Session 36 recap
Session 36
The party:
Hector, a 12th level Archontean fighter
Coco, an 12th level Archontean magic-user
Julia, a 13th level Archontean cleric of Lucreon
Melnax, a 6th level elf
Bjorn, a 7th level Wiskin assassin
Susarra, a 10th level Archontean fighter (retainer)
Scylla, a 9th level Archontean ranger (retainer)
Having completed their business with the priestesses of Bastet the party returned to the surface on the afternoon of the 28th of Molivios to light snowfall. As. Making their way to the southwest corner of the city they began to approach the tower that had been the lair of the ancient green dragon Craastonistorex. S they got closer, two wyverns poked their heads over the top of the tower, and when the party did not retreat, took to the air and began to swoop towards the party. Coco cast Fireball which killed one of the wyverns and Melnax Fireballed the other one, wounding it and causing it to break and flee.
Continuing up to the tower Hector was able to open the stuck wooden door and the party entered. The smell of chlorine hung heavy in the air, and the remains of many creatures, both sentient and monstrous, were scattered about the ground floor which appeared to have been the nest of the great warm. The second floor had been completely demolished and the top of the tower was half gone, letting a few snowflakes filter down into the tower. Melnax levitated up to check the top of the tower but found only a couple of smaller nests made by the wyverns.
A large hole in the ground led to the basement of the tower. Peering in the party first noticed the large head of the statue of Vul just below the level of the ground floor, with the sorskling glint of thousands of coins beckoning from the basement floor. Making their way down Coco cast Detect Magic as a ritual while the rest began the process of transferring the horde to their villa. In all they found over a thousand ancient silver, gold, and platinum coins, over twenty thousand modern copper, silver, gold, and platinum coins, a gold rod one and half inches in diameter, two books (Deeds of Marius Tricotor and Great Villains of Archontos, part V: Priscus the Traitor), eight potions, six scrolls, a ring, a javelin, banded mail, a beaker, a staff, and a magical metal rod that they knew to be an Alexia’s Useful Pole.
While in this area of the surface ruins the party decided to look into a nearby square tower that they had not previously investigated due to its proximity to the dragon. Finding it remarkably well preserved Hector opened the door and was somewhat surprised to find a mountain lion lairing within. His level of surprise increased when the mountain lion began purring and rubbing against his legs, until he remembered that one of the benefits he gained when he returned the Statuette of Bastet to its rightful place in the temple was the eternal friendliness of all cats. Scylla used Speak With Animals to tell the lioness that with the dragon and wyverns gone she was now the queen of the swamp which pleased her greatly. The party then gave her a live turkey to hunt and eat from Larel’s Sack and made. Their way to Lankios’ basement to spend the night.
The party arose early on the first of Deuterios and chose to investigate the three pillars that lay scattered around the surface ruins of Arden Vul. Having procured the three ankh-keys they possessed from storage, the party split into three groups and made their wy to the three pillars (sun, moon , and stars) where they again read the inscription on each: “The Beacon shall be revealed to those who bring midday life to the Sun, the Moon and the Stars”. After placing the ankh-keys in the appropriate place in each pillar to no visible effect the party decided that the inscription indicated it had to be done at noon, and so they waited the rest of the morning, passing time in a conversation about the many wondrous things they had seen in Arden Vul since their arrival some months ago and speculating about the nature of “The Beacon”.
When noon arrived the three groups once again inserted the ankh-keys and were rewarded with a glowing light from the matching engraved ankh on the pillars. At the same time, the grinding sound of stone moving over stone accompanied by falling rubbles heard by all the groups from the middle of the triangle formed by the three pillars. Convening in this area the party found that a set of steel doors set flat into the pavement of an old imperial plaza had opened, revealing a fifteen foot wide granite staircase that descended forty feet to a set of bronze double doors. The ten foot tall doors were sculpted with high relief images of Thoth, Horus, Anubis, and Set, all holding their right hands palm-forward in the universal symbol of ‘stop’. Across the top of the doors was the inscription in Mithric: “Chamber of the Beacon. Enter only with Permission of the Archon. Speak the password to open.” No keyholes or handles were visible. Coco cast Detect Magic and found that unsurprisingly the doors were strongly magical, and defied her attempt to Knock them open.
Wary of whatever magical protections might be invoked by continuing to attempt to open the doors without the password the party returned to the Halls to ask Nertet-Indra for any information she might have on this area. She said that she had never personally been in The Chamber of the Beacon but was an area made by the enigmatic Old Ones and likely contained forgotten technology that may aid the party in their upcoming fight against the Set Cult. She was able to give the party the password to pass the doors (“to open”, spoken in Mithric).
Returning to the doors at about 4:00 that afternoon, the party spoke the password and entered the chamber beyond. This room was fifteen feet tall and covered with brilliantly-colored frescoes, all in pristine condition. The frescoes on the west wall depicted civil scenes, particularly of the archon leading a line of administrators, officials, and military officers towards the pair of bronze double doors the party had just entered. The frescoes on the east wall depicted priests in orange, red, and yellow robes inspecting strange artifacts. Standard Archontean doors lay in the middle of the west and east walls, and a short passage led north to a stone door. Two Imperial Stone Guardians were in the far corners of the room, and predictably animated and approached the part as they entered but were easily held at bay with the Bones of Jaken the Proud.
