
Hector, a 7th level Archontean fighter
Fannie Mae, a 1st level halfling
Julia, a 7th level Archontean cleric of Lucreon
Capdoffer, a 5th level Imperial goblin
Batengis, a 7th level Khumus acolyte of Tingri
Susarra, a 6th level Archontean fighter (retainer)
Scylla, a 5th level Archontean ranger
Kallion, a 2nd level dwarf
After ruminating over what she had learned Coco decided to return to the villa, as she felt that she had enough experience to understand one of the arcane tomes the party had found in the past few weeks. After escorting her out of the Halls to the Inn of the Broken Head to retrieve a horse for the journey down into the valley, the party breakfasted at the Inn and discussed their next move. On their way back to the Halls they came across a befuddled looking halfling with purple-stained feet. She introduced herself as Fannie Mae Winebottom, a grape stomper from the Grain Isles who had come to seek her fortune in Arden Vul. After making sure that she was not in any way associated with the late Phlebotomas Plumthorn, the part invited her to join them in their delve.
Returning to the natural tunnels at noon on the 5th of Molivios they had been in on the baboon level, the party took a southern tunnel they had bypassed earlier. After about forty five feet they came across a small chamber that was little more than just a widening of the tunnel. A stone chest with a skull atop it was in the back of the chamber, and two badly mutilated corpses lay in front of it, one wearing orange tinted chain mail and the other leather armor.
As Chert cautiously entered the room the skull atop the chest rose into the air and said something in Mythic, which Kaolin was able to translate as the skull asking for a password. Chert’s best guess was not correct and the skull began casting a spell. The party seized the initiative however and were able to destroy the skull before it could complete either of its spell casting attempts.
Kallion decided to try and open the chest but the invisible Explosive Runes triggered and killed the translator cum illusionist cum dwarf for the third time. Hector was able to use Capdoffer’s thieve’s tools to open the chest, inside which was found many thousands of ancient silver pennies, three golden bracelets, a silver torc, a war hammer, two glass spheres, and three potions. In addition to their armor, the corpses possessed a silver Sortian eye, a short sword, a light crossbow with 20 bolts, a backpack, a scroll, potion, and a small amount of modern coinage. The party took the time to transfer the horde of coins back to their quarters in the goblin halls, which took two trips, complaining bitterly about the loss of one of their magic rugs the entire time.
Continuing south east the stone chest they came upon a set of spy hole synth wall that looked out across a great tavern in which the top of a large monolith was spied, the rest of it descending into the darkness below. Capdoffer was able to ascertain that this must be the top of the oddly carved monolith they had seen the base of on the goblin née halfling level some time previous.
Returning to the north and heading west, the party travelled through the chamber with the ghost of Ptirasa and shortly encountered the Great Chasm for the first time on this level, which was less than twenty feet across and narrowed to a close less than fifty feet above them. A narrow bridge led to another west passage which the party followed, shortly discovering another natural cavern containing a sarcophagus with a plaque containing a phrase written in Mithric. Scylla was the only party member left who could understand Mithric, and was not yet able to speak modern Archinetan fluently, so she could only translate a few of the words: “Hormakh”, “bridge”, “secret”, and “sacrifice”. Hector entered the chamber and began to examine the sarcophagus and was surprised by the arrival of three manta ray type creatures floating down from the darkness near the ceiling. The party dispatched the creatures, but not before Hector had suffered a very painful sting from one of them. Disposing of the creature the party cautiously opened the sarcophagus using their usual procedure but it was empty.
The party searched the room and Fannie Mae found a secret door in the southwest wall. Proceeding through the party found another natural chamber with passageways leading southeast and west, its floor smoothed and sanded. A simple wooden desk, chair, and scroll case, all badly rotted by age, were located in the southwest corner. Bolted to the south wall were manacles and shackles still occupied by a mostly decomposed and desiccated human corpse. A pile of decomposed foodstuffs lies against the north wall. After searching this room and finding nothing of value, the party decided to return to their quarters in the goblin warrens and rest for the night.
Arising on the morning of the f5th of Molivios, the party decided to visit the goblin market to turn some their ancient coinage into more easily portable gems, as well as arranging for extra furniture for their new quarters. After this they transported Kallion’s body the surface where Batengis performed a sky burial for him at the top of the Tower of Scrutiny.
Returning to the baboon level to continue searching for the wizard, the party proceeded south from the room where they had defeated Garrilad and made their way to the central chamber, which they identified as The Well of Light. This large chamber was tiled in pale yellow squares from floor to ceiling. A dim beam of light descended from the ceiling to the floor, illuminating a five foot diameter circle in the center of the room. This area was discovered to be a depression in the ground about five feet deep and covered with a mixture of muck and wiry baboon hair.
Exploring the rooms around the Well of Light, they discovered similar chambers to the one they had found before. These also contained phrases in Mithric. Scylla was able to determine that the first ended in the word “truth”, the second read "The light must be guarded against the ____”, and the third said "Let the Faithful render ____ and ____ to the light which reveals all.”
Exploring the chambers southeast of the Well of Light they found one of the large four armed albino baboons who was wearing a chef’s hat and preparing a meal. Some of the party tried the meal, which tasted like mutton, but were horrified when the baboon, who said his name was Yrsko, told them it was sheep-headed beastman. He told them that he hadn’t seen the wizard they were seeking in a few days, but that he mainly spent time in the laboratory and library, which were located to the west. The somewhat nauseated party took their leave and proceeded that way.
Passing through areas they had explored previously when they arrived via the teleporting pyramid from the halfling level, they arrived in a chamber with walls of bare stone. Inlaid in the floor in colored glass was a set of cardinal compass points. A rusty ibis shaped iron lever was set into the west wall next to a closed portcullis. The lever was nearly rusted shut but Scylla was able to open it with the Gauntlets of Ogre Power.
The party proceeded through the portcullis into an unlit thirty foot square room with doors to the north and south and a passageway leading west, empty except for an ivory box in the middle. Hector proceeded into the room but his Continual Light coin went dark. Julia then blinded herself to make Capdoffer invisible and when he walked in he became visible and Julia was able to see again, leading the party to believe that the room had an antimagic field. Hector pushed the box, which was carved with blasphemous images of tongues caressing all manner of beings, out of the antimagic room, at which point the party could feel an aura of almost palpable evil emanating from it. Soon after a group of eight ghouls burst out of the southern door and as the party dealt with them they were beset by more undead, including skeletons, zombies, and more ghouls, the latter two groups being led by a more powerful and intelligent ghoul who thanked them for removing the coffer from the anti magic field and bringing it to his attention. Most of the party was paralyzed by the ghouls and they were only barely able to carry the battle, with Julia destroying many of the lesser undead and causing the intelligent ghoul to flee. Lacking enough party members to press the issue they retreated to lick their wounds and discuss their options.
RIP:
Kallion (death #3), killed by an Explosive Rune
Foes defeated:
1 animated skull
3 mantaris
12 ghouls
4 zombies
4 skeletons