Opening the door in the west the party found a ten foot tall stone chamber , the walls of which had been scorched with blasts of energy. Two heavy work tables occupied the center of the room while a slate board mounted in a wheeled wooden frame stood behind them. The north and south walls were lined with shelves. Scattered across the tables and lining the shelves are scores of bits of broken and partly-disassembled devices most of which were unlike anything the party had ever seen and made of unknown materials. The more intact devices included an item that resembled a crossbow body without the bow, a shield, a set of six cylinders with a hose in the top, and belt made of course fabric with a box containing a single button. Deciding to experiment with the decks, Bjorn aimed out side the door at one of the Imperial Stone Guardians in the main entry chamber. A bright beam of light immediately lit upon the construct and caused damage to it, blowing stone chips and dust off it. Pulling the trigger a second time caused the device to explode, wounding Bjorn and temporarily blinding everyone in the room for a few moments. Nothing could be learned about the cylinders, and Susarra took the shield. The belt proved to be a magical force field that absorbed damage but also blocked the ability to breathe.
Before returning to the entry chamber Julia changed into the orange robes of a Priestess of Thoth. This proved sufficient to not awake the Stine Guardians for her, but not for the rest of the party so the Bines of Jaken the Proud were once again proffered and the party went through the door on the east wall.
This brightly was decorated in bri ghtlypainted frescoes with comfortable leather chairs and other furniture, and a well stocked bookcase. The frescoes depicted Thoth imagery on the north wall, Horus on the east, and Set on the south. A dozen leather chairs, eight side tables, three leather-covered settees, and a wide bookcase completed the furnishings. The bookshelf was found to contain a number of interesting tomes, including Laelius’s Linguistic Primer, or How to Speak the Old Ones’ Tongue, A Complete Decoding of the Old Ones’ Glyphs, by Herodian Tiro, Arden Speaks, by Marcellinus Septimus, The Art of Becoming, by Varix the Archmage, Notes on the Rudishva Spirits, by Berricus Greybeard and Holger Risus, On the Wars of the Old Ones with the Trolls, by Clarius, Practical Animal Magic, by Licinius Monad, Rudishva Devices, by Junius Zofer, Thirty Uses for Arcanum, by Ygred the Mad, and Sorcerous Properties of Gems, by Sardonyx Peridot. A number of six inch by two inch flat oval items of varying composition and color were used as bookmarks and scattered about the room. These included metal (three copper, two bronze, and one platinum) and a strange material similar to bone without a visible grain pattern (including two rust and one each of brown, sky blue, and pale green).
While Coco and Julia examined the books and enigmatic objects the rest of the party searched the room, with Melnax finding a secret door in the northern wall. This room contained a hidden hoard of what appeared to be intact examples of the unknown technology. Electing to further examine these books and devices at a later time the party used the magic rugs to transfer them to the villa and continue their exploration.
The stone door proved to be locked and none old the keys the party possessed opened it so Coco Knocked it open and the party continued.
The chamber within was twelve feet tall and sheathed entirely in white marble, with all corners rounded such that no ninety degree angles were present. Three iris doors with brushed metal plagues onto wall next to them lay in the north, east, and west walls; these doors were identical to ones the party had encountered previously in the Nether Reaches In the center of the chamber was a chalkboard in a portable wooden frame, surrounded by wooden stools. The chalkboard was covered with notes, formulae, and symbols all in Mithric. Among the academic clutter of formulae were found the following words and phrases: “Beacon=Vehicle – but how does it move?”, “Fuel is needed”, “Arcanum – for what?”, “Stars”, and one long sentence stating “Survivors appear to be imbeciles. They cannot help with locomotion details. They claim the vehicle cannot be moved. Do they lie?”. On the reverse of the blackboard was a chart entitled “Survivors” which listed the names of a group of people called Rudishva along with what the Archonteans thought and knew about them.
While the rest of the party investigated the blackboard, Bjorn decided to experiment with the brushed metal plates next to the iris doors, including touching, staring at, and even licking them, all to no avail. Hector then had the idea to try some of the odd flat ovals they had found in the previous room, and after some experimentation discovered that the pale green oval opened all three doors.
The western and eastern doors were found to lead to identical small chambers, each a semi-circular niche containing five foot diameter circle of silvery material is inset into the floor, with a ten inch square affixed to the wall made of golden metal. Progressing through the northern door led them a to a tunnel that eventually intersected a slightly wider tunnel leading northwest and southeast. This tunnel looked similar to the marble clad rooms they had just been in, but the walls were constructed of the same oddly smooth material that the weird devices they had found were made of. To the southeast the tunnel soon melded into the surrounding rock and was impassable, but to the northwest ended at another of the iris doors. The pale green oval was able to open this door as well and the party looked through the opening win wonder wt what could only be The Chamber of the Beacon.
Directly in front of the opening was a large oval hole in the floor, beyond which sat an eight foot wide chair made of the strange material in a yellow shade. Each armrest of the chair contained an oval indentation some twelve by nine inches in size. A red light within each indentation blinked rhythmically. This chair and the oval hole in the floor occupied a platform some six feet above the remainder of the room, which contained multiple ares where chairs of various colors overlooked some sort of tables with large dark windows in front of them. The colors of these areas were emerald green to the southwest, pale blue to the northwest, and red to the northeast. The large dark window to the northwest was larger than the other two areas and followed the curves of that wall, and this area also contained two five foot tall yellow podiums.
After exploring this area for a while (and multiple instances of having to stop Bjorn from touching the beautiful, jolly, shiny, candy-like buttons) the party decided to investigate the oval hole in the floor. When Melnax attempted to levitate while Bjorn used his Slippers of Spider Climbing they quickly discovered that there was no gravity in the shaft, and the entire party soon floated down to a chamber below.
The chamber they entered was completely empty and devoid of adornment save for a low rim marking the edges oof the zero gravity area. A passageway to the northeast led to a fairway intersection. Choosing the southwest passage the party went through an iris door that automatically opened as they approached On the other side a white oval table occupies the center of the chamber, surrounded by two armchairs and ten stools. Atop the table were three large sheets of parchment. Examining these the party learned that one was a careful, accurate floor plan of both levels of the area they found themselves in. Notations in Mithric labeled the functions of some areas as understood by the ancient Archonteans, including “command”, “talking”, and “weapons” on the upper floor, and “power” and “strange ghost” in the unexplored areas of the current level. A second sheet of parchment contained similarly accurate depictions of both levels of another area entitled “Barracks of the Old Ones” but this one lacked annotations. The third piece of parchment was a treasure map to the tomb of one “Liskon the Mad”.
The party next proceeded to the northeast to examine the room ;labeled “power”. This chamber was filled with humming boxes and blinking red, yellow, and green lights. The party decided to bypass this room for the time being and proceed to the last room. The three exterior walls of this room were formed of the same dark windows seen on the upper level. Seven circular white tables with three white stools each were scattered about the chamber, and two grey boxes with a duo of buttons each were against the near walls.
As the party entered the chamber, soft ambient lighting turned on and they were greeted by a startling sight: a faintly glowing, somewhat transparent blue tinted humanoid, skinny with spindly limbs and about eight feet tall. Its head was hairless and protruding from it were two small curved horns. It had three fingers and one thumb per hand. After first speaking a language that it was obvious none of the party understood, the image switched to Mithric and said “Greetings gentle beings, I am Akla-Chah. How may I be of assistance to you?”
The party and Akla-Chah mutually introduced themselves. When asked what it was Akla-Chah indicated that she was what the party would call a female in their parlance, and her nature was a word that had no adequate explanation in Mithric, but that the party could call her a “Memory”. She was able to explain a lot of what had been vexing the party about this area. She told them that the area they found themselves in comprised the the bridge and related areas of the Rudishva starship, the Shining Beacon of Glorious Heaven. After a lot of explanation the party eventually understood that the Beacon had come from the sky crashed into the plateau, scattering various parts of the ship thought the caverns underneath. The Rudishvans were the leader of an empire called The Rudishvan Hegemony, which also included the varumani, varuda, and kaliyani. These last she warned the party never to trust, for they were traitors. When asked about theism she said that the kaliyani had allied in secret with the heqeti and betrayed the Rudishva, leading to their downfall in the halls, with only a few survivors left afterwards. Over the course of a long conversation the party was able to convince Akla-Chah of their good and lawful nature, and she told them of the various services she could provide, including knowledge of all languages and kindred within the Rudishvan Hegemony, deck plans of surviving modules of the Beacon (although not their current relative locations within the Halls), floor plans of the Rudishva-devled area of the Halls, and psych profiles of the crew of the Beacon. She also told the party that the Rudishvans had been close to developing a way to leave the party’s planet and return to the Hegemony when the war with the heqeti/kaliyani alliance occurred, and that she would be willing to tell them what she knew if they wished to finish this work, asking only that the party take her with them when they left. She also warned them of the existence of another Rudishvan “memory” RAJ-750 who had gone insane in the millennia since the crash due to a flaw in his programming. After explaining the working of the Rudishva Identity Plaques (the metal ones were symbolic only, and the plastic ones had a hierarchy of areas they would unlock based on their color)[DM’s note: Akla-Chah also explained the nature of plastic, plasteel, etc. to the party, mainly because your humble narratrix was tried of trying to be coy about it and translating descriptions on the fly, especially after the proverbial jig was up]. After their hours long conversation with Akla-Chah, the party’s heads were fair swimming with new information and possibilities, and they stopped to discuss and consider how this affected their current plans, and suggested ideas for new ventures.
R.I.P.:
None
Foes defeated:
Two wyverns